Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: PeterWithesShin on October 05, 2023, 09:54:19 PM
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Never in doubt.
As one sided a game as you ever see.
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The goal
https://twitter.com/tekkersfoot/status/1710035540530155945
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Lots of shit.
Thought Cash added a much needed option.
Tielemans is toss.
Zaniolo works hard but is desperate for a goal.
I hate midweek football.
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Fuckin hell. McGinn.
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Never in doubt.
As one sided a game as you ever see.
Agreed, they just wanted to make it more exciting for Prince William.
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Whoever does the player ratings on FlashScore needs to have a word with their guide dog.
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2 games down, everyone on 3 points.
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That's what the big teams do.
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Had to work for that. Thought Zrinjski defended really well, us at any other point prior to Emery (for a long time’ would’ve lost that.
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Everyone on three points now and still no 0-0 under Emery.
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75%
27/9 shots v 3/1
15 corners v 0
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Dire first half, much better second, deserved goal.
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Nice.
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Second half they basically fluctuated between 10 men in or around the box and occasionally moving slightly further upfield. Made it very hard, but on balance we deserved to win and eventually got there.
Good bit of play for the goal - 3 points and move on.
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Massive goal. 1 point from 2 games would have been poor and difficult to qualify from. So much better after the changes. Please please for the love of McGrath can we never see Dendonker and Tielemans as a midfield pair ever again
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You can see why they are champions of their country.
Well organised and don't lose many.
This whole rotate the squad caper Thurs > Sun is still new for us. More minutes in the legs of Tielemans, Longlay and some of the others will Shirley benefit us further on in the campaign. Wouldn't want that pair starting a league game anytime soon, mind.
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We’ve got McGinn.
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Cash made a massive difference.
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The referee must be gutted.
Much better second-half, though Tielemans fails again to impress. Well done SJM - he's wasted on the left but saved us at the death. Carlos was not at his best either, but Lenglet seemed to be settling in.
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Soooo slow in the first half. What a load of shite. We should have been zipping it about like the second half.
Really wanting Zaniolo to get his first goal just needs something to get him going…but…
Is there anything better than a last minute winner?
😁😁😁
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I only watched the second half but it was all Villa, scruffy and desperate at times but a deserved victory. All their play acting and crap refereeing, I'm pleased that justice was done and we manage a win. Hopefully, this so-called second string gains a bit of heart from that. Wasn't pretty but we peppered their goal and kept going at it.
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Second half we absolutely smashed them.
Another day we score four.
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Lenglet looked a lot better
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Soooo slow in the first half. What a load of shite. We should have been zipping it about like the second half.
Really wanting Zaniolo to get his first goal just needs something to get him going…but…
Is there anything better than a last minute winner?
😁😁😁
I thought Zaniolo did ok - he was trying to move into the incredibly limited space and create opportunities.
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Is there anything better than a last minute winner?
Reckon I still preferred the 6-1 against Brighton.
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I'm another that though Lenglet looked OK tonight
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Great to win at the end, but we're a million miles off going for in this. Paying the price fior not strengthening properly in the Summer
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We'll look back on that McGinn goal next May in Athens.
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I'm another that though Lenglet looked OK tonight
Thought he had a better game. Didn’t have to even do anything 2nd half. That helps
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Great to win at the end, but we're a million miles off going for in this. Paying the price fior not strengthening properly in the Summer
Hardly.
Also we have 5 first teams out injured tonight.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread were massively over the top, he had a very good 2nd half other than a couple of poor passes.
In general if we play like that second half all season we'll beat most teams, they barely touched the ball and were just 9 men on the edge of the box throwing themselves into everything and hanging on by their fingernails.
Ref wasn't biased, he was just shit.
Zaniolo needs a goal.
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As we all thought…. Not enough quality in starting 11, but 3 changes half time made massive difference…. We’re growing, and more are getting game time
Keep Olsen, Tielmans, Bert, Dendoncker and Lenglet out of Prem starting 11’s and we should be ok
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Thank fuck. What a relief.. Couldn't watch the gam so followed it on here and all I was often readin was everbody was shit so was very worried. Were the boys that bad?
UTV.
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Posted at 21:5621:56
FT: Aston Villa 1-0 Zrinjski Mostar
Villa had 27 shots tonight and they scored the final one.
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great finish
rubbish slow first half
play your best team first and then when up , take them off
Cash and dougie made a big difference even Bertie made a difference .
thought first half teilemans was worse than dendonker
zaniolo once he get a goal who get proper going ( why not a pen on him)
Bailey was mixed
Lenglet was ok to be fair
We have got Mcginn
happy tonight
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A huge positive is Lenglet and Tielemans playing their first really meaningful (winning) ninety minutes and becoming more integrated within the squad. As with Zaniolo, as soon as Tielemans nets his first goal, I think we'll see a really useful player. Well done Unai and the boys.
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Much better 2nd half, well done SJM, fair play to them, great defensive effort.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
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Good win, got stronger and pleased.
I can imagine the match thread, but I'd agree with Paul, Tielemans grew stringer as the game went on and there were some good signs there. I think he needs a run of games to get his eye in fully.
I love the team ethic, I love that they never give in.
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Thank fuck. What a relief.. Couldn't watch the gam so followed it on here and all I was often readin was everbody was shit so was very worried. Were the boys that bad?
UTV.
No they weren't. It was just a bit frantic as we were desperate for the win. Mostar worked hard and played with their whole squad behind the ball. Difficult to break down.
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Dreadful first half
All us in the second after bringing on the Subs
You are not playing mugs in Europe, need to start with your best attacking options at home.
But we won and onwards and upwards
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Nice routine home win.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
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I think we need to start with the strongest team quicker and work it the other way. These Thursday nights are going to kill me :o
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Brilliant goal by McGinn. He was a long way down Emery's list but I thought Traore had a very lively cameo when he came on. Very good second half performance I thought, Zrinjski defended brilliantly and looked like the goal wasn't going to come. Excellent tactical switch by Emery at half time. Didn't think Tielemans was anywhere near as bad as made out in the match thread, not everything worked out but he kept going anyway.
Martinez 7 - one smart save in first half but could have brought a chair that aside
Konsa 6 - not a RB by any stretch of the imagination, happier in back 3
Carlos 6 - rusty enough first half, missed a shocker of a chance with header
Lenglet 7 - slow start but was much better than in Warsaw, abysmal miss from header
Digne 6 - very good first half, hope not injured
Bailey 6 - better on left, kept at it but lack of self belief is apparent
Donk 4 - not an Emery player, two games in a row hooked at half time doesn't suggest much of a future
Tielemans 6 - poor first half but definitely was better in second, still some unforced mistakes but one cracking ball and kept going
Zaniolo 5 - started well but drifted out of the game quickly enough
Duran 4 - poor again, Emery far from impressed obviously
McGinn 7 - brilliant goal, much prefer him on the right where he can cut in
Both Cash and Luiz stood out a mile when they came in, if either of them get injured we will be in serious trouble. Great assist from Cash. Traore I thought was lively on the right when he came in. Watkins struggles when a defence sits in, quiet enough. Put in one great ball.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
Tielemans was wank.
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I thought second-half the team was feeling the weight. I thought Cash made a huge difference.
Zinolo needs a goal - I think he could be something special but it feels like he is over-trying
End of the day - this is what the best teams do, find a result. Saw it against Palace, and again tonight. We've misfired in a few games but at the same time tonight, we had Mings, Ramsey, Diaby, Emi, Moreno all missing.
Teilemans is not right. I think its a mental thing (and I mean that in the most understanding of ways) - his head doesn't seem in the right place for someone who is clearly so talented.
I worry about Carlos and Lenglet - yet to see either are any good.
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Great to win at the end, but we're a million miles off going for in this. Paying the price fior not strengthening properly in the Summer
Whilst I don't think he would have played them all even if fit, it is worth remembering that of what would have been the main squad at the start of the season, we don't have Buendia, Mings, Moreno, Kamara, Diaby or Ramsey at the moment. Tielemans also looked decent in the pre-season and then decided to not even show up in competitive matches this season. The weak link we should have strengthened is still the RB position and they do have to take responsibility for not getting a decent replacement there, especially as Cash also plays internationals so doesn't even have the luxury of resting once every 6 weeks or so.
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Good win, got stronger and pleased.
I can imagine the match thread, but I'd agree with Paul, Tielemans grew stringer as the game went on and there were some good signs there. I think he needs a run of games to get his eye in fully.
I love the team ethic, I love that they never give in.
Yeah with Tielemans there were two very nearly brilliant passes. Clearly there was still some ropey play in there too, but you could see what he was and could be again. He just needs to get his confidence up.
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Happy with the three points. Considering the number of corners we had, if I was that scruffy roadie git on our bench I'd be tidying up my CV and getting a haircut in the morning.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
Tielemans was wank.
No he wasn’t. He wasn’t great and clearly needs to improve, but in that second half there were signs of him finding his way back.
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Much better second half. They defended as if their lives depended on it.
Deserved the winner, lovely by Bert, Cash and a precision header.
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Not that it matters now, but can anyone clarify why that first penalty shout wasn't given?
I get it hit is bonce first and then it hits his arm.
Is it not a pen if a defender -in theory- controls the ball with his foot first and then flicks it into his hands Gaelic football style?
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
Tielemans was wank.
Yes. Especially first half.
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Great to win it at the end and hopefully we kick on in the competition now
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Not that it matters now, but can anyone clarify why that first penalty shout wasn't given?
I get it hit is bonce first and then it hits his arm.
Is it not a pen if a defender -in theory- controls the ball with his foot first and then flicks it into his hands Gaelic football style?
Well it probably would be in that scenario. In the case of the non-pen it smashed into his face and happened to hit his hand on the rebound. Not sure what you can possibly do in that situation.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
People are just watching the game and posting as if they're at the match. It usually moves at such a pace that nobody is aware that somebody else has posted the same thing, it wasn't a concerted effort to get on hs back.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
Tielemans was wank.
No he wasn’t. He wasn’t great and clearly needs to improve, but in that second half there were signs of him finding his way back.
Lucky bloke got longer on the pitch than he deserved
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
Tielemans was wank.
Yes. Especially first half.
Yes, I don't know how anyone can have watched that match and think otherwise.
He is technically very capable, but has a heart the size of a pea and the application of a moody 14 year old.
It's not enough.
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Good win, got stronger and pleased.
I can imagine the match thread, but I'd agree with Paul, Tielemans grew stringer as the game went on and there were some good signs there. I think he needs a run of games to get his eye in fully.
I love the team ethic, I love that they never give in.
Yeah with Tielemans there were two very nearly brilliant passes. Clearly there was still some ropey play in there too, but you could see what he was and could be again. He just needs to get his confidence up.
I reckon if that interview when he was with Belgium hadn't happened everyone would be talking about how tonight was his best performance for us and hoping he can keep it up but now some people have got it in their heads that he's upset about not playing more they're hyper-critical of everything he does wrong.
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Huge goal, we would have made it really hard for ourselves being on one point after two. Hope we see stronger starting line ups for the AZ double header.
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A contender for being his best performance is a pretty low bar with Tielemans. I thought he was a good signing especially on a free and hope he comes good but he's been very disappointing so far.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
Tielemans was wank.
No he wasn’t. He wasn’t great and clearly needs to improve, but in that second half there were signs of him finding his way back.
Lucky bloke got longer on the pitch than he deserved
Or he stayed on the pitch long enough to start showing signs of improvement. He clearly did show that, and I hope it continues as it’s better for the club if it does.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
Tielemans was wank.
No he wasn’t. He wasn’t great and clearly needs to improve, but in that second half there were signs of him finding his way back.
That may be the case but he gave away more passes tonight than SJM did last season when he had a shit spell. It could have cost us multiple times. Plus, what's happening to his shooting? It was his one special skill I have been looking forward to seeing since he joined us.
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Tielemans is crap.
Maybe Emery can work some magic on him though.
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Good win, got stronger and pleased.
I can imagine the match thread, but I'd agree with Paul, Tielemans grew stringer as the game went on and there were some good signs there. I think he needs a run of games to get his eye in fully.
I love the team ethic, I love that they never give in.
Yeah with Tielemans there were two very nearly brilliant passes. Clearly there was still some ropey play in there too, but you could see what he was and could be again. He just needs to get his confidence up.
I reckon if that interview when he was with Belgium hadn't happened everyone would be talking about how tonight was his best performance for us and hoping he can keep it up but now some people have got it in their heads that he's upset about not playing more they're hyper-critical of everything he does wrong.
Oh, Paul, with all due respect, what rubbish.
I don't give a fuck what he said in Belgium, but he's had multiple chances to show what he can do and, 90 percent of the time, has shown pretty much nothing, including tonight.
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They’ve somehow devalued every European competition. I personally couldn’t give a shit about this. I’d rather win the FA Cup.
I certainly do not want it to impact our league performances.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
People are just watching the game and posting as if they're at the match. It usually moves at such a pace that nobody is aware that somebody else has posted the same thing, it wasn't a concerted effort to get on hs back.
I never said it was, I was just pointing out that the threshold for a lot of people to call him shit is ridiculously low right now. He had a poor first half, so did everyone else. 2nd half he was one of our better players and pretty much every independent football site that is giving ratings on the game backs that up.
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We were wank first half but much better second half. They were determined to get every man behind the ball & play very narrow so we crossed for their taller players to head clear.
And it almost worked.
Fair play to them for starters for playing well as a defensive unit & for getting the tactics almost correct.
Almost.
I was starting to think that this would be "one of those games" where we play until December 2337 & still be unable to score, but the impressive Cash helped us get the win we deserved.
Thought Bailey looked a lot more dangerous on the left. Thought Tielemans improved after a truly shit first half. Think Zaniolo looks like he is trying too hard. Cash, Douglas Luiz & Watkins improved the team ten fold after coming on. And finally Konsa is NOT a RB.
Not a classic game for fan or neutral alike, but a much needed & deserved victory.
Shout out to the ref, who was shit. Not biased, as he made crap calls for them too. He was just shit.
Almost as shit as the commentators who kept talking about the opposition, whose name I cant even pronounce never mind spell, "growing into the game" because they managed to get close to the half way line a couple of times... Pair of bellends...
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If everyone's on 3 points it's almost like starting again from day 1. So not the worst place to be.
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Good win, got stronger and pleased.
I can imagine the match thread, but I'd agree with Paul, Tielemans grew stringer as the game went on and there were some good signs there. I think he needs a run of games to get his eye in fully.
I love the team ethic, I love that they never give in.
Yeah with Tielemans there were two very nearly brilliant passes. Clearly there was still some ropey play in there too, but you could see what he was and could be again. He just needs to get his confidence up.
I reckon if that interview when he was with Belgium hadn't happened everyone would be talking about how tonight was his best performance for us and hoping he can keep it up but now some people have got it in their heads that he's upset about not playing more they're hyper-critical of everything he does wrong.
Think how it ended at Leicester is a bigger factor in peoples perceptions
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
Tielemans was wank.
No he wasn’t. He wasn’t great and clearly needs to improve, but in that second half there were signs of him finding his way back.
That may be the case but he gave away more passes tonight than SJM did last season when he had a shit spell. It could have cost us multiple times. Plus, what's happening to his shooting? It was his one special skill I have been looking forward to seeing since he joined us.
101 passes attempted, 85 completed so 84%. McGinn was at 60-65% at the start of last season. 4 shots, 2 on target and 1 blocked.
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If everyone's on 3 points it's almost like starting again from day 1. So not the worst place to be.
We managed to dig ourselves out of a very large, embarrassing hole, right at the death.
I hope we learn something from tonight.
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Good win, got stronger and pleased.
I can imagine the match thread, but I'd agree with Paul, Tielemans grew stringer as the game went on and there were some good signs there. I think he needs a run of games to get his eye in fully.
I love the team ethic, I love that they never give in.
Yeah with Tielemans there were two very nearly brilliant passes. Clearly there was still some ropey play in there too, but you could see what he was and could be again. He just needs to get his confidence up.
I reckon if that interview when he was with Belgium hadn't happened everyone would be talking about how tonight was his best performance for us and hoping he can keep it up but now some people have got it in their heads that he's upset about not playing more they're hyper-critical of everything he does wrong.
Tielemans was garbage tonight.
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Good win, got stronger and pleased.
I can imagine the match thread, but I'd agree with Paul, Tielemans grew stringer as the game went on and there were some good signs there. I think he needs a run of games to get his eye in fully.
I love the team ethic, I love that they never give in.
Yeah with Tielemans there were two very nearly brilliant passes. Clearly there was still some ropey play in there too, but you could see what he was and could be again. He just needs to get his confidence up.
I reckon if that interview when he was with Belgium hadn't happened everyone would be talking about how tonight was his best performance for us and hoping he can keep it up but now some people have got it in their heads that he's upset about not playing more they're hyper-critical of everything he does wrong.
Think how it ended at Leicester is a bigger factor in peoples perceptions
I think that meant people didn't give him long before criticising but the complaints since the international window have increased massively.
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I'm so relieved we won, but I just don't get why we started with that line up.
All it did was slow our play down and it gave them some belief to dig in and time waste and throw their bodies on the line. Also, we didn't make them expend enough energy.
If we had played with the second half team in the first half, I can't be certain we would have been ahead, but it's likely that we wouldn't have been so stressed watching in the stands let alone the players who had to come on to sort out a mess.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
Do I Paul? Get worked up? Don't think so. Wasn't even on the match thread. It amuses me that YOU get worked up because people use the match thread to be OTT. You've missed the point once again.
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If everyone's on 3 points it's almost like starting again from day 1. So not the worst place to be.
We managed to dig ourselves out of a very large, embarrassing hole, right at the death.
I hope we learn something from tonight.
I'm not blaming injuries for it, because some players just aren't performing when given the opportunity, but I think it's very clear at this point that with the injuries we don't have the squad to rotate more than a couple of players.
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Bailey was wretched and Tielemans not much better. Dendonker is not what we need
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If everyone's on 3 points it's almost like starting again from day 1. So not the worst place to be.
We managed to dig ourselves out of a very large, embarrassing hole, right at the death.
I hope we learn something from tonight.
I'm not blaming injuries for it, because some players just aren't performing when given the opportunity, but I think it's very clear at this point that with the injuries we don't have the squad to rotate more than a couple of players.
I don't disagree.
Unfortunately, we are going to have to rotate quite a lot.
What we need to get better at is who we rotate, and when, because on the basis of that first half, too much rotation and we go to pieces.
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It was indeed disappointing that our squad players couldn't put the game to bed and let our main players have a rest and light run out at the end.
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75%
27/9 shots v 3/1
15 corners v 0
Just got home, nice easy journey tonight. My take it whilst it was difficult to break them down and Unai needs to find a way to sort out stubborn teams we were far far better than them. They offered nothing other than hard work and honest endeavour. We will easily beat them at their place and that's 6 points.
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Bailey was wretched and Tielemans not much better. Dendonker is not what we need
Dendonker - the biggest complement you can pay to a defensive midfielder is you don't notice there playing. Unfortunately, Dendonker doesn't notice he's playing either.
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We are a work in progress, our first choice 11 are a very good team, our rotated 11 are bang average. As we grow and become more successful then our rotated 11 will improve with better squad signings plus youth team players.
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Some of the comments about Tielemans in the match thread
It's the match thread though.
and? You seem to get really worked up if anyone comments on the match thread but it go so bad that someone who wasn't watching had to ask what he'd done when a misplaced pass resulted in 5 people calling him shit, it's just fucking silly when it gets to that.
Tielemans was wank.
No he wasn’t. He wasn’t great and clearly needs to improve, but in that second half there were signs of him finding his way back.
That may be the case but he gave away more passes tonight than SJM did last season when he had a shit spell. It could have cost us multiple times. Plus, what's happening to his shooting? It was his one special skill I have been looking forward to seeing since he joined us.
101 passes attempted, 85 completed so 84%. McGinn was at 60-65% at the start of last season. 4 shots, 2 on target and 1 blocked.
Thanks, Mr Logic. Allow me to slightly exaggerate to make a valid point. You may think tonight was his best performance for us. I'd say it was Walsall pre-seaon. Tonight at times he was a liability despite his 84% pass completion, it was the 16% that could have lost us the game. He wasn't alone tonight, there's a few that aren't won't be knocking on Emery's door in the immediate future.
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Bailey was wretched and Tielemans not much better. Dendonker is not what we need
Dendonker - the biggest complement you can pay to a defensive midfielder is you don't notice there playing. Unfortunately, Dendonker doesn't notice he's playing either.
Always looks like he's moving in slow motion
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Made hard work of it but it’s 3 points.
Tielemans struggling massively again the central midfield area was all over the place in the first half. He has to step it up because he’s getting the chances to play now so let’s hope he does.
Thank god for John McGinn. All over the place yet again and the goal just capped it off.
Onwards and upwards!!!!
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If you take Watkins, Luiz, Kamara and Diaby out of the team, we look like a lower table side.
Those players are so important for us. And they're not the only ones.
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101 passes attempted, 85 completed so 84%. McGinn was at 60-65% at the start of last season. 4 shots, 2 on target and 1 blocked.
Thanks, Me Logic. Allow me to slightly exaggerate to make a valid point. You may think tonight was his best performance for us. I'd say it was Walsall pre-seaon. Tonight at times he was a liability despite his 84% pass completion, it was the 16% that could have lost us the game. He wasn't alone tonight, there's a few that aren't won't be knocking on Emery's door in the immediate future.
Why would you include a pre-season game when no one was fit?
I wasn't trying to be logical or to 'prove anything with stats' just pointing out that he was nowhere near as bad as you (and others) suggested. Of that 16% I can think of 3-4 that were genuinely poor and of the 84% I can think of 3-4 that could easily have resulted in goals. I'm not even saying he should be pushing to start any time soon but I do wonder exactly what he'd need to do in a match to be considered to have put in a decent performance if tonight isn't good enough for so many of you.
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Made hard work of it but in fairness, they defended very well. An early goal and it would have been a lot more comfortable but sadly, it's not always like that. Got the points though and that was the main thing.
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Nice to wake up to a win. Get in!
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If you take Watkins, Luiz, Kamara and Diaby out of the team, we look like a lower table side.
Those players are so important for us. And they're not the only ones.
Given we already have 3/4 starters missing with injury already you're effectively saying that our team isn't very good without 7 of it's best players, could probably swap those 4 for Cash, McGinn, Konsa and Martinez and it'd be true as well but I doubt many teams in the country would look great with 7 of their best 11 missing.
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Hopefully Bailey played himself out of contention for a start on Sunday.
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Great to win at the end, but we're a million miles off going for in this. Paying the price fior not strengthening properly in the Summer
When the transfer window “slammed shut”, Mings and Buendia were still healthy.
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Made hard work of it but in fairness, they defended very well. An early goal and it would have been a lot more comfortable but sadly, it's not always like that. Got the points though and that was the main thing.
Yup, I thought they were very well organised and had a plan. As I mentioned elsewhere it was straight out of the MON text book of nicking something away from home. Their keeper impressed me. Maybe worth a swap for Olsen in January?
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We are a work in progress, our first choice 11 are a very good team, our rotated 11 are bang average. As we grow and become more successful then our rotated 11 will improve with better squad signings plus youth team players.
Agree. We forget we have come a long way in a short time. We are superb in the league over the past 32-33 games, becoming a force that can challenge in a few competitions at a time is the next leap. We are getting used to Europe after a gap of 13 seasons
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If you take Watkins, Luiz, Kamara and Diaby out of the team, we look like a lower table side.
Those players are so important for us. And they're not the only ones.
+ JJ
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Made hard work of it but in fairness, they defended very well. An early goal and it would have been a lot more comfortable but sadly, it's not always like that. Got the points though and that was the main thing.
Yup, I thought they were very well organised and had a plan. As I mentioned elsewhere it was straight out of the MON text book of nicking something away from home. Their keeper impressed me. Maybe worth a swap for Olsen in January?
I said the same thing about the keeper. He looked alright.
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Hopefully Bailey played himself out of contention for a start on Sunday.
He was poor in the first half other than a couple of little dribbles into the box where they couldn't get near him but there was no end product. He swapped to the left in the 2nd half and was much better, got a few decent balls in and played his part in us pinning them into their box for most of the half. In general everyone did well in the 2nd half when we upped the tempo, about as 1sided a half of football as you'll ever see, even if the result makes it look like we sneaked a win in injury time.
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Weirdly our group is not just all level on points, everyone has a +/- of 0. It is like the first two rounds never happened.
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Made hard work of it but in fairness, they defended very well. An early goal and it would have been a lot more comfortable but sadly, it's not always like that. Got the points though and that was the main thing.
Yup, I thought they were very well organised and had a plan. As I mentioned elsewhere it was straight out of the MON text book of nicking something away from home. Their keeper impressed me. Maybe worth a swap for Olsen in January?
I said the same thing about the keeper. He looked alright.
Reminded me of Jan Tomazsewski (one for the old ones).
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Made hard work of it but in fairness, they defended very well. An early goal and it would have been a lot more comfortable but sadly, it's not always like that. Got the points though and that was the main thing.
Yup, I thought they were very well organised and had a plan. As I mentioned elsewhere it was straight out of the MON text book of nicking something away from home. Their keeper impressed me. Maybe worth a swap for Olsen in January?
I said the same thing about the keeper. He looked alright.
Reminded me of Jan Tomazsewski (one for the old ones).
I posted in the match thread that he looks like someone who'll be at a much bigger club before long. Had a look and he's bounced around a lot of clubs already though so maybe he's a bit of a dick? No idea but he looked like a very decent shot stopper.
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Made hard work of it but in fairness, they defended very well. An early goal and it would have been a lot more comfortable but sadly, it's not always like that. Got the points though and that was the main thing.
Yup, I thought they were very well organised and had a plan. As I mentioned elsewhere it was straight out of the MON text book of nicking something away from home. Their keeper impressed me. Maybe worth a swap for Olsen in January?
I said the same thing about the keeper. He looked alright.
Reminded me of Jan Tomazsewski (one for the old ones).
I thought exactly the same earlier during the match.
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Tielemans looked lacking in concentration, most of his mistakes were made when he had a moment to look up and make a decision, not a great display from somebody bemoaning lack of minutes, but minutes may be what he needs. Dendoncker might as well retire from Villa he looks a mile away from a footballer that will have a chance at Villa. If Tim Iro were fit he'd get in the squad ahead of Dendo every day of the week.
Bailey looked much better out on the left, and that's not the first time I've said that.
Zaniolo has a lot more he needs to do, his first touch is embarrasing on occasion.
Duran looks a handful, really good strength but his decision making is lacking.
Obviously we looked better with Dougie pulling the strings and it allowed Tielemans to have more free rein in the 2nd half that led to him playing with more freedom.
The first half wasn't pretty and the second is what you should would expect from teams at this level. They were solid at the back and their keeper was good when called upon even if the quality of finishing was lacking from Villa.
Luckily this can be shelved on the "learning curve" shelf. 3 points were required and we got them, not in the way any of us wanted, admittedly, but we got the result.
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Reminded me of Jan Tomazsewski (one for the old ones).
I thought exactly the same earlier during the match.
Who played the role of pre-match Clough?
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Hopefully Bailey played himself out of contention for a start on Sunday.
He was poor in the first half other than a couple of little dribbles into the box where they couldn't get near him but there was no end product. He swapped to the left in the 2nd half and was much better, got a few decent balls in and played his part in us pinning them into their box for most of the half. In general everyone did well in the 2nd half when we upped the tempo, about as 1sided a half of football as you'll ever see, even if the result makes it look like we sneaked a win in injury time.
I thought second half he played well and helped lift the crowd. He was trying to make things happen.
I also didn’t think Tielemans was that bad, he was much better when Dougie came on.
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Yet more proof that Douglas Luiz is a very, very good player indeed.
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Yet more proof that Douglas Luiz is a very, very good player indeed.
I've said a few times recently but I'll repeat it here, I reckon Dougie is one of the best central midfielders in the league right now, there isn't a team in the country where he wouldn't be a regular starter and improve them, there's probably not many teams in the world where that isn't true.
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Great to win at the end, but we're a million miles off going for in this. Paying the price fior not strengthening properly in the Summer
When the transfer window “slammed shut”, Mings and Buendia were still healthy.
Were they?
Edit: I looked at Lenglet as cover for Mings and Zaniola for Buendia. Which at the short notice of the injuries were probably the best we could do.
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No I don’t think so. Both injured in the first week. Buendia right before the opener and Mings during that match.
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Luiz can play the ball every bit as well as Ward-Prowse. So why has the latter got multiple assists for corners and we barely even get a sniff at them, with one of our closest efforts coming from a direct try. Is it the delivery? the runners in the box? shit heading ability?
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If you take Watkins, Luiz, Kamara and Diaby out of the team, we look like a lower table side.
Those players are so important for us. And they're not the only ones.
Cash...we have no backup at all at RB. McGinn, Ramsey...no backup at all. Centre mid I thought we had decent cover but after the way the Donk performed in last two games it's clear Emery doesnt. Tielemans obviously a big disappointment so far but thought he was much better second half. Any sign of Iroegbunam getting back involved?
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Luiz can play the ball every bit as well as Ward-Prowse. So why has the latter got multiple assists for corners and we barely even get a sniff at them, with one of our closest efforts coming from a direct try. Is it the delivery? the runners in the box? shit heading ability?
It's either of those, he's put some fantastic balls in that we should've done much better with.
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Luiz can play the ball every bit as well as Ward-Prowse. So why has the latter got multiple assists for corners and we barely even get a sniff at them, with one of our closest efforts coming from a direct try. Is it the delivery? the runners in the box? shit heading ability?
Our two centre backs missed sitters tonight in the air. We don't have too much height in the team either really.
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Considering we had already spent a wedge before that point direct replacements would have probably costs us at least £80m+, so I think it would be unrealistic at that stage of the window Great to win at the end, but we're a million miles off going for in this. Paying the price fior not strengthening properly in the Summer
When the transfer window “slammed shut”, Mings and Buendia were still healthy.
Were they?
Edit: I looked at Lenglet as cover for Mings and Zaniola for Buendia. Which at the short notice of the injuries were probably the best we could do.
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Brilliant goal by McGinn. He was a long way down Emery's list but I thought Traore had a very lively cameo when he came on. Very good second half performance I thought, Zrinjski defended brilliantly and looked like the goal wasn't going to come. Excellent tactical switch by Emery at half time. Didn't think Tielemans was anywhere near as bad as made out in the match thread, not everything worked out but he kept going anyway.
Martinez 7 - one smart save in first half but could have brought a chair that aside
Konsa 6 - not a RB by any stretch of the imagination, happier in back 3
Carlos 6 - rusty enough first half, missed a shocker of a chance with header
Lenglet 7 - slow start but was much better than in Warsaw, abysmal miss from header
Digne 6 - very good first half, hope not injured
Bailey 6 - better on left, kept at it but lack of self belief is apparent
Donk 4 - not an Emery player, two games in a row hooked at half time doesn't suggest much of a future
Tielemans 6 - poor first half but definitely was better in second, still some unforced mistakes but one cracking ball and kept going
Zaniolo 5 - started well but drifted out of the game quickly enough
Duran 4 - poor again, Emery far from impressed obviously
McGinn 7 - brilliant goal, much prefer him on the right where he can cut in
Both Cash and Luiz stood out a mile when they came in, if either of them get injured we will be in serious trouble. Great assist from Cash. Traore I thought was lively on the right when he came in. Watkins struggles when a defence sits in, quiet enough. Put in one great ball.
Agree with virtually all of this, especially regarding Tielemans. I thought Zaniolo was ok though.
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Good win, got stronger and pleased.
I can imagine the match thread, but I'd agree with Paul, Tielemans grew stringer as the game went on and there were some good signs there. I think he needs a run of games to get his eye in fully.
I love the team ethic, I love that they never give in.
Yeah with Tielemans there were two very nearly brilliant passes. Clearly there was still some ropey play in there too, but you could see what he was and could be again. He just needs to get his confidence up.
I reckon if that interview when he was with Belgium hadn't happened everyone would be talking about how tonight was his best performance for us and hoping he can keep it up but now some people have got it in their heads that he's upset about not playing more they're hyper-critical of everything he does wrong.
Oh, Paul, with all due respect, what rubbish.
I don't give a fuck what he said in Belgium, but he's had multiple chances to show what he can do and, 90 percent of the time, has shown pretty much nothing, including tonight.
I thought he was ok tonight, possibly trying too hard at times, but not half as bad as being made out on here.
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Brilliant goal by McGinn. He was a long way down Emery's list but I thought Traore had a very lively cameo when he came on. Very good second half performance I thought, Zrinjski defended brilliantly and looked like the goal wasn't going to come. Excellent tactical switch by Emery at half time. Didn't think Tielemans was anywhere near as bad as made out in the match thread, not everything worked out but he kept going anyway.
Martinez 7 - one smart save in first half but could have brought a chair that aside
Konsa 6 - not a RB by any stretch of the imagination, happier in back 3
Carlos 6 - rusty enough first half, missed a shocker of a chance with header
Lenglet 7 - slow start but was much better than in Warsaw, abysmal miss from header
Digne 6 - very good first half, hope not injured
Bailey 6 - better on left, kept at it but lack of self belief is apparent
Donk 4 - not an Emery player, two games in a row hooked at half time doesn't suggest much of a future
Tielemans 6 - poor first half but definitely was better in second, still some unforced mistakes but one cracking ball and kept going
Zaniolo 5 - started well but drifted out of the game quickly enough
Duran 4 - poor again, Emery far from impressed obviously
McGinn 7 - brilliant goal, much prefer him on the right where he can cut in
Both Cash and Luiz stood out a mile when they came in, if either of them get injured we will be in serious trouble. Great assist from Cash. Traore I thought was lively on the right when he came in. Watkins struggles when a defence sits in, quiet enough. Put in one great ball.
Agree with virtually all of this, especially regarding Tielemans. I thought Zaniolo was ok though.
Yeah same, I'd have added an extra point or 2 for Zaniolo, he was our best player for the first 15minutes then went quiet for the rest of the first half before having a decent 2nd half where he did a lot of unselfish work off the ball to open gaps.
The split between first half and 2nd half in general was huge though, I'd give 7s and 8 to everyone for the 2nd half after 4s and 5s for most in the first. Even then in the first it just felt like 1 less touch or a bit more weight on the passes and we'd have been well on top. It was the sort of frustrating performance that we've seen a few times where it just looked like the team needed a kick up the arse and Emery gave them one with the 3 subs.
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Dire first half, too pedestrian with the ball and lacked zip. Don’t think any of the second string did themselves any favours. Again.
Second half much much better and it was just a question of when.
Duggie pushed us further up the park and them back, Cash, Bailey and Traore stretched them and the goal was always coming.
Fair play to them, they were limited but very well organised and executed their game plan brilliantly with EMI still having to make two fine saves to keep them out with the only shots they had.
Can’t be doing with that choreographed fan shit mind, fair dos for coming though.
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Reminded me of Jan Tomazsewski (one for the old ones).
I thought the keeper was a total clown. ;)
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Thought Tielemans was obviously lacking in confidence, he’s got a great touch and weight in his passes but far, far too many unforced errors to put any pressure at all on the first choices
Would have been good for that shot to have gone in to boost his esteem.
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Just got in, I thought that was a really difficult game to watch, a ponderous and slow Villa team who barely seemed to lay a finger on them. I was surprised to see we had so many shots. We had a lot of the ball but it was all around the midfield and defenders.
Martinez made two massive saves, we are lucky to have him. Tielemens, I have to say I thought he was really poor. To give the ball away or get pushed off so often is getting hard to watch. Luiz made a instant difference and I thought Traore made a big difference too. Very relieved to have won as we were drifting to a really disappointing draw.
I met a couple of their fans on the train in, they were great.
Also, a lot of the fans near me in the upper trinity seemed about secondary school age, so maybe backs up this claim about villa giving tickets away. I really hope they enjoyed it and it planted a seed for them.
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Reminded me of Jan Tomazsewski (one for the old ones).
I thought exactly the same earlier during the match.
Who played the role of pre-match Clough?
Ah, so it was Aftab.
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You being a youngster Gary I am impressed at your command of historical football.
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Yeah, plenty of tix given away to local schools, which is in excellent idea I’m completely behind.
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I’m in the Tielemans was underwhelming camp. Gave the ball away a bit and on numerous occasions, in the inside right channel, second half his crosses hit the defenders. He certainly needs to do a lot better to shift the current first choice midfielders. It probably is just confidence as he’s trying stuff that I hope he’s capable of but it’s not happening, that attempted back heel from Baileys short corner?!!
Lovely overhead effort by Zaniolo, from the replay in the ground it looked like the save was for the cameras though. I thought their keeper fumbled quite a few shots.
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Yeah, plenty of tix given away to local schools, which is in excellent idea I’m completely behind.
Yes. If you can do it, then do it.
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First half, too slow.
Second half, much better tempo to our play and a deserved win.
I do enjoy winning in the last minute against teams who park the bus, time waste and try to game manage with supposed injuries.
Martinez - 7 - one great save and then sat in his deckchair
Konsa - 7 little troubled
Carlos - 7 looked solid enough but not yet fit
Lenglet - 7 much more comfortable than at Warsaw
Digne - 6 got subbed but did nowt wrong
Tielemans - 6 - tough first half where he misplaced his first 3 or 4 passes but huge improvement second half.
Dendonker - 5 - so limited with the ball and on the half turn, he just doesn’t work against teams with a low block.
McGinn - 7 - buzzing about good play and excellent goal.
Zaniolo - 6.5 - started well and faded as the game progresssed but kept at it.
Bailey - 6 - usual Bailey 1st half but improved in the 2nd but is he fit, seemed a bit heavy legged despite the improvement.
Dhuran - 5 - have to be honest I’m not seeing it.
Cash - 8 Motm changed the game
Luiz - 8 - ran the second half and set the tempo, his passing is immaculate
Watkins - 7 - ran the channels well and gave us an option, some good control in tight areas
Traore - 6 - nice little cameo that opened up that right side.
Emery - 7.5 - he’s starting to crack some of the conundrum around his second string but some of them just don’t seem to be able to do what he wants. Changed it up second half for a deserved win. He needs to work on some tactical tweaks for teams that set up with a back 5 and 4 in front as we’ve struggled against that 3 times already this season.
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Went earlier and it was good to get the win in the end, especially given the result in the other game in the group. Thought they were a poor side to be honest who resorted to shithousery of the highest order which was lapped up by the ref. If that had been a Premier League game, there would have been at least 10 minutes added on at the end.v Saying that, they did create one clear chance and Martinez made a great save.
We were poor ourselves for long periods of the game. The drop off in quality between the starting XI and the rest of the squad is alarming at the moment. Tielemans is putting the effort in, but he gives the ball away so many times at the moment and often when it is a pretty simple pass. Emery clearly doesn't rate Dendoncker as that is twice now in just over a week that he has been taken off at an early stage. When you need players to really ramp it up in games like that and really show their quality, Bailey and Zaniolo just aren't the type who are going to do that.
Second half was better to be fair, mainly because of the substitutions.
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Missed it live, but just finished watching it back, knowing the final score.
Second half was much better. We were actually very good in the second half. Unai’s tactical change at half time was very important, completely killed them, but it was the change back to 4 at the back that finally finished them off.
Dendonker is too slow at everything, he doesn’t fit our style at all. Tielemans had a very strange game, very well in patches, awful in others.
Thought everyone else played well, pretty much. Special mentions for Bailey, McGinn and Luiz.
Watching Villa is much better without the stress of us not winning.
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Great win in the end!!!
Maybe we are going for this cup after all.
Bloody hope so.
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Thought that their playacting as if they'd been injured throughout the 2nd half came back to bite them on the backside and cost them the game with the time added in which we scored. Konsa definitely not a RB, twice or three times their left sided midfielder got away from him - Moving to CB, his strongest position, steadied the back 4. I also thought Tielemans and Bailey were gash. When will Bailey actually beat his man and put an accurate pass to a team mate and not try to beat 2 or 3 of the opposition, then lose the ball or go backwards.
Part of the problem in the 1st half was that Carlos saw too much of the ball and has not learnt how and when to pass it on in a quicker manner. As I don't remember seeing much of Dendoncker, I can't comment very knowledgeably on his performance.
The positives were that the 3 half time substitutes lifted the temp and stretched Mostar into places that they didn't want to go and saw them spending most of the 2nd half with 9 or 10 behind the ball and play acting.
Hopefully Unai has learnt a lot tonight and will play stronger starting line ups until we qualify and then involve the 2nd string - We don't have enough experience among the players of playing in European competitions.
Final positive was that it's the 2nd time we've used the park & ride at Tame Bridge Parkway, then train to Witton. I'd stopped for a coffee at the services, dropped my elder son off in Manchester and was home in Rochdale exactly 2.5 hours after the final whistle. It used to take us 3 to 3.5 hours when we've parked on Gypsy Lane !
UTV and onward to AZ Alkmaar via Wolves etc. !!
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It's a tough call in terms of starting strong or keeping the better players on the bench for these games.
Emery said after Everton (cup) that the plan had been to share the minutes more equally, but the starters obviously let him down and some players had to stay on to chase the game, and we still lost.
With that in mind, I guess you can manage certain players minutes better if they don't start, so until we're injury free, or buy in January, I'd expect to see Donk, Lenglet, Tielemans etc. starting these games
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It's a tough call in terms of starting strong or keeping the better players on the bench for these games.
Emery said after Everton (cup) that the plan had been to share the minutes more equally, but the starters obviously let him down and some players had to stay on to chase the game, and we still lost.
With that in mind, I guess you can manage certain players minutes better if they don't start, so until we're injury free, or buy in January, I'd expect to see Donk, Lenglet, Tielemans etc. starting these games
I can see both sides, because we do need to rest players, and on paper our squad players should be strong enough, but the cup teams have generally let us down.
Unai's reaction to the goal tonight was very different to those at the weekend. He looked furious.
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Vital win in the context of the group, we’d really have been up against it, especially given the other result tonight.
Still work to do on making the squad rotation work. There’s a drop off in quality of course but I don’t think it’s purely down to that, we just lack the cohesiveness you normally see when we ring the changes so perhaps as more players get more minutes, it will improve.
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The late winner just magically made the whole occasion much more enjoyable - everybody singing on the way out and personally speaking, two happy if tired kids on the way home.
Happy that we managed to get the job done without our short-term injured, and with some of our other nailed-on starters for Sunday getting 45 minutes rest at least.
Useful game time for Langlet, Tielemans, Zaniolo, Bailey and Bert; I feel a tiny bit encouraged about them if just one or two of them at a time are called on to play in our best team. Four or five - not so much. Donk didn’t do himself any favours and Big Emi needs to play every game.
Someone asked about Tim earlier in the thread - I think he’s back in training.
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Unai's hybrid language makes me love him more. I could not begin to understand or answer a question in Spanish or Basque.
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Thank fuck. What a relief.. Couldn't watch the gam so followed it on here and all I was often readin was everbody was shit so was very worried. Were the boys that bad?
UTV.
No they weren't. It was just a bit frantic as we were desperate for the win. Mostar worked hard and played with their whole squad behind the ball. Difficult to break down.
First half we were poor. Slow and laboured and defensively not particularly organised. Second half we were a lot better.
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I really 'enjoyed' the fact that we just kept plugging away: they were looking at a hard-earned point against superior opposition and probably topping the group after the final'whistle but we got the very later goal and FTF. It's happened to us on many occasions and it's a bastard. It's great to be doing it to other teams when it really matters.
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Bit that impressed me about with Tielemans was it was an incredibly hard game for a player who is trying to create. They deliberately sat deep and compressed space. In spite of clearly not being on form or confident he kept trying to play the difficult passes. A couple were very nearly brilliant, and would have unlocked the defence. Doing that gave a glimpse of what he can do and also showed steel. Hope he can build on that second half.
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It's hard to have the patience that the Manager and team demonstrate, there were plenty round me expressing their frustration late on but this ethos works. Sometimes it might take until the last minute and rather this than bunging as many forewards on as possible and hoping for the best as we have seen many times before.
As for Tielemans, you can see he's trying too hard, lacks confidence, plays balls too long or too short as a result of this, then plays it safe bourne out of fear but he'll get there. His biggest problem was that interview, out of context or not, it's put him in a shitty position. As a caller to WM said, kudos to the Manager for keeping him on when it would've been easier to sub him last night
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Some very big club behaviour last night, with the 2nd half. About as dominant and one sided as its possible to be. Attack and defence, chance after chance, until finally, the Bosnian bus is breached. Lovely stuff.
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For context their manager said before last night that it was the biggest game in the clubs history, that we were at the top end of the Premier League and more efficient than Man City.
We look out on the Holte to words the celebrate the biggest game against our history and they defended like the European Cup was on the line. Fair play to them I suppose, flattering for us, battering for them in December when they have to open up a bit more at home.
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First half we were too slow Laboured didn’t put any pressure on their goal, Ridiculous really for a team
we should be all over from the start
Second half we stepped it up with good substitutions, put a lot of pressure on their goal but left it late
The first thing Emery should do is get on the phone to try and buy their goalie, can’t see him being very expensive but he was tremendous last night
That goal itself was a thing of beauty, superb header from a difficult position, nice cross in from cash, but don’t forget Traoré’s part he took three players out with a reverse pass, thought he looked good when he came on
Atmosphere at the very start of the game was good I thought fans were up for it, but as the first half went on the performance sucked the life out of us
End of the day you can’t be a last-minute goal to send you home happy
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The first thing Emery should do is get on the phone to try and buy their goalie, can’t see him being very expensive but he was tremendous last night
I thought that last night. He would be an improvement on Olsen
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We may grow into the competition but the first two group stage games demonstrated that we’re not ready yet ready to seriously compete. Our lack of experience really showed tonight with regards winning/giving away free kicks, buying time and exploiting the opposition. I think we did well to turn the pressure up from midway in the second half onwards but their keeper didn’t have any significant saves to make whereas Emi had 2 during the game to make. Future learning. I have to say, having watched Tielemans so far, he can be very lax with possession, he gives it away in crucial areas and the pace he puts on passes is often off. I thought Zaniola was also very poor again.
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Thought Teilemans did just fine, was way better 2nd half when he had a progressive player in there in Dougie than Donk who is the definition of a crab, literally no forward intent. Almost feels like we are rehabilitating Teilemans after his last 12 months at Leicester, this was his best performance in a proper game. The lack of pace in both of them is a concern though.
Lenglet also looked better although he wasn’t up against much.
Can’t beat a last minute winner :-)
Their fans were a lively lot
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We've been given a couple of European footballing lessons by "inferior" teams. We need to be a bit smarter, not be suckered into stupid fouls and move the ball more quickly. They deserve a lot of credit for a team that were 12/1 to draw and 30/1 to win last night.
Is SJM now at legend status at Aston Villa??
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We've been given a couple of European footballing lessons by "inferior" teams. We need to be a bit smarter, not be suckered into stupid fouls and move the ball more quickly. They deserve a lot of credit for a team that were 12/1 to draw and 30/1 to win last night.
Is SJM now at legend status at Aston Villa??
Even Emery is referring to him as "Super John McGinn" so maybe.
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I'm pleased with the win could have been more.
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We've been given a couple of European footballing lessons by "inferior" teams. We need to be a bit smarter, not be suckered into stupid fouls and move the ball more quickly. They deserve a lot of credit for a team that were 12/1 to draw and 30/1 to win last night.
Is SJM now at legend status at Aston Villa??
We were given a lesson in what? Parallel parking a bus? Palace did the same. Teams will be coming to Villa Park to not shit the bed and stick 11 behind the ball a lot more regularly, as when they don't, we hammer them.
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I don't remember their keeper making any saves a competent keeper wouldn't? Thought he should have caught the one from Zaniola's overhead.
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I don't see this bleating about us being slow and ponderous, naive and wasteful etc etc. The Bosnian lads were absolutely up for it, they are a young athletic and strong team and they worked very very hard to stop us from playing. We found it tough going in the first half but imposed ourselves on them in second half, backed it up with hardwork and absolutely deserved our winner. As some have said this is how good teams win games and their performances was how we lost many games, lot of honest effort but nothing more. I have no doubt we will thrash them at their place.
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They were no mugs but we deserved the win. I thought some of out 2nd string would step up, I thought wrong. We need to strengthen based on a lot of that.
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I don't see this bleating about us being slow and ponderous, naive and wasteful etc etc.
Luckily Emery did, which is why 3 players got the curly finger at half time.
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I enjoyed the second half, we hammered away and they chucked everything behind the ball and defended bravely.
There were a few decent performances, the changes at halftime made a huge difference and you could see the confidence grow. After that it felt like only a matter of time, even though we cut it fine.
I thought Cash was excellent, he was right up for it and absolutely terrified them. He looked like our most likely outlet and I was pleased he got the assist.
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It's a fine margin between excellent and OK. I think Emery is hoping our squad players will improve with more game time, but it's not really happening yet. I suspect many of us would like to see at least one youngster playing each game as part of the rotation.
Changing to a back 3 showed Emery is very much aware of what to do when things don't go right.
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I don't see this bleating about us being slow and ponderous, naive and wasteful etc etc.
Luckily Emery did, which is why 3 players got the curly finger at half time.
At this stage 45 mins is enough for Jhon, Digne needed resting with Wolves on Sunday in mind. Dendoncker is just a space filler at the moment. So it may have been 3 off but nothing to be dramatised there.
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I was very encouraged by what I saw second half yesterday. It wasn't perfect by any means but they did all the right things.
- Good changes at half time adapting shape and getting more progressive players in important positions
- Carried on playing patient football and moving the defence around. A few around me seemed to get frustrated that we didn't go straight out to Cash when he was unmarked out wide but I think Mostar would have been far happier defending crosses than having to keep tracking players
Chance conversion should have been better (Carlos, Lenglet) but Mostar were organised and made it difficult.
Also an additional note. Tielemans isn't looking the best but he got on the ball a lot and was trying a lot of progressive passes. I think people see the final pass get cut out and start getting frustrated but there were a few occasions where his pass was only just cut out and we'd have likely scored had it reached its destination. He's not doing enough to start yet and needs to improve but I can see Emery finding a way to use him and make him effective again.
Anyway, I really enjoy a win like that. Banging on the door at the Holte End and a late winner. 6-1s are great but I really enjoyed my drive home last night after that celebration. Great endorphins
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Anyway, I really enjoy a win like that. Banging on the door at the Holte End and a late winner. 6-1s are great but I really enjoyed my drive home last night after that celebration. Great endorphins
Agreed, really enjoyed it and was buzzing on the way home.
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Anyway, I really enjoy a win like that. Banging on the door at the Holte End and a late winner. 6-1s are great but I really enjoyed my drive home last night after that celebration. Great endorphins
Agreed, really enjoyed it and was buzzing on the way home.
Yep buzzing endorphins got me to Stafford on the M6 before I calmed down. Love a last minute winner and the “limbs” in all parts of the ground.
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Those two saves Martinez made, I can't see Olsen making either of those.
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Those two saves Martinez made, I can't see Olsen making either of those.
The second one was irrelevant anyway as the linesman had flagged for offside earlier in the build up.
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We've been given a couple of European footballing lessons by "inferior" teams. We need to be a bit smarter, not be suckered into stupid fouls and move the ball more quickly. They deserve a lot of credit for a team that were 12/1 to draw and 30/1 to win last night.
Is SJM now at legend status at Aston Villa??
We were given a lesson in what? Parallel parking a bus? Palace did the same. Teams will be coming to Villa Park to not shit the bed and stick 11 behind the ball a lot more regularly, as when they don't, we hammer them.
Not to underestimate the opposition (both players and fans) and realise we are up against teams with more European experience than us as a team. We were a header away from only having 1 point in the group. They also had the best chance in the first half too, which required a brilliant save by Emi. Not great for the favourites for the competition.
Fans booking hotels in Athens, the "only the conference" quotes and picking under strength team have shown a touch of over-confidence/arrogance towards European football so far.
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Don't know how it looked on TV but they looked offside on numerous occasions in the first half without the lino flagging, and on when he did.
Not keen on Cash flinging himself to the ground holding his face, more than a bit fannyish.
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i know we won so it doesn't matter but had we not....Zaniolo was clearly having his shirt pulled late on, and not for an instant but a prolonged period. They have VAR. Why was this not given as a penalty?
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i know we won so it doesn't matter but had we not....Zaniolo was clearly having his shirt pulled late on, and not for an instant but a prolonged period. They have VAR. Why was this not given as a penalty?
It should have been looked at. It started outside the box IIRC, so I bet we'd have got a free kick
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i know we won so it doesn't matter but had we not....Zaniolo was clearly having his shirt pulled late on, and not for an instant but a prolonged period. They have VAR. Why was this not given as a penalty?
Yep, as I said in the match thread, refs not giving penalties like that is exactly why diving is so common, to effectively punish players for trying to stay on their feet is fucking weird.
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I thought Zaniolo looked a better player than he has in previous games. I'm putting that down to Emery (and his staff) coaching and improving him.
I wonder what advice would Emery give regarding the shirt pull, do managers tell their players to go down or just let the player decide.
If he goes down it's a definite foul.
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I thought Zaniolo looked a better player than he has in previous games. I'm putting that down to Emery (and his staff) coaching and improving him.
I wonder what advice would Emery give regarding the shirt pull, do managers tell their players to go down or just let the player decide.
If he goes down it's a definite foul.
Some of it has to come down to the standard of opposition as well. They're miles below even the worst Premier League team.
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I refused to allow the fact that my 11.15 train back to Euston was cancelled. Fair play to the station staff who organised (free) taxis for us in quick time all the way back to London - I shared one with a couple of really friendly Bosnian fans and a couple of Villa fans, one of whom I knew from meeting several times on the train up, and who kindly drove us all home from Euston on his way to Bromley. Ian, if you're reading this please PM me so I can say thank you. I wonder how I'd have felt if we'd only drawn.
Did anyone else on here suffer the same fate with the late train?
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We've been given a couple of European footballing lessons by "inferior" teams. We need to be a bit smarter, not be suckered into stupid fouls and move the ball more quickly. They deserve a lot of credit for a team that were 12/1 to draw and 30/1 to win last night.
Is SJM now at legend status at Aston Villa??
We were given a lesson in what? Parallel parking a bus? Palace did the same. Teams will be coming to Villa Park to not shit the bed and stick 11 behind the ball a lot more regularly, as when they don't, we hammer them.
Not to underestimate the opposition (both players and fans) and realise we are up against teams with more European experience than us as a team. We were a header away from only having 1 point in the group. They also had the best chance in the first half too, which required a brilliant save by Emi. Not great for the favourites for the competition.
Fans booking hotels in Athens, the "only the conference" quotes and picking under strength team have shown a touch of over-confidence/arrogance towards European football so far.
I fail to see what lesson we've learnt other than teams will come to Villa Park and sit deeper and deeper and we have to be patient to hammer down the door. Same as Palace. Be the same when West Ham come. Same when Luton come.
They've learnt a football lesson that class tells in the end.
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Don't know how it looked on TV but they looked offside on numerous occasions in the first half without the lino flagging, and on when he did.
Not keen on Cash flinging himself to the ground holding his face, more than a bit fannyish.
Yeah the 1 chance they had, he looked miles off.
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We've been given a couple of European footballing lessons by "inferior" teams. We need to be a bit smarter, not be suckered into stupid fouls and move the ball more quickly. They deserve a lot of credit for a team that were 12/1 to draw and 30/1 to win last night.
Is SJM now at legend status at Aston Villa??
We were given a lesson in what? Parallel parking a bus? Palace did the same. Teams will be coming to Villa Park to not shit the bed and stick 11 behind the ball a lot more regularly, as when they don't, we hammer them.
Not to underestimate the opposition (both players and fans) and realise we are up against teams with more European experience than us as a team. We were a header away from only having 1 point in the group. They also had the best chance in the first half too, which required a brilliant save by Emi. Not great for the favourites for the competition.
Fans booking hotels in Athens, the "only the conference" quotes and picking under strength team have shown a touch of over-confidence/arrogance towards European football so far.
I fail to see what lesson we've learnt other than teams will come to Villa Park and sit deeper and deeper and we have to be patient to hammer down the door. Same as Palace. Be the same when West Ham come. Same when Luton come.
They've learnt a football lesson that class tells in the end.
Quite right Ads, if teams come and park the bus we’ll find a way through, it’s what big clubs do.
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Anyway, I really enjoy a win like that. Banging on the door at the Holte End and a late winner. 6-1s are great but I really enjoyed my drive home last night after that celebration. Great endorphins
Agreed, really enjoyed it and was buzzing on the way home.
Yep buzzing endorphins got me to Stafford on the M6 before I calmed down. Love a last minute winner and the “limbs” in all parts of the ground.
I was saying much the same comparing the two results. 6-1 tonking of Brighton greeted with mild happiness. 1-0 last minute winner against a never heard of team until a few months ago and it was total euphoria. The small caring part of me felt a little bit sad for the Mostar players as they put in some great effort and gave it their all.
Funniest moment of the night...the long assertive half time announcement about the punishments for using pyrotechnics, firstly with us in mind and then in the Bosnian/Serbian language for the benefit of Mostar's fans. No direct translation in that language for pyrotechnics. It must have reminded one of their's that they'd brought one along as it was sparked up early 2nd half to quite good effect I'll add.
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We've been given a couple of European footballing lessons by "inferior" teams. We need to be a bit smarter, not be suckered into stupid fouls and move the ball more quickly. They deserve a lot of credit for a team that were 12/1 to draw and 30/1 to win last night.
Is SJM now at legend status at Aston Villa??
We were given a lesson in what? Parallel parking a bus? Palace did the same. Teams will be coming to Villa Park to not shit the bed and stick 11 behind the ball a lot more regularly, as when they don't, we hammer them.
Not to underestimate the opposition (both players and fans) and realise we are up against teams with more European experience than us as a team. We were a header away from only having 1 point in the group. They also had the best chance in the first half too, which required a brilliant save by Emi. Not great for the favourites for the competition.
Fans booking hotels in Athens, the "only the conference" quotes and picking under strength team have shown a touch of over-confidence/arrogance towards European football so far.
I fail to see what lesson we've learnt other than teams will come to Villa Park and sit deeper and deeper and we have to be patient to hammer down the door. Same as Palace. Be the same when West Ham come. Same when Luton come.
They've learnt a football lesson that class tells in the end.
Quite right Ads, if teams come and park the bus we’ll find a way through, it’s what big clubs do.
I think the change of formation helped with that. In games like that, we are used to seeing us going side to side to isolated full backs who inevitably turn and play backwards. In the second half, the formation meant that we had a few players in wide areas when the ball went out there and it helped to create a bit more.
The crossing was pretty poor on the whole last night, but we got it right when it mattered.
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I'm glad our players showed decorum at the final whistle after scoring a late winner. So many teams in similar circumstances lately are behaving as though they've won a final with subs running on the pitch etc.
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I couldn't watch it live, so watched it already knowing the result and that doubtless made it a more calm and pleasant experience.
I don't think it was a bad performance, and on another day a few of the earlier chances would have gone in and led to a more comfortable victory.
Tielemans had a couple of decent efforts on goal and created a few good opportunities. Zaniolo looks like a good player to me, if the overhead kick had gone in we'd be raving about it, and sooner or later he will start scoring. It is good to have a player on the pitch with the chutzpah to try for a goal like that.
In defence Lenglet looked much better and will have benefited from getting game time. We can put out a makeshift defence so long as we don't play Olsen. Olsen can really only be used behind a full strength defence as cover if Emi is injured or suspended. He is not good enough to play in a rotated team.
Not convinced Dendonker can play a role in an Emery team.
I the past we have been unable to win against teams that park the bus, this team is able to find a way to win more often than not even if it comes late.
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Where are the McGinn doubters today?
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i know we won so it doesn't matter but had we not....Zaniolo was clearly having his shirt pulled late on, and not for an instant but a prolonged period. They have VAR. Why was this not given as a penalty?
Yep, as I said in the match thread, refs not giving penalties like that is exactly why diving is so common, to effectively punish players for trying to stay on their feet is fucking weird.
There's blatantly diving and there's winning a penalty. With how long his shirt's being held, if he goes down, that gets given all day long. Unfortunately this type of thing only gets given when the player goes down.
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I'm glad our players showed decorum at the final whistle after scoring a late winner. So many teams in similar circumstances lately are behaving as though they've won a final with subs running on the pitch etc.
A simple handshake will suffice!
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Could have swore at one point with the rhythm of the chant that they were singing ‘just a small town in Walsall’ - made me chuckle as no doubt they weren’t.
One of the key take aways is part of the fitness thing we really need to see Moreno & Irogbenum fit asap to give Digne a proper break and Dendoncker splinters
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Yet more proof that Douglas Luiz is a very, very good player indeed.
I've said a few times recently but I'll repeat it here, I reckon Dougie is one of the best central midfielders in the league right now, there isn't a team in the country where he wouldn't be a regular starter and improve them, there's probably not many teams in the world where that isn't true.
I think he has become one of the best central midfielders in the world....
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They were certainly singing a derogatory song to us and in it referred to us as 'Aston' Seemed to be in Italian though?
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The good midfielders we have never stand still with the ball when we have possession, they're always moving and proving.
That was the most noticeable thing to me 2nd half.
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If we fail to get out of the group I won't look at it this way, but a slight positive spin on the poor performances of some of the squad players when given their chance, is that come January Monchi and Co should have a complete idea of who and where needs improvement.
I think this past summer window we were looking at improving the so called starting 11, with options for the bench. The likes of Diaby, Torres, and even Zaniolo have done well there. We've gone into the European games with a few players that are "still here" rather than being the players Emery actually wants to have.
Like I said, it's going to be disappointing if we fail to get out of the group, but we should at least be in a position where we know exactly how much we need to spend and in what positions to move forward. For example I think we've all seen enough of Donk to know he's just not going to fit into Emery's style of play, but we probably don't need to be spending 40mil to get an improvement. Chambers is another one where a smart bit of scouting would probably offer a better option.
If we're out of Europe by January, I think replacing some players becomes less important, and allows the focus to go to the positions where we'll still need cover for the league, LB and RB seeming the most pressing.
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Zaniolo needs a goal. The winner at the custard bowl would be a good start.
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How did the ref and var miss the shirt pulling on Zaniola? Stonewall penalty.
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Does anyone know why the No11's were not going down towards the ground last night? Two of them turned left at the lights in Perry Barr and I had to get off.
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How did the ref and var miss the shirt pulling on Zaniola? Stonewall penalty.
It seemed to bother Unai a lot - he was haranguing the 4th office - not sure I've seen him do that before!
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i know we won so it doesn't matter but had we not....Zaniolo was clearly having his shirt pulled late on, and not for an instant but a prolonged period. They have VAR. Why was this not given as a penalty?
Yep, as I said in the match thread, refs not giving penalties like that is exactly why diving is so common, to effectively punish players for trying to stay on their feet is fucking weird.
Was it John McGinn who got a yellow for diving?
It was a blatant dive, but as you say, if you don't get one for a blatant shirt pull that lasted for about 27 minutes, then players have to go down. And when they do, they then get punished...
Listening to those bellend commentators about this was interesting. They absolutely hammered McGinn for his dive. But then praised players of the team who Im not even going to attempt at spelling for "buying" free kicks & being "clever".
Twats.
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McGinn was booked for diving.
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I'd say Matty Cash dived as well but slightly different. McGinn was in a good position so shouldn't have dived.
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Emi - great, his default setting
Digne - harsh sub I thought
Carlos - another harsh sub I thought, didn't do anything wrong I saw, could have had a goal but is a CB, not a striker so finishing isn't guaranteed
Lenglet - thought he did well, thought the same against Warsaw though
Konsa - not a RB
Donk - didn't think he did anything wrong but doesn't fit into Unai's style of play
Tiellmans - thought he did OK, part of the reason he will give the ball away is he has it so much
Bailey - offered Konsa no cover on the right, much better second half
McGinn - captains performance, even without the goal, he was involved in a lot
Zaniolo - kicks the ball to hard much of the time, thought he was decent
Duran - not sure how good he was last night to be honest
Cash - great performance from the bench
Dougie - great performance from the bench
Watkins - shows what a modern forward is supposed to do, not just about finishing, can hold up play and create chances
Bertie - great performance from the bench too
Unai - initial selection was lacklustre but he must be trying to get the squad players game time. Subs were great. His half time team talk must have been something, teams attitude and approach changed after it.
Zrinjski - always ran the risk of losing because of parking the bus, as pointed out here, but still could have scored in the first half which I think meant the best we would have been able to achieve was a draw. Playing against a well organised 11 behind the ball is really hard to break down. Wouldn't buy their keeper on last nights performance alone, he was great. Think even Olsen's playing it out from the back might be better than his though.
In the first half we were taking too much out of the ball as the the commentator said and not moving it quickly enough. We also got caught on the break a few times in both halves. The high line needs all 4 backs to know their roles perfectly, with the amount of play our defenders have together currently that is a hard ask.
If we want to go park the bus with the squad players somewhere to eke out a 0-0 draw and pick a team just to do that it shows our current lack of depth at LB & RB. Chambers can't play RB but could prob do a job as a DM or 3'rd CB.
Olsen
Digne Carlos Lenglet Cash
Donk Chambers
Bailey Tiellmans Bertie
Duran
We need cover at RB, never should have let Young go. And Moreno can't come back quickly enough.
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I'd say Matty Cash dived as well but slightly different. McGinn was in a good position so shouldn't have dived.
Oh, I agree.
I hate diving.
It is cheating.
Period.
But I don't like it when one side does it & they are the "worlds worst cheat", & another does it & its "clever", "game management" & "buying a foul..."
Especially when a player stays on his feet for an incident that actually was as clear a foul as you will ever see. Not sure if it started outside of the box, but it was one of the clearest fouls to have happened in the game.
Thats not necessarily just against Villa, as I don't think the official was bias last night, just a bit shit, but those media pricks were absolutely one sided with their views of our incidents & their incidents...
And again, probably not bias, just shit at their jobs.
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I thought Digne was our best player first half but I can see why he was subbed off as he will be needed for the entire game against the Tatters as Moreno seems no closer to playing. He got through a lot of work as he was the only outlet down the left side and had to get up and down all the half.
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They were certainly singing a derogatory song to us and in it referred to us as 'Aston' Seemed to be in Italian though?
Apparently a few of them were doing the nazi salute
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The kick to Dinge's shin towards the end of the first half was a nasty challenge and he could probably still feel it.
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Just watching the "bite-size" highlights now on Pravda, missed the game as I was at Rough Trade last night.
How come the first three rows of the North Stand were all empty - Uefa requirement?
Also, how did our Duran play? Haven't read all this thread but he hasn't been mentioned much. I take it he didn't see much of the ball in the first half but how was his pressing and off the ball work - i.e how did it compare to Ollie's?
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Just watching the "bite-size" highlights now on Pravda, missed the game as I was at Rough Trade last night.
How come the first three rows of the North Stand were all empty - Uefa requirement?
Also, how did our Duran play? Haven't read all this thread but he hasn't been mentioned much. I take it he didn't see much of the ball in the first half but how was his pressing and off the ball work - i.e how did it compare to Ollie's?
He didn't get much in the way of chances. The ball just wasn't sticking either.
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Just watching the "bite-size" highlights now on Pravda, missed the game as I was at Rough Trade last night.
How come the first three rows of the North Stand were all empty - Uefa requirement?
Also, how did our Duran play? Haven't read all this thread but he hasn't been mentioned much. I take it he didn't see much of the ball in the first half but how was his pressing and off the ball work - i.e how did it compare to Ollie's?
He was ok but as a team we were a bit slow in the build-up so any time we got the ball to him he was tightly marked. He made a good few runs that, had they been spotted, could led to things though, he was unlucky to be taken off at half time in my opinion.
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How come the first three rows of the North Stand were all empty - Uefa requirement?
You see it in a lot of European games, as far as I know it's because the advertising boards are bigger for European games so would block the view of the first few rows.
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Did the back 3 shift across after the half time subs? Lenglet LB, Konsa and Carlos CB, Cash RB?
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Pretty much - although Cash was pretty far up the pitch for most of the second half.
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Could have swore at one point with the rhythm of the chant that they were singing ‘just a small town in Walsall’ - made me chuckle as no doubt they weren’t.
The good news is you'll be able to understand the derogatory chants the Dutch fans sing at us.
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I don't see this bleating about us being slow and ponderous, naive and wasteful etc etc.
Luckily Emery did, which is why 3 players got the curly finger at half time.
I thought that was just part of the prostate screening campaign.
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Fans booking hotels in Athens, the "only the conference" quotes and picking under strength team have shown a touch of over-confidence/arrogance towards European football so far.
The hotels can be cancelled with no charge up to a day before the final, booking the flights now would be arrogance.
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You being a youngster Gary I am impressed at your command of historical football.
Youngster is a relative term. :)
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I don't see this bleating about us being slow and ponderous, naive and wasteful etc etc.
Luckily Emery did, which is why 3 players got the curly finger at half time.
I thought that was just part of the prostate screening campaign.
That's included in the Lower Grounds package.
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Did the back 3 shift across after the half time subs? Lenglet LB, Konsa and Carlos CB, Cash RB?
It was a back three of Konsa Carlos and Lenglet. Cash and Bailey nominally as wing backs but they had no need to do the "back" element of that role.
He then removed Carlos for Traore and Cash went back as a third (but overlapping) centre back
Good changes
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They were certainly singing a derogatory song to us and in it referred to us as 'Aston' Seemed to be in Italian though?
Apparently a few of them were doing the nazi salute
Yea brilliant move. They have learnt nothing from the behaviour of their Serb and Croat neighbours.
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They were certainly singing a derogatory song to us and in it referred to us as 'Aston' Seemed to be in Italian though?
Apparently a few of them were doing the nazi salute
Yea brilliant move. They have learnt nothing from the behaviour of their Serb and Croat neighbours.
In the old Yugoslav league set up after the Second World War which ran until Yugoslavia disintegrated Zrinjksi were banned from competing because they had played in a league organised by the Croatian Nazi puppet state during the war. Admittedly this was explained to me by a Velez fan. Velez being the other club in Mostar.
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They are a Croatian ethnic club, doesn’t the HSK stand for Hrvatska Sport Klub, literally translated as Croatian Sports Club?
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Does anyone know why the No11's were not going down towards the ground last night? Two of them turned left at the lights in Perry Barr and I had to get off.
I don’t know which way round the route you go, but I suspect it’s the opposite to me. I come from the Stechford direction. That one occasionally turns off from that way as well - turns right around Moor Lane just before you get to Witton. Most annoying.
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Does anyone know why the No11's were not going down towards the ground last night? Two of them turned left at the lights in Perry Barr and I had to get off.
I don’t know which way round the route you go, but I suspect it’s the opposite to me. I come from the Stechford direction. That one occasionally turns off from that way as well - turns right around Moor Lane just before you get to Witton. Most annoying.
The one thing I really miss about the UK when I'm not there is people talking about bus routes. I don't even know Birmingham's bus routes - I would've got the 50 (is that right?) from town to Moseley a few times when I lived there, and the 7 (I think!) to Villa once but that's it. I just really like hearing about bus routes. And if that makes me a sad bastard (and I think it does) so be it.
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They are a Croatian ethnic club, doesn’t the HSK stand for Hrvatska Sport Klub, literally translated as Croatian Sports Club?
Yes they are the Croat team in Mostar. The Mostar club that conpeted in the Yugoslav league, Velez, are the Bosniak team. There's quite a lot of unsavoury stuff online about Zrinjski as a club and their fans, including evicting Velez out of their stadium and destroying their historical artefacts. We call them a Bosnian team but I doubt many of their fans identify as such.
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I am not hugely bothered if they consider themselves a Bosnian or Croat team.
What they undoubtedly are is a funeralled team.
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Chapeau
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Could have swore at one point with the rhythm of the chant that they were singing ‘just a small town in Walsall’ - made me chuckle as no doubt they weren’t.
Bit like when we play Newcastle. You can kinda guess what they're singing, from the tune, but no idea what words they are saying.
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The one thing I really miss about the UK when I'm not there is people talking about bus routes. I don't even know Birmingham's bus routes - I would've got the 50 (is that right?) from town to Moseley a few times when I lived there, and the 7 (I think!) to Villa once but that's it. I just really like hearing about bus routes. And if that makes me a sad bastard (and I think it does) so be it.
Blimey SE that's brilliant know how. You know nearly as much as I do about Brum bus routes and I reckon I could sit in front of Clive Myrie with my specialist subject being Number 11 Anti-clockwise bus stops.
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The one thing I really miss about the UK when I'm not there is people talking about bus routes. I don't even know Birmingham's bus routes - I would've got the 50 (is that right?) from town to Moseley a few times when I lived there, and the 7 (I think!) to Villa once but that's it. I just really like hearing about bus routes. And if that makes me a sad bastard (and I think it does) so be it.
Blimey SE that's brilliant know how. You know nearly as much as I do about Brum bus routes and I reckon I could sit in front of Clive Myrie with my specialist subject being Number 11 Anti-clockwise bus stops.
Thanks driver!
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Does anyone know why the No11's were not going down towards the ground last night? Two of them turned left at the lights in Perry Barr and I had to get off.
I don’t know which way round the route you go, but I suspect it’s the opposite to me. I come from the Stechford direction. That one occasionally turns off from that way as well - turns right around Moor Lane just before you get to Witton. Most annoying.
Yeah, I come in the opposite way. The bus last night turned left where the old Crown and Cushion used to be and headed in the direction of the growlers.
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Does anyone know why the No11's were not going down towards the ground last night? Two of them turned left at the lights in Perry Barr and I had to get off.
I don’t know which way round the route you go, but I suspect it’s the opposite to me. I come from the Stechford direction. That one occasionally turns off from that way as well - turns right around Moor Lane just before you get to Witton. Most annoying.
Yeah, I come in the opposite way. The bus last night turned left where the old Crown and Cushion used to be and headed in the direction of the growlers.
Ridiculous. I think the reasoning is it’s too busy by the ground to take their passengers where they want to go - the ground. But they don’t tell you anything in advance.
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I am not hugely bothered if they consider themselves a Bosnian or Croat team.
What they undoubtedly are is a funeralled team.
What an offensive term . ::)
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I still think that Unai should start with our strongest team and then change things around when we’ve got a good lead. The lads that came on at half time yesterday had to do as much work as in 90 minutes to try to get us the win.
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I still think that Unai should start with our strongest team and then change things around when we’ve got a good lead. The lads that came on at half time yesterday had to do as much work as in 90 minutes to try to get us the win.
That was the plan against Everton though, and it backfired when players had to stay on to try to chase the game, and we still lost.
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Yes, but we started an under strength team v Everton in the cup game as well.
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I still think that Unai should start with our strongest team and then change things around when we’ve got a good lead. The lads that came on at half time yesterday had to do as much work as in 90 minutes to try to get us the win.
It's not always guaranteed that we will build up a good lead though. I can understand why you are suggesting it but we also do need to use our squad players as well.
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I still think that Unai should start with our strongest team and then change things around when we’ve got a good lead. The lads that came on at half time yesterday had to do as much work as in 90 minutes to try to get us the win.
It's not always guaranteed that we will build up a good lead though. I can understand why you are suggesting it but we also do need to use our squad players as well.
Liverpool did something similar to that strategy on Thursday. Started with Salah and Nunez and took them off at half time even though they were only winning by one goal scored just before half time. From the text on the BBC, it almost backfired as Union had some good chances. Although they still had Diaz and Jota on the pitch second half so didn't lose that much attack.
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I still think that Unai should start with our strongest team and then change things around when we’ve got a good lead. The lads that came on at half time yesterday had to do as much work as in 90 minutes to try to get us the win.
It's not always guaranteed that we will build up a good lead though. I can understand why you are suggesting it but we also do need to use our squad players as well.
We also had to bear in mind that this team came back from 3 goals down in their last game! We could have been 3 nil up, took our best players off…..
Whereas this way, we had better players to bring on when it wasn’t working out.
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Could have swore at one point with the rhythm of the chant that they were singing ‘just a small town in Walsall’ - made me chuckle as no doubt they weren’t.
Bit like when we play Newcastle. You can kinda guess what they're singing, from the tune, but no idea what words they are saying.
A Bosnian acquaintance was interpreting them as chanting 'We very much admire your Lower Grounds food & beverage offering and wish we were allowed to pay through the nose for something similar in our war torn homeland'
Why is it that everyone in that part of the world wants to be part of a slightly different part of the world?
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Could have swore at one point with the rhythm of the chant that they were singing ‘just a small town in Walsall’ - made me chuckle as no doubt they weren’t.
Bit like when we play Newcastle. You can kinda guess what they're singing, from the tune, but no idea what words they are saying.
A Bosnian acquaintance was interpreting them as chanting 'We very much admire your Lower Grounds food & beverage offering and wish we were allowed to pay through the nose for something similar in our war torn homeland'
Why is it that everyone in that part of the world wants to be part of a slightly different part of the world?
I'm in that part of the world. That could explain it.
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I still think that Unai should start with our strongest team and then change things around when we’ve got a good lead. The lads that came on at half time yesterday had to do as much work as in 90 minutes to try to get us the win.
Agree with this. The second half team put a shift in.
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Also, I think a lot of comments on here would have been different had we only drawn that match. Depends how much Unai wants to avoid having yet another 2 fixtures added to our schedule. If not, he needs to start strongest team for the 2 games against AZ. If we could win those 2 then it’ll hopefully free him up to see out the last 2 matches utilising the full squad.