Ratings & Reactions: Brentford v Villa

[MWARLEY2]

Terrible day out for the team. But that shows how our expectations have been raised. 

The plusses 

Scored for 18th game in a row 

Got our first point at Brentford since the Championship. 

63% win percentage in the league still since Unai came in. 

Unai going mental at them . He isnt going to let them off the hook ever. 

Dougie is now our most consistent midfielder after being the most inconsistent for the last 3 years. 

emi isnt injured , just sick . 

The minuses..

Frank came up with a plan to stop us playing just as we did to Newcastle. 

Ollie was miles off it after looking like the second best striker in the league for the last few weeks. 

McGinn and Moreno Poor . 

Olsen.. it isnt his fault that Gerrard bought him but seriously what were our scouting team doing. 

 

[Follyfoot]

If we could have hung on and not conceded before the 3 subs we would have won it. I understand why he stayed with the same players after last week, but he has the nounce to make the changes and change our fortunes. Top top manager

[HanoiVillan]

I actually thought we were reasonably-evenly matched in the first half; I guess they shaded it  but we had chances as well. Martinez going off was the big blow. I know people don't want to 'blame' Olsen, and I don't either, but the bottom line is a] the players clearly don't have anything like the confidence in him so the defence was rocking anyway, and b] he can't be relied on to play out from the back. Annoying that that Zulu knobhead Toney got the goal, would have rather it was literally any of their other players, but there we go. 

Massive game now against Fulham. We simply have to win to have a serious chance of Europe IMO, and if we actually lose we could yet be finishing 9th. 

[Sulberto21]

Just now, sheepyvillian said:

You're right, no fault of the keeper, but some really do love a scapegoat. 

I don’t think anyone is scapegoating him just that we had to change our style of play to accommodate him. He didn’t do anything wrong but there was a nervousness in our game.

With Emi in goal I don’t think we would have been under the cosh for the first 25/30 of the second half. 

[maqroll]

Hungover from the Newcastle high. A reality check.

[DaveAV1]

4 minutes ago, Ponky said:

So does Martinez get at least half a clean sheet on his record here?

Full clean sheet for the time he was on the pitch.  I didn’t think Olsen was terrible but we seemed to lose some confidence when Emi had to go off. Understandably. 

[Enda]

7 minutes ago, AVFC_Hitz said:

Brentford are our bogey team. They bum otters and video it on an old Sony viewcam. It's a fine result.

Under Gerrard we were losing this game 3-0.

German invasion of the Rheinland.

German invasion of the Rheinland? That’s not what I meant when we needed more right-wing threats.

[AntrimBlack]

A very lucky point.

I get very jittery when Olsen is in goal, and I imagine the back 4 do too.

[sheepyvillian]

4 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

I don’t think anyone is scapegoating him just that we had to change our style of play to accommodate him. He didn’t do anything wrong but there was a nervousness in our game.

With Emi in goal I don’t think we would have been under the cosh for the first 25/30 of the second half. 

Calling him a clown is definitely scapegoating him.

[AVTuco]

I don't like it how we responded to Emi being taken off and Olsen in. Players just gave up. The awakening at the end was good though. 

Moreno was shite today, plain and simple. Digne however quite good. 

[sheepyvillian]

4 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

Full clean sheet for the time he was on the pitch.  I didn’t think Olsen was terrible but we seemed to lose some confidence when Emi had to go off. Understandably. 

He does set an high bar.

[Sulberto21]

Just now, sheepyvillian said:

Calling him a clown is definitely scapegoating him.

People who call any of our players clowns aren’t included in my post. Same old sensationalist BS from the usual suspects no doubt. 

[JoshVilla]

A good point in retrospect. I don't want to berate any of our players, but you could definitely sense the nerves amongst the back 4 once Martinez went off. It felt like it gave Brentford a bit more of a spring in their step too. We did well to get back into it though - we would've lost that game quite heavily under previous leadership.

I think it'll give us a good kick up the backside ahead of Tuesday. We can't get carried away with a single performance (good or bad).

[ozvillafan]

Olsen not to blame for the goal, but we can't play out at the back with him between the sticks - and every player on the pitch knew it.

Case in point: Mings has the ball facing his own goal about 10 yards out of our penalty area. Without any pressure on him, he plays a (successful) skewed ball to Konsa, rather than the easy tap back to the keeper.

Credit Brentford - they took advantage of that to pile on the pressure and found a napping Young to capitalize. We need Martinez back.

We looked better with the substitutions, particularly the crossing from both Digne and Chambers. Might even have knicked all 3 points at the end.

[Adman]

1 minute ago, JoshVilla said:

A good point in retrospect. I don't want to berate any of our players, but you could definitely sense the nerves amongst the back 4 once Martinez went off. It felt like it gave Brentford a bit more of a spring in their step too. We did well to get back into it though - we would've lost that game quite heavily under previous leadership.

I think it'll give us a good kick up the backside ahead of Tuesday. We can't get carried away with a single performance (good or bad).

Yes and no.  We were bad all over the pitch with emi in goal.  We definitely lose some composure in our backline when Olssen is in goal tho.

[PieFacE]

Brentford were very good but we also were not at it all. Very poor on the ball in midfield today other than Dougie and Ramsey really should have took his chance.

Credit to Brentford though, tough game. 

[M_Afro]

Lots of positives today despite a very average performance.
We took a vital point whilst,  more importantly, stealing two from them. It will be really hard for them to catch us now.

We kept our unbeaten record going.

We kept our scoring in every one of Unai’s games record going for another match.

We fought hard despite not being anywhere near our best and we never gave up.

If we can beat Fulham on Tuesday then we are almost certain of a top 8 finish which would be quite remarkable in itself! Let’s just hope that Emi is fit for then!

[avfc1982am]

25 minutes ago, VillaAlex said:

I thought Digne was excellent when he came on today. Never seen him win so many duels.

Great shout. Especially for all the criticism he's had I thought he was excellent when he came on. Much better than Moreno today and proving that we need all our players on their game. 

[burchy]

We only turned up for the last 20 mins. At least we didn’t lose.

Might have been different if Watkins didn’t head that last chance as I think Emi would have buried the header. 

Onwards and upwards UTV

[Adman]

Just now, ozvillafan said:

.

We looked better with the substitutions, particularly the crossing from both Digne and Chambers. Might even have knicked all 3 points at the end.

We have got 2 good but very different options now at lb. A pacey winger type who will beat a man and cross from the byline or a whip it in from deep maybe slightly more defensive option (as he's deeper when delivering the ball rather than being all the way up the pitch). Good way to change things around mid-game