Ratings & Reactions: Leeds v Villa

[tomsky_11]

3 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Just a Monday morning reminder to all that Gerrard took the captaincy off Mings and gave it to McGinn. 

That actually happened. 

Tbf Mings has been excellent since...

[AshVilla]

What exactly is the club waiting for? 

Do the higher ups actually watch the games it's embarrassing.

 

 

[SimplyTheBez]

9 hours ago, Shomin Geki said:

There's an episode of South Park where Cartman gets a supposed picture of a missing child displayed on a milk cartoon.  It's actually a picture of his bum.  When two bum-faced parents turn up looking for their missing bum-child the situation is so absurd and hilarious that it breaks something in Cartman.  He is no longer able to find anything funny and swiftly descends into a spiral of existential despair.  When elite football's Steven Gerrard chose not to bulk up his midfield against ten man Leeds, giving us more options, you know, to dominate that area of the pitch that fashions a greater variety of opportunities to attack the goal, only to throw on Danny Ings with ten minutes to go, well, the whole pitch may as well have been filled with an army of bum-faced atrocities.  Because something broke in me.  At that point all hope was lost.  This was the moment when, in the insane asylum of Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa, I decided to stop thrashing against my straitjacket, stop banging my head against the wall, and instantly accept a nirvana of learning to love an eternity of unremitting, unyielding blankness.  The Lovecraftian Atrocity of the Ings substitution had destroyed my mind.

Well, this didn't quite happen that way.  There may have been more expletives.  A dog may have looked at me funny.  But perhaps if that DID happen I'd be a better person right now.

To borrow once more from a source of winning puerility, in the film Ted, with the sweary teddy bear, Ted and Mark Wahlberg are discussing new strains of weed on offer.  The final one is called 'This is Permanent'.  This is how it feels following Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa (for it is NOT the Aston Villa of you or I).  That we'll be long-balling and miscontrolling and misreading each other, and sweatily dashing and style clashing, and not being allowed to play or think or plot or plan, and basically doing a pathetic football version of the final 'out from the trenches' moment from Black Adder, but not in slow-motion (at least until the 70th minute), forever.  This is permanent.  Until Mr Purslow decides he doesn't particularly NEED to bop along to Phil Collins alongside Some of Liverpool's Finest Gentlemen (who are good to their mothers) at someone or other's Christmas do... this is permanent.  It's pathetic how swiftly and unceremoniously we've become a big bag of shite.

Of course... this is football and all is never permanent.  Things can change in an instant.  Fortunes have been revived, or decimated, in one telling half of football.  But watching Villa players dither against ten man Leeds in the 88th minute, not sure who's ball it is, not sure what they'll do when someone finally runs to get it, not sure what they could have done to stop John McGinn imagining it's still 2018 and the ball is looping out from the Sheffield Wednesday rear-guard...this feels... permanent.

TODAY'S RATING FOR STEVEN GERRARD'S ASTON VILLA (season average afterwards)

MARTINEZ 6 (6.625) You do have to wonder, just a bit, if we did get that rumoured big money offer if he might just think... life's too short?

MINGS 7 (7.17) A very Tyrone Mings-ish performance from the really quite marvellous Tyrone Mings.  I might like watching Tyrone Mings right now more than I like watching Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa.  Which is something.

KONSA 6 (5.5) Still has the air of a child on a long car journey who could do a big, ugly sick AT ANY MOMENT.  Nervy, unsettled, but he's just about manged to hold in the barf for now.  Seemed more assured in the air today?

YOUNG 7 (7) One of the few pleasant surprises of the season so far is Young stepping up as the grizzled, seen-it-all vet in the Men on a Mission movie.  The boy is up for it, scrapping and pushing, like a man half his age.  Let's hope that come his death scene, cigarette in mouth, he can look at the muddy battlefield with a little bit of hope.

AUGUSTINSSON 6 (6) Seems a good athlete, with a tank and a decent touch.  Apparently somebody up there doesn't like Aston Villa having nice new things.

LUIZ 7 (6.5) Offers a calmness and control in the centre of the park that's almost surreal at times considering the chaos surrounding him.  A Caravaggio in a sea of Pollock.  Apparently now HATES the idea of getting a hat-trick of corner goals as he doesn't want to become a meme.

RAMSAY 6 (5.38) For me the most telling regression of Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa.  A good Villa game should come thick with moments of high-energy hustle and the odd imperious intervention from JJ.  Now there's only the odd threat of such.  Still a bit of thrust but the blade seems thinner.

McGINN 4 (4.25) You're at a fine Italian restaurant, with your lovely lady.  Delicious, stylish cuisine from a rich and storied culture lines the menu.  You order chips.  But we don't do chips, sir.  You got potatoes make me chips.  Double chips in fact.  Chips never let you down.

COUTINHO 6 (5.38) The odd seductive twinkle of a toe, an occasional incisive swish of his foot... I'm no longer concerned Coutinho is a busted flush.  I DO wonder if he can be properly magic again under a manager who doesn't possess crayons for a brain.  It's nice to have nice thoughts.

BAILEY 4 (5.14) Honestly that's quite a generous four here.  Sad Trombone Noise's Leon Bailey has another misadventure in 'I swear this pitch was twice as long' mode.  Funny prank putting him in 100 year old football boots made of thick wild boar leather, but maybe let's give him the ones he had at Leverkusen, yeah?

WATKINS 4 (5.28) If you listen to the jazz produced by both Watkins and Bailey's Sad Trombone Noises for too long you may end up swallowing your own tongue.  If you haven't already done that.  Doesn't seem to like footballs much of late.

BUENDIA 6 (5.57) What is a composed master of link-up play, through balls and seemingly counter-intuitive passes (that are actually absolutely the correct option) meant to do with this fizzy mess all around him.  Genuinely sad to see.

BEDNAREK 6 (6) Looks pretty good I thought!  Strong, sturdy, with more than a little composure and class.  Yes, it was mostly against ten man Leeds.  But also, do note that he was playing in the food-fight-in-an-all-you-can-eat-buffet world of Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa.

INGS N/A He's bringing on Ings?  Ings?!  Ings.  Ings.  Ings....

That is comedy gold!

" I DO wonder if he can be properly magic again under a manager who doesn't possess crayons for a brain."

Brilliant!

[Delphinho123]

11 minutes ago, tomsky_11 said:

Tbf Mings has been excellent since...

He was excellent last season for the most part too. 

Also worth noting that it was absolutely not Gerrards intention to take the captaincy off Mings as a way to try and make him play better. He dropped him completely for the first game with the intention of playing Konsa and Carlos as the first choice defensive partnership this season. 

[Mister_a]

I wish they would just get rid of him now, it's so painful to watch us 'play'. We have no clue.

[DCJonah]

41 minutes ago, tomsky_11 said:

Tbf Mings has been excellent since...

This would be a good point if it was the first time Mings had ever played well for us.

[Lochheads twin]

2 hours ago, R.Bear said:

You're right, we werent bad yesterday and should have won.

But everyone hates Gerrard and any game we dont win gives everyone a chance to do what they love most with is froth at the mouth and complain. Just as they will with the next manager and the one after that.

Agreed RB. There were many who were not happy when we actually won the previous game.

No matter what you think of Gerrard as a manager, it would be hard to hate him a a bloke.

should’ve, could’ve, would’ve won but that’s football.

let’s see what joy next week brings.

UTV

 

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, nick76 said:

considering our front line, was as sharp as butter.......it was.

was you expecting a 0-3 win with that finishing?

Yes we should have changed it, to try for the win.

[rjw63]

5 hours ago, John said:

We have tightened up at the back

[nick76]

1 minute ago, TRO said:

considering our front line, was as sharp as butter.......it was.

was you expecting a 0-3 win with that finishing?

Yes we should have changed it, to try for the win.

With 40+ minutes of ten men, a flapping goalkeeper we should’ve won.

A point was not a good result at all but I expect no more from Gerrard football these days.  

Blame the players fine, but he could’ve made changes both in players and tactics and that’s his job but even when they went down to ten men I still didn’t expect us to win because Gerrard doesn’t know how to take advantage.

In a one off game things sometimes don’t go your way but as somebody pointed out we have less points over the last 19 games than played games.  We have 8 points in 8 games and scored only 6 goals in 8 league games this season.

[PussEKatt]

There were a lot of positives from that game.

1 - We kept our unbeaten run going

2 - We kept a clean sheet

3 - We got another point

If we can keep this run going we will be double figures by the end of the month,double figures in goals scored in another 5/6 weeks and we can look to finishing the season as high as 17/18th

[flamingsombrero]

[striker]

6 hours ago, John said:

We have tightened up at the back, despite our injuries, but we carry no threat up front whatsoever. A point was the minimum expectation last night, but that was before they went down to ten men and we should really have done better inside their box, given the possession we had in and around it. Had Coutinho's lovely effort gone in, rather than striking the post, we may well have gone on to a comfortable win and as SG said after the game it was two points lost.

Watkins can't buy a goal and if he's to start for the work he puts in, then it should be at Bailey's expense in my opinion (who frustratingly failed to show again), rather than that of Ings, who might actually score the odd goal. That would also make Archer along with Bailey our first attacking options off the bench. Still on the bright side it's a third game unbeaten, we're out of the bottom six and October has for a long time, not been a good month for us, so it could have been even worse.  

For me Watkins is not a quality Premiership striker. However whether he likes it or not his ability to work hard would be better served on the left of a front three.

Why Gerrard doesn’t see him there in particular against the better sides is quite beyond me? Has the engine to track back and forth giving added protection and help to the fullback and midfield.

The problem isn’t one player. It’s the balance of the side.

Gerrard simply doesn’t know his best team or indeed his most clinical striker. Personally I think Archer should be unleashed but it’s fear of losing his job which is stopping Gerrard from taking the risk!

[Zhan_Zhuang]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

If Watkins had of scored, and we all know he should have......and if Phils effort had of gone in........the mood on here would have been different.

as it is, it was a shit show of poor finishing......all managers, rely on players to do their job, they get paid handsomely for it.

amongst many things, we have no intrinsic aggression up front, no determination to finish the job....thats on the players for me.

Yeah I agree we played quite well I thought. Limited them to few chances and we had the better chances in the first half.

Second-half we should have won that game two or three nil, but unfortunately the players didn't take their chances. That is what cost us.

[fruitvilla]

5 hours ago, wedge said:

I must be either absolutely mental or witnessed a different game to most yesterday evening. Judging by the reaction you'd have thought we got hammered, admittedly there are bigger questions such as have we progressed under Gerrard (I'd argue we've gone backwards if anything) but commenting solely on the 90 minutes we saw yesterday I really don't think we were bad at all!? We didn't set the world alight but it's a tough old place to go and we stood up to them, battled well and if we could hit a barn door we'd have won comfortably. Despite what the over-dramatic football twitter jellyfish and wannabee vloggers/bloggers blue ticks post, we aren't going to win every game 5-0 playing a hybrid of 2010 Barcelona/1970s Brazil unfortunately.

I agree. I could argue some of your points. But I thought it was a good game. My only real criticism was Martinez's time-wasting in the first half. 

It was frustrating not to put away the chances, and I did think most of the chances were not great quality, but mid-tier.  Of course, I want better. People seem to forget there are players who are trying to stop us from scoring. We played a similar game against Man City. Even 11v11 we were the better team. 

[imavillan]

4 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

Just a Monday morning reminder to all that Gerrard took the captaincy off Mings and gave it to McGinn. 

That actually happened. 

Indeed….

and when things were getting heated McGinn was nowhere, all we saw was Young and Mings getting into the ref’s face

terrible decision from Gerrard 

 

[imavillan]

So, Jesse Marsch said we were wasting time…

well after watching that it feels like I wasted 90 minutes of my life…

bloody awful 

[DeadlyDirk]

I fell asleep during the first half. That's not a figure of speech, I was genuinely that bored. The last time I had this level of apathy was the latter stages of David O'Nearly's tenure. 

 

[AvonVillain]

5 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

He was excellent last season for the most part too.

Mings has been almost entirely excellent (and also a genuine leader) since the day he arrived.

[Pez1974]

7 minutes ago, DeadlyDirk said:

I fell asleep during the first half. That's not a figure of speech, I was genuinely that bored. The last time I had this level of apathy was the latter stages of David O'Nearly's tenure. 

 

I stuck the cricket on. I watched the whole Man City game.
Things I never thought I'd write. I can't believe I'm not ashamed, but I think most fans would understand (barring some issue with cricket).