Aston Villa v Liverpool - Sat 2nd Nov, 3pm - Match Thread | Page 17 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Liverpool - Sat 2nd Nov, 3pm - Match Thread

gmvillan said:
I think what we need to get used with Dean Smith as manager is that he will not ever park the bus, so to speak. What that means is that a one-goal lead will never be safe. Having seen plenty of lost leads and non-football with our past managers I’m OK with it.
if you look at Bruce, he was the quintessential defend-the-one-goal-lead manager, highlighted in such games as the Middlesboro play-off semi two years ago when we played 140 minutes defending the Jedinak goal in the first leg.
As I sat watching yesterday I was “confident” we’d give away a late goal. I hoped we wouldn’t but was prepared when the inevitable happened...
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And long may it last. I’ve just seen my beloved Villa lose two league games on the spin which would normally leave me suicidal. Instead, I’m so proud of the boys and love the football we’re playing. We’ve done boring lamberk football, we’ve tried the potato head approach of buying decent players and hoping they’ll muddle through without coaching. Despite the occasional decision that makes me want to wince, wouldn’t change deano for the world right now. Enjoy this moment as a villa fan, we’ve got something to savour and be proud of
 
Perhaps when we are not defending the alamo, it maybe could to be brave or foolish but at the moment we are not there, we panic we have Mings who is sorry to say the main culprit for dropping deeper and trying to play goalkeeper. It looks great to have defenders throwing themselves into blocks etc but it's so last-ditch and that is where we are at the moment .
Until we have control of the game for the last 10 we need to stick an extra body in there not stick airy-fairy strikers and Midfielders on. who are much worse than the players going off.
We did not have a single player on that bench who could make a positive impact on tired legs, sadly that is where we are at this moment a bench full of emergency players to take over from injuries ie Elmo for Freddie.

Liverpool was able to bring on 40m subs, we'd be lucky if anyone would take ours on a free

Roll on January
 
Villan57 said:
My Son was saying all match why haven't we got a man on the posts but obviously the new way of playing is different from how we played it.
lots of things I used to like when I ran a team like Sweeper keepers are now commonplace but I've never left the post unguarded at a corner, nobody will ever convince me it is anything other than arrogance.
I was actually saying Hourihane should be on the post or out of the box altogether as he never ever tracks a runner.

All water under the bridge now but oh for a Whelan to bring on for the last 10 mins
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Basic mistakes.
 
The table doesn’t lie but it doesn’t tell the full story either. We can’t compare ourselves to Man City or Liverpool. This team is largely a bunch of strangers being trained to enable us to secure our place in the Premier League not win it. Massive strides have been made in the squad since promotion and I’m hoping it’s enough to get us to stage 2 in the rebuilding. Personally, I love being a season ticket holder at the moment because I’ve seen more excitement, fight, ambition, courage and skill since Big Ron’s too short an era. I’m more relaxed than last year because then we were trying to do the impossible after SB’s start. Now we are only trying to do the almost impossible...
 
Villan57 said:
a quick look at the league table confirms despite what we think we really aren't very good
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Meh... I suppose Spurs aren't very good either, and they reached the Champions League Final 5 months ago.

Lets look at the table at the end of the season and decide if we're any good or not not after 11 games.

I personally think we are a very good side, lacking a decent striker.
 
What a naff day.

Up at 07:30 to secure a table in the pub for the rugby. Less said about that, the better. Then had a call from a friend, saying he's got a spare ticket in the North End, so off I went.

Can't criticise that performance too much at all when put into perspective of who we were playing. Our starting XI feels good enough to be very comfortable in this league.

However, to take a leaf out of Eddie Jones' book, he's always been saying that rugby is now a 23 man game and stresses the importance of his "finishers" being as good as they guys starting the game.

Villa, in contrast, don't have that strength of the bench.

I really like Hourihane, love his goal threat and set-pieces. I also appreciate he's been with the club for a good while now, during some darker days than others and has been, generally, a reliable performer for us and cares about the club. Having said that however, he does, at times, look a little pedestrian in this league, especially when he's around McGinn, Luiz and Nakamba.

Elmohamady should have done better for the equaliser as well.

Upon reflection, if you told me before this game that those would be my main points of worry, I'd have been pretty happy.

I said before the Man City game, if we're still not in the relegation zone after Liverpool, then I'll be happy. We're still in a good place now to kick on and keep accumulating points.

The Wolves win is a nice boost for confidence and gives us some more momentum now.

Wolves seem to not be firing on all cylinders so it feels a good time to play them Sunday. By no means an easy game but certainly one we can get a result from.

25 points by January should be the aim, if you ask me. It's doable and puts us in a good place to hit the old 40 point mark.
 
There a lot of teams above us who don't have players anywhere near the level we have but they know how to win games against the lesser teams and hang on for a point in games against the good ones.

This is what we have to learn to do pretty quickly or keep being unlucky and relegated.

I believe in luck but sometimes you have to help it a bit
 
Stephen Jay Hawkings said:
I have a feeling Sheff Utd might not have thrown that away.

But they have been a well drilled unit a lot longer than we have.
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You're brave last time anyone said that it was deemed an attack on Deano, rather than a sensible observation. They do seem to grind out points better than us with lesser players. How long they can keep it up before the quality issue kicks in I don't know. One thing they did do was buy strikers where we need to buy a whole team
 
I'm not pointing fingers or accusing people of being negative when I say this... but there seems to have been a few questions being raised around the side, most of it well constructed and valid questions, however I just read this on Twitter and thought it gives some great perspective.

"Key stat from Saturday: Just one of the #avfc starting XI (McGinn) was at the club on a permanent deal last season, with the team featuring 10 of the 13 (inc. Guilbert) summer arrivals - the highest number so far. No team has been required to evolve as quickly as Villa's."

Call me overly optimistic, if you like, I'm really happy with where we are. We're far from perfect and have my own issues with the side. Relatively though, we're doing great.
 
Some teams have come up to the Prem and have enjoyed a good first season but eventually and tactically get found out. That could well be Sheffield United and the unusual style of play they have plus the total commitment in each game. That's going to be difficult to sustain throughout a full season. - Time will tell?

If I was a neutral looking at it I would say Aston Villa have a better long term chance to remain in the Premier League due to good management both on and off the pitch and wealthy owners who are not afraid to back the manager in required areas of first-team building.
 
Thomas Holte said:
Some teams have come up to the Prem and have enjoyed a good first season but eventually and tactically get found out. That could well be Sheffield United and the unusual style of play they have plus the total commitment in each game. That's going to be difficult to sustain throughout a full season. - Time will tell?

If I was a neutral looking at it I would say Aston Villa have a better long term chance to remain in the Premier League due to good management both on and off the pitch and wealthy owners who are not afraid to back the manager in required areas of first-team building.
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The key is staying up this season and to do that we have to be a lot better than we are.
 
A regular occurrence against Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool. Not being funny but these teams are packed full of quality. They are capable of winning games out of nothing against anyone on their days.

I think this season is all about being as level headed as possible.

I didn't get too excited when we beat Norwich and Brighton, and I certainly won't be getting too down about losing to Man City and Liverpool.

I'd have taken 17th at the start of the season, and on what I've seen so far I think we'll comfortably achieve better than that.

If we find ourselves in the relegation zone at the business end of the season then and only then will there be any need to panic, but for now I think we're doing just fine.
 
I heard we'd be top 3 if we went on HT scores can't be arsed to check but it suggests we've conceded a few leads this season, not just a couple.
We have to cut it out and only then will we be fine, such small margins I know and I'd pay the entrance money just to watch Jack Grealish
 
I was gutted Saturday but not as gutted as I was 12 months ago after being outplayed by Wigan and wondering how many seasons more we would spend in the championship, we are entertaining to watch and with the grace of the good lord we will rejoice and behold the wonderment of being in the Premier league next season and watch this great club grow. ?
 
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