Aston Villa v Leeds United Friday 23rd 8pm Match Thread | Page 41 | Vital Football

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

Thomas Holte said:
Could you honestly see Bielsa or any other top manager sending a team out onto the pitch with an attitude and lack of correct tactics like what we saw last night?.... And if it did happen then they would be the managers they are by fixing the problem not watching what's going on and doing absolutely nothing about it.

Players reflect a manager's attitude on the pitch and the Leeds players last night would have walked through a brick wall to please the manager while we looked ill-prepared and tactically inept.
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I doubt Smith sent them out with an attitude, he's a humble guy and serious about his football. What is clear last night though is he sent them out without a proper plan. Leeds had a clear plan for Grealish and rendered him ineffective for the vast majority of the game. Then they had a clear plan for exploiting our flanks.

We didn't have a plan for any of their players. Harrison did as he pleased, we also had no strategy for getting Watkins in behind what is a fairly slow centre half pairing. We didn't have an answers during the match for stopping Leeds exploiting wide areas, specifically the right hand side.
 
Bonker said:
Martinez - £10m
Cash - £6m
Konsa - £12m
Mings - £10m
Targett - £4m
McGinn - £12m
Luiz - £8m
Barkley - £15m
Grealish - £70m
Trezeguet - £8m
Watkins - £15m

I'd suggest those numbers are likely closer to the reality - just above PL average per player but only because of Jack of course.
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Sorry Bonker but those figures are ridiculous
 
As some will be aware, I cut and run when the second goal went in, but up to that time, I could make the following observations.

1/ Cash was the good last night..... the rest, well, avarage at best. Felt sorry for Watkins, he was on his own up front for most of the game.

2/ Against Leicester, Smith claimed to change things after about 20 minutes. To me, nothing was changed at all. Probably something to do with the apparent absence of 'Shakey'.

From watching the stream, I saw shots of Smith, RO'K and JT but none of Shakey. Were was he I wonder? So, nothing changed, apart from Trez being subbed and Traore coming on.


I cannot comment about the rest as I wasn't watching. However, I will say, Bielsa is a shrewd tactition and Leeds are a good side..... how many did they have on the pitch?......
 
When I said our luck ran out, every team has a certain amount of luck in every game and over the course of a season.

Against Sheffield down to 10 men, Martinez saves a penalty, good as it was it's still luck.

Fulham our CB's heat map was in their own 6 yard box, but we win 3-0 so nobody was concerned. I was I couldn't believe how many balls we allowed into out 6 yard box.

Liverpool had more shots more everything except goals, great win by us but on another day they take their chances.

Leicester now that was a proper ground out win. We got a late winner.

Last night we went behind for the first time in ages, never looked like getting it back but had Jack netted those two we could have gone on to win it and that's what I mean by luck.

Don't get me wrong but when things go for you they go for you. Last night they didn't go for us, Yes we were outplayed but Leeds do that to every team. If Jack had buried those two and we'd won, I don't think to many would-be saying they outplayed us and we were lucky.
We'd be saying how resilient we are and all the other Bullshit that comes out.

Now we need to see how we respond to a beating,
 
Pangloss said:
I doubt Smith sent them out with an attitude, he's a humble guy and serious about his football. What is clear last night though is he sent them out without a proper plan. Leeds had a clear plan for Grealish and rendered him ineffective for the vast majority of the game. Then they had a clear plan for exploiting our flanks.

We didn't have a plan for any of their players. Harrison did as he pleased, we also had no strategy for getting Watkins in behind what is a fairly slow centre half pairing. We didn't have an answers during the match for stopping Leeds exploiting wide areas, specifically the right hand side.
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For the most part, Smith is naive at best. I've just asked the question, were was Shakey? He has the tactics but he presence appeared to be missing last night.
 
I thought Dean was spot on when he said we lost the match after the first goal went in. He said we couldn’t handle it and heads dropped. It was like a heavyweight boxing match, the first punch floored us and we had no legs or brains after that.
Incidentally, for their 3rd, there were three players surrounding Bamford but none of them seemed to realise he is left footed.
Bielsa has developed a team over the past two years that are as athletic as any I’ve seen and their pass accuracy was better than ours from the start. I saw them do the same at Anfield and against Wolves, they can forget relegation and it will be a battle for us to finish higher than them.
Bamford in his after match comment referred to some pratt saying Bielsa is a myth, great way to motivate a team. Was that Pratt Gabby?
 
Pangloss said:
This is true. But also when you look at the fact that they've just been promoted it does emphasise the other key factor and that's coaching and managerial ability.

Bielsa is a quality manager and that makes a big difference to them as well. Let Sam Allardyce have those players for 2-3 years and you wouldn't get anywhere near the same results and football.

I'm not trying to make a veiled jab at Smith here as such, he has done wonderfully well here but everyone has their limits in terms of how far they can take things.
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Issue as to who will continue to take us forward in the coming years is another question. The continuity is important with regards to playing squad as he alluded to in his comments. They’ve all bought into Bielsa’s philosophy and it showed in bucket loads last night. That said, Smith has as you say also done very well but your last sentence suggests he’s taken us as far as he can so I guess it is a bit of a dig at him. But whilst a few now seems to be marvelling at the wonder of Bielsa, he’s thus far done no more than Smith...revived an under performing club and got them promoted albeit at the second attempt compared to Smith’s first attempt. Yes they were fantastic last night....but we were pretty exceptional when we played Liverpool. You can’t judge Bielsa in the Prem after 6 games. I think they’ll have a decent season but I think the plaudits need to come at the end of the campaign rather than 6 games in. But back to my original point...couldn’t really care less about Bielsa and Leeds...I don’t think the owners will want Deano to continue anyway beyond this season if we don’t progress but no reason why we can’t finally be a bit more optimistic about our future as things stand at present.
 
Villa 4 Ever said:
I'm still really angry, I've woken up angry and I can't even bare to click on newsnow for a few days.

We were shit, I'm not buying this Deano crap that we've only been bad for 40minutes this whole season, We were basically being raped in the first half with a few decent chances, they could of easily capitalized a few times and you could see it coming.

First half it was a really poor, we could mention they could of had a red card, we could of had a pen, Jack funked his shoot up bobbled and saved off the line, Watkins had a decent chance but overall Leeds were by far the superior team and could of easily been 3-0 up at half time and it wouldn't of been unjustified they were well worth it.

Second half you're hoping they're going to tire out but it just became worse, the amount of desire and hunger they had to win that match every player apart from Cash/Konsa needs to ask themselves why they were second best, why they aren't as fit, why they didn't have the same determination.

I could literally go through the whole team and rip them a new arsehole to be honest, We were playing so poorly with any buildup play why the hell Martinez consistently tried to play it from the back when it took him until the 95th minute to start our own counter attack that nearly paid off, I actually feared every time their keeper had the ball because I knew what was coming one fast as funk counter attack that's going to make us look vulnerable.

Poor against 10 man Sheffield, poor second half against Fulham, very poor against Leicester in the first 20 minutes and shockingly poor against Leeds, who was I kidding thinking we could break the top 8 this season before this game, we were shite and not just in an unlucky way, we just got made to look like a relegation side and made Leeds look like Barcelona, we can compare other teams like Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool doing poorly, but if we do we we're letting the team off with a poor display.
Leeds not only countered amazingly well, they CONTROLLED the possession too, they dominated every aspect of the game last night.

Sorry guys I might try and fill over the cracks to some Leeds fans, but if we're being real we were shit, What game plan ? Leeds played their game they didn't change anything against Wolves, why are they so fit when we had an extra days rest, why were they so better than us ?

Ask the questions, apparently man for man we have the best team, apparently Deano is 10 times the man their manager is, what the funk went wrong ?
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Give your head a wobble mate.
 
There's a reason we've never win our opening 5 games of a season before... Its bloody hard to do!

We've had some amazing teams over the centuries, and yet now people throwing their toys out the pram coz this group didn't manage to eclipse them all....

Can't catch my breath.

A defeat is always annoying. A defeat should always piss you off. But sometimes you've got to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.... We're 2nd in the league after 5 games..... We're massively over achieving. Just calm down.
 
Villa 4 Ever said:
No what I expected was a performance to be proud of even if we did lose, you're the only one that predicted the loss on here.
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Yes I predicted a loss coz I follow logic. If we've never won our first 5 games of a season in 150 years, I just felt chances of us doing so this time we're pretty slim.

That and the fact I don't take that predictions thing too seriously. 😉
 
It’s a tactically naive performance, we paid a hefty price and got embarrassed. The depth of the squad as many have highlighted is concerning, but we have to wait until January before we can sort that out.

But if we beat Southampton we’ll have 15 points from 18, we could well be top of the league as Everton will likely drop points too when DCL gets found out a little.

I think we need to all move on to the Southampton match thread as we are in danger of overreacting. It’s not like managers and players don’t prepare, we just didn’t get it right.
 
I haven't read all the messages above but I'm sensing there's the typical scapegoating of the coach that led us to the past 9 games unbeaten... ridiculous.

Came up against a very good team, didn't take our chances, they took theirs, we lose. Most of our players played well, we created chances, could have gone the other way, it didn't, we are still 2nd in the league.

Chin up, we were bound to lose one eventually. Southampton next, another chance to get some points on the board.
 
crimsondonkey said:
It can be useful to analyse what went wrong, but also the perspective that it is just one game.

When we thrashed Liverpool no one thinks it’s going to define their season, equally our defeat last night shouldn’t define ours.

Hope for a response and a much better performance against Southampton.
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Yes the response will be key. If we get turned over by Southampton then alarm bells will start to ring somewhat. A good display and at least a point will do.
 
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