Aston Villa v Manchester City - Match Thread | Page 33 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Manchester City - Match Thread

McParlandTheGreat said:
There's the short term, and the longer term. Short term we lost. Period. Nothing to celebrate.

Longer term, what can we take from it? SG's continuing to improve the team. Overall that was a good performance compared to what went on before (although plenty of things to improve). First half wasn't great; overdoing playing it out from the back, and Luiz was a passenger. Second half was much better. We can and should do better.

Surprised Carney was brought on instead of Ramsey, but maybe SG wants to exercise his whole squad. AEG would have been another good option. And I'd like to see Archer at least on the bench.
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I think this is the right take, Gerrard isn't going to change things overnight. More adversity lies ahead somewhere but last night for me wasnt just plucky losers. It was "you can win this, you can push them and show me you're good enough". The manner of defeat last night was much different to say the 3-0 to Chelsea or even any other performance we've had against City.

I don't think those players stepped out on the pitch in the second half with the intention to just draw.
 
bit of a cockup second goal, 3 city men lined up for a shot on edge of the box, not a defender in sight for love or money, but not a bad performance, the difference was no jack but thats why we got a 100 mills,,seanie
 
Villan57 said:
Yep hence McGinn chasing down Silva for that second goal, Targett nowhere to be seen and poor old Ezri playing on his own but yes it's the way Klopp plays and it works for them.
It's very noticeable what we are trying to do ie midfielders covering the fullback and not expecting 2 of the front 3 to do it. I like it
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Buendia and especially Bailey wont bother doing it.
We still dont have a consistent wide man.
Not including Young who is more utility player now.
 
I think calling us 'plucky losers' is a bit of a smack in the face to the players to be honest, yeah you want to go out and win every game convincingly, but when the opposition has an 'injury crisis' and yet can still afford to bring on £100m of talent to effectively see the game out you are already at a massive disadvantage. To get a result you need a lot of things to align for you.

If you lose a game at least go off the pitch with no regrets, and then work to keep on improving. I think we've done the former in the circumstances and will likely continue to do the latter.
 
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robbali said:
Buendia and especially Bailey wont bother doing it.
We still dont have a consistent wide man.
Not including Young who is more utility player now.
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We won't be playing with wide men mate, the fullbacks will be doing that role, just like they do at Liverpool. Cash needs to look before he crosses the ball to 3 cb though and target is never going to be confident enough to take players on, So I think Ashley will get a few games if targett is out
 
CDX_EIRE said:
I think this is the right take, Gerrard isn't going to change things overnight. More adversity lies ahead somewhere but last night for me wasnt just plucky losers. It was "you can win this, you can push them and show me you're good enough". The manner of defeat last night was much different to say the 3-0 to Chelsea or even any other performance we've had against City.

I don't think those players stepped out on the pitch in the second half with the intention to just draw.
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Gerrard looked genuinely shocked and disappointed at losing. He’s trying to build a mindset that we expect to win and if we lose, ‘plucky’ won’t be the word he uses.
 
Villan57 said:
We won't be playing with wide men mate, the fullbacks will be doing that role, just like they do at Liverpool. Cash needs to look before he crosses the ball to 3 cb though and target is never going to be confident enough to take players on, So I think Ashley will get a few games if targett is out
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And I think we'll bring in a young more-attacking left back in January regardless.
 
Wicked Messenger said:
Gerrard looked genuinely shocked and disappointed at losing. He’s trying to build a mindset that we expect to win and if we lose, ‘plucky’ won’t be the word he uses.
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Yes, I think if we'd had the mentality to go with the owner's ambitions we'd still have Grealish. The mentality of some fans is also small-time, a lot can be achieved if the right mentality is instilled into players like the second half against City which was far better than the first half where Villa players stood 3 yards away from them admiring their passing and movement. The Hype that Sky get out there is just that Hype
 
Villan57 said:
We won't be playing with wide men mate, the fullbacks will be doing that role, just like they do at Liverpool. Cash needs to look before he crosses the ball to 3 cb though and target is never going to be confident enough to take players on, So I think Ashley will get a few games if targett is out
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Yes he's heavily influenced by Klopp in terms of style and he will look to bring that here. This includes pushing players very hard in training.
 
Villan57 said:
Yes, I think if we'd had the mentality to go with the owner's ambitions we'd still have Grealish. The mentality of some fans is also small-time, a lot can be achieved if the right mentality is instilled into players like the second half against City which was far better than the first half where Villa players stood 3 yards away from them admiring their passing and movement. The Hype that Sky get out there is just that Hype
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good points ,thinking back with city playing 2 games a week ,they were the fitter side ,so hopefully, we can improve on that,,seanie
 
CDX_EIRE said:
Strong case for the bench tbh, didnt put the desired effort in at all tonight and I am sure he'll be clipped round the ear for that half heart block he attempted. Against both City and Palace he has tried to run when the pass is on. Gerrard and co. need to sling the hook around him and mould his game a little more. No doubt there is talent there but he could use his teammates for the better of himself and more importantly us.

Definitely think he'll come good just needs more coaching and a much better medical care.
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Missed my point mate..he's injured again, hence why I said that :D
 
Wicked Messenger said:
Gerrard looked genuinely shocked and disappointed at losing. He’s trying to build a mindset that we expect to win and if we lose, ‘plucky’ won’t be the word he uses.
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Yep, even alluded to the wrong body language in one of his interviews. It's like any sport, 80% is between the ears and 20% is a McGrath given talent.

The thing that comes across most from Gerrard is that he won't accept failure, it's just not in his DNA, so he will imprint this onto his team. Remember Steve Bruce was quoted as having nightmares about losing, I don't think losing is in Gerrard's vocabulary :thumbup:. It may work for him, it may not, but the early signs are that he has already had a positive influence. We'll see how ruthless he can be in January.
 
It'll be interesting to see how the loss impacts on the Leicester game. If the SG magic works we'll be going all out to win. We need a reaction.
 
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