Rapid Vienna 1 - 1 Aston Villa - Post Match Thread

[dave.woodhall]

Well, a few of us have to apologise after that. A very good, professional performance that bodes well for the future.

[supertom]

The ref was abysmal. Absolutely shocking.

The back 4 looked ropey. It was slap dash, pieced together, but the best Macca felt we had I guess. I'm surprised Clark didn't play, but perhaps one eye is on the Toon encounter. Warnock in particular was shocking today. Woeful display. Perhaps tiredness, because he worked his nuts off and had a great game against the Hammers. Beye isn't a CB. Davies still falls asleep too often, and Lichaj is inexperienced, without the aid of a real leader like Dunney to help him through. Guzan still needs to reign himself in. He comes for everything, even when he has no right to. He's just a bit too kamikazee for my tastes.

Midfield was a little lightweight. Hogg went about his business quietly and effectively. Don't think there's much chance he'll make the grade. He'll end up a solid league 1-2 player. Championship if very lucky. Nigel was good today, particularly when he kept it simple. In the final 3rd you know he's not gonna do much when he's there. It's pretty much a given.

Bannan was good first half, then ran out of steam. But there's certainly enough potential there. I can see him being a decent squad player for us.

Albrighton was excellent again. Very positive and bust a gut. He ran himself into the ground. Downing had a good game too. Both players will need to score more goals though.

Heskey was poor. Nothing stuck to him. He showed no attacking adventure. The odd bit of decent hold up play, including the goal to be fair, paper over the cracks of what was another mediocre outing. Don't mean to get on him all the time, but like many others, it's just frustrating to watch him fall over so much and have a fear of being inside the 18 yrd box. Sell him, and buy a decent forward with some of the Milner cash. I hope Robbie K is still on the radar.

Overall though, considering the team, we gave a good account of ourselves. I think Kevin Mac has justified his selection, because the main men should be far fresher on sunday for the more pressing matter of the premier league.

[KevinGage]

As disjointed and as shapeless as anything dished up under MON -with any threat we possessed coming largely from the flanks.

In fairness it was practically a reserve side out there.

I would have taken a narrow defeat (with an away goal) when I clocked the line-up, so happy enough all things considered.

I hope if we do make it through to the group stages we pay the competition the respect it deserves, rather than seeing the games as an irrelevance, just another fixture to be fulfilled. It's not the Sherpa Van trophy, or any other similar variation B-lose used to build their season around.

We aren't too big for the UEFA Cup.

[Chris Smith]

KM got a better result than Martin did in the same fixture last year. And, arguably, with a weaker team.

He is going to get the job you know

He just needs to get the same result, we won the home leg last year and I'm not sure it will be a weaker team either.

[olaftab]

Warnock and Davis competed for the worst player on the pitch award today. Davis has stagnated behind belief and Warnock was  just about laziness itself. May be he thinks  as a first choice LB he should have been left at home?

Albrighton, Bannan had a very good game and  Hogg quite but effective. NRC  kept things together in midfield.

KM is lucky that he got away with  a draw despite poor selections. He needs to make sure we pick a decent  team next week to make sure we progress into the League stage.

[olaftab]

Hope we have a new manager in by next week!!

Are you Coopersinjury in disguise?

[asgpaul]

A very good result and a lot of positives to come out of the game tonight.  Valuable experience gained by the younger squad members.  And I'm now of the opinion that Kevin Mac could well do a very good job for us.

[stevenjos]

stevenjos, genuine question. Are you ever going to post anything positive related to Villa? You make it sound like everything's shit.

I posted positive things after the weekend. I said earlier today that resting people was a stupid idea and I was proved right.

[Toronto Villa]

It's going to look a little disjointed when you make that many changes, so we couldn't have expected Saturday's flowing football. Also, Rapid had pretty much a full strength side out. We missed almost all of our big names and still didn't lose. We'll get through this because KM will pick the next team to finish the job off.

[TonyD]

Albrighton is going to be awesome.

[Toronto Villa]

stevenjos, genuine question. Are you ever going to post anything positive related to Villa? You make it sound like everything's shit.

I posted positive things after the weekend. I said earlier today that resting people was a stupid idea and I was proved right.

Proved right? Have I just landed on the bizarro world H&V thread where we just got beat 4-0?

[mozza]

Concerned when I saw the starting line up but KMac knows his players especially the younger ones-

Good to see we aren't afraid to get ball on deck and pass it around-

Barry Bannan's goal was excellent - Super Marc left the full back on his ****

Disappointed with Downing and Davies (first half) -

Weird goal to concede .......both Curtis & Eric Lichaj at fault -

My motm was Jonathon Hogg - very disciplined performance from him

How come Brad Guzan gets caution for first time wasting (no warning) - poor referee

All in all an excellent result ...........it's half time or so the saying goes in European ties

[paul_e]

Decent enough performance, Hogg looked a bit over-awed.  Davies proved again that he can't play alongside a quiet centre half, I think he just needs someone talking to him and bigging him up all game, probably be fine paired with Collins or Dunne but was terrible tonight.

I don't think Warnock was as bad as some are saying, he spent a lot of the game drifting in field to pick up runners who were getting away from Hogg  and Downing.  Heskey was pretty poor, looked tired after half hour and gave far too much possession away after that.  Guzan looks nervous jumping with big men since the blackburn cup games, if he can't get over that I think we'll have to accept he's not going o become the keeper we hoped for.

Bannan and Albrighton looked decent.  They were fantastic for the first 25mins or so but then stopped getting any ball and all the pace went out of our game.

On to the ref.  The guy was well out of his depth, it was truly one of the most incompetent performances I've ever seen.  The amount of free kicks given against us that were actually well times tackles that won the ball was a ridiculous, I can think of 5-6 off my head without watching it back.  Add in Davies and Beye being punished for jumping when their strikers didn't, the handball that wasn't given and the guzan booking and it shows that he just wasn't in any control of the game, at any point.

Finally their fans were an absolute disgrace, throwing water at a player who's being carried off on a stretcher is one of the least sporting things I've ever seen, that it was a young austrian player playing against his childhood team just makes them even more pathetic.  I really hope UEFA see sense and throw the book at the club, they brought shame on the whole club tonight.

[PeterWithesShin]

stevenjos, genuine question. Are you ever going to post anything positive related to Villa? You make it sound like everything's shit.

I posted positive things after the weekend. I said earlier today that resting people was a stupid idea and I was proved right.

Proved right? Have I just landed on the bizarro world H&V thread where we just got beat 4-0?

Apparently TV, a score draw away from home in the first leg in Europe is a disaster.

[Chris Smith]

stevenjos, genuine question. Are you ever going to post anything positive related to Villa? You make it sound like everything's shit.

I posted positive things after the weekend. I said earlier today that resting people was a stupid idea and I was proved right.

How were you proved right? A 1-1 draw in an away leg of a European game is a good result. Sets us up nicely for the return. Are you new to football?