Hull City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Villafirst]

Pity the new Chairman can't be arsed to watch his team....

[brontebilly]

Awful really, Hull are a mid table Championship side at best and we didn't have enough about us to beat them. With Benteke and Nzogbia out and Gabby at half mast we look desperately short of attacking threat. Positives were Bacuna and Clark defensively, Delph in midfield outshone Huddlestone and that was about it. Clean sheet is great but when we were up against the might of Graham, Aluko and Boyd then the quality of the opposition does need to be taken into account.
Biggest negative was the team seemingly settling for a 0-0 after Gabby missed that chance. Lambert made his subs far too late but both lads are really struggling at this level.

Guzan 6 - nothing to do but has gone a bit iffy at crosses of late.
Bacuna 7 - very solid defensively and was key to the best chance we had. Should have pushed on a lot more
Vlaar 6 - solid against very limited opposition
Clark 7 - Covered well behind Luna but still hoofs it too much. Well capable of taking it down and playing it which he showed at times, just needs to be calmer on the ball.
Luna 6 - Hull got some joy down his flank early on but the Egyptian lad didn't have the quality to make it count. Got caught badly offside a couple of times. Needed our full backs to push forward a lot more.
Westwood 5 - big chance for him but failed to grasp it. Tidy at times in the first half but disappeared in the second.
KEA 6 - had a good first half I thought winning a lot of possession. Tried a couple of half hearted shots in the second half. Solid effort from a pretty average player.
Delph 8 - our best player by a long way. After all the talk about Huddlestone, he easily outshone him. Seemed to be the only one in midfield showing for the ball.
Weimann 4 - should have ended up with an assist which was the only thing he contributed the game. Aside from that, took the wrong option continuously and his touch was yet again appalling.
Kozak 4 - ranked with Weimann as our worst player. Someone in the match thread commented that he makes Peter Crouch look like Van Persie. Pretty accurate so far. So slow it's ridiculous and Davies owned him physically.
Gabby 6 - didn't look fully fit, still our only attacking threat. Great shot early on with his left but should have scored from Weimann's pull back. Missed a similar chance v Chelsea that cost us points. Needs a goal

Bowery - ain't a right winger anyway or a footballer at this level either
Tonev - not physically ready though his ball at the end wasn't a bad one

[Toronto Villa]

I don't see how Hull are a mid table Championship side if they are sitting above us in the PL.

[brontebilly]

I don't see how Hull are a mid table Championship side if they are sitting above us in the PL.

.... In terms of quality. If they are above us in the table after 38 games we will be in the Championship

[eastie]

Have to say Kozak going off injured when we had a corner was pathetic, grow some balls man

He had to go off , if a player receives treatment they must leave the field and then be waved back on - he had no choice.

[Ian.]

I don't see how Hull are a mid table Championship side if they are sitting above us in the PL.

.... In terms of quality. If they are above us in the table after 38 games we will be in the Championship

Hull are in the Premier League on merit. Last season they worked hard and played well to achieve the results to get there. Credit where credits due. Neither of us played well yesterday so you can not judge Hull from that game.

[Chris Jameson]

Have to say Kozak going off injured when we had a corner was pathetic, grow some balls man

He had to go off , if a player receives treatment they must leave the field and then be waved back on - he had no choice.

He was as much use off the pitch as on it, he spends a lot of the game feigning injury so it's difficult to tell when he genuinely is injured.

[Matt Collins]

Love the way people are writing Kozak off in the same way as Benteke was this time last year. Will he have the same impact? I very much doubt it. But I'm certainly not writing him off.

Disappointing performance no doubt. And overall, I am disappointed with the way we've passed the ball and created this season. And with our creative options off the bench. But people are rightly lauding the likes of Southampton. I recall an absolutely appalling 0-0 draw at home to West Ham. Win the next one and people soon forget. It's just that we've got Spurs!

But with no Benteke, gabby clearly not fully fit, Weimann's touch so poor at the moment, there are mitigating circumstances.

I really would like N'Zogbia as an option now. Tonev doesn't look ready to me at all. Will be interesting to see quite how quickly Carruthers and Grealish are integrated into the first team squad.

But people quoting Janusaj and Barkley as examples need a bit of a reality check. Those two look outstanding. It's unfair to set them as a benchmark.

[john e]

I don't see how Hull are a mid table Championship side if they are sitting above us in the PL.

.... In terms of quality. If they are above us in the table after 38 games we will be in the Championship

that's what footballs about,
 if everyone finished where they should regarding quality everyone would finish in exactly the same predetermined spot

we have also beaten Aresnal and Man city so where should we be finishing in your fantasy league of footballing science

[Matt Collins]

Some reflections having just watched MOTD:

All our chances, such as they were, came from passing the ball to feet. We should do more of that.

Bacuna looks to be playing really well. If we can get Lowton back in form, I wonder if that could look a strong right side? Perhaps 4411 with Weimann behind Benteke?

Delph - love the way he's using his right more, and he seems quicker on the ball, with quicker feet, every time I see him.

KEA certainly seems to be playing better than Westwood.

All in all, I wonder about the following side:

Guzan - Lowton Vlaar Clark Luna - KEA Delph - Bacuna Weimann Gabby - Benteke

But we obviously need Lowton to regain form and Benteke to get fit. And ideally we'd have someone with more quality on the ball then Weimann to play the number ten role.

[damon loves JT]

Got home about 8pm, was a nice drive back, lovely sunset albeit driving straight into it out of hull was extremely dangerous. I kept washing my windshield but was out of fluid by goole, and had to stop to refill. Had a costa and a croissant on way back, a lovely flock of Canadian geese flew over around the Doncaster area headed east, not sure where they were going at that time of night, back to canada perhaps ? If so they were going the wrong way. I almost swerved off the road at that point and realised I needed to focus more on the road than transient wildlife and my phone as my wife had just text me to ask am I home tonight or tomorrow ? Seriously wtf, does she listen to anything I say ?
Anyway I carried on down the M1 and overtook the villa coach around the Sheffield area, think they had the Yanited game on as I had a quick look as I flew past them. I then almost flew past a cop car at 96mph sort of near east Mids airport area, luckily saw it last minute and threw on the anchors , phew, went past hi at 72mph and he didn't follow me. As I say, got back about 8pm and am now flicking through the programme and watching MOTD. Oh and I saw Doug Ellis today, that man, love him or loathe him us absolute villa through and through. I totally respect that man.

Have you considered writing a novel? I will be your agent.

'Out of Fluid By Goole'

[olaftab]

I think based on this self incriminating evidence silhilvilla should be banned from driving for at least 3 years. "think they had Yanited on".... Wouldn't like to be on the same road as you chap!

[Ron Manager]

Well I only watched 20mins of the first half but KEA seemed to be doing his job properly and Gabby was doing ok up front. A good result given injuries to influential players. Obviously MOTD didnt show much but Bacuna looks confident and Delph should be considered by Roy Hodgson for his next squad.

Both Clark and in particular Ron Vlaar have improved this season but on the debit side Westwood and Lowton are struggling.  Generally given our financial resources we are doing ok this season. It would be nice if Benteke comes back firing on all cylinders we need something special to maintain the improvement. He is that something.

[Navin R Johnson]

As one wit behind us commented Kozak plays as though he is pulling a caravan and where does this gem about we were writing off Benteke this time last year come from?

[pauliewalnuts]

I don't see how Hull are a mid table Championship side if they are sitting above us in the PL.

.... In terms of quality. If they are above us in the table after 38 games we will be in the Championship

And if we're where we are now after 38 games, we'll be satisfied with a season of improvement.