Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Man City

[fightoffyour]

Just now, MrBlack said:

I always believed if it was played back that it didn't matter. But seemingly that rule suggests it is irrelevant. 

What does matter is that the 4th official didn't follow the current rulebook in regards to waiting for the end of the passage of play. Of course, it had to go against us when they did.

Definitely went against the rule there, I thought it was if there’s any doubt let the play carry on but the rule is actually even if they think it’s offside carry on. Well he can’t think it’s offside without being **** incompetent and even if so he shouldn’t flag.

[Peter Griffin]

26 minutes ago, rbcuk said:

Let’s see how they play next weekend against Leicester and will he do his usual 3+ changes, if it wasn’t for Martinez that could have easily been 5 or 6

They only had 4 shots on target in the whole game

[fightoffyour]

Just now, Lichfield Dean said:

Well, now, that's interesting.... It does appear you could be right in the circumstance you describe, which would be the situation with Coutinho today (assuming Ramsey had touched it which he didn't). But your point does seem valid.

They are the rules! There’s nothing about the direction the ball Is played, only relative positions of players.

[Keener window-cleaner]

I really like the positivity on here! It's refreshing! My take on the game is that our performance was disciplined and all credit to the players. But 9 times out of 10 we lose that game, we parked the bus and hoped to nick a point. It was just luck that we weren't a couple of goals down in the middle of the second. Compare this performance to the one of Newcastle against Man C, there Newcastle played on the front foot, pressed them, created, played really positive and with a lot of energy. Comparing where we and newcastle are and the investment in the squads there is nothing that says they should be much further than us.

Had this been two seasons ago i would have been really happy. While I of course am very happy with a point and under the circumstances we are in it's a great result, I would still demand more of us at this stage, than parking the bus and hardly putting three passes together.   

[CosmicVillan]

Good. 

Now do it again

[IrishVilla10]

10 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

Do you think there's been nothing to "whinge" about?

It’s incredible 

[penguin]

17 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

I don't see it. It's one thing playing backs against the wall and putting bodies on the line to get a draw against City and it's another trying to win against the Palaces and West Hams of the world. We won't be playing City every week. Nobody went into this season thinking we'll have to fight to the death for every point, nor should we.

This is it for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great result and Gerrard deserves credit for how he set us up for the unique challenge today.

But this was a free hit, no one expected us to do anything but get hammered, the “underdog factor” with free licence to park the bus.

The Leicester game where we’ll be looking to pick up 3 points will show whether we revert to type or can use this as a springboard to kick start some decent performances. 

[Don_Simon]

55 minutes ago, CLARETANDBLUEFOXY said:

On the way back home from the game now and I have to say I have never seen Villa Park rock like it did at full time today. We played like true lions today and I have never felt prouder. The referee was beyond corrupt and I don’t think it could have been anymore obvious. Jack Grealish got a massively good reception which surprised me - I wasn’t expecting boos anymore but he was being applauded like he had scored the winner for us. But hey ho - who gives a ****. Against the odds we got a point, played like heroes, the players really showed passion and love for the club today and I really felt like the connection was back between players and fans today. Brilliant brilliant day. UTV! 

Thanks for going bro. I went to the first two home games and turned down a free ticket today, couldn't face it!

[Don_Simon]

3 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

It’s incredible 

?

[IrishVilla10]

1 minute ago, Don_Simon said:

?

Sorry should have elaborated. Some people seem to have the blinkers on and ignore the results throughout 2022. It was bedwetters last week and whinge bags today. No one wants to constantly complain but if you don’t think there’s been reason to complain you’re in dreamland

[sheepyvillian]

10 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

Do you think there's been nothing to "whinge" about?

Regardless, when it's constant, it's fecking annoying. 

[Don_Simon]

2 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

Sorry should have elaborated. Some people seem to have the blinkers on and ignore the results throughout 2022. It was bedwetters last week and whinge bags today. No one wants to constantly complain but if you don’t think there’s been reason to complain you’re in dreamland

100% this.

Its like every single opinion has to be binary, and permanent.

We've been absolute shit this season, even Everton was dross, and that's one we won! Complaints, "whinging" and all other negativity entirely merited.

Today was much better and the positivity is earned.

 

 

 

[Keener window-cleaner]

3 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

I mean we nearly could’ve beat them….

But that's in fairness a bit selective, yes we should have had that goal, but if you count the chances they had that normally would have been goals they would have been a couple up before we scored.

We can't expect that we score 2 goals on our 3 shots and them scoring 1 on their 13 shots. While the performance was disciplined, the point super and we are crying our for positivity here, let's not fool ourselves, 9 times out of 10 we lose that game. 

[Don_Simon]

Just now, sheepyvillian said:

Regardless, when it's constant, it's fecking annoying. 

Yet, accurate.

And when people invest time, money, emotion and energy into something, they're allowed to put forward their opinion.

[MrBlack]

1 hour ago, KentVillan said:

People talking about xG, just to put it into context, here are Man City's PL games this season from https://understat.com/league/Premier League:

• Villa 0.28 (1) - (1) 1.92 City
• City 3.84 (6) - (0) 0.73 Forest
• City 2.39 (4) - (2) 0.09 Palace
• Newcastle 2.21 (3) - (3) 3.67 City
• City 1.69 (4) - (0) 0.12 Bournemouth
• West Ham 0.25 (0) - (2) 2.59 City

The only team that's done better than us defensively is Bournemouth, who just parked the bus (which we didn't do IMO). And people say Newcastle did a great job, but the margin between the two xG figures is similar to ours.

There's no shame in losing on xG to City. The main thing is that we held it together and grew into a difficult game. Plus we do have a good keeper and some decent quality in front of goal, so you'd expect us to slightly outperform our xG.

xG don't take into account goals (or shots) incorrectly disallowed for offside.

Although, to be fair,  the xG of a shot from where Coutinho was is probably about 0.05 or less. For a player of Coutinho's ability it should probably be about 0.2.

[John]

Nor did Citeh, who were very fortunate to escape with a point. Pep will have been very happy with the officials today, us somewhat less so! A great resolute display by the lads, to lift us out of the bottom three and we have to take confidence from this, into our next two games. Special mentions for Ashley, Tyrone, Douglas and Emi, but everyone contributed today. Nice to hear the great backing from the fans too, exceptional stuff!

[wict01]

Credit where it’s due, SG got it spot on today. A point was the least we deserved IMO, a better first touch by Ramsey and better officiating and we could’ve walked away with all 3 points. 

This has to be the standard now, in terms of work rate and intensity - this is the baseline. Maintain those levels and we will shoot up the table. It also brought back a level of connection between the fans and players today - we fed off the effort shown by the players and in turn they fed off our support. Well played by everyone today, players and management.

[IrishVilla10]

8 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Regardless, when it's constant, it's fecking annoying. 

We’ve been constantly shit 

[Villa87]

Credit where it’s due - brilliantly set up today. We deserved that point. Young MOTM followed closely by Nings and Watkins. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

Apparently, City have won 31 of the last 33 games where they have gone ahead.