After match verdict

mefromhere wrote:I've said it before but some people on here would win the lottery and complain they didn't win it when the jackpot was higher!

Tonight, for the first time in years we played as a team. Led from the front by McCormack, pressing high and supported by Ayew, Tish and Westwood who pressed incredibly well. Chester and Tommy are solid.

I hope the first few games don't knock the confidence of Gollini because he will undoubtedly win us more points than he will cost us this season.

Dr Tony has brought a feel good factor back to the club and 35,000 people to watch us against Huddersfield on a Tuesday night! Not only that but as disappointed as everybody was at the end the players received great applause for their efforts and the only boos were for the ref who only had yellow cards for one team it appeared!

Get behind them, there's a fantastic season ahead!

Agree it was a great game. Nice to see 2 teams going for it - rather than the boring prem 10 behind the stuff.

Not quite sure how you can have such confidence in Gollini - he's cost us in 2 of the three games he's played. Hes very young - but don't think he should be learning his trade in a very important season for us - he might be one for the future - but we need an experienced keeper betwwen the sticks THIS season - we can't throw a season or two, whilst he gets to grips with things.

The ref ruined it for me. very quick to wave yellow cards at Village players but turned blind eye to Huddersfield. This in turn affected the team as Tisch & Elphick backed off too much

Disappointing to only draw, in a game we should be winning if we want promotion. But some promising signs, not least that it should have been wrapped up by half-time. Hopefully we can make up for it against Derby.

I'm judging only from the 2 minute highlight video - many thanks for posting it!!!

Ayew looks a little selfish. Not for the first time. And it appears that defenders mow know he'll cut in from the left and run across the box. However, @villa_Dan commented that there were times he SHOULD have been more selfish.

Gestede looked good and involved. But again, above comments (sorry, I forgot who) said he wasn't at the races.

Gollini. Hmmmmm.....you always see players chasing down those clearances on the one chance in a thousand something will come of it. Can you blame the keeper? Yes and no. Probably should have got there quicker and stuck it in the stand but he'll learn from it. Problem is, how many points will we drop while he's learnings? Whilst we can blame the strikers for not putting their chances away, at 1-0 up the game is yours to lose. That's 4 dropped points now. The manager will start thinking soon that missing out on the playoff spots by 4 points (or 6 or 8 if he keeps making mistakes) won't cut it with Dr.T. so I'd say Gollini is on borrowed time here. Bunn, in my opinion, is a good keeper!

Several of you have noted the midfield ran out of puff and I noticed that Tish went off for fucking Gary cunting Gardner. So without any evidence other than that (and his performances so far this season), I'm gonna blame him for the draw.

Useless bastard.

Having watched their goal a dozen times over, I have to say I was wrong in saying Gollini should have got there quicker...he was there in plenty of time.

Enough time to angle it more? Maybe.
Should Elphick have hoofed it? Perhaps.

But it's just a freak goal. It could have hit the player and gone wide, over, out for a throw, gone back to canon off the goalie again. Anything.

The fact it hit an area 8ft x 8 yrds is just pure bad luck.

Trotters wrote:Having watched their goal a dozen times over, I have to say I was wrong in saying Gollini should have got there quicker...he was there in plenty of time.

Enough time to angle it more? Maybe.
Should Elphick have hoofed it? Perhaps.

But it's just a freak goal. It could have hit the player and gone wide, over, out for a throw, gone back to canon off the goalie again. Anything.

The fact it hit an area 8ft x 8 yrds is just pure bad luck.

Exactly Gollini probably had time to side step the guy?

We are still learning as a team and have to remember that we have new and better players coming in so the likes of Westwood can be binned!

The reality is we would have lost this type of game last year! The signs are there!

Joppe, my Norwegian friend, you are in the minority. Fact.


Never a truer word spoken, he is 'special'!

Clear to me that fitness is going to be a key factor in a league where the games come thick and fast.

I thought we tired badly last night and both Huddersfield and Luton last week looked fitter than us as the game wore on.

If RDM wants to play a high pressing style, he will need them to last the full 90 + extra time. We have now lost valuable points twice in the last 10 minutes of games and lost our momentum completely last night. Over to you Mr. Fitness Coach.

Still, all this said,its fantastic to see them competetive and playing as a team.

Was really p/ssed of yesterday so decided not to bother to comment. Having slept on it I simply cannot fault the display for most of the game. I mean it should have been done and dusted in that first hour and I'm sure we'll learn from this. The good news is if you look at the two goals we let in in isolation they were freak goals and we wasn't "broken down". It was just one of those bad luck situations tbh.

I mean personally I wonder why Elphick left it to Gollini in the first place? He should have kicked it out imo. Gollini will be a star in the future and I think we should keep faith in him. Although RDM might think it's wise to bring in a better quality back-up? Perhaps on loan? So if Gollini does need a break we'll have someone reliable. Because in all honesty I don't trust Bunn or Stear.

Another issue this game highlighted is our complete lack of goals from midfield again. Tish hasn't actually scored a league goal yet and Westwood can barely hit a barn door. I know Grealish scored at the weekend but that was only his second goal in about a million appearances. Having a midfielder who can score goals is what wins you games like yesterday because they can be the difference when the strikers aren't at their best.

There will be more highs and lows but if we continue to create chances like we did yesterday we should be just fine. Derby have had a bad start so could be a good time to play them at the weekend.

DelboyVilla wrote:Joppe, my Norwegian friend, you are in the minority. Fact.


Never a truer word spoken, he is 'special'!

Doesn't bother me. Idiots tend to cluster around an opinion.

But to be serious for a second, it's just symptomatic around the whole politically correct constantly offended culture that's developed the last 10 years. And by that I mean the fact that you can't actually have an opinion that differs from people without being insulted for it. If disagree, fine. Argue it. Maybe you will convince someone. But calling people all kinds of names under the sun cause you don't agree is about as idiotic as calling people racists cause they feel the current immigration/migration to Europe is unsustainable.

our bench was poor. 3 full backs and no one proven to score goals

Still don't get why Murphy wasn't on the bench. Is he out on loan?

As Harvey Specter says, "Don't raise your voice, get a better arguement".

Whilst I'm not a fan of the type of name calling that went on earlier - please quit - I can see both sides of things here.

Joppe, like me you are only seeing (or hearing?) a small part of what's going on and your opinion will then be partway formed by the commentary you're listening to. For me, my opinion was formed based on the score and the 2 minute highlights.

Fact is, you can't base a solid opinion on that.

I remember seeing the first few games on widescreen tv and realising how much more of the game you can see and understand just from those extra few inches. And even the biggest, highest def display in the world won't compare to being there.

And radio? Slightly better than text commentary I suppose.

It's a sad sad league we are in that fucking radio is the only option for some.

I can also see your perspective that improvements on the pitch seem to be slow; especially when we still seem to persevere with absolute cloggers like Gardner. FFS! And when we still seem to making the last 10 minute mistakes that have plagued us for years now.

However....

You have to admit that although the club has only taken the first few steps away from the Lerner era, those steps have been huge. On every front. But it's not going to be reflected on the pitch in 2 or 3 games. RDM and his team will still be assessing the squad let alone knowing his strongest XI. And even when replacements for the dross do come in, they'll need get-to-know-you time.

But I think the biggest reason for the backlash you had earlier was down to pure negativity. We've been plucked from the pool of shit that Lerner/Faulkner/Fox/umpteen managers put us in and we're in the process of sorting ourselves out. There's no point in moaning about the bits of shit that are still attached when you know it's all gonna come out in the wash.

The fans are weary, mate. There's been SO much disappointment over the last 5 years that it's hard to put into words. I guess most of us will now look at the positives and highlight those, knowing that the few negatives that still remain - significant though they may be - are being ironed out.

As has been stated by a few posters, we'd have lost this match last season. And probably by some distance. I saw things in those 2 minutes of highlights that I've not seen in years. I recall one highlights reel last season where they didn't even show Villa with the ball....simply because we rarely had it and when we did, there was nothing worth seeing.

Have faith. Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative and let's see where we are in, say, 6 weeks. My guess is, we'll be flying!

Hard to argue with Specter. But he also said
"Winners don't make excuses."

And right now we're making a whole lot of excuses. Call a spade a spade

We're not winners. Far from it. That's clear. But you can't go from being the most abject team the Premier League has possibly ever seen to Barcelona Mk.II in an off season.

Joppe84 wrote:Hard to argue with Specter. But he also said
"Winners don't make excuses."

And right now we're making a whole lot of excuses. Call a spade a spade

OK - Goal keeping error - cost us 2 points

Inability to get the 2nd goal was also a factor.

Fitness looked suspect after 70 minutes.

But

For an hour we totally dominated the game - and throughout the 90 minutes we had more and better chances

Both this match and the Wednesday one were lost by the defence putting the goalie under pressure. Fine if Gollini called for the ball to be left for him (or passed back to him) but if not, we've lost (edit: lost one, lost the lead in the other) two matches because the defence hasn't dealt with the ball but have instead rid themselves of the responsibility by letting the goalie make an error.

RDM needs to get it clear that while it's fine to use the goalie when there's no other option, if it's going to put him under pressure, kick it upfield in the direction of Gestede or Ayew, or kick it high into the stands. The more you mess around passing the ball from defender to defender, the higher the likelihood the opposition will press forward and cause problems. Whether the midfield needs to be more active in making themselves available for the defence to move the ball forward or whether it's the defenders being told to try to keep possession rather than punting the ball I don't know.

Either way, I feel sorry for Gollini for getting the flack. Players lose the ball all the time, or make mistakes or don't control it properly.

My opinion (for what it's worth!) on your posts, Joppe, is that they're so excessively mind-crushingly depressing I don't want to read them: 'everything is fucked and here's why'. I did get to the point where I was going to look for the 'ignore' button and may well still do so (if there is one).

One of the things about this site that attracted me was it's not supposed to put up with trolling or bullying or offensive posts. Some of the stuff aimed at you has been getting a little close to that.

Joppe84 wrote:

DelboyVilla wrote:Joppe, my Norwegian friend, you are in the minority. Fact.


Never a truer word spoken, he is 'special'!

Doesn't bother me. Idiots tend to cluster around an opinion.

But to be serious for a second, it's just symptomatic around the whole politically correct constantly offended culture that's developed the last 10 years. And by that I mean the fact that you can't actually have an opinion that differs from people without being insulted for it. If disagree, fine. Argue it. Maybe you will convince someone. But calling people all kinds of names under the sun cause you don't agree is about as idiotic as calling people racists cause they feel the current immigration/migration to Europe is unsustainable.

Come on Floppe, smile????

Most of it is meant in jest? Move on and chin up.

Not taking our chances first half came back to bite us on the azz let's be honest we should have been out of sight by the second half but that's football, we still need additions we all know that but we have played 2 games at VP and taken 4 points from 6 much better than in previous years where we couldn't win at home, they scored a lucky goal and played well second half final third period of the game let's be fair to them they made a sub that changed there mindset Wells, i looked at our bench and knew after we missed the chances we did that Huddersfield would come strong at some point and was worried we did not have anybody on our bench to come on and change the game if we needed to and that's what happend,

We badly need players coming in and Dr T/RDM will do so let's just be patient yes it's frustrating but we are improving and with a few more signings added so we have options on our bench aswell then i can see us going on a real run of results soon, let's remember also Huddersfield beat Newcastle away last week and are unbeaten they scored from a fluke and we could have routed them by half time,

Villa Park will be an intimidating place for any team to come to now, no team will fancy playing here and know we will create chances and go at them, much better atmosphere and you can feel the change from misery to hope and belief we can win unlike years gone by.

Thing's are progressing keep the faith! UTV!

FoxyAV wrote:
Either way, I feel sorry for Gollini for getting the flack...

Look at this garbage....

That shat is absolute pathetic calling him that kind of stuff, feck me we are supposed to be fans supporters not feckin haters knocking the confidence out of them for any little thing they do wrong, it was a fluke goal i recall Bosnich doing this stuff he would fly off his line nailing poor Klinsmann knocking the stuffing out of him and doing cock ups but he was a class keeper, honestly some people need to take a step back and look at themselves acting like rivals slagging off our own for anything, they need to piss off imo and go support Small heath or Sandwell that slagging off is what they do not what we Villans are supposed to do and be like rant over had to get that off my chest! UTV!

All that in one breath!

Trotters wrote:

FoxyAV wrote:
Either way, I feel sorry for Gollini for getting the flack...

Look at this garbage....

Unbelievable!

That's a ridiculous thing to tweet, what a cockwomble.

I really didn't like the abuse Guzan received last season. He never did anything disrespectful to the club, fans or any of his teammates, he just wasn't playing well, which was probably a combination of loss of confidence and a lack of coherent defence in front of him. Gollini shouldn't be receiving any shit for the two goals.

We currently have three central midfielders, and while Tshibola looks good, Westwood and Gardner aren't up to speed (and might not get there). Once we have a strengthened midfield, with subs options, I think we'll be fine.