Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: Toronto Villa on August 17, 2019, 04:57:14 PM
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Just a harsh lesson at this level. Like last week stupid mistakes killed us. This isn’t the Championship chaps. Very, very disappointing
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There is going to be a period of coming together. I get that. But we need to stamp out the mental errors. And I think Dean is way overthinking some of this. Play your best players in their best positions.
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Poor. Need to find a foothold in this league. Last week was expected. This week was tragic. Can’t see us getting anything from toffees game either....
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Feeling deflated. Home games like that are where we need to get points.
We look weak up front.
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From the stats we battered them.
Sadly these 5-10 minutes lapses when we're giving up two goals isn't going to win us many games at this level.
Could understand it last week given the circumstances but starting in the manner today was a disaster.
Would expect 3-4 changes for Everton, both new full backs in will be starting I'd suspect.
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Wake up call - if we didn’t know by now, this is going to be a rough ride. Mistakes get punished ruthlessly in this league.
It’s still early days but we need to get some points on the board soon else the season looks like a long one already
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Silly mistakes cost us early on. If anyone thought we weren't going to suffer from awful refereeing decisions back in the top flight though, think again.
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Can't give teams a 2 goal start. Played decent after that but lack a cutting edge.
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The lads need our support for Friday. Let's get behind them come on Villa.
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It were one of those horrible ones.
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Big fuck up.
I agree with the post about bringing Guilbert and Jota in for the next one on the right, and switch Trezeguet to the left.
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Going to be a long season playing like that. Not enough quality and far too many unforced errors against one of the poorer teams in the league. Easily the worse game I’ve seen Jack have in a Villa shirt. Gutted
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Pissy thing is Spurs and the Cherries have won because of individual mistakes. Get them out of the system ( hopefully ) early days and we'll be a very entertaining team to watch. Thought everyone was excellent again today ( errors aside ) and it's going to click soon.
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Could be difficult to win the league from here. Need a draw at the Eithad this evening.
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Poor effort. All that preparation chucked away by thick as shit mistakes in the first 10 minutes.
Decent possession etc after that but very little goal threat. Team looks unbalanced in a worryingly 2015/16 esque way.
Expect we’re getting beaten again on Friday so I just hope the team spirit is resilient enough to cope while we struggle to get going and figure out where the goals are coming from.
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No-one in this division will give you a break, very few mistakes happen and you have to earn every single point. We almost earned a point but have to be ruthless.
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Not good enough I'm afraid. Two pisspoor mistakes from players who should know better and it's massively uphill from there.
We created quite a few decent chances but, guess what, had no cutting edge and it took a screamer to get us on the scoresheet. Bournemouth could have had a couple more on the break.
Wesley, Kodjia and Davis is a big big worry and I can't see AEG or Jota chipping in with many either.
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Not a disaster but its coming down the tracks at us if we carry on like this.
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Thought without question we deserved a draw for that second half performance. Subs didn't help when needed.
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If you only saw the other stats and not the game score you’d swear looking at this we won. We need to be clinical. Norwich have a proven goal scorer and look how effective Pukki was today. The inability to bring in another forward will hurt us.
(https://i.ibb.co/bPYDK3X/5-F184-B1-A-97-A9-4-E5-D-A947-605-B9-D10-C175.png) (https://ibb.co/bPYDK3X)
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The mistakes were poor but it still took a ridiculously jammy deflection for the second one to sneak in. Lacked the clinical edge afterwards which may be an ongoing problem unfortunately but the fact that the chances are being created is more important to me.
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From the stats we battered them.
Sadly these 5-10 minutes lapses when we're giving up two goals isn't going to win us many games at this level.
Could understand it last week given the circumstances but starting in the manner today was a disaster.
Would expect 3-4 changes for Everton, both new full backs in will be starting I'd suspect.
Why the fullbacks? They both played well and none of them are to blame for losing either game.
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Douglas Luiz (after a dodgy first 15) was excellent I thought, not withstanding the goal.
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Wake up call - if we didn’t know by now, this is going to be a rough ride. Mistakes get punished ruthlessly in this league.
It’s still early days but we need to get some points on the board soon else the season looks like a long one already
Yep. I actually don't think it's a bad thing.
Losing first two isn't great but Spurs away is one of the toughest out there in the league now. West Ham lost at home to Bournemouth 2-1 second game last season and indeed lost their first four games. They finished 10th.
Some of the predictions and hype on mainly untested signings was pretty crazy, this is a big step up. The league may be overhyped in many ways but there's plenty of quality even at mid range clubs as Bournemouth's front three showed today.
We need time to grow but points on the board are needed soon. Don't play Newcastle until late November so that's one disappointment as they look worse at least.
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I saw enough to make me think we'll get there.
Though there's no point in sending so many crosses in with nobody in the box. So often our build-up is full of precision until it goes to Elmo, who then seems to gamble with a hoof to nobody. Annoying.
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Pissy thing is Spurs and the Cherries have won because of individual mistakes. Get them out of the system ( hopefully ) early days and we'll be a very entertaining team to watch. Thought everyone was excellent again today ( errors aside ) and it's going to click soon.
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From the stats we battered them.
Sadly these 5-10 minutes lapses when we're giving up two goals isn't going to win us many games at this level.
Could understand it last week given the circumstances but starting in the manner today was a disaster.
Would expect 3-4 changes for Everton, both new full backs in will be starting I'd suspect.
Why the fullbacks? They both played well and none of them are to blame for losing either game.
Creating more going forward most likely, both have been fine defensively but we're lacking creating good chances.
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Other worrying signs include Grealish looking like he’s failing to impose himself in the PL as well as I’d hoped (losing streak monkey on back?) and el ghazi looking every bit a championship player.
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Success is often down to making as few mistakes as possible, fewer than your opponent at least. We've long had a habit of shooting ourselves in both feet. We can't afford to do that too often in the PL.
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Poor effort. All that preparation chucked away by thick as shit mistakes in the first 10 minutes.
Decent possession etc after that but very little goal threat. Team looks unbalanced in a worryingly 2015/16 esque way.
Expect we’re getting beaten again on Friday so I just hope the team spirit is resilient enough to cope while we struggle to get going and figure out where the goals are coming from.
This post is completely wrong, I’m sorry.
We dominated them for the last 50 minutes. Lop-sided possession stats. Grealish and McGinn getting forward with ease. Wesley finally playing with some urgency. We could’ve scored 3 or 4 headers in the second half. Engels and Mings were comfortable all game. Not to mention Douglas’ FIRST PL match.
If Bournemouth hadn’t gotten the luckiest 15 minutes of their life I’d say that game could’ve ended 4-0.
I’m not happy about the loss, duh. What I am unhappy about is that it took us 40 minutes to get the car out of park.
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Big let down. Learn from it, if possible. Can't see us getting anything from Everton on this showing - the team appears to be set up to counter attack all the time. 0-2 down at home, now what?
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Shocking mistakes, Heatons was almost criminal and that set the tone.
Weseley looks a yard off the pace to be a threat at this level.
A long difficult season I am afraid.
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From the stats we battered them.
Sadly these 5-10 minutes lapses when we're giving up two goals isn't going to win us many games at this level.
Could understand it last week given the circumstances but starting in the manner today was a disaster.
Would expect 3-4 changes for Everton, both new full backs in will be starting I'd suspect.
Why the fullbacks? They both played well and none of them are to blame for losing either game.
I'm sort of in john e camp, can understand AEM playing to help out Trezeguet but full backs are such a huge part of the game going forward and Taylor certainly not going to cut it in the long term. Would get Targett in at least and see what he's up to.
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From the stats we battered them.
Sadly these 5-10 minutes lapses when we're giving up two goals isn't going to win us many games at this level.
Could understand it last week given the circumstances but starting in the manner today was a disaster.
Would expect 3-4 changes for Everton, both new full backs in will be starting I'd suspect.
Why the fullbacks? They both played well and none of them are to blame for losing either game.
Creating more going forward most likely, both have been fine defensively but we're lacking creating good chances.
I agree Tayls doesn't do anything going forward but I can't fault him in his last 2 and I think he's usually crap. I think there might be small changes but it's down to lapses of concentration that have cost us so I don't think it's a case of a mass change.
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Keep the faith and stick together! UTV.
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It's early days I know but, i honestly can't see Wesley and Davis getting into double figures, goals wise. Combined.
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Poor effort. All that preparation chucked away by thick as shit mistakes in the first 10 minutes.
Decent possession etc after that but very little goal threat. Team looks unbalanced in a worryingly 2015/16 esque way.
Expect we’re getting beaten again on Friday so I just hope the team spirit is resilient enough to cope while we struggle to get going and figure out where the goals are coming from.
This post is completely wrong, I’m sorry.
We dominated them for the last 50 minutes. Lop-sided possession stats. Grealish and McGinn getting forward with ease. Wesley finally playing with some urgency. We could’ve scored 3 or 4 headers in the second half. Engels and Mings were comfortable all game. Not to mention Douglas’ FIRST PL match.
If Bournemouth hadn’t gotten the luckiest 15 minutes of their life I’d say that game could’ve ended 4-0.
I’m not happy about the loss, duh. What I am unhappy about is that it took us 40 minutes to get the car out of park.
That’s got more to do with the fact that they played almost the whole game with a 2 goal buffer. As if they gave a shit about our possession stats when we look so completely toothless up front. Possession stats don’t win you games otherwise we’d have a statue of Lambert somewhere.
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Poor effort. All that preparation chucked away by thick as shit mistakes in the first 10 minutes.
Decent possession etc after that but very little goal threat. Team looks unbalanced in a worryingly 2015/16 esque way.
Expect we’re getting beaten again on Friday so I just hope the team spirit is resilient enough to cope while we struggle to get going and figure out where the goals are coming from.
This post is completely wrong, I’m sorry.
We dominated them for the last 50 minutes. Lop-sided possession stats. Grealish and McGinn getting forward with ease. Wesley finally playing with some urgency. We could’ve scored 3 or 4 headers in the second half. Engels and Mings were comfortable all game. Not to mention Douglas’ FIRST PL match.
If Bournemouth hadn’t gotten the luckiest 15 minutes of their life I’d say that game could’ve ended 4-0.
I’m not happy about the loss, duh. What I am unhappy about is that it took us 40 minutes to get the car out of park.
That’s got more to do with the fact that they played almost the whole game with a 2 goal buffer. As if they gave a shit about our possession stats when we look so completely toothless up front. Possession stats don’t win you games otherwise we’d have a statue of Lambert somewhere.
If 22 shots is toothless sign me up. Without counting Wesley’s two headers over, Jacks shoulder and McGinns drag wide right.
We went at them non-stop and with ease in that second half.
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22 shots and 1 goal. Spout stats at me all you want mate.
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Poor effort. All that preparation chucked away by thick as shit mistakes in the first 10 minutes.
Decent possession etc after that but very little goal threat. Team looks unbalanced in a worryingly 2015/16 esque way.
Expect we’re getting beaten again on Friday so I just hope the team spirit is resilient enough to cope while we struggle to get going and figure out where the goals are coming from.
This post is completely wrong, I’m sorry.
We dominated them for the last 50 minutes. Lop-sided possession stats. Grealish and McGinn getting forward with ease. Wesley finally playing with some urgency. We could’ve scored 3 or 4 headers in the second half. Engels and Mings were comfortable all game. Not to mention Douglas’ FIRST PL match.
If Bournemouth hadn’t gotten the luckiest 15 minutes of their life I’d say that game could’ve ended 4-0.
I’m not happy about the loss, duh. What I am unhappy about is that it took us 40 minutes to get the car out of park.
That’s got more to do with the fact that they played almost the whole game with a 2 goal buffer. As if they gave a shit about our possession stats when we look so completely toothless up front. Possession stats don’t win you games otherwise we’d have a statue of Lambert somewhere.
I agree, Bournemouth realized that as long as they kept thier shape which they did and did not allow too much space then the points were for the taking.
I thought it was a pretty comfortable win for them.
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Poor effort. All that preparation chucked away by thick as shit mistakes in the first 10 minutes.
Decent possession etc after that but very little goal threat. Team looks unbalanced in a worryingly 2015/16 esque way.
Expect we’re getting beaten again on Friday so I just hope the team spirit is resilient enough to cope while we struggle to get going and figure out where the goals are coming from.
This post is completely wrong, I’m sorry.
We dominated them for the last 50 minutes. Lop-sided possession stats. Grealish and McGinn getting forward with ease. Wesley finally playing with some urgency. We could’ve scored 3 or 4 headers in the second half. Engels and Mings were comfortable all game. Not to mention Douglas’ FIRST PL match.
If Bournemouth hadn’t gotten the luckiest 15 minutes of their life I’d say that game could’ve ended 4-0.
I’m not happy about the loss, duh. What I am unhappy about is that it took us 40 minutes to get the car out of park.
That’s got more to do with the fact that they played almost the whole game with a 2 goal buffer. As if they gave a shit about our possession stats when we look so completely toothless up front. Possession stats don’t win you games otherwise we’d have a statue of Lambert somewhere.
I agree, Bournemouth realized that as long as they kept thier shape which they did and did not allow too much space then the points were for the taking.
I thought it was a pretty comfortable win for them.
FWIW my Bournemouth mate said they were going to lose after the Luiz cracker.
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Early days but I can take a lot of positives and at least you can see what we're trying to do and how we progress. Give it time and I think we'll be fine, definitely excited by some of the lads on the playing.
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22 shots and 1 goal. Spout stats at me all you want mate.
;D
I’d rather spout stats than brew negativity.. two games in.
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If we want to stay up we need to beat teams like this at home. Fuckin criminal mistakes to give them 2....When the fuck will we ever learn.
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We'll be fine.
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Other worrying signs include Grealish looking like he’s failing to impose himself in the PL as well as I’d hoped (losing streak monkey on back?) and el ghazi looking every bit a championship player.
jack needs some discipline, it's fine wondering all over the park in the Championship but for much of the game he was marking El Ghazi. He needs to own his piece of the pitch which is as an attacking central midfielder. He's still dropping far too deep at times.
As for El Ghazi, it's pretty much like playing with 10 men. Today he won a corner and other than that just played the ball back to Taylor. A bit like us at the moment.. pointless.
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Also, they had the better chances on the break, really caught us cold a few times. Mings was positionally dodgy on occasion. King and Wilson had poor games by their standards I thought - if not for that 0-4 also wouldn’t have been an aberration based on the way the game flowed.
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Poor effort. All that preparation chucked away by thick as shit mistakes in the first 10 minutes.
Decent possession etc after that but very little goal threat. Team looks unbalanced in a worryingly 2015/16 esque way.
Expect we’re getting beaten again on Friday so I just hope the team spirit is resilient enough to cope while we struggle to get going and figure out where the goals are coming from.
This post is completely wrong, I’m sorry.
We dominated them for the last 50 minutes. Lop-sided possession stats. Grealish and McGinn getting forward with ease. Wesley finally playing with some urgency. We could’ve scored 3 or 4 headers in the second half. Engels and Mings were comfortable all game. Not to mention Douglas’ FIRST PL match.
If Bournemouth hadn’t gotten the luckiest 15 minutes of their life I’d say that game could’ve ended 4-0.
I’m not happy about the loss, duh. What I am unhappy about is that it took us 40 minutes to get the car out of park.
That’s got more to do with the fact that they played almost the whole game with a 2 goal buffer. As if they gave a shit about our possession stats when we look so completely toothless up front. Possession stats don’t win you games otherwise we’d have a statue of Lambert somewhere.
If 22 shots is toothless sign me up. Without counting Wesley’s two headers over, Jacks shoulder and McGinns drag wide right.
We went at them non-stop and with ease in that second half.
BECAUSE they were 2-0 up.
They probably looked at our goalscoring efforts in the first half and decided they were safe. And they were.
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Also, they had the better chances on the break, really caught us cold a few times. Mings was positionally dodgy on occasion. King and Wilson had poor games by their standards I thought - if not for that 0-4 also wouldn’t have been an aberration based on the way the game flowed.
But you discount the Trezeguet miss on the doorstep.. the grealish miss barely wide right.. the easy Wesley header over the bar.. the McGinn 12 yarder he dragged right.
Go have a beer son. It’s week 2.
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Long way to go. I am very disappointed atm though.
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All of a sudden, it feels like three years is a fuck of a long time.
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22 shots and 1 goal. Spout stats at me all you want mate.
;D
I’d rather spout stats than brew negativity.. two games in.
Brew negativity? What the fuck are you on about? Are we only allowed positive comments after a loss at home?
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MOTM Engells
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22 shots and 1 goal. Spout stats at me all you want mate.
;D
I’d rather spout stats than brew negativity.. two games in.
Brew negativity? What the fuck are you on about? Are we only allowed positive comments after a loss at home?
Go have a beer son.
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Thought we did more than enough to earn a point but we lack a real threat going forward. Wes needs to impose himself more but he needs more support in the box too. He’s isolated too much. And our crossing was really poor throughout.
El Ghazi and Grealish look off the pace strangely as I thought they’d hit the ground running. Douglas and Engels big plus points as look comfortable.
No need to panic as played well in both games, just need a break.
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Poor effort. All that preparation chucked away by thick as shit mistakes in the first 10 minutes.
Decent possession etc after that but very little goal threat. Team looks unbalanced in a worryingly 2015/16 esque way.
Expect we’re getting beaten again on Friday so I just hope the team spirit is resilient enough to cope while we struggle to get going and figure out where the goals are coming from.
This post is completely wrong, I’m sorry.
We dominated them for the last 50 minutes. Lop-sided possession stats. Grealish and McGinn getting forward with ease. Wesley finally playing with some urgency. We could’ve scored 3 or 4 headers in the second half. Engels and Mings were comfortable all game. Not to mention Douglas’ FIRST PL match.
If Bournemouth hadn’t gotten the luckiest 15 minutes of their life I’d say that game could’ve ended 4-0.
I’m not happy about the loss, duh. What I am unhappy about is that it took us 40 minutes to get the car out of park.
That’s got more to do with the fact that they played almost the whole game with a 2 goal buffer. As if they gave a shit about our possession stats when we look so completely toothless up front. Possession stats don’t win you games otherwise we’d have a statue of Lambert somewhere.
I agree, Bournemouth realized that as long as they kept thier shape which they did and did not allow too much space then the points were for the taking.
I thought it was a pretty comfortable win for them.
FWIW my Bournemouth mate said they were going to lose after the Luiz cracker.
He was wrong as well then?
😂
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Unforced individual errors and a shockingly bad ref...even for Atkinson, that was very poor and he hasn't set himself a very high bar.
We played well second-half when we moved the ball a bit better but we are lacking a clinical striker - something many of us highlighted when the transfer window closed.
We had chances to get at least a draw, but need to start getting points on the board before our confidence is shot.
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Also, they had the better chances on the break, really caught us cold a few times. Mings was positionally dodgy on occasion. King and Wilson had poor games by their standards I thought - if not for that 0-4 also wouldn’t have been an aberration based on the way the game flowed.
But you discount the Trezeguet miss on the doorstep.. the grealish miss barely wide right.. the easy Wesley header over the bar.. the McGinn 12 yarder he dragged right.
Go have a beer son. It’s week 2.
You just described the very fact that we are toothless up front. Do you know what the expression means?
I’m alright thanks mate. Do you want to call me a knicker wetter or some other such shit?
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Poor effort. All that preparation chucked away by thick as shit mistakes in the first 10 minutes.
Decent possession etc after that but very little goal threat. Team looks unbalanced in a worryingly 2015/16 esque way.
Expect we’re getting beaten again on Friday so I just hope the team spirit is resilient enough to cope while we struggle to get going and figure out where the goals are coming from.
This post is completely wrong, I’m sorry.
We dominated them for the last 50 minutes. Lop-sided possession stats. Grealish and McGinn getting forward with ease. Wesley finally playing with some urgency. We could’ve scored 3 or 4 headers in the second half. Engels and Mings were comfortable all game. Not to mention Douglas’ FIRST PL match.
If Bournemouth hadn’t gotten the luckiest 15 minutes of their life I’d say that game could’ve ended 4-0.
I’m not happy about the loss, duh. What I am unhappy about is that it took us 40 minutes to get the car out of park.
That’s got more to do with the fact that they played almost the whole game with a 2 goal buffer. As if they gave a shit about our possession stats when we look so completely toothless up front. Possession stats don’t win you games otherwise we’d have a statue of Lambert somewhere.
I agree, Bournemouth realized that as long as they kept thier shape which they did and did not allow too much space then the points were for the taking.
I thought it was a pretty comfortable win for them.
FWIW my Bournemouth mate said they were going to lose after the Luiz cracker.
He was wrong as well then?
😂
Just saying.. it wasn’t “comfortable”
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Much better when the full backs got further forward. I’m not sure why Guilbert isn’t the 18 as he looked very good in pre season. Seems to have an extra yard of pace as well. Taylor again was decent but I’d like to think Targett is an improvement given the money spent on him.
A word on Wesley. A much better player with the ball at his feet. Needs to come deeper to get the ball for me with the midfield and wingers running off him.
Heaton has had a mare for the first but an easy pass inside of Elmo and they are away. Luiz did well after that mistake as he could of hidden after that.
Hopefully that’s the last time we get Martin Atkinson. No shock their player got hooked at half time.
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22 shots and 1 goal. Spout stats at me all you want mate.
;D
I’d rather spout stats than brew negativity.. two games in.
Brew negativity? What the fuck are you on about? Are we only allowed positive comments after a loss at home?
Go have a beer son.
You did that one and it was a pretty weak effort the first time.
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Poor effort. All that preparation chucked away by thick as shit mistakes in the first 10 minutes.
Decent possession etc after that but very little goal threat. Team looks unbalanced in a worryingly 2015/16 esque way.
Expect we’re getting beaten again on Friday so I just hope the team spirit is resilient enough to cope while we struggle to get going and figure out where the goals are coming from.
This post is completely wrong, I’m sorry.
We dominated them for the last 50 minutes. Lop-sided possession stats. Grealish and McGinn getting forward with ease. Wesley finally playing with some urgency. We could’ve scored 3 or 4 headers in the second half. Engels and Mings were comfortable all game. Not to mention Douglas’ FIRST PL match.
If Bournemouth hadn’t gotten the luckiest 15 minutes of their life I’d say that game could’ve ended 4-0.
I’m not happy about the loss, duh. What I am unhappy about is that it took us 40 minutes to get the car out of park.
That’s got more to do with the fact that they played almost the whole game with a 2 goal buffer. As if they gave a shit about our possession stats when we look so completely toothless up front. Possession stats don’t win you games otherwise we’d have a statue of Lambert somewhere.
I agree, Bournemouth realized that as long as they kept thier shape which they did and did not allow too much space then the points were for the taking.
I thought it was a pretty comfortable win for them.
What needs to be remember is regardless of how big their ground is and their history Bournemouth are a very streetwise premier league team now, this is their fifth straight year in the division.
I thought they killed the game pretty well after we got back to 2-1 especially last ten minutes when they were taking their time over corners and keeping possession and doing nothing stupid. With us you'd suspect it will be just hoofing the ball anywhere or being in mass panic.
From the distances seems the perception is teams like Southampton, Burnley and Brighton aren't up to much but my fear is when we actually play them they'll have more nous in their general play than we do at key times. Burnley ran Arsenal very close today so that will be another tough one when we play them in a few weeks.
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Also, they had the better chances on the break, really caught us cold a few times. Mings was positionally dodgy on occasion. King and Wilson had poor games by their standards I thought - if not for that 0-4 also wouldn’t have been an aberration based on the way the game flowed.
But you discount the Trezeguet miss on the doorstep.. the grealish miss barely wide right.. the easy Wesley header over the bar.. the McGinn 12 yarder he dragged right.
Go have a beer son. It’s week 2.
You just described the very fact that we are toothless up front. Do you know what the expression means?
I’m alright thanks mate. Do you want to call me a knicker wetter or some other such shit?
Stop being a drama queen.
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Poor result that. That’s far too sloppy at the back at this level. We also look very light of goals up front. We have to be much better or we’re in trouble.
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The real fear is that Wesley is not dynamic enough for this level, Look at the movement and pace of Wilson and King who were feeding off scraps.
El Ghazi did very little again so I am struggling to see where the goals are coming from.
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It's early days I know but, i honestly can't see Wesley and Davis getting into double figures, goals wise. Combined.
Maybe the solution is to play them together.
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Also, they had the better chances on the break, really caught us cold a few times. Mings was positionally dodgy on occasion. King and Wilson had poor games by their standards I thought - if not for that 0-4 also wouldn’t have been an aberration based on the way the game flowed.
But you discount the Trezeguet miss on the doorstep.. the grealish miss barely wide right.. the easy Wesley header over the bar.. the McGinn 12 yarder he dragged right.
Go have a beer son. It’s week 2.
You just described the very fact that we are toothless up front. Do you know what the expression means?
I’m alright thanks mate. Do you want to call me a knicker wetter or some other such shit?
Stop being a drama queen.
I get half a point for that.
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Problem is this result puts pressure on other games. We needed point(s) from this game. Yes it is early, but I don’t think we will beat Everton, so onto Palace, scary
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Problem is this result puts pressure on other games. We needed point(s) from this game. Yes it is early, but I don’t think we will beat Everton, so onto Palace, scary
Why can’t we beat Everton..? I think they had 2 shots on goal against Watford today..
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El Ghazi is a strange one. Between scoring at the Yawnthorns and about April he looked a cert to be going back to his parent club. Is he going to be the kind of player who has long spells of ineffectiveness? Or is he just unsuited to the Prem?
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I didn't think we were that bad.
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The real fear is that Wesley is not dynamic enough for this level, Look at the movement and pace of Wilson and King who were feeding off scraps.
El Ghazi did very little again so I am struggling to see where the goals are coming from.
Is the expectation really that he would hit the ground running and resemble someone with a few seasons in this league under his belt?
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Up front, you have Wesley, Davis and Kodj. Wesley and Davis are basically the same player, so can Kodjia play alongside either? Because Smith isn't going to drop Wesley yet.
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It's early days I know but, i honestly can't see Wesley and Davis getting into double figures, goals wise. Combined.
Maybe the solution is to play them together.
Would rip up the Dean Smith blueprint of pretty much his whole managerial career. Guess 3-5-2 is feasible with the squad but didn't he rule that out in pre season at a fans forum?
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What needs to be remember is regardless of how big their ground is and their history Bournemouth are a very streetwise premier league team now, this is their fifth straight year in the division.
This is a point I was making at the beginning of the season. A lot of people were saying 'we'll have too much for teams a, b, c, x, y and z' based on absolutely nothing - certainly not based on anything our players might have proved. A lot of the so-called lesser teams in the PL are just as SoccerHQ describes Bournemouth. They know the league, the opposition and each other a lot better than our managers and players do. This was always going to be a very tough season.
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absolutely shat ourselves today, thought we played well enough after the damage was done but that counts for FA. As for the next two we need two draws minimum.
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Problem is this result puts pressure on other games. We needed point(s) from this game. Yes it is early, but I don’t think we will beat Everton, so onto Palace, scary
Why can’t we beat Everton..? I think they had 2 shots on goal against Watford today..
Just my opinion, I think they will be better than Bournemouth, obviously hope I’m wrong and you are right.
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It's early days I know but, i honestly can't see Wesley and Davis getting into double figures, goals wise. Combined.
Maybe the solution is to play them together.
Would rip up the Dean Smith blueprint of pretty much his whole managerial career. Guess 3-5-2 is feasible with the squad but didn't he rule that out in pre season at a fans forum?
This is the trouble with being light on options up front. He’s boxed himself right in in terms of changing things up.
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I'd like to see us go with this side against Everton. The full backs haven't done a lot wrong to be fair but I think we need to offer more going forward, but still have the insurance of defensive midfielders. Grealish not stuck out on the wing but floating around, as he does. I also appreciate that you are not supposed to pick the team on the coach on the way back from the game, but here goes;
Heaton
Guilbert Engels Mings Targett
Nakamba Douglas
Grealish McGinn Trezeguet
Wesley
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It is thankfully early days but I’m gonna have that beer if nobody else will
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Played quite well, but absolutely nothing up front. Wesley isn’t ready for this league, and we have nothing else.
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Did Davis come on ?
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For the sake of argument, we're looking for ten wins and ten draws to be certain of stopping up. At the moment, does that look likely?
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The real fear is that Wesley is not dynamic enough for this level, Look at the movement and pace of Wilson and King who were feeding off scraps.
El Ghazi did very little again so I am struggling to see where the goals are coming from.
Is the expectation really that he would hit the ground running and resemble someone with a few seasons in this league under his belt?
I think the hope was that he would be good enough at this level, based on the evidence so far he isn’t.
My concerns are around his movement towards goal scoring opportunities when we attack he seemed to be easily covered by the defenders.
He did not pose a threat in the last 2 games.
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Sounds like we dominated but lacked the cutting edge.
Little Bournemouth are an established top flight team now and a notch above anything we will have played in the Championship last year.
Plenty of promise in the last two games.
West Ham went 4-5 (?) games without a win at the start of last season and were still comfortably midtable in the end. They are a better team than us, mind.
If we go five without a win questions will be asked. If it's closer to 10, Deano's long term prospects won't look so hot. The nature of the beast. For me, If we have 3-4 wins going into December, we should be OK this year. Yes it would be nice if we cut a swathe through the league, but this year was always realistically going to be about consolidation.
No need to panic. Yet.
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I thought we played alright to be honest and probably deserved a point. Like the Sheff Wed's game last season or whenever it was, their early goal killed it. Take that away and I think the game would have evened itself out and possibly finished a draw.
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What needs to be remember is regardless of how big their ground is and their history Bournemouth are a very streetwise premier league team now, this is their fifth straight year in the division.
This is a point I was making at the beginning of the season. A lot of people were saying 'we'll have too much for teams a, b, c, x, y and z' based on absolutely nothing - certainly not based on anything our players might have proved. A lot of the so-called lesser teams in the PL are just as SoccerHQ describes Bournemouth. They know the league, the opposition and each other a lot better than our managers and players do. This was always going to be a very tough season.
Spot on agree
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It is early days, we have to learn and do it quickly. We have enough talent in this squad and the younger players will start to get to grips with things. Positivity and support is what’s needed over the next few weeks.
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Played quite well, but absolutely nothing up front. Wesley isn’t ready for this league, and we have nothing else.
Yes that’s how I see it
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I thought we played alright to be honest and probably deserved a point. Like the Sheff Wed's game last season or whenever it was, their early goal killed it. Take that away and I think the game would have evened itself out and possibly finished a draw.
But it didn’t...
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We played pretty well last week and lost. We played okay this week and lost.
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I'd like to see us go with this side against Everton. The full backs haven't done a lot wrong to be fair but I think we need to offer more going forward, but still have the insurance of defensive midfielders. Grealish not stuck out on the wing but floating around, as he does. I also appreciate that you are not supposed to pick the team on the coach on the way back from the game, but here goes;
Heaton
Guilbert Engels Mings Targett
Nakamba Douglas
Grealish McGinn Trezeguet
Wesley
The problem with width is what’s the point of crosses with no aerial threat up top? Grealish missed an easy header and without him you’ve got the likes of McGinn and Taylor in the box with very little chance of getting on the end of anything.
I like the look of Wesley in a lot of aspects but he doesn’t seem to be any threat in the air, movement not great, and that doesn’t half narrow down your options going forward.
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It is early days, we have to learn and do it quickly. We have enough talent in this squad and the younger players will start to get to grips with things. Positivity and support is what’s needed over the next few weeks.
Agreed.
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On a side note, looks like Ollie Watkins scored for Brentford again today. Could be an option in January.
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No need to panic, but my only concern is we look very goal shy. Hopefully Wes will settle and come good, but it does look like we’ve left ourselves short up top.
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It's early days I know but, i honestly can't see Wesley and Davis getting into double figures, goals wise. Combined.
Maybe the solution is to play them together.
Would rip up the Dean Smith blueprint of pretty much his whole managerial career. Guess 3-5-2 is feasible with the squad but didn't he rule that out in pre season at a fans forum?
If the blueprint is get it wide to the wingers to throw in crosses for the striker he may have to rip it up, at least short term. It's well documented Wesley's main weakness is his heading. Whatever the solution, he needs to find a way to score more goals.
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The real fear is that Wesley is not dynamic enough for this level, Look at the movement and pace of Wilson and King who were feeding off scraps.
El Ghazi did very little again so I am struggling to see where the goals are coming from.
Is the expectation really that he would hit the ground running and resemble someone with a few seasons in this league under his belt?
I think the hope was that he would be good enough at this level, based on the evidence so far he isn’t.
My concerns are around his movement towards goal scoring opportunities when we attack he seemed to be easily covered by the defenders.
He did not pose a threat in the last 2 games.
I thought he and the team looked better when he came deeper to get the ball. First half he was very isolated but came into the game as it went on. Reckon he could do with one going in off his backside!
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Is it ok to ask if the cobs were real cobs?
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For the sake of argument, we're looking for ten wins and ten draws to be certain of stopping up. At the moment, does that look likely?
Well I had Bournemouth (game) down for a win. A draw at the very least.
I'd say it's not looking "likely", as things stand.
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The real fear is that Wesley is not dynamic enough for this level, Look at the movement and pace of Wilson and King who were feeding off scraps.
El Ghazi did very little again so I am struggling to see where the goals are coming from.
Is the expectation really that he would hit the ground running and resemble someone with a few seasons in this league under his belt?
I think the hope was that he would be good enough at this level, based on the evidence so far he isn’t.
My concerns are around his movement towards goal scoring opportunities when we attack he seemed to be easily covered by the defenders.
He did not pose a threat in the last 2 games.
I thought he and the team looked better when he came deeper to get the ball. First half he was very isolated but came into the game as it went on. Reckon he could do with one going in off his backside!
It doesn’t change the concern that he offers no goal threat.
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I'm hoping that once we start putting decent crosses in Wesley will bag a couple and move on from there. Benteke took some time to find his feet (albeit scoring on debut) but at the moment we're looking very square peg round hole in terms of our attacking play. Everyone is almost in the right place at the right time but getting in one another's way or not putting their heads up. Grealish especially is all over the place, and not in the good way.
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well i thought we'd solved the goalkeeper conundrum but perhaps not - a ridiculous penalty give away before everyone had time to take their seats and we were always under pressure from then on. Admittedly, their 2nd took a big deflection but we never really threatened an experienced Bournemouth side. Wes was pretty useless to be honest - plays far too deep and offers little more than Davis, Douglas looked quite good, Trez ok. Of the other new boys, i though Engles was probably the best. Very early days, but on the evidence so far, it's going to be a tough season. Hate to say it but more resources should have gone on a couple of forwards, rather than the luxury of buys like Konsa.
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I see Sturridge is linked with Monaco, are we all certian that we don't want him? I'd have him for the season sicknote or not.
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I'd like to see us go with this side against Everton. The full backs haven't done a lot wrong to be fair but I think we need to offer more going forward, but still have the insurance of defensive midfielders. Grealish not stuck out on the wing but floating around, as he does. I also appreciate that you are not supposed to pick the team on the coach on the way back from the game, but here goes;
Heaton
Guilbert Engels Mings Targett
Nakamba Douglas
Grealish McGinn Trezeguet
Wesley
The problem with width is what’s the point of crosses with no aerial threat up top? Grealish missed an easy header and without him you’ve got the likes of McGinn and Taylor in the box with very little chance of getting on the end of anything.
I like the look of Wesley in a lot of aspects but he doesn’t seem to be any threat in the air, movement not great, and that doesn’t half narrow down your options going forward.
We had 7 shots on target today and I feel, if Wesley isn't that useful, the goals have to come from elsewhere. Targett and Guilbert are better, scoring wise that Taylor and Elmo. All about opinions I suppose but the goals don't need to necessarily come from the centre forward alone.
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Hard one to judge because of the disasterous first 10 minutes.
5 goals conceeded and 4 of them were individual errors. We simply have to cut that out.
I get that starting a new back line would of been a risk and keeping some continuity is sensible but we absolutely havevto get Guilbert and Targett as our full backs asap, Taylor and Elmo haven't been bad by any means but we need more agile full backs.
Luiz (cluster fuck aside) looked technically very good and comfortable in tight space, Engels and Mings comfortable again.
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I don't know how we are just yet. We've played one of the best teams and lost, and played Bournemouth going 2-0 behind early on. The second half against Bournemouth was an improvement but then it was nothing less than i would expect it to be. The Everton game may tell us more providing there's no daft mistakes early on.
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It is early days, we have to learn and do it quickly. We have enough talent in this squad and the younger players will start to get to grips with things. Positivity and support is what’s needed over the next few weeks.
Agreed.
There was a mountain of positivity before the game we just lost.
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We are not in the bottom three. Hopefully, we might get a surprise against Everton and not be in it next week either!
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It is early days, we have to learn and do it quickly. We have enough talent in this squad and the younger players will start to get to grips with things. Positivity and support is what’s needed over the next few weeks.
Agreed.
There was a mountain of positivity before the game we just lost.
Not in your house there wasn't, barely a lump in there.
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Our first few games in the championship were littered with personal mistakes, it happens with new team coming together. It’s unforgiving though.
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I'd like to see us go with this side against Everton. The full backs haven't done a lot wrong to be fair but I think we need to offer more going forward, but still have the insurance of defensive midfielders. Grealish not stuck out on the wing but floating around, as he does. I also appreciate that you are not supposed to pick the team on the coach on the way back from the game, but here goes;
Heaton
Guilbert Engels Mings Targett
Nakamba Douglas
Grealish McGinn Trezeguet
Wesley
The problem with width is what’s the point of crosses with no aerial threat up top? Grealish missed an easy header and without him you’ve got the likes of McGinn and Taylor in the box with very little chance of getting on the end of anything.
I like the look of Wesley in a lot of aspects but he doesn’t seem to be any threat in the air, movement not great, and that doesn’t half narrow down your options going forward.
We had 7 shots on target today and I feel, if Wesley isn't that useful, the goals have to come from elsewhere. Targett and Guilbert are better, scoring wise that Taylor and Elmo. All about opinions I suppose but the goals don't need to necessarily come from the centre forward alone.
FWIW, Benteke had 1 goal in his first 7 matches for us.. an established Premier League squad at the time. Let's see if Wesley can come good.
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The difference being that there was a Rotherham or Barnsley that you could reset a bad run with. Here we're looking at resetting an early wobble against Everton.
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I'm more angry about the referee and VAR. Billing should've been off.
Soft referee.
Martin Atkinson, Leeds fan.
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I'd like to see us go with this side against Everton. The full backs haven't done a lot wrong to be fair but I think we need to offer more going forward, but still have the insurance of defensive midfielders. Grealish not stuck out on the wing but floating around, as he does. I also appreciate that you are not supposed to pick the team on the coach on the way back from the game, but here goes;
Heaton
Guilbert Engels Mings Targett
Nakamba Douglas
Grealish McGinn Trezeguet
Wesley
The problem with width is what’s the point of crosses with no aerial threat up top? Grealish missed an easy header and without him you’ve got the likes of McGinn and Taylor in the box with very little chance of getting on the end of anything.
I like the look of Wesley in a lot of aspects but he doesn’t seem to be any threat in the air, movement not great, and that doesn’t half narrow down your options going forward.
We had 7 shots on target today and I feel, if Wesley isn't that useful, the goals have to come from elsewhere. Targett and Guilbert are better, scoring wise that Taylor and Elmo. All about opinions I suppose but the goals don't need to necessarily come from the centre forward alone.
FWIW, Benteke had 1 goal in his first 7 matches for us.. an established Premier League squad at the time. Let's see if Wesley can come good.
Missed a hatful of chances against Fulham at their place. Looked shit.
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The difference being that there was a Rotherham or Barnsley that you could reset a bad run with. Here we're looking at resetting an early wobble against Everton.
at home on a Friday night.. I think we'll be up for it.
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It is early days, we have to learn and do it quickly. We have enough talent in this squad and the younger players will start to get to grips with things. Positivity and support is what’s needed over the next few weeks.
Agreed.
There was a mountain of positivity before the game we just lost.
Not in your house there wasn't, barely a lump in there.
I predicted us to win by two clear goals. So there was plenty of positivity and expectation. When will I ever learn. 😂
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The difference being that there was a Rotherham or Barnsley that you could reset a bad run with. Here we're looking at resetting an early wobble against Everton.
at home on a Friday night.. I think we'll be up for it.
I am aching for you to be right. I thought we'd be up for it today, but something about the confidence everyone exuded was setting it up as a rude awakening for me.
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We looked less threatening up front than we did in pre-season because we'retaking too many touches before we cross so instead of attackers and defenders running towards the goal they're stood waiting, this is why Targett and Guilbert need to come in before too long. I don't care if people think Elmo and Taylor have done ok, they're not getting forward quick enough or with enough quality to unbalance sides and we've got a couple of guys in reserve who look like they can do much better in that aspect.
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Be careful with this "shots on target" comfort blanket. I remember most of them only just reaching the goalkeeper . I'm not sure he had to make any great saves.
The goal from Douglas was a beauty though. No one was saving that!
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I'd like to see us go with this side against Everton. The full backs haven't done a lot wrong to be fair but I think we need to offer more going forward, but still have the insurance of defensive midfielders. Grealish not stuck out on the wing but floating around, as he does. I also appreciate that you are not supposed to pick the team on the coach on the way back from the game, but here goes;
Heaton
Guilbert Engels Mings Targett
Nakamba Douglas
Grealish McGinn Trezeguet
Wesley
The problem with width is what’s the point of crosses with no aerial threat up top? Grealish missed an easy header and without him you’ve got the likes of McGinn and Taylor in the box with very little chance of getting on the end of anything.
I like the look of Wesley in a lot of aspects but he doesn’t seem to be any threat in the air, movement not great, and that doesn’t half narrow down your options going forward.
We had 7 shots on target today and I feel, if Wesley isn't that useful, the goals have to come from elsewhere. Targett and Guilbert are better, scoring wise that Taylor and Elmo. All about opinions I suppose but the goals don't need to necessarily come from the centre forward alone.
FWIW, Benteke had 1 goal in his first 7 matches for us.. an established Premier League squad at the time. Let's see if Wesley can come good.
I think he'll be ok with a few more games under his belt. With all the ball and chances we made he didn't really have anything clean cut to run on or head.
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Thought we did OK and more than matched them in the 2nd half so can be encouraged by that but we need to be switched on from the very first minute or those lapses will continue to cost us. We can't afford to drop cheap points like that at all.
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It is early days, we have to learn and do it quickly. We have enough talent in this squad and the younger players will start to get to grips with things. Positivity and support is what’s needed over the next few weeks.
Agreed.
There was a mountain of positivity before the game we just lost.
Not in your house there wasn't, barely a lump in there.
I predicted us to win by two clear goals. So there was plenty of positivity and expectation. When will I ever learn. 😂
Oh. I thought you said "Well I had Bournemouth down for a win. A draw at the very least." A whole page ago, unless I've got the wrong person.
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Oh. I thought you said "Well I had Bournemouth down for a win. A draw at the very least." A whole page ago, unless I've got the wrong person.
Not to put words in his mouth but didn't he mean 'Well I had [the Bournemouth game] down for a win'?
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I assumed he meant us to beat Bournemouth or at the very least get a point.
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Oh. I thought you said "Well I had Bournemouth down for a win. A draw at the very least." A whole page ago, unless I've got the wrong person.
Not to put words in his mouth but didn't he mean 'Well I had [the Bournemouth game] down for a win'?
That's the correct context. I should have put Bournemouth game.
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Oh. I thought you said "Well I had Bournemouth down for a win. A draw at the very least." A whole page ago, unless I've got the wrong person.
Not to put words in his mouth but didn't he mean 'Well I had [the Bournemouth game] down for a win'?
That's how I read it as well. Chill, Bathhouse.
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Be careful with this "shots on target" comfort blanket. I remember most of them only just reaching the goalkeeper . I'm not sure he had to make any great saves.
No but you can also have sitters without it being on target - ie Grealish's header when he should have scored. Trezeguet had a shot cleared off the line by someone other than their goalkeeper, surely as much of a shot ''on target'' than one that brings a save from the goalie.
We huffed and puffed, moreso in the last ten minutes, but we also created chances and opening fairly frequently for an hour or so. I think we have technical players in the middle and wings that are capable of making things happen at this level. It's up-front (and possibly defence) where the question mark is.
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Bricked it early on, making mistakes, then created loads of chances, but no bite in the penalty area = the inevitable
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Be careful with this "shots on target" comfort blanket. I remember most of them only just reaching the goalkeeper . I'm not sure he had to make any great saves.
No but you can also have sitters without it being on target - ie Grealish's header when he should have scored. Trezeguet had a shot cleared off the line by someone other than their goalkeeper, surely as much of a shot ''on target'' than one that brings a save from the goalie.
We huffed and puffed, moreso in the last ten minutes, but we also created chances and opening fairly frequently for an hour or so. I think we have technical players in the middle and wings that are capable of making things happen at this level. It's up-front (and possibly defence) where the question mark is.
Totally agree. Taylor had a sitter cleared off the line too. Opted for the outside of his boot for whatever reason..
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Very disappointing.
Full backs didn’t look convincing.
Grealish not on his game
Luiz started badly but improved steadily - great goal.
Wesley the biggest worry for me. Hopefully he’ll come good but if there is any one reason why we may fail this year it’s because of the dearth of reliable strikers.
On the plus side, we didn’t give up battling and it was quite entertaining to watch.
A season being ‘plucky losers’?
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Oh. I thought you said "Well I had Bournemouth down for a win. A draw at the very least." A whole page ago, unless I've got the wrong person.
Not to put words in his mouth but didn't he mean 'Well I had [the Bournemouth game] down for a win'?
That's how I read it as well. Chill, Bathhouse.
I'm perfectly chilled, thanks. I misunderstood his comment, that's all. Happy to be corrected.
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I'd like to see us go with this side against Everton. The full backs haven't done a lot wrong to be fair but I think we need to offer more going forward, but still have the insurance of defensive midfielders. Grealish not stuck out on the wing but floating around, as he does. I also appreciate that you are not supposed to pick the team on the coach on the way back from the game, but here goes;
Heaton
Guilbert Engels Mings Targett
Nakamba Douglas
Grealish McGinn Trezeguet
Wesley
The problem with width is what’s the point of crosses with no aerial threat up top? Grealish missed an easy header and without him you’ve got the likes of McGinn and Taylor in the box with very little chance of getting on the end of anything.
I like the look of Wesley in a lot of aspects but he doesn’t seem to be any threat in the air, movement not great, and that doesn’t half narrow down your options going forward.
We had 7 shots on target today and I feel, if Wesley isn't that useful, the goals have to come from elsewhere. Targett and Guilbert are better, scoring wise that Taylor and Elmo. All about opinions I suppose but the goals don't need to necessarily come from the centre forward alone.
FWIW, Benteke had 1 goal in his first 7 matches for us.. an established Premier League squad at the time. Let's see if Wesley can come good.
I think he'll be ok with a few more games under his belt. With all the ball and chances we made he didn't really have anything clean cut to run on or head.
I think it was more that he was not getting there or making runs that attract goal scoring oppportunities.
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- Played ok but you can't start like that and expect to get anything in this league
- Full backs are a hindrance when we attack and they offer nothing going forward
- Grealish needs to get his act together and fast. Poor in both games so far
- Wesley. Zero goal threat and looks off the pace. He's going to struggle to get five goals never mind double figures. If the goals dry up from midfield we're in big trouble
- Having Davis to bring on as your only striking option is a worry. Neither him or Kodjia are anywhere near Premier League standard. Spent £130m but left ourselves massively short in the most important area of the pitch
- Everton is a massive game already to show we do belong here and to get some confidence amongst the players and fans
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Lots of positives but gift any team a 2-0 start from individual cock-ups it's going to be a struggle in any league let alone the PL.
There's a lot of skill in the team and I think we'll be fine, even though Bournemouth at home is the sort of game we have to win in our mini/bottom 14 league.
I thought referees in the Championship were bad enough, but Martin Atkinson takes the biscuit for bottling giving Billing a second yellow card, even though he could/should have given him two in the space of as many minutes. Good game management by Howe for taking him off at half time.
High points of the afternoon - Doug's goal, and the complete absence of a Chinese flag on top of the Witton Lane stand
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More of a wake up call than last week for me. Bournemouth are an established Premier League club and are more streetwise than we are - especially all of the new boys.
Some encouraging signs again, but the reality is that Premier League is unforgiving and punishing when you drop a bollock. Dean and the players need to learn this and QUICKLY.
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I'd like to see us go with this side against Everton. The full backs haven't done a lot wrong to be fair but I think we need to offer more going forward, but still have the insurance of defensive midfielders. Grealish not stuck out on the wing but floating around, as he does. I also appreciate that you are not supposed to pick the team on the coach on the way back from the game, but here goes;
Heaton
Guilbert Engels Mings Targett
Nakamba Douglas
Grealish McGinn Trezeguet
Wesley
The problem with width is what’s the point of crosses with no aerial threat up top? Grealish missed an easy header and without him you’ve got the likes of McGinn and Taylor in the box with very little chance of getting on the end of anything.
I like the look of Wesley in a lot of aspects but he doesn’t seem to be any threat in the air, movement not great, and that doesn’t half narrow down your options going forward.
We had 7 shots on target today and I feel, if Wesley isn't that useful, the goals have to come from elsewhere. Targett and Guilbert are better, scoring wise that Taylor and Elmo. All about opinions I suppose but the goals don't need to necessarily come from the centre forward alone.
FWIW, Benteke had 1 goal in his first 7 matches for us.. an established Premier League squad at the time. Let's see if Wesley can come good.
I think he'll be ok with a few more games under his belt. With all the ball and chances we made he didn't really have anything clean cut to run on or head.
I think it was more that he was not getting there or making runs that attract goal scoring oppportunities.
Hmmm, I disagree. I watched him come of his man a few times and made angle runs but wasn't being picked out by Jack or John. And the crosses were either lofted floaties or behind him. I think there's a player there....might be wrong but it's taken a quite few players over the years at top clubs to get the ball rolling.
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Tuscans you probably had a better view, let’s hope you are right Mate.
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Highlights (https://www.skysports.com/football/a-villa-vs-bmouth/407992)
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Tuscans you probably had a better view, let’s hope you are right Mate.
Ha Ha, it was probably as good a view as yours mate, on the sofa in front of the laptop. I suppose I'm hoping a bit but I don't think anyone can write him off just yet until he has the chances and doesn't put them away. They can't all be Dublins and Bentekes straight away...some might be Forlans! ;)
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Dean got it wrong today - I hope he realizes soon that in this league, we need to be bold and adventurous.
The full backs did nothing wrong but nothing right either and without adventure there, it’s like playing with 10 men - he has to go for it and bring in Targett and Guilbert against Everton. We need to score goals else this league kills you.
And Dean has to get hold of Grealish and really start coaching him as the leader of this team.
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It’s going to be a long season. We’ll get better but will it be quick enough. Bit worried about Wes and goals. Still, we’ve got cash and if needs be we can get a striker in Jan. I think the smaller squads will struggle with injuries so am still optimistic we’ll beat the drop. Newcastle look awful.
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Mixed feelings about the game. Hopefully we’ve worked out that giving teams who are set up to counter attack you a 2 goal head start within 15 minutes isn’t the best way to go about things. They had very quick players and were first to every second ball in the first half, but we did improve. Wes really struggled, and I think we saw both the best and the worst of Douglas but I think they will come good within time.
Thought Atkinson was poor, we certainly didn’t get the rub of the green with decisions. What did their guy have to do to get sent off?
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Villa Park was great today. Went early and spent some time in the family fun zone. New signage is excellent and oh the ST cards didn’t work had to queue up for paper tickets but other than that it’s just the result that was disappointing.
Despite the horror show in the first 12 minutes we should have won this game. We were wasteful and naive. Need to grow up fast to survive.
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The mistakes we made today weren't punished just because we are in the Premier League. They were just rank poor mistakes.
Bournemouth have decent forwards but are often a sieve as well so although we were better than them in the second half and deserved something from the game, we had to do better with the crosses and the shots. Aside from the blocks and the header, there was wayward shooting from good positions and as Hourihane didn't feature, our goal threat was further diminished.
I know it's early, but I don't get Wesley and the approach play with him seems muddled and the outcome random. The bizarre lack of decent forward options compounds the issue.
Fans complained about the refereeing in the Championship, but if Atkinson is anything to go by, my expectations won't be high.
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I can’t see how the Fulham thing can be thrown at us anymore when we continually play the team that got us promoted. For me, Taylor and Elmo weren’t the correct selections in a game where we needed to attack from the off. Targett and Fred (is he injured) should have started. If it’s because of this “continuity” reason, then I certainly think Jed steer will be watching and scratching his head.
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From what I've seen of the opening two weekends, our players are good enough. Our play is good enough. Individual errors are killing us. Frustrated, annoyed, but confident.
I still want more from the triumvirate that saw us over the line last season, Grealish, McGinn and El Ghazi. All three need to be quicker in thought and deed. And put some weight in the passes.
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Is it worth going for Llorente on a short-term basis? Could do a job up until January and at least it'd be another option.
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possibly, we need something. Does anyone know why Guilbert isn't even making the squad after playing so well in pre-season? I can understand Nakamba not being up to speed but omitting Fred seems barmy. And El Ghazi needs dropping for Everton.
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Is it worth going for Llorente on a short-term basis? Could do a job up until January and at least it'd be another option.
I think bigger fish than us are in for him.
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Not quite sure why our full backs are coming in for any criticism.
Of all of our longer serving players, both Elmo and Taylor have stepped up massively.
I go so far as to say that Elmo is also the best winger at the club and I’d rather see him playing in the position occupied by either AEG or Trezeguet.
I think both McGinn and Jack are struggling to pick up the pace and power of the prem and need to pick up on their performances.
Once they do though I think we will see a big improvement in the results.
I’m glad we have for these two ‘firsts’ out of the way.
I
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. Easily the worse game I’ve seen Jack have in a Villa shirt. Gutted
[/quote] wtf? created more chances for others today than any other player in the Premier league. Assist too for Luiz.
Was you at the game?
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Is it worth going for Llorente on a short-term basis? Could do a job up until January and at least it'd be another option.
I think bigger fish than us are in for him.
Money talks. We can afford to get him in even if the wages are steep. We simply have to try and stay in this League.
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Tuscans you probably had a better view, let’s hope you are right Mate.
I agree with Tuscans
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Not quite sure why our full backs are coming in for any criticism.
Of all of our longer serving players, both Elmo and Taylor have stepped up massively.
I go so far as to say that Elmo is also the best winger at the club and I’d rather see him playing in the position occupied by either AEG or Trezeguet.
I think both McGinn and Jack are struggling to pick up the pace and power of the prem and need to pick up on their performances.
Once they do though I think we will see a big improvement in the results.
I’m glad we have for these two ‘firsts’ out of the way.
I
I rate Trezeguet. He’s strong on the ball and always wants to go forward. I like his confidence and think he’ll adapt to this league quickly. Not really sure what you mean about McGinn.. I thought he might’ve been the best player out there today. At certain points I felt like he had the team on his back.
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We looked less threatening up front than we did in pre-season because we'retaking too many touches before we cross so instead of attackers and defenders running towards the goal they're stood waiting, this is why Targett and Guilbert need to come in before too long. I don't care if people think Elmo and Taylor have done ok, they're not getting forward quick enough or with enough quality to unbalance sides and we've got a couple of guys in reserve who look like they can do much better in that aspect.
Agree with this, first half we struggled to beat their press as it was a flat back 4 which is very easy to pen in, second half they got forward more and that also meant Luiz could take the ball off the centre halves with more space as well.
I agree with many that Elmo and Taylor have done well first 2 games but for me they are not offensive enough as players.
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Not quite sure why our full backs are coming in for any criticism.
Of all of our longer serving players, both Elmo and Taylor have stepped up massively.
I go so far as to say that Elmo is also the best winger at the club and I’d rather see him playing in the position occupied by either AEG or Trezeguet.
I think both McGinn and Jack are struggling to pick up the pace and power of the prem and need to pick up on their performances.
Once they do though I think we will see a big improvement in the results.
I’m glad we have for these two ‘firsts’ out of the way.
I
Taylor had a very good game as he did last week. Almost scored too.
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how that Billing stayed on the pitch .
That ref was absolute crap.
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I’m pretty despondent after that game; we gifted them two early goals and struggled to create much throughout the 90 minutes. Bournemouth had half the first team missing and looked pretty comfortable holding onto the lead. We looked ponderous up front and it is these type of games where we need to get points at home to give us a chance of remaining in the league. Today’s game reminded me how the so called best refs are still shit and watching Bournemouth diving around and time wasting constantly makes it doubly frustrating.
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Villa Park was great today. Went early and spent some time in the family fun zone. New signage is excellent and oh the ST cards didn’t work had to queue up for paper tickets but other than that it’s just the result that was disappointing.
Despite the horror show in the first 12 minutes we should have won this game. We were wasteful and naive. Need to grow up fast to survive.
With ya, mate. I've had a brilliant day, all told, despite customer service and stepover and sleepy goalkeeper issues.
Any update on the cob/bap matter?
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Apart from the goals, both of which were our own fault, Heaton didn't have much to do. We were the better side, especially in the second half.
The only concern I have is that we don't have a natural goalscorer. Tammy used to get in the right positions time and again throughout games. We haven't replaced him and there has to be a question mark over where the goals are going to come from.
We need Wesley to 'do a Benteke' sooner rather than later.
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We are already under big pressure. Same as 2015 no one to score the goals. Assuming we lose 12 games against the so called top six we have 25 games after today to get 35-40 points. Going to be a long hard season.
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We are already under big pressure. Same as 2015 no one to score the goals. Assuming we lose 12 games against the so called top six we have 25 games after today to get 35-40 points. Going to be a long hard season.
Get a grip of yourself ffs. You were the same last season after Bristol City won a game in the last minute on a day when we weren't even playing. How did that result affect the league table?
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I’m being told off. I’m gonna cry now.
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No need to panic after that, we will take time to gel. Second half was much better.
Slight concern over Wesley. Wins nothing in the air despite being extremely tail, easily knocked off the ball and his body language at times is a little annoying.
Awful errors for their goals but Luiz grew into the game very well and his goal was magnificent.
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I’m being told off. I’m gonna cry now.
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The poor crossing from our full backs is costing a lot of effort and no result
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The poor crossing from our full backs is costing a lot of effort and no result
Yes, I agree. I'm a fan of Elmo but his crossing was poor today.
Possibly another introduction next week following Luiz today?
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It's early days I know but, i honestly can't see Wesley and Davis getting into double figures, goals wise. Combined.
Maybe the solution is to play them together.
Would rip up the Dean Smith blueprint of pretty much his whole managerial career. Guess 3-5-2 is feasible with the squad but didn't he rule that out in pre season at a fans forum?
If the blueprint is get it wide to the wingers to throw in crosses for the striker he may have to rip it up, at least short term. It's well documented Wesley's main weakness is his heading. Whatever the solution, he needs to find a way to score more goals.
Well it got us two goals in the play off final that way.
His default formation through his time at Walsall and Brentford was always one upfront with a fluid midfield behind him. Certainly McGinn looks good in this league already, could've scored today easily.
Don't see him going to two upfront anytime soon. If Kodj is available for Everton or Palace you could well see him come in out wide for El Ghazi. Won't offer as much protection to full back but would possibly give us more unpredictability in final third.
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I think both McGinn and Jack are struggling to pick up the pace and power of the prem and need to pick up on their performances.
Once they do though I think we will see a big improvement in the results.
Yes. From what I saw today.
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It's two games in. Once the silly mistakes are rectified there will be an upturn. We have a squad with a fair degree of strength in depth now. Trust Smith to get it right
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It's two games in. Once the silly mistakes are rectified there will be an upturn. We have a squad with a fair degree of strength in depth now. Trust Smith to get it right
I'm with Lee.
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First ten mins we were poor then dominated. I can’t think of many saves heaton had to make. Trez was excellent as was Douglas. Wesley needs someone to play a bit closure to him and thought jack was too deep at times. We will get there.
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We put in a decent performance today and Bournemouth should have had a man sent off. By my reckoning he committed three yellow card offences and stayed on the pitch. It looks like sticking the ball in the net might prove to be our problem.
I see 'Super Scotty Hogan' scored for Stoke today. ;)
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It's two games in. Once the silly mistakes are rectified there will be an upturn. We have a squad with a fair degree of strength in depth now. Trust Smith to get it right
I'm with Lee.
Yo tambien.
A lot of new faces playing together, it will need a few matches to get it.working with his best 11.
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It's shit getting beat but I didn't feel that we were out of our depth at any point. I agree with Dean regarding the ref but he should keep his countenance for now. We made some silly mistakes, cut them out and we should be ok but anyone who thought that this would be a cakewalk has had a rude awakening.
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The first 15 mins Heaton gave away a penalty and almost missed controlled another one gifting them a goal, i thought our goalkeeping curse was striking again, he redeemed himself somewhat thereafter.
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By the way, does blatant time wasting and histrionics not get punished in this division?
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On Villa Park food offerings the boys enjoyed Guru Spice in the upper Witton End and despite looking hard I did not spot any cobs on menu. As for the other it was a lovely warm day😊
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I thought we looked tired in the last 10 minutes or so, with the result that the all out offensive for the equaliser didn’t quite materialise.
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By the way, does blatant time wasting and histrionics not get punished in this division?
I would say that if little old Bournemouth don't get punished for it then there is no chance any of the so called big guns will get punished for it.
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On Villa Park food offerings the boys enjoyed Guru Spice in the upper Witton End and despite looking hard I did not spot any cobs on menu. As for the other it was a lovely warm day😊
I liked the new Pale Ale
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I thought it was more that Bournemouth were really professional in how they ran the clock down, they did it pretty much perfectly. The bastards.
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We put in a decent performance today and Bournemouth should have had a man sent off. By my reckoning he committed three yellow card offences and stayed on the pitch. It looks like sticking the ball in the net might prove to be our problem.
I see 'Super Scotty Hogan' scored for Stoke today. ;)
Tommo on Soccer Saturday was saying the same thing about Billing
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Not quite sure why our full backs are coming in for any criticism.
Of all of our longer serving players, both Elmo and Taylor have stepped up massively.
I go so far as to say that Elmo is also the best winger at the club and I’d rather see him playing in the position occupied by either AEG or Trezeguet.
I think both McGinn and Jack are struggling to pick up the pace and power of the prem and need to pick up on their performances.
Once they do though I think we will see a big improvement in the results.
I’m glad we have for these two ‘firsts’ out of the way.
I
I rate Trezeguet. He’s strong on the ball and always wants to go forward. I like his confidence and think he’ll adapt to this league quickly. Not really sure what you mean about McGinn.. I thought he might’ve been the best player out there today. At certain points I felt like he had the team on his back.
I think Trezeguet is so one sided that he is very predictable as a winger. His left foot is for standing on only. El Ghazi has been very poor first two games and I had high hopes for him. Our front three havent been much of a threat thus far and we dont have many alternatives either.
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That little thing McGinn does sticking his backside out to protect the ball wasn't working today did anyone notice, Bournemouth players were going to the side of him and nicking the ball, you think all Premier League clubs have cottoned on to it?
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The likes of Preston were considerably shittier in their timewasting. I didn't see anything today to really moan about on that front. We needed to be better in possession towards the end.
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Just home. Very disappointing. Our good players from last year generally played well enough to win the game. Jack, John, Tyrone and Taylor. All the newcomers seemed to be blown away for the first 15 minutes by the pace, the intensity and time wasting/cheating in the Premiership. No such excuse for our goalkeeper but for a player of his age and experience he should not have been the quivering jelly he was for the first 15 minutes. And Wesley looks like a poor man's Christian Benteke. Long hard road ahead lads and lasses. I think not getting a quality finisher in the window is going to come back and haunt us.
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The poor crossing from our full backs is costing a lot of effort and no result
its part of the problem, but Wesley's movement isnt good enough either, in comparison to Tammy for example
we could do with either Grealish or McGinn getting into the box more often too
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I’m still having those beers that started with the poor brew joke and hoping we actually win or draw soon. If not then....well beer is the question and answer. Just think yourselves lucky you weren’t subject to the radio wm wankathon over blues being destroyed but there are positive shoots of recovery coupled with our implosion and how shit we are. If you were there today it was better than the bbc local radio....
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It's shit getting beat but I didn't feel that we were out of our depth at any point. I agree with Dean regarding the ref but he should keep his countenance for now. We made some silly mistakes, cut them out and we should be ok but anyone who thought that this would be a cakewalk has had a rude awakening.
Agree, Nev. If you look at the first half, we more than matched them. Second half we pretty much dominated but as you say, it's shit getting beat. I'm sulking like a right sulky bastard.
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Just home. Very disappointing. Our good players from last year generally played well enough to win the game. Jack, John, Tyrone and Taylor. All the newcomers seemed to be blown away for the first 15 minutes by the pace, the intensity and time wasting/cheating in the Premiership. No such excuse for our goalkeeper but for a player of his age and experience he should not have been the quivering jelly he was for the first 15 minutes. And Wesley looks like a poor man's Christian Benteke. Long hard road ahead lads and lasses. I think not getting a quality finisher in the window is going to come back and haunt us.
Did the spit and polish job at VP lift your spirits at all, Brian?
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Highlights (https://www.skysports.com/football/a-villa-vs-bmouth/407992)
Ooh, didn't think Sky did these little mini-highlights clips for the Prem. They were the basis of most of my Villa footage last season in the Ch'ship.
Must affect MOTD ratings?
Anyway, what an absolute bar-cracking-top-corner peach from Luiz. Can't remember too many better than than at VP in recent years (McGinn, Gil(?)...).
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Not much Eamonn. I think I am going mad. All I noticed about VP was that the grass did not look as green as it usually does for the first game. Perhaps they have cut it very short to assist our slick passing game.
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Just home. Very disappointing. Our good players from last year generally played well enough to win the game. Jack, John, Tyrone and Taylor. All the newcomers seemed to be blown away for the first 15 minutes by the pace, the intensity and time wasting/cheating in the Premiership. No such excuse for our goalkeeper but for a player of his age and experience he should not have been the quivering jelly he was for the first 15 minutes. And Wesley looks like a poor man's Christian Benteke. Long hard road ahead lads and lasses. I think not getting a quality finisher in the window is going to come back and haunt us.
Agreed on Heaton, that error was as bad as anything Nyland ever did in a Villa shirt, A few minutes into his home debut.
Benteke looked hopeless in first few Villa appearances too, but our front three look miles out of their depth thus far.
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The only good thing is that after three years of Championship teams time wasting, feigning injury and other Tony Pulis favourites, we won't see any of that again.
Ahem.
Yep, Bournemouth smashed us with pacey, slick football in the first half, and then miraculously turned into QPR for the second.
Some of their tactics were absolutely pathetic. The lad who changed his shirt and had no number on the back was an absolute joke. Fitting he finished the game on his arse.
Pleased the majority of us stayed and applauded at the end. We didn't cave in, we gave it a go in the second half. Clearly there's loads to learn, but no panic needed today.
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Missed Hourihane’s dead balls today. Free kicks, corners were pretty mediocre.
It’s a real dilemma for Dean. Luiz played well and is clearly a natural defensive midfield player but so many goals come from set pieces.
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it's too early ro tell definitively how any of these new players will turn out - but one thing our recruitment policy failed to address was experience, other than Heaton. One or two experienced outfield players would have given a better balance imo.
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Yeah thats a great point re Hourihane actually. The corners were diabolical.
And that free kick on the edge of the box that El Ghazi skied was perfect for Hourihane.
But where could he play other than dropping Grealish/McGinn or Luiz which we wont.
Got Marvelous to be involved yet somehow too.
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Yeah thats a great point re Hourihane actually. The corners were diabolical.
And that free kick on the edge of the box that El Ghazi skied was perfect for Hourihane.
But where could he play other than dropping Grealish/McGinn or Luiz which we wont.
Got Marvelous to be involved yet somehow too.
At the moment it feels like we got one too many in in midfield at the expense of a striker. I too would get Llorente if we could. Experienced and would chip in with goals.
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Yeah i must agree, the midfield and defense is more than strong enough to achieve this season.
Its up top there is a doubt overall, where its more about potential atm than actual quality.
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I don’t think it’s a striker issue. We have plenty of goals in us - but McGinn and Jack need to get further forward in support Wes and that means we need strong FB who support Luiz in midfield when attacks break down.
IMO we should switch to 3-5-2 against Everton
Heaton
Engle Mings Hause
Guilbert McGinn Luiz Grealish Targett
Wes Trez
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Thought that we looked pretty decent in defence and midfield but as I feared, inept up front
After his two mistakes for the goals Luiz looked very good but by then it was too late, they were far better than us off the ball when they had overloads
Much to learn.
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Just home - had to jump the train back north - didn't realise how many fans we have in the North West :)
Very disappointed today - all the plans out the window in the first 15 mins - I thought Heaton looked nervy and didn't look confident on crosses - likewise his kicking is poor.
Certainly Bournemouth looked stronger and faster than us in the first 20 minutes -I thought Taylor was solid and Luiz improved after a sloppy first half - Wesley .........meh, but we shall see.
It's going to be a lot tougher than many of us imagined .....one thing we tend to forget is that we finished 5th in a poor Championship....Smith will have a massive job keeping us in this league.........accepting that the likes of Bournemouth are currently better than us is hard to swallow - I think a fair few fans thought that all we had to do was turn up today for the 3 points ....that was turned on its head in a few undisciplined moments ......Friday is going to be tough
I'd settle for 17 th now
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I think our self inflicted problems are being exacerbated by some bad luck. The second goal looked very unlucky with the big deflection then in off the post, the second this season to go in off Mings. Then there was the double deflection where the ball landed right at Kane's feet for his first last week. That said Cardiff had some bad luck with ref decisions and other things last season and look where they ended up.
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Just home - had to jump the train back north - didn't realise how many fans we have in the North West :)
Very disappointed today - all the plans out the window in the first 15 mins - I thought Heaton looked nervy and didn't look confident on crosses - likewise his kicking is poor.
Certainly Bournemouth looked stronger and faster than us in the first 20 minutes -I thought Taylor was solid and Luiz improved after a sloppy first half - Wesley .........meh, but we shall see.
It's going to be a lot tougher than many of us imagined .....one thing we tend to forget is that we finished 5th in a poor Championship....Smith will have a massive job keeping us in this league.........accepting that the likes of Bournemouth are currently better than us is hard to swallow - I think a fair few fans thought that all we had to do was turn up today for the 3 points ....that was turned on its head in a few undisciplined moments ......Friday is going to be tough
I'd settle for 17 th now
Spot on (unfortunately)
There's a massive gulf between the 2 divisions and mistakes have cost us at least 2 points in 2 games.
I'd take 17th now but my heart still clings to the hope of higher. It's early days and we aren't that far away. One win, settle the nerves and it's a different ball game.
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Surely what is happening is what predictably was going to happen. And we were better today for most of the game. And we will get better. And Jack will be better. And Wes will score. And Trez and AEG. This lot are still figuring it all out. We have players to come in and challenge those who get dropped. Heaton won’t make those mistakes often. There’s loads of evidence to back that up. Things will get better.
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A very disappointing result, especially as I'm sure most of us had a home fixture against the team who finished 14th last year as a "should win". But I'm optimistic given the performance. We gifted them two goals from silly mistakes (it looked to me like Luiz had a call to leave the ball for the second, seemed a very strange 'leave' otherwise?), and it was always going to be hard from then on.
That said, having seen the way we played for the last 75 minutes, I'd back us to beat them then more often than not. Yes, they've got some quality, but if we hadn't given them the start they had, would they have scored otherwise?
Clearly we need to be more clinical upfront, but I'd be far more worried if we weren't creating anything. I've certainly seen us play much worse and win.
To those saying Bournemouth took their foot off the gas when they went ahead and that's why we had so much possession and so many shots - did you think that was the reason Tottenham had so much possession last week? That we'd taken our foot off the gas? Maybe it was the same reason, and the team with the most possession was simply better for large parts of the game?
Still, you can't get away from it being a pretty crap result - but I'm far from despondent, knowing on another day we're more than capable of beating that side. Something I certainly didn't feel last week.
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Missed Hourihane’s dead balls today. Free kicks, corners were pretty mediocre.
It’s a real dilemma for Dean. Luiz played well and is clearly a natural defensive midfield player but so many goals come from set pieces.
I actually said to a mate before the game, we'd miss Hourihane's goal threat, given Luiz has never scored a league goal. Shows what I know. But clearly Conor offers more to the team than the odd screamer...
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I think our self inflicted problems are being exacerbated by some bad luck. The second goal looked very unlucky with the big deflection then in off the post, the second this season to go in off Mings. Then there was the double deflection where the ball landed right at Kane's feet for his first last week. That said Cardiff had some bad luck with ref decisions and other things last season and look where they ended up.
you can say that again ! the championship is a much more competitive league anyway .
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I'm really concerned by the front three. All of them look powderpuff.
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I am off to bed now. I will leave you with the opinion of a disappointed, tired old Villa fan. If we had had Jed Steer in goal today we would not have lost that game.
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I thought it was more that Bournemouth were really professional in how they ran the clock down, they did it pretty much perfectly. The bastards.
Yes I said this to my ST neighbours at the time. I think they played out lat 10 mins (5+5) perfectly. Something we failed to do at Spurs last week.
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I think we will struggle to score goals.
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Nothing has changed in 3 years in the prem league...shit refs and diva players. It always seems we have an honest bunch of players compared to the w-nkers we play. Luiz started naively, but improved and scored a cracker. We missed Conor today. Jack, John and Anwar all tried but were poor from deadball situations. I thought Wesley did ok, but maybe he's the type of striker who prefers someone playing close to him. Some have commented that our full backs failed to get crosses in. How about our wingers getting crosses in? Anwar was ineffective and although I like Trez I'm not sure he's a winger. He failed to beat the full backs on either side with speed. I think he could be more effective in the middle, floating and playing off Wes. Elmo got caught flat footed for the penalty situation, Besides that he did ok as did Taylor. On Friday though I'd go 4-1-3-2 and I'd like to see Fred and Targett start alongside Engels and Tyronne, to see what they can do. Then I'd like to see Luiz behind John, Jack and Conor. Wes and Trez up front. This won't happen of course but it may get the best out of our front players whereas on the evidence of today our front 3 were strangers to each other. VTID UTV!!
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My concern today, throughout the match villa seemed to give up the midfield. Luiz in front of the back four. Then twenty yards of space with a flat attacking front five all stood there waiting for the ball. No movement to create space or bring defenders out. None offering the short pass. Luiz's only pass was to the full backs , who then eventually put in an aimless cross.
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Good night Brian ....it will all look much brighter in the morning :)
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Some of the reason for improvement in the 2nd half was Billing who was physically dominating us in CM ( alot of it illegally and he should of been red carded )
Like Spurs we come across as very lightweight in the MF area , McGinns signature move of rolling players is less effective as they are just much better athletes than in the Championship.Goals look an issue as the front 3 don't look like they have enough goals in them which is why I think the 4-3-3 will need to be changed to a 4-2-3-1 ..you give Luiz someone alongside him so Jack and McGinn can play higher up the pitch.
Full backs today in terms of defending and keeping the ball were solid , but at this level you need more going forward from them.Taylor will never be the type to whip in a decent cross ,Elmo is slightly better but generally at hitting balls in from deep rather than getting close to the byline.
It will take time there is little experience at this level in the squad and in general its a young squad ( likely another reason the older heads in Elmo and Taylor have been retained for now )
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I would like to see Conor and Guilbert play against Everton, possibly in a 4-2-3-1
Heaton
Guilbert Engels Mings Taylor
Luiz Conor
Trez SJM Jack
Wes
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It will take time for this team to Gel I thought Luiz after one bad error played very well, Jack holds on to the ball far too long for this division and El Ghazi was poor. There is not enough forward line pressure, Wesley may come good but it was a big gamble by Smith not to get a better option than Kodja or Davis. Not devastated but worry about where the goals are coming from.
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I'm a proper miserable old Brummy and after fifteen minutes, I thought we had no hope of staying up BUT
1. Engels is solid, so is Tyrone, that's a good defensive partnership.
2. We're effectively playing our second choice full backs and they did OK for a lot of the game. Deans is slowly integrating new players into the old team and we will find which full backs work for us
3. Luiz has been in the UK and at Villa Park for a few weeks. He made a couple of shocking mistakes, but overall the bloke is absolutely top quality. He will be amazing as the season progresses.
4. Wesley grew as the game went on. I think he will be a powerful hold up player once he is used to England, the PL and Aston Villa.
5. John McGinn and Jack Grealish had it too easy in the Championship and are still getting used to players that are of the same quality as themselves. They will learn, in fact John is already learning pretty quickly. Jack needs to (and will) have a word with himself and get a grip.
6. Today was a bit freakish with a goal after a minute and a howler followed by a deflection plus a truly shocking refereeing performance (and I never normally blame the ref).
7. Most of our team are getting used to one or more of PL and England. They will settle and no one was shit today. Well, El Ghazi was pretty poor.
8. The one area we were poor was wing play. Again, we have options and Dean will sort it out.
I think we will have a few more worrying games ahead but we will grow and finish strongly, possibly with a new striker in January. I'm not worried about confidence if we lose a few more matches while things gel. The likes of Jack, John, Mings, Engels, Luiz, Wesley don't strike me as powder puff and nor does Dean Smith (or O'Kelly or Terry.) Think Burnley last year.
Today was truly shit, but we will be OK.
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An awful start with two colossal cocktails ups for the goals. But they were merely the low points of other errors, such as Elmo flat footed for the ball leading to the penalty, Jack’s awful set pieces, inability to get close to support Wesley, Luiz seeming to be always on the point of having the ball nicked from him.....
We need to man up quickly - defensive errors, losing possession in midfield and being muscled out, failing to get enough crosses into the box - and realise that the premier league is less forgiving.
On the plus side, Wesley was better than last week, Luiz improved as the game went on and moved further forward, defensively Taylor was solid, and there were signs of good attacking play. And the fans stuck with the team, which was important. We need to grab something from Everton but at the moment I can’t see where the goals are coming from.
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Some very brief highlights but we had serious chances to score and didn’t before Douglas did. And their second goal had so much luck about it along with the mistake.
https://twitter.com/avfcofficial/status/1162831467514400769?s=12
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Some positives but quite a few really worrying things from today.
On the positive side Engels looks the business, and Luiz started to look like the player city wanted to keep.
However, I will very surprised if El Ghazi makes it in this league, he looks totally out of his depth. Grealish also needs a kick up the arse.
We look incredibly light up front, truth be told. I did like bits of what i saw from Wesley, but he'll need time to get to grips with it, and i don't think we can afford that.
Also, considering how the wingers are playing we absolutely cannot continue with taylor at left back. It might be harsh as he's not done much wrong, but he offers nothing going forward.
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We are bereft of goals and attacking threat. In this league you need a solid central defence and a goal scorer. We have the former but not the latter. The summer spending is starting to resemble buying a Rolls Royce and forgetting the tyres.
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I love how our ambition after three years break out of 27 in this league has disappeared. This is Fcukin Bournemouth at home. The worst away travellers from last season. I heard some other stat about them not winning their opening away game or something like that since 1997. We have to win these games it’s that simple.
I dont understand;
Signing Targett for £17m including add ons and not playing him.
Signing Guilbert playing him the entire pre season and not even including him in the 18 for the first two games.
Not buying an experienced proven premier league forward.
Throwing Jed Steer out with the bath water.
Since when did we actually have to be pleased with being plucky against Bournemouth who incidentally had a lot of first team player out injured today.
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The game plan went out of the window after 50 secs and that 2nd goal was really unlucky. I’m not panicking yet as we’ve played well in both games imo and deserved a point. Just not got the rub of the green.
Wes is too isolated and we need more bodies in the box to support him. Those floating balls in from out wide won’t work either, any centre forward would struggle with that service. We need to wise up quickly.
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Heaton dropped a bolllock but I don't have any concerns about him; he made a terrific save in the second half to deny them a third. What does worry me is that we created umpteen chances and put only one of them away, and that one was a screamer. I still wonder where the goals are going to come from. Our first choice striker doesn't inspire confidence and I'm not sure how many goals from midfield we can count on. AEG has been way off the required standard.
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Jed was a decent shot stopper. There’s no difference.
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I think Heaton will inspire confidence in the back 4 and organise them better. I’ve heard he’s a shouter we’re Jed is a bit quiet.
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Jed played a fundamental part getting us into the PL yet is fcuked out at the first opportunity. Yet Elmo, Taylor, Elghazi the latter of whom has performed awfully so far are shoe ins.
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I’m not sure AEG will play against Everton, also think the full backs have done what they’ve been asked to do.
I’ve no problem with Heaton playing over Jed.
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Always amazes me with MOTD they have 5-6 minutes of highlights yet miss out obvious shots and chances. For example the grealish curler at Holte End that just went wide wasn't included yet it made the Sky 3 minutes highlights. Also no focus at all on Billing fouls.
Was also surprised something they did show wasn't seemingly checked on VAR as really Bournemouth should've had a penalty, Trez kicked their player in the box.
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The referee was a fucking disgrace today.
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Its looking like we may be a winger and a striker short as we suspected. El Ghazi was very poor today and Wesley looks like he will take a while to settle in.
Luiz wa impressive after the poor error and Mcginn was exceptional.
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El Ghazi has been poor for both games now, but it's the much more impressive Trezeguet who gets subbed.
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El Ghazi has been poor for both games now, but it's the much more impressive Trezeguet who gets subbed.
El Ghazi was the first player subbed today.
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Horrendous start, which would be hard for any team to overturn.
We showed some resilience, team spirit and flashes of good football.
There was always going to be a problem with DS's method of playing it out from the back until the players got up to PL sharpness. I agree with a number of posters who have said we need 2 DCM's a the moment, one of whom can deliver a crunching tackle when required.
Early days, jury out.
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Among the many depressing things that game highlighted, one of the ugliest is the way "game management" has spread unchecked into the game. The way the Bournemouth players kept blatantly breaking up the flow of the game by feigning injury once they knew they had a weak referee was shameful. But of course there is no shame in cheating in the game any longer. It will never happen but any player who rolls around as though he has a multiple fracture one minute then magically is sprinting the length of the pitch the next should get a retrospective card for being a cheating twat- sorry, simulation.
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Those floating balls in from out wide won’t work either, any centre forward would struggle with that service.
Do we still refer to those as ‘a Westwood’?
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Among the many depressing things that game highlighted, one of the ugliest is the way "game management" has spread unchecked into the game. The way the Bournemouth players kept blatantly breaking up the flow of the game by feigning injury once they knew they had a weak referee was shameful. But of course there is no shame in cheating in the game any longer. It will never happen but any player who rolls around as though he has a multiple fracture one minute then magically is sprinting the length of the pitch the next should get a retrospective card for being a cheating twat- sorry, simulation.
It will lead me to a heart attack, I swear. It just boils my blood, the lad who had no number on spent most of the second half on the floor, rolling around prentending to be hurt. Wilson up front, slightest touch and he was down.
The worst part was, an experienced ref fell for all of it.
Bournemouth are just the PL equivalent of QPR.
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I came away from the game yesterday much less negative than many seem to be around here.
Yes, we screwed our own gameplan with two soft goals.
Yes, AEG is really not very good at the moment.
Yes, Grealish looked poor for most of the game.
Yes, Bournemouth have learned how to manage games.
Yes, the ref was strangely lenient throughout.
However:
- Heaton is a fine keeper: he will not be the reason we lose many points this season
- Luiz looks very classy: he will need to pick up the pace and intensity of this league, and then he'll be fine
- McGinn will become more and more influential in this league
- we have a fine set of CB's.
The issues we need to resolve quickly are:
- getting Grealish playing with more intensity and influence: yesterday he was poor, the goal-scoring pass aside. He doesn't have the luxury of dwelling on the ball unless he is committed to beating his man, so his roele needs to be to move the ball as quickly as he can into someone who has space.
- using the fullbacks in a more attacking role: they played okay yesterday but that is not good enough
- giving Wesley the coaching to make himself more space: I thought he showed glimpses of becoming a decent player yesterday, but he needs more guile and more support
- getting more effective set-pieces going
- finding space: all 10 outfield players need to be far better at using the space rather than remaining static
- setting up with a more robust midfield combination: both Spurs and B'mouth bullied us somewhat.
In both games so far, it was clear that refs are allowing more robust challenges, and we are lightweight.
We will get better, and we will stay up if we rectify some obvious issues quickly
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A good point Brian. We made it 7 mins extra time should have been added for all the stoppages. As soon as we showed a bit of momentum down one of their players went. It happened too often.
I thought we put in a decent performance overall. Giving them the 2 goal start was the killer. Heaton never has and never will in future make such an error as he did for the pen. I can’t say any of our lot had poor games. Jack probably had his least effective game for some time and should have buried that header chance. Wes, who’s coming in for some criticism on here I thought had a decent game. Douglas was MoM, we’ll only have him for 1 season on that showing.
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Among the many depressing things that game highlighted, one of the ugliest is the way "game management" has spread unchecked into the game. The way the Bournemouth players kept blatantly breaking up the flow of the game by feigning injury once they knew they had a weak referee was shameful. But of course there is no shame in cheating in the game any longer. It will never happen but any player who rolls around as though he has a multiple fracture one minute then magically is sprinting the length of the pitch the next should get a retrospective card for being a cheating twat- sorry, simulation.
I agree. Two of ours did exactly that against Spurs and it's not good to see.
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We have to change to a 4-2-3-1 and sit Luiz and Hourihane in front of the back four. We're not good enough to only play one sitting midfielder, only Man City and Liverpool can get away it.
El Ghazi looks well off the pace and standard and needs dropping.
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Negatives
Heaton Mistake
Luiz Mistake
Martin Atkinson’s refereeing
AEGs performance
Taylor offensively
Positives
Luiz - love this guy absolute quality
Mingles
McGinn - drove and drove
Shots and Chances in General
Whilst it’s not great to lose the first two I’ve seen enough to think we’ll be ok.
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more positives than negatives, Lady luck against us with that massive deflection, poor ref, Bournemouth should have only had 10 on the pitch.Give Wesley a little more time, remember Benteke looked like a cart horse when he first came into the team. I'm sure Wesley will come good. Dougie Lewis outstanding goal, more to come from him, Mings and Engels didn't do much wrong. We'll get there. My fear is when we have to play Man City and Liverpool, but those top 6 games don't count, we need points from those around us, that's why yesterday was disappointing.
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Scores on the doors
Heaton 4 - sorry, however good he might be, making such a horrendous cock up 30 seconds in effectively cost us the game.
Taylor 6 - defensively sound again, but nothing going forward.
Mings 7 - solid as ever and the defence didn't look troubled apart from the two goals which came from keeper and midfielder errors
Engels 7 - as Mings really, solid and good distribution
Elmo 6 - didn't do a whole lot wrong
McGinn 7 - lots of surging runs and had some good attempts on goal
Grealish 6 - didn't really seem at the races and doesn't look happy in his own play at the moment.
Luiz 8 - concentrating on the positives, comfortable on the ball, great goal and pivots himself out of trouble brilliantly. Needs to cut out the errors.
El Ghazi 5 - another poor game. Doesn't look to have the ability to trouble Premier League defences
Wesley 6 - the difficult settling in period continues
Trezeguet 7 - the best of the attacking options for the second week running.
Subs:
Jota 5 - lack of pace is going to limit his effectiveness if he plays out wide I reckon
Davis 5 - no real time to make any sort of impact, but didn't do much when coming on.
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Negatives
Heaton Mistake
Luiz Mistake
Martin Atkinson’s refereeing
AEGs performance
Taylor offensively
Positives
Luiz - love this guy absolute quality
Mingles
McGinn - drove and drove
Shots and Chances in General
Whilst it’s not great to lose the first two I’ve seen enough to think we’ll be ok.
Mingles, love it!!
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Didn’t see the game as I’m on me hols abroad but from what my lads have told me there is still plenty to be positive as the above posts sum up well. By the way, AV82EC “Mingles” - Love it. I now have a two for the price of 1 bromance !
I don’t usually question Smith’s decisions but I am puzzled by the full back decisions - not sure why both new signings haven’t been picked given that they featured heavily pre-season as others have said. Worrying if they are slow to / unable to pick up what is required. Particularly strange in Guilbert’s case as he played really well in pre-season, I thought.
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Where is Marvelous?
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In that first 15-20 minute spell, you could tell who was the established Premier League team. They looked quicker, sharper but as the game went on we got into it. I think we'll be ok but it's going to take us a few games to find our feet.
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How quiet were the away fans yesterday? Barely a peep other than the cheering for their goals. Only time I heard them sing was at the final whistle or on the train platform at New St.
Strange day yesterday, mixed bag performance. Defensively i think we will be ok but i fear for us scoring goals as only one who looked consistently dangerous was Mcginn. Ref was shocking , and as people said, Bournemouth players were made of glass.
Away from the match itself I couldn't get in the club shop as the queue was out the door and well into the car park. The queues at Witton Station afterwards was horrific and my train out of New St was cancelled, I eventually got home at half ten. The joys of following the Villa!
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Just watched MOTD - Danny Murphy really hates us doesn't he.
Strange editing showed nothing of the yellow card and several potential second yellow
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How the hell is a penalty against our keeper and not theirs for the foul on Wesley. In their case Wilson could never have got the ball but for Wes the ball was still in play
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How the hell is a penalty against our keeper and not theirs for the foul on Wesley. In their case Wilson could never have got the ball but for Wes the ball was still in play
Correct. Both were similar: the strker beats the keeper to the ball, which then runs away from both; but on one the late keeper touch is penalised, with the other not.
Bizarre.
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Just watched MOTD - Danny Murphy really hates us doesn't he.
Strange editing showed nothing of the yellow card and several potential second yellow
Yeah just watched it. The little twonk really does seem to have a dislike for us. Fuck knows why.
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Based on yesterday I'd like Dean to try a 4 1 3 2 or 4 2 3 1 as I think the wingers are too wide at present and Houriihane needs to play as his set pieces are way better than anyone else's.
This would also get support closer to Wes.
However to be really effective the system needs better attacking full backs. Both were solid again yesterday but Taylor in particular adds nothing going forward and even had 2 half chances which were poor efforts.
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How quiet were the away fans yesterday?
At one point they were singing "barmy army". Hadn't heard that in years.
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Just watched MOTD - Danny Murphy really hates us doesn't he.
Strange editing showed nothing of the yellow card and several potential second yellow
Yeah just watched it. The little twonk really does seem to have a dislike for us. Fuck knows why.
I've always thought he comes across as a joyless dour arsehole who hates everything and everyone, probably life, and definitely himself.
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Those early mistakes were sickening.
We're in desperate need of a striker, why not get one in without a club and take the chance? Wesley won't get many goals seems very stroppy too
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I've always thought he comes across as a joyless dour arsehole who hates everything and everyone, probably life, and definitely himself.
OK enough about his qualities now how about his bad side?
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Those early mistakes were sickening.
We're in desperate need of a striker, why not get one in without a club and take the chance? Wesley won't get many goals seems very stroppy too
That was one thing I noticed during the second half. Something didn't go his way and he flapped his arms around and then stood still. He then flapped again.
We haven't got time for that nonsense. Other than that, I thought he did pretty well. Just want him to crack some shots at goal now.
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I fear you will be waiting a long time.
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The crowd was 40996? I expected way more. Did there seem to be many empty seats or is it because Bormuff only have 12 fans?
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There was only about 200 empty seats in away end, good following for a club that size. Few empty seats dotted about in home areas also the block in lower north next to away end is now segregation
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The crowd was 40996? I expected way more. Did there seem to be many empty seats or is it because Bormuff only have 12 fans?
Away end didn't look capacity from the few youtube vids I've seen and I imagine a couple of season ticket holders are away on family hols and stuff.
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Just watched MOTD - Danny Murphy really hates us doesn't he.
Strange editing showed nothing of the yellow card and several potential second yellow
Yeah just watched it. The little twonk really does seem to have a dislike for us. Fuck knows why.
It's alright. MOTD is on its last legs so we won't have to put up with shite like that much longer.
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There was only about 200 empty seats in away end, good following for a club that size. Few empty seats dotted about in home areas also the block in lower north next to away end is now segregation
Ah that still unused then. Would guess at around 500 seats in that area.
Seems our capacity has gone down to about 41.8k now so lost a thousand seats from 5 years ago somewhere. Don't think we've had 42k attendance since maybe Man. United game in August 2015.
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Unused season tickets, with people away on holiday, are still counted on the attendance aren't they?
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Just watched MOTD - Danny Murphy really hates us doesn't he.
Strange editing showed nothing of the yellow card and several potential second yellow
Odious little gimp. I am sure he won't be a on when we click , play well and get a comprehensive win.
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Another thing I have noticed is that we seem to have gone back to meekly accepting poor refereeing. We need Ming’s to do a bit of a Terry and slide up to the ref and have a word.
Thier midfield got away with murder yesterday.
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Just watched MOTD - Danny Murphy really hates us doesn't he.
Strange editing showed nothing of the yellow card and several potential second yellow
Odious little gimp. I am sure he won't be a on when we click , play well and get a comprehensive win.
No, because he’ll have died of old age by then. Badoom-tish!
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Decent review of a Bournemouth fans first visit to Villa Park. ( I cut out the match write up )
"After an underwhelming opening day draw to Sheffield United posed more questions than answers, Bournemouth travelled to Villa with some trepidation, especially given last season's wretched away form.
This was my first visit to Villa Park and after a couple of beers in the away fans' marquee at the Whitton Arms, we headed in to soak up the atmosphere in the sunshine. First impressions were excellent; a proper football stadium with steep stands, fans close to the pitch and impressive atmosphere. As we built towards kick off, the noise from the home fans was deafening, unlike anything I've heard in the Premier League before and far better than atmosphere I've witnessed at Wembley, Anfield or any of the other big stadiums. Obviously, this was partly due to the fans' high spirits at their Premier League return, but as the banner in the Holt End says, they'll definitely be a 12th man for Villa this season.
Verdict - An excellent away win in an intimidating place to visit. A game I think we would have lost last season. We looked far more comfortable in a 442 and with the changes in personnel. Neither Mepham or Rico are quite ready for the rigours of this kind of game.
We really needed a strong start today and we got it. The defence were immense but something still isn't clicking up front. Hopefully Brooks can be the missing piece of the jigsaw when he's back. Better substitutions from Eddie today though, proactive instead of too late.
Villa looked threatening and I think they'll stay up, McGinn in particular was a livewire throughout. I hope they do survive, as I'd love to return to Villa Park, a proper football stadium! Fans on the way out all seemed very reasonable, honest and fair - don't believe everything you see on a forum!"
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Another thing I have noticed is that we seem to have gone back to meekly accepting poor refereeing. We need Ming’s to do a bit of a Terry and slide up to the ref and have a word.
Thier midfield got away with murder yesterday.
A lot of the fans have too. Every time I mentioned the poor refereeing or the blatant time wasting / cheating, people look at you like you've dropped out of the sky.
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Another thing I have noticed is that we seem to have gone back to meekly accepting poor refereeing. We need Ming’s to do a bit of a Terry and slide up to the ref and have a word.
Thier midfield got away with murder yesterday.
A lot of the fans have too. Every time I mentioned the poor refereeing or the blatant time wasting / cheating, people look at you like you've dropped out of the sky.
Around us everyone was up in arms at that.
Mind you, that's the middle Trinity for you #thuglife #gangstas4eva #flasks #blankets
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Another thing I have noticed is that we seem to have gone back to meekly accepting poor refereeing. We need Ming’s to do a bit of a Terry and slide up to the ref and have a word.
Thier midfield got away with murder yesterday.
A lot of the fans have too. Every time I mentioned the poor refereeing or the blatant time wasting / cheating, people look at you like you've dropped out of the sky.
Around us everyone was up in arms at that.
Mind you, that's the middle Trinity for you #thuglife #gangstas4eva #flasks #blankets
No feet stamping? Tsk
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VERY disappointing result, but the performance showed some positives.
Increasingly frustrated with Anwar though, looks really lightweight this season. Definitely bench him next week.
Not sure this formation that Smith favours is going to cut it this season, but i don't know what the answer is.
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Sheff Utd getting more points on the board by the looks of it.
Trust it be us that has the worst start to life in the premiership.
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VERY disappointing result, but the performance showed some positives.
Increasingly frustrated with Anwar though, looks really lightweight this season. Definitely bench him next week.
Not sure this formation that Smith favours is going to cut it this season, but i don't know what the answer is.
We were very predictable in our wide play yesterday. I think a bit of a tactical realignment is in order to a 4231 set up, with the two new full backs brought in. Smith decision to exclude both of them is inexplicable. With two holding midfielders it will give our full backs a bit more licence to get forward. Given Wes struggles thus far we need to get Hourihane back into the team, either next to Luiz or further up the pitch.
------------------Heaton
Guilbert, Engels, Mings, Targett
-------------Luiz, Marvelous
------McGinn, Grealish, Hourihane
---------------------Wes
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Feel we're a bit naive at the moment.
The selection of Elmo and Taylor for one. We are wasting territory and good positions with the absence of quality delivery or quality attacking play from the full backs.
Naive in our defending. Part of that is perhaps coming to terms with the league, but Heaton and his error doesn't feature in that excuse, but Douglas and his did.
I feel Trezuguet looks capable, El Ghazi is out of form and Wesley is too deep. There needs to be better organisation uo front with our movement and the lines we pick. Adding overlapping full backs who can deliver a ball or take an opponent out with a run in advanced of the wide men would benefit us.
I thought it might take a bit of time to come to terms with the league. Our mistakes are certainly punished, whereas we let Bournemouth off a few times yesterday.
We need to be more capable up front. I'd take a point against Everton.
There's concerns, but when is there not? But there's also cause for optimism.
We need to wise up quickly, pick our best players and cut out the foolish errors.
A bit of composure from Heaton and Douglas at two crucial moments and we win the game.
Bournemouth are a very cynical side. They take a lot of time out of the game throwing themselves to the ground and rolling about. Billings should have been sent off too. Second half we forced them into giving up possession cheaply and created enough opportunities to have got a point.
Everton will be a stiffer test and we'll only get something out then we have to stop gifting opposition. It's a gift starting Taylor and Elmo.
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Sheff Utd getting more points on the board by the looks of it.
Trust it be us that has the worst start to life in the premiership.
Christ almighty, it's two games!
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Can we practise set pieces and not keep taking wanky short corners, pretty please? VAR is going to lead to loads of soft penalties for pulls and such like. You won't get one if you refuse to get the ball into the area though...
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Unused season tickets, with people away on holiday, are still counted on the attendance aren't they?
Yep.
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It does make me laugh people complaining about our full backs, especially not overlapping. Bournemouth were always going to be a serious threat with their two speedy wingers. Their first job was to defend and both did their job extremely well. The whole defence is the one thing that seems to have gelled and looks solid.
That said, I was surprised Guilbert didn't start yesterday. Bournemouth at home would have been a far more comfortable baptism than Everton. Add to that, Elmo has had little time off over the summer and at some point that will catch up with him.
As for the ref yesterday, he completely lost his bottle and Billings should have gone for the tackle on Jack. I watched part of the Man City - Spurs game and Sterling was booked for a challenge far softer than any of Billings. I hope that's the last time we see Atkinson ref a Villa game this season.
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Disappointing result. Those two early goals were unforgivable errors. As the first half progressed we settled and started to play better but I thought we were very slow going forward, giving Bournemouth the opportunity to get behind the ball and defend. We need to break faster, we did last week against Spurs a few times, resulting in a goal. Referee was shocking. Second half we played better and pressured them, but weren't clinical enough. Full backs were defensively ok but poor going forward, so I would replace both for the Everton match, as we need our FBs joining the attack. Wesley probably needs patience and support to get the best out of him. "Mingles" look a very good pairing. SJM is playing well and will improve with more matches. Jack needs to be quicker and release the ball sooner. Douglas Luis after a shaky start looks the "dogs" and will probably be our player of the season. We go again, UTV
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5 goals in two games doesn't scream solid to me.
You have to win games and Elmo and Taylor in particular are very poor going forwards in this league.
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I miss the Championship Ads who was casually predicting 10 straight wins every few months, don't like this new negative one at all (wink).
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Part of defending is being able to be a threat when attacking and take pressure of the back four and keeper. But that also involves the full backs in our system to push on and right now ours are not doing that. Elmo and Taylor are at best solid Championship level players. We need to get Guilbert and Targett in vs Everton.
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Can we practise set pieces and not keep taking wanky short corners, pretty please? VAR is going to lead to loads of soft penalties for pulls and such like. You won't get one if you refuse to get the ball into the area though...
Ah, we still doing that nonsense? Wasn't it West Brom in the play off game where every single corner we took was a short one and the crowd were groaning by the sixth one as they obviously weren't leading to any chances.
More odd when you think Mings would've been desperate to score yesterday and he's scored a few for us already.
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And Engels is a giant, too.
Get it in the mixer!
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Can we practise set pieces and not keep taking wanky short corners, pretty please? VAR is going to lead to loads of soft penalties for pulls and such like. You won't get one if you refuse to get the ball into the area though...
Whatever method we use to float the ball into the box one thing is for sure it's not Jack and John having a go at doing that who will provide the answers. We need more guile and better technique at deliveries then these two provide.
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Part of defending is being able to be a threat when attacking and take pressure of the back four and keeper. But that also involves the full backs in our system to push on and right now ours are not doing that. Elmo and Taylor are at best solid Championship level players. We need to get Guilbert and Targett in vs Everton.
Taylor got in the penalty box twice 2nd half I would say that is pushing on!
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Part of defending is being able to be a threat when attacking and take pressure of the back four and keeper. But that also involves the full backs in our system to push on and right now ours are not doing that. Elmo and Taylor are at best solid Championship level players. We need to get Guilbert and Targett in vs Everton.
Taylor got in the penalty box twice 2nd half I would say that is pushing on!
and looked completely lost both times. Elmo got a few crosses in as well, but most of them were to a defence that was facing away from goal and were from 30 yards out so pretty hard for us to win and get a header on target from.
If both fullbacks were overlapping and getting crosses in flat across the 6 yard box with defenders facing their own goal we'd look much better. This same problem has been clear at the club for years. We seem to think that it's wingers who should be putting in those crosses but that's far less common across almost all levels of football because of the way the game has changed in the last 20 years.
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Brilliant last paragraph paul. Crosses shovelled in from thirty yards half way from the half way line will be gobbled up by defenders all day long. Crossers have to hit the by line then whack the ball back hard to onrushing attackers wrongfooting defenders facing their own goal
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Full backs are the unmarked players. We have to make the most of them.
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Is Vill I An Footy Skillz that's what I want to know !?
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Is Vill I An Footy Skillz that's what I want to know !?
I think you called that right.
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Elmo may have delivered the most crosses. He didn't create much opportunity.
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Can we practise set pieces and not keep taking wanky short corners, pretty please? VAR is going to lead to loads of soft penalties for pulls and such like. You won't get one if you refuse to get the ball into the area though...
Ah, we still doing that nonsense? Wasn't it West Brom in the play off game where every single corner we took was a short one and the crowd were groaning by the sixth one as they obviously weren't leading to any chances.
More odd when you think Mings would've been desperate to score yesterday and he's scored a few for us already.
Short corner routines give Grealish ability to create angles and allows some real quick interplay . Actually get good chance if we can befuddle the defence , move players around and when we use it well allow for goal scoring chances . In general statistically they provide better chances for goals than corners down to players poor delivery . With short corners bit only does it drag defending players out of position the pass for possession and becoming an open play situation gives lots of options when used effectively. The major advantage is the angle for a delivery.
It's just depend on a teams preference and playing style . It also depends on abilities of players to make good judgements on short corner routines be it practiced or improvised.
A mix of all 3 types of corners is most suitable though I'm certainly not averse to short corners with the slick approach
Allez allez allez
Wasn't it a short corner routine that led to our goal?
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Elmo may have delivered the most crosses. He didn't create much opportunity.
He did create one of two major chances in the game. Nailed it with that one where Grealish missed the best chance of the match.Unfortunately that quality delivery was few and far between from his 11 crosses as was only one major chance created, there were a few more, but nothing with such lovely velocity as that.
Generally he needed to be far more successful, accurate and rapid with his dispatching into the penalty area.
Even that one was from very deep so the only 'chance' was for Grealish to head it home. crossing higher up the pitch between defence and keeper gives you a lot more chances for mistakes and brings 2-3 attackers into the play (especially if you aim it to be head high at the front post). Flatter crosses, to an area rather than trying to pick out a man, are simply much more effective but they require you to be further up the pitch , from deep they tend to always be getting away from the forwards. Guilbert put 7-8 lovely flat crosses in from roughly in line with the penalty spot during pre-season, it was the thing that impressed me most about him and is why I really want him in the team, I think he'll make a massive difference. On the other side I reckon a bag of cement would have more attacking impact than Taylor.
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If that is Footyskillz he has taken a krash korse in speling and grammer.
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MicrosoftWordskillz?
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I think the real barometer will be where we are after 10 games.
We were hit with two real sucker punches and 2-0 down is a difficult position against anybody in this league.
I wouldn't be surprised to see him change both full backs and rotate the wide players in the the next few weeks. I imagine if we play Targett and Guilbert we wouldn't necessarily have to play out and out wingers in front of them, which could see us bring Hourihane, Nakamba and Jota into the mix.
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I think the real barometer will be where we are after 10 games.
Yes however I will refuse to accept that if we are in the bottom 3. I witch to 20 games at that stage☹️
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It all depends on cutting out the mistakes and how quickly Wes gets up to speed (no pressure). We’ve given away goals and haven’t carried much goal threat going forward in both games so far, so when we can fix both of those issues then we’ll see more positive results and points on the board.
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Having calmed down a bit I'd like to take the positives from the game, which for me were the performances of Taylor, Mings, Engels McGinn and Luiz, after the mistakes.
I do fear for us unless we quickly get our forward play sorted, Wesley looks hopelessly out of his depth I'm afraid, he's too slow getting into the box and his general hold up play (which is what I think we bought him for) is poor. Too much time on the floor and moaning at the ref, too far behind play, making our wide players, who were also poor, check back before crossing when they should be whipping the ball in and expecting him to be somewhere on the end of it.
I also thought Grealish and McGinn's starting positions were too far forward in the early stages, we started only to get more of the ball when they dropped a bit deeper.
I just can't see this formation working in the Premier League, Bournemouth, nowhere near the top teams, were more fluid with their movement, with players interchanging positions, our formation looked static with two wide players standing waiting for the ball.
We are too light up top, Wesley is the only real centre forward we have, and I know it's early days but I'm concerned we don't have the players to play two up top with the three centre backs and getting width from the new full backs, which would cause teams more problems.
Smith was employed as the master coach, so this will test him now, mistakes I know cost us, but we didn't create enough to win the game , despite the possession.
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After watching the highlights back, just wondering what the hell Heaton was doing for the penalty? It looks like he had time to dive down and smother that ball, so why did he go in with his feet (and even then his little kick out appeared delayed)?
Hopefully, that's all of the little gremlins out of the system now.
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At least with the current owners you know that should we be struggling come December, that they'll be willing to spend in January.
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Guilbert put 7-8 lovely flat crosses in from roughly in line with the penalty spot during pre-season, it was the thing that impressed me most about him and is why I really want him in the team, I think he'll make a massive difference. On the other side I reckon a bag of cement would have more attacking impact than Taylor.
Agree on Guilbert, what surprised me on his pre-season was not so much his attacking flair, that was noticeable with the few games I watched whilst he was still in France, but his defensive capability. I was expecting that to be his weakness but he looks the real deal.
I think you're being extremely harsh on Taylor. Overall he had a good game. He did his best to get forward but El Ghazi when receiving the ball immediately played it back to him and then failed to move. In fact there were very few if any options for Taylor on the left, maybe that's why Jack decided to go out there and play in El Ghazi's position. It's near impossible to overlap when you have nobody to play a 1-2 with. I don't expect to see El Ghazi start another game, he's been that poor, instead we'll switch Trez to his favoured left side and Guilbert come in on the right with two defensive midfielders to cover him when he goes forward.
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One point not seen mentioned on here was our fans. I thought they were utterly brilliant on Saturday. More of the same please on Friday.
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One point not seen mentioned on here was our fans. I thought they were utterly brilliant on Saturday. More of the same please on Friday.
It was great in the build up, but then their first minute penalty killed the atmosphere pretty well stone dead for the rest of the first half and until we scored second half. Then it picked up again massively.
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One point not seen mentioned on here was our fans. I thought they were utterly brilliant on Saturday. More of the same please on Friday.
It was great in the build up, but then their first minute penalty killed the atmosphere pretty well stone dead for the rest of the first half and until we scored second half. Then it picked up again massively.
It reminded me of the Juventus game when Villa Park was buzzing in anticipation and Paolo Rossi scored in the first minute.
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One point not seen mentioned on here was our fans. I thought they were utterly brilliant on Saturday. More of the same please on Friday.
It was great in the build up, but then their first minute penalty killed the atmosphere pretty well stone dead for the rest of the first half and until we scored second half. Then it picked up again massively.
To be fair whilst it certainly quietened down, it felt to me that the crowd largely stuck with the players and there was still reasonable noise in the Holte end at least.
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We certainly stuck with them, North Upper was v v noisy and even at full time whistle we were singing. I can't believe how quiet the away support was.
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One point not seen mentioned on here was our fans. I thought they were utterly brilliant on Saturday. More of the same please on Friday.
Decent review of a Bournemouth fans first visit to Villa Park. ( I cut out the match write up )
"After an underwhelming opening day draw to Sheffield United posed more questions than answers, Bournemouth travelled to Villa with some trepidation, especially given last season's wretched away form.
This was my first visit to Villa Park and after a couple of beers in the away fans' marquee at the Whitton Arms, we headed in to soak up the atmosphere in the sunshine. First impressions were excellent; a proper football stadium with steep stands, fans close to the pitch and impressive atmosphere. As we built towards kick off, the noise from the home fans was deafening, unlike anything I've heard in the Premier League before and far better than atmosphere I've witnessed at Wembley, Anfield or any of the other big stadiums. Obviously, this was partly due to the fans' high spirits at their Premier League return, but as the banner in the Holt End says, they'll definitely be a 12th man for Villa this season.
Verdict - An excellent away win in an intimidating place to visit. A game I think we would have lost last season. We looked far more comfortable in a 442 and with the changes in personnel. Neither Mepham or Rico are quite ready for the rigours of this kind of game.
We really needed a strong start today and we got it. The defence were immense but something still isn't clicking up front. Hopefully Brooks can be the missing piece of the jigsaw when he's back. Better substitutions from Eddie today though, proactive instead of too late.
Villa looked threatening and I think they'll stay up, McGinn in particular was a livewire throughout. I hope they do survive, as I'd love to return to Villa Park, a proper football stadium! Fans on the way out all seemed very reasonable, honest and fair - don't believe everything you see on a forum!"
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For me Engels was in a class of his own today, faultless. Think I would go with a 5-3-2 against Everton, bring in the new full backs to get forward quicker than Taylor and Elmo, don't get me wrong thought both were ok but not like modern day full backs need to be, and play Jack closer to wes, utv