Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Nottm Forest

[allani]

37 minutes ago, TRO said:

but not a ......

Nah.  Magicians are just con artists / scammers in a DJ and top hat.  Warlocks have genuine magical / supernatural skills.

Edited February 25 by allani

[AVTuco]

39 minutes ago, TRO said:

He was there at United Away, and Chelsea and Newcastle, United at home.

I agree, it doesn't help and Mings is a massive miss.

so why do we expect to finish 4th, with so many injuries?

I don't, we shouldn't, EXPECT fourth. It would be a miracle from Unai. But we're still hanging in there.... which is unbelievable in my opinion.

[allani]

11 minutes ago, TRO said:

Thanks for acknowledging it like Allani has, too.

I just think it can be frustrating, when we are cruising, as we was at Old Trafford too....and we just concede such easily concocted goals.....I nearly laughed/ cried with the simplicity.

For me, its compounded by a reluctance to talk about it.....particularly after anxiety passed through the crowd, at 3-2, where some thought, "here we go again"....I would say the 4th was a roar of sheer relief.

I think this trait of letting teams back in, deserves more interest and debate, than it gets.

When we lose we wonder why, and yet the possibilities are staring at us, from the games when we win.....but we only seem want to talk about the goals for column.

I think these issues are things that are probably more important for kicking on next season and trying to close the gap with City, Liverpool and Arsenal (performance / dominance wise rather than points wise).  There's things that we can do better this season too for sure - but at the same time I repeat my earlier post (trimmed to take into consideration the teams we are battling for 4th/5th/6th):

- Villa have taken the lead in 17 matches and won 16 - dropping 3 points

- Man Utd have taken the lead in 16 matches and won 14 - dropping 5 points

- Spurs have taken the lead in 21 matches and won 14 - dropping 18 points

We've scored more and conceded fewer than both Spurs and Utd.  Our goals for is exceptional and on a par with City' Liverpool and Arsenal.  Our goals against is still very good - 5th in the league with Everton being the only club outside the top 3 to have conceded fewer goals.  The goals against really only looks poor when you compare it to the three teams currently above us.  Which is why I think that (although we definitely need to be better at dealing with set pieces) we're performing in line with the other teams we are battling against.  So I'm not dismissing your concerns (indeed I share them) - they just concern me a little less.

We have a +21 GD difference to Utd (so effectively a 9 point lead) and a +7 GD to Spurs (so effectively a 5.5 point lead although they have a game in hand and one big win could reduce the GD significantly).  I think they both have just as big (probably bigger) issues than us.  Utd struggle to score, they are really weak at LB (which Fulham exploited yesterday), their first choice CBs are more error prone than ours and they have Onana not Emi in goal.  Spurs have taken the lead in 21 out of their 25 matches this season and yet have still drawn 5 and lost 6.  IMO Angeball is more risky (and more limited) than Emeryball.

We might yet finish 6th but I do think that Emery is better able to react to a defeat or two then Ange or Ten Hag. 

If Brighton beat Roma in the Europa League that would be a huge plus for us as it would almost certainly take England ahead of Italy in the race for the extra CL spot.  As would us getting further in the Conference League than Fiorentina.  Having to finish 5th rather than 4th makes our ECL dream a bit more touchable.

[alreadyexists]

17 hours ago, Brumstopdogs said:

@alreadyexistsHopefully you all enjoyed the match?

@PieFacEGood to be back at Villa Park?

Thought it was an entertaining match and we got a deserved 3 points. Leon Bailey what a player. UTV!

Ah, we did thanks mate. My son Joe was loving it all, he did get a touch bored before the end of the second half (standard 5 year old!), but he did great and loved it. He hasn’t stopped talking about it all day!

He wants Watkins on the back of his shirt now!  

Edited February 25 by alreadyexists

[tinker]

2 hours ago, TRO said:

Thanks for acknowledging it like Allani has, too.

I just think it can be frustrating, when we are cruising, as we was at Old Trafford too....and we just concede such easily concocted goals.....I nearly laughed/ cried with the simplicity.

For me, its compounded by a reluctance to talk about it.....particularly after anxiety passed through the crowd, at 3-2, where some thought, "here we go again"....I would say the 4th was a roar of sheer relief.

I think this trait of letting teams back in, deserves more interest and debate, than it gets.

When we lose we wonder why, and yet the possibilities are staring at us, from the games when we win.....but we only seem want to talk about the goals for column.

I think we all see it, it just gets washed away from the relief of winning....or its to difficult to talk about when we don't get results, with our surprising success it's very hard to criticise the small things that are obviously weaknesses. 

One is in defence, in the air especially (could be down to injuries) and the other is not been able to control games when we are obviously the better team, Manure and Forest are two examples where we lost control and allowed the game to become end to end, like a ping pong ball game. Sometimes you have to kill games and you have to have that element in your team to compete at the very very top. All IMHO.

Edited February 25 by tinker
Pong not bong

[El Segundo]

Whatever Emery has done to Bailey I hope he can do similar to Diaby at some point.  He's having the fullbacks on toast every week now, home and away.  Great to watch.

Cash played quite well but was once again at fault goal for a conceded at home.  Would really like us to sign a powerhouse of right back in the summer.  

Some brilliant attacking play first half and I was livid when we lost focus in the added time and let them score, then did the same at the start of the second.   

Good management by Emery - he could see Luiz had lost focus and gave him a "pep talk", and could see Moreno was having a bit of a mare and got him off early.

I thought Chambers did ok and considering we ended up with 5th and 6th choice CBs on the pitch we were reasonably comfortable winners in the end.

Surprised the ref didn't get more really poor marks.  I thought he was making some absolutely bizarre calls especially first half.

 

[withes_shin]

With all the time added on at the end of each half now, Forest actually scored their first goal after 50 minutes (45+5 additional) and their second goal after 47 minutes!

But forget them this is about Villa, great result Saturday.

Nice to see so many playing really well, so hard to pick MOM but for me I thought Lenglet looked really composed all through the game considering he had to play RCB then LCB. McGinn was brilliant, Tielemans I though played really well, Watkins and Bailey were their usual selves. Thought Digne steadied us as well when he came on. Ramsey looking back to normal.

[Straggler]

Does anyone know how many passes we strung together for that 2nd goal? Even the extended highlights don't have the whole passage of play and i could swear it must be 30 passes or more....

[withes_shin]

Just now, Straggler said:

Does anyone know how many passes we strung together for that 2nd goal? Even the extended highlights don't have the whole passage of play and i could swear it must be 30 passes or more....

 

[Straggler]

3 minutes ago, withes_shin said:

 

Perfect thank you!

[withes_shin]

Just now, Straggler said:

Perfect thank you!

[TRO]

On 25/02/2024 at 15:20, allani said:

I think these issues are things that are probably more important for kicking on next season and trying to close the gap with City, Liverpool and Arsenal (performance / dominance wise rather than points wise).  There's things that we can do better this season too for sure - but at the same time I repeat my earlier post (trimmed to take into consideration the teams we are battling for 4th/5th/6th):

- Villa have taken the lead in 17 matches and won 16 - dropping 3 points

- Man Utd have taken the lead in 16 matches and won 14 - dropping 5 points

- Spurs have taken the lead in 21 matches and won 14 - dropping 18 points

We've scored more and conceded fewer than both Spurs and Utd.  Our goals for is exceptional and on a par with City' Liverpool and Arsenal.  Our goals against is still very good - 5th in the league with Everton being the only club outside the top 3 to have conceded fewer goals.  The goals against really only looks poor when you compare it to the three teams currently above us.  Which is why I think that (although we definitely need to be better at dealing with set pieces) we're performing in line with the other teams we are battling against.  So I'm not dismissing your concerns (indeed I share them) - they just concern me a little less.

We have a +21 GD difference to Utd (so effectively a 9 point lead) and a +7 GD to Spurs (so effectively a 5.5 point lead although they have a game in hand and one big win could reduce the GD significantly).  I think they both have just as big (probably bigger) issues than us.  Utd struggle to score, they are really weak at LB (which Fulham exploited yesterday), their first choice CBs are more error prone than ours and they have Onana not Emi in goal.  Spurs have taken the lead in 21 out of their 25 matches this season and yet have still drawn 5 and lost 6.  IMO Angeball is more risky (and more limited) than Emeryball.

We might yet finish 6th but I do think that Emery is better able to react to a defeat or two then Ange or Ten Hag. 

If Brighton beat Roma in the Europa League that would be a huge plus for us as it would almost certainly take England ahead of Italy in the race for the extra CL spot.  As would us getting further in the Conference League than Fiorentina.  Having to finish 5th rather than 4th makes our ECL dream a bit more touchable.

The points I have raised in my observations of our defending are not at the expense of all the good things you have mentioned, which I endorse.

All the things you mention, are of course part and parcel of why we are where we are, and they are where they are......currently......I was merely highlighting one element, to improve on.....not to dismiss all the good stuff.

I am well aware of all the good things we do, and very grateful to UE for doing them....I reiterate, my expectations have been eclipsed, by our overall performance to date...so I have no issue with the league table position.

I am merely raising points to help us  improve even more......some would say 4-2 v 4-0 so what......I think the clean sheets is important, and its important to form a basis for complete control, and shut out any threat.

We are often, miffed at the neutrals, not being convinced about our progress.....clean sheets, help to reinforce, what we all know......conceding avoidable goals, helps to endorse/cement the doubt of those neutrals.

Anyway.....another great 3 points, and a 8 pt cushion on Utd to boot.

UTV

Edited February 26 by TRO

[StefanAVFC]

20 hours ago, TRO said:

I am merely raising points to help us  improve even more.

You should get in touch with the club and pass them onto Unai.

[BOF]

That 6 goals means Villa Park has witnessed the most amount of goals (50) in the Premier League this season. One clear of Brentford's GTech Community Stadium and 2 clear of Bramall Lane.

[turvontour]

On 24/02/2024 at 23:30, Annoyman said:

There were four goals and Watkins spent some time getting treatment for a knock in the back

They just had no injury time in the second half of Luton v man city despite there being 3 goals.