Ratings & Reactions: Villa v AZ Alkmaar

[Rugeley Villa]

21 minutes ago, Ponky said:

Has there been an explanation of why Lenglet's goal was ruled out?

Our player who played the ball in was offside wasn’t he? 

[CVByrne]

8 hours ago, ender4 said:

That’s nonsense. We are in second place. Only the top place directly goes through to the next round. 

We essentially have to beat Legia to qualify.  It’s a knockout game to the death.

2nd place qualifies from the group and plays at home 1 leg against 3rd place from EL

It's still qualification from the group unless you don't understand English

[The_Rev]

1 hour ago, Ponky said:

Has there been an explanation of why Lenglet's goal was ruled out?

Watkins said it should have counted in his post game interview.  
 

 

The offside should have reset after they cleared it off the line.  I was right by the players tunnel tonight and caught McPhee grilling the 4th official at full time so I’m guessing that’s what they were trying to clarify. 

 

I think it’s a much easier night if we score first, they’d have to come out of their shell and we’d have cantered to victory.  In some ways I’m glad it panned out how it did because we were given a test tonight and we are going to see a lot more opposition sides coming to Villa Park and do the same and we’ve got to learn how to deal with it.  

Edited November 10, 2023 by The_Rev

[Louis]

I thought we did play well in the end and a good win to stay 2nd in Group E.

What was the reason behind the security restrictions down Witton Lane? Does anyone know?

[alreadyexists]

 

Literally what is the point of VAR as it seems to be causing more errors than it’s correcting… it’s genuinely baffling!? The system before with on field refs wasn’t perfect but it certainly felt like there were less huge errors than there are now.

 

 

 

[Mic09]

I thought AZ were weak. 

Villa was also a bit toothless, but the quality of our team was better.

Diaby and Bailey need to be held to higher standards, they are better than they have performed over the last few weeks. 

If anything happens to Dougie, we are in trouble. 

[The_Rev]

13 minutes ago, Louis said:

What was the reason behind the security restrictions down Witton Lane? Does anyone know?

I didn’t see it at full time but I’d put money on it just being a cordon which would mean Villa fans in the Doug Ellis or Holte heading towards Witton station would have to go via Trinity Road even if it meant going all the way round the outside of Villa Park.  Same thing tends to happen when we play the Blues.  
 

AZ Fans were fine of course. I know the Dutch have a bit of a reputation but the whole thing seems to be a dress rehearsal for the Legia Warsaw game where the police have genuine concerns.  

[S-Platt]

26 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

I didn’t see it at full time but I’d put money on it just being a cordon which would mean Villa fans in the Doug Ellis or Holte heading towards Witton station would have to go via Trinity Road even if it meant going all the way round the outside of Villa Park.  Same thing tends to happen when we play the Blues.  
 

AZ Fans were fine of course. I know the Dutch have a bit of a reputation but the whole thing seems to be a dress rehearsal for the Legia Warsaw game where the police have genuine concerns.  

The gates were shut from North Stand Car Park onto Witton Lane.

Why they did not just say those gates were shut so no access I have no idea.  As you had people from Trinity and The Holte walking to their cars that way to find it shut.

Restrictions are fine just define it not make it guess work.

[Louis]

28 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

I didn’t see it at full time but I’d put money on it just being a cordon which would mean Villa fans in the Doug Ellis or Holte heading towards Witton station would have to go via Trinity Road even if it meant going all the way round the outside of Villa Park.  Same thing tends to happen when we play the Blues.  
 

AZ Fans were fine of course. I know the Dutch have a bit of a reputation but the whole thing seems to be a dress rehearsal for the Legia Warsaw game where the police have genuine concerns.  

Ahh OK thanks for that.

[turvontour]

A really important late turn around last night. Not just for the context of our conference league group but we had had a pretty poor couple of games output wise before  Carlos nodded in. Thankfully the ref awarded us that corner that shouldn't have been. Up until then the last 4 goals scored in our games had been from Alkmaar, Forest (2) and Luton. This should now give us confidence going into Fulham.

[Wainy316]

52 minutes ago, Mic09 said:

I thought AZ were weak. 

Villa was also a bit toothless, but the quality of our team was better.

Diaby and Bailey need to be held to higher standards, they are better than they have performed over the last few weeks. 

If anything happens to Dougie, we are in trouble. 

They're just not suited against teams that sit in, especially Bailey.

That was a Buendia game if ever there was one.

[Louis]

26 minutes ago, S-Platt said:

The gates were shut from North Stand Car Park onto Witton Lane.

Why they did not just say those gates were shut so no access I have no idea.  As you had people from Trinity and The Holte walking to their cars that way to find it shut.

Restrictions are fine just define it not make it guess work.

No wonder why everyone was suddenly crammed in walking past the club shop where the burger vans were. We were all waddling like penguins!

[Mic09]

1 hour ago, S-Platt said:

The gates were shut from North Stand Car Park onto Witton Lane.

Why they did not just say those gates were shut so no access I have no idea.  As you had people from Trinity and The Holte walking to their cars that way to find it shut.

Restrictions are fine just define it not make it guess work.

To be fair they did say there were going to be restrictions. 

That immediately has to mean "anywhere that away fans will be getting out will be shut". 

My mate (first game at VP) was due to go past there and I just told him - go around the stands to access in that area.

While it could have been made clearer (100% agreement there) it was pretty obvious to any regular VP visitor what was going to happen. 

[KevinRichardsonsMoustache]

1 hour ago, alreadyexists said:

 

Literally what is the point of VAR as it seems to be causing more errors than it’s correcting… it’s genuinely baffling!? The system before with on field refs wasn’t perfect but it certainly felt like there were less huge errors than there are now.

 

 

 

I love the high tech solution to the problem is a simple apology. 'Yeh, come here you little scamp. We'll get it right next time'. 

The implementation of VAR has ended up exposing the referees more than protecting them. I remember listening to the first ever episode of the 'Against the Rules with Michael Lewis' podcast about the impact of the 'Video Center' in the NBA. The system was meant to protect referees, but it ended up giving them less legitimacy as players were on their backs more often (and being disciplined for it). Unfortunately, I think Lewis fell into the trap of assuming that objectivity was possible or that the video replays held some higher standard of quality.

VAR is showing the fallacy of the constant rule changes, especially pertaining to offside, in the game. When asked to 'objectively' decide on something using VAR, people don't know the rules. Fans are confused so they get angry; referees get frustrated because they're either being overruled or are struggling to describe why decisions are being made. It's like society writ small atm: you have no hope of entering into a dialogue if we can't agree on the rules.  

 

 

[TRO]

A night of headers....good to see the weaponry come to the rescue.

[TRO]

4 hours ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Our player who played the ball in was offside wasn’t he? 

I don't think I understand what offside is anymore.....I don't think I understand why a push in the back, with hands, is not a foul...for them to say it was soft, is a cop out....I say don't raise your hands and the debate about the pressure applied, won't be raised.

The game has drifted in to too many opinions.....and it plays in to the hands of bias......its now hard to seperate bias from Incompetence.

Its getting to the stage, where, even the participants Manager/Players, don't know the rules, the pundits are certainly hit and miss......we are in danger of disappearing up our own wotsit.

They should apply K.I.S.S.

Edited November 10, 2023 by TRO

[Dodgyknees]

Just seen the disallowed goal. Baffled.

[ender4]

29 minutes ago, TRO said:

 

They should apply K.I.S.S.

What is this?

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, ender4 said:

What is this?

keep it simple, stupid.

[AvonVillain]

3 hours ago, alreadyexists said:

Literally what is the point of VAR as it seems to be causing more errors than it’s correcting… it’s genuinely baffling!? The system before with on field refs wasn’t perfect but it certainly felt like there were less huge errors than there are now.

They were acceptable, human errors made visually in the moment. VAR has not only sucked the joy from fans watching their team score, but makes errors in a different, less acceptable or even understandable way.