Aston Villa vs Manchester United Post-Match thread

[Duncan Shaw]

Oh, and Mike Dean is a stone-cold wanker... how that mugging of Richards was not given as a penalty is beyond me... except that it would have been making a call against ManUre and we would not want that now, would we?

And the way he let them run the clock Dow, last 2 mins plus injury time and hardly any play.

[Steve67]

To be greedy, if there is any money left in the pot, an upgrade on Westwood and Bacuna would be great. Neither are bad players, but, if we are to improve, we need to be more forceful in these areas. Gabby out too please.

I thought Westwood was comfortably our best central midfielder today.

All about opinions I guess but I feel that Gueye and Veretout will improve. While Westwood is really steady, I just don't think he will take us any further. I'm not saying he's a bad player but I would like a more forceful player in there. Hence, the upgrade.

[PaulWinch again]

Ayew had a poor game, but let's not write him off yet eh? Some players start like a house on fire and are useless like Luna and some struggle to start but end up good like Ronaldo. It's way too early tool judge.

[N'Zimidy]

I have no idea why people think we need another CB and another ST.

Clark and Richards are looking ten times better than anything we've had in the past five years. Why people want to upset that is beyond me.

With regards to a new striker. Nah. We need wingers and attacking midfielders that can give Ayew or Gestede some shooting opportunities. The fact that Ayew was coming into our own half or standing on the touchline for 90% of his touches is indicative that we can't get it up to him. Gestede didn't have a single cross from out wide to feed on. Gabby shouldn't be anywhere near our starting XI.

Grealish, Gil and Traore were what we were missing tonight. Ayew isn't a winger. If we had Traore romping down the right with Ayew up top we'd look far more potent. Also to be fair to Ayew, he did look pretty good in the air when we lumped it to him early on. There's much more to come from Ayew that isn't with his back to goal near the halfway line.   

A new RB however? Now we're talking.

[silhillvilla]

I thought taking Sinclair off was a bad call, he was just starting to open them up a bit, Micah Richards was very good I thought, Clark solid but a couple of sloppy moments, we hoofed it a bit too much. Gueye looks quality good engine, Amavi so far looks the pick.

[ciggiesnbeer]

After having calmed down a bit I feel less bad. We lost a game by a goal to a very expensive side. While clearly the inferior team we were not THAT far off. We felt a bit more solid mid table than relegation fodder.

[Meanwood Villa]

They are ******

[SoccerHQ]

After having calmed down a bit I feel less bad. We lost a game by a goal to a very expensive side. While clearly the inferior team we were not THAT far off. We felt a bit more solid mid table than relegation fodder.

Still too early to call. We started 13/14 by beating Arsenal away and losing narrowly to Chelsea and Liverpool with better performances than tonight. We finished 16th, it's a long season for a reason.

I think a decent time to do an early judgement will be after West Brom at home. I would expect/like 10 points after that (7 points from Leicester/WBA/Sunderland). Can nick a point at Palace aswell.

For me this season is all about avoiding a relegation battle and producing a good style of play. If that can get us 10-12th in the league then that's something to build on at long last.

[silhillvilla]

Next 3 games will be more telling as to where we are , palace (a), Sunderland (h) Leicester (a)

[shirley_villan]

Thought Amavi looked a different class, Gueye very good. Veretout - you can tell there's a player but looked unfit and slightly lightweight. Ayew scatty and unintelligent.

Bacuna our biggest weakness, Gabby poor. Richards decent.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

I've heard a few suggestions recently that we're a better team without Benteke. Anyone still think that after tonight?

I'm not making any judgments on the new guys (apart from Amavi and Gana/Gueye being class), just saying we badly miss the goals Benteke guaranteed us.

[SoccerHQ]

Oh, and Mike Dean is a stone-cold wanker... how that mugging of Richards was not given as a penalty is beyond me... except that it would have been making a call against ManUre and we would not want that now, would we?

And the way he let them run the clock Dow, last 2 mins plus injury time and hardly any play.

I chuckled at just 3 minutes injury time...yes there wasn't any goals or many stoppages but if we were winning 1 nil with exactly the same game flow it would've been 5 minutes minimum.

[silhillvilla]

benteke would have made no difference tonight as we created sweet FA

[Toronto Villa]

This team will be better in the second half of the season than the first. I think we'll be fine in mid table or just below for the first couple of months but as we bed in we will have a good second half to finish 8th or 9th in the end. No team in the league will have gone through the number of changes we have so even next week when we go to Palace they are a relatively settled club. It won't be easy and will get better every week as the chemistry improves. That and proper creative players like Grealish, Traore and Gil to come in.

[villan from luton]

Just read the last couple of pages here and comments elsewhere and amazing how they differ. Personally, I thought we were average and they were just above us until they scored and it was fairly comfortable for them then. I thought Ayew was average, but showed more than Gabby who I have to say was awful. Vertout was very poor but is he a right midfielder and I think his touch at Bournemouth showed he is a proper talent, looked tired but the pace is different. Gureye wasn't as bad as Neville said, but will learn and looks a good prospect. Richards was good, should have done better with the goal IMO. Amavi I really like. Lets give the players a few games to gel and see how we go please, Man Ure were pretty poor themselves tonight as well until the German captain calmed things down