Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Wolves

[chappy]

Buendia getting loads of stick on here, didn’t think he was that bad in the ground tonight! Few things didn’t come off but thought he buzzed around and defensively was solid too (I know that isn’t his job but someone needed to be in the first half).

Poor miss by Bailey but having watched it back… not as bad as first appeared - off balance and on weaker foot. Obviously still should have scored. Great to see Watkins off the bench to pick him off the floor at the end. Let him loose on Stevenage to try and build some confidence back.

Mings and Konsa decent tonight. Impressed by Augustinsson coming on, much better than his other appearances! Our players looked shattered, hopefully they can get used to playing Sunday Wednesday though!

[Zhan_Zhuang]

First half was a stinker but we started to reign them in a bit...as has been said it's the kind of game we would have lost recently.

Grinding out a draw is important and unlucky not to win really.

Buendia is annoying me now which is unfortunate as I really want to like him; gave the ball away far too much. He's also not quick or strong enough it would seem.

Nice to see the bench used, there is some strength in depth there now.

Gave MOTM to Martinez for the two good saves, wanted to give it to Mings as he's class and might be my favourite Villa player.

Pity Bailey fluffed his lines.

UTV

 

[Only2McInallys]

Funny to see a few posters suggesting Mcginn missing tonight was a reason we didn’t perform well.I thought many on here believed he should never play for us again.

The chance Bailey had at the end...for me he trapped the ball well,he went round the goalkeeper but his shot was misdirected.

I have seen many,many great players do something similar.If we want him to succeed we need to accept that these things happen and not dwell on it and hope it doesn’t affect his confidence too much.

 

 

[Lochheads twin]

A strange game, or maybe not. It was a local derby and probably a fair result.

Wolves are definitely a team you don't want to give a goal start to. They pressed us really well and were confident in their possession. Their whole side are comfortable on the ball, moved it about quickly and were able to pen us in for large parts of the first half.

Quite a few of our players seemed out of sorts. Douglas, Digne & Buendia, to name but 3. Probably a mixture of injuries and lack of form.

The good news is our manager is not afraid the make changes. Augustinsson was far more adventurous than Digne and was unlucky to see his goal-bound shot well blocked. Ings did what Danny Ings does, he takes his chances. We would be silly to let him go unless we have a ready made replacement.

The squad does have options in most positions but nothing in the wide role unless we push Ollie out there. I am sure this position will be near the top of the shopping list.

Mings was the Villa MoM for me. Did nothing wrong and got the assist for Ings goal. The Cup match presents the chance to rest a few and also give a few others some game time. Will be interesting to see our line up.

In summary, if offered 4 points from the Spurs & Wolves games, we would have certainly taken that offer. So we should not be too disappointed, even if we are frustrated again by the side we love.

UTV

 

 

[El Segundo]

I'd have taken a draw at half time as we were outplayed first half - they pressed well, outnumbered us in midfield and when we did get the ball we were so slow to get forward that they had every player back behind the ball by the time we got into their half. 

But fair play to Emery he changed shape and tactics to try to  exploit their back three, pinging the ball out wide, playing the ball forward quicker, and then also over the top to exploit their higher line.   

However in the end it felt almost like a defeat after Bailey's dreadful miss (even Ronnie Rosenthal hit the ball in the general direction of the goal) - two points chucked away thanks to his lack of composure and apparent complete inability to use his right foot.  Not sure why he was still on the pitch as he'd been pretty awful like last home game.  So predictable, any defender knows just show him onto his right foot and he'll try to cut back onto his left.   Easy to defend against.  Would rather Watkins had gone wide and Bailey came off.   He can cry all he wants but he'd be better off getting out on the training ground learning to use his weaker foot a bit better.

And Digne is not only not an improvement on Targett he often looks much worse.

 

Edited January 5, 2023 by El Segundo

[Tomaszk]

I'm always surprised people who clearly don't understand football care so much about it.

Willingly spouting total bilge. Not embarrassed or anything.

Great subs from Emery.

[Wainy316]

Given the first half it felt like a point gained until the miss made it feel like points dropped.

Genuinely one of the worst Villa halves of football I’ve ever seen.  Still, given recent results and the new manager, booing them off at half time was really not cool.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Wainy316

[FLVillan]

1 hour ago, rbcuk said:

1st half was as bad as I’ve seen this season, game changed soon as he brought ings on, he needs to be starting, thought augustinson played alot better than digne, really don’t get what some see in buendia no strength gets tackled and throws a strop like a petulant kid 

I've tried my best to reserve judgment having not seen most of this team play live (last game at VP was end of 2019).  But, couldn't agree more on Buendia.  He puts a shift in when he isn't stropping, but tonight I counted five times when he had either given the ball away or mis-controlled a pass where he's berating a teammate(s), somehow blaming them for his own mistake.  One moment in the second half Wolves cleared it up long and pushed out.  Konsa looked for an immediate ball back over the Wolves defence and there was Buendia walking back, 15 yards offside, while the rest of our team had run back to stay onside.  So Konsa passed it back to Mings who passed it back to Martinez.  Another time, Kamara passed to him in plenty of space and he then proceeded to take four touches, got closed down and gave the ball away - he then motioned to Kamara that he wanted the pass played differently.   I would hate to have him (Buendia) as a teammate.  Constantly making everything about himself and quite frankly, his negatives far outweigh the odd bit of skill that he produces.

[The Fun Factory]

Can we stop giving one half of football to the opposition please?

Woeful first half but at least Emery adapted  to it and most of the subs worked. He ha learnt that Cash is not a midfielder and Young can't really start 2 games in a week.

We have two many inconsistent players if we want to achieved a european spot imo. I am looking at Luiz and Buendia who were both way off it tonight. Ings saved us in all honesty. Wolves weren't great and I can't see them finishing out of the bottom 6.

Yes Bailey could have won it but over the 90 we didn't deserve to win that. 4 points in the last 2 games is a good return and I expected many changes on Sunday and hopefulyt us in the hat for the 4th round. 

[VillaParkAvenue]

4 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

Still, given recent results and the new manager, booing them off at half time was really not cool.

It’s the new thing this season. Watch PL games where the home team is behind at half time. Boos in the stadium nearly every time.

[The Fun Factory]

I didn't think Bailey was as bad as Buendia and Luiz At least he was willing to have a go and attack with the ball. Luiz was very little help to Kamara and Buendia spent most of the game either falling over or spraying hospital passes to his team mates.

[briny_ear]

Only seen the highlights on MOTD so it’s hard to get a real feel for how things went but it looks like we had a bit of a reaction to the Spurs game and lost focus for this one, particularly in the first half.

2nd half looked more cohesive and the substitutions worked well. A draw is not a bad outcome in all the circumstances, although I was hoping for 3 points before the match started.

Just based on the highlights I’ll give MOTM to Martinez, although I suspect the most influential person tonight was Emery who played a good hand again. What is it, 10 points from 5 matches now, which is exactly the sort of form we need to be really competitive in the second half of the season. It is so good to have a manager who looks as if he knows what he is doing, and is able to communicate it to the players and I look forward to consistent improvement in our remaining matches.

My only real beef with him is why he insists on playing Watkins ahead of Ings. Ings is pulling away as leading goalscorer and has mainly played bits and pieces.Surely he has earned a start or two now?

 

[Villan_of_oz]

4 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

I'm always surprised people who clearly don't understand football care so much about it.

Willingly spouting total bilge. Not embarrassed or anything.

Great subs from Emery.

This post saves me saying the same thing, never been more shocked by a match thread than the one against Wolves. 

[fruitvilla]

OK ... not a great display, could have been a lot worse. This is the official match report and everyone else is wrong.
Just note below ... OK, is not good enough in the Premier League.
Referee I thought was good,
I hope to see more from Emery, though his subs seem to work

Martinez .. good game, the goal was not really his fault, a couple of excellent saves, but not much to do really.
Young ... OK but looked really tired
Konsa ... was OK did not do much wrong, good clearance off the line.
Mings ... My man of the match not many mistakes nothing serious anyway, nice assist
Digne ... OK, not as bad as many are making out here.
Cash ... I thought was OK, 
Kamara and Luiz ... OK, nowhere near their Spurs performance. Kamara seemed to improve after Luiz went off ... strange?
Bailey ... I can live with the poor shot, what I struggle with is, the wonderful dribbling skills running straight into a wall of two or three defenders.
Beundia ... OK ... Not his best game, 
Watkins ... OK similarly not his best game either

Generally, the team looked good when they pressed but seem to tire quickly

Subs
The performance improved dramatically ... started pressing again

Ings ... nice goal well taken
Dendoncker ... was OK
Augustinsson ... OK, one really nice shot unlucky not to score
Coutinho ... Again OK, but I think I am seeing improvement with his cameos (largeish cameo this time}

[NoelVilla]

From the top performance at Spurs to a really bad first half and then to come back to get a point should be seen as something positive after the last few years. Guess not.

Happy to see Konsa back to form.

[WallisFrizz]

A point was fair. I don’t feel that it is points dropped, we had to fight our way back in and both sides fluffed chances to win it. 
 

Emery might have got his starting line up wrong (hindsight being wonderful) but made good subs and changed the game. I am positive about the second half of the season, we’re in a good place to finally finish top half, don’t make me eat my words Villa.

[brummybloke]

9 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

Wrong.  In the second half he was a big source of energy and forward movement and kept Wolves on the backfoot. His finishing and crossing this match -- well, you may have something there.

His finishing, his decision making, his crossing, his dead balls, his control, his pace, all far below standard last night.

It's not a knee jerk reaction to his appalling miss at the end, look through the match thread, he was constantly terrible. Young young was on the bench who is rapid direct and can beat a man without having to predictably cut back on the opposite foot. After 55 minutes of the game we should have made the swap. The only defence there is for him is he should be played on the left and then he can be more direct and not have to in 99% of the time, cut back inside.

[Vive_La_Villa]

Anyone else impressed by Costa? For a player that’s lost all his speed he still linked up play superbly from the front. Very intelligent. We lack a bit of that up front at times.

[UpTheVilla26]

We need to remember as well that last night is like the dog heads Champions League Final, World Cup Final & losing their virginity all rolled into 1 game. 

So a point isn't too shabby. 

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

39 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Anyone else impressed by Costa? For a player that’s lost all his speed he still linked up play superbly from the front. Very intelligent. We lack a bit of that up front at times.

Thats Ingsy’s game