Villa 3-0 West Ham: Post Match Thread

[PeterWithesShin]

So no equality for 2 Villa players then is the consensus. Nice.

That's exactly it. But, it's just as it should be.

If Sidwell plays the next game and is fairly rubbish then it will be pounced on because he is always rubbish.

If Petrov plays the next game and is fairly rubbish then it be excused because he is usually very good.

Dunne screwing up in the Carling Cup Final last year was excused because it was an anomaly rather than a regular thing.

As Paulie says, credit in the bank.

I agree about credit in the bank when a player has a poor game, but my point is Carew is being praised for doing what Heskey does pretty much every game he plays for us, but he receives no praise. Rather than saying Carew should be slated for his performance.

Maybe i'm just shite at getting my point across.

[paul_e]

I see your point and kind of agree but the reality is Heskey wouldn't even have been in the position to miss the 4 chances John had, so with Carew it's like he failed at his primary job but he did his backup role very well.  If heskey plays he's doing the hold up donkey work as his primary job and scoring goals as his secondary job, so he's less likely to be praised for doing what he's put there for, a heskey hat trick (I know flying pigs, etc) would draw a lot of praise, but holding play up, etc doesn't as that's the only thing any expects him to bring.

[Toronto Villa]

So no equality for 2 Villa players then is the consensus. Nice.

That's exactly it. But, it's just as it should be.

If Sidwell plays the next game and is fairly rubbish then it will be pounced on because he is always rubbish.

If Petrov plays the next game and is fairly rubbish then it be excused because he is usually very good.

Dunne screwing up in the Carling Cup Final last year was excused because it was an anomaly rather than a regular thing.

As Paulie says, credit in the bank.

I agree about credit in the bank when a player has a poor game, but my point is Carew is being praised for doing what Heskey does pretty much every game he plays for us, but he receives no praise. Rather than saying Carew should be slated for his performance.

Maybe i'm just shite at getting my point across.

It's not just about credit, but it's the fact that in 4 years of being at the club, Carew has (injuries aside) been pretty solid in front of goal. Yesterday was one of those days, and he'd bag 2 or 3 of those chances any other time. We just know from experience that Heskey probably wouldn't have yesterday or any other day.

[Monty]

It's true, Carew's chance/goal ratio is usually very good. Personally I don't see him as first choice, but much like England have Defoe and Man Utd Owen to bring off the bench and start on the odd game, we have Carew. He's an extremely useful substitute, as he not only gives us that extra aerial threat but is also a very good finisher.

[Pete3206]

And yet, Carew was our top scorer last season.

[sendô WHU]

Terrible start to the season for us. I haven't been able to bring myself to watch the highlights yet so I don't know whether we were that bad or Villa were that good, although you got to wonder why are we playing 4-3-3 and why is Grant playing the same players that did so bad last season?

Disappointed to hear Green getting roundly booed by the home fans aswell. Then it doesn't take a lot to get booed at a football match these days.

[Drummond]

Well I thought Saturday's performance was about as good as it gets from the Villa. We hammered them. There were positive performances all over the pitch and a great result.

The players seemed to have the shackles released and although the opposition was rubbish, we were way too good.

There were players playing in their natural positions and they all really wanted it (barring a tackle that Milner pulled out of) which was a joy to see.

Clark and Albrighton were really good and didn't look at all out of place, Carew's touch wasn't the best but you can bet that they really didn't enjoy playing against him. Petrov got forward and did what he was always good at for his previous teams, Young got all over the place and Downing was positive.

In general, you can forgive the mistakes across the pitch because of the way we went about it; if some of those errors had happened under MON, we'd have moaned, not because it was a different person in charge but because the rest of the performance was so poor and unimaginative that a mistake could be pounced on as a way of fans venting their frustration, rather than being a little error in an otherwise positive performance.

[Hookeysmith]

A few things stood out for me

The attitude and "togetherness" the players showed in the tunnel prior to come out to train.

at 70 mins when the sub board went up - JC looked over and smiled when he realised it was not him coming off

Petrov - superb driving run into the box for his goal - He did it on his forst game against WH 4 years ago and never got into the box since - long may it continue

The confidence in the youngsters was superb

Some of the one touch football in periods was a total joy to watch

Yes WH were shit but my god we would have done most teams today

and finally David "midget" Golds face at the end of the game was a picture

[Concrete John]

Good result and excellent performance.  I think Young playing in that free role gave us more passing options, which isn't a big difference to what we've seen in the past when playing with a five.  What was different was a greater impetus about it, which might be from having a player like Young in the central area and slightly ahead of where Petrov/NRC/Sidwell would ususally play.

Biggest plus was Albrighton.  Some will probably say that Martin wouldn't have played him or that he should have been given more time last season.  I'd disagree on both accounts as he looked a LOT better Saturday than he did last season - I think his time has come and it's now up to him.

You usually expect a reaction after a manager goes and Kevin Mac certainly got that.  But in the same way I was arguing we shouldn't be overly despondent after Wigan this time last year, I won't get carried away with an easy home victory over a poor west Ham side as there will be much more difficult tests for us as the season progresses.  As I said in another thread if he goes and beats Vienna and then Newcastle, the job's his as far as I'm concerned!

On the minus side, Carew didn't have one of his better games and it once again highlights our need for a striker.  Also, I thought for a game we dominated and were so good in, West Ham did get through us once or twice, so a slight worry about the defence despite the clean sheet.  We have players to come back in there, but it does need to be noticed that there is room for improvement.

Still, a solid 8/10 for me overall!     

[Mazrim]

Terrible start to the season for us. I haven't been able to bring myself to watch the highlights yet so I don't know whether we were that bad or Villa were that good, although you got to wonder why are we playing 4-3-3 and why is Grant playing the same players that did so bad last season?

Disappointed to hear Green getting roundly booed by the home fans aswell. Then it doesn't take a lot to get booed at a football match these days.

Sorry Sendo but when people say it could have been 10 - 0 its not an exagreration.
John Carew could have had 6 0r 7 and was unusually wasteful in front of goal.

The booing of Green was silly but without venom. Just pantomime stuff really.

[JJ-AV]

Have we not put the post-match pictures up on the OS yet?

I love looking at them...

[frank]

Disappointed to hear Green getting roundly booed by the home fans aswell. Then it doesn't take a lot to get booed at a football match these days.

We had the same with Carson, sendô. He was booed wherever he went for the rest of the season after his mistake against Croatia - probably at Upton Park too.

[pablopicasso_10]

was it the west ham fans who were burning an effigy of beckham after his sending off?

all fans will boo opposition england fans, conveniently ignoring their own fuck ups... nature of the beast...

[VillaAlways]

I've got to say I felt sorry for the lad.He looked broken

[Concrete John]

Must say I wasn't happy with the booing and didn't join in with it.  He's a decent keeper who made one mistake in a game that England didn't lose.  Will those players who did a lot more to damage their country's chance in the World Cup, by being crap and not caring, recieve a similar reception?