Aston Villa v Newcastle United Post-Match Thread

[TonyD]

Looks like Lester Piggott might be looking for a new job soon - any takers?

[The Situation]

Shots on Target:
Villa 2
Newcastle 6

Attempts on goal:
Villa 7
Newcastle 7

Corners:
Villa 4
Newcastle 9

Pass success rate:
Villa 73%
Newcastle 83%

Possession:
Villa 41.2%
Newcastle 58.8%

lol

Why 'lol'? 
A Villa fan says, 'maybe not one of our best performances' and looks at the possible reasons.  I can't find a lot to 'lol' about, but I can discuss what the problems today seemed to have been, rejoice in Gabby's goal and look for a way forward.

Break open a coconut from one of those bloody palm trees, add the milk to a cocktail of your choice and look to a stimulating discussion about what it will take to flatten Bolton and QPR!

I'm not a big stat person but in this case I do think the stats are an accurate reflection of today's game. Defensively we were pretty sound but going forward is a big weakness for us right now.

And yes, hopefully we can beat Bolton in the cup during the week. A win would be really good and I think I could look forward to the QPR game more. I will take your advice and go and make a Pina Colada and chill out...

[Louzie0]

Shots on Target:
Villa 2
Newcastle 6

Attempts on goal:
Villa 7
Newcastle 7

Corners:
Villa 4
Newcastle 9

Pass success rate:
Villa 73%
Newcastle 83%

Possession:
Villa 41.2%
Newcastle 58.8%

lol

Those stats are pretty depressing.  Newcastle are an average side at best.

The thing is, if those stats are reversed in our favour I would be positive about today. We may not of won but if we had put in a performance which matched the good stats I wouldn't feel too down because I will never slam the team if we play well because I can take postives out of the game knowing we did well and that we'll hopefully get better.

Today though I just can't see any postives apart from the defence being pretty stable like it's been since game 1.

We really need to work hard on keeping possession of the ball, pressing the opposition instead of casually passing it around, be more clinical in front of goal and MORE SHOTS ON GOAL. It's quite simple, the more shots you have on goal, it's more likely you're going to score than not... unless you only have 3 shots on target but score all of them.

Agree.   
And I still don't know why we got rid of Makoun. We need talented midfield players like him to confound the opposition and most importantly, put through those passes to Bent and other forwards running through.  Can we still get him back?

Will mix another pina colada and join you in spirit.  With a little umbrella!

[ktvillan]

I think we are not half as bad as some are making out. Newcastle played quite well, we played ok and in fairness could have scored a couple more ourselves, but it is being made out that we got a lucky goal and then sat on our 18 yard line, which is total nonsense.

Biggest issue was NZogbia, who is clearly not up to pace, so Albrighton should be starting in place of him. Bannan did well, but Delph IMO was very poor today, and Jenas can't be fit soon enough. Midfield wise we are light and short of experienced quality and it showed with Cabeye looking a hell of a player for them. Hutton needs some time to settle, and Bent needs to play himself back into form and fitness.

Given is top drawer. Totally brilliant, and way better than Big Brad was. I think people need to look at it objectively though, 2 unbeaten sides stayed unbeaten, and either could have won it. Hardly wrist slashing time. We will get about 50 points, which would be about what we would expect this season.

This tallies with my view far more than the rather more critical posts of almost everyone else.   Except I can't see why Delph is coming in for so much flak, I thought he broke up play quite well and brought it out of defence intelligently on occasion.

They were two evenly matched teams, and I thought it was a fairly entertaining game. We didn't hoof it, except for a short period before half time, and we tried to play a passing game from what I could see.  Both sides had periods in the ascendency, and it could have gone either way.  The excellent Given (a big improvement on Brad in my view) saved us a couple of times,and Bent could have wrapped it up for us.  The move to set up that chance was sublime, and he won't have a better chance all season.

Weaker links today, I thought Hutton didn't look up to speed and  Zog  has been poor all season.  I thought Ireland showed some very nice touches when he came on.

Pardew reckoned they should have won on SSN, Le Tissier's less partisan view was that he was talking bollocks.
The result wasn't ideal and we are drawing too many matches but, but Newcastle are 4th and unbeaten and I think there are some positive signs. Certainly not as depressing as some would make out.




 

[andyh]

I must be on my own reading the comments about Bannan today.
I thought he was very poor, the game passed him by.
He made the odd good pass, but generally I thought he looked well out of sorts.
By comparisson I though Stan was excellent. He was motivated and motivating. Problem is, he was doing the work of 3 because Delph and Bannan are far too lightweight.

As for super Shay, well, he was man of the match by a mile.
Problem is, you don't really want your goalie being MOTM, do you ?

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Biggest noise from the crowd today was for God at half time.
Second biggest noise of the day were the usual suspects booing at the full time whistle.

All rather flat today but I am still not sure which way things are going to turn, whether all these draws will start turning into wins or defeats.

I am not usually one to start targetting individuals, but on the evidence so far.....N'Zogbia, why ?

[Monty]

I've said it before, but those saying McLeish at least builds a solid defence ignore the fact that, under his management, goalkeepers seem to get a lot of attention and praise. The truth is that he doesn't build a solid defence, he just sits everyone back, which is a very long way from the same thing.

He just can't get it together, can he. He plays the right system, but plays Heskey where he should play Bannan. Heskey gets injured, he plays Bannan but out of position in some garbage system where we never have the ball for him to use it in the first place.

Here's the problem with the 4-4-2 as we played it today. In possession, the midfield is far too isolated from the attack and doesn't have enough options on the ball to really keep it. Certainly our midfield's forte is not physical strength, and we were inevitably outmuscled against Tiote and Cabaye. To make up for this we should have played to our strength, which is put three in midfield and work the ball around them, especially with Bannan. We didn't do this, the forwards were largely isolated, and Bannan's only set-up for Gabby came when he drifted well in-field of his own volition.

Out of possession, the system doesn't allow us to put pressure on the ball further back for them, because of the risk of being bypassed in the midfield. The forwards were largely redundant without the ball, being bypassed and the absence of other players further back opened up space for them in attack, while their isolation from the rest of the team rendered their effectiveness on the counter negligible, our punts up to them on the break more often than not resulting in losing the ball and inviting the pressure on again.

All in all, a slightly depressing vicious circle, and the feeling that he can't quite get everything right was summed up for me when he brought on the two right players but brought off the two wrong ones. It was a bizarre substitution and summed up the situation for me.

[Salsa Party Animal]

We are unbeaten for 8 league game if you include 2 wins against Liverpool/Arsenal and draw with wigan.  But that is last season. I always believe if the midfield is right the team is good, and our midfield is not. I don't think we have a good midfield for long time.

[Blackcountry Villa]

I said before the Fulham game that Petrov and Delph is a piss poor central midfield and if that was the best we had then we would struggle big time this season. Petrov is past it and Delph is shit.

[KRS]

How long will it be until we hear the words "Aston Villa" and "draw specialists" being spouted in the media?

MON was criticised for having too many draws which pretty much cost us a CL place...under AM so far, I'd rather we'd lost 2 and won 2 instead of the 4 draws, and we'd be sitting in 4th place with 9pts. More realistically, if we'd won and lost just one more instead of 2 of the draws, we may not have our unbeaten record but we'd in 5th with 8pts and no doubt witnessed some more exciting football.

As it stands, we are unbeaten with 7pts in 7th place but with our next 2 games against QPR and Wigan, AM really needs to but some wins on the table otherwise serious questions will need to be asked...with that being said, yes we are due a win but we are also due a loss so lets hope it wont come till at least Man City away.

[Vanilla]

It seemed like we were the away team, giving them loads of space in midfield, then counter attacking, getting a goal, and spending most of the second half with 10 men behind the ball. They will feel aggrieved they didn't win.

If we draw every game between now and the end of season, is it still possible to avoid relegation.

[Rigadon]

I said before the Fulham game that Petrov and Delph is a piss poor central midfield and if that was the best we had then we would struggle big time this season. Petrov is past it and Delph is shit.

Bollocks is Delph 'shit'.  He's a kid with bags of talent. 

[garyshawsknee]

I had to turn off 5 live halfway through the second half,couldnt take them praising Newcastle anymore. Feel sorry for the poor folk who went.

 Then again,this shouldnt really be a suprise with our squad and manager,were a stodgy old team,and when we play the better teams,then we'll really get an idea of how good we are.

At least were the first team on my three draw accumalator.

[Blackcountry Villa]

I said before the Fulham game that Petrov and Delph is a piss poor central midfield and if that was the best we had then we would struggle big time this season. Petrov is past it and Delph is shit.

Bollocks is Delph 'shit'.  He's a kid with bags of talent. 

Bags of talent my arse, in league one he had yes but he's not a Premier League player. He charges round like a headless chicken, he can't tackle and he gives the ball away more than anyone i've seen. Him and Petrov will get dominated in almost every game we play this season.

[lennythekad]

Anyway, what happened to the greatest fans in the world today?. Couldn't have been more than 1800 tops. Mind you, they still made more noise than we did.