Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Chelsea

[skell]

It looks like its only me but I want him to have the next 3 games at least . He's slowly learning, full backs not bombing forward. Starting to inject pace in some games. Yes the football has.been poor but with a bit of luck and Watkins and others finishing chances we are in a comfortable 10th.  Imagine if we take 7 from the next 9. 

[TomC]

15 minutes ago, rjw63 said:

He wasn't going anyway.

Probably not, but it's out of the question now...

[rbcuk]

Potter shown him up how a proper manager with tactical awareness, made 2 subs at half time as we was beating the defence, he made 4 before they scored the 2nd, Gerrard does his after we go 2-0 down, the enjoyment of going whilst he’s in charge has gone for me

[TheStagMan]

1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

The main thing I have to say about that match is I picked up an awful lot of leaves instead of watching it. Having an oak tree in the garden is great for most of the year, but autumn is a real pain!

I hear you man. Acorns everywhere here from 3 of the buggers.

[rjw63]

Just now, TheStagMan said:

I hear you man. Acorns everywhere here from 3 of the buggers.

One just fell off the tree outside ours and bounced through the patio doors onto the carpet.

We have a huge family of squirrels here but the words removed keep eating my birdseed and leaving millions of acorns on the floor.

[rjw63]

23 minutes ago, skell said:

It looks like its only me but I want him to have the next 3 games at least .

[AVTuco]

Very expected. We play well when there's no pressure to win, and yet, lose anyway.

[nepal_villan]

32 minutes ago, skell said:

It looks like its only me but I want him to have the next 3 games at least . He's slowly learning, full backs not bombing forward. Starting to inject pace in some games. Yes the football has.been poor but with a bit of luck and Watkins and others finishing chances we are in a comfortable 10th.  Imagine if we take 7 from the next 9. 

There are too many flaws in his management to sort. In game management,  substitutions, squad rotation, set pieces...   

[skell]

Surely there is someone else out there!   The age old question. If not gerrard , who?

[OutByEaster?]

I dunno.

We played well, we created lots of chances, we got a number of them on target, their keeper was man of the match and yet I always felt we'd come out second best.

I worry, the style seems the same even when the tactics are tweaked - two strikers gave us something today, it was a good thing I think - I actually think the manager got most things right today - but the style, the way we play, the collective mentality of the side, it's "spirit" if you like has a thing. It's a thing where we're capable of playing really well against good sides, we can challenge them, match them, give them really good games - but we can't beat them - and then when we play the poorer sides, our thing means we don't seem able to break them down, we look awkward, disorganised and confused - and we don't beat them.

We've been unlucky today not to get something out of the game, we've been unlucky in a few games this season, we'll need to mind that we're not unlucky to be in the bottom three in a week's time, and that we're not unlucky to have gone down at the end of the season. 

That I'm thinking of 'not going down' as a base ambition for this season is in itself very disappointing, but it is where we are. I'm not sure we're going to play much better than this against top six sides, and we have another nine games against those sides - so for me, our focus should be on how we beat the teams around us - the 'other' games, the ones like Forest and Leeds where we couldn't break teams down.

I thought the two up two had promise, but we didn't score, again. That's 7 goals in 10 games this season and 5 games in which we haven't scored - goals are our problem - and yes, today we were unlucky, today Kepa had a worldie, today we hit the woodwork, today we created, but how many times can we be unlucky before it's not luck anymore?

Individually, I thought it was difficult really to find players that didn't do reasonably well, Mings had the mistake for the first goal and Luiz was quite quiet, but in general most players contributed to the performance. It's horrible. It's hard to really find a big fault in the way we played and we've lost 2-0.

I thought the referee was poor and Mason Mount was a knob, but there wasn't too much else to report from Chelsea, and though the Holte End half heartedly joined in when they sang 'sacked in the morning' at our manager, and there were boos at full time, I don't think it was a particularly hostile atmosphere either. 

It's a day when I think we were too good for us to now make an immediate change, but one that showed we're too bad to carry on without something changing.

Someone whose opinion matters on these things quoted Napoleon earlier this week in saying "Give me lucky Generals" and, if nothing else, I have a sad feeling that today might prove that amongst other things, Steven Gerrard isn't that.

We now have to win the next one, and for more than just the manager's sake.

 

[nick76]

32 minutes ago, skell said:

It looks like its only me but I want him to have the next 3 games at least . He's slowly learning, full backs not bombing forward. Starting to inject pace in some games. Yes the football has.been poor but with a bit of luck and Watkins and others finishing chances we are in a comfortable 10th.  Imagine if we take 7 from the next 9. 

You probably mean 7 points from the next 9 games given Gerrard’s ppg

[skell]

1 minute ago, nepal_villan said:

There are too many flaws in his management to sort. In game management,  substitutions, squad rotation, set pieces...   

All of which are workable. I totally get the call to oust him. I didn't want Smith to go. Maybe it's in my genes, that eternal hope of turning it around 

[nick76]

2 minutes ago, skell said:

Surely there is someone else out there!

You, Purslow and Gerrard’s mom who loves him no matter what!

[cheltenham_villa]

Struggling to blame Gerrard for today, he got the tactics spot on I thought but was let down by individual errors and poor finishing.

[skell]

3 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I dunno.

We played well, we created lots of chances, we got a number of them on target, their keeper was man of the match and yet I always felt we'd come out second best.

I worry, the style seems the same even when the tactics are tweaked - two strikers gave us something today, it was a good thing I think - I actually think the manager got most things right today - but the style, the way we play, the collective mentality of the side, it's "spirit" if you like has a thing. It's a thing where we're capable of playing really well against good sides, we can challenge them, match them, give them really good games - but we can't beat them - and then when we play the poorer sides, our thing means we don't seem able to break them down, we look awkward, disorganised and confused - and we don't beat them.

We've been unlucky today not to get something out of the game, we've been unlucky in a few games this season, we'll need to mind that we're not unlucky to be in the bottom three in a week's time, and that we're not unlucky to have gone down at the end of the season. 

That I'm thinking of 'not going down' as a base ambition for this season is in itself very disappointing, but it is where we are. I'm not sure we're going to play much better than this against top six sides, and we have another nine games against those sides - so for me, our focus should be on how we beat the teams around us - the 'other' games, the ones like Forest and Leeds where we couldn't break teams down.

I thought the two up two had promise, but we didn't score, again. That's 7 goals in 10 games this season and 5 games in which we haven't scored - goals are our problem - and yes, today we were unlucky, today Kepa had a worldie, today we hit the woodwork, today we created, but how many times can we be unlucky before it's not luck anymore?

Individually, I thought it was difficult really to find players that didn't do reasonably well, Mings had the mistake for the first goal and Luiz was quite quiet, but in general most players contributed to the performance. It's horrible. It's hard to really find a big fault in the way we played and we've lost 2-0.

I thought the referee was poor and Mason Mount was a knob, but there wasn't too much else to report from Chelsea, and though the Holte End half heartedly joined in when they sang 'sacked in the morning' at our manager, and there were boos at full time, I don't think it was a particularly hostile atmosphere either. 

It's a day when I think we were too good for us to now make an immediate change, but one that showed we're too bad to carry on without something changing.

Someone whose opinion matters on these things quoted Napoleon earlier this week in saying "Give me lucky Generals" and, if nothing else, I have a sad feeling that today might prove that amongst other things, Steven Gerrard isn't that.

We now have to win the next one, and for more than just the manager's sake.

 

Accurate to a  tee. Although Watkins played as a winger didn't he?

[rjw63]

4 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

That's 7 goals in 10 games this season and 5 games in which we haven't scored - goals are our problem
 

 

Indeed.

Only Wankee Wolves The Custard Bowl Nobbers have scored less than us.

Shameful.

[MrSmirch]

Creating chances and looking dangerous should be the minimum ffs. The standards have really gone up under Gerrard.

[IrishVilla10]

Just now, MrSmirch said:

Creating chances and looking dangerous should be the minimum ffs. The standards have really gone up under Gerrard.

This is exactly it. One decent half every 5/6 games and people think that’s enough to warrant more time. Absolutely ridiculous 

[IrishVilla10]

Next game Ings on the bench, coutinho back in the starting lineup, same midfield and we continue, Christ  

[El Segundo]

Decent first half and unlucky to go in behind at half time.  We were playing at a much higher tempo and with more intensity than normal and it was actually not bad to watch for once.  Probably because Chelsea are not the kind of team to employ a low block with two banks of four defending the goal, so we had more space in which to play.  However when you persistently miss your chances and regularly gift goals with unforced errors that's relegation form.  Second half was a mostly a reversion to type, and the subs killed any momentum we had maintained.   

As for Martinez, I never really bought into the "top class keeper" hype.  He doesn't drop many blatant clangers like he did today but there have been numerous times I've thought he could and should have done better.