Ratings & Reactions: Legia Warszawa v Villa

[Zatman]

10 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

Even after calming down (a bit) I'm still really annoyed by the selection. The logical partnership at CB for this game would have been Konsa and Carlos, but since the latter is out and Torres and Lenglet are somewhat interchangeable (both better at distribution and creating pressure from deep in a game where we have the majority of possession, not so much a game like tonight) it made some sense to give Lenglet his debut. But if you're going to do that you can't also bring Chambers in, it's too many changes. And isn't it kind of weird we didn't start Cash after he'd been getting the big media build up all week?

In central midfield, another selection headache, with Kamara and Tielemans both looking way out of form at this stage of the season. Not a good combo right now! 

For all the talk of how we have to rotate the squad, we've now placed ourselves in a hole where we'll have to play basically our strongest side for the rest of the group stage anyway. 

Konsa shifting to right back and Torres next to Lenglet I think would have been better

Somebody said Luiz was carrying a knock but not sure how true that is

[Sulberto21]

Nothing to worry about. 100th win in Europe at Villa Park. 

[MaVilla]

10 hours ago, Spoony said:

I’m baffled as to how this is being pinned on Emery. Legia Warsaw are not good at all they just aren’t. The players clearly didn’t give a ****. Emery clearly did. We have an attitude problem with some of our players it seems. Yes it’s Emery’s job to beat that out of them but there’s only so much he can do.

The pundits on the awful TNT did spot this to their credit. Think it was Joe Cole who said they were lazy. That’s all there is to it really. Arrogance. Laziness. We’ve been seriously let down by players who are perfectly good enough to destroy Legia. 

i could be wrong, but this match had a Stevenage feel about it, in the sense that some of our players had the Barry Big Balls feeling going in to the match (ie: im elite, i can just coast against this dross), and they got bitten.......again.

That starting 11 was by far good enough to get a result, but no game is won on paper, you have to work and fight for it, and the Barry Big Balls didnt want to apply themselves as they thought....."eh, its some Polish minnows, i can strut around and walk this game".

No.....no you wont.

[Ponky]

All three of their goals went end to end without any Villa player getting near it.

Yes the defence was horrid but this was a whole of team failure.

[Tom13]

Where on earth can I watch the highlights?

[JoshVilla]

It really looked to me like the players thought it was going to be easy. It's disappointing, as I'm sure Unai with all of his European pedigree would have emphasised the fact that it doesn't matter if you're the stronger team in a stronger league, which is the case with any cup competition.

The first thing that you need to do in these games is match their intensity. You know that they're going to be physical and try to move the ball quickly to make up for the difference in quality. We didn't match them at all on that front. This competition isn't going to be a cakewalk by any stretch, and hopefully this game will have shown us that so we can get it right for the next 5 group games and hopefully beyond. 

[rjw63]

13 hours ago, troon_villan said:

Must be a visiting Warsaw fan

[Frodo]

Think Emery will learn alot from this & he will put it right. I thought he would go stronger if been honest, having your 5th & 6th choice centre back in your back 4 away from home in Europe it was going to be a tough ask to get anything from the game. 3 big chances at the end also so atleast snatch a point but that's football we learn & move on to Sunday at Chelsea, still fully expected us to come through the ground in Europe, win all our home games & 1 away win should be enough to top the group

[BOF]

I get the high risk playing out from the back. We all do. Problem is if you play high risk with high risk players then you're a sitting duck. Then those players compound it with bad defending in general.  Chambers invoked the spirit of Habib Beye last night. He allowed the cross for the first and was 10 yards off the runner for the second. He was MOTM for them in the 1st half. He wasn't the only bad player, but had he not been on the pitch, we wouldn't have lost that game, and Cash probably would have done other things further forward. He was our single point of failure last night. Shocking.

[Stevo71]

Hopefully that's out European Stevenage out the way. I was delighted when we "only" qualified for the Conference - figured we'd have a decent shot at this comp, be out of our depth in the Europa and absolutely ruined in the CL (I mean, imagine). Seems we're actually further behind in our rehab than I'd hoped. On the plus side, many lessons learned there.

[El Segundo]

The Brighton result is relevant as context.  For teams inexperienced in Europe it shows that European games are a different ball-game and adaptation is needed, even for very good teams with very good coaches.  There aren't many "easy" games especially away from home where teams will raise their games against more illustrious opponents, crowds will be loud and hostile,  and journeys may be tiring.  After the Euro ban in the 80s it took English teams years to get back up to speed in the 90s and be able to regularly challenge.   If you are not bang on it, show any complacency, or think you can cruise past teams from lesser leagues, this is a reminder that you'll be punished. You could arguably say the same for the AZ result, albeit they are experienced in European competition.   That said you'd have expected experienced coaches like De Zerbi and Emery to prepare their teams accordingly.    

[VILLAMARV]

Credit Legia's press, and their performance. The best team on the night won. The only consolation is in olden times we'd be looking at the two away goals and thinking we'd given ourselves a chance.

Not impressed with the line-up but then the man in charge isn't scarred by Helsingborg or Trabzonspor or Moscow or Varteks or Austria Vienna or Deportivo.

Chambers got found out last night

[HanoiVillan]

1 hour ago, Tom13 said:

Where on earth can I watch the highlights?

Why on Earth would you want to?

[BOF]

One of the few positives from last night was that our presumed closest rivals in the group were busy throwing away a THREE goal lead in Mostar, so they didn't get the jump on us.  It's now effectively the 2 top seeds chasing down Legia Warsaw.

[HKP90]

1 hour ago, BOF said:

I get the high risk playing out from the back. We all do. Problem is if you play high risk with high risk players then you're a sitting duck. Then those players compound it with bad defending in general.  Chambers invoked the spirit of Habib Beye last night. He allowed the cross for the first and was 10 yards off the runner for the second. He was MOTM for them in the 1st half. He wasn't the only bad player, but had he not been on the pitch, we wouldn't have lost that game, and Cash probably would have done other things further forward. He was our single point of failure last night. Shocking.

100%

And, had we not conceded the third, we'd have scored again. Right or wrong, our heads dropped after their 3rd, and we stopped being so potent. Zani and Duran were opening them up at will in the first half. I definitely think it was a loss due to mentality rather than almost anything else.

[onmeedson]

Still trying to work out the logic of playing a defence with no pace and using the tactic of a high line to compound their weakness. Was it three minute's to show the flaw in the system and 90+ to  confirm that quick forwards had it beat all day. You have to have the players to play this system and being able to beat your granny in a foot race is part of the make up involved.

[avfc1982am]

I'm just of the opinion that whilst Mings is out and Torres is trying to settle, add in the fact we've looked defensively frail, we shouldn't be tinkering with the defence for a while. At least until we find some defensive form of sorts. It's early in the season, players are not over stretched at the moment so we need to settle the side down before going heavy on rotation imo. 

[Herman22]

I still can’t get my head around how poor Chambers was last night. Stands 5 yards off and lets the cross come on for the first. Running in treacle for the second and stands off for the third and doesn’t get the block. 

He wasn’t the only one who was poor but he was directly involved for all goals conceded. 

We need to be lining up a Moreno type right back for the January window now! 

[striker]

4 hours ago, Pinebro said:

We were resting players for Chelsea.

The league is clearly a priority for both the owners and Emery.

If we can get off to a good run in the league and are in a good position to finish 5th I'd be more than happy to ditch conference.

The best conference can give us is if we win it is Europa league.

Not too sure about that.

Emery made it very clear in pre-season that Villa would place more focus on the cup competitions to try and win a trophy! The squad was strengthened to do exactly that to be able to rotate without a drop in quality with a manager who has an exemplary record in Europe.

 

[striker]

1 minute ago, Herman22 said:

I still can’t get my head around how poor Chambers was last night. Stands 5 yards off and lets the cross come on for the first. Running in treacle for the second and stands off for the third and doesn’t get the block. 

He wasn’t the only one who was poor but he was directly involved for all goals conceded. 

We need to be lining up a Moreno type right back for the January window now! 

Should have signed one in the summer.