Re: Match Thread v Sheffield Wednesday (A)

[Guest]

I don't think we took it to them at all. In the first half we had 30% possession or something. In the second half we had the ball slightly more, thus we looked better, but we hardly created a fucking thing. I can think of three chances, McCormack one on one, Bacuna's shot and Gestede's header. We were shit the entire match.

Get over yourself, 2nd half we were the better team, and seriously need to cut out the back pass, it was easier for cissoko to turn and run but our full back persist I playing it back all the time, why amavi didn't start I'll never know.

No we were not. You might think that, but you would be wrong. So get off that fucking horse. We lost that second half 1-0.

We might have had the ball a bit more, but the fact is that we lost 1-0. And SW were by far the best team out there today. They have 17 attempts. We had 12. They had 6 on goal, we had 2. They had 12 corners. We had 8.

[AstonThriller]

I don't think we took it to them at all. In the first half we had 30% possession or something. In the second half we had the ball slightly more, thus we looked better, but we hardly created a fucking thing. I can think of three chances, McCormack one on one, Bacuna's shot and Gestede's header. We were shit the entire match.

Get over yourself, 2nd half we were the better team, and seriously need to cut out the back pass, it was easier for cissoko to turn and run but our full back persist I playing it back all the time, why amavi didn't start I'll never know.

No we were not. You might think that, but you would be wrong. So get off that fucking horse. We lost that second half 1-0.

We might have had the ball a bit more, but the fact is that we lost 1-0. And SW were by far the best team out there today. They have 17 attempts. We had 12. They had 6 on goal, we had 2. They had 12 corners. We had 8.

Sorry but that's nonsense. In the first half they had around 70% possession and we barely created a chance. Yet by the end of the game the possession was fairly close and the gap where chances and corners were concerned had closed significantly. We still have a lot to work on but to say they were "by far the better team" is simply bollox imo. We lost because our keeper made an error...that was the difference today, nothing else.

[Guest]

They were the far better team. All the stats are in their favour. We might have had a half each in terms of possession. Yet they scored, we didn't. They also have the stats in their favour despite us having one half each. What does that tell you? They were the better team and the stats and points shows it.

[AstonThriller]

They were the far better team. All the stats are in their favour. We might have had a half each in terms of possession. Yet they scored, we didn't. They also have the stats in their favour despite us having one half each.  What does that tell you? They were the better team and the stats and points shows it.

They scored because of a mistake, while overall we had the better chances...especially Mccormack's. It's like a Mayweather dominating the first five rounds and then his opponent piles on the pressure over the the next six rounds, Mayweather is on the backfoot but then somehow his opponent contrives to stick his chin in the air and leaves his hands down. One hit and the fight is over!!..the fight was even but for one mistake but then people turn around and say "Mayweather was by far the better fighter"...that simply wouldn't make sense.

[Guest]

Whatever. When you lose on possession, you lose on shots off and on target, you lose on corners and you even lose on fouls and effort, then you have met a better team. We were not as good as SW today. Simple as.

Not saying there isn't light in the tunnel, but lets call a spade a spade.

The thing that annoyed me most today (if not disappointing), except the manner we conceded a soft shite goal again, was how RDM didn't get Green and Bacuna on earlier. Bacuna offered absolutely nothing.

[Saunders82]

They were the far better team. All the stats are in their favour. We might have had a half each in terms of possession. Yet they scored, we didn't. They also have the stats in their favour despite us having one half each.  What does that tell you? They were the better team and the stats and points shows it.

Sorry Joppe84 but thats rubbish, they are a good solid Championship team, we held them first half, we had pushed em back in the second half, the crowd had gone quiet and we were looking most likely to score, one self inflicted mistake as usual cost us BUT after the shite from the last few seasons that went was much better. If/when we get these players in we are looking at we will be much more solid. Stop casting a dark shadow over the rebuild, we are getting better. UTV

[Guest]

None of what I wrote is rubbish. It's all something I can prove with facts.

[Villa_Dan]

They weren't vastly better than us. Roll out all the stats you want, it still doesn't prove anything. Saying they were far better is just pure fucking bullshit

[Guest]

Well technically the degree of superiority is rather subjective. What's there for everyone to see is that they were the better team.

[Con]

Great teams always find a way to win.

Villa always finds a way to lose in the end.

Pathetic.

That's the problem we need to sort out.

We need to get rid of the patheticness.

We definitely need a right back, perhaps another centerback and a midfielder.

When Hutton and Cissoko got forward they didn't put in good crosses so they're not helping the attack and they certainly not helping the defence. Both involved in the conceded goal - Cissoko with the pass to Gollini and then Hutton losing out to Foresteiri.

[DaveAV1]

I thought we improved as the game went on. The biggest difference in the two teams was that they looked more a settled side, whereas we are definitely a side under construction. Even settled sides take time to find their way and early season results are often deceptive. "You win nothing with kids" anyone?

There's work to be done, both with the players we already have and others that we're trying to bring in. If we had sneaked a win it would be silly to get carried away, equally there's no point in getting too down after a narrow defeat.

It'll be a long hard season, although by the time we've won the League Cup and got to the FA Cup semi, I'd expect us to have tied up the league.

[danclare82]

My thoughts are similar to those saying full backs are dire and midfield lightweight. There's no way on God's earth Hutton or cissoko should be playing. I never thought I'd write these words but I'd rather have Bennett at fb than those clowns. I thought Elphick and Baker did OK and Gollini is probably good enough for this league. I do think we were hamstrung by the team selection I would have started with Grealish and Tish I don't care how green he is I fucking hate Bacuna with a passion. No good playing Gestede until we can put at least a dozen crosses a game into him and the above shows why that's not gonna happen until we change wide mid and fb's.
I think we were decent in the second half once we realised  weren't going to get battered but needed that belief from minute 1.
I don't think SW were bad I think that's the top ten standard in this league so that's encouraging. We will win games and pick up plenty of points and must surely sign more players,  so I'm still optimistic even though there was the same sucker punch familiar end today.
I do think the coaching needs sorting as Joppe said we aren't defending centrally properly and give too much space to attackers. But those full backs,  fuck me gently,  they are pure shite and unless we change them we've just given every other manager in the league their game plan for the rest of the season.
Onwards and upwards - we will get there,  of that in sure.

Spot on DK. As soon as i saw line up i thought wtf. I thought we we awful 1st half. Yes we did better 2nd half but everything was trying to find gestede. No variation and grealish defo aswell as tish who i thought did more in 10mins than gardner should be starting. Ayew is not a ldt midfielder. Part of front 3 yes left mid no! Gutted by result but things will improve. Jst hope RDM gets right lineups going forward

[Dions_Bald_Head]

Well that put a slight dampener on my holiday here on the other side of the world. Not too shocking against a strong SW team tho & nothing like the beating their fans seemed to be expecting. Hopefully RDM is still getting his team sorted - particularly as we may have further incoming.

[avfcjay]

Woke up at 1:30am here to watch the game. First half I was holding my breath on occasions especially when our FBs just let them stroll past them or be beaten by extremely simple one-two passes. I think we were lucky not to be behind as Wednesday were wasteful in the first half.

Second half we were by far the better team, we created more chances, got closer to scoring than them. Could/should have had a penalty or their player sent off. Ref wasn't the best.

I agree with the FBs being shit and we need to get a new RB ASAP! LB is all good with Amavi and Bennett there. Gardner shouldn't start neither should Westwood. Ideally a new CM to sit with Tish and the front 3 playing as a proper front 3.

We have the players and we showed that team can create chances. I'm not worried, but if we lose our next game then nerves may set in.

[CoE82]

I don't think we took it to them at all. In the first half we had 30% possession or something. In the second half we had the ball slightly more, thus we looked better, but we hardly created a fucking thing. I can think of three chances, McCormack one on one, Bacuna's shot and Gestede's header. We were shit the entire match.

Get over yourself, 2nd half we were the better team, and seriously need to cut out the back pass, it was easier for cissoko to turn and run but our full back persist I playing it back all the time, why amavi didn't start I'll never know.

No we were not. You might think that, but you would be wrong. So get off that fucking horse. We lost that second half 1-0.

We might have had the ball a bit more, but the fact is that we lost 1-0. And SW were by far the best team out there today. They have 17 attempts. We had 12. They had 6 on goal, we had 2. They had 12 corners. We had 8.

No that's your opinion, I don't agree with it, so I'll stay on my fucking high horse, and you can stay on your fucking
soap box :-), maybe a trip to spec savers will help you.

[WendyOz]

Glad to hear we are after Jedinak, probably one of the better Aussie players. THink we missed a golden opportunity to get Tim Cahill though. He's just signed with Melbourne for 2 years for something like $7m. Even at his age he is a goal poacher.

[Trotters]

I do wonder if RDM sent them out to simply get a feel for this league in the first half. Good that we went in at half time without being behind but the changes needed were obvious. Unfortunately due to the limit in the number of subs you can make, there was only so much the manager could have done....but he left it a bit late to do it.

One thing no one touched on before this game was that the refs would be a lower standard. And fuck me this ref was shit. It's obvious to everyone on the planet that has watched football after 1959 that lining up a fullback and attempting to hoof him into the stands is a yellow card. All day long. The linesman flagged so furiously he lost the flaggy bit. But this sugarbag ref has obviously been to the Phil Dowd School Of Referreing and decided that it'd disadvantage Wednesday if he sent the player off.

Fucking disgraceful and I hope RDM does an Alex Ferguson and insists that this arsehole never ref one of our games again.

As for our players...well, I dunno what to say that's not already been said. @De Kuip and @VTID85 summed it up for me.  

I imagine that McCormack got subbed as he was knackered? Otherwise he should be stayed on.

Gestede did little.

Ayew was great but a tad selfish and offers little protection for Cissokho who was struggling. Especially going forward. Every time he finds himself with the ball in the opposition half he looks like he's just woke up from a dream to find himself halfway up Mt.Everest and doesn't know whether to go forward and try and conquer it or go back.

Question is, do we put Bennett back there in his place or put Bennett at left half to protect Cissokho?

Our great hope/Villa's Stevie Gerrard once again fails to do anything in a Villa top that impresses me.

I thought Westwood would take this game by the scruff of the neck but he's gone someway to proving he's a nothing player.

Tish scared me. Slow and casual as fuck with the ball but gets a pass this time cuz he's new.

Bacuna was a step up from last season. So he's now on step one.

Central defence were fine as was Gollini bar the sliced effort.

Hutton. It's all been said already. Fuck him off asap. A liability at the back and offers nothing going forward.

I don't know who these players are we have bids in for but their price just went up 10%.

On the plus side, although we were given a bit of a test in the first half, the 2nd half was much much better. Let's write this game off as a lesson, learn from it, settle down, get the formation and starting XI right and go from there. .

If we get 4 points from the first 3 games, some new players and RDM starts getting his team and tactics right then we should be ok.

Game on game improvement from here on in please.

[Guest]

I don't think we took it to them at all. In the first half we had 30% possession or something. In the second half we had the ball slightly more, thus we looked better, but we hardly created a fucking thing. I can think of three chances, McCormack one on one, Bacuna's shot and Gestede's header. We were shit the entire match.

Get over yourself, 2nd half we were the better team, and seriously need to cut out the back pass, it was easier for cissoko to turn and run but our full back persist I playing it back all the time, why amavi didn't start I'll never know.

No we were not. You might think that, but you would be wrong. So get off that fucking horse. We lost that second half 1-0.

We might have had the ball a bit more, but the fact is that we lost 1-0. And SW were by far the best team out there today. They have 17 attempts. We had 12. They had 6 on goal, we had 2. They had 12 corners. We had 8.

No that's your opinion, I don't agree with it, so I'll stay on my fucking high horse, and you can stay on your fucking
soap box :-), maybe a trip to spec savers will help you.

That's not my opinion ffs haha. It's a fact. The result and statistics are there for all to see. It's not an opinion at all. Whether you choose to accept it is another matter entire, but then you should probably consider that the earth is flat as well

[Wriggle]

i think start to the season was somewhere along the lines of what most were expecting, and the plus is that RDM gets to see what more he needs to change right from the start.

I was a bit shocked when i saw the starting line up though, especially Westwood in a 2 man centre with Gardner... Westwood was no good in a 3 man centre midfield so how he is ever going to be ok in a 2 man one is beyond me.

I was surprised that Grealish didn't start as he's been going ok in Pre-season, and what exactly was the formation we were playing? was it 4-3-3 or 4-4-2? at first i thought he was going with 3 up front, but it actually looked like 4-4-2 with Ayew out on the left. And I don't think a midfield 4 of Ayew-Gardner-Westwood-Bacuna is good enough, swap Bacuna for grealish and Westwood for the cleaning lady and we'd be much better suited.

Desperately need a right back too, Hutton got forward enough but his crosses are simply woeful as evidenced by the 2 short corners he went for and only just got the ball in the box.

The first half they seemed to be a bit tentative, and probably a mix of last seasons hangover, new players, new manager and being too cautious about the other team. Second half they came out and pretty much dominated the game before the error that led to their goal.

we certainly didn't deserve to lose the game, but probably didn't do enough to win it either but the second half certainly gave confidence that we will be alright this season as these are one of the favourites to be right up there and we gave as good as we got at their place and i don't remember Gollini making any saves of note.

Fingers crossed we can get Jedinak in along with a few others in the areas we can all see need improving!

[Trotters]

I've just read some comments on Wednesday forums.

Concensus seems to be that:
1. They bossed the first half. So good a performance in fact that it warrants this kind of comment: "Great....not given the ball away. Passing is completely on point. Wide players have been superb and the speed of our players getting the ball out to them is amazing".
2. Our fullbacks were shit.
3. The ref was shit.
4. Hutchison is a lunatic who was lucky to stay on the pitch.
5. Ayew is scary good and with McCormack we should easily have enough firepower for a top 6 finish.
6. Aside from the goal, Gollini was excellent.
7. Our 2nd half performance was good enough to earn a draw.

Point 2 is interesting. If that's what the Championship considers amazing then we should do ok provided we can get some new fullbacks and a bit of creativity in the middle.

[KMitch]

I've just read some comments on Wednesday forums.

Concensus seems to be that:
1. They bossed the first half. So good a performance in fact that it warrants this kind of comment: "Great....not given the ball away. Passing is completely on point. Wide players have been superb and the speed of our players getting the ball out to them is amazing".
2. Our fullbacks were shit.
3. The ref was shit.
4. Hutchison is a lunatic who was lucky to stay on the pitch.
5. Ayew is scary good and with McCormack we should easily have enough firepower for a top 6 finish.
6. Aside from the goal, Gollini was excellent.
7. Our 2nd half performance was good enough to earn a draw.

Point 2 is interesting. If that's what the Championship considers amazing then we should do ok provided we can get some new fullbacks and a bit of creativity in the middle.

You do have a good point.  That was one of the better teams in this league.  Provided we replace Hutton/Bacuna/Gestede, start Tshbola/Ayew, and gel together as a team, I think we can win much more often than we will lose this season.

Also, like I said before, the only person I saw who looked more pissed off than I was that we threw that game away was Dr. Tony.  Hopefully, he'll make sure we get new players in soon.

[Trotters]

Thoughts on Tony's Mrs ?

She's only in it for the money and both Professor Fuckface (whatever his name is) and @Alf T have made her wonder if she's been duped.

[De Kuip]

I've just read some comments on Wednesday forums.

Concensus seems to be that:
1. They bossed the first half. So good a performance in fact that it warrants this kind of comment: "Great....not given the ball away. Passing is completely on point. Wide players have been superb and the speed of our players getting the ball out to them is amazing".
2. Our fullbacks were shit.
3. The ref was shit.
4. Hutchison is a lunatic who was lucky to stay on the pitch.
5. Ayew is scary good and with McCormack we should easily have enough firepower for a top 6 finish.
6. Aside from the goal, Gollini was excellent.
7. Our 2nd half performance was good enough to earn a draw.

Point 2 is interesting. If that's what the Championship considers amazing then we should do ok provided we can get some new fullbacks and a bit of creativity in the middle.

A good comments section after the match report in the guardian online echoes the above Trotters, plus they were very impressed with the massed ranks of noisy Villa fans. Sounds like the atmosphere was excellent.
Having slept on the result I'm even more optimistic about the future and we have an extra 8 games more than in the Prem to sort ourselves/catch up with the front runners. Need to see those signings arrive though allied to good team selection. I still want to see Adama in this league as I'm convinced he'll terrify the hell out of defenders which may help our fb situation if theirs are pinned back. Mind you, is he another non track back merchant? Just need to send him so I can finally make a judgement.

[worcesterkev]

It was the first match of the season, We were playing away to a team that nearly got promoted, lost only twice last year at home and are full of confidence after being unbeaten preseason while we have a hangover from last year.
The first half was always going to be about containing them and keeping a clean sheet, second half we gained confidence and looked a good team albeit in patches. After we have won a couple of games which we will do and the confidence starts returning this result will be forgotten and we should hopefully start flying.
I am alot more optimistic now than before the match if this is the best the league has to offer.

[CoE82]

was it me or did ayew look not interested, along with being to greedy, I can't understand why we play with 3 strikers but put 1 on the wing, it's the same mistakes as last season. if we're gonna play gustede then we need proper wingers that can cross as well as proper fullbacks, both Hutton and Cissoko have shown there not good enough.

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