Aston Villa v Sheffield United Match Thread - Mon 21 Sept - 6pm | Page 35 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Sheffield United Match Thread - Mon 21 Sept - 6pm

Just watching the replay of the game on Sky and didnt notice last night how Hourihane slams the water bottle into the advertising boards when he is subbed, also he is standing by the Holt End goal when Konsa scores and absolutely no reaction whatsoever.
 
Just watching the replay of the game on Sky and didnt notice last night how Hourihane slams the water bottle into the advertising boards when he is subbed, also he is standing by the Holt End goal when Konsa scores and absolutely no reaction whatsoever.

I saw him throw his water bottle , which I thought was great. Players shouldn't be happy about getting subbed if they aren't injured.
 
The game against Fulham is going to be more of a barometer of where we are than yesterdays game.
 
Breaking down two banks of 4 is always difficult so I won't form a judgement on our attacking play yet. What was a concern for me was the fact that with very few attempts for them to venture over their halfway line they managed to split our defence to enable a defender a chance on goal resulting in a penalty 😳.
 
Bit of a painful watch that, after sleeping on it i am firmly of the belief that the midfield bar Luiz are just not up to it at the moment.

We were carrying Trez, McGinn and Hourihane last night i thought - they do not win enough tackles and get bypassed very easily.

Watkins, Cash and Martinez are improvements on last season ( sorry Fred but obviously you must have smashed Smiths daughter as it`s weird ).

If Traore, and another player come in to improve us like the 3 yesterday then we are looking up - if they don`t then it`s gonna be a tough season again but think we will be better.
 
We were carrying Trez, McGinn and Hourihane last night i thought - they do not win enough tackles and get bypassed very easily.

Watkins, Cash and Martinez are improvements on last season ( sorry Fred but obviously you must have smashed Smiths daughter as it`s weird ).

If Traore, and another player come in to improve us like the 3 yesterday then we are looking up - if they don`t then it`s gonna be a tough season again but think we will be better.

McGinn was diving in an awful lot last night, I cant help but think he was tasked with 'getting in their faces'. He wasnt the only one, one of their best breakways came when both Mings and Konsa had squeezed way into their half and dived in trying to with the ball.

Hourihane and Trez are too lightweight both cant stand up to physical pressure and lose a lot of 50/50s.

Traore plus another will put us reasonably comfortable in mid-table. If nobody else comes in we're going to be carrying at least one player it just depends whether it will be Hourihane and Trez. We have to ensure neither of those start, they can do a job from the bench on occasion but have very little impact as starters.
 
I thought Trez responded to SU's physicality by putting himself about quite a bit last night and was lucky not to get booked IMO.

Hourihane seems to think he's worth a place purely cos he can, occasionally, hit a good free kick alone - otherwise you rarely see him within 5 yards of another player which isn't quite what you need from a so-called DM.
 
Trez was particularly disappointing as he had Traore staring down the barrel at him yet he played safe all evening. The great majority of our crosses coming in from far too deep when we needed to get to the byline and pull the ball back. Difficult with a packed defence but I expected Trez to have a go but he didn’t have it in him despite pressure on his position. If he can’t get there we needed the two Matts to do it.

The only player we have who can do anything around the edge of the box is Jack - fingers crossed Traore can add to that cos, yes, it's not Trez's forte by a long shot.
 
Mmm.
We played against 10 men for 75 mins and our defenders were our standout players?.

This is why I'm delighted with the win but less than enthused about the overall performance.

I realise people are saying it was against 10 who were packing the defence but the point remains that we would have played the same slow approach against 11 and did so last season.

TBF, we were often moving the ball very quickly towards Watkins (hoof!) before they went to 10 men then they inevitably just sat back and space was tight - I think we're looking to play Watkins like Vardy and it's likely to work against many teams but we really do need to be better around the box when we're dominating possession like last night.