Manchester United vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[pauliewalnuts]

I have seen enough from Westwood, Benteke (obv), Weimann, Guzan, Lowton, and possibly Delph and Vlaar to think they can perform better for us in future.

The problem is, if we spend most of next season playing with those players, plus a few more lower league signings thrown in, we're not going to be doing any better than we have this year. We need to add players who will improve that bunch of promising players we have, not just add more of the same.

[Des Little]

Our defence is absolutely shit.  We need 3 of those players replacing if we are to stand a chance of doing anything next season.  IMO of course.

[saunders_heroes]

You are right, some of them haven't looked good enough because, frankly, they're not good enough, but the balance has been wrong right from the start.

It's all well and good deciding you're going to follow the Ajax model and mix home grown products with cheapish players from selling European leagues and the English lower leagues, but we're operating in a totally different set of circumstances to Ajax, so it is flawed from the start. Ajax are the biggest club in their league and get the pick of the best youth players. We are not, and do not. Ajax can offer their players CL football every year, which not only helps keep them, but it helps them improve fast as they experience a higher level of football.

The project is ultimately rather naive - not because it can't work, but because someone at the club has decided it needs to be done so quickly, and on such a scale. Bringing through youth players / kids is fine. Throwing them all in at the same time, having a whole team of them, gets you where we are right now - flirting with relegation.

This summer, if we do not sign more experienced players, we are going to struggle again next year.

We wouldn't have struggled so much this year had we made the right signings in January. What we thought Dawkins was going to add to the party, for example, I really don't know. Compare him to the effect an experienced defender would have had.

Agree with every word.

[itbrvilla]

"Took their  foot off the gas" is bunk argument  No team does that however sycophants and  luvvy Pressies like to use that term to describe any event where they find it incredible that a inferior team could possibly be capable of changing things and fighting instead of lying down.  There is no doubt that Manu players wanted to put on some sort of exhibition and  score as many as they can but their own complacency and  Villa refusing to give up and  switching a few things around stopped that.

We lost 3-0. It wasn't a plucky 1-0 defeat, nor a 2-1 or a 3-2. We lost by 3 clear goals.

And were lucky not to be 4 down in the first 15 minutes.

[olaftab]

I think the reason we didn't concede in the second half was that I took my Villa shirt off in digust at half time and replaced it with a random t shirt.

No, it's because the wi-Fi went down in our house and I couldn't check the match thread.

No no. It was because instead of hiding under the duvet I started following the match on match thread and defended with full concentration!

[olaftab]

"Took their  foot off the gas" is bunk argument  No team does that however sycophants and  luvvy Pressies like to use that term to describe any event where they find it incredible that a inferior team could possibly be capable of changing things and fighting instead of lying down.  There is no doubt that Manu players wanted to put on some sort of exhibition and  score as many as they can but their own complacency and  Villa refusing to give up and  switching a few things around stopped that.

We lost 3-0. It wasn't a plucky 1-0 defeat, nor a 2-1 or a 3-2. We lost by 3 clear goals.

Fuck me...they were 3 goal in 30 mins that should have not stood. They scored  zero number of legal goals and zero number of goals in the next 60 mins.

[saunders_heroes]

"Took their  foot off the gas" is bunk argument  No team does that however sycophants and  luvvy Pressies like to use that term to describe any event where they find it incredible that a inferior team could possibly be capable of changing things and fighting instead of lying down.  There is no doubt that Manu players wanted to put on some sort of exhibition and  score as many as they can but their own complacency and  Villa refusing to give up and  switching a few things around stopped that.

We lost 3-0. It wasn't a plucky 1-0 defeat, nor a 2-1 or a 3-2. We lost by 3 clear goals.

Fuck me...they were 3 goal in 30 mins that should have not stood. They scored  zero number of legal goals and zero number of goals in the next 60 mins.

Spare me the offside nonsense. We lost by 3 clear goals over 90 minutes. Yet another thumping.
Look at our goal difference if you fancy a reality check.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Indeed. I'd say we were outclassed first half and tolerated second. They were saving themselves for bigger fish.. Arsenal away at the weekend. Saying that, a decent second half will have done our confidence a bit of good, it could have been shredded to bits.

[olaftab]

We wouldn't have struggled so much this year had we made the right signings in January.

Sorry but that is incorrect. Since January we have  played 10 games lost 4 drawn 2 won 4  14 points. That is  not "struggled"!

[olaftab]

Spare me the offside nonsense. We lost by 3 clear goals over 90 minutes. Yet another thumping.
Look at our goal difference if you fancy a reality check.

I don't need a reality check. No one is saying we are a good team and the last thumping was a long time ago but FFS we have to have some thing to hang on to instead of repetitive  "we are shit" jibe.
And  yes they were 3 offside goals , well and true. Officials are suppoed to do their job right.

[walsall villain]

"Took their  foot off the gas" is bunk argument  No team does that however sycophants and  luvvy Pressies like to use that term to describe any event where they find it incredible that a inferior team could possibly be capable of changing things and fighting instead of lying down.  There is no doubt that Manu players wanted to put on some sort of exhibition and  score as many as they can but their own complacency and  Villa refusing to give up and  switching a few things around stopped that.

We lost 3-0. It wasn't a plucky 1-0 defeat, nor a 2-1 or a 3-2. We lost by 3 clear goals.

And were lucky not to be 4 down in the first 15 minutes.

I have been watching Villa for a very long time and have learnt over the years to take no notice of the apparent improvement in how we play when 3 0 down because basically the game is over at 3 0

[VillaAlways]

Plenty  of teams have come back from a 3-0 deficit. I agree an impossible task at Old Trafford who constantly get awarded goals for offside and have not had a single penalty awarded against them all season

[tomd2103]

Our defence is absolutely shit.  We need 3 of those players replacing if we are to stand a chance of doing anything next season.  IMO of course.

We definitely need a starting CB and LB next season.  The fact that Lowton was skinned on a number of occasions by a man approaching his 40's (albeit still a very good player) suggests we might need some competition at RB as well.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Spare me the offside nonsense. We lost by 3 clear goals over 90 minutes. Yet another thumping.
Look at our goal difference if you fancy a reality check.

I don't need a reality check. No one is saying we are a good team and the last thumping was a long time ago but FFS we have to have some thing to hang on to instead of repetitive  "we are shit" jibe.
And  yes they were 3 offside goals , well and true. Officials are suppoed to do their job right.

Have another look. I've checked it several times and can't see who is offside:
http://www.footytube.com/video/Manchester-United-vs-Aston-Villa-172711?ref=lchan_results

[pauliewalnuts]

We wouldn't have struggled so much this year had we made the right signings in January.

Sorry but that is incorrect. Since January we have  played 10 games lost 4 drawn 2 won 4  14 points. That is  not "struggled"!

14 points from 30 is better than it was for chunks of the season, but it's hardly brilliant, is it?

We have also continued to look frail defensively.