Ratings & Reactions: Legia Warszawa v Villa

[El Segundo]

Emery has to carry the can for that. Strategy should be to aim to win the first three group games with strongest team, then, when qualification is more or less secure, think about rotating.

At the very least, away from home first, play your strongest defence and DM, keep it tight, quieten the crowd then maybe look to go for the kill.  I'm afraid it smacked of underestimating Legia, or overestimating his squad players.  For someone of Emery's experience that's a bit unexpected.

Legia were pressing so hard I thought they would tire, but they didn't seem to.  And fair play to them they looked well up for it, worked hard, were sharp, fast and they took their chances.

Great atmosphere but wonder how much vodka was involved.  

[piav_k4]

Many fans have got us lifting this cup as if we haven’t been awful in Europe for 40 years. Hopefully a wake up call.

[sheepyvillian]

Just now, brummybloke said:

Got to say it, baileys softer than a 90 year old man whose been on whiskey all days Penis.

Another below poor performance and I can only hope was left on the pitch as he won't be featuring on Sunday.

Lenglet was very poor as was watkins who looked disinterested when he came on.

Duran and zaniolo being taken off and putting watkins and keeping Bailey on was a huge mistake, should have been Bailey and teilemens off for diaby and Ramsey so we at least kept the hard working players out there.

I know we have to rotate players but at least take the ineffective ones off.

Tbf, Zanilolo was badly tiring, hence the yellow card. He was okay, but not that effective, aside from making the first goal. Same with Duran, you expect Watkins to come on and perform a hell of a lot better than that.

[CVByrne]

Very poor and insulting to the fans his team selection today. 

[Talldarkandransome]

The players he started should have been good enough so I don't blame Emery.

[Rugeley Villa]

9 minutes ago, Lerner's Driver said:

Disagree, too much change and significantly weakened.

If that team can’t do a job against inferior players then we are in trouble . All we had to do was match them for work rate and quality wins it us.  Second half we were even worse with our better players . 

[OutByEaster?]

Nice to see Ramsey back.

 

[The_Steve]

Got it wrong today. Can’t be playing that high line with a defence lacking such pace. No urgency to fix the midfield issues either. Players shoulder the blame but a lesson for Don Unai. 

[CVByrne]

10 minutes ago, Xela said:

Stevenage last season?

This is definitely worse than the Stevenage performance 

Edited September 21, 2023 by CVByrne

[birdman]

Lessons learned all round. Unai has gathered much information tonight.

Players were far too soft and got bullied. Ref was crap and Bailey was getting kicked all over the place but where was our aggression? Credit to Legia, played the game like a cup final and we played like we could walk it into the net. Welcome to Europe Villa. Buck yer ******* ideas up!

Edited September 21, 2023 by birdman

[nick76]

18 minutes ago, NoelVilla said:

Embarrassing from everyone involved except Duran and Zaniolo.

Pretty much sums it up

[Rugeley Villa]

2 minutes ago, piav_k4 said:

Many fans have got us lifting this cup as if we haven’t been awful in Europe for 40 years. Hopefully a wake up call.

Don’t think we are good enough as a team to win this and compete in premier league 

[sheepyvillian]

Just now, El Segundo said:

Great atmosphere but wonder how much vodka was involved.  

About the same amount of larger at VP when it's lively. 

[avfc1982am]

Few things.....

• Chambers is absolutely woeful.
• McGinn, Kamara and Tielmans need to sort themselves out because currently unless DL plays we are crap in the middle.
• Watkins is a concern
• The sooner Moreno is fully matchfit the better.
• Cash, as infuriating as he can be needs to play. 
• Zaniolo and Duran looked great, although I think Nico needs to be more rightside cutting in. Especially now JJ is back

[WakefieldVillan]

Ratings:

Martinez 4 - Feel disappointed he let in the third.

Chambers 0 - Slow, sluggish, crap on the ball, partly to blame for all 3.

Digne 1 - Partly at fault for all 3 goals l, scored albeit a deflection, no heart.

Konsa 5 - Not surprisingly looked uncomfortable next to Calum.

Lenglet 5 - Nothing overly bad, but didn't inspire confidence.

Tielemans 3 - Another one sluggish, missed the sitter at the end, summed his game.

Kamara 3 - Like Youri, didn't influence the game at all, didn't want to do the dirty side. Midfield gaps all over.

McGinn 3 - when he doesn't play well. We don't,  it seems. Looked lethargic. No passion at all.

Bailey 3 - probably should've been a red for his opponent, couple of dribbles, goes missing.

Zaniolo 6.5 - decent first half, good shot, decent work rate. Tired quickly.

Duran 7 - took his goal well, unlucky with another chance, had a bit of presence.

Emery - 0 - ultimately blame lies with him, poor starting line up, odd subs - players coming off, not the ones going on.

Crap. 

[RicRic]

Firstly Emery had every right to trust in the starting line up to get the points tonight and secondly we have a match on sunday against on paper a good Chelsea side, maybe its the fancy name of Zaniolo or that he is a new signing but other than that great strike which led to the goal Zaniolo has offered us nothing. 

Kamara and tielemans very lethargic…. Our defence was absolutely atrocious Lenglet and Konsa provided no leadership… Mings is so commanding and was so integral to our back line… chambers very average and digne dozed off so many times… only player i can say played okay was Duran….
 

Ramsey looks somewhat sharp in his cameo… very disappointing night which puts a heap of pressure on us in the next games. I want a big response on Sunday and think we should have been sharper in the transfer window in the forward department and maybe bringing in better quality than Lenglet and Zaniolo 

Edited September 21, 2023 by RicRic

[Khizzy]

I hate to say this but our squad might not be strong enough to compete in this competition if today was anything to go by. No issues with our strongest XI and a few more but there are maybe 5 or 6 passengers who aren't good enough. Imagine if we had played Olsen tonight.... 

[avfc1982am]

Zaniolo right and Ramsey left could be the answer in the advanced midfield slots. 

[El Segundo]

Just now, sheepyvillian said:

About the same amount of larger at VP when it's lively. 

Can they drink pitch side there though?

[villan95]

Disappointing but still 5 group matches to put things right. The rotation didn't work tonight but will probably prove important over the course of the season.