Aston Villa v Bradford City Post-Match Thread

[jimmygreen]

'Make sure you pick up your tickets for Newcastle'. You'd think that just once, or at least for tonight the clowns in charge of populating the OS would be able to give it a rest.

[Monty]

Some thoughts about the game: first of all, no matter who it was against (Bradford fucking City!!!) we won it, and we wouldn't have done a few weeks ago. It's nothing to shout about, it's horrible that Aston Villa should have to point to two cup wins against lower league opposition as evidence of improvement (including Ipswich), but it definitely is improvement. And that's sad in itself.

The fact that we were better shows how much of an abomination the first leg was. What we are doing putting ourselves in that position is, frankly, amazing. Fair play to Bradford, but they exploited precisely the same weaknesses as everyone else we've played. In many ways, while their fans' excitement is understandable, frankly I didn't really understand their apparent disbelief - I'd have thought the first leg was evidence enough that, while the team they have beaten is Premier League in status, it is not Premier League in ability.

Time for player by player, so here goes:

Given: not sure if Gordon Banks circa 1968 would have changed the result much.

Lowton: calm in defence but really not enough in attack. In the system we played, he needs to be bombing forward much more, and I thought he was often tentative.
Vlaar: generally good, generally looking frustrated, but it was he who lost his man for their goal, which exposed the weaknesses of our man-to-man system - which are considerable.
Clark: needs a break. He just looks like he hates playing football at the moment.
Bennett: well, he's a brilliant left-winger, but he has the defence abilities of Dr. Crippin. Just horrendous when anywhere near his own goal.

Delph: in and out, but by and large did his job. Should never shoot though, no matter what his reputation, and his final third decision making was non-existent, slow and by and large missed his moments.
Bannan: oh dear. Perhaps the performance which sums up his Villa career. A couple of frankly horrible moments in the opening ten minutes alone, he threatened to be the calm head we needed in midfield but just stopped playing in the second half. He probably needs to leave the club to just mentally resurrect his career. There's a good player in there, but probably not for Villa.
Ireland: tell you what, if he had the same desire to get on the ball as the less-talented Delph and Bannan do we'd have gone through tonight. However, his disinterested drifting and decent moments are just infuriating in the extreme.
N'Zogbia: a brilliant, vibrant first 15-20 minutes, followed by the rest of game's worth of utter dross. You know, we talk a lot about MON wasting money on players, but McLeish spending the percentage of our budget that he did on this man may prove the worst decision of the lot.

Benteke: well he scored, he put himself about, and generally was as much of a handful as he could have been smothered by defenders and starved of service.
Gabby: the weakest link in our weak attack. The ball going to him was just a waste. He is, and has always been, completely and utterly brainless - when he gets the ball and looks up, he doesn't see a football pitch with options, he just sees television static. Inadequate.

Subs: Weimann: we often say how Benteke will be sold if/when we go down, but I think they'll come for Weimann first. He makes things out of nothing, makes difficult things easy, and is just the best natural footballer we have. Hands down.
Bent: well, touched less than the Pope, but that might have a lot to do with that comedy 'creative' midfield behind him. Good flick on for the Weimann goal, to be fair, and showed more bottle than a lot of the team.

Lambert: went all out attack, but the full-backs were either inadequate in attack (Lowton) or completely exposed defensively (Bennett), leaving us without width on one side and with protection on the other. However, most of his mistakes have been made already.

Lerner: please, please, please stop killing our club. You cannot, seriously, you cannot have watched that and though all is well. It's horrible. We're used to tough times, but for God's sake, we're Aston Villa - we are not used to capitulation. It may be too late for you to sort it out - but it is time for you to try your absolute utmost. If not, your name will go down alongside the iniquitous list of Hodge, Hellis and Dowd (and wow, he shouldn't be allowed to referee. In fact, he should be put in jail under Trading Standards laws) as the most hated in recent Villa history. The choice is yours.

I am an unhappy Villan.

[brian green]

Arrived home after horrendous journey there and back.

Three things will stick in my mind about that game.

1.   How weak and physically feeble we were in midfield and in defence.   Just like the first leg of the tie we were out muscled from start to finish.   We have far too many little skinny players or in the case of Ireland a player who is weak and feeble in his attitude to everything he does on the pitch.   Not only are we not good enough we are not strong enough or big enough.

2.   How once again we capitulate when the opposition scores.   That team is completely incapable of coming to terms with the ball going in our net.

3.   Most vivid and lasting impression of all.    That team, that manager, that owner, that chief executive does not deserve the support of fans like that.

Everything but the fan base is an embarrassment. 

[Greg N'Ash]

I resisted the temptation to post my thoughts after the game, I wanted to gather my thoughts and give Bradford the respect they deserve for their victory. I was going to give a huge rant, but, much like some of those arseholes on the pitch wearing the beautiful Villa shirt tonight I can't be arsed. All I will say, is the club I love, and always will love are inept, from the owner, the Chief Executive, the manager and the players. If Barry Bannan and Stephen Ireland in particular wear a Villa shirt again it will be one game too many. They were outplayed by a 36 year old who played for fucking Rochdale... 

Much the same. i'm saying nowt. It's already been said.

[Nii Lamptey]

I'm not a massive fan of Barry Bannan buts he's getting some unfair criticism tonight, he was no worse than any of the other jokers.

Agreed, I'm not a fan either, but i thought he kept the ball moving between players well tonight.

However, he should NEVER be allowed to take set pieces...EVER!

[ktvillan]

Bannan was no worse than many others tonight.

So they practice set pieces every day with man for man marking. Clearly not working so maybe it's time to try zonal marking ?

And a get well soon to TopDeck113's missus

Thing is, in training our attackers are probably practising against our defenders which could explain a lot of things as they're shite at both!

he he fair point mate.  But seriously the man to man thing is causing us problems, Vlaar was so buy watching where his man was going he forgot to check where the ball as, lost his man at the last second and it was in.  Similar happened to Benteke on Saturday, against Fulham away (a point dropped) and Norwich at home (two points dropped).  Trying to follow the man is very very hard unless  you do what Stoke do and wrap your arms around them.  That's another option and Clark has a go with his shirt tugging.  I think the best option is to focus on getting to the ball first.

[Mortimer's Bear]

Arrived home after horrendous journey there and back.

Three things will stick in my mind about that game.

1.   How weak and physically feeble we were in midfield and in defence.   Just like the first leg of the tie we were out muscled from start to finish.   We have far too many little skinny players or in the case of Ireland a player who is weak and feeble in his attitude to everything he does on the pitch.   Not only are we not good enough we are not strong enough or big enough.

2.   How once again we capitulate when the opposition scores.   That team is completely incapable of coming to terms with the ball going in our net.

3.   Most vivid and lasting impression of all.    That team, that manager, that owner, that chief executive does not deserve the support of fans like that.

Everything but the fan base is an embarrassment.

The fans aren't always like that, don't forget it was a cup semi-final. I doubt it will be that full and/or noisy again this season.

[DaveD]

So they practice set pieces every day with man for man marking. Clearly not working so maybe it's time to try zonal marking ?

Err, I don't know why this rarely gets pointed out, but man-to-man is the fundamental. Zonal is an evolution of it. If you can't manage man-to-man, you sure as hell can't pull off zonal.

And as somebody else pointed out earlier, if you're crap at corners at both ends, you ain't never going to get any better, 'cos you're not practising against quality.

[Legion]

Some thoughts about the game: first of all, no matter who it was against (Bradford fucking City!!!) we won it, and we wouldn't have done a few weeks ago. It's nothing to shout about, it's horrible that Aston Villa should have to point to two cup wins against lower league opposition as evidence of improvement (including Ipswich), but it definitely is improvement. And that's sad in itself.

The fact that we were better shows how much of an abomination the first leg was. What we are doing putting ourselves in that position is, frankly, amazing. Fair play to Bradford, but they exploited precisely the same weaknesses as everyone else we've played. In many ways, while their fans' excitement is understandable, frankly I didn't really understand their apparent disbelief - I'd have thought the first leg was evidence enough that, while the team they have beaten is Premier League in status, it is not Premier League in ability.

Time for player by player, so here goes:

Given: not sure if Gordon Banks circa 1968 would have changed the result much.

Lowton: calm in defence but really not enough in attack. In the system we played, he needs to be bombing forward much more, and I thought he was often tentative.
Vlaar: generally good, generally looking frustrated, but it was he who lost his man for their goal, which exposed the weaknesses of our man-to-man system - which are considerable.
Clark: needs a break. He just looks like he hates playing football at the moment.
Bennett: well, he's a brilliant left-winger, but he has the defence abilities of Dr. Crippin. Just horrendous when anywhere near his own goal.

Delph: in and out, but by and large did his job. Should never shoot though, no matter what his reputation, and his final third decision making was non-existent, slow and by and large missed his moments.
Bannan: oh dear. Perhaps the performance which sums up his Villa career. A couple of frankly horrible moments in the opening ten minutes alone, he threatened to be the calm head we needed in midfield but just stopped playing in the second half. He probably needs to leave the club to just mentally resurrect his career. There's a good player in there, but probably not for Villa.
Ireland: tell you what, if he had the same desire to get on the ball as the less-talented Delph and Bannan do we'd have gone through tonight. However, his disinterested drifting and decent moments are just infuriating in the extreme.
N'Zogbia: a brilliant, vibrant first 15-20 minutes, followed by the rest of game's worth of utter dross. You know, we talk a lot about MON wasting money on players, but McLeish spending the percentage of our budget that he did on this man may prove the worst decision of the lot.

Benteke: well he scored, he put himself about, and generally was as much of a handful as he could have been smothered by defenders and starved of service.
Gabby: the weakest link in our weak attack. The ball going to him was just a waste. He is, and has always been, completely and utterly brainless - when he gets the ball and looks up, he doesn't see a football pitch with options, he just sees television static. Inadequate.

Subs: Weimann: we often say how Benteke will be sold if/when we go down, but I think they'll come for Weimann first. He makes things out of nothing, makes difficult things easy, and is just the best natural footballer we have. Hands down.
Bent: well, touched less than the Pope, but that might have a lot to do with that comedy 'creative' midfield behind him. Good flick on for the Weimann goal, to be fair, and showed more bottle than a lot of the team.

Lambert: went all out attack, but the full-backs were either inadequate in attack (Lowton) or completely exposed defensively (Bennett), leaving us without width on one side and with protection on the other. However, most of his mistakes have been made already.

Lerner: please, please, please stop killing our club. You cannot, seriously, you cannot have watched that and though all is well. It's horrible. We're used to tough times, but for God's sake, we're Aston Villa - we are not used to capitulation. It may be too late for you to sort it out - but it is time for you to try your absolute utmost. If not, your name will go down alongside the iniquitous list of Hodge, Hellis and Dowd (and wow, he shouldn't be allowed to referee. In fact, he should be put in jail under Trading Standards laws) as the most hated in recent Villa history. The choice is yours.

I am an unhappy Villan.

A post of perfection.

[ktvillan]

I'm not a massive fan of Barry Bannan buts he's getting some unfair criticism tonight, he was no worse than any of the other jokers.

Agreed, I'm not a fan either, but i thought he kept the ball moving between players well tonight.

However, he should NEVER be allowed to take set pieces...EVER!

I've just watched the Bradford goal again and the corner was more high and floaty than any of Bannan's efforts - which makes our defending of it all the more criminal.

[l_mckay]

Just got back after driving 3 hours at about 20mph in the snow all the way back,we were fine in the 1st half,2nd half was a joke,didn't put any pressure on them whatsoever,can't remember having keeper making a save second half,really disappointed. Not sure where we go from here but sacking the manager is not the answer!!

[villajk]

Well just got back...from spending six hours with my missus in North Manchester General after she was admitted this afternoon with severe abdominal pains.   So to add to my store of great Villa nights will be watching the H&V match thread on my phone, the wife dozing with morphine awaiting a consultant, as we fail we beat a 4th division side over two legs.   

I wish they'd given me an injection for my pain.

Hope she gets well soon mate.

Same here.  Please keep us informed.

[PeterWithe]

Well done Bradford, they thoroughly deserved it.

The tactical ineptitude for the final third of the game was really something to behold. To be completely out-thought by a 4th division manager is well..I give up.

The substitutions were amazing, I think the next game he might pick fellas out of the crowd to go and have a game. What the fucking hell was it?

[silhillvilla]

The club need to start planning for life in The Championship as we are definitely headed there.
Us fans need to adjust to that too. I'm not sure what it looks like but it's going to get much worse before it gets any better.

[Pat McMahon]

Re defending set pieces and zonal v man-for-man, there is also the old school Italian defending - you man mark the opponents ( usually borderline sexual molestation) and your free defenders attack the ball like they hate it with a passion.