Aston Villa vs Manchester United Post-Match thread

[Phil from the upper holte]

Usual win for united, was too pissed off to post last night but I'm not a fan of the 3 upfront with gabby Ayew and Sinclair, no height or anyone able to hold the ball up.was disappointed with Veretout and Westwood. Hopefully Gil Traore and Grealish can bring something to the team, Gabby got to go now.

Not too downhearted Amavi looks world class as does Richards. Gueye looks quality, why does he have Gana on his shirt?

[Olof's Beard]

People on here seem to think we played 4-3-3. It looked like a standard 4-4-2 to me, unless Ayew was told to drift and Sinclair wasn't. Veretout hugged the right touchline and it clearly isn't his position, and we didn't have enough bodies in midfield, resulting in us constantly having to turn backwards or go long. The system wasn't working at all, it looked more like a 4-3-3 as the game wore on and certainly when Sanchez came on, and we looked better for it.

United looked terrible on the ball but they were organised at the back and worked very hard when they didn't have the ball, constantly hounding Westwood and Gueye when they picked up the ball deep. It nearly led to a goal when Westwood had a pass blocked and Guzan had to rush out and make a great tackle. The first twenty minutes were terrible from both teams, then they improved for ten minutes and you could see a goal was coming. If we had survived that period, we might have been ok because I am not sure United would have offered much more with Rooney and Depay looking completely out of sorts.

Veretout needs to play in his correct position, but I wonder if Sherwood is worried about his fitness at the moment so has stuck him out wide and out of the way. If that's the case, he can't play at the moment. I thought he struggled. Marvin is confident and willing, he did some good things and some bad but you can see he will get better and better. Amavi is great, so much purpose going forward and a good defender. Considering Ayew, Gabby and Sinclair could all very easily be replaced by returning players, none of them have done much to give Sherwood a selection headache. Ayew needs time of course, Gabby - well, you want him to come good again but it doesn't seem to be happening. Sinclair did show signs of decent link up with Amavi but he lacks a bit of belief, Man City have taken a lot out of him. He is another who needs time, but we can't afford all these players to take 6 months to bed in.

Strangely, I wish we had the horror fixture lists of previous starts to the season in some ways. While these players are finding their feet, it might have been worth throwing the usual three points to Man City, Arsenal and the like, as well as Yanited. All things considered, the team did well to dig out three points last week and give us a bit of a cushion but they need to gel quickly over the next four games and get us plenty more.

[dicedlam]

Football on a Friday stinks.
It just makes being miserable on the weekend longer.

[pav]

Lamberts performances were like that after a good while... Thst was first home performance of newly put together team

[Dante Lavelli]

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 our best midfielder tonight.  Some sublime passes.

[Leicester_Villian]

I am reading lots of negative comments on here this morning after a 1-0 defeat
Lets look with some sense ....the team had only played together one match before - not even in pre season
We don't know how much pre season training the new signings had ....some tired badly last nite which indicates not a lot
There is still some quality to come into the team - then we can judge fairly
Yes there are some question marks but lets see what the team is for the next home game
Its the likes of Sunderland who we have to take apart which we don't normally do (apart from the 6-1)
Lets be positive ...the team is no worse than last year

[manic-road]

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 our best midfielder tonight.  Some sublime passes.

Agree about Westwood, he was by far our best midfielder last night.

[Marlon's Hairy Wood]

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 our best midfielder tonight.  Some sublime passes.

Agree about Westwood, he was by far our best midfielder last night.

Gave away far too many passes for me, and made too many bad decisions i.e when we had a counter attack on and he could have either slipped Gabby or Ayew through, or give it Sinclair breaking down the left. He passed it behind Sinclair, who had to run back to get the ball and the attack was killed by ourselves

also his set piece deliveries were awful

[Chris_Jephcott]

I think that if we fob off gabby, Ayew will be fine. He just needs to settle - and have a better strike partner.

[django]

I thought Westwood was really decent in the second half. Bacuna did a decent job at right back.
Amavi and Gueye were good, Vertout and Ayew not so much.

Gabby getting a lot of stick but I think he offered more than Ayew, Rooney or Depay. It wasn't as if he was being put through by incisive passes.

The whole team needs time to settle down and establish a way of playing, until then it's pointless judging the new signings. Pleased we have options.

[manic-road]

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 our best midfielder tonight.  Some sublime passes.

Agree about Westwood, he was by far our best midfielder last night.

Gave away far too many passes for me, and made too many bad decisions i.e when we had a counter attack on and he could have either slipped Gabby or Ayew through, or give it Sinclair breaking down the left. He passed it behind Sinclair, who had to run back to get the ball and the attack was killed by ourselves

also his set piece deliveries were awful

Gave away to many passes? He gave away possession twice, as for the awful set pieces, his free kicks all bar one were put into the danger areas with no forwards making runs. I watched the game again this morning and he always manages to look twice where he is about to pass the ball before it has even reached him.

[brian green]

Games like that at this time in our development are inevitable. Pity that a game that means so much to us came when we are still getting fit and working things out. We began much too conservatively and Brad Guzan in particular seems unable to change to the absence of Benteke. With Rudy on in the second half we lapsed back into target man football. Benteke is gone we need to play quicker, darting, quick footed football. I think Grealish would have made a significant difference because he does the unexpected and makes holes for runners. They have to get fit and up to the pace quickly and we need to keep off their backs for a couple of months.

[richard moore]

Usual win for united, was too pissed off to post last night but I'm not a fan of the 3 upfront with gabby Ayew and Sinclair, no height or anyone able to hold the ball up.was disappointed with Veretout and Westwood. Hopefully Gil Traore and Grealish can bring something to the team, Gabby got to go now.

Not too downhearted Amavi looks world class as does Richards. Gueye looks quality, why does he have Gana on his shirt?

I think you must have watched a different game to me in a couple of respects. I thought Westwood was probably our best player and looked to me to be responding to the confidence given him by the 5 year contract. Richards and Amavi, good though they are, do not look world class. Yet. You are right about the front three. Jury out on Veretout as he is not fit but I do not think he was that bad. He needs to cut out that Ashley Young behaviour though, his rolling around pretending to be kicked in the chest was very embarrassing indeed.

[nigel]

Games like that at this time in our development are inevitable. Pity that a game that means so much to us came when we are still getting fit and working things out. We began much too conservatively and Brad Guzan in particular seems unable to change to the absence of Benteke. With Rudy on in the second half we lapsed back into target man football. Benteke is gone we need to play quicker, darting, quick footed football. I think Grealish would have made a significant difference because he does the unexpected and makes holes for runners. They have to get fit and up to the pace quickly and we need to keep off their backs for a couple of months.

In what way, Brian?

[Dave]

Usual win for united, was too pissed off to post last night but I'm not a fan of the 3 upfront with gabby Ayew and Sinclair, no height or anyone able to hold the ball up.was disappointed with Veretout and Westwood. Hopefully Gil Traore and Grealish can bring something to the team, Gabby got to go now.

Not too downhearted Amavi looks world class as does Richards. Gueye looks quality, why does he have Gana on his shirt?

I think you must have watched a different game to me in a couple of respects. I thought Westwood was probably our best player and looked to me to be responding to the confidence given him by the 5 year contract. Richards and Amavi, good though they are, do not look world class. Yet. You are right about the front three. Jury out on Veretout as he is not fit but I do not think he was that bad. He needs to cut out that Ashley Young behaviour though, his rolling around pretending to be kicked in the chest was very embarrassing indeed.

Broadly agree with all that, but I thought Amavi was great. All of a sudden our left-back seems to be our most potent attacking threat, while still being pretty solid defensively. From what he's shown so far, it wouldn't surprise me if he is next summer's Benteke/Milner/Downing/Young/Barry.

Although he did give the ball away a few times under no pressure at all, so it's not all perfect.