Aston Villa v Leeds United Friday 23rd 8pm Match Thread | Page 45 | Vital Football

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

I will watch as much of the game as the tv outlets allow and I will try to draw my own conclusions as objectively as I can. If it was a pathetic performance I’m sure I’ll be as disappointed as many who watched it live. I’m not sure it will change my opinion on the importance of how we respond in the next match though.

Yep, agree entirely ironside. How we respond next week is key. For me, it wasn’t a pathetic performance last night. Could have gone either way up until they scored but the disappointing element was the way we reacted when they took the lead...that’s when it really started to unravel and we looked like we did in many games before lockdown. Far too open and unable to cope with Leeds who deserve much credit because they were superb. I’ll be surprised if they play any better all season.
 
Leeds were better than us on the night. It happens , that's sport , no one likes losing but shock horror we even lost games when we won the league.

Leeds did a number on us last night , pulled our players all over the place , we lost our shape and they exploited the gaps they created . Not sure they could have played better tbh and we were below par , but I would be interested to see how they are in March given the intensity they play at.
I’m not sure they created the gaps on our right, they were just there for 90 mins, and we never plugged it 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
Now I'm not saying Bielsa is not a good manager but this creaming over a supposed tactical master stroke of making a substitution because a player got booked is horse shit. The world and his wife were saying that player needed hooking. It wasn't tactical other than preventing his team going down to 10 men 20 mins in.

It was not a tactical master stroke it was a preventative measure any manager worth his salt might do.
Agreed. If Bielsa is a master tactician for subbing a player who is in danger of getting sent off then I must be the second coming of Jesus. I did that tons of times in my coaching career.
 
Mate of mine text me saying we looked good first half from the highlights, sky sports highlights only show our chances in the first half so the highlights are misleading.

The third goal where Bamford manages to move his body to the other side of the ball inside our box with four players within half a yard off him to engineer a shot is just embarrassing. The build up play we are all over the shop too. Terrible defensively
 
There was a fair bit of speculation about Barkley’s fitness going into this match. Did he look fit last night?
He looked off the pace, either fitness issues or just lazy. I was worried when we were first linked with him because I’ve seen him play like that before, after his first 2 games thought maybe I had been harsh on him but last night was a worry. That said McGinn was just as ineffective in that midfield.
 
He looked off the pace, either fitness issues or just lazy. I was worried when we were first linked with him because I’ve seen him play like that before, after his first 2 games thought maybe I had been harsh on him but last night was a worry. That said McGinn was just as ineffective in that midfield.


They all were. Super Jack had his worse game for us for ages. Never seen him lose the ball so much.
 
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Mate of mine text me saying we looked good first half from the highlights, sky sports highlights only show our chances in the first half so the highlights are misleading.

The third goal where Bamford manages to move his body to the other side of the ball inside our box with four players within half a yard off him to engineer a shot is just embarrassing. The build up play we are all over the shop too. Terrible defensively
To be fair we were a bit shaky but overall it was fairly closely matched first half, and before they scored we started the second better. A bit of careless play let them score and then we lost our heads, the Mings - Bamford incident case in point
 
Leeds were better than us on the night. It happens , that's sport , no one likes losing but shock horror we even lost games when we won the league.

Leeds did a number on us last night , pulled our players all over the place , we lost our shape and they exploited the gaps they created . Not sure they could have played better tbh and we were below par , but I would be interested to see how they are in March given the intensity they play at.
Agree it’s just a shame we lost to such a scummy team and let such a scummy player score a hatrick. It was a bad day in the office, up to the coaches and players to work on improving on the weaknesses for the next game
 
He looked off the pace, either fitness issues or just lazy. I was worried when we were first linked with him because I’ve seen him play like that before, after his first 2 games thought maybe I had been harsh on him but last night was a worry. That said McGinn was just as ineffective in that midfield.

I don't know how Smith allowed McGinn and Barkley to finish the game.

McGinn's short passing game is no better than Nakambas. I feel we should have just put Marv in beside Luiz to anchor the midfield. A bit of battle would have gone a long way last night.

The second goal was reason enough to haul off Barkley at which Grealish probably should have been switched to the middle. For some reason we persisted with leave him on the left, Dallas pretty had him in his back pocket all night.

Its been a criticism of Smith ever since he came here, persisting with something that clearly isnt working.
 
I don't know how Smith allowed McGinn and Barkley to finish the game.

McGinn's short passing game is no better than Nakambas. I feel we should have just put Marv in beside Luiz to anchor the midfield. A bit of battle would have gone a long way last night.

The second goal was reason enough to haul off Barkley at which Grealish probably should have been switched to the middle. For some reason we persisted with leave him on the left, Dallas pretty had him in his back pocket all night.

Its been a criticism of Smith ever since he came here, persisting with something that clearly isnt working.
Yes, I feel that certain (many actually) players have become “un-drop-able” in Smith’s mind. The match was crying out for a Nakamba-type to come in and put himself about. Even Hourihane would’ve made a better attempt at a tackle than Barkley did in the build up to that second....
if ever there’s an example of players being dispensable then Leeds proved it last night - everyone was convinced we’d turn them over because Phillips was out yet they replaced him (twice) and still dominated us in midfield.....
 
Barclay is carrying an injury. But because he scored last game he was played again. But in a game where you had to put in a shift it was a mistake. McGinn went AWOL too and Jack stayed up top (I'm a goal scorer now). Luis started better but where was he in 2nd half either?

So no midfield 2nd half. Let's repeatedly see who can run from their penalty box to ours the quickest. And it was always 7 of their players that won.
 
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I don't know how Smith allowed McGinn and Barkley to finish the game.

McGinn's short passing game is no better than Nakambas. I feel we should have just put Marv in beside Luiz to anchor the midfield. A bit of battle would have gone a long way last night.

The second goal was reason enough to haul off Barkley at which Grealish probably should have been switched to the middle. For some reason we persisted with leave him on the left, Dallas pretty had him in his back pocket all night.

Its been a criticism of Smith ever since he came here, persisting with something that clearly isnt working.

Smith has a 1980s approach to substitutes. Thinks we've only got one and that is for injuries. IF it's near the end then you can use it to make a like for like sub of your tiredest player.
 
I’m not sure they created the gaps on our right, they were just there for 90 mins, and we never plugged it 🤷🏻‍♂️
Yes, that was a really dissapointing feature of our performance.
Cash did ok but it was obvious Leeds had decided to target him from the off.
If Smith has a fault it is his seeming inability to spot when something is going wrong and change it.
Half time came and went and still he did nothing about it, that said the 2nd and 3rd goals came in from the other side.