Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Brentford

[ferguson1]

What I really liked today was every player seemed to applaud each sub, each subbed player applauding fans etc. There was real togetherness. It was a feel good factor.

Not to dwell in the past but something was abundantly wrong and today there was freedom to express, no confusion. It was a joy to watch. 

[nick76]

 

[Eligius]

Brilliant today, Luiz was awesome closely followed by Young. They were at it from the off and with the handbrake off and players playing in their more natural positions we were all over Brentford for the first half.

Please Sir, can I have some more?

[Pinebro]

Gerrard just overcomplicated things.

Placing players in these ridiculous roles and absurd formations.

Danks just made things simple and picked players in their natural roles and allowed them to express themselves.

Football doesn't have to be a complicated game.

[ciggiesnbeer]

1 minute ago, Pinebro said:

Gerrard just overcomplicated things.

Placing players in these ridiculous roles and absurd formations.

Danks just made things simple and picked players in their natural roles and allowed them to express themselves.

Football doesn't have to be a complicated game.

Aye, self evidently Gerrard & his 5 hand picked coaches (all now sacked) had no idea what they were doing. I am delighted about today but also angry at the wasted months under Gerrard & co. Frauds.



 

[stegzy]

Such a relief to see that we have that in us as I was starting to worry that we’d brought in a lot of players that have no interest in the club and who can’t play together. Today proved otherwise. Gave Bailey MOTM just about over Luiz for his goal involvements and massive improvement. Thought Buendia was closest to those 2 and then Dendonker, Young and Mings also superb.

[Villa87]

I missed it today. Absolutely buzzing with the result and chuffed for all of the fans who made it. Gerrard shown up big time. 

[villaslash]

The media and “experts” baffle me sometimes. I’m looking at the BBC player ratings. The lowest rated player is Ings with 5.02 then Coutinho with 6.28. Ings who scored a brace and linked the ball beautifully while running the full 90.

[ccfcman]

Width and freedom expressed in the perfect formation. They played like an U-19s side in the first half. Very happy for Bailey. 

[Vincenzo]

The shackles are off…we all know what was holding us back…this is a very good squad imo 

Excellent all round today ️ 

UTV

[AshVilla]

What impressed me today is i could actually see the shape we were playing on the pitch.

I could see the 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 and we kept the shape really well.

Unlike the Gerrard circus there were no gaping holes in midfield, none of our fullbacks were bombing up the pitch with McGinn having to fill in at fullback we just did the basics really well.

Top tier performance

[daft]

35 minutes ago, Genie said:

Well done today. Incredible result and performances.

I do always wonder when this type of thing happens. Coach steps up when manager sacked and makes a load of changes.

Was he telling Stevie to do these things and was ignored?

Did he feel there was no point in raising his views as he felt he wouldn’t be listened to?

 

I think the lads at some Villa podcast mentioned that it was almost as if our players had been instructed to not press under Gerrard. But in general I think it was a lot of psychology behind this win, for many reasons. So far it is a rare one off.

[Chicago Villan 1974]

Danks! Dank you very much ! Danks alot ! Much Danks ! Why Dank you ! 

[robby b]

Just now, villaslash said:

The media and “experts” baffle me sometimes. I’m looking at the BBC player ratings. The lowest rated player is Ings with 5.02 then Coutinho with 6.28. Ings who scored a brace and linked the ball beautifully while running the full 90.

Those player ratings aren't from the BBC, they're on the BBC... they're from members of the public who give players a rating during the game. Anyway... it is very weird that Ings only got 5.02 somehow, given he scored twice inside the first 14 minutes (maybe the BBC employee monitoring the public's votes made a typing error?!)

[Panto_Villan]

42 minutes ago, Genie said:

Well done today. Incredible result and performances.

I do always wonder when this type of thing happens. Coach steps up when manager sacked and makes a load of changes.

Was he telling Stevie to do these things and was ignored?

Did he feel there was no point in raising his views as he felt he wouldn’t be listened to?

 

He was probably biding his time, reporting back to Gerrard from the training pitch every week that the midfield looked solid and McGinn had scored another hat-trick.

[sne]

1 hour ago, CLARETANDBLUEFOXY said:

I’d love to be in Gerrard’s head right now. 

[romavillan]

3 hours ago, CLARETANDBLUEFOXY said:

In the pre match thread I said I hope we smashed them after dropping McGinn to show gerrard where he was going wrong. And that’s exactly what they did. Bravo! 

Don't think it was mainly down to that though. Needed to happen obvs but I think the shape and giving the players clear roles playing to their strengths was massive. 

[TomC]

46 minutes ago, villaslash said:

The media and “experts” baffle me sometimes. I’m looking at the BBC player ratings. The lowest rated player is Ings with 5.02 then Coutinho with 6.28. Ings who scored a brace and linked the ball beautifully while running the full 90.

SG is part of the football establishment. We got some increased attention at first when we hired him, and now we're going to get some backlash after firing him. I'm not going to let any of it bother me.

 

[The Fun Factory]

Was not optimistic before kick off but a dream start and we just bossed it. Played without  seemingly any pressure and shows that we have  a half decent squad if we get a comptent manager it. It was one of those days in which everything went right with the var checks and taking the penalty but it was just good to see postive front foot attacking play. And width!

Bailey man of the match for me but luiz,dendocker, and young also had good games. Young is seemingly turning into a bit of a alan hutton cult hero.

Today slightly reminded of the game v Derby when Grealish came back and out of nowhere we battered them. Not saying we will win 10 in a row but it could be the kick start to the season- well until at least the world cup break.

[tommytenjobs]

Well, quite the turnaround today. Not posted in ages as felt too flat to take much interest. Danks seems to have been taking notes on the sidelines that match many of my thoughts for the past 6 months or so…

1) McGinn has to be dropped. Today shows exactly why. We stopped giving up possession so easily, giving confidence for runners to go past men, creating space for easier passes. When we lost it, we had the legs to press, without just giving up pointless fouls. He needs a break and so did everyone else. The difference was so stark in the last 30 mins when he can back on! 
 

2) Coutinho needs to be impact sun only. Legs have gone. Not interested. Slows us down. Loses the ball to easily. No loss if we can move him on. 
 

3) beundia needs to be trusted and start a run of 10 games in a row. He needs love and faith. That will bring him the confidence to take risks with the ball. We need his creativity, pace, pressing, fight, passion….he needs consistency of selection and to play behind ings. 
 

4) Watkins is perfectly able to play wide, much more space for him and helps his lack of first touch. Let’s ings and archer play out for the centre birth. 
 

5) mings and Martinez are the leadership of the team and the captaincy issue was one of Gerard’s black hole of bull sh** macho posturing, attempting to force mings into a measuring contest. Gerrard needed to back off and give the team space….not willing to be second fiddle to Ty in the dressing room was part of his downfall. 
 

6) full backs playing as full backs. Jesus it felt good. 
 

7) specialist defensive midfielder in specialist position….shockingly we then had a platform to build, confidence of playing the ball through the lines, taking risks- without the fear of being broken on without any cover. 
 

I don’t think any of this should have been so tricky for a professional manager to have noticed and fixed. The fact it has taken so long to get rid of him, is criminal in my opinion. Time is fine if you can see a plan, progress or reasoning. It’s insanity if you just leave it and hope it’ll all come together without any evidence to support. 
 

thank you danks. 
 

utv