Aston Villa v West Ham - Post Match Thread

[spangley1812]

Burnley may be heading to be sold out

[brian green]

One very minor criticism from me is the lack of pace we have on the bench at the moment. Our substitutions seem to me to slow our game down. Under TS we have played at a much higher tempo and with higher energy. Gabby still has good straight line speed but he does not have the engine of Westwood, Cleverley or Delph and he loses his edge without game time. Sanchez is physically quick enough but is mentally slow until he gets his act together. Cole is undoubtedly a class player but high energy and fast tempo are beyond him now. Alan Hutton stiffens a defence but struggles to join in the quick fire exchanges at close quarters our midfield now generates. To contradict myself a bit I would have brought Sanchez on earlier with instructions to give Song some of what he was dishing out.

[Matt Collins]

I think Sinclair and gabby have plenty of pace

I agree though that the midfield three is playing w such intensity that we'll miss any of them. Hopefully Gardner can add that. Though quick he is not!

[Dante Lavelli]

It is. What is also wonderful is the extra moments all our midfielders take when they get the ball, to draw in a few opposing players or the way they almost gleefully they play their way into a tight space confident they will be able to work a nice little passing triangle even on the touch line.

Agree with that, Grealish almost waits to draw in players whereas the defenders seem to hate getting too close as he'll turn them. 
His awareness is incredible but his decision making could improve.  Sometimes he passes when he should press/dribble and visa versa.  That is a very minor criticism and it is scary how good he can be if he improves that aspect of his game (and shooting).

Under Lambert (and others) our passing was so laboured and predicable.  From the stands you could see the pass hours before it was made, whereas nowadays Delph, Grealish, Benteke, Cleverly and sometimes Westwood seem to do these moves where you think "how the fuck did they do that".  Whilst Nzog was better yesterday (than I had seen him previously) he does not seem to be on this wavelength. 

[Dante Lavelli]

I think Sinclair and gabby have plenty of pace

I agree though that the midfield three is playing w such intensity that we'll miss any of them. Hopefully Gardner can add that. Though quick he is not!

From the clip on the transfer thread, the chap at Swindon seems to play at a high tempo.  You'd imagine that Gil would also be able to do it although I'm not sure whether he has actual pace.  You'd hope that the data analyst we employed would be able to identify such targets by sorting through midfielders running/sprinting stats.

[olaftab]

To contradict myself a bit I would have brought Sanchez on earlier with instructions to give Song some of what he was dishing out.

Yes I said that about 10mins into the second half. Song was dominating the ball and also dishing some stick out to Jack & co. Sanchez for N'Zogbia at that stage and than may be Gabby for Westwood if we needed it.

[tom jennings III]

Having just watched the highlights it really did look like a good team performance and I have to echo the comments about the lovely midfield triangles we now seem comfortable playing in inches of space. I'm sure there were many more moments like that in the first half that didn't get shown on MOTD. Something that really stood out (apart from goal machine Tom Cleverley) was the ball Grealish played for Gabby towards the end. We're under a bit of pressure and his instinctive pass was perfectly weighted for Gabby to run on to and, although Cresswell did ok to put him off, Gabby completely miss-hit the finish when it would have been easier to score.

So pleased for everyone (like me) who went to games during the bad times of the last few years and jealous of you lucky feckers going to games now (since I can't) who are reaping the rewards of Villa's Brazil-like football. You deserve it.

[Drummond]

Agreed MB, Westwood is becoming one of those players that's important to the side and how we play, but you don't really notice until he's not there. If that makes sense.

I think at this point it's compulsory to mention the name Des Bremner.

Petrov also springs to mind.

[olaftab]

I loved the way Downing escorted Jack on his way to the line keeping a safe respectful gap. After all there was no need to get hurt  there.

[olaftab]

Agreed MB, Westwood is becoming one of those players that's important to the side and how we play, but you don't really notice until he's not there. If that makes sense.

I think at this point it's compulsory to mention the name Des Bremner.

Well said, Des was a brilliant player even if his debut v Arsenal made some wise person think he was tosh, that same person says he was great now lol. As for Cleverley, he is a superb player and probably too good for us as we are now, but we need to try and keep him

In that case I would like you not to ignore Frank Carrodus.

[silhillvilla]

Burnley may be heading to be sold out

You'd like to think so, it will be a chance to give the lads a rousing send off before FA Cup Final and to hopefully celebrate in the sun premier league survival and maintain our ever present record, all this capped off with a positive summer and next campaign to look forward to with possible European football too.

[Rudy65]

One very minor criticism from me is the lack of pace we have on the bench at the moment. Our substitutions seem to me to slow our game down. Under TS we have played at a much higher tempo and with higher energy. Gabby still has good straight line speed but he does not have the engine of Westwood, Cleverley or Delph and he loses his edge without game time. Sanchez is physically quick enough but is mentally slow until he gets his act together. Cole is undoubtedly a class player but high energy and fast tempo are beyond him now. Alan Hutton stiffens a defence but struggles to join in the quick fire exchanges at close quarters our midfield now generates. To contradict myself a bit I would have brought Sanchez on earlier with instructions to give Song some of what he was dishing out.

I think the point of the subs yesterday was to slow the game down and to take the fire out of West Ham's improved second half performance. Hutton and Sanchez are certainly more defensive than the players they replaced and Gabby was there to stretch their defence. For me it worked well. We were never in real danger

[silhillvilla]

The subs were all big physical ones to try and counter the physicality Fat Sam had introduced - Song and Carlton Cole,
Hutton, Sanchez and Gabby are all big physical players.

[dorsetvillian]

I was still very nervous despite being in control of the game. Very pleased with how we are playing. Hopefully we can get the 3 points nice an early next week at  at Saints, but it's never that easy is it. Like a few have said, it was great to see H&V being sold around the ground. I spoke with Percy before the game and gladly gave him my £2.

[Clampy]

Another good win. It was one of those games where I felt pretty confident that the opposition wouldn't score. It was nice that Grealish got man of the match but I thought Cleverley was better.