Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Leeds

[The_Steve]

Oliver bottled sending Meslier off because Leeds had no subs left.

[briny_ear]

8 minutes ago, AvonVillain said:

You really think it should have simply been 'comfortable' all evening??

Why don’t you read the whole post?

[TomC]

I missed the first 25 minutes, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

One of the marks of a good team is that they find a way to win even when they are not playing well. We didn't play well but found a way to win. That's not the Villa of old.

Leeds have a good midfield that played well, but they couldn't find a way to score. That's the mark of a not-so-good-team. They're probably too good to go down, but in a sense, they deserved to lose despite long periods of dominance.

We have two world class players right now, Emi1 and Kamara. Excellent matches from both. I have to give MOTM to Emi because we might have lost without him.

Young was also great but gets a demerit for a stupid dive leading to the goal.

Sanson almost prevented the goal with that sprint. I had no idea that he's that fast.

Moreno made an impressive debut. Imagine if we hadn't signed him...with both Augustinsson and Digne hurt, we'd be in trouble. Now we have a player who looks like he could be better than either.

Buendia and Bailey are two peas from the same pod...both try to do the spectacular when the simple would do and cough up the ball too much as a result. They both have talent but need to change if they want to excel.

Coutinho looked good and showed intelligence in making simple passes to hold the ball when we were trying to kill off the game. He is not the Coutinho of old but Buendia and Bailey could learn a thing or two from him.

I thought that people in the match thread were a little hard on JJ...yes, he was anonymous, but he hadn't played in months and was obviously rusty. I put more blame on Unai for not subbing him sooner.

Konsa just isn't good enough on the ball. I can't wait until Diego is back.

Not the best game from Ings, but I'm still a fan. He's an intelligent footballer.

I'll take the 3 points.

 

[Jareth]

Leeds gotta be bitter not getting a point, they fought hard and just fell short. Don't like them much but as with Wolves, these teams don't appear to be obvious relegation candidates. 

[tinker]

2 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

What a player. Hopefully we can get Guendouzi in alongside him. 

I think this is a key thing for us to move forward.

[Lerner's Driver]

7 minutes ago, Philosopher said:

Martinez's saves were crucial. He was immense. The difference between him and Olsen is ridiculous. We need a really talented young keeper to be Martinez's understudy. 8

 

 

Young was given a torrid time by a fantastic talent in Gnonto. But he stuck at his task and made crucial challenges and clearances. 8

 

Konsa was probably the poorest of our defenders. Struggled. 5

 

Moreno was poor, but the clearance off the line got him ahead of Konsa. 6

 

Kamara is my man of the match. So composed, reads the game so well, top player. Great assist. 9

 

Luiz was run ragged at times, but made crucial toe ins at times. Could have been better in possession. 6

 

Buendia had a terrible first half, but did better I the second defensively, and popped up with the winner.

 

Ramsey had a quiet game, not sharp, kept at it. 6

 

Bailey scored a love finish. Made some good runs but, guilty of trying to beat too many players. Everytime he went past two players, he third to unnecessarily best a third! 7

 

Ings was poor. Ollie is a far superior outlet in this kind of game. 5

 

Very Important win. We have learnt to win ugly. 

 

 

Moreno was poor? Wrong. Excellent debut.

[villa4europe]

31 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

His comments on BBC match thread were a joke

BBC match thread? Wasn't he also a sky pundit tonight? Mad if he's doing both

[Xela]

Sanson and Moreno on the same pitch?

[Delphinho123]

Just now, Lerner's Driver said:

Moreno was poor? Wrong. Excellent debut.

Yeh I thought he was very good. New league, new country, new teammates, new system. He was good. Quietly confident. 

[Spoony]

[Zero7]

25 minutes ago, Rodders said:

Good points: we won.

Performance: absolute shite. Looked a bit better when the 2nd went in, but had no control.of.that game.for the majority of it. That defending around the 6 yard box, stop **** doing that.

Great saves from Emi, great game from Ashley Young. Bailey score and a assist of sorts but otherwise he is so frustrating. But hey got us the result. 

Buendia scored good, but largely anonymous for too long. 

JJ he played??

Our midfield was overrun. 

As for debut boy, after an understandable very shaky start he finished well, could have scored, going to be very useful going forward. 

Manager: unai must be concerned by the wretchedness of the first hour of that match. 

But onwards

 

Leeds overrun nearly every team, enjoy the blaming win and be happy 

[Lerner's Driver]

5 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

What makes you think I didn't watch it?

ignore, he's mouthing off again.

[HanoiVillan]

4 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Just watch the games more is all I ask and try to form opinions on what you see and not what a website tells you.

I watched the game, haven't navigated away to any other website, and I don't recognise your summary of his performance at all. 

[RicRic]

I selected Young for MOTM completely forgetting about Kamara, and now that I remember yes its definitely kamara … how Bailey got MOTM is beyond me …. We need to look much more steady than this when we have the game in our hands. Goood win !! gives us confidence and throws us in good position. Martinez pulled off some top saves.

[flashingqwerty]

16 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Agreed, can someone more knowledgable on FA rulings explain why it wasn't?

The other defenders around meant no red as last man, but even the sky commentators said he was fortunate not to see red.

VAR not seeing it as clear and obvious. It was borderline, and I'd say only saved by the contact being quite small.

[Villaphil]

4 minutes ago, May-Z said:

I actually think Leeds did a really good job tactically today.

They knew we'd pass it out so put three high to press and filled the midfield to pick the passes into their or the knockdowns from from.

Kamara is absolutely shit hot, so he looked good, but every else was taken out of the game. 

However, when we made space, we used it well and attacked well. 

It was a scrap, but we won that scrap. In the past we would have rolled over. 

Thought Leeds had a clear tactic to force the ball into Konsa whose distribution doesn’t quite match that of Mings.

[TomC]

9 minutes ago, DJ_Villain said:

Did Marseille receive a transfer fee for him?

I don't think so, no.

 

[Ponky]

It was frustrating to watch and one of our problems is that our defenders shoulder too much of the responsibility for maintaining possession and as soon as it hits that middle third we give it away again. 

That said I think Leeds executed their approach really well and had the numbers all over the pitch. They forced us into a lot of errors and in fairness probably deserved more from the game.

Martinez was my man of the match followed by Kamara. Young was excellent but let us down for their goal a bit by going down looking for a foul and letting his player get away from him.

Great to see Bailey turning on the pace and taking a nice sweet hit for the goal. His performance today shows why we need another winger for the left to really fill out what Emery wants to do.

Good debut for Alex too. Bit sketchy in the first 20 but very impressive after that.

[TomC]

24 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Kamara, undoubtedly the best Villa player since PM.

Too early to say that, but we may be saying that in a few years.

[Delphinho123]

1 minute ago, HanoiVillan said:

I watched the game, haven't navigated away to any other website, and I don't recognise your summary of his performance at all. 

That’s fine. The manager will. Doubt he’ll be in our starting XI in Feb.