Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Fulham

[Jas10]

 

[Adam2003]

27 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

We probably could have won that 4 or 5, give the fans something to cheer about, instead, we just strolled about.

I value your opinion but on balance I probably trust the guy with 16 years of experience juggling league vs Europe to know what intensity to go for once we have three goals in a game.

[smg]

27 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Im not moaning, just very quiet in the ground today, possibly for the reason stated. We certainly don't wanna become like the Man City fans.

Villa Park is regularly quiet. The crowd is reactive not proactive, does little to get the team going during a game only responds briefly when we score. Not good for the players particularly in tight games. Twelfth man my a**e.

Edited November 12, 2023 by smg
Remove word

[Adam2003]

14 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Job done, shame we can't keep clean sheets. Results this weekend in our favour too as long as Chelsea don't win.

Surely we want a Chelsea win for our title push?

[foreveryoung]

Just now, Adam2003 said:

I value your opinion but on balance I probably trust the guy with 16 years of experience juggling league vs Europe to know what intensity to go for once we have three goals in a game.

To be fair, Emery didn't look happy on the touch line with the lack of intensity in the second half.

[Jas10]

 

[Annoyman]

Not that dissimilar a dynamic to West Ham, except that West Ham's spell of 2nd half dominance was off the back of a complete fluke deflection, and Villa's outrageously clinical finishing to kill the game off was replaced by a funny bad header from Watkins.

Fulham were actually good in the 2nd half in all fairness, and played in a way that they probably wouldn't have risked in the first half because we've typically blown so many teams away by half time. As usual with our high line recently, the amount of dangerous looking attacks Fulham had that were obviously offside changed the perception a bit and ramped up the tension artificially, and they also had a lot of yellows for shutting down Villa counterattacks that could have been dangerous. In the end 4-1 would probably have been harsh on them, but Villa's MO at home this season has pretty much been "very harsh on the opposition"

I thought after the ref pissed everyone off with some pedantic stuff in the first ten minutes, he was actually alright and managed the game in a fairly balanced way and got the totting up of the yellows right - Watkins was a little unlucky to skid on the surface and go in harder on Bassey's ankle than he probably meant to but it's one of them. Maybe Palhinha could have been booked sooner given how extremely inevitably he was racking up those fouls. We were also maaaaybe a little lucky that Konsa's high footed clearance that cleared out their player didn't happen two yards closer to goal. as there's no way they wouldn't have done a five minute VAR check on that for the hell of it. Konsa has also somewhat cynically learned to take timewasting yellow's off Emi's hands by feigning confusion over which of them is planning to take a free kick

Lot of good performances noted but shout out Martinez, after chucking one in last week he was calm, stopped everything he needed to and played out from the back very calmly. I like how he can sometimes judge that their press is too effective and that passing it to Torres or Digne's going to crank up the nerves too much, and just go long as a judgment call instead. Poor bloke might get to keep a clean sheet and be able to sleep at night sometime soon (who am I kidding, he'd just be shirtless screaming YAAAAS in the mirror all night instead of watching replays of their goals fuming)

It's easy to say if we'd done XYZ we'd be top, but that's true of a lot of teams around us, and honestly after where we finished last season and given the injuries we've had and the opening day disappointment, I think we're about where we deserve to be and I'd definitely have taken it. I just hope with some players hopefully coming back (and maybe Diaby and even Zaniolo following Tielemans example and staking a bit more of a claim) we can squeeze some points out of the really tough games we have coming up to keep it alive.

 

 

 

[Jas10]

 

[Jas10]

[TomC]

2 minutes ago, Annoyman said:

As usual with our high line recently, the amount of dangerous looking attacks Fulham had that were obviously offside changed the perception a bit and ramped up the tension artificially, and they also had a lot of yellows for shutting down Villa counterattacks that could have been dangerous.

I understand why they wait to put the flag up on a close offside, but at least three times today, Fulham had a player very obviously (2+ yards) offside and we still had to play on. It has gotten ridiculous. The stress it creates on the defenders can't help. It was refreshing to see the linesmen flag the obvious ones immediately against AZ on Thursday, so I think this may be a PL problem.

 

 

[Jas10]

 

[Brumstopdogs]

 

[Jas10]

 

[Jas10]

 

[Jas10]

 

[Jas10]

 

[briny_ear]

 

Quote

Unai Emery: "I am going to rest and take some days resting, but my mind is in Tottenham and Legia Warsaw at home."

Ah yes, Unai Emery’s idea of “resting”. 

Edited November 12, 2023 by briny_ear

[OutByEaster?]

A game of two halves - we were comfortably the better side first half and should still have scored twice in the second half, but our performance after the break was poor - second best to Fulham and looking dead on our feet - the press was gone, which allowed them to play through us and around us and some of the zip went from our passing - it was crying out for substitutions and noticeable that at the final whistle half of our players dropped to the ground. If there's one thing to learn from that game it's that we'll need additions in January if we don't want to fall away.

I thought McGinn and Konsa were superb, Cash excellent and Tielemans very good - I loved the moment that lead to Ollie's headed miss where McGinn's arse proved to be stronger than both a bloke twice his size and his mate - he's a little ball of Scotch power - and I thought first half especially we used the ball really, really well.

Sadly I can't comment on Fulham's goal as, like a lot of people, I was distracted by a song breaking out from a couple of corporate boxes in the Lower Ellis - it came as quite a shock and then just as the rest of the ground started joining in, someone pointed out that Fulham had scored - it seems the two boxes on their own were louder than the Fulham celebrations. The Holte End's summary judgment, delivered in song to our corporate choir that "it's all your fault" at least raised a smile to our conceding.

Fulham look like the kind of team that linger and do nothing - like a mild fart in a car - they'll be back next season I'm sure - perhaps they'll sign more Wolves players and try to sneak them in under fake names - it's hard to rustle up any excitement for them and i suppose, not my problem.

For us; a win, and an important one, and a record breaking one, and a deserved one, and one that came with a valuable lesson to be learned and sets us up for a little epic after the international break.

That'll do.

 

[HanoiVillan]

49 minutes ago, smg said:

Villa Park is regularly quiet. The crowd is reactive not proactive, does little to get the team going during a game only responds briefly when we score. Not good for the players particularly in tight games. Twelfth man my a**e.

I don't necessarily disagree with this, but out of interest where do you sit? I suspect it makes at least a bit of difference. 

[tinker]

11 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I don't necessarily disagree with this, but out of interest where do you sit? I suspect it makes at least a bit of difference. 

At home is my guess.