Aston Villa v Manchester United .... Friday 14th August 7:45pm kick off.

Plus side we looked organised, defensively quite solid (although it'll be interesting to see what happens when a team has a real go at us) and for a completely new team we looked surprisingly like a team.

Down side we were completely toothless and never really looked threat.

Plus side our three most creative players. as KMitch pointed out, are yet to play.

You have to think, even with that creativity on the pitch, that we lack goals - we really need a top goalscorer to fill that number 10 shirt.

Just watched the goal on replay, Guzan had that covered if it didn't deflect off Clark.

Dions_Bald_Head wrote:Considering the amount of new players in the team...
considering the amount of players new to the premiership...
Considering we were playing Manure & not a newly promoted team...

I think we're looking okay actually.

Agreed... We looked unfit and severely lacked creativity, but other than that we were alright. Another ref, and that would have been a different result.

Hm. I thought we'd be nowhere near the finished article but I was surprised at how toothless we were still. I'm still underwhelmed by Ayew, hopefully he'll gain some strength over the season so far but Gabby... at some point we have to just call it quits, right? What does he actually bring? We've got pace in other areas now. I'm really hoping we bring in another forward before the window closes and boot Gabby at leeast to the bench.

Amavi proved what I thought last match and preseason, that he's my new favourite. Real ability and guile. One minute he's making blinding crosses into the opposition's box, the next he's defending ours like a boss. He's the tits!

Ayew was awful. I think he will come good, but we need to start playing the ball into space for him.

Amavi was effing amazing. Gueye looks brilliant as well.

Pretty clear we need a striker and RB IMO, but hey ho.

Thought Sanchez did well when he came on as well.

The new boys (Amavi and Gueye aside) will need time to settle and gel. Look at Sanchez last year. Veretout clearly isn't fit and didn't have much of a pre-season, same with Gestede. I think we will eventually see Ayew/Grealish wide left and Gestede/Adebayor in the middle and Traore/Gil on the right. We will also see formations changed and Gil/Grealish played as No10's

We all expected to lose tonight and we did. It wasn't a heavy, embarrassing loss, we looked bright in bursts and in Amavi and Gueye we have two stars. I honestly think we need another quality RB (in the mold of Amavi) and a focal point up front. We can't expect instant quality week in week out by Rudy. I fully expect to see Adebayor in by the end of the window.

Onto the next one. Don't forget to vote for YOUR motm

Ayew looked better than Gabby, but that isn't saying much. Hopefully, he'll turn into a decent player after a season adapting to the league, but he's been poor so far.

I thought we did quite well. We tired by 65/70 minutes, but I thought all our players did okay. Ayew and Vertout put in a shift and will be more effective when they get some games under their belts. Our least effective players were Gabby and Sinclair, but we should be able to replace them soon.

Man U wouldn't have beaten Guzan without the deflection and even though it wasn't a particularly good game for the neutral, we weren't out classed.

We played better this game than against Bournemouth so it's a work in progress.

It'd be a miracle to bring in (and still be bringing in) this many new players and making them gel straight away, let alone have them Prem ready. I saw more creativity and positivity today than a whole season under Lamebutt so I'm more than happy with where we're headed.

UTV!

Some crazy and interesting comments coming out here! This is the second game and I thought we looked a considerably better side than we ever did last season. We lost due to a lucky deflection - a shit shot that would've otherwise gone straight to Guzan and they had nothing else to throw at us for 90mins. They might've had a bit more energy at the end but fuck me we've just made a really difficult game for one of the best clubs there is. We were denied a clear penalty but it's a bigger issue with the game for decisions like that. I said to the wife at half time that we are actually playing some attractive football at last - maybe not for the full course of the game, but its certainly better to watch than this time last year.

Agree with VB it was a big improvement on the Bournemouth game - Ayew was not good but he showed a lot more this time around.

We have a lot of players who have to adjust, we are still spending money - all in all things are a lot brighter than they have been for a long time.

Having criticised Richards on the Defence thread, I have to say he looks one of the few that looks up to the mark.
Richards was immense.
Amavi looks to the manner born.
Sanchez looked up to speed and should be in contention to start.
Bacuna played well.
Veretout and Ayew not ready yet.
Gestede might be a one trick pony.
I fucking hate Utd. and Sky

villabromsgrove wrote:I thought we did quite well. We tired by 65/70 minutes, but I thought all our players did okay. Ayew and Vertout put in a shift and will be more effective when they get some games under their belts. Our least effective players were Gabby and Sinclair, but we should be able to replace them soon.

Man U wouldn't have beaten Guzan without the deflection and even though it wasn't a particularly good game for the neutral, we weren't out classed.

We played better this game than against Bournemouth so it's a work in progress.

Agreed, we showed promising signs, were better than last week overall and were far from outclassed by a "superior" club.

Well that was disappointing. Didn't think much of United either. 

Richards solid. Amavi MOTM. Gueye continues to impress. Vertout looks good in spurts. Gestede willing as ever. 

Gabby useless. Ayew is just a French Agbonlahor on the last 2 performances.

I'm now queuing for the bus back to town. Tarrabit

MarvelVillan wrote:It'd be a miracle to bring in (and still be bringing in) this many new players and making them gel straight away, let alone have them Prem ready. I saw more creativity and positivity today than a whole season under Lamebutt so I'm more than happy with where we're headed.

UTV!

I totally agree, some of the players that have been highlighted as being weak tonight, actually had some really nice passages of play, we just need greater fitness and the kind of understanding that comes with a fair number of matches.

Cha Ching wrote:Having criticised Richards on the Defence thread, I have to say he looks one of the few that looks up to the mark.
Richards was immense.

I have to second this... I've also had my doubts about Richards at CB, but he has stepped it up these first two games. He was arguably the 2nd best player on the pitch, besides Amavi.

Yeah me too. Richards plays well.

Shame Mike Dean doesn't know the rules of the game.

MarvelVillan wrote:It'd be a miracle to bring in (and still be bringing in) this many new players and making them gel straight away, let alone have them Prem ready. I saw more creativity and positivity today than a whole season under Lamebutt so I'm more than happy with where we're headed.

UTV!

Same here... I'm upset we lost that match, not because of the players or the manager, but because of the referee. Not giving that blatant penalty cost us at least a point. I'm frustrated, but I'm still optimistic as to where this team can go this season. Like you said, we looked better today than we did under Lambert, so things can only get better from here. UTV!!!

It will come, we have the players and the manager to make this a decent season. I'm fully confident we'll be ramming some of those sky comments down thoer throats in the weeks to come. Just add Gil, Grealish and Traore and we're instantly better, add the new guys getting more game time and familiarity together and fitness/match sharpness and we'll be just fine!! UTV

South London Villan wrote:Agreed Foxy, you listening to my conversations?

Great minds think alike and all that

My final post before I give up on football and biased refereeing.

I thought we looked a much, MUCH better football team compared what I've seen the last few years. We lack a bit of fitness and stuff, but that will come.

Only criticism I have that's negative will be the acting and bullshit from Ayew and Veretout. Doesn't belong anywhere in football. Cut that stuff out.

The sky camera work is appalling. I lost count of tbe amount of times they focused on a player, normally his back, whilst the ball and game was in play. It normally coincided with Neville eulogising about his beloved Utd.
After match punditry was Man Ure heavy aswell. Souness even raised it after 10 minutes of Man U tv, and then they cut to the adverts, tossed off Van Gaal for 5 minutes, talked more Man Ure, went to Tim for 1 minute, 3 questions, then back to The studio for more bollocks and bias for 2 minutes. Job done

I'm sure the only reason Gabby is playing is because he's the most EPL experienced striker at the club.

VTID85 wrote:Some crazy and interesting comments coming out here! This is the second game and I thought we looked a considerably better side than we ever did last season. We lost due to a lucky deflection - a shit shot that would've otherwise gone straight to Guzan and they had nothing else to throw at us for 90mins. They might've had a bit more energy at the end but fuck me we've just made a really difficult game for one of the best clubs there is. We were denied a clear penalty but it's a bigger issue with the game for decisions like that. I said to the wife at half time that we are actually playing some attractive football at last - maybe not for the full course of the game, but its certainly better to watch than this time last year.

And how many times did we test their goalkeeper?

Just got back from watching the game at the pub.

Amavi was MOTM across the whole pitch, not just our team. Excellent from start to finish. Gueye was good too, as was Richards. Hell, most of our side were good.

United looked decidedly average, and won through a lucky deflection. We should've had a penalty for Darmian's arm around Richards' neck (surprisingly, Sky agreed); Mike Dean was looking straight at it for Christ's sake! I think United will get absolutely clobbered by other top 4 contenders if they play anything like they did tonight.

In all fairness, Veretout should've been sent off for that stupid and (going by the replays) deliberate kick on Januzaj. He then proceeded to writhe about on the pitch as though he'd been shot. Pathetic, disgraceful behaviour and I hope Tim stamps on that kind of behaviour ASAP.

On the whole, many positives! We certainly weren't outclassed by the "mighty" United!