Aston Villa v Fulham Post-Match Thread

[pauliewalnuts]

Sidwell ran the show? I noticed him once or twice when he smashed the ball miles wide.

I agree, he looked every bit as anonymous as he did in his weekly fifteen minute cameos for us.

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Sidwell ran the show? I noticed him once or twice when he smashed the ball miles wide.

I agree, he looked every bit as anonymous as he did in his weekly fifteen minute cameos for us.

What makes it worse is the giant beacon he has on his head. He'd make an excellent thief.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Sidwell ran the show? I noticed him once or twice when he smashed the ball miles wide.

I agree, he looked every bit as anonymous as he did in his weekly fifteen minute cameos for us.

What makes it worse is the giant beacon he has on his head. He'd make an excellent thief.

Well he robbed us every week of £40k for doing sweet FA.

[Mister E]

I didn't think we were anywhere near as bad as is being made out in the first few pages of posts. We didn't create enough, which is a disappointment given the amount of talent in our side, but we played patient progressive football, albeit within ourselves, and an on form Fulham side were very much second best, our lack of concentration gifted them a share of the points.

There were some very promising displays from Downing and Walker and Makoun was superb, I'd like to see how he does with a more defensive partner beside him and him playing further forward, those one touch passes with him closer to our pacy players may see teams being opened up more regularly.

I seem to be in a minority that saw Petrov as being decent, certainly he looked a bit ponderous in posession but his defensive work was sound.

Correct - the issue was not making the most of the first-half possession to create meaningful goalscoring opportunities. We should have been done and dusted by half-time.
Petrov played okay, but as Chris S said above, we should be making the most of the subbs on the bench to inject second-half energy.
For me, the poorest Villa player yesterday was Richard Dunne.

[JUAN PABLO]

  Just got back.

  Friedel, should certainly done better with the 1st, not much to do really.

  Walker......great goal, a goal a midfielder should have scored, can't see Petrov doing that.Played well.

  Clark.....thought he was poor today, too slow with the passing, always turning to play the ball back, did'nt open the game up.

  Dunne and Collins......never in any trouble today for me , and yet the opposition score 2 goals.

  Petrov........too pedestrian, the 2nd goal came from him passing responsibility onto somebody else.His time has come and gone.Never been a big fan, but not getting any better.

  Makoun......quality player, always got a pass on, always an option.Great signing tbh.

  Downing.....typical Downing, some good parts, but never convinces me.Lacks a bit of consistency in the final 1/3rd for me.

  Gabby.......starting to worry about Gabby, Bent does'nt like a partner, so Gabby has to play more like an inside foward.Not sure he has the brains to do that.His movement off the ball is non-existant.

  AYoung.......runs a lot, works hard, has'nt got a killer final ball.No assists, no attempts again.Went on the wing, no decent crosses.Starting to question why he's ahead of Albrighton tbh.

  Bent,.......not sure he was offside tbh, apart from that should have done better with that chance in the 2nd half.Good movement off the ball, needs to be picked out better.

 
 We should have held on after going 2- 1 up, gave them far too much space in midfield, and did'nt create enough chances.Badly need a LB , and need to replace Petrov in midfield.

pretty spot on that...

[Villa'Zawg]

Well, stat fans, JIIM was once again our highest passer - 73 passes, 61 of which were completed.

Someone has created a Chalkboard of Makoun's passes yesterday and given it a description of "Makoun's good passing but lack of penetration in the last 1/3rd", which is pretty accurate.

Makoun's passes - Clicky

[Dr_Fegg]

Why can we not just play wingers on their correct side. I'm sick of seeing downing on the right, ash in the middle and gabby on the left. Lets play them in the correct positions and have them putting pressure on the fullbacks by going forward and, god forbid, getting crosses in for Bent?!

And Petrov - should have been subbed at halftime and thats being kind. Lets see how Bradley does against Blackpool (or NRC), play 4411 with Gabby off Bent.

I'd also rest Dunne and play Carlos just to keep everyone on their toes.

[TonyD]

Don't understand the proper football of today. No real ideas, terrible positioning of players, very late ineffective subs and to top all that more than desperate tactics at the end. I'm afraid that all who are waiting for the summer to finally have a real GH team will be up for a disappointment - nothing much will change. This is simply what the guy has to offer. I pray that I am wrong, as otherwise, baring in mind the persistence of the board with the current manager, it will be a waste of good two years.
By the way, is it only my feeling that McAlister brings almost nothing to this team?

I think you could be right.

[UsualSuspect]

Why can we not just play wingers on their correct side. I'm sick of seeing downing on the right, ash in the middle and gabby on the left. Lets play them in the correct positions and have them putting pressure on the fullbacks by going forward and, god forbid, getting crosses in for Bent?!

And Petrov - should have been subbed at halftime and thats being kind. Lets see how Bradley does against Blackpool (or NRC), play 4411 with Gabby off Bent.

I'd also rest Dunne and play Carlos just to keep everyone on their toes.

Agree entirely

I'm a halfwit and if I can see that AY doesn't work in the hole and that Gabby isnt a winger and that I can shit faster than Petrov then why can't our management team

[TonyD]

Why can we not just play wingers on their correct side. I'm sick of seeing downing on the right, ash in the middle and gabby on the left. Lets play them in the correct positions and have them putting pressure on the fullbacks by going forward and, god forbid, getting crosses in for Bent?!

And Petrov - should have been subbed at halftime and thats being kind. Lets see how Bradley does against Blackpool (or NRC), play 4411 with Gabby off Bent.

I'd also rest Dunne and play Carlos just to keep everyone on their toes.
[/quote

Agree entirely

I'm a halfwit and if I can see that AY doesn't work in the hole and that Gabby isnt a winger and that I can shit faster than Petrov then why can't our management team

I think you and 1'000s of others would love to ask GH these questions.  He is fast becoming very frustrating.   

[KevinGage]

For the first 35+ minutes, Fulham were as bad a side as I've seen at Villa Park since Bolton and Hull at home last year.

Sometimes you can just tell when a side doesn't fancy it, and good teams exploit that to the full. Unfortunately, we're not a good team. And our failure to make that early pressure tell invited even an outfit as poor as Fulham back into it.

A win yesterday and we could have had realistic thoughts about top 8 - possibly even sneaking 6th if Sunderland and a few others gobbed it.

Now, with our own poor result and the way others have gone these past few days, I'm pretty certain we'll be involved in the struggle at the other end of the table. If nothing else, this period will show whether we have the balls to fight and grind out results. The sheer volume of late goals we've conceded might indicate a shortfall in that department.

[Legion]

We'll be mid-table.

[hawkeye]

Well, stat fans, JIIM was once again our highest passer - 73 passes, 61 of which were completed.

Someone has created a Chalkboard of Makoun's passes yesterday and given it a description of "Makoun's good passing but lack of penetration in the last 1/3rd", which is pretty accurate.

Makoun's passes - Clicky

Good analisys, lack of penetration but he does make himself available to recieve the ball and moves it quickly, i dont think we have had this type of player at The  Villa

[tarzansbrother]

I wonder if Bannan could penetrate and take advantage of Makouns obvious ability.

[UsualSuspect]

The thing that concerns me most is that by playing 3 players out of position to the extent we do we are really playing with 8/9 men. We nearly came unstuck against against Fulham and better team have and will punish us.

I would love to see what we actually work on in training