Ratings & Reactions: UECL16: Ajax v Villa

[Xela]

6 minutes ago, Django_Zooms said:

As soon as the commentator mentioned that the match officials were from Albania, their naivety & ineptitude were predictable. Everyone deserves career progression, but not the huge leap to a knockout match between two former European Cup winners...!

Only one man to turn to for revenge

[OutByEaster?]

16 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

I'd be amazed if that is the case mate. If we beat Spurs I am 100% certain we go full strength in the second leg. Even if we don't I think we'll start at least as strong as tonight, more than likely stronger, and look to have the game put to bed by 60 minutes, then make changes.

I think we have to be looking to the West Ham game in the team we select for the second leg - the likes of Luiz can't play 90 minutes tonight, then 90 against Spurs, 90 against Ajax and 90 against West Ham - we'll need to weaken for the second leg.

[AJ]

That Kaplan chap had a very good game.

Wonder how he will go in the Premier League?  

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

8 minutes ago, wishywashy said:

Emery said that "referees can make mistakes" after viewing back the Konsa cards. By the standards of his press conferences that's practically asking for the ref to be sacked.

He’s installed a really classy culture at the club by always having respect and not blaming officials. He’s near on perfect, we’re blessed

[whitsend]

45 minutes ago, villaajax said:

You know, Villa have won every game I've ever been to, if anyone wants to give up a ticket, for the greater good?

Dm'd you, with regards the above.

[The Fun Factory]

If we win the second leg then nobody will care this was a non-event. Next week should be a cracker.

[villa4europe]

1 minute ago, AJ said:

That Kaplan chap had a very good game.

Wonder how he will go in the Premier League?  

Never heard of him before, looks like that was his 3rd game for Ajax, looked good

but I knew Hato had wonderkid status on FM he looked good too (so did rensch a few years back) 

I thought sutalo was their main CB

[stewiek2]

Just now, The Fun Factory said:

If we win the second leg then nobody will care this was a non-event. Next week should be a cracker.

Beat Spurs Sunday and I won't give a flying F about tonights performance. Result is great though.

[Stevo985]

7 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think we have to be looking to the West Ham game in the team we select for the second leg - the likes of Luiz can't play 90 minutes tonight, then 90 against Spurs, 90 against Ajax and 90 against West Ham - we'll need to weaken for the second leg.

If we beat Spurs then 4th place is not far off guaranteed. 
 

We can afford to go full strength in the second leg and risk the West Ham game

[YLN]

31 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Logically, if one of the teams has lost the tie in the first leg, how can the other side not have won it?

It's a football aphorism. Logic is not relevant

[AVTuco]

My only comment after that is:

WHY ON EARTH DID PAU START AND PLAY THE WHOLE FIRST HALF?

He was non-existent, obviously not fully fit. And now, he may be hurt again.

[markavfc40]

17 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think we have to be looking to the West Ham game in the team we select for the second leg - the likes of Luiz can't play 90 minutes tonight, then 90 against Spurs, 90 against Ajax and 90 against West Ham - we'll need to weaken for the second leg.

If we beat Spurs we are almost certainly only 3 wins from last 10 games from securing champ leagues qualification. I think if anything beat Spurs we'd be more likely to go full strength against Ajax and weaker against West Ham.

I don't think we over exerted ourselves tonight in fairness as didn't get out of 2nd gear.  I think Dougie, and Watkins, who are machines fitness wise, can comfortably play the next 3 after tonight. Of what we'd consider our current best outfield 10 you may see Digne, Konsa (enforced), Torres, Bailey, Tielemans not start all three but you have Moreno, Carlos, Lenglet, Diaby and Ramsey (hopefully) to switch in for/mix and match with them and can still be not far off as strong.  

I think we managed the workloads well tonight with Torres and Cash only having 45 mins, McGinn and Bailey only 30 minutes and Moreno only 15 allowing us to freshen it up on Sunday. 

 

Edited March 7 by markavfc40

[WakefieldVillan]

40 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Really poor - the wrong attitude to the game right from the off - we looked like we wanted to keep a clean sheet and win it 1-0, like we were playing Milan or something - we then carried out that plan poorly, we were sloppy and we played some awful stuff in possession. A terrible ref didn't help us either. 

We should have gone for these from the opening whistle and looked to score three or four - we've shown them far, far too much respect and ended up creating a second leg where we have to turn up, pick a strong side and work hard if we want to win it.

Spurs is a big game, and we did the right thing in weakening for this game, but losing Konsa makes it more difficult for us to do that in the second leg and West Ham is a game that's very, very difficult. Torres doesn't seem to have 90 minutes in him, let alone twice in a week, so if he plays against Spurs it'll be Lenglet/Carlos or Lenglet/Chambers for the second leg of this one - we really could have done with a cushion here.

Lose at West Ham and drop out of Champions league qualification and you can pin it on this performance, the approach and the attitude tonight - I'm really disappointed with it.

 

 

I agree it was awful to watch, we were sloppy in possession, didn't play well overall, but I don't think we were ever going to come here and finish the tie in ONE match. 

So not conceding, slowing the game when we could, conserving energy when we could and rotating players whilst coming away all level to VP, I think it's not been the worst night, especially given the news on Torres.

Konsa's red aint ideal, and wouldn't it be nice to have the likes of Kamara, Ramsey, Duran and Carlos available for that extra bit of squad depth, but hopefully all back soon and can help us in the crucial games coming up.

[Eligius]

Poor performance but a decent result considering, hoping for a much better display in the second leg.

Ref was awful, no idea what Zaniola was booked for and plenty of other dubious decisions. Thankfully Emery said that Torres half time substitution was planned.

 

 

[PaulC]

European football. We have set ourselves up nicely for the second leg.

[OutByEaster?]

4 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

If we beat Spurs then 4th place is not far off guaranteed. 

We can afford to go full strength in the second leg and risk the West Ham game

We're more than capable of losing to West Ham and Wolves and being locked into a really tight battle with Spurs and United for 4th-6th at the end of this month even if we beat Spurs at the weekend - eight of our eleven remaining games are against teams with an eye on Europe or the title - it's going to be incredibly tough, regardless of a good result this weekend.

I think we have to treat that West Ham game after the second leg the same way we're treating the Spurs game after tonight. It's going to be a massive three games in a week before we get a little breather ahead of Wolves.

 

[bcarpet]

Pretty decent. Emi only really had one save to make, we didn't have to expend too much energy, even Konza got a bit of a rest. Could have easily nicked it at the end had Bailey's shot not been blocked. Ref was poor, neither was a red

[romavillan]

Could and probably should have nicked it at the end. Emery had obvs told them to keep compact and not take risks. First half we didn't press high, and didn't move up the pitch as a group. That was quite clearly the plan. We left their wing backs free and packed the middle, quite often you could see off the ball we were a perfect 4-4-2 when defending. 

That, and the changes meant we didn't get the bodies forward when we got the ball and our usual patterns of play weren't on. So we were playing longer and looking disjointed. 

Second half pressed higher and were looking to score, some better decision making, or if Ollie had got to Zaniolo's cross, Bailey's chance goes in, then we'd have won it.

Referee was an arseclown of the highest order.

[Stevo985]

4 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

We're more than capable of losing to West Ham and Wolves and being locked into a really tight battle with Spurs and United for 4th-6th at the end of this month even if we beat Spurs at the weekend - eight of our eleven remaining games are against teams with an eye on Europe or the title - it's going to be incredibly tough, regardless of a good result this weekend.

I think we have to treat that West Ham game after the second leg the same way we're treating the Spurs game after tonight. It's going to be a massive three games in a week before we get a little breather ahead of Wolves.

 

United are not a concern. There is no way they’re catching us. They shouldn’t even be in the conversation.
 

Yes we could lose to West Ham and Wolves. But going full strength tonight gives us less chance of beating Spurs and that’s a far far more important game. Win that and 4th is basically done. 

Emery is rightly prioritising that game. Win that and we can lose to West Ham and still be in an incredibly commanding position.

if we’d gone full strength tonight and then lost to spurs then it’s a far worse position

[PieFacE]

We'll smash this lot at home.