Ratings & Reactions: Man Utd v Villa

[El Zen]

Complete embarassment. We just completely stopped playing at 0-2 and let them do what they wanted. That’s when you leave a mark on someone and send a message. 

This was the Villa I know. Need to turn it around again asap if we want top 4. 

[PieFacE]

Think this game further shows that if you scratch under the first 11, our squad still needs improvement. 

I feel a bit torn about an aspect of this game. At 2-0 up, would it not have been better to drop back 20 yards and try and hit them on the break with the pace of Ollie, Diaby and Bailey? We were so open in the middle of the pitch today it just felt a little..... naive? 

[villa4europe]

Even at 2-0 we were pish

Maybe his worst game tonight, the only thing that changed is utd lost their sloppiness they battered us all game, we did nothing 

[StefanAVFC]

We need a right back so Carlos and Cash can ride the bench and we can have a functional back 4 again

[Wurzel]

No man of the match. Not enough desire or fight or even intelligence from any of them. Emery didn't react quickly enough when it was obvious it was going wrong. Piss poor all round.

[HanoiVillan]

Humiliating. 

[Awol]

Feels like we arrived for the second half in a DeLorean from 2021. Great run aside, we are still a long way from the finished article. Merry Christmas. 

[Yorke81]

No intensity at all, lazy football and no will to go for it at the end. Very much not the Villa we have come to know the last year.

[kidlewis]

Very very poor performance. We let them win, they didn’t earn it with brilliance.

[TheAuthority]

Aah I remember this feeling

[est1874]

Embarrassing. Really embarrassing 

[flashingqwerty]

Think Unai threw that away by not seeing the issues after the 2nd goal and waiting until it was too late to make a change.

Don't think he made the right changes.  Tim should have been the 1st change to sure up the midfield.

Big January window needed if we are serious about top 4.

I think it's clear Zaniolo is not cut out for this league.  Lacks work ethic.

[lainux]

Highline killed it second half, need to manage when to use it and when to drop deep 

[stewiek2]

Truth is we've lucked it against Spurs, Bournemouth, Brentford, you'd could say Arsenal as well. I thought alot of it was in-game management but okay I hold my hands up and say knackered players who aren't used to the extra games. Today was poor management as well. Sorry Unai, you got it wrong at half time.

Nothing but a convincing win against Burnley or questions will be asked if the physical and mental strength of this group. And manager.

The media will love this. Well done for ruining Christmas Villa. Don't ruin new year and do your jobs against Burnley!?

[Pinebro]

I knew we would lose the game the second they scored their first goal. 

Seemed to me like we tried to just ride the game out at 2-0 to conserve some energy for the games coming up.

You just cannot get away with that at this level despite how bad you think United are, they are still a top half side.

I'm not upset, I'm angry. I'm seething. Because this was completely avoidable if the players mindset was switched on.

[Lerner's Driver]

You know what has happened - we have run out of luck. There have been plenty of games recently where we haven't played well and nicked points, well today has been the opposite. We played well in the first half and we're shit in the second half, deserving to lose. Well played Manchester United. The commentators couldn't be happier. 

[Talldarkandransome]

I'm trying to find the positives there, 2-0 up against possibly the worst united team who hadn't scored in 4 games... even I may struggle with this one.

[HalfTimePost]

That's Emerys fault. The minute we scored our 2nd we switched off and 40 minutes of constant pressure and 2 goals conceded until we made a change. Really poor

[bobzy]

Just now, SimonVilla said:

Lucky to have been 0-2 up. Seemed to be a big lack of urgency and I thought Unai responded too slowly too. 
 

Nah, not lucky to be 2-0 up at all.

But after we went 2-0 up, it was poor. Just let Man Utd have all the ball and didn’t adjust at all to their pressing in our half. Zero adjustment.

Every single one of their goals came from a lapse in concentration from our players.

Credit to Man Utd for not being crushed by their lack of confidence and being booed off at half time, but we absolutely mulled ourselves there.

Luiz with one of the all time worst midfield performances as well. 

[Delphinho123]

No shame in losing to United away from home but that feels like much more than a loss. It looked much more than a loss. I remember when we lost the lead against Leicester in the year we went down - very similar to tonight - and that killed us.

We’re better now but we’re down to the bare bones and players like McGinn, Watkins and Luiz have been poor in the last 3 or so games. They’re not poor players but a few injuries and the team looks thin on quality. 

We’re not good enough to get anywhere near the title, not yet at least, but we can still challenge for top 4/6 and we probably will. 

Like I say, more worried about the performance than the result. It really was so, so poor.