Aston Villa v Notts County - Post-Match Thread

[Risso]

The stuff about "there being a decent footballer in Joe Bennett" is turning into an H&V cliche up there with Barry and penalties.

[peter w]

Highways Agency you make the lives of travelling fans unbearable. A14 closed. 17 miles of diversion down to one lane. M1 closed then our junction on M11 closed. This country is rapidly grinding to a coned off halt. The game was like the team selection. Mental. Timmy you just got a big question mark in my black book. That game needed to be quietly put to bed with the minimum effort. Instead it was like Benny Hill meets the Keystone Kops.

I fully disagree with the last point Brian. If we had a settled unit I think Sherwood either would have, or would have had a stronger argument, for putting in a team trying to keep it tight and picking them for a routine 3-0 win. As it is we've signed lots of players, attacking ones, over the summer and Gil and Grealish have only just come back from injuries. Not only do those players need to get up to full fitness but Sherwood still needs to see them competitively to see what is his best options. With that in mind he took a gamble in putting Sanchez at the back because he knew he needed to play him but didn't want to put him in midfield.

What we got was Sherwood seeing exactly what our attacking options were, who can do what, and who gets closer to the starting XI. It was an invaluable and timely game last night and I think Sherwood welcomed it. That we scored 5 should be applauded too as should some of the performances. Sherwood fancied that we would score more than them and we did; just.

[andyh]

Given the result, I thoroughly enjoyed last night. It was great to see some real flair football and some standout individual performances.

Grealish, Gil, Traore, Sanchez and Cole (despite a cockup or two) deserve their plaudits.
I thought Veretout got stronger and stronger as the game wore on, and considering he was blowing out of his arse after 30 mins against UTD, he is obviously improving and getting fitter. 120 mins last night would have done him the world of good.

Special praise for County, they made a real game of it and helped make it the enjoyable game it was.

Worries....given the level of opposition Ayew looks woefully short of well, just about everything.
And Bennett?  I think he shone when he came on.

But, only because he has found his level of opposition, and they were all fucked!

[Ron Manager]

Well I didnt go to this one due to financial restraints. I tried to find Radio Nottingham on my ageing world wide receiver but failed dismally.That left me with one terrifying option. The option that is Partridge on AVTV. Unfortunately not even his magnificent presence could help the dismal service they offer. Kept going down,buffering,coming back,going down and finally I gave up after about 20mins and watched the BBC site for
my info.

Its pointless if you were not there (or watching on a stream) to make a reasoned comment so I will desist. I am glad the fans of both clubs had some entertainment and from the goals I have seen this morning that appears to be the case.

I am assuming Tim Sherwood knows what he is doing, only time will tell if that is the case.

[brian green]

We have to agree to disagree Peter. I thought it was at best slapstick football and at its worst black comedy. We very nearly lost that game and picked up an injury to a very promising young player. In my humble, very personal opinion, that performance was to progressive table climbing football what pantomime is to drama.

[Virgil Caine]

A word in defence of Ayew- at least he does make those runs into ' the channels' and is mobile, qualities that Gabby seems to have lost. The timings of the balls through last night meant that too often he was caught offside but I applaud him for always being on the move and looking for opportunity. His time will come and there is enough quality coaching at Villa now to be optimistic that he will be a valued player. JPA had very similar problems initially but came good, the same will happen to Ayew.

[mr underhill]

good point both JPA and Savo looked like Bambi on Ice for a while. I'm hopeless at it but we need some patience.

[paul richard]

I hope you're right re Ayew.  He needs time, coaching, and for someone to tell him about the offside rule.  I worry that he may not quite be up to it, and may prove to be the worst of this summer's acquisitions.  I hope I'm wrong. 

[Ads]

You did mate, it was good to enjoy a genuinely exciting game where anything could happen.

I was really fortunate too as I sat next to a UEFA B Coach / psychologist / commentator. He never shut up for the entire game, answered questions which he asked himself and stood up and loudly applauded all 3 goals County scored.

He also called Scott Sinclair a "bottler" when he might have had / should have had a penalty in the first half.

Bloke was a 24 carat knob.

Were you at the front of K3 CT?

[CT]

Nope, Witton Lane Upper. Did you have someone similar by you then?

[Ads]

I've had somebody similar to that sat in front of me for the past 15 years!

[Fin Feds Dad]

I think Kozak deserves some praise too - he showed more movement, control and holding the ball up than Gabby has for far too long.

[PeterWithe]

A word in defence of Ayew- at least he does make those runs into ' the channels' and is mobile, qualities that Gabby seems to have lost. The timings of the balls through last night meant that too often he was caught offside but I applaud him for always being on the move and looking for opportunity. His time will come and there is enough quality coaching at Villa now to be optimistic that he will be a valued player. JPA had very similar problems initially but came good, the same will happen to Ayew.

Thats the straw I clutched at last night, the timings of his runs were slightly off but at least he see's them, the rest of his game was pretty ropey. I think we'll need to be patient with him.

A crazy game, both teams looked like they could score every time we went forward, the gaps between the defenders were huge at times, i think we could have looked a lot more secure by bringing in a 'proper' Centre Half and pushing the dominant Sanchez into midfield. Some great performances though with mentions in dispatches for Grealish, Richardson, Sinclaire and Gil who I thought was quite superb, Traore looked exciting and raw in equal measures.

County did very well indeed and it was only when they faded very badly in Extra Time that we became comfortable.

[PeterWithe]

Can anyone provide a report on how Veretout was?

Stated pretty shakily but got better and better as the game went on and they tired, I think he'll be pretty pleased with himself overall and rightly so, didn't see much of him going forward but in that team, another attacker was the last thing we needed!

[UK Redsox]

Can anyone provide a report on how Veretout was?

Stated pretty shakily but got better and better as the game went on and they tired, I think he'll be pretty pleased with himself overall and rightly so, didn't see much of him going forward but in that team, another attacker was the last thing we needed!

Considering that at times the formation was 4-1-5, Veretout had his work cut out.

Gil tracked back well.

As much as we'd like to see SirClive, Grealish, Gil and Adama in the same side, they're going to have to link up a lot better for it to work.

There were spells last night when they took turns in running at Notts County without much thought of passing (Adama was worryingly Zog-like on occasion).

Jack seamed to learn pretty quick that this approach wouldn't work and started looking for more passes.