Aston Villa vs Stevenage Humiliation Post-Mortem

[Durham58]

Arteta made 7 changes tonight to face a side a league above Stevenage. He has included a few younger players which Emery didn't do. Difference being they are taking care of business and we didn't. That's on the players. Our side was good enough to beat a league two opponent.

I don't see how this is analogous as Arsenals squad is clearly superior to ours and in any event the FA Cup isn't their priority , whereas it should have been ours. The side we picked was of course  technically still good enough to win, but we could have picked a side that would almost certainly have won, which is what makes Sunday's defeat all the more frustrating as it was so avoidable.

[pauliewalnuts]

Not sure how five league games, 3 wins 1 draw 1 defeat, including beating Man United, Spurs away and Brighton at their place is “going backwards” by any standard we’ve reached in recent years.

Yeah I’d rather still be in both cups too but I’m much more concerned about not being on the cusp of the relegation places, and looking up the table rather than down given the constant diet of liquid cat shit we were force fed under Carpethead and his Neanderthal methods.

[Drummond]

Not sure how five league games, 3 wins 1 draw 1 defeat, including beating Man United, Spurs away and Brighton at their place is “going backwards” by any standard we’ve reached in recent years.

Yeah I’d rather still be in both cups too but I’m much more concerned about not being on the cusp of the relegation places, and looking up the table rather than down given the constant diet of liquid cat shit we were force fed under Carpethead and his Neanderthal methods.

Yep, I agree. I think part of the difficulty is that over the last few home games we've been served up some shit; defeats to Liverpool and Stevenage, a scraped draw to Wolves. It builds up and pisses people off. ManUtd feels like fucking ages ago right now, and the vast majority of us don't get to go to away games so missed them.

[tomd2103]

Have gone through a few stages after Sunday.  There was the initial shock of sitting in the North Stand watching it unfold and then that was followed by anger at the complete lack,of professionalism shown by the players in those final minutes. 

Probably now at the head scratching phase of how players who are pretty much all capped internationally, could be so stupid to let that happen to them.  They were a rabble by the end, culminating in the terrible organisation defending that corner.

[john e]

Something that is forgotten by managers and players is the knock on effect when going out of the FA Cup to a team like Stevenage

Obviously they don’t give a shit about the FA Cup,  It won’t affect them at all but for us fans it puts us on a downer, look at all the posts on here regarding Emery’s tactics and selections,
He and the team have thought that on themselves

There’s a game on Friday night against Leeds I’m still pissed off about last weekends shitshow  I will go because I’m a ST holder but if I wasn’t I reckon I might have given it a miss with a If they can’t be arsed why should I attitude

I know this is only a temporary feeling, but just when you think things have just  turned positive for Villa with the new appointment The whole thing blows up into a world of negativity.
for them it blows over but for us fans it goes deep

I personally don’t think managers and players will ever understand how supporters feel

[Rigadon]

Something that is forgotten by managers and players is the knock on effect when going out of the FA Cup to a team like Stevenage

Obviously they don’t give a shit about the FA Cup,  It won’t affect them at all but for us fans it puts us on a downer, look at all the posts on here regarding Emery’s tactics and selections,
He and the team have thought that on themselves

There’s a game on Friday night against Leeds I’m still pissed off about last weekends shitshow  I will go because I’m a ST holder but if I wasn’t I reckon I might have given it a miss with a If they can’t be arsed why should I attitude

I know this is only a temporary feeling, but just when you think things have just  turned positive for Villa with the new appointment The whole thing blows up into a world of negativity.
for them it blows over but for us fans it goes deep

I personally don’t think managers and players will ever understand how supporters feel

They might not completely get supporters, but they certainly understand the importance of momentum to any sports team.  I said after the game on Sunday that the result could dent momentum, which in my view would be miles worse than another year of cup shit-ness.  We will see on Friday I suppose.  Win that and we're properly looking up at a potential run on 6th or 7th (I know, be still your beating hearts, but fuck me it's better than recent history and might, just night enable us to sign some better players in the summer).

[Bad English]

So they are implementing the manager's tactics and game plan.aftet being chosen by the aforementioned to do so?  Marvellous!

He's been here for 3 months like

Indeed. And he has regularly mentioned how he has been working on tactics, roles, instructions and strategy. I'd expect experienced footballers to be getting to grips with that, especially against 4th division sides.

That's on the players then isn't it. I think the idea that a manager walks into a club mid season, when the team is in a mess, and immediately everything just clicks is just fucking stupid. We've clearly improved overall, and there seems to to be a lack of ability to understand that teams aren't built immediately.
He hasn't got a single of his signings in the team yet, there isn't a manager alive who would click his fingers and get perfect performances from them straight away.
Even if emery had given zero tactics before Sunday, I'd expect international players to dispatch a 4th division side, it's mostly on them.

I'm also sick of hearing "He's meant to be a cup specialist"
Personally, I'm in no immediate rush to get European football, wolves and west ham are good examples of why not. Building a top 8 team is tricky and requires time. Sunday was fucking gash, but can we try and start putting a bit more faith in the manager, we've got a good one for the first time in a fucking lifetime

I don't think anybody are expecting it all to click upon Emery's arrival, I think most people have said it is on the useless wankers who pull their boots on players who are. I and others onhave definitely said, Emery should have selected a stronger team to start (with hindsight, after the game, obviously). Have been talking about Europe on this thread, I may have missed that? Most of it seems to be centred on 7 years of no progress in the FA Cup, which is very annoying indeed. Emery made his selection, they didn't do the job. Many are pissed off. I don't feel you can exempt Emery from criticism because he is paid to select and a team tell them what to do. We all know they 'should' have won but they didn't, hence the need to moan a bit.

[coreyfeldman]

[/quote]
I don't think anybody are expecting it all to click upon Emery's arrival, I think most people have said it is on the useless wankers who pull their boots on players who are. I and others onhave definitely said, Emery should have selected a stronger team to start (with hindsight, after the game, obviously). Have been talking about Europe on this thread, I may have missed that? Most of it seems to be centred on 7 years of no progress in the FA Cup, which is very annoying indeed. Emery made his selection, they didn't do the job. Many are pissed off. I don't feel you can exempt Emery from criticism because he is paid to select and a team tell them what to do. We all know they 'should' have won but they didn't, hence the need to moan a bit.
[/quote]

The european stuff wasn't necessarily aimed at you, but other posters complaining that cups are our best european shot and that with his selection he's thrown that away.
The argument seems to be that you either think emery fucked up for not selecting a full strength squad, or that you understand why he didn't, I fall into the latter category.

With cup selections, for better or worse, in the earliest rounds almost no premier league team ever selects a full strength team any more, even when playing other premier league teams, eve championship teams rotate their squad. Rotation isn't just about resting players, it's about preventing injury and also giving minutes to players who don't normally. You need to do that as if Martinez were to get injured we would have to rely on Olsen, and he is shit yes, but he will hopefully be less shit if he's played more. That's the theory, same with chambers/dendoncker/augistinsson. If we'd have played full strength, won and mings or martinez had got injured, it would be a massive problem for our season and had such a negative impact it would outdo winning that game on balance IMO.
Sundays game was lost not because olsen, but because our expensive forwards were absolute fucking clowns all game, as a manager, what can you do about that? My only criticism would be that K Young should have got minutes but he hasn't played at all yet so we don't know.
You either understand why rotation is necessary and part of the modern game, or you just think emery should never do that, seems to be what it comes down to

[devilla]

We did our usual stroll around the ground on Sunday. I always like to see what exotic cars are in the player's car park. This time there was a 4 x 4 Lamborghini with a matt khaki paint job. Typical footballer's car I thought but after the game my thoughts were quite different.

I wondered which one of those lazy, indolent arrogant players still gets to drive home in that car after a casual stroll around the pitch which to him, counted as a day's work.

Made me seethe.

[olaftab]

[Villa being Villa in the FA cup but you don't expect it at home against Stevenage . The manager and half hearted players need to have a complete rethink .

Let's not forget the shambolic first half against Wolves this week.

We're going backwards

3 wins out of 5 is not backwards though is it

However it’s not 3 wins from 5 it’s 3 from 7 with 3 defeats including this humiliation.