Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Chelsea

[tomsky_11]

Just now, bobzy said:

I don't think that's right - they brought off an attacking player for Coulibaly (can't remember who) to stop the fact we were cutting through them at will.

 

And yeah, we were still the better team.  It was a good performance.  We're just obviously low enough on confidence that the second goal killed us.

Coulibaly was a straight swap for Cucarella at left centre back. They took off Havertz for Cesar, put Cesar at right wing back instead of Sterling and moved Sterling forward.

[Mister_a]

To all the people saying we had a good half. Don't we do this most of the time, then SG again proves that he has no idea how to deal with the opposition managers tactical changes at half-time?

I mean, our movement is toss, both on and off the ball. We are absolutely shit at passing, because of this. 

Our set piece delivery has been atrocious forever, our tactics at the moment appear to be 'Get a corner then hope Doug scores from it' 

Throw in's - never any movement - but to be fair this has been the case for at least 10 years.

We show some glimpses against teams that attack us, and the other teams who sit back make us look pedestrian. We have no idea how to break down a team that sits back, and while that is the players fault (indirectly), it's down to the 'coaching' and the tactics to enable us to break down teams. It's non-existent, there is no sigh of us knowing what to do to break a team down.

 

I just don't understand. Our issues are so obvious to everyone watching, except those in charge. It's maddening.

 

[chappy]

9 hours ago, FLVillan said:

Studs up and full speed into the ankle/shin.  If the ref didn't see it, it was clear as day for the idiot Atwell who was on VAR duty..... 

 

Great line on the brilliant as ever Villa Podcast last night: “Who let Stuart Atwell be the VAR? Stuart Atwell is the reason we have VAR”

 

7 hour round drive to the game yesterday as I was coming from the Lake District. Wish I’d stayed and gone for a walk! 
 

Great that we created plenty of chances but we really needed to stick some of them away, no matter how well Kepa (MOTM) was playing. As Kepa wasn’t an option, I voted Young as MOTM.

Shame to see such apathy in the stands. Surely it’s obvious to the powers that be that this isn’t working? Change the manager now and try and build a little momentum going into the break.

[AVFCDAN]

18 hours ago, Paul33 said:

Chelsea played as well as they were allowed to play !

Sometimes I would agree with you but they definitely weren’t at the races on Sunday.

[Folski]

17 minutes ago, danceoftheshamen said:

That result was by-en-large substandard finishing and Football League level (& quite a low one at that) control & quality from a few of our players. Unfortunately there really is not a lot Gerrard can do about that. He can however drop players for repeatedly doing the same & give a go to others. The issue is that it's our "big" players doing it... McGinn, Watkins, Coutihno & others. The quality some of them are showing is way below the level it should be at. 

I was watching the difference with City against Liverpool&  in similar situations the control of those players is instant and clearly what you would expect at Premier League level. It made a huge difference to the attacking threat. 

So for me, on Sunday at least, it was down to poor quality from the players when thye should be much better, for the 1st hour. The rest of the game after 0-2 was frankly appaling however and that was not helped by Gerrards Substitutions in my view.

To play well, at home and lose 0-2 is very concerning however. Normally the saying is "if you play badly & win it's the sign of a good team" so quite what "if you play well & still lose" says I really don't know.

Hasn't done this at all. Everyone saying to give him more time also seems to think if we went 1-0 up to Chelsea yesterday that they'd have rolled over. Were Chelsea even in second gear yesterday?

[Aston_Villan4]

1 minute ago, Folski said:

Hasn't done this at all. Everyone saying to give him more time also seems to think if we went 1-0 up to Chelsea yesterday that they'd have rolled over. Were Chelsea even in second gear yesterday?

Not in the first half. We really took it to them but we should’ve been up on them at least 2-1. So many missed chances/ Kepa playing lights out. Second half though they turned it up a notch with the changes but even then I wouldn’t say they were at their best.

[danceoftheshamen]

2 minutes ago, Folski said:

Hasn't done this at all. Everyone saying to give him more time also seems to think if we went 1-0 up to Chelsea yesterday that they'd have rolled over. Were Chelsea even in second gear yesterday?

I personally think we did give them a very tough game yesterday, as in we made them run around a heck of a lot in that 1st hour, (It was like taking candy off a baby for them in that last 30 mins though)... However we totally let them off the hook with awful, panicky finishing, plus a few top saves from their keeper of course. I do think though that with better finishing, he would not have been able to make the saves regardless, so again it boils down to poor finishing. Confidence is clearly now a factor in that. 

[onmeedson]

It makes no difference who the opposition are when you defend like we do, calamity mings stepped up for the second week in a row and emi decided to keep him company. I think milly bright could do a better job of heading a ball because rabbit in the headlights seems to occur whenever a high ball comes in. Melberg just attacked everything that came his way, we just try to duck under it.

[turvontour]

Never judge a performance when we are losing in the game for 91 of the 96 minutes of it.

I don't think Chelsea play the way they did if they weren't winning from that start.

[tinker]

Comedy of errors in defence but we didn't score so it's the same old problem again. Chelsea looked disinterested after their European adventure. 

Fans were very lacklustre, hardly made a noise , Gerrard running down the tunnel straight after the game doesn't help his cause. 

2 winnable games coming up that will dictate our season , 4 points =midtable, anything less means bottom half and the probability of a relegation battle looking likely.