Aston Villa v Leeds United Friday 23rd 8pm Match Thread | Page 46 | Vital Football

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

I think my assessment was:

first half we seemed to allow pressure onto this. I guessed that was a tactical decision - maybe to tire them out. Our first half chances were actually more dangerous and to me looked more likely to score. For all Leeds possession they didn't seem to be doing anything we couldn't cope with.

Second half we started great, and I think with a bit of sustained pressure on our part, got a bit complacement. Their first goal took both me and out team by surprise it seems. We just forgot that they are good on the counter.

After that our heads really dropped and was reminiscent of last season. that was sad to see. It shows we are a long way from perfect still. I was also annoyed at the lack of subs. I'd have happily given Hourihane a shout - Mcginn had a really poor game for me.

The most annoying thing about last night is that it was Leeds. Can't stand them and can't stand Bamford. What a cheating little prick he is
 
Having cooled off (a little), this was the reality check we all needed. Not very palatable, but it should stop complacency. Should chasten the team and the coaching staff and make us graft harder. Could have been different if we had scored first, but our reaction to going behind was not what was required - it‘s like we reverted to last season. We need big players to stand up and get the team to regroup. I read someone say on here that it is how we bounce back - that is critical. Players were all way below par last night and need to talk between themselves, be honest, and ask each other how it feels to lose. I hope the answers they give each other means that we will not capitulate like that again.

Give Leeds there due, they were committed and carried out their game plan, which was too much for us yesterday.
 
Tom Cat said:
I think my assessment was:

first half we seemed to allow pressure onto this. I guessed that was a tactical decision - maybe to tire them out. Our first half chances were actually more dangerous and to me looked more likely to score. For all Leeds possession they didn't seem to be doing anything we couldn't cope with.

Second half we started great, and I think with a bit of sustained pressure on our part, got a bit complacement. Their first goal took both me and out team by surprise it seems. We just forgot that they are good on the counter.

After that our heads really dropped and was reminiscent of last season. that was sad to see. It shows we are a long way from perfect still. I was also annoyed at the lack of subs. I'd have happily given Hourihane a shout - Mcginn had a really poor game for me.

The most annoying thing about last night is that it was Leeds. Can't stand them and can't stand Bamford. What a cheating little prick he is
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He's one of the top 3 biggest ***** in football.
 
danvilla2 said:
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
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MOTD were obviously all over Bamford for goals two and three. But our defence was terrible. Mings back to his statuesque worst. Also the way our midfield gave in was pathetic.
 
robbali said:
But our defence was terrible. Mings back to his statuesque worst. Also the way our midfield gave in was pathetic.
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One of the (many) reasons why I disliked JT as a Chelsea player was he would come out of nowhere and block a goal-bound shot, half the time with his chest, or his legs, or his arse, or whatever body part he could get there. You're watching and thinking we're all over Chelsea here, and then the word GOAL is halfway out of your mouth and he would block the fecker. Drove me nuts, but it's one of the reasons why he was cut above.... Maybe some of that was instinctive and couldn't be taught, but I also think much was down to that good old fashioned thing called having a pair. He knew he was helping his team win if he took the short-term pain of a ball in the bollocks.
 
I don’t think we can draw any conclusions from this game as much as you couldn’t from the Liverpool match. Leeds will do this to many teams this year. Just listened to Keown talking about how they practice “power ball” where a ball is thrown in and they chase it until someone dies, or something like that. But enough of Leeds, they won’t determine our season, only we can do that. We’re a much better team than last year though an understandable apprehension and doubt lingers on. We have to impose ourselves on Southampton and we’re in a great place.
 
Wicked Messenger said:
I don’t think we can draw any conclusions from this game as much as you couldn’t from the Liverpool match.
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I want a conclusion to be drawn from the Liverpool game.
If Jack and Roscoe go forward at pace as a pair with quick inter-passing. And look for/link up with Ollie then they can destroy teams.
 
Don't think you can draw anything from the match you didn't know already. All PL teams carry some sort of threat. Leeds' threat is similar to Sheffield United's; both are difficult to play against, but we've learnt how to do it against Sheffield. I thought we could do it against Leeds, as we seem to have become tactically aware. In the event we didn't; it happens. You can't get everything right every week.

Where did it go wrong? Fine margins, not much went wrong. I've a feeling we over-rated our chances of scoring, and let defensive tightness slip as a result. Against Sheffield we kept it very tight and waited for the chance which would finally come. And against Leicester. Don't think we quite did it against Leeds.

Southampton are another tricky team where we have to get it right.
 
Just seems to be the way with Covid football. More surprising results. Everton just got easily beaten by Southampton. Don't understand why but it's a definite pattern.
 
We lost, against a team who if they're clicking and you're not quite there will punish you. Like we would punish them if it was the reverse. Leeds aren't better than us. Neither we are we so much better than them that sub-par performances would do. It happens. Deep analysis and searching for problems which need to be sorted aren't needed. Move on.

If it becomes a habit, then that's when to worry. One slip after 4 very very good performances is not.
 
It didn't help that Villa only had a team of ten on the pitch from kick off.
Trez went totally missing, he left Cash to deal with two players on his own, no wonder Cash was totally knackered at the end of the game.
Bamford's second goal was a great strike but, his third was a worldie.
The game might have been different if Jack had of passed to Ollie, when he had the chance, during that run from our box to theirs ending with a shot that was easily blocked out. When Jack just got into their box, Ollie was in space, unmarked, so a pass would have given a 95% chance of a goal.
 
So with the weekend fixtures all but over we are still in the top three with a game in hand on the rest. No result tonight will change that situation and if we win the game in hand we would be top - I know it is against Citeh but they are no great shakes at the moment.
The pain was exaggerated by losing to Dirty Leeds and that cheating tosser Bamford getting the goals but we are still in the mix and the loss will have done some good as complacency did seem to be there for some.
I watched Southampton against Everton and neither team were that good really. They both played quite slowly and nothing like the 100 miles an hour of Leeds and that would suit our approach.
I know that it hurt and we were all hopeful of getting 5 in a row but we are still in a good place really and to see City and Manure in the bottom half makes it all the sweeter.
Hopefully Burnley will get a tonking from Spuds and the Tescos lose to Brighton and the world looks an even better place. Three of the bottom 4 are goners and that makes good reading as I despise all of them for various reasons.
 
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