Aston Villa v Reading Post-Match Thread

[LeeB]

I honestly can't believe some of the shite I've read on this board this morning.

I went last night, and came home happy seeing a very young side get a vital win under pressure, yet because we didn't rip apart a team one place below us we're going to hell in a handcart and the manager doesn't know what he's doing because he didn't pick someone who by conventional wisdom should play.

We fucking won.

Yes, which is lovely but we played fucking shite.

I've seen worse, from better sides.

[The Man With A Stick]

Would be great if Albrighton could go out on loan to somewhere like Derby or Forest for a few months, to see if he can get some confidence back.  There's a good player in there somewhere.  He's only going to improve if he gets a regular starting place though and we can't afford to do that in our position.

[Mister E]

Interesting stats there, PeterWithesShin, I think they back up the case for Bannan not having the awful match some here and in the stadium would claim.

Have to say I was surprised, if not shocked, by the crowd's reaction to every misplaced pass/decision to turn and hold onto the ball etc.

BB was my MOTM for the first half (perhaps along with Holman): his game seemed to tail away through the game (not helped by Roberts' forearm smash midway through the 2nd half).


EDIT: okay, I forgot about his attmept at  dribbling out of his own box which nearly resulted in a goal for Reading. However, he learned from that and cleared his lines well the next time!

[MoetVillan]

BB that thought he was playing for Reading for the first half?  That BB?  The crowds reaction was not shocking, as they gave him time, but as you rightly said "every misplaced pass, decision to turn etc", because thay were pretty much all wrong, certainly at pressure points (either on the break, or when Reading were pressing.  He may well have hit accurate passes when he wasnt under pressure, but even Marc can do that

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

We have all seen we can pass the ball well, yet we stop passing when a few passes go wrong and the crowd get on their back. They look shot of confidence when something does come off for them. I remember a while back when Brendan Rogers, whilst at Swansea, commented something on the lines of how he didn't mind players losing the ball if they were trying to pass the ball - but our fans are nothing like Brendan Rogers. So what if a pass goes astray, give them a chance, don't get on their backs after 1 or 2 mistakes, encourage them to keep trying, because they've shown they can do it.

As we stopped passing it, we hoofed it many a time to Benteke and hoped something would come of it (he seemed like he was everywhere tonight and deserved his MOM award).

Westwood and, particularly, Bannan, came in for some stick last night when some passes went a bit wrong. When they make a good pass, nobody is shouting out loud what a good pass it is.

Having said that, when Albrighton blasted a cross over the bar, I did call him a useless ****** and a Championship player at best, but he's shown this for the last 2/3 seasons, so I'm exempting myself from my own critisicm of the fans here ;-)

Need to do better, need to be more confident.

I can imagine with PL's Norwich, having come from where they were (Division 1), they were much more prepared to let their team play and make mistakes, but unfortunately PL won't get that here, but then we are in a totally different position to where he took on the Norwich job.

[nigel]

I honestly can't believe some of the shite I've read on this board this morning.

I went last night, and came home happy seeing a very young side get a vital win under pressure, yet because we didn't rip apart a team one place below us we're going to hell in a handcart and the manager doesn't know what he's doing because he didn't pick someone who by conventional wisdom should play.

We fucking won.

Yes, which is lovely but we played fucking shite.

IMO, the result was far more important than the performance last night.
What would it have been like had we ripped them apart and lost 1-0?
Reading came not to lose and frustrated us, they very nearly succeeded against a very young, inexperienced team.

[Concrete John]

A few observations:-

That was the first time this season we've played poorly and managed to get a positive result.  There have been plenty of times (Man Utd and Newcastle immediately spring to mind) where we've played well and deserved more, so I'm not going to get too down about the overall performance.

Is it me or is Bannan becoming a PL 'favourite'?  All managers have them and he had a stinker last night and I still can't believe he stayed on the pitch when we made that double substitution.  I also noticed his set peices were awful and we waited too long to switch Westwood onto corners and guess what happened when we did?

Over the last 5 games we've picked up 7 points and kept 3 clean sheets.  When you factor in that the only goals against and losses came against the top 2, then it does look like our form has picked up.

[PaulWinch again]

That had occured to me too, which is why I'm not too concerned about the performance. We've played well this season and not won, last night we played poorly and won. You need to be able to get results when you're not on top form and we managed that. There are much better performances in the tank. However Ireland and Bent should be involved.

[pauliewalnuts]

We have all seen we can pass the ball well, yet we stop passing when a few passes go wrong and
I can imagine with PL's Norwich, having come from where they were (Division 1), they were much more prepared to let their team play and make mistakes, but unfortunately PL won't get that here, but then we are in a totally different position to where he took on the Norwich job.

Quite right, the dynamics of a bigger club on a downward slope, trying to stay safe are totally different from a newly promoted one doing the same.

In terms of the crowd, I thought it sounded supportive last night. Sure, there were times when they'd get on players backs if they misplaced passes, but lets not forget, this is a crowd which had seen their team win twice in very nearly a year.

The days of 60,000 people packed into a ground, sucking the ball into the net with their support are over, football has changed.

[Mazrim]

Bannan's corners were pretty good at times and had Clark and Baker been a fraction closer with a couple of them could have resulted in a goal or two. But his overall play was hit and miss. That's what you get with Bannan though. I like his attitude in that he won't let it get to him too much and will keep plugging away.

But I'd go with Ireland, Westwood and one of Delph or KEA against QPR personally.
It's a shame Gardner and Johnson are injured because they would be featuring too and would do well in Lambert's system.

[Dave Cooper please]

Where is N'Zog?

Who gives a fuck?

[Pete3206]

Cracking stuff

[QBVILLA]

Bannan's corners were pretty good at times and had Clark and Baker been a fraction closer with a couple of them could have resulted in a goal or two. But his overall play was hit and miss. That's what you get with Bannan though. I like his attitude in that he won't let it get to him too much and will keep plugging away.

But I'd go with Ireland, Westwood and one of Delph or KEA against QPR personally.
It's a shame Gardner and Johnson are injured because they would be featuring too and would do well in Lambert's system.

Bannan did lose possession on several occasions but to be fair to him he is always looking to create rather than pass for the sake of passing. I don't mind that at all. In my opinion Ireland coming on really improved us last night as he brought some craft to accompany the graft.

[Matt Collins]

Bannan was hit and miss, he wasn't awful. The crowd tends to over emphasise the importance of him losing out in a 50/50. I'm not saying he wasn't frustrating, but he also set up some good chances with forward passes to Benteke and Ireland. He's offered more than delph and kea for sure. It's working we'll with him and Westwood. They're going to make mistakes here and there but overall that partnership has been a success. I concentrate more on getting the triumvirate in front of them right. I'm not sure it's suitable for all our games. Nzogbia and Ireland have to come into the reckoning, potentially with a new signing

[Dave Cooper please]

I honestly can't believe some of the shite I've read on this board this morning.

I went last night, and came home happy seeing a very young side get a vital win under pressure, yet because we didn't rip apart a team one place below us we're going to hell in a handcart and the manager doesn't know what he's doing because he didn't pick someone who by conventional wisdom should play.

We fucking won.

Yes, which is lovely but we played fucking shite.

I recorded the game (because I can never watch properly the first time, too nervous and/or distracted by match threads!), and have watched it through this morning. It really wasn't that bad, plenty of promising forward moves spoilt by one bad pass, plenty of chances spurned by Benteke and Weimann and solid defence in the main. We were very nervous though.
 It wasn't pretty and the frustration caused by the misplaced passes was what caused such a furore on the match thread I reckon, but there's plenty to work on in such a young side.
 The two previous games showed we can play decent football, we just need to put the decent football and the result together in one go! It'll come, I'm convinced of it.