Ratings & Reactions: Man City v Villa

[Follyfoot]

The balmy thing is it worked for 40 odd minutes And only didn’t then due to individual error

[OutByEaster?]

9 hours ago, Leeroy said:

It was a shit show from start to finish.

An hour in, we were one goal down and looking the team most likely to score next.

We tired and it was difficult at the end, but we were in that game with a chance of getting something out of it for a long period.

[OutByEaster?]

8 hours ago, jackbauer24 said:

I assume this also means we will be 'throwing' the Arsenal and Liverpool games too as we have winnable fixtures and European games around them...

If the English teams do well in Europe next week and the week after, we can play the kids against Liverpool.

[imavillan]

58 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

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.

I think you need to watch the replay of the free kick. No way was Olsen to blame for that.

The Wall was positioned correctly and Olsen was in position to where the wall was placed.

If Zaniolo does his job in the wall and stands tall and doesn't turn his back he blocks it. Thats why you have a wall.

To say Olsen could have dived more is stretching it to say the least.

[Leeroy]

3 minutes ago, UpTheVilla26 said:

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. 

 

 

Look I’m sorry if my posts have offended you, I get very emotional about the Villa and this is a really important period while we try to clinch 4th place, I’m a rational guy but match day is different, if you don’t like it you don’t have to read. I was being silly about Martinez, I don’t think he faked illness, but it’s very very frustrating to have your best goalkeeper by a mile pull out just before kickoff when we’ve already got a load of players out as it is and it just seemed a bit off to say he was ‘ill’ given he was in the team initially. I also don’t think anything I’ve said about performances have been inaccurate, other than Forest and Man Utd at home and Sheffield Utd away, we’ve generally been recording lower XGs against our opponents and playing much worse than we did in the first half of the season. Even wolves who had kids in their starting 11 were the better side against us. We don’t look a top 4 side any more and injuries don’t help but don’t tell the whole story.

 

I never expected to win last night but to put out that team really hurt as I basically had no hope after that and I’ve now seen us get battered 4 times this season (Newcastle 5-1, Liverpool 3-0, Spurs 4-0, Man City 4-1). For context last season under Emery we didn’t lose a game by more than 2 goals. It has become a common thing for us to be torn apart by teams when things aren’t going for us and that soft underbelly is something I want eradicated next season.

 

As I said all will be forgotten about yesterday if we finish the season well. He clearly rested players yesterday so we could play them to win the more winnable games. He now has to follow through on that by winning the winnable games or his strategy has failed. We basically need to win 4 of our last 7 games to get 4th and Saturday is one of those games. 

[Leeroy]

15 minutes ago, imavillan said:

I think you need to watch the replay of the free kick. No way was Olsen to blame for that.

The Wall was positioned correctly and Olsen was in position to where the wall was placed.

If Zaniolo does his job in the wall and stands tall and doesn't turn his back he blocks it. Thats why you have a wall.

To say Olsen could have dived more is stretching it to say the least.

Simple question: do you think Martinez would have saved it? 

[duke313]

It’s hilarious reading comments from Arsenal fans on Twitter saying Unai has thrown the game on purpose to stop Arsenal winning the league. They’re obsessed.

[imavillan]

3 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

Simple question: do you think Martinez would have saved it? 

no

[Captain_Townsend]

Has it been confirmed there weren't issues in the squad? Like fitness, a big etc?

[nick76]

1 minute ago, Captain_Townsend said:

Has it been confirmed there weren't issues in the squad? Like fitness, a big etc?

I think Unai basically indicated it wasn’t other issues in his post match comments.

[Captain_Townsend]

1 minute ago, nick76 said:

I think Unai basically indicated it wasn’t other issues in his post match comments.

OK, that's interesting.  I assumed when Martinez was sick others may have been too.

[nick76]

10 minutes ago, duke313 said:

It’s hilarious reading comments from Arsenal fans on Twitter saying Unai has thrown the game on purpose to stop Arsenal winning the league. They’re obsessed.

No it’s just a bonus. I hate Arsenal fans…

[nick76]

Just now, Captain_Townsend said:

OK, that's interesting.  I assumed when Martinez was sick others may have been too.

Doesn’t seem to be, and he said Emi will be back for the weekend.  Ollie is having a test today on his injury to see if he can play on the weekend.  He didn’t mentioned any bug going around the camp in the notes I saw.

[avfc456]

18 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

Simple question: do you think Martinez would have saved it? 

No.

[Leeroy]

16 minutes ago, imavillan said:

no

I don’t agree but ok.

[imavillan]

3 hours 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

given the schedule of 4 games in 10 days. I am definitely expecting the same/similar level of rotation v Arsenal  

Lille H 11th

Arsenal A 14th

Lille A 18th

Bournemouth H 21st

 

Edited: brain fart moment and got the dates wrong

Edited April 4 by imavillan

[duke313]

14 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

It's a narrative that makes us feel better, not sure it's really one that works. 

Would it make you feel better if we started Pau, Youri and Bailey and had lost 2-1 instead of 4-1?

[Zatman]

1 hour ago, duke313 said:

It’s hilarious reading comments from Arsenal fans on Twitter saying Unai has thrown the game on purpose to stop Arsenal winning the league. They’re obsessed.

I dont think Arsenal fans know who is the Arsenal manager at this stage. Its all Unai

[Zatman]

11 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 

Didn't you throw a tantrum a few weeks ago that the season was over? Surely if the season is over then we would have already got found out

[Zatman]

54 minutes ago, imavillan said:

given the schedule of 4 games in a week. I am definitely expecting the same/similar level of rotation v Arsenal  

Lille H 14th

Arsenal A 18th

Lille A 18th

Bournemouth H 21st

Though if we are away to both Arsenal and Lille on the same day we might be in even more trouble