Ashley Westwood

[TrentVilla]

 

People know how important confidence is in football yet they boo a lad coming on to try and help us protect a lead in he closing minutes. Utterly counter productive and frankly the football equivalent of self harm.

As for people saying they were booing the decision, I actually think this is even worse given how Bruce has performed since he got the job.

[AVTuco]

This booing thing has made me a big Westwood supporter. I love it when someone said they tried to clap down the booers. Right way to go. Make them feel stupid.

Go Ashley!

[DCJonah]

9 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

Really? He did literally nothing wrong today. Helped to close out the game well. What chance does he have with fans?

Help close out the game well is a bit of a stretch. He made no tackles, won no headers, completed no dribbles and touched the ball 10 times. 

He ran around a bit when he came on, it wasn't terrible but I find it hard to use the word well to describe how Ashley Westwood plays. 

No surprise to me that in our 3 wins under Bruce he's played 20 minutes combined. 

[StefanAVFC]

42 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Help close out the game well is a bit of a stretch. He made no tackles, won no headers, completed no dribbles and touched the ball 10 times. 

He ran around a bit when he came on, it wasn't terrible but I find it hard to use the word well to describe how Ashley Westwood plays. 

No surprise to me that in our 3 wins under Bruce he's played 20 minutes combined. 

Did I say he played well? I said he helped to close out the game well. Which he did. We won and he had a contribution to that.

And anyway, my response was in relation to, what I felt was, an unfair post.

[HanoiVillan]

He did play well, anyway. He wasn't on the field for very long. The fact that he only touched the ball ten times is immaterial when you're only on the field for about ten minutes or so. He did what he had to do, well. 

[blandy]

3 hours ago, DCJonah said:

I find it hard to use the word well to describe how Ashley Westwood plays. 

I think that shows an unwillingness or difficulty in watching him objectively. Rather than watching his performance and then fairly commenting, your words make it sound like you are predisposed to negativity towards him. That's not a criticism of you - we're all human, and I'm 100% certain there are people from various walks of life who I'm predisposed to negativity towards.

It's just kind of a shame for me and you that we are like that. Particularly with football and our team, because howling our negativity at someone, especially on our team kind of spoils or takes away from enjoying the game. More so when it's before the player's even entered onto the pitch.

[markavfc40]

7 hours ago, Czechlad said:

Westwood has done nothing to deserve this treatment.

I think that hits the nail on the head doesn't it.

I understand that people don't rate him but for me the only reason for booing a player would be if he is an idle bastard not putting a shift in. If a player is giving it his all but is simply not good enough then you can ask no more can you. A lack of ability you can forgive a lack of effort is unforgivable.

In the vast majority of games for us I think Westwood has put a shift in. Despite a mixed reception yesterday he again did exactly that but it can't help the lads confidence being booed before he has even stepped foot on the pitch. My daughter who goes to the games with me and never frequents this forum is genuinely bemused by the reception he gets as she thinks you rarely notice him. He does nothing particularly good or bad.

As others have alluded to I'd imagine the other players are wondering what the hell is going on. I get the impression that Westwood is well liked within the squad and we are hardly endearing ourselves to any of them if we are booing a player who always puts a shift in for us.

It should also be remembered he has and never will pick himself. The fact he is still high up the pecking order is down to successive managers not finding better not down to him.

Edited November 6, 2016 by markavfc40

[DCJonah]

44 minutes ago, blandy said:

I think that shows an unwillingness or difficulty in watching him objectively. Rather than watching his performance and then fairly commenting, your words make it sound like you are predisposed to negativity towards him. That's not a criticism of you - we're all human, and I'm 100% certain there are people from various walks of life who I'm predisposed to negativity towards.

It's just kind of a shame for me and you that we are like that. Particularly with football and our team, because howling our negativity at someone, especially on our team kind of spoils or takes away from enjoying the game. More so when it's before the player's even entered onto the pitch.

Not at all. I've praised him when I feel he deserves it. Early on in the season I posted how well I thought he'd played. I'd have no problem in praising him again in the future if deserved. But overall he deserves the negativity towards him because he's been a very poor player for us. 

Hearing that a few idiots booed him yesterday did not take away from my enjoyment of us winning another game under Bruce. 

[StefanAVFC]

10 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

But overall he deserves the negativity towards him because he's been a very poor player for us. 

You're basically justifying the booing here. 

"Don't look back in anger" my arse. He deserves a clean slate. No negativity towards him is deserved, what sort of nonsense is that?

Edited November 6, 2016 by StefanAVFC

[DCJonah]

1 minute ago, StefanAVFC said:

You're basically justifying the booing here. 

"Don't look back in anger" my arse. He deserves a clean slate. No negativity towards him is justified, what sort of nonsense is that?

Not at all, I just said those that booed were idiots, it was there in my post. 

I'm on about the negativity when discussing him as a player. 

[StefanAVFC]

4 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Not at all, I just said those that booed were idiots, it was there in my post. 

I'm on about the negativity when discussing him as a player. 

I mean, it's not clear in your post. You added the 'idiots' bit as an aside that booing doesn't bother you.

And even then, if you're talking about on here, he doesn't 'deserve' it. We can't sing 'don't look back in anger' then treat our players like this after they haven't done anything wrong.

Edited November 6, 2016 by StefanAVFC

[DCJonah]

6 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

I mean, it's not clear in your post. You added the 'idiots' bit as an aside that booing doesn't bother you.

And even then, if you're talking about on here, he doesn't 'deserve' it. We can't sing 'don't look back in anger' then treat our players like this after they haven't done anything wrong.

Why do you keep mentioning that song? We didn't have a big fan decision about playing it and why we should sing it. 

I disagree. Playing shit for so long is well worth negativity on an internet forum. 

[StefanAVFC]

Just now, DCJonah said:

Why do you keep mentioning that song? We didn't have a big fan decision about playing it and why we should sing it. 

You're totally missing the point.

It's something we've decided to adapt as an anthem for the beginning of the Bruce era. That we shouldn't look back at the previous shit and it's a fresh start.

Yet Westwood somehow still deserves (your words) negativity hurled his way.

For me, it's totally counter-productive. You can keep saying that he deserves it online, but not at games, but that message is blatantly contradictory. Negativity anywhere is counter-productive.

He deserves a clean slate from Villa fans across the board. I find it baffling how anyone could argue otherwise.

[AJ]

4 hours ago, AVTuco said:

This booing thing has made me a big Westwood supporter. I love it when someone said they tried to clap down the booers. Right way to go. Make them feel stupid.

Go Ashley!

Its a shame I can only like this post once. I just want him to do well. He can and has played better in the past than he has so far this season. He doesn't deserve the crap he gets from the knuckleheads in the peanut gallery. No Villa player should. Hopefully he is  strong enough to rise above it and starts to show some good form on the pitch.

[DCJonah]

7 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

You're totally missing the point.

It's something we've decided to adapt as an anthem for the beginning of the Bruce era. That we shouldn't look back at the previous shit and it's a fresh start.

Yet Westwood somehow still deserves (your words) negativity hurled his way.

For me, it's totally counter-productive. You can keep saying that he deserves it online, but not at games, but that message is blatantly contradictory. Negativity anywhere is counter-productive.

He deserves a clean slate from Villa fans across the board. I find it baffling how anyone could argue otherwise.

I think it's daft to expect everyone to post lovely positive comments and suppress opinions because we've taken on an oasis song as an anthem. 

With the vast majority of fans he has a clean slate. He will be praised when he plays well and will get credit for it. But like others he will rightly be criticised when he isn't.

You have a very small group who have taken to booing him, so small it can't really be heard unless you're around them. 

 

[StefanAVFC]

3 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I think it's daft to expect everyone to post lovely positive comments and suppress opinions because we've taken on an oasis song as an anthem. 

Total strawman. You know what I'm talking about and that I would never expect 'lovely positive comments'. A clean slate and the tripe you've written there are worlds apart.

3 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

You have a very small group who have taken to booing him, so small it can't really be heard unless you're around them. 

 

You're understating it. It was loud enough that multiple people have written about it. This isn't one or two fans getting into arguments in the stands.

Edited November 6, 2016 by StefanAVFC

[DCJonah]

3 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Total strawman. You know what I'm talking about and that I would never expect 'lovely positive comments'. A clean slate and the tripe you've written there are worlds apart.

You're understating it. It was loud enough that multiple people have written about it. This isn't one or two fans getting into arguments in the stands.

Right. So people can post criticism of him them? Like they would others?

Glad we agree. 

[StefanAVFC]

Just now, DCJonah said:

Right. So people can post criticism of him them? Like they would others?

Sure. But if it's deserved at that time. Not because of things he's done in the past.

That's what you seem to be suggesting he deserves criticism regardless because 'he's been a very poor player for us.'

[Johnnyp]

On match day if you go to villa park, support isn't picking and choosing the bits the suits you. Your all in or nothing. If ya want to boo one of your own stay at home.  

[StefanAVFC]

Just now, Johnnyp said:

On match day if you go to villa park, support isn't picking and choosing the bits the suits you. Your all in or nothing. If ya want to boo one of your own stay at home.  

Unless the player has been a very poor player for us. Then he deserves all the criticism he gets

This strawman thing is easy.