Ratings & Reactions: Leicester v Villa

[imavillan]

12 hours ago, It's Your Round said:

Loved hearing the new version of ‘Dr Tony went to Rome” tonight. I wasn’t there but it sounded something like

Nas Sawiris went to Spain, in a battered mini, brought us back a manager, super Unai Emery

You know good times are here when new songs are created. 

 

12 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

"Nas Sawiris went to Spain, in a battered mini, he bought us back a manager, SUPER UNAI EMERY!" 

 

12 hours ago, Chasetown Villa said:

Was this what I thought I could hear on TV?

Come on lads, the battered mini days are over....

They're singing Christian Purslow went to Spain in a Lamborghini

It should be Nas Sawiris though

you can hear it at 10.37 on this vid

 

[TRO]

4 hours ago, CVByrne said:

I think we need to not get too far ahead of ourselves. There's a big slice of luck in the run we're on. But what I do know and which has been proven before is strong runs like this carry over into the following season, look at ourselves in our second season backup. Look at Leicester in their amazing run to stay up and then kept on the following season to win the PL. Look at Newcastle. 

If we maintain momentum and finish 8th or 9th it's still excellent momentum for summer. 4 big key signings is the right number and then into next season where anything is possible

When you are in this kind of form, luck is bound to be your friend.....I have seen it with other teams too.

Every team needs a bit of luck, but Momentum tends to court it.

To some twisted act of fate, that Bertie Goal was inevitable, thats what happens, when you are playing like we are.

as the old saying goes " you make your own luck" or "the harder you work the luckier you get"......take your pick.

Momentum is a strange phenomenon.

[turvontour]

I like the way our default score in a match is two goals. Sometimes we only get one, sometimes we get three. But our average is two and it gives us such a platform and potential in matches when you're very likely to score two goals. Particularly when the defence is generally much tighter.

Probably obvious thing to say but long may it continue.

[A'Villan]

44 minutes ago, TRO said:

When you are in this kind of form, luck is bound to be your friend.....I have seen it with other teams too.

Every team needs a bit of luck, but Momentum tends to court it.

To some twisted act of fate, that Bertie Goal was inevitable, thats what happens, when you are playing like we are.

as the old saying goes " you make your own luck" or "the harder you work the luckier you get"......take your pick.

Momentum is a strange phenomenon.

Ive long told myself luck is when the right preparation meets with the right opportunity. Happy go lucky is focused on the here and now and isn't concerned for what's beyond reach at any given time. I think we play with joy as well as determination. At least going on what I've seen of us in recent weeks.

We are quite deliberate and we take care in each passage of play to ensure that we give ourselves the best chance of game plan coming good.

We make our own luck at the moment, and as you say, momentum is a strange phenomenon, and that's why it pays to be steady and focused on each step.

Edited April 5, 2023 by A'Villan

[Panto_Villan]

3 hours ago, DaveAV1 said:

Dem I hear what you’re saying, but in my lifetime of supporting our great club, I’ve seen us become Champions of England, Champions of Europe, win 4 out of our 5 League Cups. I’ve also seen us relegated all the way down to the third division. Plus owned and run by various incarnations of clowns resulting in us almost going out of existence twice. 
 

This is no normal football club. The highest of highs and the lowest of lows are always a possibility. Being realistic is something I do in my normal life. I’m realistic about how much money I can earn, the car I drive, house we live in, even what I’m getting for dinner but dreaming big, possibly unrealistic dreams about The Villa should be the right of all Villa fans. 
 

Anyway, do you want to bet against us?

Bet against us getting Champions League this season? Yeah, I would. It's fun to get carried away, sure, but ultimately anyone looking at fourth is still getting carried away.

The downside of getting carried away is that there's more than a few people on here who will fly into a blind rage with the players if we get a bad result, because they've convinced themselves that this recent run of good form is something we should be able to maintain forever.

[Kiwivillan]

15 minutes ago, duke313 said:

The great thing about Emery is that in our hunt for European football, as most fans on here and elsewhere are getting completely carried away with talk of catching Newcastle and Spurs.  In all his interviews he is downplaying the possibility of European football, that it will be extremely difficult.

 

1 minute ago, Panto_Villan said:

Bet against us getting Champions League this season? Yeah, I would. It's fun to get carried away, sure, but ultimately anyone looking at fourth is still getting carried away.

The downside of getting carried away is that there's more than a few people on here who will fly into a blind rage with the players if we get a bad result, because they've convinced themselves that this recent run of good form is something we should be able to maintain forever.

That's the spirit

[tinker]

Reading the match reports from various sources and there heavily favouring Leicester,  they had a decent chance in the first half but other than that we was totally  dominant, we had 65% possession, 250 passes to there 140 that was in the first half.  After Ollie scored we ran rampant and had possession all around their box with last ditch clearances and all types of opportunities to score, we never and they hit us on the break.

2nd half they held us in our own half and defended well........they were the home team and needed 3 points to get out of a relegation battle. The sending off was as clear as day, it wasn't harsh , their player was reckless.

As for the penalty appeal denying  them, it would have been the worst decision I have ever seen and we have seen some bad ones over the years. 

[The_Steve]

Here’s the penalty VAR overturned. Ollie was originally booked too. 
 

[It's Your Round]

18 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Here’s the penalty VAR overturned. Ollie was originally booked too. 
 

The referee couldn’t have seen what happened but still felt it appropriate to call a penalty and book Watkins. He just chucked a metaphorical 50p coin in the air and picked a decision. If it wasn’t for VAR we’d have been screwed out of two points by inept officials again. 
 

Even with VAR it still took him 20 views of what you’ve shown here to make a decision! Useless clearing in the woods. 

[El Segundo]

1 hour ago, A'Villan said:

Ive long told myself luck is when the right preparation meets with the right opportunity. Happy go lucky is focused on the here and now and isn't concerned for what's beyond reach at any given time. I think we play with joy as well as determination. At least going on what I've seen of us in recent weeks.

We are quite deliberate and we take care in each passage of play to ensure that we give ourselves the best chance of game plan coming good.

We make our own luck at the moment, and as you say, momentum is a strange phenomenon, and that's why it pays to be steady and focused on each step.

I agree we've possibly had the odd bit of luck in some situations - you could call Mudryk and co. not being able to hit a cow's arse with a banjo, and the disallowed Chilwell header lucky but you could just call it us being better than them on the day and deserving what we got.  You could call Dewsbury-Hall getting himself sent off, or Souttar missing a free header from 4 yards out lucky, or it was just them not being as good as us.   I actually think we've also had our fair share of bad luck during this run - for example:

Arsenal home - their third goal - how unlucky was that? Especially after we'd just hit the bar ourselves. 

West Ham away - the penalty West Ham were gifted, which was a joke. 

Brighton away -  the foul on Luiz not given when Brighton scored

Bournemouth home - blatant handball penalty not given

Man CIty away - some would call the Grealish penalty decision unlucky ( I personally don't), plus Duran was unlucky not to score when hitting the bar.

A few points dropped in some of those games that might not have been with a little more luck on our side, but in other games we've been able to overcome those incidents because we have a good system and are able to apply it consistently.       

Edited April 5, 2023 by El Segundo

[It's Your Round]

Just on the refs making 50/50 guess decisions when they haven’t seen the incident. Craig Pawson once admitted to me that he didn’t see what happened when he denied Watkins a penalty at Spurs in the May 2021 match. He told me that he was too far back when Grealish launched a long ball for Watkins to run on too, Ollie was taken out by Lloris but not actually being able to see what happened, Pawson just decided to say no foul. He watched back after the game and said it should have been a penalty! 

We won the game anyway but that’s not the point. Referees are making blind guess decisions and not being held accountable. 

[sidcow]

21 minutes ago, It's Your Round said:

Just on the refs making 50/50 guess decisions when they haven’t seen the incident. Craig Pawson once admitted to me that he didn’t see what happened when he denied Watkins a penalty at Spurs in the May 2021 match. He told me that he was too far back when Grealish launched a long ball for Watkins to run on too, Ollie was taken out by Lloris but not actually being able to see what happened, Pawson just decided to say no foul. He watched back after the game and said it should have been a penalty! 

We won the game anyway but that’s not the point. Referees are making blind guess decisions and not being held accountable. 

All of which is why the VAR "clear and obvious error" is a nonsense. 

If it won't just rule as it sees the ref ought to at least be able to signal that he didn't have a clear view of an incident and ask VAR to review it and make the call or show him replays. 

Edited April 5, 2023 by sidcow

[Pinebro]

2 hours ago, duke313 said:

The great thing about Emery is that in our hunt for European football, as most fans on here and elsewhere are getting completely carried away with talk of catching Newcastle and Spurs.  In all his interviews he is downplaying the possibility of European football, that it will be extremely difficult.

Let's catch Newcastle and Spurs though

[DJBOB]

One thing to keep in mind is that Leicester and West Ham previously know that Villa are going to struggle breaking down the low block.

After Leicester ventured out to try and press along the back 4 to force an error similar to our reverse fixture and got burned, they refused to press past the halfway line. At several points in the second half, Vardy was standing in the center circle refusing to press either Mings or Konsa who were about two arms lengths away from him.

As a result, we had to methodically move the ball down and pick our way through a desperate Leicester team. It was a much harder game than it looked and we are very one sided (Buendia/Moreno) as the strengths of JJ and Bailey do not suit trying to pick apart a low block like Leicester put out. We had a few half chances but it was always going to be a grind the second half the way Leicester set up.

Forest and Wolves are the last of the teams that are fighting for their lives and will take a point. After that, we are going to have some very wild matches I think.

Kudos to Villa for staying patient and continue grinding away for a result. I have a feeling after this weekend we won't see one of these for a while.

[FLVillan]

5 hours ago, HKP90 said:

I think that Leicester's strengths just neatly match up with our current weaknesses. Ash has been great this season, but he has lost a yard of pace, which he can normally make up for with guile, but Barnes will naturally exploit that. I think if Ash was a LB and Moreno was a RB we would have had fewer problems.

Talked to a mate last night who's a Leicester fan.  He said that was a typical Barnes performance.  ie. producing a moment of magic but then being entirely unproductive and failing to capitalize on the obvious.  I told him they can have Bailey if they want... 

[punkiller1981]

3 hours ago, Stevo71 said:

That's a great point. The media would be short stroking it all over the place lauding the "elite" job their boy Gerrard was doing and linking him to the Plop job with every breath. Villa itself would be a complete afterthought. 

Spared from that.

Reality is that would have never happened under gerrard so it was never going to be an issue. This guy however is just doing what he does, comes in reads the room, knows what’s needed to improve and gets in working 25 hours a day to make it happen. Talent + work ethic = 10 places higher in the Table in effectively 4 months. 
 

I had put a ban on myself going to Villa park under gerrard after I went to the Crystal Palace game last season. I decided I couldn’t bear to watch such poor football any more but I ended up breaking that ban for a turgid 1-0 defeat at the start of the season to an awful West Ham team so the ban was reinstated but since emery I have been to all but the wolves game and I’m loving it. Already can’t wait for Forrest on Saturday 

[DaveAV1]

3 hours ago, DJBOB said:

Kudos to Villa for staying patient and continue grinding away for a result. I have a feeling after this weekend we won't see one of these for a while.

Bertie doesn’t do grinding. He shoots he scores. 

[Villarocker]

On 04/04/2023 at 21:45, stewiek2 said:

I only gave Unai average as I thought we could have gone more high tempo and put pressure on them when they went down to ten men.

You must be non-human if you're questioning the absolute genius professor of football that is Unai Emery.

[stewiek2]

5 minutes ago, Villarocker said:

You must be non-human if you're questioning the absolute genius professor of football that is Unai Emery.

I've been called much worse in my time!

[Follyfoot]

On 04/04/2023 at 22:29, Follyfoot said:

Coming multiple times every three days is hard work at my age 

Flippin eck