Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Fulham

[bannedfromHandV]

4 minutes ago, smg said:

Against a poor team playing badly.

Just won two on the bounce and in the top half, doesn’t say much for the rest of the league does it?!

[smg]

1 minute ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Just won two on the bounce and in the top half, doesn’t say much for the rest of the league does it?!

I was talking about tonight I have no idea what they did in their last two games.

[Sulberto21]

34 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

The BBC ratings has McGinn as the lowest score of all and Ollie at 2nd behind Tyrone.

Who the hell is doing the voting

Callum Wilson and Rodri….

[TreeVillan]

17 minutes ago, nick76 said:

We won!

Who cares about the rest, I’m delighted!

Nah?

[SecretVillaScout]

Another Routine Home win @TRO

[Mantis]

This gif is getting a lot of use under Unai.

[Sulberto21]

Id like to see our midfielders get the ball more often though. Konsa and Mings are making nearly 80 passes a game and our midfielders are making 35 - 40. That’s where Kamara is at a higher level because he finds the angles to get the ball from the defenders and he’s quicker at it than Dougie and Donk. Dougie thrives more with Kamara as ironically he gets more ball too because of Kamara. 

[Spoony]

I don’t see the point in referee ratings on here. 11% say “very poor” and 35% day poor? Not sure he got anything wrong. The unqualified dislike of referees is tiresome to me and a big reason why no one wants to do it and the quality is dropping. 

[OutByEaster?]

A game of two halves, a first in which we looked incredibly composed and a second in which we struggled a bit, but with two that didn't look like Fulham would score.

I thought the first half was an outstanding performance by the plan. The plan said we'll play out from the back with patience and draw them on to us - we'll use Dendoncker and Luiz to build through them and occasionally put it over them to Ramsey and Buendia - the plan said that when we had the ball in midfield we'd be patient, draw them over and then unleash Moreno down the left, the plan said that if Fulham had wanted to play, then they should have brought their own ball. 

We were confident, calm, controlled and utterly dominant, we barely broke a sweat, no one looked like they didn't have a complete understanding of their role and no one looked like they weren't utterly capable of doing it - we were outstanding in the plan - Emi Martinez standing on the edge of our box, taunting Fulham's forwards, Konsa and Mings effortless on the ball, Luiz and Dendoncker metronomic, Buendia, McGinn and Ramsey busy, Moreno electric and Ollie always willing - all to the benefit of the plan. 

Those shouts of "get it forward" have gone - there were attacks that broke down today that resulted in us ending up passing back to the half way line and the reassuring feet of Ty and Ezri - and there were warm ripples of gentle applause instead of the urging to put it in the box. It's a plan that Unai Emery has taught us, the fans, we're on board with the plan, we're probably part of the plan, I don't think he leaves anything to chance, and the change is there, you can hear it at Villa Park,

I don't recall ever seeing a Villa side so organised, so smooth and so well drilled as in that first half - it was just missing a second goal.

The second half was a bit more ragged, we struggled to get out, but we still created a few half chances and we continued to look like we can defend - we play the offside trap well, we're organised, we can hold you out with numbers with McGinn and Ramsey happy to dig in, we throw bodies at the ball, we put in the work and put in the tackles and we're underpinned by a big yellow obstacle with an iron will - that's the plan.

The last goal scored by the opposition at Villa Park was by Arsenal. We don't give anything away for nothing.

It matters too. People are talking about us. We're talking about us. Spurs fans must watch our results with a sense of dread. We're growing into it, becoming the team we want to be - and I have a feeling that might be in the plan too. Up to 5th and in a good spot to compete for European qualification over our final five games.

I wonder what Fulham fans who were at the last game at their place would have made of that first half? 

We're transformed, utterly, in the image of our manager, obsessed by our own detail, ruthlessly organised, deathly calm and entirely expressed in our plan.

It's an incredible season, let's hope we're planning to finish it on a high.

 

 

[romavillan]

Just back from the ground. Flat second half, their changes worked. Great three points, clean sheet, scored again but lost our way second half when we had knocked it about much better first half. I thought Konsa and Ming's were outstanding but the midfield today didn't work as well as pre Brentford. Not sure why. Ref was a clearing in the woods, love villa park, love villa. Happy days.

 

[Paddywhack]

1 hour ago, sne said:

3 points

10 games without a loss

20th straight game where we score. 

First time since 1983 where we win 5 straight home games without conceding.

54 points

5th in the table

 

bUt We WaS rUbBiSH

[The_Rev]

15 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

Id like to see our midfielders get the ball more often though. Konsa and Mings are making nearly 80 passes a game and our midfielders are making 35 - 40. That’s where Kamara is at a higher level because he finds the angles to get the ball from the defenders and he’s quicker at it than Dougie and Donk. Dougie thrives more with Kamara as ironically he gets more ball too because of Kamara. 

We are set up tactically for Mings and Konsa to see a lot of the ball.  They’ll have triangles formed with Martinez to bait the press and if the opposition bit then the ball transitions quickly through the midfield and towards Ollie.  It didn’t happen much tonight because Fulham weren’t biting much but I can’t see us changing the style too drastically unless there’s a big change in personnel. 

[romavillan]

2 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

We are set up tactically for Mings and Konsa to see a lot of the ball.  They’ll have triangles formed with Martinez to bait the press and if the opposition bit then the ball transitions quickly through the midfield and towards Ollie.  It didn’t happen much tonight because Fulham weren’t biting much but I can’t see us changing the style too drastically unless there’s a big change in personnel. 

Yeah it was a feature of Fulham's play that they were straining to not get sucked in to our traps and keep their shape. Even when they went a goal down they didn't press us until we tried to play through midfield. We struggled a bit with that second half.

[catanzaro]

7 minutes ago, romavillan said:

Just back from the ground. Flat second half, their changes worked. Great three points, clean sheet, scored again but lost our way second half when we had knocked it about much better first half. I thought Konsa and Ming's were outstanding but the midfield today didn't work as well as pre Brentford. Not sure why. Ref was a clearing in the woods, love villa park, love villa. Happy days.

 

So much better seeing it with 40k Villans

[rjw63]

I’m surprised no one has said “a win’s a win” yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lapal_fan]

Tactically, that was quite an absorbing watch I thought. 

My biggest take-away is that VP seems to have finally matured and learned patience.  Everything I want to say has already been said by @OutByEaster?.  We were in full control from 31 seconds in the first half until the whilstle. 

Silva made some pretty shrewd changes at halftime which put a bit more pressure on our full backs, meaning we had to play slightly quicker than the almost glacial first half.  

I don't quite understand the "we looked tired" comments.  I think we had a few more gears we didn't need to go into, to be honest. 

Luiz has a quieter game than usual, but I think that was part of the plan, to bypass him and Dedonker (who had a great first half btw).  

I just didn't break a sweat - at all - even with the last 10 mins.. We just controlled the game's speed completely. 

Again, well done to those at VP tonight, I actually said to the people I was with that that amount of patience would never have happened previously, even the MON days when we were 6th most of the time.   

[Ponky]

Got up at 4am to watch the 2nd half. In the past I would have gone back to bed raging due to conceding a late goal, but felt very comfortable that would not be the case today.

[KentVillan]

21 minutes ago, Spoony said:

I don’t see the point in referee ratings on here. 11% say “very poor” and 35% day poor? Not sure he got anything wrong. The unqualified dislike of referees is tiresome to me and a big reason why no one wants to do it and the quality is dropping. 

Yeah I thought the ref had a solid game. Did I miss something?

[Guest av1]

Genius. I said to my mate at the game tonight that since promotion I’ve always felt that we had to be at/or near to our best to win games. 
 

Tonight I sat there totally relaxed watching them never need to get out of second gear to beat a decent Fulham team. Incredible. 

[villaglint]

I’m taking personal credit for tonight’s win. We had a few corners before the goal and I said to my pal Tyrone Mings is never ever going to score from a corner is he? 
 

Next one comes in and he wins the game. 
 

The perfect piece of know nothing punditry.