Ratings and reactions

[GasGasGas]

One of the worst games ever. At least 7 - 1 was against Chelsea. We went back in time several years to when Tottenham and Arsenal trashed us regularly and even then the scores were never 6-0, only about 5-0 or 5-1 at worst!

Friedel - 2 - Might as well not be there today, what did he even do?

Warnock - 2 - Pretty much useless. He does nothing when he goes forward and his defending is woeful. Gets beaten all the time and whenever he goes in for a challenge he ALWAYS comes off second best.

L Young - 3 - Probably the best of the defenders today but even he didn't do anything today.

Clark - 3 - Was largely absent, seeing how Newcastle's attackers totally had their way. Didn't handle them at all.

Dunne - 2 - Shocking. Seems to be getting worse and worse with every game, must be close to his dire Man City standards now! WTF was that joke of a clearance that laid off for their 3rd goal? The way he defended for the second half goals was absolutely pathetic.

Albrighton - 2 - Totally exposed and owned today. Right from the start all he did was to try and kick and run past their defender. What he did was to present the ball straight to them every single time instead.

Downing - 3 - Pretty much back to his useless self. Sends an aimless cross or pass to nowhere every now and then and that's it.

A Young - 5 - The ONLY one who did what could be called trying. Still, largely ineffective as his crossing was like Downing's similarly aimless and inaccurate and his dribbles mostly into straight into defenders too.

Ireland - 4 - Not sure why he started today and he showed as he was rusty as anything. Even more unsure what the hell he was doing as the defensive midfielder as he couldn't do much at all in the position, creating or tackling! A few good passes here and there.

Petrov - 3 - See Downing. Without Milner to aid him in defence and physicality he was shown up to be pretty useless again. Went invisible for long periods with Ireland and allowed them to control the game totally.

Carew - 0 - Pointless. Just totally pointless. Please just sell. Totally disinterested, not bothered to even **** react or run for the ball and when he does get to the ball he practically just walks with the **** ball and opponents just walk up to him and simply tackle it off him, it's beyond a joke! Can't control the ball when he touches it and it bounces randomly off him right back to the opponents. For all his size he doesn't really dominate physically or with his headers, can't pass, can't even shoot properly, especially given it was a **** penalty! Simply useless.

[GasGasGas]

I don't think its quite sank in yet! How can you go from playing the best in years one week to playing the worst in years the next? We simply went far too attacking. Ireland can't play in a 2 man midfield! He needs to play further up, it's him or ash, not both. We need a new CM.

I think we need 2 CM's. I have said pretty much for the whole of the time Petrov has been here that he is not good enough. We can't play 4-4-2 because we have Petrov in the team and it does not matter who plays with him. We need a defensive midfielder behind him and an attacking mid infront of him. This being the case why the hell do we need him? Fletcher and Scholes cope, Lampard and Essien cope, Fabregas and anyone of many cope, Gerrard and Mascerano cope,Felliani and Cahill cope, bloody Huddersfield and Palacio cope.

Petrov and one other does not work which makes Petrov a luxory. It's like taking a bar of dairy milk to the jungle. It may be nice to have, but in context it is bloody useless.

Very true. It's not rocket science where the problem lies when no one is really able to forge a midfield partnership with Petrov. Only a really great midfielder like Barry or Milner would at least bail him out a little but even then we get shown up pretty often.

With anyone lesser like Ireland today, or Delph against Wigan etc. we get totally overrun.

[RunRickyRun]

Reason's why we lost.

-I did not have my season ticket upside down in my wallet

-I passed up the chance to buy my usual lucky callipso ice lolly before the game

-My brother did not take off his shoes during the game

-I did not shave my head the day before

-I set the PVR for MOTD2

What a time to consciously decide to give up all my pre match superstitions

[OutByEaster?]

One thing I wasn't really in the mood to say earlier but which shouldn't be missed is that Newcastle played very well - Carroll was a real handful and their midfield worked their socks off. Gutierrez defended excellently as did Enrique I thought and I think it would be rude of us to ignore the fact that as much as we played very poorly, Newcastle did very well.

[ChrisNichollsToe]

I would like to know why Newcastle supporters were allowed to give us hand gestures and abuse, whilst everytime a villa fan did the same in responce, the Stewards and Police jumped on them?

People were being evicted for nothing.

[andym]

well for the first ten minutes we played very well. nice passing, movement etc. then carew missed the penalty and it all went wrong. all it did was give momentum back to newcastle and they took full advantage

for the rest of the game we were crap, no single player excluded. it was embarrassing to watch.

very naive for KM to go with such an attacking line up. at home to a team that parks the bus it would probably have been great. but away to a team who are playing their first home game after getting promoted the year before? never going to work

[Oaks]

One thing I wasn't really in the mood to say earlier but which shouldn't be missed is that Newcastle played very well - Carroll was a real handful and their midfield worked their socks off. Gutierrez defended excellently as did Enrique I thought and I think it would be rude of us to ignore the fact that as much as we played very poorly, Newcastle did very well.

I tend to disagree somewhat to be honest. For the first 30 mins we were all over them. We were by far the better team. We cut them open at will. But we missed our penalty, Barton scored a pop shot which i think the keeper should have saved, and the least said about the 2nd and 3rd goals the better. Individual errors were at fault. Newcastle were distinctly average but winning a game 3-0. Thats what pisses me off the most. I still thought with the right attitude we could still get something out of the game, but the players seems rather uninterested.

If Newcastle were decent i would feel a tiny bit better, but they were very average, yet they beat us 6 **** 0.

[VillaAndLoyal]

Been back from Newcastle for about an hour and I'm still pretty stunned and perplexed at what I saw today. We've all seen some very shit performances over the years, many of which make you extremely upset or angry. But today was by and away the worst match I have ever been to, I just feel numb. To lose to such a shit team so comprehensively is just completely unacceptable. As someone else said, would you ever see Fulham, Everton, Spurs or Man City throw the towel in like that? Would you hell! But we seem to have a habit of doing it at the Villa, although never in such spectacular fashion as today.

There is no point doing 'player ratings' because none of them deserve a rating, everyone was woeful in the extreme.

There was no leadership, fight, flair, structure, movement, spirit, willingness, pattern, gameplan...there was nothing.

And to see hoards (and I mean hoards) of Villa fans leaving after the 4th goal has to be the lowest feeling I have experienced in my 21 years as a Villa fan. It was shocking to see and I felt utterly embarrassed to be Villa at that moment, painful as it is to admit.

We better come out all guns blazing against Rapid and Everton now otherwise the discontent will grow and we could be in for a long old season. After today's performance I would be pleased to finish 17th and stay in this league, it was that bad.

[VillaAndLoyal]

One thing I wasn't really in the mood to say earlier but which shouldn't be missed is that Newcastle played very well - Carroll was a real handful and their midfield worked their socks off. Gutierrez defended excellently as did Enrique I thought and I think it would be rude of us to ignore the fact that as much as we played very poorly, Newcastle did very well.

I tend to disagree somewhat to be honest. For the first 30 mins we were all over them. We were by far the better team. We cut them open at will. But we missed our penalty, Barton scored a pop shot which i think the keeper should have saved, and the least said about the 2nd and 3rd goals the better. Individual errors were at fault. Newcastle were distinctly average but winning a game 3-0. Thats what pisses me off the most. I still thought with the right attitude we could still get something out of the game, but the players seems rather uninterested.

If Newcastle were decent i would feel a tiny bit better, but they were very average, yet they beat us 6 **** 0.

This, this and this. Newcastle's defence was woeful, shame ours was much worse.

[ChrisNichollsToe]

Been back from Newcastle for about an hour and I'm still pretty stunned and perplexed at what I saw today. We've all seen some very shit performances over the years, many of which make you extremely upset or angry. But today was by and away the worst match I have ever been to, I just feel numb. To lose to such a shit team so comprehensively is just completely unacceptable. As someone else said, would you ever see Fulham, Everton, Spurs or Man City throw the towel in like that? Would you hell! But we seem to have a habit of doing it at the Villa, although never in such spectacular fashion as today.

There is no point doing 'player ratings' because none of them deserve a rating, everyone was woeful in the extreme.

There was no leadership, fight, flair, structure, movement, spirit, willingness, pattern, gameplan...there was nothing.

And to see hoards (and I mean hoards) of Villa fans leaving after the 4th goal has to be the lowest feeling I have experienced in my 21 years as a Villa fan. It was shocking to see and I felt utterly embarrassed to be Villa at that moment, painful as it is to admit.

We better come out all guns blazing against Rapid and Everton now otherwise the discontent will grow and we could be in for a long old season. After today's performance I would be pleased to finish 17th and stay in this league, it was that bad.

I could not put that better. Sums up my feelings perfectly. I left shorthly before their fifth. Not because of the performance, i just could not take any more piss taking from the deluded dwarfs. Dont blame them, but as you say, i felt humiliated, so i left.

And its the first time that i have left a game before the final whistle.

[Hanky]

Luckily I have been playing cricket all day and not witnessed the game, just got the score every so often. All I can say is the players should hang their heads in shame at that shite. Horrible.

[paulanddonya]

before I start I musts say I was thankfully at work so didn't see the game and can only go on the raio commentary.

So -with regards to player performances I cannot comment, although I have the following observations

Positives

1. At least this should stop the stupid suggestions of McDonald getting the job. There is a ridiculous difference between a reserve coach and 1st team manager. He is good at what he is good at , and he shoudl stay there.

2. I always knew we'd lose game. When the fixtures were announced I said on that thread. the only thing you want from the fixtures is you don't have a promoted side, in their first home game. You can double that for Newcastle coz of 50,000, and you can double it again when we sent them down. A draw I would have been dancing around the bull ring.

Negative

3. Kind of on above really, when the team was announced my exact words were "what the.....". Midfield - Downing - Attack Mid , Ireland - Attack Mid, Petrov - Attack Mid , Albrighton - Attack Mid , Ireland - Attack Mid - derrrr - who was defending today ?. If you are playing ireland (and this isn't hindsight because I saw a lot of people on here say it on thursday) you HAVE to play NRC !. Why KM couldn't see that - who knows

4. John Carew / or heskey come to that. I don't give a shite if they lead the line better than a armoured plate tank in Afghanistan. Forwards are there to score goals and that is it. If Carew had put one of the three easy chances away last week, and kept the ball lower than Jupiter this - we would be top of the league now. Same argument Heskey. We have 19m in the bank - USE IT

5. Warnock - dont give a giraffe about the hype - the guy is average, and has been since he came to the club.

Others - god knows what went on. Put it right against Everton - you will be forgiven.

[VillaAndLoyal]

Been back from Newcastle for about an hour and I'm still pretty stunned and perplexed at what I saw today. We've all seen some very shit performances over the years, many of which make you extremely upset or angry. But today was by and away the worst match I have ever been to, I just feel numb. To lose to such a shit team so comprehensively is just completely unacceptable. As someone else said, would you ever see Fulham, Everton, Spurs or Man City throw the towel in like that? Would you hell! But we seem to have a habit of doing it at the Villa, although never in such spectacular fashion as today.

There is no point doing 'player ratings' because none of them deserve a rating, everyone was woeful in the extreme.

There was no leadership, fight, flair, structure, movement, spirit, willingness, pattern, gameplan...there was nothing.

And to see hoards (and I mean hoards) of Villa fans leaving after the 4th goal has to be the lowest feeling I have experienced in my 21 years as a Villa fan. It was shocking to see and I felt utterly embarrassed to be Villa at that moment, painful as it is to admit.

We better come out all guns blazing against Rapid and Everton now otherwise the discontent will grow and we could be in for a long old season. After today's performance I would be pleased to finish 17th and stay in this league, it was that bad.

I could not put that better. Sums up my feelings perfectly. I left shorthly before their fifth. Not because of the performance, i just could not take any more piss taking from the deluded dwarfs. Dont blame them, but as you say, i felt humiliated, so i left.

And its the first time that i have left a game before the final whistle.

Yeah I left on 90 minutes and missed their sixth. By that stage our end was half empty. Absolutely vile day.

[leviramsey]

Maybe this is six or seven (I lost count) bottles of Sam Adams talking, but for now I'm willing to accept this as a bad day at the office (to put it mildly... this is the worst day at the office in, well, my time supporting the Villa) and I'm not going to get too worried.

Every player had possibly the worst game of their Villa (if not top-level football) career today (only A Young could possibly be excepted, because, well, I've seen games in the not too distant past where he did far less). The manager made just about every mistake possible (I won't slag him off about the formation... I think there're good reasons to play the very attack-minded 442 that we did). I don't think that combination of ineptitude will happen anytime soon.

Get three points off Everton (who never seem to perform in August), and we're averaging 2 points per game, which is consistent with CL form.

[parisvilla]

Friedel - 0. his worst game for us. thought he was heavily at fault for the first two goals. i'd think about signing a new number 1 before the window closes.

L. Young - 3. poor

Dunne - 3. covered well in the early stages but big gaffe on the 3rd goal which really ruled out a comeback.

Clark -3. was always going to struggle against Carroll's size and strength

Warnock- 1. incredibly poor, as he has been since about february.

Petrov - 4 some nice touches but looked like he couldnt run from about half an hour in

Ireland - 4 felt a bit sorry for him

Downing - 1. absymal, timid. so poor compared to the blinder he played last week

Albrighton - 2. looked exhausted from the 1st minute

Ashley Young - 4 lively in the first half but pissed me off with his constant whinging when he didnt really have a case

Carew - 1 dire.

[RunRickyRun]

I suppose the most poignant image was the team standing around waiting for Newcastle to come out for the 2nd half.

Albrighton was stood on his own, head bowed, Petrov was having an argument with someone and the rest were standing around like dolls in a shop window.

[rjenkins]

My ratings of the players today:

Brad Friedel - 1

Could have done better with at least two Newcastle goals, and is weak at dealing with crosses and corners, because he simply isn't fast enough to feel confident that he can come out and claim the ball. If a team is allowed to pressure him, his age shows.

Luke Young - 2

I am actually going to disagree with a number of boarders today who thought Young was better than Warnock today. He had a lot to do given the amount of times Albrighton lost the ball, but Jonas made a fool of him all game.

Stephen Warnock - 3

I think Warnock is tied with Dunne as being our 'best' defender out there today. He wasn't great, and he was caught out of position a number of times, but I thought he genuinely looked committed and came up with a number of decent interceptions. Routledge was not as good as Jonas, but still, I think if Jonas had been attacking Warnock today, he would have had less joy.

Richard Dunne - 3

Poor yes, but considering he was having to carry Clark as well as carrying out his own duties, I'm not sure we could ever have expected much better. Got taught a lesson by Carroll today, but I think many centre-halfs will suffer a similar fate this season

Ciaran Clark - 2

Tried hard, but was out of his depth. Why did he start ahead of Davies or Beye, who for all their faults are more experienced?

Marc Albrighton - 2

Tried too hard and was naive. In flashes he showed why he should not be dropped though, as there is no way Downing is better

Stewart Downing - 1

I don't know what he actually offers the team. He just doesn't seem to have any drive. I don't see how he can be a First XI player for us this season.

Stephen Ireland - 5

Had a very tough introduction to life at the Villa. Was compromised all game by being in a two-man centre midfield with Petrov, but when he could run forward into space, did enough to convince me that if we sort out our midfield around him, he could create goals for us.

Stilyian Petrov - 1

Our weak link in midfield. When you can make Kevin Nolan and Alan Smith look like speed demons, then you know you've had a bad game. Looked knackered even though he didn't travel to Vienna.

Ashley Young - 5

Never stopped trying even when most of the others had given up. Maybe made a few wrong decisions, but he was carrying the team for most of the match. Thank Christ we've still got him.

John Carew - 0

The penalty miss would have effected him undoubtedly, but it's no excuse for his woeful performance. He made Heskey look very decent by comparison. I think he will struggle to fit into the new style of play we are attempting at Villa now.

[chappy]

Been back from Newcastle for a few hours now. Still not really sunk in what happened.

Ratings:

Friedel 2 - possibly the worst I've seen him for us, thought he should have done better in the build up to their second goal, instead of parrying it out to whoever headed it in

L Young 4 - covered well and made few mistakes

Dunne 2 - made a few good challenges but also so many uncharacteristic mistakes. Shocking attempted clearance for their third goal

Clark 5 - thought he was the best of the defence, especially given his inexperience

Warnock 1 - largely absent, and gave the ball away too much. Very poor.

Albrighton 3 - showed naiveity (sp?) today I felt, but at least tried hard

Ireland 5 - promising given his rustiness, played a few nice passes and put in a lovely crunching challenge on Smith. Was sat FAR too deep though (although that's probably what he was told to do)

Petrov 1 - barely noticed him, not what we needed from our captain

Downing 4 - he has bore the brunt of a lot of the criticism on here but I thought he was one of our better players today

A Young 4 - kept trying but also moaned far too much and was caught offside far too often

Carew 1 - worst I've seen him. Shockin penalty too.

Heskey 2 - right wing?! When he was pushed up he still disappointed, not a player to bring on at 4-0 down (I know that isn't his fault)

NRC 1 - poor, dispossesed far too easily. However I would have liked to see him on for Marc (who looked weary) at half time.

Beye - thought it was a bad move bringing him on with five mins left, just to get booed.

I would also like to say that I wasn't impressed with their fans, I thought they were supposed to have a good atmosphere up there?! Far too many Villa fans left early for my liking, but I guess based on the second half performance fair enough, one of the worst performances I have seen (not as bad as Doncaster though, as some have suggested).

Only plus point was that they were selling their pies for a quid after the final whistle!

All in all, a shit day. But I think we will come back from this, remember the gritty win away at Bolton a week after the Chelsea debacle? Collins and Cuellar will give us a lot more discipline when they return.

[alienvillan]

I don't blame the players, the first 30 mins was very exciting and joyful but then 3-0 and the game was over (... except that it wasn't).

I don't blame team selection, it was obvious after 3-0 win against West Ham. (But Ireland is not Milner.)

I don't blame tactics, it was obvious after 3-0 win against West Ham.

I blame four little incidents:

Missed penalty. Carew, what the hell?

1-0 Barton. It will take 10 years for him to score another like that, shooting practice included.

2-0 where Carroll-Nolan did something our defenders didn't expect, and where Friedel's save/serve was too good for any player to miss.

3-0 where ... 'oh no'.

... We were the better team in the 1st half and it was slightly surreal to be 3-0 down at the break...

The second half should have been better.

[lapal_fan]

Say what you want about MON but for every single corner of his 4 years here he always had a man on the front and back post which would of stopped 2 of the six goals.

Warnock, Downing, Carew, Petrov, Clark were abysmal.

Fair play to Newcastle though, they can only beat whats put in front of them and they duly did.