The not quite so mighty-anymore Aston Villa vs Swansea Post Match Thread

[Mortimer's Bear]

I thought Clark was superb again, player of the season in my opinion.

Yeh I'll go with that. He's also not the scrawny kid we saw a couple of seasons back. He's filled out, is a lot more aware and savvy against PL forwards now. He's still young relatively speaking too so will continue to improve and mature. Okore will get better also and as gets stronger we'll become a very good CB in my opinion, and between them provide a very strong base for us over the next few years.

Clark and Okore appear to enjoy playing together to me, Vlaar should neon the bench when fit.

[Matt C]

'When fit'.

Ha ha, good one!

[Louzie0]

I'd rather like to see the attendance confirmed somewhere and wonder where MOTD got their figure quoted earlier in this thread.

[AlexAlexCropley]

There were scant few seats to be had according to select-a-seat when I booked Fri evening.wouldn't have said 7000 empties.

[dave.woodhall]

There were scant few seats to be had according to select-a-seat when I booked Fri evening.wouldn't have said 7000 empties.

There seemed a couple of thousand in the Trinity Upper, maybe a thousand at each end of the Witton Lane and the same in the North Stand Upper. Add the edges of the Holte and those dotted around the ground and just over 35k-ish is about right.

[UK Redsox]

I know that this must have been answered before but are the announced attendances at football matches 'tickets sold' or 'people in ground' ?

[dave.woodhall]

I know that this must have been answered before but are the announced attendances at football matches 'tickets sold' or 'people in ground' ?

Tickets sold.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Feared for us today when I saw the lineups. Cork is a very solid addition for them and they have the players with technical ability to exploit our fairly one paced midfield. Super passes from Routledge and Montero for the winner but we were far too open for that stage of the game.

Same here. I thought it was naive to think the same line up as Sunderland would be enough to contain the Swansea midfield and so it proved. Obviously the ref didn't help but we were so poor first half, chasing shadows and not allowing ourselves to play 'on the front foot'. As others have said, Sinclair wanted to be the hero and let us and ourselves down on numerous accasions.

Taking nothing away from Swansea but did we really have to make it so easy for them? I'd also love to know what the hell Gil has done to piss off Sherwood so much. He got bullied against Stoke but if there was one player that could have unlocked the game at 0-0 it was Gil. I just hope when he does eventually return he still has the confidence to do the magical things he's so capable of delivering.

[simboy]

I'd rather like to see the attendance confirmed somewhere and wonder where MOTD got their figure quoted earlier in this thread.

typical, i get somewhere near on "guess the crowd" and theres a bloody stewards enquiry.... :-)

[Louzie0]

I'd rather like to see the attendance confirmed somewhere and wonder where MOTD got their figure quoted earlier in this thread.

typical, i get somewhere near on "guess the crowd" and theres a bloody stewards enquiry.... :-)

I feel your pain! Trouble is, lots of guesses are in 35 -36 k territory, simboy, so it needs to be an official figure really, before points get thrown around. Thanks for entering!

[brontebilly]

Feared for us today when I saw the lineups. Cork is a very solid addition for them and they have the players with technical ability to exploit our fairly one paced midfield. Super passes from Routledge and Montero for the winner but we were far too open for that stage of the game.

Same here. I thought it was naive to think the same line up as Sunderland would be enough to contain the Swansea midfield and so it proved. Obviously the ref didn't help but we were so poor first half, chasing shadows and not allowing ourselves to play 'on the front foot'. As others have said, Sinclair wanted to be the hero and let us and ourselves down on numerous accasions.

Taking nothing away from Swansea but did we really have to make it so easy for them? I'd also love to know what the hell Gil has done to piss off Sherwood so much. He got bullied against Stoke but if there was one player that could have unlocked the game at 0-0 it was Gil. I just hope when he does eventually return he still has the confidence to do the magical things he's so capable of delivering.

Re Gil, dont think he is suited to the 442 Timmy wants us to play. Sinclair, Nzogbia and Grealish are probably more suited to the flanks, marginally so.

He will get more chances, just needs to take them.

One player who has shown nothing since Sherwood took charge is Weimann, he will be off in the summer unless he shows something quickly.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Desperately disappointed that we didn't get at least a point out of yesterday's game. Like most of us, probably really optimistic before the game, but once 10 minutes had passed started to realise what a good side Swansea are and they weren't going to give a shit about upsetting our good run.
No doubt, they were the better side, but to concede 5 minutes from the end, with a goal on the break, scored by a bloke who is famous for not scoring is just right up our back passage at the minute.
No coincidence, imho, that every team around us lost too. We missed a chance there, but so did all of the others! Thank f**k!
F**k it!
Let's go for all 3 points at ManU!
UTV!

[Monty]

Feared for us today when I saw the lineups. Cork is a very solid addition for them and they have the players with technical ability to exploit our fairly one paced midfield. Super passes from Routledge and Montero for the winner but we were far too open for that stage of the game.

Same here. I thought it was naive to think the same line up as Sunderland would be enough to contain the Swansea midfield and so it proved. Obviously the ref didn't help but we were so poor first half, chasing shadows and not allowing ourselves to play 'on the front foot'. As others have said, Sinclair wanted to be the hero and let us and ourselves down on numerous accasions.

Taking nothing away from Swansea but did we really have to make it so easy for them? I'd also love to know what the hell Gil has done to piss off Sherwood so much. He got bullied against Stoke but if there was one player that could have unlocked the game at 0-0 it was Gil. I just hope when he does eventually return he still has the confidence to do the magical things he's so capable of delivering.

Re Gil, dont think he is suited to the 442 Timmy wants us to play. Sinclair, Nzogbia and Grealish are probably more suited to the flanks, marginally so.

He will get more chances, just needs to take them.

One player who has shown nothing since Sherwood took charge is Weimann, he will be off in the summer unless he shows something quickly.

Timmy's playing a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 though (the first Baggies game was 4-3-1-2, which I loved, but was mad). Gil would fit in just as well as Zog or Gabby. I just can't help feeling that 1) there's something we don't know about Gil, 2) Sherwood has taken one of his irrational dislikes, or 3) he's determined to go ahead with the 'big name' players. It's worked well enough so far - I just wish Gil was higher up the list when it came to attacking subs.

[Steve67]

No worse off after the results of today and yesterday. Perhaps a minor plus is the slightly worse goal difference for Burnley. Another game gone. Leicester look fkd. QPR also look down but have two really good home games which could give them a boost, that said, only three home games left and five away. If we can get above Hull, they have some tough games in their run in. We really need to beat QPR and Burnley and get something from Everton and West Ham. Some twists and turns yet to be had. I wonder if Sunderland will get the bounce they need from appointing a new Manager?

Does anyone really think we'll get something from Man United and Spurs? Makes the QPR game massive. I hope we have some injured players back!!

[OCD]

It's hard to know why Gil isn't being given a go. It might just because he's new to the country and it's a big change. He struggled against Stoke and he might simply be given more time. It might be next season before he's given a real go. I would like to see him off the central striker though. He kept ending up in all the wrong positions and trying to dribble against Stoke, before they knocked him off the ball.