Aston Villa v Newcastle Utd Match Thread - Tues 30th Jan - 8.15 | Page 27 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Newcastle Utd Match Thread - Tues 30th Jan - 8.15

Howe got his tactics absolutely right last night but also his players properly showed up with intensity and aggression. Unai would probably like another go at it tactics-wise but if only McGinn, Konsa and Martinez actually show up for us, what do you think is going to happen?

And for all of their "woe is us" injury list, they started with more than £100m of player in their front line, and the rest of their eleven aren't slouches either.
 
We're sagging at the end of the day, intensity is a good word because ours has dropped since Man City. For me the players are looking tired and this is in part due to the various cup commitments we have had, adding to our fixture list and fatigue.

It's crucial that we get Ramsay fit and confident but most importantly, Torres fit and back in the line up, he's fundamental to how we pay. We also need to catch a second wind soon otherwise the remainder of the season will be a struggle.
 
robbali said:
Havent played well since City, this has been coming.
Got away with it against Brentford,Sheff U and Burnley etc....
Dry January and injuries will mean a fall out of the top 5 and worse unless can Emery revitalise us.
The likes of Lenglet and Cash arent good enough. Tielemans Diaby and Zaniolo flatter to deceive. McGinn and Watkins? Their form, like the team,has fallen off the edge of a cliff.
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You must be like a pig in shit this morning.
 
We're all saying how we're missing Torres and what he brings to the team but I think Digne has been just as big a miss as it looks like Moreno still isn't 100% and looks like he doesn't quite trust his body yet to really stretch his legs and get to the bye line like he was doing consistently last season. Digne just gives us a bit more solidity
 
Professor Dem_C said:
Nope just proving the point that we are not comfortable! I would have rather have been wrong any day of the week obviously ☹️

That performance has been coming. Let's be honest with ourselves since citeh we have been poor to average. We were awful against Sheffield united and should have lost that game, we were crap aginst united, not great vs everton, and rubbish last night
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Never said our recent performances had been comfortable but our position going into last night’s game was imo whichever way you want to prove your point. Fourth place, same points as Arsenal and City, three above Spurs and eight above West Ham. If you lose games of course that then changes and unless we improve, we could easily lose a few more and our position in the top 4/5 will obviously come under pressure. We can all see the team isn’t performing at present but we’re still in an excellent position irrespective of current form and last night’s result. Even a negative mindset can see that as a fact surely.
 
Moose66 said:
We're all saying how we're missing Torres and what he brings to the team but I think Digne has been just as big a miss as it looks like Moreno still isn't 100% and looks like he doesn't quite trust his body yet to really stretch his legs and get to the bye line like he was doing consistently last season. Digne just gives us a bit more solidity
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100% agree and was going to say the same. We performed better with Digne in the side. If Digne was fit then Moreno wouldn't be a miss at the moment. But as other positions there is no choice and that is the biggest issue at the moment imho.
 
It's not really any different to any other season where we have been challenging near the top of the table, we find ourselves in 4th or even higher and then bottle it when the business end of the season comes around. It's not tiredness or lack of squad depth really, other teams around us have a favoured starting 11 and only really City and Liverpool have any real depth, and January has been a quiet month on the game front and we had a winter break this year.

I've pretty much written off 4th now because Spurs will probably overtake us after they beat Brentford and if midtable Newcastle who had won once away all season can batter us at VP like that then Spurs will too. I'll probably write 5th place off if we fail to beat the worst team in the league in Sheffield United on Saturday too.
 
What annoyed me most about last night was how easily they stopped us playing. Each time Martinez had the ball it was glaringly obvious that they just stood on Luis and Kamara, who both remained static, forcing Emi1 to play balls to Diaby who was overpowered by Burn.
We didn't change that until Bailey came on. Keeper feined injury to get time for a tactical reshuffle by them, which then snuffed out Bailey.
Also Torres being out is damaging too. Konsa being the go to out ball is simply not good enough. Not his fault, but we are reverting to how we were under him and Mings slowing down our forward movement.
 
MrLoverLover said:
It's not really any different to any other season where we have been challenging near the top of the table, we find ourselves in 4th or even higher and then bottle it when the business end of the season comes around. It's not tiredness or lack of squad depth really, other teams around us have a favoured starting 11 and only really City and Liverpool have any real depth, and January has been a quiet month on the game front and we had a winter break this year.

I've pretty much written off 4th now because Spurs will probably overtake us after they beat Brentford and if midtable Newcastle who had won once away all season can batter us at VP like that then Spurs will too. I'll probably write 5th place off if we fail to beat the worst team in the league in Sheffield United on Saturday too.
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That's the spirit.
 
The way I saw it we were out-muscled all over the pitch apart from SJM. For this reason, had Bailey played from the start he would have suffered the same fate.
“Our game plan was to really be aggressive and try and stop their rhythm,” said Howe after the match. Their pressing was more aggressive, they were more aggressive all over the pitch often bordering on foul play. Same at their place. We seem to have found it difficult to reproduce the intensity we showed against City. Undoubtedly teams have learned a lot about us and will make it as difficult as possible and I’m sure Unai will relish the challenge. We are in a great position in the table, with so much to play for, it’s still all very exciting.
 
We used to have a seasons worth of performances like this - fair play to Newcastle they’ve outplayed us all over the pitch.
We were going to lose at home some time

Some of us on here are losing their shit
 
Based on this season, Howe does have Emery's number, on both occasions they have been tactically spot on.
 
Beat Man U at home next week and this one will be quickly forgotten, I never wanna leave a game on 52 minutes again. I was in bed before it was even finished.
 
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