Aston Villa v Cardiff City Post-Match Thread

[Matt Collins]

On benteke, I don't think he's played that we'll for a while. But in part that's because we became so reliant on him that teams could crowd around him.

I'm sceptical about whether kozak and benteke together is really the answer. But it should create a bit more space for him.

Would like to see sylla / Westwood / Delph again when we play a midfield three - not sure we've seen that at all this season? Although I wonder if bacuna could replicate Sylla's work and have more attacking threat.

At home, I'd like to see width more often with bacuna and Lowton on the right. And Luna and Tonev / gabby on the left.

[martyn ellis]

Okore, Nzogbia (remember him?), Delph, Gabby, Weimann, Bennett, Gardner all to come back. Benteke misfiring a bit since his injury. New combinations of new signings. Two average performances resulting in two clean sheets and 4 points. I'd take that for the moment after some decent performances where we got nothing (Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton). They've shown they can play (first 20 minutes against Everton was class) and this season they've shown they can dig in and get a result (the last two games). Time for a smidgeon of optimisim, surely.

[eastie]

Although I was quite concerned by the poor 1st half after a bright opening 15mins , on reflection things are looking fairly as I had hoped at this stage in the season .

We are in 10th place having played most of the top 8 , and okore and bacuna both look decent signings , while tonev, Kozak and luna have all shown promising signs as they settle in - not seen enough of helenius yet to form an opinion .

Going onto the 2 week break in a comfortable position with players to return from injury and show those baggies who and what we are !

[eastie]

@91_yacou: Thank you for everyone for believing in me.

[supertom]

Benteke has been well below par all season, even before his injury. He was still scoring goals early on of course, which helps mask the problems, but for me he's lost a yard or two of pace over the summer, and perhaps a tad more since the injury. He's also yet to really produce a moment of pure Benteke game winning brilliance. He's had some well taken goals this season, but nothing like Liverpool away, or WBA last season where he just pulls a brilliant moment out the bag.

In games so tight, where we're struggling to create enough of note (which is pretty much every game for us) we need a bit of magic. Bacuna can't hit a wonder freekick every game.

Hopefully this two week break is exactly what Benteke needs. Obviously a settled side behind him would also help, so we'll see. The WBA game is ideal for him to really do the business.

[PeterWithe]

There are some pretty poor teams in the division this year and up until the goal we looked like one of them, after it we were never in danger so we have defensive progress.

Everyone around me was talking about a lack of energy in midfield and I'm glad PL finally saw it and pushed Bacuna up to solve that problem. A worrying lack of quality around though.

[PeterWithe]

Agree above that Benteke looks a yard short, last year he'd have  been first to that spilled KAH shot.

[Chris Smith]

Okore, Nzogbia (remember him?), Delph, Gabby, Weimann, Bennett, Gardner all to come back. Benteke misfiring a bit since his injury. New combinations of new signings. Two average performances resulting in two clean sheets and 4 points. I'd take that for the moment after some decent performances where we got nothing (Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton). They've shown they can play (first 20 minutes against Everton was class) and this season they've shown they can dig in and get a result (the last two games). Time for a smidgeon of optimisim, surely.

Spot on.

The ability to grind out results in adversity is a great quality to have. We've been extremely unfortunate with injuries this season, couple that with a real difficult set of fixtures I think we should all be more than satisfied with our current position.

I am also a little surprised with the criticism El Ahmadi is getting. I thought he did a decent job of harrying their midfield and cutting off the angles so that they had to keep playing sideways or back, it's not pretty and will never win you man of the match but it takes energy and concentration and allows others more freedom.

[Mister E]

A 2-0 win is more than welcome but the performance was poor again. After the first goal we looked comfortable but the worrying thing was the Cardiff probably shaded it before then and they are cack.

Well, you saw a different game to me then. We were comfortably in control of the game throughout; the challenge for us was geting people into good goalscoring positions - even if in the first half we had three-four clear-cut chances to score which were either snuffed out by defenders or fluffed by us (3 wasted crosses by Tonev as an example).
Second half we again took the game to a limited Cardiff side.

don't get me wrong: it wasn't a great game but we dispatched a opposition that deserved to be beaten; something we should have done more of this season.

[Richard E]

Thought we were always the team that looked likely to score. Guzan didn't have to make a serious save. Their keeper was kept busier. Felt that most of the game we pressed well when they had the ball. Once we took the lead and the game opened up there was only ever going to be one winner. If we had scored after 25 and 55 minutes everyone would have been lauding it as a very comfortable home win.

[Ads]

Agreed Mister E.

Cardiff offered nowt going forward and played the percentages with set pieces which were all poor. They apparently had two shots on goal, but other than Bellamy's pass back of a free kick, I cannot recall the other?

They were tidy on the ball only in so far as they moved the ball well.from midfield, into the full back, into the centre half and back to Marshall. I thought they looked a poor side and if we had managed to beat Everton then there would have been not half as many nerves about.

[Legion]

Guzan.

[Richard E]

Yeah him. Bloody auto correct. We didn't have a Swansea player in goal for us.

[Richard E]

I thought Bellamy looked like a has been yesterday.

[supertom]

I thought Cardiff kept the ball better than us, at least in the first half. They had more possession through the game. Of course they did very little with that, but the fact we still look so ropey in the middle of the park is a worry. We've got to get better movement, and get players looking up a bit more. Too many passes are rushed or end up astray. Even 3 yard passes were missing their mark yesterday which isn't even good enough at pub level, let alone Prem. Keep the ball better and games like this will be less of a struggle. Cardiff haven't been known for being a passing side so far this season, they've ground results out and got joy from set piece, so honestly, we should be looking at 55% possession or more in games like this. It's not everything I know, and we did win the game, but it just makes it a bit easier of you keep the ball better. Simples.

That said, I think once Lambert gets players back from injury and can settle on a more solid line up, that should improve. Having Lowton back in and pushing Bacuna up will make a difference. I'd keep Tonev in the side (he'll get better as he grows in confidence and composure), bring Gabby back and play them either side of Benteke. I don't really like the two up system unless one drops off. It was good to see Kojak getting a goal. He's struggled lately, and it wasn't the flashiest or most well taken but it went in.