Ratings & Reactions: Newcastle v Villa

[Frodo]

Time to watch Gaurdians of Galaxy volume 3 see you all next weekend if this site was a barn or house it would be on fire right now everybody needs to carm down.

[Mantis]

A lot of what went wrong today (bullshit injury, two offside goals, Konsa **** up) weren't even his fault, although I'm confident he'll sort out the stuff that was in his control.

[Talldarkandransome]

Yesterday Vincent Kompany, before their game said, today will be the worst we play all season

Same here 

[The_Steve]

4 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

First up congratulations to Newcastle, I thought they were excellent, they defend well, they're organised, they have strength, they press really well and they have talented players at the sharp end who can score goals. 

I thought we were poor and sloppy in places, but I think 5-1 is still flattering - they one the game in big moments - injuries, mistakes, close offside calls, penalty decisions and some really sloppy finishing from off - but overall, if you look at the stats on the game, we really weren't far off them, in general play we were right in the game, we just ruined that by sloppy moments and the silly offside law.

The last twenty minutes are what we'll remember, and we were shambolic in that period, but considering we were off it, we could well still have been level at half time and if Cash had put his chance away we might still have come back from 3-1.

The positives would for me be Diaby, who looks like a superstar in the making and Pau Torres coming on and looking okay and Coutinho with another nice cameo, it might be time for him to start a game. 

The big negative is the Mings injury obviously, it doesn't look a good one and we'll miss his leadership and his quality as a centre half, he's developed into a player who should be starting for England and to be without him for months is a real blow.

Beyond that Kamara looks out of form, and I thought Tielemans looked poor - we know there are things that he's not strong in, in terms of his running and so on, but his passing was really poor today and that's what he's there for. McGinn couldn't quite get on top of it and Luiz often looked to be doing his best work in the wrong parts of the pitch. Midfield might need a bit of a think.

We might have had the penalty for the foul on Luiz by Joelinton, Luiz and Diego Carlos might both have done better with headers from corners, Watkins might have tucked away the first half chance in the aftermath of Mings injury - woulda, shoulda, coulda - you have to take advantage of the key moments in games and you have to avoid making mistakes.

Taking advantage of key moments and avoiding mistakes - that was the difference between the sides.

File it under one to forget and beat Everton.

 

Always sensible. If anyone knows how to fix it, it's Don Unai. Onwards and upwards. No shame in losing to a better team, even if we didn't get our slice of luck or the big calls.

[catanzaro]

Well.. now the entire football club knows what it has to deal with to make the impact they want this season.. 

leaders on the pitch have to come forward now.. 

I really trust Emery to deal with it in the right way

sh*t week.. the injuries are such a gut punch when you are a tight knit team.. 

let’s support them through the next games and see whether they can rise to the challenge 

I really think they will rise

[TomC]

9 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

So much went wrong today that it just might turn out to be season-defining. All the excitement drawn out of me. We'll be bottom half. Hoping for good cup runs. 

Sorry, but that's an overreaction. Maybe this is a reality check about CL ambitions, but one bad match does not mean a bottom half finish.

[KentVillan]

Think Bailey needs to be sold on that showing. Looks unfit, hasn’t learnt anything defensively, it’s been too long now.

Diaby class, great signing.

I trust Unai to work out what to do here, but a lot of things need sorting.

His system relies on midfielders who are disciplined, work hard and defend well. So losing Buendia and Ramsey really hasn’t helped on that front. It feels like we might actually be a man short in that area and need to bring someone else in.

Newcastle were very good.

[Villanbee]

Just a day when everything that went wrong did. Mings going off changes everything. Apart from everything else, we know how unorganised our defence is without him. Nevertheless, up until the Konsa error we were still in it.

The substitution of McGinn for Carlos just made things worse. Cash missed that chance and we fell apart.

2 players in a back 3, one of whom has barely played competitively for a year and the other making his Premier League debut, against Newcastle was always going to be a tough ask. We were like rabbits in headlights for the last 25 minutes.

[macandally]

2 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

You know, it is so predictable that someone is going to come along with the “bed wetting “ trope when people are reflecting on a truly shocking performance.

Is this supposed to be funny and clever?

It’s almost like blaming the fans for the rubbish we have just witnessed.

No, it’s just bed wetters venting.  Have at it, see what it solves.  

Fact is, pulling individuals up doesn’t do anything.  This team was exceptional last year and we have bought well, ser ot as what it is, an anomaly. 

If we are still making that level of mistakes in a few weeks time then worry,  but judging by Emery’s face, we won’t be!

[VillaParkAvenue]

6 minutes ago, JoshVilla said:

That's about the worst opening game of a season that I can remember. There's no doubt that the Mings injury completely rocked us, but it was concerning just how much of a shambles we looked today.

Konsa or Torres will have to seriously step up and show some leadership this season. Mings is a massive presence on the pitch and I do worry how our defence is going to look without his organisational skills.

The opening against Bournemouth last season was worse.

[TomC]

9 minutes ago, JB said:

That said, we missed at least two absolute sitters and those Newcastle players looked suspiciously energetic.

Can't blame the missed sitters. They had about 5.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

I am abstaining from voting...

Villa were unprepared, soft, naïve, second-best...

Typical Villa after promising so much.

Very disappointing.

[Ponky]

Absolutely destroyed by their pace. We didn't help ourselves and had some big moments to get back into the game but just shot ourselves in the foot. 

This is a real line in the sand moment for the players though. We were sloppy all over the pitch. Need to get over this very quickly.

[avfc1982am]

5 minutes ago, Digavilla said:

Our 3 best players ( Ramsey /Buendia & Ming )from last season is out so I can understand the poor showing. It’s how he solve this , that will be important ! 

Lol

[Xela]

Bad day at the office. When I say bad day, its like shitting yourself in a meeting and then crying. 

Next 2 league games are Everton and Burnley. Beat them and we're ok. 

[HKP90]

4 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

You know, it is so predictable that someone is going to come along with the “bed wetting “ trope when people are reflecting on a truly shocking performance.

Is this supposed to be funny and clever?

It’s almost like blaming the fans for the rubbish we have just witnessed.

It's almost like that wasn't the first time we conceded 5 in the last 3 and a half years.

[JPJCB]

Odd decisions from emery in the line up didn’t help. Putting Bailey in is pure idiocy at this stage- he’s shown absolutely nothing to warrant a starting spot during pre season. We shouldn’t kid ourselves: even when mings was on the pitch we were poor given we were missing an ability to link the play between midfield and attack which Buendia brings. The obvious alternative to bring in was coutinho who looked good in his cameo and could have done the Buendia role. That’s on Unai

I think we’re gonna have to get comfortable with having a slower start to this season given the sucker punch of the mings/Buendia injuries. That means the fans being patient these first few months. But it also means there should be an onus on the board to bring forward any signings planned for January into these next couple of weeks. Buendia, ramsey’s and moreno’s returns will feel like new signings when they happen but the squad urgently needs a boost right now.

The negatives (other than injuries obviously):

- Martinez needs to concentrate more and cut out his bullshit time wasting- it will cost us

- Torres looks off the pace still

- Cash basically hasn’t improved in 3 years playing for us. Still weak in one on ones and at playing the offside trap

- Kamara looks off the pace and might be worthy of being dropped for tielemans next week

- Watkins was poor overall and missed a key chance. When big players like mings are out you need others to step up and Watkins didn’t 

- the officials were awful. Their first goal should have been disallowed and we had a genuine penalty claim barely looked at. What’s more the Sky commentary team barely looked at the first goal offside issue. I won’t go as far as to say the officials are bought, but watch out for the lack of scrutiny Newcastle will be subject too through the season by the media given their god-given de facto top 6 status. I bet that MOTD will focus a load of time on the Martinez yellow card and spend no time on the offside for the first goal 
 

The positives:

- Luiz was brilliant- genuine defensive splitting passes at times which is an element of his game I hadn’t seen before 

- Diaby was also good and you can see what he adds to the side. He’s great both off and on the ball

- it’s controversial to say it but I thought konsa had a decent game overall despite his mistake

 

[est1874]

8 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

You know, it is so predictable that someone is going to come along with the “bed wetting “ trope when people are reflecting on a truly shocking performance.

Is this supposed to be funny and clever?

It’s almost like blaming the fans for the rubbish we have just witnessed.

Amen.

That's macandally's standard response to a defeat though, have a go at the disappointed fans on here.

[M_Afro]

Really tough day today. Everything went wrong for us and the momentum allowed them to run away with it in the end. Unai will sort it out though. People need to chill out.

[MackHaakon]

My first reaction is that I hate football. I hate the ridiculous tribalism, the theatrics and schadenfreude. I hate how you put your own well-being into something you have zero control over. It's completely irrational. It's all put on it's head when we win of course. Then I bask in it.

Newcastle were pumped up with lots of confidence and a great crowd. They got something brewing there, and you could see the synergy when fans get into it. We can do that too. But we panicked. We didn't trust our game when it din't click at once, at they smelled blood. We're good at slowing things down and controlling play with a slow tempo then shifting gears. When we couldn't slow it down we looked lost and out of ideas. Not terrible, just not ourselves.

However, the second half was just a complete horror show. If we play the high line with that kind of limp attitude we will be dismantled by every team in this league. They tried to physically do it, but the heads were gone. Pushing rope.

Credit to Newcastle here, they were on it. We will be better but I think we need to adjust our expectations a little in the short term. The injuries will cost us points, Mings is the kind of figure that increases confidence all around the team. He eats up attacks and the rest of the team can trust their instincts more. The high line need to be rethought and reengineered. 

Off to the beers.

 

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by MackHaakon