Aston Villa v QPR Match Thread - 1st Jan 2019, 3pm | Page 11 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v QPR Match Thread - 1st Jan 2019, 3pm

QPR were playing for a draw from the first minute.

They went one nil down and immediately went from one to two up front. They then both on top.

As soon as they equalised they reverted to one up front again.

Their time wasting was abysmal. The referee was abysmal. Letting them take their free kicks from the wrong place and then pulling us back when we tried to take a quick free kick for it not being in the right place.
Why do you sound so surprised Melon with that anti- football manager Mc Claren in charge. Its what he does and so sad that they sit above us by doing it.
 
Not understanding why Davis isn't being thrown into the fray when we chase in last stages. Young strong powerful , a handful .

Revan & OHare again not on bench today . Will youth ever get a chance
 
O'Hare must be injured. He was on the bench then suddenly disappeared when you'd think he would be given a shot. With our midfield lacking and zip or creativity you'd have thought he'd be worth a place on the bench at least.
 
I said to bring hurry up off for whelan. With 10 mins to go playing 2 in midfield and one more striker would have been suicide, the midfield struggled all game with three. Hutton and hurry up are piss poor, one can't defend and the other one can't and won't tackle. Still a long way to go and hopefully we can get the bodies in and out that we need to. Also bring back Gary Gardner as well.
 
I said to bring hurry up off for whelan. With 10 mins to go playing 2 in midfield and one more striker would have been suicide, the midfield struggled all game with three. Hutton and hurry up are piss poor, one can't defend and the other one can't and won't tackle. Still a long way to go and hopefully we can get the bodies in and out that we need to. Also bring back Gary Gardner as well.

Would be funny to recall Gardner since he’s Blues’ best midfielder from what I’ve heard. Don’t think we can though, and I doubt he’d want to come back since he never had the bottle to play for Villa. Seems to be doing well in a smaller pond.
 
Two more points thrown away with sloppy lacklustre play, QPR offered nothing came for a point and somehow got it. Here's my player rating or slatings more like.

Steer: 6 Made one good stop and picked the ball out of the net twice, felt sorry for him today did nothing wrong.

Bree: 6 Thought he did ok better than Elmo anyway.

Elphick: 6 Did ok better than Chester today, not hard I know!

Chester: 5 Can still see him treading water for their second goal, slower than a snail.

Hutton: 4 Awful Leftback looked like the proverbial fish out of water.

Albert: 6 I thought he was doing ok but obviously Dean didn't and subbed him.

Hourihane: 4 Not a defensive midfielder is he despite Deans attempts to make him one. Arrived just too late for both their goals.

Barney:4 He's morphed back into the player that first arrived.

SJM: 6 trying to carry the midfield single-handedly, ran his furry bits off today.

Kodj: 5 Tried but tried to do too much as per normal subbed.

Tammy:7 Scores goals given the chances, needs to learn to hold the ball up better. If he does that we won't be able to keep him.

Subs:

Bolasie: 4 awful, give me Albert anytime, really needs some timeout.

El Ghazi: 5 Hit and miss is the best way to describe him again.

Whelan: 5 Not on long.

Coach:
Smith:6 Did what many wanted and changed things but ended up with his normal crew at the end. Players reverted to Bruce ball when the going got tough.
 
He is fast but so is Usain Bolt!!

Ah. Right. Knew nothing about him but did think people were raving about him.

As you say, speed is one thing, got to be able to do something with the ball though.

Not slating him, he's not the only one who has been poor. Maybe his injuries have affected his game.
 
Hugely disappointing, we can’t play in 2x 20 minute good spells against teams like QPR at home.

All started so well for the first 20 mins hitting the bar and going 1 up. Before the game I was excited by the team selection as it was pretty much the one put on the first page of the thread with the exception of the goalie. I thought it was a chance for Hourihane to shine and Barney to establish a place but it didn’t work today.

Hourihane got in the right positions on the ball, he took the Whelan position defensively which is in front the the back four (which I don’t like but I’m not the gaffer) - the disappointing thing for me was he did nothing with the ball. He doesn’t have the range of passing I perhaps thought he might show today. Good from a set piece but that isn’t enough. I doubt he’s even a squad player in the premier league, if better options are out there we bring them in. Every week you see players who are superior to Hourihane wearing the opposition jersey - today it was Freeman.

Barney ran himself into the ground first half, then faded quickly. The problem with Barney is his awareness when he’s on the ball, he’s a play-the-way-you’re-facing player which isn’t always a bad thing, but in the middle of the park I think you need to have the awareness of who is around you so you can turn on the ball.

I though McGinn was quality with his commitment and work rate, but we need to work smarter as a team not necessarily harder. Every week that goes by you realise we have an average squad with 2 or 3 very good players who are Abraham, Grealish and McGinn. The rest are below par.

Hugely disappointed with Kodjia today. The bloke is borderline disgrace with his sulky attitude at times, I can live with that if he’s doing the business. He just isn’t the same player, I’d be quite happy to cash in on him and bring in a younger, fresher option like a Jarrod Bowen type.

Hutton too was poor for me, but he’s trying to start the play from the back by getting forward but got caught out. He’s not a natural left back so I can forgive him.As for Bree, in the build up I wanted to see him start to get the experience and confidence - and today proved he needed both.

QPR - if a team comes to play for a draw, fine. If a team comes and slows it down a bit tactically, fine. But stupid time wasting antics which I noticed one or two things after 35 odd mins was a bit strange - I could only figure they were happy with a 1 goal deficit going into half time, which when they equalised and went ahead was just a disgrace. For the physio to then join in the antics is an even bigger disgrace - do your medical job you tit then get off the pitch.

I would like to see the body who oversees the laws of the game allow the referee in instances like that to inform the captain there are no more warnings and even if they walk slowly to the ball for a throw they incur a yellow card.

8 minutes into the fully justified 11 mins it was getting a bit too end-to-end for me, I was almost glad it ended.
 
Ah. Right. Knew nothing about him but did think people were raving about him.

As you say, speed is one thing, got to be able to do something with the ball though.

Not slating him, he's not the only one who has been poor. Maybe his injuries have affected his game.

I think he's just a frustrating type of player. He had one season at Palace where he got a bit more consistent then Everton splurged out on him and he got injured soon after. Everything I'd heard about him said he's capable of brilliant moments but also capable of looking bloody useless. That said in this league he should be doing much better.
 
I must admit I was utterly gobsmacked to see Whelan coming on. I had to double-take to see if Steve Bruce was in the technical area.

Strange sub indeed, I guess Hourihane had run his legs into the ground and it was just freshen up the position rather than go for an attacking change as the game was going 50:50 at that point.

I’m just glad though that it wasn’t Hogan - as strange as that sounds, he wouldn’t have touched the ball let alone score, our shape would’ve changed with Tammy going out wide and it would’ve been a handicap in a game that could’ve gone either way in extra time.
 
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Strange sub indeed, I guess Hourihane had run his legs into the ground and it was just freshen up the position rather than go for an attacking change as the game was going 50:50 at that point.

I’m just glad though that it wasn’t Hogan - as strange as that sounds, he wouldn’t have touched the ball let alone score, our shape would’ve changed with Tammy going out wife and it would’ve been a handicap in a game that could’ve gone either way in extra time.

I know what you mean about like for like, I just thought Smith was more adventurous than that.
 
. Every week you see players who are superior to Hourihane wearing the opposition jersey - today it was Freeman.

Lost count of the times I have watched and then posted about an opposition midfielder doing the role Freeman did today and saying we need that type of forward ball playing, pass and move player doing box to box stuff.
 
I know what you mean about like for like, I just thought Smith was more adventurous than that.

Poor-form-manager-regression.

Mindset has changed a little from “winning” to “not losing”, the honeymoon period didn’t last long.

On the flip side, I would’ve been in one hell of a mood had we gone for it and lost 3-2 in the dieing minutes so I don’t want to be overly critical about it, as I sort of (reluctantly) got it.
 
On this day last season we thrashed Bristol city 5-0 to go 4th on 44 points just 5 points off 2nd.
Fair to say we are regressing backwards at a rate of knots. This season looks lost already as it's not as if we will suddenly learn to defend overnight. JT is a massive miss at the back, Chester is now exposed for what he is. Midfield without Snodgrass and jack lacks creativity and any balance.
We've got a Chelsea player up top having a good time , but long term that does nothing whatsoever for the Aston Villa football club.
 
On this day last season we thrashed Bristol city 5-0 to go 4th on 44 points just 5 points off 2nd.
Fair to say we are regressing backwards at a rate of knots. This season looks lost already as it's not as if we will suddenly learn to defend overnight. JT is a massive miss at the back, Chester is now exposed for what he is. Midfield without Snodgrass and jack lacks creativity and any balance.
We've got a Chelsea player up top having a good time , but long term that does nothing whatsoever for the Aston Villa football club.

Not sure what general point you are making.

We didn't go up and nearly went under as a club with a complete chancer and gambler as an owner. So this time last year didn't turn into anything but a world of bother.

And that was progress ?.

And this is regressing?.
 
A blind man can see the problem is the defence mainly. Its been made significantly worse by the Axel injury. DS has got a goalie in and appears to be close to a left sided CB. We are going to have to be patient, like it or not.
 
Barney and Adomah coming back from injury. Hutton, Hourihane and McGinn probably needing a rest. Could explain a lot. Including why DS brought Adomah off.
 
A blind man can see the problem is the defence mainly. Its been made significantly worse by the Axel injury. DS has got a goalie in and appears to be close to a left sided CB. We are going to have to be patient, like it or not.

It does look like the defence but the midfield is non-existent without Jack. McGinn is playing on his own, with a couple of donkeys to make up the numbers. Simply can't have midfielders who are about as comfortable on the ball as a Sunday pub player