Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: Jon Crofts on April 11, 2024, 10:01:17 PM
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Fire away.
Advantage Villa. Just.
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Fie away
Foe fum, why the fuck are some here so glum?
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Disappointing, disjointed performance. Think we’ll go out next week.
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Everything is shit and we're doomed, apparently.
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Good result, but I think they should probably stop injecting the half-time oranges with ketamin.
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Fun fact, it's the first time we've won the 1st leg of a European QF.
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wno 2-1, should've had a clear penalty as well, lots of people could really do with taking a few deep breaths and chilling the fuck out.
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Personally I'm devastated and furious by our win in the European quarter-final we played in tonight.
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I'd have preferred a bigger lead, but i'll take it. All to play for in the 2nd leg. Bring it on!
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We had 2 decent spells and scored in both, their attack frightens me, they’ll be better next week and we’ll need to up our game considerably.
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Good to win, but fuck me, we rode our luck massively there.
We're going to have to be much, much better in France.
I'm worried. We look so powderpuff soft in defence, we switch off far too frequently, and the defence have turned from a finely tuned offside machine into a bit of a mess.
I think Carlos has a similar effect to (last game excepted) Olsen on the rest of the defence, in that when he's part of it, they all look on edge. If Cash isn't ready to come back, I'd genuinely play whoever we have to at right back so long as it's not Konsa, and put Konsa back in the middle - him and Torres looked formidable for most of this season.
Worrying end to the season, though. Other than patches here and there, we haven't played really well for weeks now. When's it going to end? Seem to go into every match of late thinking, this will be the one where we really convince and start to look like the team we were for the first half of the season, but it never happens.
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Good we’ve got a win, as other English sides have shown that’s far from a given.
But sounds like the defence was really poor again. We badly need to sort that out, because you can almost guarantee we’ll concede in France.
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We are the only English winners in Europe this week, why so negative?
If we lose by 2 we deserve to go out.
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Personally I'm devastated and furious by our win in the European quarter-final we played in tonight.
Emery looked even more furious so you’re in good company.
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Ollie was spot on about the mentality in his interview after the Brentford game. 2nd game in a row we've gone 2-0 up and completely switched off.
Thought we started the second half really well, but for some reason we didn't go for the kill after getting the goal. Struggling to think of us actually having an attack after it really.
Thank fuck for Martinez. He was brilliant though its worrying that he needed to play as well as he did.
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Poor defensively. Felt like the subs made us worse. Thank goodness for Emi. I'm nervous about next week, but hopefully we can play deeper and hit them on the counter. Didn't see anything from David to make me want to sign him.
The ref was a twat too, booking our players but letting theirs off for the exact same foul.
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Shame they scored as it has altered the balance of the tie, but we are just as likely to score first out there. We all know it will be roughly the same side. A win is a win.
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Hard to know what to think. Happy we won... Stonewall penalty denied... But we were second best for large parts of the game and will need a massive improvement in the away leg to get through.
I know we are trying to manage games, especially now with so many fixtures and a squad decimated by injury, but we are so far from the team we were in the first half of the season.
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You know it's fine to take the positives, it's fine to take the negatives. I don't know why either side of that debate gets riled up.
Personally I'm leaning towards us probably getting knocked out next week. We just concede too many chances, or at least it feels like that anyway. Really hoping McGinn is put back in CM as he did when Kamara first got injured but I'd say it's unlikely. With that and Konsa at RB, we're pretty vulnerable.
Edit: We really should have had a pen, though.
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I think the players are probably a bit knackered after a season where they’ve played more competitive football than they’re used to and we’ve been continually losing players to massive clobbering injuries.
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If we can get cash fit and play konsa in the middle …
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Sorry folks, thought we were poor and yet again, completely lost our shape the last 20 mins. I think we'll play better next week. We seriously miss Kamara, well, Dougie definitely does.
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Not particularly impressive, but a win, nonetheless. Will be tough next week, but feel we'll scrape through
There are some sensitive souls about, aren't there. Is it now taboo to say anything remotely negative about the Villa? Seems the same when Emery gets the slightest bit of criticism, also.
Oh well. Up the fucking Villa
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Disappointed with the result, I was expecting a 7-0 , but I have to settle for that I suppose, Oh by the way those loveable Scouse get spanked 3-0
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Personally I'm devastated and furious by our win in the European quarter-final we played in tonight.
Emery looked even more furious so you’re in good company.
Ollie you could tell was fuming in his post match interview too. Thats the correct way to view it for the players and manager.
There's a real soft underbelly creeping into the squad at the business end of the season
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Solid win. Lille are certainly a very good side. Emi motm tonight no question.
Massively disappointed in the defence. Honestly so bad at times. Just given them miles of space. If we perform like that defensively in 2nd leg we are deep shit tbh.
I cant see them not scoring but i think we can score too . Tough one to call. Well done to mcginn and diabs not getting booked. Its gonna be a tough test
Liverpool have virtually killed us for 4th
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Pity we conceded but I'm still confident we'll get a result next week.
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Good win. Shame about conceding one. I'd say it's in the balance over there. They look a decent team, but not miles ahead (or even 'ahead') of us. They're on a level. They had some good chances first half, so did we and we had a stonewall penalty ignored. They had a borderline offside blah blah.
There's this competition and then there's the utterly tedious 'coefficient'. I'm fatigued and bored of thinking about it.
Fucking 4th or bust. CHARGE! (as my late father in law would say). And if we sneak in via some ridiculous maths, well great.
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Good to win, but fuck me, we rode our luck massively there.
We're going to have to be much, much better in France.
I'm worried. We look so powderpuff soft in defence, we switch off far too frequently, and the defence have turned from a finely tuned offside machine into a bit of a mess.
I think Carlos has a similar effect to (last game excepted) Olsen on the rest of the defence, in that when he's part of it, they all look on edge. If Cash isn't ready to come back, I'd genuinely play whoever we have to at right back so long as it's not Konsa, and put Konsa back in the middle - him and Torres looked formidable for most of this season.
Worrying end to the season, though. Other than patches here and there, we haven't played really well for weeks now. When's it going to end? Seem to go into every match of late thinking, this will be the one where we really convince and start to look like the team we were for the first half of the season, but it never happens.
That's my take on it as well. We might as well have one position sorted than 2 not.
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Disappointed with the result, I was expecting a 7-0 , but I have to settle for that I suppose, Oh by the way those loveable Scouse get spanked 3-0
Liverpool getting beat is a really poor result for us in fairness. Been a poor week for the coefficient
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Personally I'm devastated and furious by our win in the European quarter-final we played in tonight.
😂👍
Great win Villa.
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We’re stumbling through the later parts of the season but we won, we haven’t done that a lot lately. Lille looked pretty good I thought, I’d play Konsa in the middle whoever that means playing at right back.
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We're clearly labouring a bit now, not really surprising with so many injuries and suspensions. I'm still enjoying it, 5th and our first ever 1st leg win in a European QF, that'll do for tonight.
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We’re stumbling through the later parts of the season but we won, we haven’t done that a lot lately. Lille looked pretty good I thought, I’d play Konsa in the middle whoever that means playing at right back.
Running on fumes. We have a win but we need to be better at the back next week.
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Personally I'm devastated and furious by our win in the European quarter-final we played in tonight.
Emery looked even more furious so you’re in good company.
Ollie you could tell was fuming in his post match interview too. Thats the correct way to view it for the players and manager.
There's a real soft underbelly creeping into the squad at the business end of the season
I notice that Ollie is being treated as the captain now for interviews after SJM's suspension.
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Good to win, but fuck me, we rode our luck massively there.
We're going to have to be much, much better in France.
I'm worried. We look so powderpuff soft in defence, we switch off far too frequently, and the defence have turned from a finely tuned offside machine into a bit of a mess.
I think Carlos has a similar effect to (last game excepted) Olsen on the rest of the defence, in that when he's part of it, they all look on edge. If Cash isn't ready to come back, I'd genuinely play whoever we have to at right back so long as it's not Konsa, and put Konsa back in the middle - him and Torres looked formidable for most of this season.
Worrying end to the season, though. Other than patches here and there, we haven't played really well for weeks now. When's it going to end? Seem to go into every match of late thinking, this will be the one where we really convince and start to look like the team we were for the first half of the season, but it never happens.
Good summary paulie. I agree with most of that
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Liverpool getting beat is a really poor result for us in fairness Spurs. Been a poor week for the coefficient
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We should have had a blatant penalty, Bailey nearly scored and we nearly scored at the end. They had some chances too. Not a bad game to watch.
Our problem at the moment is we’re not quite good enough in defence this season, which maybe down to lots of injuries to cope with.
Good result in the end, I’m confident we can score away from home and get to the semis.
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We should have had a blatant penalty, Bailey nearly scored and we nearly scored at the end. They had some chances too. Not a bad game to watch.
Our problem at the moment is we’re not quite good enough in defence this season, which maybe down to lots of injuries to cope with.
Good result in the end, I’m confident we can score away from home and get to the semis.
My main concern from tonights match was how many chances were gifted to them with unforced errors.
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Apparently Lille don’t have a game now until the 2nd leg.
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We're clearly labouring a bit now, not really surprising with so many injuries and suspensions. I'm still enjoying it, 5th and our first ever 1st leg win in a European QF, that'll do for tonight.
Well said considering what we've gone through its been brilliant.
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Good result which still makes the 2nd leg exciting. Clown ref was determined to not book any Lille players despite Cabella and Santos committing plenty of blatant fouls.
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That Ollie interview was the worst post match interview I've ever seen.
The guy might just as well have gone with, "So, Ollie, that's your favourite colour?", "Have you been watching Married At First Sight?" or "Can you believe how windy it was tonight?"/
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We're clearly labouring a bit now, not really surprising with so many injuries and suspensions. I'm still enjoying it, 5th and our first ever 1st leg in a European QF, that'll do for tonight.
We really are beginning to run out of steam at the wrong time. Emery effectively throwing the Man City game is looking an increasingly bad call as well now
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It will probably look a lot better in the morning. I'm just pissed off that for the second game in 5 days we've been cruising at 2-0 and we've just allowed a team back into a game / tie.
I'd imagine Emery is going absolutely ballistic at them
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We're clearly labouring a bit now, not really surprising with so many injuries and suspensions. I'm still enjoying it, 5th and our first ever 1st leg in a European QF, that'll do for tonight.
We really are beginning to run out of steam at the wrong time. Emery effectively throwing the Man City game is looking an increasingly bad call as well now
Why? We haven’t lost since that game. Even at full strength we’d have struggled against Foden and Rodri when on that form.
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It will probably look a lot better in the morning. I'm just pissed off that for the second game in 5 days we've been cruising at 2-0 and we've just allowed a team back into a game / tie.
I'd imagine Emery is going absolutely ballistic at them
We just do it all the bloody time. We have should have some sort of team ritual of slapping each round the head every time we take a two goal fucking lead to make us wake up.
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That Ollie interview was the worst post match interview I've ever seen.
The guy might just as well have gone with, "So, Ollie, that's your favourite colour?", "Have you been watching Married At First Sight?" or "Can you believe how windy it was tonight?"/
That interviewer is embarrassingly bad. He’s like that bloke who thought he was going for a job interview and ended up live on TV in front of the cameras.
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We just do it all the bloody time. We have should have some sort of team ritual of slapping each round the head every time we take a two goal fucking lead to make us wake up.
Something like this maybe...
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That Ollie interview was the worst post match interview I've ever seen.
The guy might just as well have gone with, "So, Ollie, that's your favourite colour?", "Have you been watching Married At First Sight?" or "Can you believe how windy it was tonight?"/
That interviewer is embarrassingly bad. He’s like that bloke who thought he was going for a job interview and ended up live on TV in front of the cameras.
It was bad. Quite bad.
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It's a win, which is great, but I think we could all see that Lille are a very good side, and will definitely cause us problems in the second leg. Not a classic performance by us, by a long way, but we could easily have had a pen and be 3-0 up.
The mission is clear next week, don't lose the game. Whether Unai can set us up to achieve that, I don't know. But I suspect they will press us much higher at home, and that might strangely play into our hands. I'd fancy us to nick a goal against anyone, but the question then is whether we can stop them getting 2 or 3.
The tie is very much in the balance.
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I think it’s going to penalties.
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It's like we have a switch that gets flipped. We were very passive towards the end of the second half. Still, a win is a win.
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We're clearly labouring a bit now, not really surprising with so many injuries and suspensions. I'm still enjoying it, 5th and our first ever 1st leg win in a European QF, that'll do for tonight.
Well said considering what we've gone through its been brilliant.
It’s like people forget we are without a world class defensive midfielder who makes all teams look much less threatening.
City without Rodri also invariably look similarly ropey at the back. We played a really decent side tonight and won.
This is the consequence of playing Thursday-Sunday for much of the season. You don’t see it before Christmas. You see it in the final 7-8 games.
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Advantage Villa after a far from great performance.
But we go to Lille with the lead. They are a good young team ,played well and were unlucky not to have scored more.
That's why we have the best Goalie in the world.
Although I jump up and scream at some of our, going to sleep, slack defending. We are miles away from where we were.
To maintain the momentum and go forward we will need to have 4 new players that could be starters next season, but I think the manager and his team know that more than me.
Semi looms if we play well next week.
Sorry if it seems irreverent but we did not exactly emulate Brazil when we won in 82 and we are very happy with that on our badge. So lets grind it out next week and move on.
Lets
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Apparently Lille don’t have a game now until the 2nd leg.
never worked in a favour when we get a rest
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It's like we have a switch that gets flipped. We were very passive towards the end of the second half. Still, a win is a win.
We haven’t got the capacity to sit back, our defence isn’t strong enough and missing Kamara weakens us further. We’re better off still trying to be more positive further forward.
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That was a lot tougher than I was expecting, thought we started the 2nd half well, but after SJM's goal we went off the boil, tie's 50/50 now.
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We're clearly labouring a bit now, not really surprising with so many injuries and suspensions. I'm still enjoying it, 5th and our first ever 1st leg in a European QF, that'll do for tonight.
We really are beginning to run out of steam at the wrong time. Emery effectively throwing the Man City game is looking an increasingly bad call as well now
Why? We haven’t lost since that game. Even at full strength we’d have struggled against Foden and Rodri when on that form.
Get that, but he needed to win on Saturday to back his judgement and we didn’t. So many similarities with O'Neill with Moscow and Stoke - he just piled so much unnecessary pressure on himself
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Will be great when Rogers can last 90 mins , thought he was a positive again.
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It's like we have a switch that gets flipped. We were very passive towards the end of the second half. Still, a win is a win.
We haven’t got the capacity to sit back, our defence isn’t strong enough and missing Kamara weakens us further. We’re better off still trying to be more positive further forward.
Fingers crossed Cash is back and Konsa can sit alongside Torres in the centre. Carlos is not great.
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Half time
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It's like we have a switch that gets flipped. We were very passive towards the end of the second half. Still, a win is a win.
We haven’t got the capacity to sit back, our defence isn’t strong enough and missing Kamara weakens us further. We’re better off still trying to be more positive further forward.
Yep any pressure that comes on the defence and we look really shaky. It’s not just the loss of Kamara, our defending of the flanks has fallen to pieces. Kamara’s probably a factor in that, but we should be able to shore it up better.
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Just for balance our awful defence meant they had 11 shots to our 12.
I get people can become frustrated but the negativity tonight has gone massively over the top.
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Frustrating but a lead nonetheless. We’re going to have to pull out a great performance, especially as our away performances have been so dodgy in this competition(Alkmaar aside). The defence is worrying but he can only pick what’s available, hopefully Lenglet/Cash will be available to give us more options.
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Let them back in it at 2-0. They're very neat and tidy but...
Not sure why we didn't get a penalty, would like to see it again. Curious as to how we picked up bookings and seemingly they could foul at will.
They're susceptible to any sort or cross and their press gets disjointed so they leave quite a lot of space between the lines. We'll score a couple next week.
Advantage us! Smile you miserable fucks.
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We've got a vulnerability about us haven't we? Not a good sign at the business end of the season.
I've said it before but no one wins or achieves anything for being amazing in November and December. It counts now and we look miles off what we were back then.
Rode our luck to go 2-0 up so to give away that goal was incredibly disappointing even to Konsa not being on the far post. Ten players in our own box all ball watching.
Based on what I've seen next week is going to be very tough indeed as with the one goal in it Lille don't have to get forward at every opportunity and can pace themselves through the game.
If people thought we were boring and negative in Amsterdam they haven't seen anything yet.
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Would we really be worse defensively if we played Hayden at RB and moved our best CB back to CB?
For me Konsa has to be in the middle
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Added to that Luiz will have a rest this weekend which looks needed. I don’t think it’s as bad as some people think, that’s the best team we’ve played so far and passed the ball around far better than us. Maybe it’s just me but I haven’t seen a team that gives away the ball so cheaply so many times in a game?
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Added to that Luiz will have a rest this weekend which looks needed. I don’t think it’s as bad as some people think, that’s the best team we’ve played so far and passed the ball around far better than us. Maybe it’s just me but I haven’t seen a team that gives away the ball so cheaply so many times in a game?
I don't think Tielemans found a Villa player with a pass very often. He's a big reason why we give the ball away so cheaply at times
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We've got a vulnerability about us haven't we? Not a good sign at the business end of the season.
I've said it before but no one wins or achieves anything for being amazing in November and December. It counts now and we look miles off what we were back then.
Rode our luck to go 2-0 up so to give away that goal was incredibly disappointing even to Konsa not being on the far post. Ten players in our own box all ball watching.
Based on what I've seen next week is going to be very tough indeed as with the one goal in it Lille don't have to get forward at every opportunity and can pace themselves through the game.
If people thought we were boring and negative in Amsterdam they haven't seen anything yet.
We play the same way as we did against Ajax and we’ll get mullered….
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Just for balance our awful defence meant they had 11 shots to our 12.
I get people can become frustrated but the negativity tonight has gone massively over the top.
You wouldnt expect that though as home team. I think whats worrying defensively is how many times lille were left completely open at times. We weren't solid enough and you would expect with 50k fans on their side its going to be rentless pressure next week. Will our defence be able to cope with that ?
Im thinking it might nerd to be konsa at cb or kesler at rb. Its just not working pau-carlos at cb for me
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Just for balance our awful defence meant they had 11 shots to our 12.
I get people can become frustrated but the negativity tonight has gone massively over the top.
They did have a higher xG* though (1.05 to 1.61), 7 on target to our 4. I think it's a fair criticism.
*Yes, I don't know how it's worked out either. They did seem to have decent chances, though.
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I don't think Villa can play any worse, I don't think Lille can play any better. Up our game next week and we will have too much for them.
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Added to that Luiz will have a rest this weekend which looks needed. I don’t think it’s as bad as some people think, that’s the best team we’ve played so far and passed the ball around far better than us. Maybe it’s just me but I haven’t seen a team that gives away the ball so cheaply so many times in a game?
Probably Sheff Utd for one.....
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Just for balance our awful defence meant they had 11 shots to our 12.
I get people can become frustrated but the negativity tonight has gone massively over the top.
They did have a higher xG* though (1.05 to 1.61), 7 on target to our 4. I think it's a fair criticism.
*Yes, I don't know how it's worked out either. They did seem to have decent chances, though.
Are you Pochettino?
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That was a good win when we are struggling with injuries in key areas against some decent opposition. And that was with a fucking incompetent referee & VAR officials to not give that stonewall penalty.
Lille are a decent side, but to say we rode our luck undermines the great work done by Martinez. And several of their chances were offside, so shouldn't count in the tallies. Lucy Ward & the chap commentating were waxing lyrical about one particular Lille attack when it had just been flagged offside. They got a corner from another cos the linesman was as blind as I am. But, they are a decent side & that game was two decent sides having a go at each other in between periods of ball control, from both sides.
We are not looking so strong defensively & it doesn't help that Tielemans is playing a more defensive mode when he has all the pace & mobility of a 374 year old oak tree. Douglas Luiz is not a holding midfielder but is doing admirably, but he has little support, which isn't helping the defence.
I thought Duran looked lively in his closing down tonight. And other than one stray pass, Rogers had his best game for us too. Martinez was magnificent & my MOTM.
It was a night of some positives, some concerns & some reinforcements of things we already know regarding the injuries to key players.
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Added to that Luiz will have a rest this weekend which looks needed. I don’t think it’s as bad as some people think, that’s the best team we’ve played so far and passed the ball around far better than us. Maybe it’s just me but I haven’t seen a team that gives away the ball so cheaply so many times in a game?
I don't think Tielemans found a Villa player with a pass very often. He's a big reason why we give the ball away so cheaply at times
I think McGinn looked off it tonight which maybe expected, Luiz has been great but why does he insist on giving away such stupid fouls away in dangerous situations? He wanted too much time on the ball. I liked Roger’s again tonight but he leaves too much space between himself and Digne when the opposition has the ball.
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Good to win, but fuck me, we rode our luck massively there.
We're going to have to be much, much better in France.
I'm worried. We look so powderpuff soft in defence, we switch off far too frequently, and the defence have turned from a finely tuned offside machine into a bit of a mess.
I think Carlos has a similar effect to (last game excepted) Olsen on the rest of the defence, in that when he's part of it, they all look on edge. If Cash isn't ready to come back, I'd genuinely play whoever we have to at right back so long as it's not Konsa, and put Konsa back in the middle - him and Torres looked formidable for most of this season.
Worrying end to the season, though. Other than patches here and there, we haven't played really well for weeks now. When's it going to end? Seem to go into every match of late thinking, this will be the one where we really convince and start to look like the team we were for the first half of the season, but it never happens.
That's my take on it as well. We might as well have one position sorted than 2 not.
Yep agreed, this is a long tail of ropey displays. Our defence, and defensive play as a team is really poor. They’ve gone from looking like they’re a single entity almost to a bunch of players who have never trained together. If that continues we’ll keep conceding, which makes it’s so hard to consistently win games.
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As bad as we were defensively at times lets give credit to lille. They are no pushoevers. I think they are a very good side. They showed that. Wuite robust and creative with the ball. They played very well. Ill be honest i dont think we played well tonight but i think if we played to our best we coild win this game comfortably. Bit we havent seen that kind of performance in a while. Will it happen next week?
Lets hope so
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We’re a pale shadow of the team that was despatching all and sundry in the autumn and early winter so I’d take a flukey 2-1. Not very confident about the return though but you never know.
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We are going to have to have our best away performance of the season to go through.
Defensively it’s very worrying and in the first half they ran through from midfield unmarked several times.
We are missing Kamara and need that sitting defensive midfielder. The way teams are finding space in between our fullbacks and central defenders is a concern.
The effort and commitment has never gone away but I feel we need a bit of a change and bring Tim in to sit. Hopefully Cash is back and we can get Konsa back in the middle.
On a plus point we won and their fullbacks aren’t all that so that’s something to work on.
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Could go either way from here.
We need a big performance 2nd leg to go through, but shouldn’t that be the way? It’s a European QF?
Fuck the rest, Villa are the best!
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Let’s not go overboard though suggesting it was fluked. In spite of our continued awful defending, we had several chances and were denied a nailed on penalty. We could have scored more and I suspect we’ll need at least two next week.
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We need to treat the second leg as if it was 0-0, because if we start to think we have the advantage we will start to retreat and concede early.
They are a decent team, but so are we.
We’re just a clean sheet away from a European semi final ( no I don’t think it will work out that way either).
But glass is half full, in Emery we trust.
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I just hope we don't go 2-0 up over there.
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You know it's fine to take the positives, it's fine to take the negatives. I don't know why either side of that debate gets riled up.
Personally I'm leaning towards us probably getting knocked out next week. We just concede too many chances, or at least it feels like that anyway. Really hoping McGinn is put back in CM as he did when Kamara first got injured but I'd say it's unlikely. With that and Konsa at RB, we're pretty vulnerable.
Edit: We really should have had a pen, though.
Very good summary.
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Would we really be worse defensively if we played Hayden at RB and moved our best CB back to CB?
For me Konsa has to be in the middle
He's not going to throw Hayden in for a huge away tie when he's hardly made it off the bench in prem games we've been winning.
Cash should be ready to return soon, no idea if Arsenal will be too soon but it would be great for him to get 30 minutes at Arsenal and then he'll be in contention to start the second leg.
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Don’t think we have done enough.
2-0 and looking quite ok.
Give away another poxy goal and then show absolutely zero ambition to get another.
The subs killed us.
Moreno can only play facing his own goal.
Zaniolo showed flashes but was ultimately chasing shadows.
Dhuran didn’t get any service
And Diaby offered the square root of fuck all.
Martinez MOTM by a country mile with 5 or 6 top saves to keep us in it.
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Definitely take a win at this stage, but switched off and conceded a sloppy goal again though. We've been doing it all season and it hasn't really mattered in league games we've won, but it could come back to bite us in this tie.
That said, I didn't think they were great defensively, especially defending set pieces so I fancy us to score over there.
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If we can get Cash back and play Konsa in the middle we might be ok.
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Great result to be 2.1 up going into next week.
Emi motm. We would have lost the game badly without him.
Konsa has to start in the middle. Don’t care who plays RB.
Emery is the euro cups master. Let’s see what he does next week.
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Fairly satisfied with the result, they looked a decent side. We could have conceded more and we could have had at least another. We're still battling on a couple of fronts in April. I'm happy with that.
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Definitely take a win at this stage, but switched off and conceded a sloppy again though. We've been doing it all season and it hasn't really mattered in league games we've won, but it could come back to bite us in this tie.
That said, I didn't think they were great defensively, especially defending set pieces so I fancy us to score over there.
Only point I’d challenge is “we’ve been doing it all season”. We haven’t been watertight this season, but in the first half of it we looked really coherent and the goals we conceded on the whole came more as a surprise (a few games excepted). Since the turn of the year we look really incoherent for decent stretches of games and conceding goals looks inevitable (and usually happens). Some of that is the loss of Kamara, but that’s not all of it. We just look really confused and unsure of the roles that should be undertaken defensively.
I keep thinking this, but hopefully a win brings a bit of confidence and we play we greater structure from now. Like I said I suspect we’ll need at least a couple next week.
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They’re a good team with plenty of confidence in the top 4 of their league. No reason they should be any kind of pushover. It will be hard next week but not a game we should fear at all. We can absolutely go there and get a result and see the job through.
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Well I thought it was a penalty at the time and looking back, how on earth did VAR take no action?
At 2-0 and comfortable, we started a familiar routine of letting them play 10 yards further up and we never picked them off once the subs came on.
For Martínez to be MOTM says quite a lot. He was only ropey on their disallowed goal, but he was outstanding otherwise.
David did very little, but I thought their midfield was sharp and ours was not at its best.
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Our defending of set pieces and crosses has gone to shit. It’s the big area we miss Mings. Of course doesn’t help we are having to play our starting CB at RB either.
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Our defending of set pieces and crosses has gone to shit. It’s the big area we miss Mings. Of course doesn’t help we are having to play our starting CB at RB either.
Yes, whilst we are the best we have been in a long time on attacking set pieces, we are too vulnerable defending them. It's not all his fault, but Carlos doesn't instil any confidence at all.
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Well I enjoyed it. Given the injuries both long and short term we're doing great. Of course the sloppiness annoys me and I'm already nervous for the second leg because they look good but in the midst of our best season for some time I'm going not going to live in fear. Roll on Sunday, roll on next Thursday.
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Well McGinn seems upbeat and I think we all should be. They are a good side, but we should probably expect nothing else in a European competition quarter final. There is no doubt they will come away thinking we are a good side too. We won, thats the most important thing, it’ll be tough over there, but we’re more than capable of doing it.
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Thought we were ok and well in control for most of the match. For all their possession they did fuck all with it as most of their chances came from us turning over the ball. I think at 2-0 we were managing and stifling the game very well but a stupid set piece goal given away. All to play for next week, think we’ll have too much for them as they don’t look that good at the back. One thing we didn’t make the most of in the first half was the yawning chasm between their press and defence, whenever we got the ball in there we caused them so many problems.
Also we have a game on Sunday so the last 20-30 was I think us conserving some energy, didn’t quite work but hopefully roughly the same team against the Tarquins.
Just need to look forward to a trip to Lille next week. Onwards….
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Well McGinn seems upbeat and I think we all should be. They are a good side, but we should probably expect nothing else in a European competition quarter final. There is no doubt they will come away thinking we are a good side too. We won, thats the most important thing, it’ll be tough over there, but we’re more than capable of doing it.
There's a chance they'll be so encouraged by the amount of chances they created tonight that they'll go full pelt next week and we pick them off.
Underdog role suits us, to some extent.
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Our defending of set pieces and crosses has gone to shit. It’s the big area we miss Mings. Of course doesn’t help we are having to play our starting CB at RB either.
Watching the highlights, no-one seems to pick their scorer up at all and he goes into a gap between Carlos and whoever it was defending the area beyond the near post.
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Certainly the first decent opponent weve played in Europe this season.
Disappointing to concede but felt we were still the better side, particularly around the McGinn goal when the midfield actually remembered they are allowed to shoot!
Need Cash back and need to get a Cash / Konsa / Torres / Digne back line….Carlos is so very average. Centre half is far more important than right back….we shouldn’t be playing one of our best two centre halves at right back
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It's a win, which is great, but I think we could all see that Lille are a very good side, and will definitely cause us problems in the second leg. Not a classic performance by us, by a long way, but we could easily have had a pen and be 3-0 up.
Not really. The pen was at 1-0, that would (probably have made it 2-0 and then there would have been a kick-off. Nothing in the game would have been the same after that.
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Our defending of set pieces and crosses has gone to shit. It’s the big area we miss Mings. Of course doesn’t help we are having to play our starting CB at RB either.
Watching the highlights, no-one seems to pick their scorer up at all and he goes into a gap between Carlos and whoever it was defending the area beyond the near post.
Carlos was asleep I thought, he was body checked a bit but that's his area to clear out at the front post.
Only saw the highlights, from that alone our defence seemed all over the place. I can't stand Konsa at RB but he's not going to throw in a kid at RB.
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It's like we have a switch that gets flipped. We were very passive towards the end of the second half. Still, a win is a win.
Sorry, couldn't resist; a great track on an absolutely brilliant album!
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Right back has been a problem since we let Young go, seems careless that we have no-one there that can cover adequately, moving Konsa across has weakened us comsiderably, Carlos oh dear.
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I would have taken this result before the match, so I am not disappointed.
Another disjointed performance, though, which is becoming the norm since the year end. You can argue that this is inevitable given the number of injuries and the depth of the squad.
We can beat anyone on our day, but a bumpy ride beckons.
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I think we can all agree that it's a dark day.
Only winning a first leg European Quarter Final by one goal? I haven't felt so let down by the players and manager in a long time.
Thank god we don't do anything like laugh at Wolves for their levels of delusion, or some of us might look rather like prats right now.
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Im hoping villa do a villa. Lille will fancy their chances and we go as underdogs then villa go there and put a performance that no one expects and win comfortably
I think if we score early silence the crowd i think we can win. But defensively we have to be so much better than yesterday
I was happy we won just worried at home many chances we gave lille. It was far too easy at times and emi saved us so many times.
I think getting konsa back at cb is essential. Kesler should have been goven abit more game time tbh so we know if he is ready. But sometimes young playwr thrive in these kind of circumstances
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Im hoping villa do a villa. Lille will fancy their chances and we go as underdogs then villa go there and put a performance that no one expects and win comfortably
I think if we score early silence the crowd i think we can win. But defensively we have to be so much better than yesterday
I was happy we won just worried at home many chances we gave lille. It was far too easy at times and emi saved us so many times.
I think getting konsa back at cb is essential. Kesler should have been goven abit more game time tbh so we know if he is ready. But sometimes young playwr thrive in these kind of circumstances
Lille are 4th in a vastly inferior league in which we are 5th. We should not bs going there as underdogs
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I think the players are probably a bit knackered after a season where they’ve played more competitive football than they’re used to and we’ve been continually losing players to massive clobbering injuries.
Agree. There's not enough rotation options with so many injuries. These games come thick and fast. They do look a bit jaded which is not surprising. Losing Ramsey for the season has only compounded the problem, plus 3 ACL injuries to more key players. If only we could have Mings available now!
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Im hoping villa do a villa. Lille will fancy their chances and we go as underdogs then villa go there and put a performance that no one expects and win comfortably
I think if we score early silence the crowd i think we can win. But defensively we have to be so much better than yesterday
I was happy we won just worried at home many chances we gave lille. It was far too easy at times and emi saved us so many times.
I think getting konsa back at cb is essential. Kesler should have been goven abit more game time tbh so we know if he is ready. But sometimes young playwr thrive in these kind of circumstances
Lille are 4th in a vastly inferior league in which we are 5th. We should not bs going there as underdogs
Im sure liverpool think the same after yesterday vs atlanta. Doesnt always work like that. Lille will fancy their chances at home. Lets be real we didnt really give them much to worry about esp 2nd half. The atmosphere was also flat last 20 as acknowledged by mcginn when he was referencing the last 10 mins. But i think the slow build up football kills the atmosphere it seems
Going to be tough next week but not impossible
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We're clearly labouring a bit now, not really surprising with so many injuries and suspensions. I'm still enjoying it, 5th and our first ever 1st leg in a European QF, that'll do for tonight.
We really are beginning to run out of steam at the wrong time. Emery effectively throwing the Man City game is looking an increasingly bad call as well now
Why? We haven’t lost since that game. Even at full strength we’d have struggled against Foden and Rodri when on that form.
Get that, but he needed to win on Saturday to back his judgement and we didn’t. So many similarities with O'Neill with Moscow and Stoke - he just piled so much unnecessary pressure on himself
So the players implode at 2-0 with shit defending and its all Unai's fault?
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I can see us scoring at their place - 1-1
The pressure will be on them - the big miss for me is Kamara in the midfield
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Im hoping villa do a villa. Lille will fancy their chances and we go as underdogs then villa go there and put a performance that no one expects and win comfortably
I think if we score early silence the crowd i think we can win. But defensively we have to be so much better than yesterday
I was happy we won just worried at home many chances we gave lille. It was far too easy at times and emi saved us so many times.
I think getting konsa back at cb is essential. Kesler should have been goven abit more game time tbh so we know if he is ready. But sometimes young playwr thrive in these kind of circumstances
Lille are 4th in a vastly inferior league in which we are 5th. We should not bs going there as underdogs
We're not. We're 3/10 to qualify for the semi-final. Lille are 12/5.
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It was a good win Lille played a lot better than I thought they would but I will take a win.
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We are the only English team to win in Europe this week.
We beat a competent team with some talented players without hitting the gears.
We look tired as the squad has been stretched due to injuries whilst we had to sell better youngsters to adhere to FFP.
We have hopefully 9 more games to play having played about 10 games more than we usually do.
Try and be a bit more positive - we should finish 5th at worst and maybe win a trophy at last
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Another not quite at it performance.
We look tired and no where near the levels of last year.
It’s not surprising and I am not blaming anyone, it’s just how it is.
That was the strongest team we could put out just like Saturday and it’s not quite good enough.
I did not think Lille were that good, high end championship level at best.
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If Sturm Graz can get a draw there then I’m sure we can, or better.
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Ollie you could tell was fuming in his post match interview too. Thats the correct way to view it for the players and manager.
I hope if he was it was about himself? Twice he shot from poor positions instead of making a pass for an easy tap in for others and twice he missed good chances that he should have tucked away.
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"We'd (you'd) have been fucked without the keeper"
This sort of thing has annoyed me for years. When a keeper does a good job it's the only thing keeping you from an inevitable defeat, when in reality he's an excellent performer within the team dynamic. Every team would be fucked without their keeper.....
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"We'd (you'd) have been fucked without the keeper"
This sort of thing has annoyed me for years. When a keeper does a good job it's the only thing keeping you from an inevitable defeat, when in reality he's an excellent performer within the team dynamic. Every team would be fucked without their keeper.....
The worry is that despite him (and it is completely within the laws to have a great keeper) we are still conceding too many.
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Yeah but if he's man of the match, it probably means his teammates weren't doing a very good job.
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A win by any other name is still a win. We're going to France just needing to avoid defeat.
I think this season has taken it out of us - bad run of injuries coupled with a jump in to the number of games played. One of those things. We'll be better for it in the long run.
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Yeah but if he's man of the match, it probably means his teammates weren't doing a very good job.
Exactly. If our defence plays like that against Arsenal it's going to be a cricket score.
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I watched on youtube yesterday, the highlights of the home game against Southampton in our relegation season - which included the Bacuna back pass from inside their half!, we complain about our defending last night, that was a masterclass compared to Lescott and Richards!
I remember that game due to me having a prang in my car as I was parking before the game.
When we won the European Cup, in a few of the rounds, we would win the 2 legged tie by the odd goal - we can do it again!
We have the Manager who knows how to win the tight European games, we will know what to expect from them.
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The morning after the night before and in hindsight I understand some people’s disappointment at being close to having a two goal lead and giving a soft one away.
However, I think Lille are a good side and I think going there with any lead is really important. They have to beat us by two clear goals to go through without penalties. Whilst it’ll no doubt be tough over there, im not sure they will be that much better than us. Try not concede early and even better nick one before half time.
It’ll be nervy, but we’re still massively in with a shout.
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Yeah but if he's man of the match, it probably means his teammates weren't doing a very good job.
I agree, but that can be said of some of the greatest keepers that played for the best sides, including Emi when his side won the WC.
Put it this way, had the opposition not created any chances would anyone have said "yeah, you won but you would've been fucked if Watkins didn't score!"
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Yeah but if he's man of the match, it probably means his teammates weren't doing a very good job.
Exactly. If our defence plays like that against Arsenal it's going to be a cricket score.
Already having kittens about Sunday.
Let’s hope we don’t concede too early or it could be embarrassing.
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Arsenal have had two days extra rest w
This massively annoying on top of us playing thursday, and luiz banned. You know whats happening right...
Villa 3-0 win. That would be typical villa 😂
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Yeah but if he's man of the match, it probably means his teammates weren't doing a very good job.
I agree, but that can be said of some of the greatest keepers that played for the best sides, including Emi when his side won the WC.
Put it this way, had the opposition not created any chances would anyone have said "yeah, you won but you would've been fucked if Watkins didn't score!"
Everybody knows who was the keeper for Fergies trophy winning mob. The Kopites trophy winning mob. Everybody knows who Messi and Co needed to win the World Cup, as the flag shagging Lille fans kept reminding us. You will, even as the best, give up chances and the best sides have the best keepers.
We won yesterday, should have won by more. You wouldn't think it mind with the fear on here.
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Another not quite at it performance.
We look tired and no where near the levels of last year.
I did not think Lille were that good, high end championship level at best.
High end Championship team who could’ve easily scored three goals had Martinez not been on his game. They had more decent chances than we did….
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Yeah but if he's man of the match, it probably means his teammates weren't doing a very good job.
I agree, but that can be said of some of the greatest keepers that played for the best sides, including Emi when his side won the WC.
Put it this way, had the opposition not created any chances would anyone have said "yeah, you won but you would've been fucked if Watkins didn't score!"
Yeah, I get where you're coming from. Keepers don't always get the credit they deserve.
I'd just prefer it if ours occasionally had a bit less to do!
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Another not quite at it performance.
We look tired and no where near the levels of last year.
I did not think Lille were that good, high end championship level at best.
High end Championship team who could’ve easily scored three goals had Martinez not been on his game. They had more decent chances than we did….
They are better than high end Championship, Brentford / Palace / Wolves standard…they came with a definite plan to try and exploit the high line with runners & succeeded a couple of times.
As Roy Keane would say ref Martinez it’s ‘his job’ - he made saves that we expect of a world class keeper.
Definite work to be done defensively (the midfield as well as the back four)…defend as we have last couple of games against a 48 hour more rested Arsenal and we will get smashed no doubt but we shall see come Sunday, hopefully pull one out of the hat
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Yeah but if he's man of the match, it probably means his teammates weren't doing a very good job.
I agree, but that can be said of some of the greatest keepers that played for the best sides, including Emi when his side won the WC.
Put it this way, had the opposition not created any chances would anyone have said "yeah, you won but you would've been fucked if Watkins didn't score!"
Everybody knows who was the keeper for Fergies trophy winning mob. The Kopites trophy winning mob. Everybody knows who Messi and Co needed to win the World Cup, as the flag shagging Lille fans kept reminding us. You will, even as the best, give up chances and the best sides have the best keepers.
We won yesterday, should have won by more. You wouldn't think it mind with the fear on here.
I know. For all of Sheringham and Scholes for "that night in Barcelona"(C)(TM), they wouldn't have made any difference if Schmeichel hadn't done his job for the previous 89 minutes. And he still let one in. Two of the other top five keepers in the world are Allison and Emerson. They have both earned points for their teams in the past. For example when we blitzed them in December, Emerson also faced 7 shots on target and saved 6 of them.
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we won in 2nd gear basicly and I expect us to do the same over in France. Those saves were standard Martinez saves just his presence alone is enough to give an advancing striker the squirts. If a conf league striker goes through one on one you just think Emi do your thing. All these conf league teams are like Norwich city look nice play nice high fives in the tunnel without any real threat, even when it gets a bit nasty you think awww bless 'em. We can go there even with nothing in the tank and grind out a win. The problem is away to arsenal. Could be looking at another 4 goal tonking.
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Another not quite at it performance.
We look tired and no where near the levels of last year.
I did not think Lille were that good, high end championship level at best.
High end Championship team who could’ve easily scored three goals had Martinez not been on his game. They had more decent chances than we did….
They are better than high end Championship, Brentford / Palace / Wolves standard…they came with a definite plan to try and exploit the high line with runners & succeeded a couple of times.
As Roy Keane would say ref Martinez it’s ‘his job’ - he made saves that we expect of a world class keeper.
Definite work to be done defensively (the midfield as well as the back four)…defend as we have last couple of games against a 48 hour more rested Arsenal and we will get smashed no doubt but we shall see come Sunday, hopefully pull one out of the hat
If they were in the PL they would be fight8ng it out with Forest Everton Luton.
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A win but another game where Ollie's comment about us not playing like a big club and not closing the game down could apply.
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I guess we’ll see next week as we will have played them twice. Admittedly we have had 4 extra games this season.
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Another not quite at it performance.
We look tired and no where near the levels of last year.
I did not think Lille were that good, high end championship level at best.
High end Championship team who could’ve easily scored three goals had Martinez not been on his game. They had more decent chances than we did….
They are better than high end Championship, Brentford / Palace / Wolves standard…they came with a definite plan to try and exploit the high line with runners & succeeded a couple of times.
As Roy Keane would say ref Martinez it’s ‘his job’ - he made saves that we expect of a world class keeper.
Definite work to be done defensively (the midfield as well as the back four)…defend as we have last couple of games against a 48 hour more rested Arsenal and we will get smashed no doubt but we shall see come Sunday, hopefully pull one out of the hat
If they were in the PL they would be fight8ng it out with Forest Everton Luton.
Exactly. It doesn't mean they won't have chances, try hard or score goals. Wood should have put Forest 2-1 up on the weekend, but he didn't and they lost. Luton took Spurs deep the weekend before, but lost. Luton had a go at us 2nd half, but they lost.
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Another not quite at it performance.
We look tired and no where near the levels of last year.
I did not think Lille were that good, high end championship level at best.
High end Championship team who could’ve easily scored three goals had Martinez not been on his game. They had more decent chances than we did….
They are better than high end Championship, Brentford / Palace / Wolves standard…they came with a definite plan to try and exploit the high line with runners & succeeded a couple of times.
As Roy Keane would say ref Martinez it’s ‘his job’ - he made saves that we expect of a world class keeper.
Definite work to be done defensively (the midfield as well as the back four)…defend as we have last couple of games against a 48 hour more rested Arsenal and we will get smashed no doubt but we shall see come Sunday, hopefully pull one out of the hat
If they were in the PL they would be fight8ng it out with Forest Everton Luton.
I think they are better than those 3, particularly Jonathan David & the blonde number 7…certainly by miles the best opponent we’ve had in this competition
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Quite surprised at some of the opinions on Lille. High end Championship? Really?
They had 60% of the ball and 7 shots on target compared to our 4. It's not like they're a Dyche side rolling up to huff and puff a bit and get beaten, they looked tidy on the ball, and seemed to be much better at keeping it than we were.
They didn't take their chances, but it took the best goalkeeper in the world to stop them, on several occasions.
They were easily the best side we have played in this competition so far, and put up a much better showing than most PL sides have done at Villa Park.
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Another not quite at it performance.
We look tired and no where near the levels of last year.
I did not think Lille were that good, high end championship level at best.
High end Championship team who could’ve easily scored three goals had Martinez not been on his game. They had more decent chances than we did….
They are better than high end Championship, Brentford / Palace / Wolves standard…they came with a definite plan to try and exploit the high line with runners & succeeded a couple of times.
As Roy Keane would say ref Martinez it’s ‘his job’ - he made saves that we expect of a world class keeper.
Definite work to be done defensively (the midfield as well as the back four)…defend as we have last couple of games against a 48 hour more rested Arsenal and we will get smashed no doubt but we shall see come Sunday, hopefully pull one out of the hat
If they were in the PL they would be fight8ng it out with Forest Everton Luton.
I think they are better than those 3, particularly Jonathan David & the blonde number 7…certainly by miles the best opponent we’ve had in this competition
I was quite impressed by them tbh.
But I think we'll get our chances next week and I fancy us to get through.
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Quite surprised at some of the opinions on Lille. High end Championship? Really?
They had 60% of the ball and 7 shots on target compared to our 4. It's not like they're a Dyche side rolling up to huff and puff a bit and get beaten, they looked tidy on the ball, and seemed to be much better at keeping it than we were.
They didn't take their chances, but it took the best goalkeeper in the world to stop them, on several occasions.
They were easily the best side we have played in this competition so far, and put up a much better showing than most PL sides have done at Villa Park.
I'd agree and I don't think any Championship side could live with the passing and movement.
Lets face it, at the moment the top three sides in Division 2 are falling over themselves not to get promoted!
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Agree, They were/are a very competent unit.
Next week will be tough.
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They've very strong at home, and have lost one game there all season. They're going to be backed by nearly 50,000 fans next week, anybody thinking they're a Championship standard side or that the away leg is going to be easy is in for a shock I reckon. I'm sure Unai isn't having daft thoughts like that.
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How many Premier League sides have they faced at home? It won't be easy, easy is boring, but let's not overstate the task. We know what it is that must be done. We're superior in every department, that they have hangers on crawling out the woodwork to gawp at us will make it sweeter.
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One tweak I hope Emery makes next week is to move McGinn alongside Luiz and Tielemans further forward. We looked too open through the middle at times last night and McGinn brings more energy and presence, and gives Luiz more support.
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I'm getting vibes of the play-off semi when we beat West Brom to get to Wembley: winning 2-1 at our place in the 1st leg but losing 1-0 at theirs and going to penalties.
Got a feeling it could happen again. Have to hope Emi does another "World Cup Final" against a hostile French crowd!
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I'm getting vibes of the play-off semi when we beat West Brom to get to Wembley: winning 2-1 at our place in the 1st leg but losing 1-0 at theirs and going to penalties.
Got a feeling it could happen again. Have to hope Emi does another "World Cup Final" against a hostile French crowd!
He'll get some reception next week which he'll absolutely thrive in.
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Worth noting that after last night's "disaster", our odds to win the tournament have shortened from 7/4 to 7/5.
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Advantage Villa after a far from great performance.
But we go to Lille with the lead. They are a good young team ,played well and were unlucky not to have scored more.
That's why we have the best Goalie in the world.
Although I jump up and scream at some of our, going to sleep, slack defending. We are miles away from where we were.
To maintain the momentum and go forward we will need to have 4 new players that could be starters next season, but I think the manager and his team know that more than me.
Semi looms if we play well next week.
Sorry if it seems irreverent but we did not exactly emulate Brazil when we won in 82 and we are very happy with that on our badge. So lets grind it out next week and move on.
Lets
4 new players..... Mings, Buendia, Kamara, Ramsey.....
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I'm getting vibes of the play-off semi when we beat West Brom to get to Wembley: winning 2-1 at our place in the 1st leg but losing 1-0 at theirs and going to penalties.
Got a feeling it could happen again. Have to hope Emi does another "World Cup Final" against a hostile French crowd!
He'll get some reception next week which he'll absolutely thrive in.
I didnt have the French down as Ingerlund types, surprised me all the tricolour wafting, national antheming and of course, booing Emi.
I'm.looking forward to next week's chevauchee.
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How many Premier League sides have they faced at home? It won't be easy, easy is boring, but let's not overstate the task. We know what it is that must be done. We're superior in every department, that they have hangers on crawling out the woodwork to gawp at us will make it sweeter.
I tell you what at the moment I would not find easy “boring”. I’d find it very enjoyable if we could find our way back to cruising through games.
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It's like we have a switch that gets flipped. We were very passive towards the end of the second half. Still, a win is a win.
Sorry, couldn't resist; a great track on an absolutely brilliant album!
Yeah, it’s fantastic.
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Has anyone explained how Ollie wasn't awarded a penalty for a blatant push in the area?
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Nah. Boring is forgettable. We're in it for the emotion and something incredibly difficult, like finishing 4th without Mings, Emi, Ramsey and Kamara for the entire or large swathes of the season, with lots of wee injuries elsewhere, is something spectacular. Embrace your inner JFK on this mindset.
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Advantage Villa after a far from great performance.
But we go to Lille with the lead. They are a good young team ,played well and were unlucky not to have scored more.
That's why we have the best Goalie in the world.
Although I jump up and scream at some of our, going to sleep, slack defending. We are miles away from where we were.
To maintain the momentum and go forward we will need to have 4 new players that could be starters next season, but I think the manager and his team know that more than me.
Semi looms if we play well next week.
Sorry if it seems irreverent but we did not exactly emulate Brazil when we won in 82 and we are very happy with that on our badge. So lets grind it out next week and move on.
Lets
4 new players..... Mings, Buendia, Kamara, Ramsey.....
We won't get Kamara back until December-February. God knows when Ramsey will be back.
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We won the first leg. It would have been better to have a bigger margin, but I'd rather be in our position than theirs.
Emery knows what he's doing, the players are well up for it too.
Lille were tidy on the ball, but Martinez did his job (very well as usual) and now we know more about them. I suspect we'll see a different line-up next week and we need to get into them, they really didn't like it when we did.
Special mention to the referee last night, what an utterly bizarre set of decisions on his big day out. The penalties, the bookings and non-bookings too.
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Advantage Villa after a far from great performance.
But we go to Lille with the lead. They are a good young team ,played well and were unlucky not to have scored more.
That's why we have the best Goalie in the world.
Although I jump up and scream at some of our, going to sleep, slack defending. We are miles away from where we were.
To maintain the momentum and go forward we will need to have 4 new players that could be starters next season, but I think the manager and his team know that more than me.
Semi looms if we play well next week.
Sorry if it seems irreverent but we did not exactly emulate Brazil when we won in 82 and we are very happy with that on our badge. So lets grind it out next week and move on.
Lets
4 new players..... Mings, Buendia, Kamara, Ramsey.....
We won't get Kamara back until December-February. God knows when Ramsey will be back.
Ramsey is currently undergoing major groundbreaking treatment to replace his glass skeleton with some new high tech material. He's going to be Robo Ramsey next season.
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One tweak I hope Emery makes next week is to move McGinn alongside Luiz and Tielemans further forward. We looked too open through the middle at times last night and McGinn brings more energy and presence, and gives Luiz more support.
This x a million. I've been saying this ever since McGinn came back from suspension, why oh why can every one else see this problem but not Emery? Before his suspension that's exactly how he had them set up, I just don't understand the change.
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Seems that Liverpool made 6 changes to their starting line up last night, thinking they just had to turn up to win and they got what they deserved. Their fans are saying if they lose at the weekend their season is over. Moscow anyone?
Emery didn't do that, he played his strongest team, we won. A draw or a clean sheet and we are through.
Be interesting to see what team he picks for Arsenal.
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There's only two ties in all of the European comps where there's more than a single goal between the two teams going into the second leg, and both of them our compatriots are on the receiving end of.
We're in a good position, could've been better, could've been worse, but I'd have taken it before the game.
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Seems that Liverpool made 6 changes to their starting line up last night, thinking they just had to turn up to win and they got what they deserved. Their fans are saying if they lose at the weekend their season is over. Moscow anyone?
Emery didn't do that, he played his strongest team, we won. A draw or a clean sheet and we are through.
Be interesting to see what team he picks for Arsenal.
I don’t think he’s got many options in defence apart from left back. Midfield is also light with Luiz being suspended.
Lille have been given a free week to prepare for the second leg so I guess we’ll have to cross our fingers and hope for no more injuries.
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It's like we have a switch that gets flipped. We were very passive towards the end of the second half. Still, a win is a win.
Sorry, couldn't resist; a great track on an absolutely brilliant album!
Yeah, it’s fantastic.
I do rather like that. Extra points for using a London Bus like that.
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We'd have all liked a bit more breathing space in the score, but we're the only English side to win their QF 1st leg, it's not a disaster.
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You know what would happen if we were 2-0 up. Better to have this score to focus the minds.
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You know what would happen if we were 2-0 up. Better to have this score to focus the minds.
That's a good point actually, I was saying to my mate last night that we seem to be most vulnerable when we get too comfortable in matches.
Maybe having this Bunsen burner of a small lead under our arses will keep the minds focussed.
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We've played them, Emery and the team have seen them up close now, plans will be made.
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It's like we have a switch that gets flipped. We were very passive towards the end of the second half. Still, a win is a win.
Sorry, couldn't resist; a great track on an absolutely brilliant album!
Yeah, it’s fantastic.
I do rather like that. Extra points for using a London Bus like that.
Hmmmm, each to their own I guess.
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Clough said 2-0 up is a dangerous score line
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We'd have all liked a bit more breathing space in the score, but we're the only English side to win their QF 1st leg, it's not a disaster.
This!
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It's like we have a switch that gets flipped. We were very passive towards the end of the second half. Still, a win is a win.
Sorry, couldn't resist; a great track on an absolutely brilliant album!
Yeah, it’s fantastic.
I do rather like that. Extra points for using a London Bus like that.
With how they were representing the bus externally, I would have been impressed if they had done something like this video. Afterall, I feel like I'm doing some of those moves when moving downstairs as my stop is approached.
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OK Go always made the best videos.
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OK Go always made the best videos.
Yes always very inventive. I did wonder if they had the song or the video idea first.
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If Cash isn’t fit for next week and he doesn’t want to play KKH, wouldn’t it make sense to play either Digne or Moreno at RB rather than persist with Konsa out of position at RB and Carlos in the middle? They may be on the wrong side but playing an LB at RB is surely a better option than weakening our back 4 with Carlos.
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We've played them, Emery and the team have seen them up close now, plans will be made.
Yes sure. They were neat and moved the ball quickly, constantly switching direction and when we allowed them to do that we were finding it difficult to cope. So that nonsense must not be allowed to happen next week. When we did dominate them we scored and should have scored more. Just don't let them have so much possession.
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Konsa Carlos Torres Digne was back four when we beat Man City and Arsenal without conceding a goal so it can work!
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We had Kamara sat in front of them then, though. His absence is telling, whatever some of us might think of his form pre-injury.
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A win but another game where Ollie's comment about us not playing like a big club and not closing the game down could apply.
You mean like Liverpool?
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A win but another game where Ollie's comment about us not playing like a big club and not closing the game down could apply.
You mean like Liverpool?
Or Arsenal, or Man Citeh.
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Cash may well be fit by the sound of it, which would help.
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I’ve only just found out away goals is no longer a thing in the event of a draw !!
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Something while I remember. There seemed to be new catering people in the UT. The quality of pre-match cheesy chips and Villa dogs were very much improved, as was the service. Professional, almost.