I’m coming in with a late game review as I missed the game last night and have only I’ve just downloaded and watched it this afternoon. Here are my player ratings:
Bunn: thought he did okay, certainly not at fault for the second or third goals. He made some good saves in amongst all the chaos in our box. Felt sorry for him as he is probably the only person at AVFC who would want more League Cup games. Having seen both him and Gollini now, it appears to me that Gollini is superior.
Okore: I’ve never really rated him, he has only looked good in comparison to other even worse options. Being so carefully placed into the corner, it was an own-goal that will long live in the memory. Hopefully he will only be providing backup to Elphick this season, although that may lead to him going on another strike. Can we sell him to Newcastle too?
Richards: passable at right back, had a bit of a nightmare again at centre-back although he wasn’t much helped by the midfield nor by Hutton or Okore either side of him. He seemed be forever lunging around trying to head the ball at waist height.
Baker: Unless you want to finger him, rather than Amavi, for allowing the Luton goal-scorer to run in between centre-back and left-back to score their equaliser, I thought he had an okay game. Having not yet read any post-match reports, I’m not sure why he was taken off at half-time.
Amavi: just pleased to see him back playing. Like Cissokho on Sunday, he struggled without help from Ayew/Grealish.
Gardner and Tshibola: I’m going to rate the two together because I think they had very similar games. Both sprayed some good passes about, both seemed to be completely overrun in midfield. Gardner put in the best cross of the game and Tshibola hit (outside of) post. When we played Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday, Bannan dropped back to cover their centre backs every time their fullbacks went forward. I couldn’t work out who was supposed to be protecting our back four (maybe it was more obvious in the stadium). As Sanchez has now gone off on loan, perhaps RDM could take a look at Lyden?
Green: he looks to be a winger who is good at crossing rather than one who is good at dribbling. However his best crosses came when Gestede wasn’t on the pitch (more on that later).
Grealish: he is obviously quality but I seem to recall a statistic that we lost every game in which he played last year. Well add two more to that ongoing total. We need to make more of all the free kicks he wins us around the box. He was also unlucky not to score...
McCormack: he looks a clever sort of player, making little darts here and there. It really highlights how bad Lerner left our squad that someone who has gone almost a whole career outside the top flight can look much better than almost all of our ex-Premier-League squad. Not sure why he went off, but our attack ceased to function when he did.
Ayew: I thought his goal was excellent, there were three defenders who were all favourites to clear the ball, yet Ayew showed great strength to hold them all off and finish very tidily. He disappeared in the second half once Gestede came on.
Subs
Hutton and Gestede: it turns out that bringing a poor player at half-time really highlights how rubbish they are. I assume the substitutions were made because RDM didn’t want to leave an early League Cup exit to chance. Hutton was just running here and there to no effect and immediately Luton were pouring down his flank. As for Gestede, I’ve noticed that all our good crosses occur when he isn’t playing and I don’t think this is coincidental. Basically attacks build down the centre before the ball goes out wide for crossing. With Gestede, nothing builds down the centre.
Final thoughts (1): It was an utter lower-league humiliation in which we were definitely second-best, yet oddly we did hit the woodwork four times...
Final thoughts (2): I’m not on twitter, so I get our good doctor’s tweets third-hand through the press but it can’t be long before the toys go out of the pram...
Final thoughts (3): on the download I was watching, with 10 minutes to go, the Russian commentator started listing Villa players from the 90s: “Dwight Yorke, Ian Taylor, Paul McGrath, Andy Townsend...”. I’m guessing he was doing a version of that famous 1980s Norwegian “Maggie Thatcher, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Anthony Eden... your boys took a hell of a beating...” commentary.
