Ratings & Reactions: UECL: Villa v Zrinjski Mostar

[rbcuk]

Squad depth we just haven’t got, the players that come in should be doing so much better but dendoncker and tielemans when they play are bloody awful, made hard work of tonight 

[MWARLEY2]

Emery is man enough to live and die by his decisions. This man has coached midweek for 16 years in a row. He knows the effect playing your strongest team all the time has on a season. 

Its a balance he is trying to find. Thats on him as the coach and he is showing his balls by trying to do so. We won. His calculated risk came off and we are now still level with the other teams in the group with 4 to play  . 

Diaby Kamara Moreno and Ramsey are out still. When they come back in things will get far better in terms of team strength 

[Django_Zooms]

How is Emery so astute & wise, whereas no Villa manager ever has been, except to some extent Saunders & Taylor?

[Jas10]

 

[markavfc40]

We were way too slow and ponderous in the first half too often taking 4 or 5 touches before releasing the ball which meant we too often found ourselves going sideways and backwards. Second half we played the ball much quicker and therefore pulled them out of shape more which enabled us to make runs in behind them especially down our right side. On another day that second half could have seen us score 3 or 4. No better feeling than a late winner though. 

[Rugeley Villa]

Credit to the opposition, they were a tough nut to crack like some of these unknown foreign teams are. They up their game for obvious reasons and sometimes we don’t take them serious enough. They have a fair chance of qualifying so good luck to them. 

[TheStagMan]

4 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said:

 Diaby Kamara Moreno and Ramsey are out still. When they come back in things will get far better in terms of team strength 

And longer term Mings and Buendia.

Even when we brought on the "first team" for the second half, we were still down six first team players.

[Sulberto21]

Finally our results look like WW instead of WLWLWL…. 

[The_Rev]

Just got in. Absolute limbs at full time.  Not entirely sure what to make of the game, the second half was like the Alamo, I felt that a goal was always coming I just didn't think it would be as late as that!   I was impressed with Zrinjski, they came with a plan and by god did they stick to it.  Not sure who their centre halves were, but the number 15 had Duran in his pocket and I can see why he got hooked.  I was impressed with the subs, I think Emery felt that the game would be played closer to the centre circle than it ended up being and when it was clear they were going to have 8 men behind the ball and try to hit on the break then the substitutions all made sense. He seemed to adjust midway through the first half after they broke the high line and forced Emi into a good save as they didn't really get in behind Bailey again and perhaps that adjustment slowed Unai's read on the game down a bit.  We needed the win, we deserved it based on how we played.  I think if we'd scored earlier it would have been a relatively comfortable evening but it was worth waiting for the late goal just to hear the Holte roof come off. 
 

 

Edited October 6, 2023 by The_Rev

[jim]

1 hour ago, mole86 said:

Tielemans was still awful second half, weird that you’re trying to take a negative slant against Emery. We were always going to rotate

Not really, Emery even said he tried something different tactically and it didn’t work in his post match interview.

Edited October 5, 2023 by jim

[Talldarkandransome]

Oh, and Zaniolo will score a screamer very very soon 

[Marka Ragnos]

How about Villa's character today? You gotta give them that. Lots of digs at Tielemans, but he and the rest of the lads kept trying. The whole squad never gave up even when it looked like a certain draw, and in fact, one of the Tieleman's passes -- for all his clumsy moves and almosts -- started the cycle of actions that led to McGinn's goal. That's how champions play. 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Marka Ragnos

[OutByEaster?]

Fair play to ZM, they were organised, resolute and gave it everything, fair and foul to try to keep a clean sheet. By heck* we deserved that though, it's been a long time since I've seen us lay siege to a goal like that - I reckon the whole of the last thirty minutes was just us hammering away at their door - blocks, saves, tackles, nothing looked like going in.

Some men though are born to do heroic things, it's just in them, they can't help it, it doesn't matter if they're small, Scottish and a funny shape, it's just how they're made - McGinn is him. He's just got some strange fire in him that does peculiarly heroic things - like chase a defender to exhaustion, hold off a school bus with his backside, or drift off a marker into just the right space and nudge a header past that brick wall of a keeper ZM had.

A goal we richly deserved, and a hell of a noise to go with it.

i thought we confirmed that we have a couple of big problems and a couple of small ones too - and we're going to need to find solutions to them if we're going to have a good season.

The two big ones - firstly, we can't control games without Doug - he lets us have the ball in dangerous areas and stop and think, he covers, he makes good decisions, he's always available for the ball, he can do things with it, make assists, score goals and take a damned good corner - we don't have anyone else like him and we are going to have to find a way to play when he's not available. Secondly, and this one shouldn't really be a surprise - we've only got one right back - that's a really bad thing in a team that might play sixty or more games this season. 

On the small ones, as much fun as Jhon Duran is, and as much potential as he has, he's still a bit raw, we'll need to be patient as we watch him develop, Tielemans had his best game for us today, and he was poor, if we can't get a tune out of him then we're in a pickle. Dendoncker is in exactly the wrong spot - he's at his best when you're up against sides that are better than you, when he's in that situation his positioning is excellent, he covers space, he's strong and he can nip a ball away, but we don't need him in those games, we need him in games like this, when we're trying to break teams down. That's not him, he'd struggle to open up a tube of Pringles - and I'm not sure where that leaves him.

Positives were the players that came on, Lenglet who I thought was very good throughout, Konsa and Martinez who just stink of class and a good run out for Diego Carlos, Bailey was by turns exciting and frustrating and poor old Zaniolo hits every ball that comes anywhere near him as sweet as a nut, on target, at pace and watches as each and every one is miraculously blocked, saved or diverted - it can't be long before his luck changes.

We're not going to be able to play this whole season with twelve or thirteen players - we're going to need a lot of the players that we saw tonight (and the likes of Moreno and Ramsey) to get through what will (hopefully) be a gruelling challenge. 

The second half siege with all the heavyweights on board was great, but we're going to need to find a way to win with some of the lightweights too - over to you Unai.

Oh and I can only hope that the Mostar players are all okay, it's always really concerning to see so many serious head injuries in a single game. Thoughts and prayers.

*Not Chris.

 

[Jas10]

 

[Jas10]

 

[Jas10]

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Jas10

[Marka Ragnos]

1 hour ago, tinker said:

Youri wasn't bad, infact his passing was very sharp. The problem was a lack of urgency on the ball, we needed to move it quicker all over the pitch, especially in the final 3rd. Cash made a huge difference, Zaniolo started sharp but faded. Martinez save was great bit the player that shot was a yard offside in the build-up. 

I agree with most of what you say, but maybe not this if I understand you correctly. Simple confusion about the set up and lack of experience with that set up can sometimes looks an awful lot like lack of effort. Tielemans is a professional. He wants to do well, but he's more of thinker and clinical pivot-man passer than a sprinter, and you could see a big gap in front of him continually that looked .. strange. Something wasn't quite making sense about today's set-up. I have no doubt Emery will work out what happened.

Edited October 5, 2023 by Marka Ragnos

[spiezels]

Worth the drive up and back from London that’s for damn sure.

Buzzing. 
 

[Jas10]

I’ll admit… I didn’t see it… but John has really grown into his role as captain since Unai arrived and is embodying pretty much everything that should entail…

So fitting for that role now  

[Pongo Waring]

8 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

I’ll admit… I didn’t see it… but John has really grown into his role as captain since Unai arrived and is embodying pretty much everything that should entail…

So fitting for that role now  

Same I'm amazed how good he's been. 

We win the conference league and John McGinn goes down as a villa legend. More so than Jack Grealish