Ratings & Reactions: Man United v Villa

[nick76]

14 minutes ago, FLVillan said:

Bruno Fernandes.  I despise you more than any footballer I have ever witnessed.  You're a cheat.  

Robbie Savage was worse. So glad when Dublin nutted him.

[tinker]

Martinez was my motm,  stopped manure hitting us on the break by controlling his area.  2nd half they broke the play up and killed the game which is what experienced teams , at home,  can do. We did  had the better chances, 2nd half, and should have scored when they cleared off the line. 

We need options, at the moments Moreno is our main creative threat, Buendia struggles when teams get physical, the ref was weak with constant fouls on him, watkins and McGinn, being ignored. 

 

 

 

[bannedfromHandV]

We played okay, much better intensity in the second half and a bit unlucky not to have come away with anything.

Referee gave us nothing, unsurprisingly. Ironic that the first team we don’t score against under Unai is the first team we did score against under Unai.

[VILLAMARV]

[TreeVillan]

On reflection the referee wasn't bad today he just didn't give any soft fouls. We were guilty of going down quite easily.  

[VillaChris]

Thought Leon Osman summed it very well at the end on the world feed. Sometimes we need to believe in ourselves a little bit more. We'd gone into this game 10 matches unbeaten and that dosen't happen by accident in premier league these days.

Was a lack of conviction at times. We played safe which wasn't a shock tactic but sometimes team can get into default setting. Certainly showed when Buendia passed up two excellent opportunities to shoot on edge of the box and even near the end Chambers had two opportunities to cross into the box, he just passed back to Traore who had a chance and he hit it instead to Digne who eventually saw the cross blocked and move fizzled out.

We're not far away at all back to front but in these type of games we need more danger in final third and players who can create stuff out of very little so intrigued to see who's coming up well in the scouting reports currently.

[VillaChris]

Just now, TreeVillan said:

On reflection the referee wasn't bad today he just didn't give any soft fouls. We were guilty of going down quite easily.  

I laughed when he didn't book McGinn for barging into Eriksen. Was probably the most yellow card foul you could get as he was getting frustrated with some of the decisions.

It was a pretty easy game to ref really.

[smg]

Can I just say next weeks referee was shit 

[foreveryoung]

36 minutes ago, smg said:

Can I just say next weeks referee was shit 

Yeah for me being a bit more grounded, I thought the ref was okay, could have easily gave Man U a penalty.

[Sulberto21]

1 hour ago, ozvillafan said:

Yes - I enjoy a loss.

Yes - I'm new here

Condescending? Works both ways.

If you ask the point of my post, don't get upset when I explain it.

I didn’t ask you for an explanation. I stated it’s a match thread so some reactions might not be rational.

Why not just post on what you saw in the game as opposed to intimating how others should react? 

[DaveAV1]

2 hours ago, The_Steve said:

Duran was a breathe of fresh air.

That’s good news. I wasn’t able to see any of the game today, so that’s encouraging. Reading lots of the comments in here I thought Stevie G was still our manager. 

[chips'ngravy]

2 hours ago, The_Steve said:

Deserved to lose after their first half showing. Better second half - robbed of a clear penalty. 
 

One of the worst refereeing performances in a long time. United shouldn’t have finished the game with 12 on the pitch. 

Corrected for you

[chips'ngravy]

As some have said perhaps it was a game too far. I felt for Unai in that he knew he had to try and change things up and he did, but bringing on Chambers and Digne is probably not going to make things any better. And therein lay the issue. Nothing of comparable quality to bring off the bench. Kamara, Cash, Coutinho and Bailey all out for an extended period is what has ultimately done for us. 

[VillaChris]

2 hours ago, The_Steve said:

So multiple fouls from Fred and others aren’t an issue? C’mon mate. We could see how much the likes of Casemiro got away with. 

Fred got booked didn't he? I thought the most obvious yellow card all game was McGinn barging into Eriksen well after he passed the ball and he didn't get a yellow so was a pretty high threshold to get booked today set from Gillett for both teams.

[VillaChris]

2 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

The comments before the game about how Shaw and Lindelof was a weak CB pairing that we should expect to bully all day looked overconfident when they were made, and look really stupid now. That's a backline that has kept out Brighton and a Villa side who had scored in 19(?) straight PL games; Shaw was impressive and I think Lindelof was (along with Casemiro) the MOTM. Defensive quality told, as neither Buendia nor Ramsey were quite able to get the ball to Watkins in dangerous positions, or take the chances they occasionally got. 

Despite the fuss, we were always likely to get no more than 1 point out of this game. I think it does pretty much end any prospect of top 4, and makes 5th and 6th very hard to imagine, so for me the ideal result now shifts from a Liverpool-Spurs draw to hoping Liverpool absolutely smash them and then hoping we can just stay ahead of Spurs for 7th. If by some miracle we can achieve that, make no mistake, that will be an insane achievement from this manager. Even if we can't, just being in the conversation is remarkable. 

Just gotta get back on the horse. 

Neither could handle Bailey at VP, he ran riot first half that day. Of course we know his limitations but I do think in these type of games next season we need a pacier option alongside Ollie. Whether that's Nico Williams or someone else I don't know but it was all very one paced today and conservative. When we did show some one touch play we did actually open them up a few times, the big first half chance when Ollie slipped and then Moreno had shot blocked and thought our best move was when Ollie did first time lay off to Ramsey running through and his shot was blocked by one of their CBs.

We need to get enough quality in the squad that we can do that move 5-6 times in a match rather than just one or twice as happened today as then it's simply harder to score v these teams unless they have a poor day defending set pieces.

Was actually surprised Digne didn't just have a shot with that free kick at the end. Was very similar range to the one he scored at VP. With Maguire on at that point you're asking for a very good cross.

[tinker]

19 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Fred got booked didn't he? I thought the most obvious yellow card all game was McGinn barging into Eriksen well after he passed the ball and he didn't get a yellow so was a pretty high threshold to get booked today set from Gillett for both teams.

McGinn just replicated the unpunished foul on him right before, he actually said that to the ref who just shrugged his shoulders, he was never gonna book him. The ref was weak. 

[Zhan_Zhuang]

One of the Casemiro 'alleged fouls' was so weird, it looked a blatant foul and yellow card to me. It was a reckless lunge on Ramsey.

Second-half I thought Villa were decent and unlucky not to get the draw.

How on earth did Watkins not get a penalty ninety seconds in to the second-half? He was going up for a free header to likely score and Dalot (?) clatters in to him from the back; he wasn't side on let alone goal side. Absolutely nuts!

Fernandes inciting the away crowd was nasty to see, awful behaviour from a professional footballer. But why should I be surprised.

Shining lights to me were Ramsey and McGinn. 

Buendia very poor, lost possession repeatedly, weak on the ball and should have really shot when he had the opportunity late in the game.

Under the circumstances Villa are unlucky to lose that little unbeaten run.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Zhan_Zhuang

[srsmithusa]

2 hours ago, robby b said:

Yes, like you I also know that Man Utd are good but apparently some people on here in the pre-match thread didn't know... some ridiculous comments saying they're really "sh*t", etc, well then today's result has come back to haunt them. They were still 4th before kick-off, still well above us on points, best undefeated at home record in the league, I say that's not really sh*t.

But still, I'm saying that in 51 minutes (the 2nd half) we should have forced De Gea into at least one save.

more degea saves would have been good, but factor in two goal line clearnaces when he was beaten.

[srsmithusa]

2 hours ago, bobzy said:

I think there were 4 bookings in the game today - Casemiro on Ramsey, McGinn on Eriksen, Fred on McGinn and then Fred kicking the ball away. That was it - it wasn’t a dirty game at all. Of those, the ref gave 1 card (Fred, kicking ball away).

If Fred had been booked for his foul on McGinn then he doesn’t kick the ball away. Nothing else had any impact on the game. I don’t even think Casemiro committed a foul after that bad one (he arguably should’ve on Ramsey, but that was never a yellow).

The ref blew for 16 fouls from Man Utd versus 7 from us. I think there were 2 fouls in the second half which weren’t given but the rest was fine. He could’ve also given Man Utd a penalty, but didn’t.

The fuss over that performance is insane. 

I didn't know you were Aussie   

[srsmithusa]

I thought referee was poor simply because he did not call a great many holds and shirt pulls and barges from behind.  SJM was smart to charge Erikson so blatantly in reaction to having at least 4 committed against him.  2 within 30 seconds or so, before his.  It kinda forces the ref to start calling them when he sees what can go wrong.  What somebody needed to do was start pulling united shorts and jerseys to make the same point.  It may be a style to let a lot go and card very rarely.... but it's a style that favors a team that are cynical or that have a lead.  Once they were ahead, they were content with foul after foul, especially when many werent' going to be called anyway, and the ones that were, just disrupted any flow.  Win - win for them to foul.  That's the referees fault.

On US TV only showed Rashford's run on the goal one time, with no little lines.  He truly looked off on the very limited view we saw.

All that being said.  I thought we were quite impressive.  They are a strong side, a CL side, and they were playing well.  We didn't roll over and die or seem completely out of the competition at any point.  I think we will continue to do well.  But i sorely wish Kamara and Cash would come back.