Ratings & Reactions: Man City v Villa

[Tomaszk]

4 hours ago, Leeroy said:

It was a shit show from start to finish. 

What on earth? Are you OK?

No it wasn't.

We made it 1-1, wasn't a shit show then.

We'd have gone in at a deserved 1-1 if Zaniolo could stand in a wall correctly.

4 hours ago, Leeroy said:

Look, I’ll get criticism for reproaching Emery, of course I will. But he has made some very big mistakes as Villa manager and tonight he got it badly wrong again.

Can I have some examples of these very big mistakes please? I need some cheering up.

Do you think he played Lenglet because he thinks he's better than Pau? Zaniolo because he thinks he's better than Bailey?

He's rotating so we don't run out of steam and pick up more injuries, collapsing out of the top 4 and out of Europe. We might anyway, even with this rotation.

[Tomaszk]

5 hours ago, CVByrne said:

We really are clinging onto this season. All the xG stats from recent games since Forest has us behind opponents. Even Luton 

We'll get found out soon enough unless we improve our performances 

You've already declared the season over. Why are you bothering to watch or follow? Come back in August.

[6065_Villa]

Always disappointed to lose but last night was a perfect storm for us to get through.

City getting stick after not scoring against Arsenal - tick

Pep revving them up - tick

Pep using fresh legs and players bursting to make an impact - tick

Ref playing his part by letting city foul us when on the break - tick

Villa without key players and others needing a rest - tick

 

So whilst pissed off at the defeat I've put things into perspective (probably what Unai did before picking the team), and can see the bigger picture that our squad can't cope on two fronts with so many injuries to key players. If only the Premier league would allow us to start working our way to 115 charges of cheating...

[TheAuthority]

6 hours ago, Leeroy said:

All those who jumped on my posts in the prematch thread, shame on you.

 

It was a shit show from start to finish. The lineup, the subs (Chambers, FFS). Injuries don’t help but to me Emery was experimenting tonight. He threw that game as far as I’m concerned. Even at 2-1 when we were getting battered he could have got Bailey and Tielemans in there, he waited until 3-1 and the game was done.

 

Look, I’ll get criticism for reproaching Emery, of course I will. But he has made some very big mistakes as Villa manager and tonight he got it badly wrong again. Of course he’s done some incredible things but fast forward just four months on from when we beat city in December and we look a much worse team. This calendar year we don’t look as good as we did at the end of 2023, in essence we look like we’ve regressed. Injuries haven’t helped but what on earth was he thinking putting that team out there tonight, I’ve no idea. 
 

All will be fine if we win the games we should, like Brentford on Saturday. Win that and everything is ok again, even if we play crap like we seem to most games this calendar year. But things aren’t as good as they were and we look a million miles from the top teams again, as tonight showed.

 

Equally we need players back. Martinez and Watkins at the minimum better be back on Saturday, along with McGinn. We need our players to stand up, be fit, and help us along the line now. Not get injured or ‘ill’ when we need them the most.

[ozvilla28]

Never understood why so many changes city was there for the taking for me. 3 of those goals we're school boy stiff.

[ozvillafan]

I'm not sure I understand the vitriol towards Unai, nor the expectation around this one.

• Arsenal couldn't beat Citeh at the Etihad.
• Liverpool couldn't beat them at home
• Man City have not lost a game since.... checks records ... us!
• The team that last beat Man City (us, btw) retained only 1 of the front 6 that defeated them - largely due to injuries and suspensions

And after all that - I still think it would have been a closer game had we not gifted the 2nd by a simple error. And this while fielding a young and mostly 2nd string side!

I'm disappointed with the result, but excited for where we are heading.

[Stevo985]

Not a bad result for a game we essentially threw. 
 

No excuse for not beating Brentford now

[adam67]

Not going to win them all, Injuries/suspensions didn't help.

Just why them cheating ***** (i work in Saudi all the Saudi lads are ever man city or Newcastle fans now) Going to be a long day in work!

Next...

 

 

[maqroll]

8 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

Do they really play that nasily whiny song at the end of their games?

That place is a shithole. They are bunch of cheating spunk-trumpets and I can't wait until all of their trophies are stripped.

 

I noticed it too. He doesn't really sing, he snarls.

[Stevo985]

The only way I’ll be annoyed by last night is if we don’t turn up against Brentford. 
 

We have to win that game now

[one_ian_taylor]

5 hours ago, DakotaVilla said:

Yep. No sense at all in risking it all when the upside was one point v city and we’re not in the title race versus prioritizing 3 points v Brentford and winning the first leg v Lille. Absolute no brainer and Spurs gifted us the opportunity to take the “free hit” with their draw v west ham. 

Yes - with the absences it makes total sense to prioritise these. And going further in Europe also helps our chances of CL qualification if I'm right in thinking ECL success contributes to getting 5th. 

We were competitive for a lot of the game with no Watkins, Torres, Martinez, McGinn,  Kamara

 

[Leeroy]

3 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

What on earth? Are you OK?

No it wasn't.

We made it 1-1, wasn't a shit show then.

We'd have gone in at a deserved 1-1 if Zaniolo could stand in a wall correctly.

Can I have some examples of these very big mistakes please? I need some cheering up.

Do you think he played Lenglet because he thinks he's better than Pau? Zaniolo because he thinks he's better than Bailey?

He's rotating so we don't run out of steam and pick up more injuries, collapsing out of the top 4 and out of Europe. We might anyway, even with this rotation.

I take it you didn’t watch the game, or if you did you were distracted. The goal was coming for them at 1-1, we were decent for the first 20 minutes then they completely dominated bar one or two counter attacks we had. We gave them a free kick from that position just before they scored the second which Alvarez put over, I knew they would score on the 2nd attempt. I’d blame Olsen for not diving more than the wall, but ok. It was an average free kick.
 

It was never a team that was going to win the game so I’m more annoyed about the team selection for that reason. Other examples: 5 at the back against Spurs, not changing anything against Newcastle until we were 3 down, not playing Pau in a massive game against Man Utd when he was on the bench. I could go on. I still love him for what he’s done for us but he very clearly makes mistakes and this calendar year has made many of them.

 

I know you like to condescend mate but just give it a rest, we lost badly, we’re all hurting so let’s just move on and hope that we hang on to 4th despite how badly we’ve played the last 3 months.

[Rugeley Villa]

20 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

The only way I’ll be annoyed by last night is if we don’t turn up against Brentford. 
 

We have to win that game now

We’ve put unnecessary pressure on us now. I can’t get my head around why we didn’t go full strength last night but in Emery we trust. 

[Zatman]

Just now, Rugeley Villa said:

We’ve put unnecessary pressure on us now. I can’t get my head around why we didn’t go full strength last night but in Emery we trust. 

Because we have still potentially 13 games left in the season and we are down to the bare bones. This was probably the best game to rotate at moment. Same will happen vs Arsenal if needed

The last win vs City took us about 6 games to recover our energy

[avfc456]

Disappointing, didn't expect much and when I heard outside the ground Martinez was out, what little hope I had vanished, however to his credit I thought Olsen was fine.

Cant help but thinking "What if" if Zanelo doesn't turn his back, probably would of lost, but maybe not 4-1.

Hard to be angry with the season we are having, but how many soft goals do we give away either side of half time, so disappointing. 

What's the deal with Luiz?  1 more booking and he is banned?  How many games does he need to get past before dodging the potential ban?

[MSvillain]

9 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Because we have still potentially 13 games left in the season and we are down to the bare bones. This was probably the best game to rotate at moment. Same will happen vs Arsenal if needed

The last win vs City took us about 6 games to recover our energy

Great bit of context 

[Vive_La_Villa]

Pretty certain we lose that regardless of what team was fielded from the players we had available. City are just on another level. 

Most important thing is to have enough of a squad available for the 5 games in 2 weeks coming up. 

[mjmooney]

Can somebody remind me how to do the 'block poster' thing?  

EDIT: Forget it, I remembered. Doesn't happen very often, but this one was crying out for it. 

Edited April 4 by mjmooney

[Teale's 'tache]

3 hours ago, 6065_Villa said:

Always disappointed to lose but last night was a perfect storm for us to get through.

City getting stick after not scoring against Arsenal - tick

Pep revving them up - tick

Pep using fresh legs and players bursting to make an impact - tick

Ref playing his part by letting city foul us when on the break - tick

Villa without key players and others needing a rest - tick

 

So whilst pissed off at the defeat I've put things into perspective (probably what Unai did before picking the team), and can see the bigger picture that our squad can't cope on two fronts with so many injuries to key players. If only the Premier league would allow us to start working our way to 115 charges of cheating...

Agree with this, certain things need to fall in place for a team like us to beat City, such is the gulf in quality and depth.

• They need to have a bad day, they didn't
• You need to have your best team available, we didn't
• You need the referee to be brave enough not to give them everything -  Meh ref wasn't the worst, or the main problem last night, but he wasn't much help either.

We simply didn't have the personnel available and it was a bad time to be playing them after the Arsenal performance.

It is all about perspective, we might not win against Brentford but we undoubtedly have much chance than we ever did against City and keeping players fresher can only help.

[UpTheVilla26]

9 hours ago, Leeroy said:

All those who jumped on my posts in the prematch thread, shame on you.

 

It was a shit show from start to finish. The lineup, the subs (Chambers, FFS). Injuries don’t help but to me Emery was experimenting tonight. He threw that game as far as I’m concerned. Even at 2-1 when we were getting battered he could have got Bailey and Tielemans in there, he waited until 3-1 and the game was done.

 

Look, I’ll get criticism for reproaching Emery, of course I will. But he has made some very big mistakes as Villa manager and tonight he got it badly wrong again. Of course he’s done some incredible things but fast forward just four months on from when we beat city in December and we look a much worse team. This calendar year we don’t look as good as we did at the end of 2023, in essence we look like we’ve regressed. Injuries haven’t helped but what on earth was he thinking putting that team out there tonight, I’ve no idea. 
 

All will be fine if we win the games we should, like Brentford on Saturday. Win that and everything is ok again, even if we play crap like we seem to most games this calendar year. But things aren’t as good as they were and we look a million miles from the top teams again, as tonight showed.

 

Equally we need players back. Martinez and Watkins at the minimum better be back on Saturday, along with McGinn. We need our players to stand up, be fit, and help us along the line now. Not get injured or ‘ill’ when we need them the most.

You do realise that players don't pick when they get injured or ill?

Do you think Buendia or Mings thought 'I'll just do my ACL this weekend, that'll be fun'. As for Emi last night, it's clear you think he was 'pretending' to be ill. To even question him is crazy given the fact he's a winner and no way would he have not played unless there was a legitimate reason. 

I think you need to calm down a bit come a match day. For weeks now you've been on here, making daft statements about Emery, certain players etc... 

We have a squad that has been ravaged by injuries. The fact we sit 4th in the League with 7 games left and have a European Quarter Final on the horizon is a massive nod to how well the players and Emery have done this season. Along the way, we've had a few shit performances, a few players have lost form but if you can't look at the bigger picture and then sit there, as a genuine Villa fan and not be excited about the next 2 months, what could entail and also be proud of what we've already done this season, then I do feel sorry for you.