Aston Villa v Palace Post-Match Thread

[Chip Butty 111]

All of our issues this season have been around our defence. A negative goal difference until a couple of weeks ago in the league says it all. Conceding with the opponents first attempt on goal has become a regular thing. Emi standing on the ball for 30 seconds looking around when we are behind..?? Having 70% possession is great, but the better teams have a lot of that in their opponents half, whereas our possession is the defence passing sideways often with little end product. How many touches did Konsa have compared to Watkins? We need a clear out, a reset and a rethink.

[Mark W]

As in, none of us fans. So when did the coaching team know.

That’s the question. I find it hard to believe the master tactician, Emery, wasn’t planning something different with Rashford (who did not start at Palace) and then his plan got b*ggered by a very late injury. His interview response reflected how p’d off he was, but he wasn’t going to make excuses.

[olaftab]

Complete surprise to me when Rashford did not appear for the warm up - anyone know when was he declared unfit? 

Praps playing him on the left wing was going to be Unai's change of tactics against Palace and that injury scr*wed all the week's planning and meant Asensio had to come in and McGinn moved?

Too late to care much, but ....

Out for the season. It was in most of the papers today

Thanks - but when did he/they decide he was unfit?  Was it at start of last week so they had loads of time to prep?  Or was it Friday afternoon/yesterday?  Main pre-match article in yesterday's Guardian was all about the impact Rashford was going to make (and Unai saying he wanted to pair Rashford and Ollie). 
Unai's subsequent reaction to the question about Rashford's injury just seemed more abrupt than normal....   

It's a fair point. As far as I'm aware no one knew he was injured before the team came out.

Didn’t Emery say he has full squad available to choose in his Press Conf on Friday?

[Ian.]

That was what I thought Saturday morning.

[dcdavecollett]

Ah well, though we rightly complain on here about Citeh and Chelsea buying up the league, these three recent results suggest that jeopardy is alive and well at the top level:

Newcastle 5, Palace 0

Villa 4, Newcastle 1

Palace 3, Villa 0.

Sort that little lot out!