Blimey, I called it correctly again.
That’s two on the trot and probably a record for me.
Mason Mount got the MOTM, but Abraham couldn’t have been far off it. Willian too.
And I think that somewhat summed things up, in that Chelsea made us look very average.
I personally don’t think we set up correctly for this game, with Hourihane starting and it was there to see very early on.
I like Hourihane as an an attacking option, but this was a midfield game where we needed battlers to counter Chelsea’s ovbvious class. This is absolutely not Hourihanes’s type of game and to prove it, we got better later on when we beefed up the midfield and took him off.
Make no mistakes, this could easily have been 4,5 or more goals against and it annoyed me because it was so obvious.
I’ve seen McGinn criticised, but I don’t think he did much wrong. When you’re on the back foot, it’s hard for your game to shine.
Grealish did ok and drew fouls, but Chelsea made the most of the fact that the first yellow took a long time coming.
The defence, whenever it faces any prolonged pressure, looks really poor.
I don’t really want to point fingers here, but everyone looks really panicky and it’s not good enough.
Sadly, I think I’ve had it with Wesley.
Ok, he had very little to work with tonight and that’s been pretty much a consistent state, but he did have two very scorable chances, where he skied both.
It depends what you think about him, I guess and they might not have been particularly good chances, but I made the point that Trezuguet seemed to be in better striking positions at times tonight.
That’s not a first either.
I just don’t think Wesley is an instinctive striker at this level and we simply have to improve on him in the window.
A 2-1 loss isn’t so bad against Chelsea, but we got off light and as much as we came back later, it wasn’t the performance I expected, to say the least.
Poor and a deserved result.
Oh well, you can’t win them all. Hmm.
We’ve scored more goals than every team outside the current top 4, bar United (who only have one more) and Spurs (who have 3 more). Defence is is the problem. Get it sorted! How did Einstein define insanity again? It’s not going to change if they keep doing the same things!
Heaton was our MOTM which says it all. Defensively we weren’t great today and I think Mings looks better with Engels alongside him. Not a criticism of Konsa though because I think he has lots of potential. McGinn has been okay without setting the heights he has been. Then we have Wesley! The only defence I have for him, is that he is young and can improve. I don’t think he has the mentality to cope though. Luiz was more of a goal threat in his short stint and he is a youngster too.
Not too disappointed having lost because that’s what I expected. As long as we keep beating the teams around us, like Newcastle and keep VP as a fortress we will be fine.
Spot on…Smith got it wrong tonight, and the defence looks very shaky. I think Mings is far too casual and makes too many mistakes, I’d drop him and Wesley!
Jack wasn’t at it tonight either, but he needs to be more central IMHO.
Smith said – ‘if they score two then we’ll score three’ or something to that effect.
In reality (away from home in particular) they score two and we score one! OK, we have one of the best goal differences in the bottom half which suggests our defence is better than some think but is it time to rethink our strategy – particularly away from home where we have managed just one win and one draw all season?
Getting points is the objective so, away from home, we should be prepared to ‘park the bus’, frustrate the hell out of the opposition and try to nick a goal or two. Not pretty but nobody gets points for pretty.
Why not play McGinn as a lone forward away from home? He’s on record as saying he’ll play up front if asked. Until we can add to our striking options I believe it remains a viable option away from home – but then I’ve always been prone to trying the outrageous!
UTV
We cannot afford to play with 2 passengers, Wesley and Hourihane tonight. Wesley is only holding down a place because we have no other #9 fit. As I said before it would be very lucky when buying half a new team if there were no big-money flops amongst them. Wesley appears to be a flop especially away from home. Gone in January I expect.
Yes the defence looked shaky but when Chelsea have 70% possession it means our defence is at ‘action stations’ for two thirds of the game. Mings is not at has best defending in his 6 yard box, balls bounce off him, he is better running down attackers from some way out. In other words our better tactic away from home is to play a high line.
disappointing result granted. we come along way in twelve months,so much fans generally believe we are gonna go to man utd and chelsea and win. bollocks. we are a promoted side finding our feet. lets not lose sight of that when assessing how we struggled yesterday and how we deserved a win at utd. two very hard places to go and win. even if utd are struggling as spuds found out last night. chelsea are champions league quality. so lets us not forget the opposition qualities as we assess our performances.
i thought we simply got beaten by a stronger side. who refuse to allow us time to build any momentum and we struggled to find the time ourselves. we had flashes of what we are capable of doing. but chelsea had our measure. i thought our build up play for our goal was brilliant one touch stuff, around the corner passing from grealish. we made mistakes in the game but sometimes these mistakes are because the players were put under great pressure by chelsea. that is why teams press another team to force the mistakes.
overall it doesnt sound great 1 point from last 2 games. but considering who them teams where and both away. it ain’t so bad for a newly promoted side.
i understand why wesley gets the abuse he does. but i am not sure the fans appropriate the role wesley has been ASKED to play. he has improved game by game. but he is still struggling i admit. i would guarantee lots of strikers would struggle trying to play the strikers role for villa. simply because they are so isolated. he has been asked to help with build up play. he is not playing out and out striker role. smith does not worry who scores the goals, but only we score them. smith demands team over individuality . wesley has to be judge on his team efforts, i saw him make some decent passes, a few cross field balls, he is also linking well at times with grealish. again thou he will struggle up against three players world class players and no support.like most would when you are not the dominate team.,
Well lads reading all your post I’m a little bit mixed up about Wesley, me personally think he’s not, shell I say mature enough for his roll in the game, its alright saying give him time! Time we don’t have, he has to show willing and he doesn’t do that, Nath reckons its his roll to play, I don’t ,watching him over a period of time he tends to give up on a chasing to a ball. I admit he jumps for a ball and occasionally hold players up, but he doesn’t find or Chase down players. Help me out ? Am I wrong in what I see, we cannot play week in and week out with 10 men and one 1/2 hearted footballer, we need to stay up..
Typical Brazilian forward then Bill?
I really can’t comment as have had no opportunity to see him play
I agree with you Bill. It possibly could be that we are playing him in an unfamiliar role to what he is used to. Does he play the same role for Brazil or his previous club Bruges? His stats say he scores on average 1 in 3-4 games.
Personally I don’t think we can rely on him if we are battling relegation. He doesn’t seem to have the necessary work rate to play a lone striker role. The other thing that niggles me is when a defender out muscles him and he just sits there with his arms in the air!
How bad is Kodja if he can’t displace him?
We definitely need a new striker, hopefully in January. And if Smith wants to persist with a target man, Mitrovic of Fulham is a much better candidate than Wesley.
wesley is not my choice of centre forward,but i can see a player in there. whether you think he isn’t worth waiting for. it really isnt your decision to make. smith has signed him played him and if he was unhappy with him he would show signs, like dropping him or even subbing him. but nothing like that happens,so maybe he is fulfilling his role in the team.
lets compare him to Joelinton 40 million brazilian who has one goal to his name. i don’t have the answers, maybe it takes longer than the patience of most fans for some south americans to settle in, acclimatise to the english tempo 100 mphs.
finally what are the options to wesley lol kodjia or davis who is still recovering from injury. i think wesley might settle in quicker if fans were more lenient. some of the shit posted on fb really is embarrassing and if thats the general census i wash my hands of you all lol.
yesterday game was not a game that anybody stood out in a claret and blue, cause the opposition made sure of that, so wesley being the lone ranger was even more cut of, from the support of his teammates than normal.
I think you’re being a bit harsh on Wes. Grealish got kicked all over the place again and that is a testament to how good he is that even the top 4 teams are ganging up on him. Having said all that, Chelsea battered us first half before we grew in to it a bit in the second.
Mings continues to be a weird mixture of brilliant and lax.
We could have let in more goals but a -1 goal difference in Man Utd away and Chelsea away back to back is decent
i spoke with 4 or 5 man utd fans this week, i asked um who of villa players impressed , two they said were grealish obviously and wesley. i asked why wesley he gets nothing but abuse from villa fans online . they said he battered their defenders from pillar to post.
yesterday i saw him work his arse off and he got nothing in terms of chances. this becomes demoralising chasing shadows. but he does it without argument. he was physical with the chelsea back line and their hold midfielder who was man of match.
ideally we need another striker cause wesley needs competition, smith obviously doesn’t trust kodjia and if you think davis is better choice than wesley. you are really having a laugh. i like the kid, but he just can not play the amount of games needed with high intensity what is required. he needs to go out on loan and play a season or half a season, before he can command a premiership starting slot. his game has the making of a decent player, but again its not a striker the fans desire. davis won’t score many in a season. unless he develops the cutting edge. his strengths are his hold up play which is very good for his age.
Wesley certainly is the main cause of debate amongst Villa fans. Don’t get me wrong, I would love it if he came good. I do think however in January we need another striker and to ship out Kodja because he is obviously surplus to requirements.
Question is do we sign another target man or something different? Someone like Scott Hogan but premier proven?
I would like to see a more mobile forward and attempt the style of Liverpool and Citehs front three. Okay I know we won’t have the same calibre as them but that is the modern way of successful clubs. Even Leicester doing well without a typical target man.
If we persist with the big number 9 approach then Mitrovic would offer competition.
Holte, I could see any of Trez, Jack and A.N. Other playing a striker’s role and doing a betterr job, with the way we play.
Opposed to what you think, I think Kodjia would fit, imo, because we have good movement at times and that would suit him.
I believe he wants out though.
But Wesley simply doesn’t see how we play, imo and it’s obvious.
I suspect it’s down to the difference to the Belgian league and the prem, simple.
I think he’ll learn, but it’s too soon for him.
I am giving Wesley the benefit of doubt but only if he shuts up…..stops falling down….stops pretending he’s hurt…. and stops shouting at the ref…..
ANY forward will struggle if we continue shovelling the ball up and hope something happens….its all too Brucie…thought all that had finished.
Badger, Wesley won’t get any change from Leicester’s two CB’s. So having said that, why not play this team:-
GK – Heaton, Defence – Guilbert, Targett, Engels, Mings, Midfield – Nakamba, Luiz or Hourihane, McGinn, Forwards – Grealish, Jota and Trezeguet.
Have Wesley on the bench to change things if not working!
Purely speculation of course because we all know Wesley will be starting the game!
Sounds good to me Holte.
Although as you say, Wesley will start.
jota flanked by grealish and trezeguet i don’t think that would work even against the ball boys. too lightweight. you would offer no danger only on the break.
This is what Tammy said to Mount at half-time:
“I told him at half time: ‘Balls are coming into me, stay close to me and I’ll promise I’ll set you at least once’.“Soon as we came out it happened, you can see us in the celebration talking about it.”
So it would seem the opposition players are a step ahead of our players and coaches in their reactions to what’s happening during a game and how to exploit it. To say that’s disappointing is an understatement. Surely the message should’ve been “stop balls coming in” with some instructions and tactics on how to do that? Or is it not that simple?
Bit harsh I think BFR. From what I’ve seen (admittedly highlights) Chelsea were just too strong for us and Abraham, in particular, is starting to show his undoubted talent at EPL level – what a shame we couldn’t make his transfer permanent. If someone other than Lampard had been manager – then who knows?
On the other hand I’m becoming more and more persuaded by your ‘three at the back’ argument – particularly away and against the ‘top six’. My question is though – how easy is it to switch a defensive set up between games?
Is it only me but did Tottenham and Everton players get their managers sacked. ? 5-0 3-1…
Very possibly Bill although whether with malice afore thought or through the manager losing the confidence of the players …..? Really no different to any business if the line manager(s) is out of touch or just bad at his job performance dips quickly.
Or is it just new manager bounce?
Watford have been particularly careless in losing two managers – interesting to see how performances change under Pearson.
I should do a good job Hitch. 😂😂
Its my sad news that Our Ron Saunders has past away at the age of 87 . I had the privilege to have met him at Villa Park being a steward. R I P Ron always remember you.
RIP Sir Ron! My condolences to his family and friends. Undoubtedly the greatest manager we have had in my time. Such a tragedy that he suffered dementia for so long. I witnessed what it did to my dad before he died so I know in time his family will be able to reflect on what made him a legend.