Ratings & Reactions: Villa v West Ham

[pacbuddies]

1 hour ago, RicRic said:

We will get something out of one of those games and unfortunately it will save stevie…. but id rather lose them and have him gone tbh 

We will get nothing other than two good hidings.

[Follyfoot]

Had to drive to holiday after all of us watching this live, including the Mrs. Great start to the holiday and totally predictable after the first half 

created nothing, lost our shape when he took Luiz off

piss off Gerrard

 

 

[Jas10]

 

[sidcow]

I mean if NOTHING else, we're just so boring. It's tedious watching us play football. No wingers tearing down the wings getting people out of their seats. 

No incisive play through the middle with strikers latching onto diagonal through balls. 

No wicked set pieces being whipped into the box. 

No free kicks being won on the edge of the box. 

Just endless sideways and backwards passing until the inevitable hoof forwards. 

We are just boring.  It's meant to be an entertainment. 

[Demitri_C]

Todays game reminds me of the watford at home game last season where we lost 1-0. Its practically identical 

[Jas10]

This is unacceptable too:

 

Does he do anything right/well?

GTFO

[Jas10]

17 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I mean if NOTHING else, we're just so boring. It's tedious watching us play football. No wingers tearing down the wings getting people out of their seats. 

No incisive play through the middle with strikers latching onto diagonal through balls. 

No wicked set pieces being whipped into the box. 

No free kicks being won on the edge of the box. 

Just endless sideways and backwards passing until the inevitable hoof forwards. 

We are just boring.  It's meant to be an entertainment. 

Our only tactic, especially when’s we’re struggling or behind in a game, is just aimless crossing. 

Regardless of whether it makes any sense or if anyone is even available or even present in the box. Or even capable of connecting let alone scoring.

Even if we’re outnumbered, even if the opposition is dominant in the air and taller…

Shocking.

[tomav84]

3 hours ago, Robtaylor200 said:

I just got back in, I feel that I never want to go again while he is manager, not a bloody clue.,

i've said the same. call me fickle, but i'm not doing it whilst he's here and things are still this bad. i can handle losing when i can see we're trying something, this i cannot handle anymore

i aint watching us get battered by city for a start

[Beastmix]

We're basically a Ferrari without a steering wheel.

[srsmithusa]

SG completely, completely, Totally, outsmarted by David Moyes.  Our front three is incapable of creating penetration past an alert back line.  So, Moyes just let us play with it all first half.  Then he changed to a forward that would run behind and force our back line to play a bit deeper.   That created a bit more space in the middle.  Then the game was lost by SG.  The sub for Coutinho was fine "like for like" maybe more energy.  But taking off Luiz was incredibly naive.  Yes, Ramsey tends to be a bit more attacking, but that was the completely wrong idea for that situation.  Our back line had been forced to drop deeper, thus creating more space and Moyes had put on fresh legs in the middle.  We gave them the space and the strength they needed.  The right switch to make at the same time as Buendia for Coutinho was Baiily for Ings.  Keep the midfield and defense tight, while creating more speed, trickery, width, penetration in the attack.  The frustrating thing is that this is not complicated. I was screaming it at the time.  I won't harp on players, McGinn and Konsa get lots of criticism on here.  Konsa was solid and effective - unlucky on a deflection.  McGinn was physical in the middle and we needed that since that's how Spam plays.  He was fine until he tired (which was inevitable as the space opened up and he had to cover more ground.)

Gerrard need to go.

FWIW, I thought Kamara, Chambers, Konsa, Luiz, were all very, very good.

[Podster]

At the time of posting this, 3 people voted that the manager had a very good performance,  and in the sack or keep poll, 9 want him to stay, I have to ask the question, is this site being infiltrated by City fans ????

[Tomaszk]

5 hours ago, briny_ear said:

My worry is that, on this form, we won't get anything from the next three matches, so we will go into the match with Southampton on 3 points from 7 games.

That will make it a very unhappy experience.

We'll be OK once we get a Premier League manager again.

I'd hire Dean Smith back.

[gurru991]

7 hours ago, Talldarkandransome said:

Fooking ell that's long

Said the Art Mistress to the Gardener !!

[Zatman]

6 hours ago, ferguson1 said:

This is where I’m baffled? Gerrard has worked under some fantastic managers and coaches, whether it be at Liverpool or England. Probably some of the very best.  So why hasn’t he bought those best coaching and managerial experiences/knowledge with him? It’s baffling.

I am not, he was never an intelligent player. He couldnt play with Lampard which was quite simple for a professional

Rafa exiled him to the wing as he couldnt trust him playing central for tactical reasons, he is a passion merchant/idiot

[Zatman]

1 hour ago, Podster said:

At the time of posting this, 3 people voted that the manager had a very good performance,  and in the sack or keep poll, 9 want him to stay, I have to ask the question, is this site being infiltrated by City fans ????

probably Liverpool fans

[Chicago Villan 1974]

GTFOSG!

[Shomin Geki]

I'm loath to overstate the obvious, but such are the baffling flaws of Gerrard's Villa that it's practically a requirement if one wishes to be accurate. 

So, modern football right, it's all about absolute control isn't it?  The post-Barcelona concentration on players comfortable on the ball maintaining positional discipline and creating an advantage through careful, systematic passing, mostly through a stacked midfield.  Everyone is aware of this.  You control the ball, mostly through midfield, mostly through taut concentrations of players, and you control the game.  The game is no longer really sturm und drang or individual brilliance.  It's all discipline and planning, almost machine-like.  If you're a boxer, sure, you can lunge and flail wildly, putting all your might into every swing, but that's not the kind of considered optimising of your resources that wins fights.  Alen Babic will never beat Oleksandr Usyk.  It's just not how things work.  It's not done.  We've collectively realised this.

Sure, such football works better if you have the budget and nous of a Guardiola (or his various disciples) and your approach can be tweaked to go 100mph a la Klopp.  It can, conversely, be spoilt with physicality, defensive rigour, set piece expertise or swift counter attacking.  But the pivot of the modern game is control.  Short, sharp control.  Everyone is aware that this is what 'modern, progressive' football is and it's just what everyone does.  It's now a principle, a standard, an expectancy.  This is modern football and an awareness of how it all works is essential if one is serious about applying one's coaching to an elite team of footballers. 

Well, apparently not everyone has noticed this.

Take the Aston Villa squad.  Throw in the persona non grata likes of Sanson and Traore if you wish.  Make your formation.  I struggle to think of any other manager that would have us set up in this way, playing the way that we do.  It's just foolishness.  It's hard to believe yet it's happening right before your eyes.  It's hard to blame the players.  They all seem quite beleaguered.  The crap DNA of a lack of coherent design is in each and every flubbed pass, underhit pass, pass slightly ahead or slightly behind.  It is in players unsure which one of them should go where.  Which one should go for the ball.  Which one should go for the run.  Which one should stay back.  Which should steam ahead.  It's in the ludicrous situation where we're often most vulnerable from our own goddamn corner kicks.  It's in the static uncertainty of our supposed attacking manoeuvres.  It's in the air of desperation and stink of futility whenever things don't work out and we go all a bit deer in the headlights.  It's in the agonizingly long periods where we haven't threatened the goal in forever and we resemble those animals in zoos going mad just repeating the same old useless loops.

And I think, most crucially, it's antithetical to how these players have been engineered.  It's counter to how they work, how they think even.  And it's stunningly depressing to watch.  Gerrard after ceding control has seemingly now lost control.  Maybe he never had it in the first place?

Maybe slip quietly out the back door, fella.

For what it's worth, today's rating first (seasons average in parentheses).

MARTINEZ 7 (7.25)

KONSA 6 (5)

CHAMBERS 6 (6.5)

CASH 6 (6.5)

DIGNE 5 (5)

KAMARA 7 (6.25)

MCGINN 4 (4.25)

COUTINHO 6 (4.5)

LUIZ 7 (6.5)

INGS 5 (6)

WATKINS 5 (4.66)

BUENDIA 5 (5.75)

BAILEY 6 (5.66)

[delboy54]

Was at the game in my usual seat in the upper Holte with a mate whose first time at VP who loves footy said to me "West Ham wanted it more".

We were shocking.

Only one tiny positive for the future when Cam came on for his home debut he immediately was in the penalty area moving about pulling defenders around him creating gaps in their defence and confusion.....first time in the whole game any Villa player did that.

I hope and pray that our new manager plays Archer he is such a good player 

[punkiller1981]

15 hours ago, Zero7 said:

We just look utterly clueless, like we are not coached, what is our style of play, our identity, I can’t see purslow sacking him as that is an admittance of his own failure so we will just fight with relegation. This game had nothing to do with our defensive weakness, it was down to lack of inventiveness up front.

Shocking subs 

 

I’m not sure when a Villa manager has been blessed with the attacking talent we have available to us at the moment but I’m also not sure I’ve seen a side looking less likely to score or break a side down. Tactically gerrard is either to inept to notice how poor we are or to arrogant to accept it. I do agree though that purslow won’t sack him, this is the one manger we should sack but he will stick with him despite his record which is now pathetic.

[Robtaylor200]

Sooooooooooooo many comments on here, what went wrong, what is wrong, haw bad the players are, blah blah and my two penny worth too.

The one thing we all seem to agree on for various reasons is We are worse now than before he came