Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Newcastle

[TRO]

10 hours ago, AVTuco said:

Continuation of a worrying trend. Poor performances starting to turn into losses. Oh well.

is it really a surprise?...watching the games as we do, this has been coming....Its just been highlighted by a strong aggressive team committed to the performance and quick to the ball, to stop us playing.

We are not playing, in a way that got us to the top 4...its passive and insipid, by too many players.

10 hours ago, duke313 said:

Newcastle with 1 (one) away win all season, and we manage to gift them their second.

Mindblowing......shows what can happen, when you apply yourself  v  dine out on early season form....One team wanted it more than the other, and it was starkly obvious.

[Stevo985]

8 hours ago, Villaphan04 said:

Bailey the only one to come out of that game with any credit for me. 

McGinn was excellent

[stewiek2]

You cannot continually start games at a pedestrian pace and expect to get something. For some reason we've come out the blocks so slowly in games. I get it away from home but at home we've been on it but lately not.

Emery isn't without fault on this as he picks the team, coaches them in the week. Reserving energy or not that was inexcusable last night from everyone. I can't even pick a MOTM. Poor from everyone, manager included.

[TRO]

17 hours ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

Glad I missed the first half it sounded as though Villa never turned up.

Second half not much better.

Villa looked half-a***d, the other team wanted it more.

Many players look scared to make the difference, I hate the sideways passing.

Bailey is currently the only Villa player in form so why did he not start?

Thats right.....but dig deeper, its been the mood for a while now.....the month off, hasn't helped, when it should have, so its not fatigue.....so where has our application gone?

I was a bit surprised/disappointed by Unai's after match reaction.....in contrast De Zerbi just said it like it is, after their defeat.

Edited January 31 by TRO

[MakemineVanilla]

Hugely disappointing but not really surprising.

Villa's second goal, chalked off by VAR due to Watkins having failed to trim his toenails, would have been a more reasonable representation of how things went.

Diaby seems to have lost his mojo and Cash's error gifted the Toon with the clincher.

A full-strength Villa will have better days but last night's performance certainly invited some serious doubts.

 

[TRO]

4 minutes ago, stewiek2 said:

You cannot continually start games at a pedestrian pace and expect to get something. For some reason we've come out the blocks so slowly in games. I get it away from home but at home we've been on it but lately not.

Emery isn't without fault on this as he picks the team, coaches them in the week. Reserving energy or not that was inexcusable last night from everyone. I can't even pick a MOTM. Poor from everyone, manager included.

I was disappointed with his after match, reaction........The team has done great all season, but that wasn't the game, to say he was proud of them......maybe he should have kept that for the dressing room, if he wants to motivate them......The watching public are no fools.

[TRO]

6 hours ago, MakemineVanilla said:

Hugely disappointing but not really surprising.

Villa's second goal, chalked off by VAR due to Watkins having failed to trim his toenails, would have been a more reasonable representation of how things went.

Diaby seems to have lost his mojo and Cash's error gifted the Toon with the clincher.

A full-strength Villa will have better days but last night's performance certainly invited some serious doubts.

 

This was not about full strength....this is about attitude and application.....they are decimated with Injuries, but showed the intensity, urgency, and determination to get a result.

How many of that Newcastle team, would be welcome by the fans, to join us....very few, so its about more than just talent.....we need to look beyond, just talent, for answers to this drop in form.

We talk about lacking creativity.......we get shut down, too quickly and easily, by willing opponents, hell bent on not  letting us play.....so what do we do, in return...stand off and allow them the room and space to hurt us.

Its Passive and Pathetic, from a team, who has not played like this, to get to where it is in the league....Playing out of confidence players, will drift through the ranks, if not arrested.

 

Edited January 31 by TRO

[TRO]

10 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

I think we need to learn that teams know if they press us, we can use our pivot to bypass their midfield, but if they lose a low block, we're not cute enough with our movement to break teams down.  We seem a bit pedestrian when we have the ball, which leads to frustration because we're thinking "have a go then".  I knew it would be a hard game tonight, but the set pieces is something I didn't suspect.  I imagine the set piece man will be looking at that.

I think teams know, now, if they press us, it negates any creativity, we planned for.....we simply cannot resist the press in our current guise.

We are too easily shut down, and suffocated......I have my views on that, like many folk will have theirs....but I think that is at the centre of our issues.

Some will say, we have been found out....I think the signs have been there, lately.

We can create, as good as any team in this league can, we have creative players.......when we are allowed to by the opposition....as the old saying goes " You have to win the right to play football" and that imo, is the crux of our issues...we haven't got enough players, to win us that right.

[TRO]

11 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

This is too rue. McGinn, Cash, Luiz, the whole midfield are not doing enough, strolling about, hardly any service to watkin's until Bailey came on, I'd be having a fit if I was Emery.

No, "He was proud of them"....not sure of the context though to be fair.

[TRO]

Best of luck to Newcastle if they think, they have turned the corner on the back of our result....They won't get gifts, that we bring, from other teams.

When they come up against other physically robust teams like themselves, the difficulty they have had all season away from home, will reappear.

 

[TRO]

11 hours ago, punkiller1981 said:

Worse overall night with Emery I can remember. Awful team selection, no motivation and far to slow with the subs. I can’t understand Bailey on the bench but I have gone for Martinez mom because they could have been 6 or 7 without him and I don’t even think Newcastle played that well

The sad thing of all.....they didn't have to.

[TRO]

11 hours ago, Herman22 said:

What has happened to Luiz? Every time he got the ball all he wanted to do was pass to Konsa. He offered absolutely nothing. And Kamara wasn’t much better. 

Bailey made a difference when he came on and if VAR wasn’t such a bag of sh1t we might have gotten a point from 3-2. Great finish from Watkins. 

 

11 hours ago, flashingqwerty said:

It worked.  Undone by anti football tactics.  Very avoidable.

Eddie Howe, is a Dinosaur.

[TRO]

11 hours ago, striker said:

Yet another poor, one dimensional performance from Villa. Not one player broke sweat except for a very good cameo from Bailey.

Villa’s midfield really starting to worry me as the players in there are too similar without pace to run beyond the forward.

As someone else said 50m bid for Luiz in the summer Villa should bite their hand of. McGinn is the only creative spark there but he also lacks real pace and isn’t a playmaker.

Stated at start of Jan window Villa needed 3 quality players to push on for a CL placement. Nothing has come in other than a championship player.

Presently Villa will struggle for 6th with Emery’s high line and the owner’s lack of investment this window.

I think we are hamstrung by FFP is the issue, and maybe too many players collected over time, too similar, as you pointed out.

I think the highline, is a cop out.....it can work, if other factors are employed, simultaneously....but they are not......There is a real reluctance from many of our players to administer a full on press, sure we muster a semi press or a half hearted press at times, but there is no appetite to "go after" the opposition....That is a real worry, and it brings many more issues with it.

If you don't go after them, they will go after you.....and that is precisely what is happening, lately.

Edited January 31 by TRO

[TRO]

11 hours ago, andym said:

There were a couple of instances early on that stood out.

Both times the ball went into McGinn, and the first one he held on too long and was easily robbed setting newcastle on a counter. Second time he did roll the newcastle player, but then passed it straight out of play.

Not necessarily a criticism of McGinn, but it summed up the sloppiness of us for most of that game

How many times, do we do that, to the opposition?.... we cannot go on being wussy, because it affects the good parts of our game.....McGinn is the only one showing any signs of physical engagement, that cannot continue, without consequences. It has been allowed to continue for a while now, and the hole in the sock gets bigger.....a stitch in time saves nine.....we need to stop this, getting bullied so easily.

[John]

11 hours ago, VillanousOne said:

First test of Unai's management skills, see if he can sort out this alarming slump in form and confidence

No, his first test was when he took over from Stevie G and turned that team into winners. He's passed every test that has been put before him since and he will pass this one. There have been bumps in the road (but fewer than we could have anticipated) and UE will have a plan already in place to have us bounce back again. 

11 hours ago, striker said:

Villa’s midfield really starting to worry me as the players in there are too similar without pace to run beyond the forward.

As someone else said 50m bid for Luiz in the summer Villa should bite their hand of. McGinn is the only creative spark there but he also lacks real pace and isn’t a playmaker.

Stated at start of Jan window Villa needed 3 quality players to push on for a CL placement. Nothing has come in other than a championship player.

Presently Villa will struggle for 6th with Emery’s high line and the owner’s lack of investment this window.

 Our midfield has worried other PL teams for a year, so you are not alone there. 

£50m for Douglas? You cannot be serious! 

I think most of us knew we could do with three players in this window, but it was FFP not our owner's that prevented it. Our owners have backed us in every way possible since they took over the club and would have done the same during this window, if doing so would not have led to a points deduction. As for buying a "championship player" if UE wanted him, that's good enough for me!

Villa teams have started well in the past, but have also faded in the crucial run-in, when winners find an extra gear. We didn't fade last season and we haven't faded this season yet...and I don't want to bet against us!!!

[TRO]

11 hours ago, Dillon66 said:

If you think Newcastle's tactics were 'anti football' you probably need to start watching another sport......they were excellent tonight and had us figured out from the kick off.

I think it was tongue in cheek.

[AVFCDAN]

Commitment to the high line, quick passing through the midfield to advance possession, high press.

All gone in recent months, no great surprise our results have dropped off at the same time.

The big question is why and how on earth do we get it back?

[TRO]

I don't really get the confidence thing.....We started this dip in form on the back of one of the best weeks of football in our history......The Man City and Arsenal results, were full of the sort of play, we are missing right now....sure they let you play to a degree, becasue they fancy their chances of going toe to toe.

We can look at missing players, we can say, we had to lose some time at home, and we can say, we lack creativity....its none of those things.

We are now playing a snails pace out from the back, and I'm sorry to say, it smacks of arrogance....we are not good enough, to be arrogant....The consequence is fully spirited, opponents are goin after us, and the pace of our passing and movement has rendered us, sitting ducks.

Our play, right now is turgid, and a betrayal to the very form we showed all season, and the latter half of last season....a few heads need a wobble.

I am still not convinced by the intrinsic nature of our application and haven't been for some time....its all too hit and miss, and we have to rely too much on McGinns determination to stoke the fires.

I feel, much work is to be done.

 

[John]

9 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

Just felt very flat from the start on and off the pitch. We have kicked bollocks scramble the last few weeks in getting results, but we haven't been at our best since the brilliant City-Arsenal double week.

We have too many key players out of form to keep on getting away with it. Newcastle have spanked us twice this season and thankfully we don't have to play them again.

It might be a sign of things to come but Newcastle played well against our famous high line. Might need to freshen up the tactics occasionally.

It seemed heretical even to slightly criticize The Great One but we were crying out for Bailey to come on at half time. At 3 nil the game was over.

We should take a moment to reflect on our amazing 17 game home unbeaten run, it was something very special. I don't think we should panic yet but hopefully we can get some our key players back into form an can move forwards together. This could still be a very special season.

100%, it is something that no Villa fan has ever witnessed before and we were among the lucky ones that were there to see it.

I had almost forgotten how bad it feels to lose at home, but it came back like a bad penny last night. Time to start another good run then!

[Milfner]

13 posts by one poster on a single page. Learn how to use multi-quote ffs.