Re: Villa v Forest: match thread.

[Guest]

Gardner really is pure turd

[Trotters]

This just isn't good enough. Every single week. You can't create 40 chances a game and hit the target 5 or 6. It's Piss poor. Forest had 3 attempts and scored 2. We have created more chances than any other team in England so far and have the lowest conversion rate in the country. It's just not good enough

On a positive not I was impressed with kodjia today, he'll be a very good addition

Too soon to say this after just one game but....have we replaced Benteke?

[thegaffer6]

Fuming at that.

[Con]

Have to say that I've been suppotive of giving Gardner a chance. After today's game I wonder if we could do better. He made his reputation in midfield of an academy side next to Barry Bannan. Bannan was the technical player. Gardner had a decent pass and a great long shot, and could get headers. He was very influential in the academy team with these set of traits - heading, long shot and decent passing. But in the big league we need a more technical player in the middle. Some one who can create something with his feet 30 yards from goal that isn't a piledriver into row Z.

Westwood also isn't good enough. I've said that before. He's wishy-washy. Not really bad at anything, not great at anything. Not a bad leader, not a great leader. A great professional but not in the Aston Villa first team.

[Jae1411]

One thing that stuck out to me today was how important a leader Ross McCormack is going to be for us. He was constantly talking, telling people where to be and to do.getting frustrated that people weren't hitting his standard. He had a rip at ayew at one point and after that ayew started passing and set two goals up and looked our best player. Once jedinak and tshibola are back I think Jedi will do the same at the back and hopefully well start to lookore confident. It makes such a difference to finally have leaders out there

[thegaffer6]

I think Tshibola has been a huge miss. Miss that dynamism in the middle, Gardner and Westwood are the footballing equivalent of white noise

[Trotters]

Westwood also isn't good enough. I've said that before. He's wishy-washy. Not really bad at anything, not great at anything. Not a bad leader, not a great leader. A great professional but not in the Aston Villa first team.

Nail on the head.

[danclare82]

One thing that stuck out to me today was how important a leader Ross McCormack is going to be for us. He was constantly talking, telling people where to be and to do.getting frustrated that people weren't hitting his standard. He had a rip at ayew at one point and after that ayew started passing and set two goals up and looked our best player. Once jedinak and tshibola are back I think Jedi will do the same at the back and hopefully well start to lookore confident. It makes such a difference to finally have leaders out there

Once we get them two in midfield it will make a massive difference. They can boss it then and protect back four and front 4 can attack. I think we will score a lot and kodjia looks good just need to cut our errors. Forest wouldn't of scored either goal imo with Jedi and tshibola playing

[Barabass]

I can't wait for Ayew to score as I think he'll go on a scoring run. I can't believe we haven't put more chances away. I agree that getting the midfield right will sort us out by assisting our defence and also helping out the strikers. I think Adomah will help us get some width as Ayew tends to cut into the middle too often. When he went wider we seemed more of a threat.

[Boldfinger]

Just got back from the match, not going to read all the posts just going to say - 6/10 could do better. We will improve and when we get the midfield sorted we will beat most teams in the league.

[gdav]

I think we'll improve to be one of the best sides in the league, I just hope we are still within touching distance of the top by that time.

[big ming]

I remember last year having a go at Sherwood for not bolstering the midfield when we were winning (most memorably versus Leicester away).
Today, RDM made exactly the same mistake.

[Boldfinger]

I think we'll improve to be one of the best sides in the league, I just hope we are still within touching distance of the top by that time.

Yeah I agree. Stay round about the playoffs then push on in the second half of the season.

[Boldfinger]

I remember last year having a go at Sherwood for not bolstering the midfield when we were winning (most memorably versus Leicester away).
Today, RDM made exactly the same mistake.

Do you sit in the holte upper ?
A bloke behind me was saying exactly the same.

[deadbuzzardalive]

We're going to batter someone by about five sooner or later, the way we're creating chances. But one win in seven games really isn't good enough.

Table looks bad now will look even worse on Tuesday night, putting a lot of pressure on the Brentford game. Need to get a couple of wins on the bounce to restore some confidence, easier said than done though.

[mefromhere]

Kodjia looked brilliant.
Ayew stopped being selfish and played for the team.
Grealish was back to his best I thought.
McCormack has that touch of quality.

How we lose a game we dominate that much is something only we can do. Bring on Brentford!

[Guest]

I'd honestly consider bringing in an academy player for Gardner's position when it's needed. He's that bad.

[VTID85]

So the big difference maker for Forest today was their goalkeeper and another big spoon of bad luck for Villa. It's coming together, but it needs to pick up a bit of pace.

Didn't think the reffing was too bad, certainly more favourable to us than them I think. The red card was hilarious and Cissokho was a bit lucky to have seen out the game, I thought we might've seen Amavi for the last few mins as Ally got himself a bit too hot.

Their first goal was largely out of nowhere, a good "shot-to-nothing" which maybe Bunn could've done a bit more to get a better hand to it but it had some pelt on it. Thought we fought back well to stick two past them rather than falling to pieces as we've seen all too often. And as for the second goal, I think a good number of defences would've struggled against that build up as it really was a moment of class that came out of nowhere.

Disappointing to not take the three points, on the majority of the game there's not a chance Forest deserved a draw but it is what it is. Just need to dump Westwood and Gardner at sea, get Jedi, Tish and Adomah fit and starting and we could be seeing much more positive results.

[Dions_Bald_Head]

Just got back from the match, not going to read all the posts just going to say - 6/10 could do better. We will improve and when we get the midfield sorted we will beat most teams in the league.

This is the thing for me - once the correct personnel are playing comfortably & with confidence I think we're going to be quite exciting. Maybe our indifferent start will work in our favour with other teams looking elsewhere for the big scalp.

[1Elliot]

Just got back from the match, not going to read all the posts just going to say - 6/10 could do better. We will improve and when we get the midfield sorted we will beat most teams in the league.

This is the thing for me - once the correct personnel are playing comfortably & with confidence I think we're going to be quite exciting. Maybe our indifferent start will work in our favour with other teams looking elsewhere for the big scalp.

I can't wait for our forward line to click because today we saw glimmers of what could be & i liked it.... Kodija looks like an excellent addition & was unlucky not to score today.... We really need to finish teams off though.... Onwards & hopefully upwards

[Saunders82]

For me we have this awful habit of playing sideways & backwards, Westwood is one of the main culprits, he gets into some nice situations and instead of looking up and picking a telling forward pass he takes the safe option of back or sideways. The loss of momentum allows the opposition to get into position ready for anything we offer, he/we have often been on the edge of the opposition box & passed it all the way back to the keeper, who punts it up field for their defence to clear easily or start an attack, I must say its not as bad this year BUT its still there in our psych until we move on we will still a soft touch, lets hope the Jedi & tish step up soon.

[Cha Ching]

Where do Gestede and Adomah fit in to this team? I can't see either get a start at present barring injury. You couldn't leave any of the others out.

[Saunders82]

Where do Gestede and Adomah fit in to this team? I can't see either get a start at present barring injury. You couldn't leave any of the others out.

Isnt that a nice position to be in for a change, but I don't totally agree I think there a couple of adjustments that can be made.

[Trotters]

I think we'll improve to be one of the best sides in the league, I just hope we are still within touching distance of the top by that time.

Yeah I agree.  Stay round about the playoffs then push on in the second half of the season.

Problem is we say this each week and the "it's a long season" phrase that pops it's head up each week is becoming less and less valid. 15% of the season has gone and we've given teams one hell of a head start. The way things are going, we'll be lower midtable come the last third of the season and working out that we'll be ok provided we get 4 points for every game.

For me, it really had to start today. A nice international break to help the team along, an opposition still in a bit of a "gelling" phase themselves, at home and a first XI that, despite what you might think of Westwood and Gardner, should have easily won that game.

Stats and my own eyes suggest we should have won by 5 or 6 so something is wrong. And for me it's RDM. For the first time I'm focusing properly on him. There have been some strange tactics and subs prior to this game but you might forgive him due to lack of understanding of the squad he inherited, players hadn't been brought in yet, etc, but these dropped points are down to him.

Yes, the strikers should have been more ruthless in putting their chances away but when they eventually did, RDM had to be equally ruthless and take someone off to bolster that midfield.

That Terence Trent D'Arby looking bloke figured out in pretty quick time that Westwood was shit and that there was no real evidence of a midfield to stop him. Yes, it was still an amazing run but fact remains that he thought it was on....so why didn't RDM see it?

I've seen comments that Jedi was not long off an international flight and maybe carrying a knock. But if the knock was that bad, he wouldn't have made the bench. These players fly in luxury and would have had the best massage this side of Suzy Wong's Rub 'n Tug so I'm pretty sure he could have managed 10-15 minutes.

[The Utterer]

Was a very frustrating day for me. Should have won (again) but a mixture of the weekly woodwork rattling, wonder goals & worldy saves by the opposition and general awful finishing/decision making in the final third have cost us.

It has to change fast now if we are to have a hope of promotion this season.
17th is a poor start and we now need a run of 5 or 6 wins to put us back up there.

On a positive note we are improving and i can see a very exciting team emerging once central midfield is sorted out. I so wish we had a powerhouse midfielder who would grab the games by the gonads and score some goals as it would be the final piece of the jigsaw.

We looked more threatening up front but again some awful finishing from Ayew, Grealish & McCormack in the main cost us that winning goal.

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