Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Crystal Palace

[tinker]

Felt like and end of season game tbh. Some of our players are too laid back and fail to concentrate on the game so parts of it pass them by.

If I see Konsa with his arm in the air again while the balls still in play i will give birth to a kitten, it's infuriating to say the least. 

Good result and it would have been easy to draw this game but we kept at it, McGinn MOTM , Watkins and Moreno both put in good performances. Beundia is great in the final third but some of the passes he does in our half are ridiculously risky, he needs to cut these out before they cost us.

We desperately need another leader on the pitch , probably a midfielder.

Overall I'm happy with the result but we still don't seem to be able to control games so it's always a nervous end to them. When were in games like this with possession we need more width in the middle , guess McGinn and Ramsey/ Beundia should be pulling wider so we offer the midfielders/ defenders  more options to pass into. UTV 

[stewiek2]

2 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said:

That was a game of percentages. Not pretty even to listen to. But thats another 3 points. 

Emery1.6666666667 points prr game 

Gerrard 0.818 points per game .

Theres the difference between a top coach being pragmatic and a ex liverpool player  

If your re Rachel Riley counting those number then consider my respect knocking one out over you.

If you are not, I apologise, accept my shame and ned to clean up in guilt.

[Follyfoot]

3 minutes ago, stewiek2 said:

If your re Rachel Riley counting those number then consider my respect knocking one out over you.

If you are not, I apologise, accept my shame and ned to clean up in guilt.

Every hole is a goal

[blunther]

1 hour ago, gwi1890 said:

We controlled the tempo and stopped the game becoming a back and forth basketball match which is part of the reason we’ve dropped points at home in previous games.

Exactly. Stunned at all the moaning in the ground. Our last two home matches were great matches to watch, and we lost them both 4-2. Yes, it wasnt exciting, and we didn't press home the advantage of the extra man, but palace didn't have a shot on target. Two clean sheets in a row. 

 

I don't know why I expect better from our fans. Twice now in the last two games, today and against Everton we've scored directly as a result of playing it round the back and creating space. I thought it might shit the 'get it forward' idiots up for a bit, but not ten minutes later there were a bunch giving ironic cheers when we hoofed it (and subsequently lost possession) 

[OutByEaster?]

Palace are odd. They're incredibly athletic; big, strong, quick in most areas on the pitch and as a result they're tough to beat, but they concentrate so much on being physical that it makes it hard for them to win. There's not much pattern, they get it up to one of their quality players up front and hope for the best, and when you've got the ball, they hope that pace and the ability to grab you will get them out of trouble - they're a team that needs to have a think about what they're doing.

We, on the other hand are often accused of being the other way, too keen to play and not focused enough on winning, with perhaps a little physical or mental weakness behind that. 

I think that's a bit unfair and I think we showed that today - we competed really well with them and went toe to toe with what must be the biggest team in the division, with a weak referee, and came out on top. We were brave in the way we tried to keep and play the ball, in the challenge, in the responsibility the players were willing to take and in sticking with what we were doing with the ball from the back even though there were a couple of wobbles.

It wasn't pretty, it wasn't art and we won't be first on Match of the Day - but it's three points and a clean sheet at home.

I thought the back four did pretty well, Konsa especially and Martinez looked more assured, Kamara and Luiz were disciplined, organised and responsible and McGinn and Ramsey worked really hard and each did good things. Watkins didn't manage to keep the streak going, but showed how useful he can be up front even when not scoring, and Buendia worked tirelessly, with both bark and bite.

We were by no means perfect, there were a couple of potential foul ups playing out from the back, one from Luiz and one from Mings and we only really created two big chances, but we never took a step back and we deserved the win. You can see what we're trying to do, and, I think, you can see that we're getting better at it - hopefully we'll continue to do that, there are games coming up where we could collect more points.

A few bits stood out; late on, the giant sub they introduced picked up a ball out wide and Buendia flew into him - he was twice Buendia's size and Buendia had 90 minutes running in him and Emi looked like he didn't give a monkeys. I loved that after Doug had made his mistake about half a dozen players were immediately around him telling him not to worry giving him a pat on the back and some support, they believe in it I think, in the way Emery wants us to play. McGinn and Watkin's runs out of defence got me out of my seat, collecting the ball in trouble around our box and fighting their way sixty yards up the field. it's little things that won't be in the highlights of this one that show our determination, our organisation and our growing belief.

We're a work in progress, and today was ugly, but I think the progress is there and visible.

A word for the referee who I thought was far too generous in not turning fouls into bookings - by the time Doucoure eventually injured Kamara, the ref had let half a dozen fouls by him go, if he'd booked him earlier, we might not be missing one of our best players. Palace had five yellow cards - they could quite easily have had another five. I thought the linesman was excellent, better than me at least, I thought Zaha was onside for the goal and then again a few minutes later - but VAR confirmed his eye was better than mine. I thought the ref got most things right but then wasn't strong enough to dish out punishments to stop them happening again - I'm glad to have escaped that game without more injuries.

I'll take it, I'm not sure I enjoyed it, but I like a lot what it says about us, we can battle, we have some mental fortitude and we're learning to win under a manager that is imposing a system, instilling belief in that system and making players better; 22 points from 12 games under Unai Emery - I think I like it.

[The Fun Factory]

Not a classic but got the win. I think overall we deserved it. The disallowed palace goal looked tight. They were a really dirty team, more than I expected.  McGinn man of the match by a distance. Can we ever leave 11th spot in the league?

[The Fun Factory]

2 hours ago, Sulberto21 said:

And next season when we go unbeaten for the entire season and win every game we’ll still be 11th.

It is quite remarkable that we got nearly 42,000 in versus Palace in a meaningless mid table match. A few years ago this would have struggled to get 35,000 in. 

[cheltenham_villa]

57 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Palace are odd. They're incredibly athletic; big, strong, quick in most areas on the pitch and as a result they're tough to beat, but they concentrate so much on being physical that it makes it hard for them to win. There's not much pattern, they get it up to one of their quality players up front and hope for the best, and when you've got the ball, they hope that pace and the ability to grab you will get them out of trouble - they're a team that needs to have a think about what they're doing.

We, on the other hand are often accused of being the other way, too keen to play and not focused enough on winning, with perhaps a little physical or mental weakness behind that. 

I think that's a bit unfair and I think we showed that today - we competed really well with them and went toe to toe with what must be the biggest team in the division, with a weak referee, and came out on top. We were brave in the way we tried to keep and play the ball, in the challenge, in the responsibility the players were willing to take and in sticking with what we were doing with the ball from the back even though there were a couple of wobbles.

It wasn't pretty, it wasn't art and we won't be first on Match of the Day - but it's three points and a clean sheet at home.

I thought the back four did pretty well, Konsa especially and Martinez looked more assured, Kamara and Luiz were disciplined, organised and responsible and McGinn and Ramsey worked really hard and each did good things. Watkins didn't manage to keep the streak going, but showed how useful he can be up front even when not scoring, and Buendia worked tirelessly, with both bark and bite.

We were by no means perfect, there were a couple of potential foul ups playing out from the back, one from Luiz and one from Mings and we only really created two big chances, but we never took a step back and we deserved the win. You can see what we're trying to do, and, I think, you can see that we're getting better at it - hopefully we'll continue to do that, there are games coming up where we could collect more points.

A few bits stood out; late on, the giant sub they introduced picked up a ball out wide and Buendia flew into him - he was twice Buendia's size and Buendia had 90 minutes running in him and Emi looked like he didn't give a monkeys. I loved that after Doug had made his mistake about half a dozen players were immediately around him telling him not to worry giving him a pat on the back and some support, they believe in it I think, in the way Emery wants us to play. McGinn and Watkin's runs out of defence got me out of my seat, collecting the ball in trouble around our box and fighting their way sixty yards up the field. it's little things that won't be in the highlights of this one that show our determination, our organisation and our growing belief.

We're a work in progress, and today was ugly, but I think the progress is there and visible.

A word for the referee who I thought was far too generous in not turning fouls into bookings - by the time Doucoure eventually injured Kamara, the ref had let half a dozen fouls by him go, if he'd booked him earlier, we might not be missing one of our best players. Palace had five yellow cards - they could quite easily have had another five. I thought the linesman was excellent, better than me at least, I thought Zaha was onside for the goal and then again a few minutes later - but VAR confirmed his eye was better than mine. I thought the ref got most things right but then wasn't strong enough to dish out punishments to stop them happening again - I'm glad to have escaped that game without more injuries.

I'll take it, I'm not sure I enjoyed it, but I like a lot what it says about us, we can battle, we have some mental fortitude and we're learning to win under a manager that is imposing a system, instilling belief in that system and making players better; 22 points from 12 games under Unai Emery - I think I like it.

Excellent write up and points well made. We were good enough today, not pretty but I think confident that we were better and no risks required. Really happy with the belief and commitment from the players. Hard to pick out anyone not performing.

[cheltenham_villa]

3 hours ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Really noticed the difference when chambers came on for kamara. Makes you realise how good boubs is

Really, I thought chambers was excellent. Lots of energy and won a lot of tackles. He's no kamara but I really don't think the performance dropped today.

[Ponky]

Well for my first ever experience at Villa Park I was pretty chuffed to see a win, even if I would have liked to see us put away a few more chances.

McGinn my man of the match by some length - he's a real creator when played higher up the pitch.

Very enjoyable, but incredibly cold afternoon. Was super impressed with the staff at VP - all very friendly and efficient. Unfortunately getting home on the train was a bit of a dog's breakfast.

Have enjoyed my couple of days in Brum. It's a very interesting place (from what little I've seen) with a very vibrant, diverse population. I'd love to come back again one day ... But maybe in a warmer month!

[danceoftheshamen]

Furious with the Palace players, Filthy! Hand slapping each other when the player you fouled is taken off with a nasty injury is really low. Scum team full of cheats so delighted we beat them. 

[bannedfromHandV]

Strange game to evaluate, we didn’t play well per se but we were the better team for most of the game. A bit too cautious at times for my liking, quite a few occasions where the first touch was backwards when the space was in front.

Ramsey struggled I thought and has no cohesion with Moreno, who I also thought struggled a bit. Luiz was a bit too relaxed at times but McGinn was excellent and Emi didn’t have a save to make so a solid defensive performance.

Puts some good distance between us and the teams below with some (on paper) favourable fixtures coming up. 

[lapal_fan]

I've had a flipping awesome Saturday.

Got up, got some stuff done that's been hanging around for a while.  Took my 8 year old to a football party and played football for most of it, setting up a goal and scoring the winner in the dad's v lads match  (crying kids everywhere, muhahaha)

Then went to the park with the family and played more football with my kids and the eldest's mate.

Went out for dinner and had a ruddy lovely lamb shank, which I never have.

Really, the ONLY downer today was accidentally reading a tweet from villa saying "palace score, 0-1, Zaha" during the game 

"Oh well, not to worry.. shame.. hope we can get something back".

Get absolutely NO football news throughout the day.  Assume we lost based on that tweet.

Watch sky sports game of the day on Sky Sports, see the Zaha goal.. "VAR checking" (me thinking, "oh well I know it was counted, but weird considering it looks offside..")

"No goal"!?!

We win 1-0.

My 99% perfect Saturday just hit 100%.

God, I **** loved today.

10th anniversary tomorrow too, so should be really good!

(Insert something about Carlsberg)

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/03/04/aston-villa-vs-crystal-palace-result-unai-emery-win/

Quote

Controlled Aston Villa morphing into a side in Unai Emery's image

Villa remain level on points with Chelsea after back-to-back wins in the Premier League

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[Johnnyp]

Palace were downright dirty. As a collective too. I’d want Villa, or any sports team to i follow,  to play on or as close to the edge as is possible. The edge is where you want to be in terms of effort etc but nah, that was just filth from them. 

[punkiller1981]

8 hours ago, Jareth said:

Our goal today was Emery all over - the stuff at the back where we keep it is entirely designed to change the opposition's plan - we will bore them to death, they must come and get it, and when they do we find space - that is a constant of Emery's plan. Then also he relies on pacey accurate attack - if we had the right players for this then it will work but god it does work even with the players we have. Emery is a man with a plan, and he and his teams are consistant. 

Totally agree with this. The playing from the back is designed to draw the opposition out create space and then move forward. We did it a few times yesterday and nearly got cash and others in. I don’t think we have the players to play it really well yet but I think new recruitment will be about players that work in this system. 

[blunther]

27 minutes ago, punkiller1981 said:

Totally agree with this. The playing from the back is designed to draw the opposition out create space and then move forward. We did it a few times yesterday and nearly got cash and others in. I don’t think we have the players to play it really well yet but I think new recruitment will be about players that work in this system. 

It worked for the first goal against Everton. It worked today. Yet I'm still surrounded by buffoons screaming 'get it forward', and even cheering the few times we hoofed it and lost the ball. 

I really thought demonstrating today how playing from the back leads to a goal would shut people up for at least a game, but it didn't even last ten minutes. 

There were a few times the pass forward was on but our players seemed to still turn back and go back to the Konsa/Mings/Martinez starting pattern. Hopefully once the players are used to it we can be a bit more incisive as it's not brilliant to watch sometimes, but you can see it starting to work (if you're not a blithering idiot).

[TreeVillan]

7 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/03/04/aston-villa-vs-crystal-palace-result-unai-emery-win/

 

Eyesight not what it was? 

[VillaLion63]

One shot on target yesterday ? I'll take the win but it was very frustrating to watch us going backwards a lot of the time yesterday. Half time when I got a beer some guy was doing his nut on how he pays to be entertained not to watch that s**t. Bit over the top but you could see his point.

Edited March 5, 2023 by VillaLion63

[punkiller1981]

1 hour ago, blunther said:

It worked for the first goal against Everton. It worked today. Yet I'm still surrounded by buffoons screaming 'get it forward', and even cheering the few times we hoofed it and lost the ball. 

I really thought demonstrating today how playing from the back leads to a goal would shut people up for at least a game, but it didn't even last ten minutes. 

There were a few times the pass forward was on but our players seemed to still turn back and go back to the Konsa/Mings/Martinez starting pattern. Hopefully once the players are used to it we can be a bit more incisive as it's not brilliant to watch sometimes, but you can see it starting to work (if you're not a blithering idiot).

I had the same in the upper holte and yes the were occasions when I thought we could have released Moreno but came back inside but the were a number of different moves yesterday when we built up slowly from the back and picked off palace from back to front and that’s what Emery is trying to do and at times it won’t work and it will require patience especially when we perhaps don’t have the ideal players to play this way but you can see improvement in a lot of the players even konsa is slowly looking more comfortable with the ball at his feet.