Ratings & Reactions: Legia Warszawa v Villa

[alreadyexists]

Just now, Louis said:

Thanks for that. About right, I don’t like this seasons shirt at all.

No nor me, the white one is the best of the three but it isn’t great. The home one looks ok without the sponsor, but it’s still the worst shirt we’ve had for a while

[markavfc40]

We were poor and played as if we thought we could just rock up, go through the motions and win. Hopefully it will be a huge kick up the arse and we won't be so complacent going forward.

For what it is worth I still think we'll win the group, which is the bottom line that matters.

[MrBlack]

Feel like we learnt nothing from the Stevenage game there.

You can't rotate that many players and expect to maintain any semblance of shape or form.

Chambers and Lenglet chucked into a back 4 that's never played together...can't really do that and expect to keep it tight at the back.

An out of form Kamara given Teilemans as his partner in the middle is going to expose that untried defence even more.

You can bring in Digne for Moreno.

Chambers OR Lenglet in for Pau

Tielemans in for the out of form midfielder, but not the linchpin that's held us together this season.

Zaniolo and Duran for Diaby and Waktins is then fine if you haven't completely shafted the rest of the team.

But we tried to play it too cautious with ssving our fitness, and under estimated them. Something I didn't think would happen for an Emery team.

Maybe easy to say in hindsight, but I had those concerns looking at the starting lineup and they proved correct. Long way to go... let's hope the league form and morale doesn't suffer as a result. 

Edited September 21, 2023 by MrBlack

[It's Your Round]

7 minutes ago, Louis said:

How come we didn’t show our shirt sponsor?

It was on to begin with but it melted off with sweat after 41 seconds. 

[striker]

If you are going to play a weakened back line then you must make sure it gets plenty of protection particularly away against the direct competitor in the group stage.

Unfortunately Villa’s midfield was non existent as a defensive force. Tielemans and McGinn are not defensive midfielders. Kamara’s form has dropped off significantly since he first arrived at the club and needs to be benched.

Chambers isn’t a RB and got the run around while the central defensive partnership of Konsa and Lenglet were weak positionally and physically.

I actually felt a bit sorry for Chambers as he is a CB all day who can fill in as a DM. Played in either position tonight would have given Villa a more stable physical edge. That was down to selection!

Positives were few but I liked Zaniolo and Duran who have more than a bit about them to maybe push for a Premiership start.

Other than that it was a rank poor performance from a team who thought just turning up would be enough to win the game. 

[Louis]

2 minutes ago, alreadyexists said:

No nor me, the white one is the best of the three but it isn’t great. The home one looks ok without the sponsor, but it’s still the worst shirt we’ve had for a while

That’s what I mean - I was meant to say without the sponsor it looks ok but the having the sponsor on it looks worse.

[Louis]

Just now, It's Your Round said:

It was on to begin with but it melted off with sweat after 41 seconds. 

That’s why I asked again on behalf of everyone else

[markc]

10 minutes ago, Zero7 said:

We were better in attack before the subs came on, wtf 

I agree our attack was looking dangerous, 2 goals and a good shout for a penalty on Duran. The problems were at the back. So the first lot of subs I was expecting the changes in defence and luiz in midfield, not upfront.

[JoshVilla]

Well, that was a bit shit.

We were absolutely shocking, almost to a man. It's a tough one really. In hindsight, maybe it would've been best to go with a full strength starting XI that have had chance to settle already this season, and then make the changes if we have the game in the bag. In fairness though, most of us thought that our starting XI was good enough to win this, on paper. It does show that you simply can't underestimate anyone in this competition, especially away from home. 

There's plenty more games to play, and I'm sure we'll be okay in terms of getting out of the group, but it was slightly concerning how a number of players just looked like they couldn't be arsed tonight. Hopefully it'll give us a much needed kick up the arse.

[picicata]

1 minute ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I’m backing Emery on the rotation. We have 5 more games with 3 at home to get it right. 
 

I really want us to beat Chelsea more then I wanted us to win this and half the team playing less minutes gives us a much better chance of doing this. 

I'm having horrible flashbacks to the MON era when he did something similar. We lost in Europe and then got dicked in the league.

I still think we'll qualify through the group stages as I don't think Unai will make as many changes for the next game

[WakefieldVillan]

9 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Maybe but our starting XI should’ve been too strong for them.  There was no kids in there and many strong European veterans like Chambers, Tielemans and Lenglet as well as current internationals like Digne.  It’s not a weak team.  They should’ve had more than enough to win.

Should've been, but wasn't.

The problem was playing too many of those players. 

If you put just Chambers into our best eleven, you can probably just about get away with it. 

When you put Lenglet (not played a game for us) and Tielemans (rusty) also in, it starts to show. 

Especially when we're trying to play out from the back.

You then have Zaniolo (who did ok btw) as a new player settling in, and Bailey who literally never plays well away from VP it just adds to the problem.

Start strong and change after 45/60 minutes, we've now lost the game and not really saved anything from it cos we've still used our so called better players for 30 mins anyway ?! 

I'd rather of won our first 3 grouo games then completely rested the players! 

[Tom13]

Great nights being had all round, love to see it.

[tomav84]

4 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Tielemans in for the out of form midfielder, but not the linchpin that's held us together this season. 

This was the biggest error for me. Luiz is quickly becoming out most important player and we were lost without him

[WakefieldVillan]

6 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Feel like we learnt nothing from the Stevenage game there.

You can't rotate that many players and expect to maintain any semblance of shape or form.

Chambers and Lenglet chucked into a back 4 that's never played together...can't really do that and expect to keep it tight at the back.

An out of form Kamara given Teilemans as his partner in the middle is going to expose that untried defence even more.

You can bring in Digne for Kamara.

Chambers OR Lenglet in for Pau

Tielemans in for the out of form midfielder, but not the linchpin that's held us together this season.

Zaniolo and Duran for Diaby and Waktins is then fine if you haven't completely shafted the rest of the team.

But we tried to play it too cautious with ssving our fitness, and under estimated them. Something I didn't think would happen for an Emery team.

Maybe easy to say in hindsight, but I had those concerns looking at the starting lineup and they proved correct. Long way to go... let's hope the league form and morale doesn't suffer as a result. 

[Risso]

If you don't win the group it's an extra couple of games isn't it?

[OutByEaster?]

14 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

I agree. I think McGinn though has been very average so far, Leon better but JJ and Zaniolo give us more drive and composure in the final third imo. I'd just like to see Zaniolo off the right(inverted) with more space to run into. I wouldn't drop Diaby. 

I think if we assume McGinn will play, it'll be Zaniolo, Diaby and Watkins - I guess you could put Diaby up top and bring Ramsey in, but I think for the moment he'll be coming off the bench - good problems to have.

If we could stop conceding three times every time we leave Villa Park it would help a great deal.

 

[Rightdm00]

Honestly think Unai tried a couple different things and they just didn't come off.

Chambers at RB

Konsa as your leading CB

Tielemans in a 2 man MF

Live and you learn.  UTV! 

[tinker]

Anyone got any spare rope? 

[avfc1982am]

1 minute ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think if we assume McGinn will play, it'll be Zaniolo, Diaby and Watkins - I guess you could put Diaby up top and bring Ramsey in, but I think for the moment he'll be coming off the bench - good problems to have.

If we could stop conceding three times every time we leave Villa Park it would help a great deal.

 

I think it's telling how Unai has taken off McGinn the last couple of games. Like he's telling him to sort himself out, similar to last season. He does start though but I wouldn't put it past Unai to drop him.

The defence does need to settle more importantly though. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

A thought ( Yes we were shite )

But i wonder if these teams will monumentally raise their game against us as " underdogs ".

Guaranteed all these teams see a PL scalp as the ultimate" F*ck you "  to the " system ".

On the flip side, some PL teams think they can just turn up and get results as they are " Premier League " etc.

Bring the two together and you're in for a long evening.

Effort needs to be put in.