Aston Villa v Leeds United Friday 23rd 8pm Match Thread | Page 36 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Leeds United Friday 23rd 8pm Match Thread

Wurzel said:
We are going to get this. We are bedding in half a new side, we are not anywhere near top six standard, so we are going to lose some games.
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You're right to a degree Wurz, its just worrying how quickly the skeletons came out of the closet.

I was too harsh on Cash and not seeing that on a grander scale he was getting no protection. Leeds did an excellent job isolating him. It was surreal they didnt really do it down the left-hand side considering we all consider that to be weaker defensively.

For me at times we were playing with 8 players, Barkley and McGinn were nonexistent in midfield and Grealish seemed to be given a free pass to stay forward.

Leeds did the same move almost all game and Smith's only answer was to take out Trez which arguably made it worse or at best made no difference. They'd breakdown our plays, often on our left or left of centre and then swiftly switched flanks and overloaded our right hand side. Barkley and McGinn were either bypassed or passive defensively, Luiz and Trez get sucked toward the ball and suddenly Cash is entirely on his own. All game long we nothing to stop that and it cost us massively.
 
VillaTomB38 said:
Like many players in that position, once he’s out the side you’ll soon notice he’s gone.
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Surprised he's getting flak, one of THE shining lights in a miserable last season. We've been much better thus far so not surprising he hasn't had a starring role in a team that was flying til tonight. He wont perform a masterclass in every game. Lots of credit in the bank considering last season was his first in the Prem. The lad's quality. Suggesting otherwise all of a sudden is a bit bewildering tbh.
 
At half time, I thought Elmo might be brought on to help Cash and stem the flow.
Dean Smith is like finding a bad leak in the house just before bed, and instead of turning the stopcock off you just go to bed.

you see the difference, 15 mins in Leeds made a sub cos it looked like after his booking the guy may go off, Smith wouldn’t make that call.
 
Groan, what to say.
First half I thought Cash was our best player. They were marauding but as the half went on we got more into it and as a result their attacks were fewer. We looked Ok and not the team from last year.

Second half they just carried on and we lost the midfield. Where did it go? Every attack we had was on our doorstep 10 secs later. No defence can deal with that - but made worse by the fact that our defenders now also attack - so they are having to run back and organise too quickly.

Total capitulation once the first went in.
I turned it off after 3 ....and hugely surprised it didn't end up more!

Worrying things:
Ollie starting to look lost - I didn't see the "sitter" but I can well believe it. I was worried that although he has a hat-trick he has looked no-where near in the other now 4 games.

Barclay is injured - maybe that is why he went missing.
Or maybe tonight is a more typical performance.

What is our plan to score?
Long shots by Barclay or Jack walking it into the net?
Not one decent provide to Ollie - and his positioning is suffering from doubt now.

I like simple job roles. Who are the providers for Ollie?
It's like he isn't on our team. Sound familiar?

I'm upset now.
 
eltoro said:
At half time, I thought Elmo might be brought on to help Cash and stem the flow.
Dean Smith is like finding a bad leak in the house just before bed, and instead of turning the stopcock off you just go to bed.

.
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😂 cracked me up that part. I think sometimes he will go and get some tape for it, the tape doesn’t stick, so he buys some more tape, and when that doesn’t work he tries a different type of tape, which doesn’t stick. Instead of turning the stopcock off
 
CDX_EIRE said:
You're right to a degree Wurz, its just worrying how quickly the skeletons came out of the closet.

I was too harsh on Cash and not seeing that on a grander scale he was getting no protection. Leeds did an excellent job isolating him. It was surreal they didnt really do it down the left-hand side considering we all consider that to be weaker defensively.

For me at times we were playing with 8 players, Barkley and McGinn were nonexistent in midfield and Grealish seemed to be given a free pass to stay forward.

Leeds did the same move almost all game and Smith's only answer was to take out Trez which arguably made it worse or at best made no difference. They'd breakdown our plays, often on our left or left of centre and then swiftly switched flanks and overloaded our right hand side. Barkley and McGinn were either bypassed or passive defensively, Luiz and Trez get sucked toward the ball and suddenly Cash is entirely on his own. All game long we nothing to stop that and it cost us massively.
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Would have been a good game for 5 at the back to give us better coverage across the pitch at the back. I think we underestimated how quickly they’d attack us down the wing. Also could have done with Davis on the pitch the amount of long balls we were playing especially when after we went a goal or two down
 
My Ratings
Martinez - 6 Couldn't do much about the goals and did reasonably with crosses. However was too ponderous when he had the ball.
Cash - 4 Didn't get much help on that side, but was toasted by Harrison all night long in every 1v1.His positioning was terrible - he was neither too close to prevent Harrison from getting it, nor deep enough to deal with him when he did.
Targett - 6 Not much came down his side, but was adequate and did make a few attempts to link with the attack
Konsa - 6 Average display
Mings - 3 Completely lost the plot and allowed Bamford to rule him. Needless yellow card for shoving Leeds player to the ground and was lucky to escape a second when he grabbed Bamford by the neck. On all three goals he turned sideways instead of actually attempting to block. For such a big unit he certainly seems scared of a round bag of air coming at him.
Luiz - 6 Exposed time and time again due to the two in front of him.
McGinn - 4 And that's being generous. Completely invisible for a large part of the match. Knocked off the ball, passed to the opposition countless times. Jogging back is not a recovery run.
Barkley - 3 See McGinn and add the fact that he looks like he's running in wet cement whenever he has to go back towards his own half.
Grealish - 6 Tried but other than the two chances he was largely ineffective. Seemed to be glued to the left touchline most of the match and was comfortably shackled. Too much complaining to the ref and deserved the yellow card for dissent.
Trezeguet - 3 Terrible performance tonight. Lost the ball so many times and was little help to Cash, who was clearly struggling to contain Harrison.
Watkins - 5 Looked physically weak tonight and couldn't seem to work space for himself
 
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gmvillan said:
Grealish - 6 Tried but other than the two chances he was largely ineffective. Seemed to be glued to the left touchline most of the match and was comfortably shackled. Too much complaining to the ref and deserved the yellow card for dissent.
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You were generous there lad, apart from that amazing run he looked bobby average.
 
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