Aston Villa vs Sunderland Post-Match Thread

[supertom]

Without sounding harsh, we need better than Clark & westwood to kick on.
Simply not PL level.

Hate to agree SV but you are right. Both are OK when we don't have anyone better but  Westwood was like a square peg in a round hole in that position today and Clark was awful for their equaliser.

Westwood wouldn't normally be expected to be the attacking thrust.  Typically we'd have Grealish there.  After that I'd expect Gil and Vertout to also get selected ahead of him once they're more settled.  I think it's a bit unfair to put blame on Westwood today when he's, as you say, a square peg in a round hole, but ultimately taking one for the team by playing out of position.

Westwood is a squad option for me. He'll have his uses but he shouldn't play every game. I think the game today showed, at home at least, we can get by with Sanchez and Gana anchoring midfield. Veretout would then be an option in place of either of them, or possibly pushed up to the number 10 role.
Put 3 of Sinclair, Gil, Grealish, or Traore in front of them and a striker up top, and we'll score more.

[rougegorge]

My real take on it is that it's a disappointing result but compared to the utter dirge under lambet this is great football and you can see signs of something developing.  Plus I have just looked at the table and it doesn't look bad especially as spuds southampton and a few others have yet to win a game.

Yes I was disappointed given who we were playing but it wasn't boring.

Gana looks to have something and Amavi too though he needs to cut out careless mistakes. We should've helped Hutton more down the right where Van Aanholt has struggled.

We don't seem to be able to eradicate costly errors. I said to the bloke next to me that the free kick was heading to Guzan's left,  the gap was so big, especially as it looked odds on a right footed kick. Meanwhile Clark got a lot of praise on here last season and when he signed an extension but he can still be rash or go to ground early.

[paul_e]

It's the toughest league in the world, every game is must win.

Fine, you could have just made this whole post-match thread much easier if you'd just said that you were talking in meaningless clichés the whole time.

Unless you actually believe that if you don't win every game in the league then you've got a problem? If you don't think that, stop calling things "must-win" when they're patently not.

What?!

We play to win the game. FS.

Yes and sometimes you don't get the win even though you deserved it, sometimes you win games where you've been shit, this is part of the sport.  The way you're acting is as if you've never actually watched football.

Once again, getting early points is good but good performances are far more important at this time of the season.  You only have to go back 1 season to see the truth of that.

[villadelph]

It's the toughest league in the world, every game is must win.

Fine, you could have just made this whole post-match thread much easier if you'd just said that you were talking in meaningless clichés the whole time.

Unless you actually believe that if you don't win every game in the league then you've got a problem? If you don't think that, stop calling things "must-win" when they're patently not.

What?!

We play to win the game. FS.

Yes and sometimes you don't get the win even though you deserved it, sometimes you win games where you've been shit, this is part of the sport.  The way you're acting is as if you've never actually watched football.

Once again, getting early points is good but good performances are far more important at this time of the season.  You only have to go back 1 season to see the truth of that.

Are both not attainable? Is it unrealistic to have an expectation to play well and defeat a club in a state such as Sunderland at home?

I'm acting as if I've never watched football before.. hmm?

Sorry, I guess I'm one of the few left with expectation. You just sound soft. A part of the 'it's just a game' crowd maybe. This whole "football only matters when you're desperate" idea is ludicrous.

The season has started, we played well. Well enough to win.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

If we started with Gil instead of Bacuna, we would've won that game. Gestede had a poor game too. I'm no fan of Kozak, but he had an impact on Tuesday, so why not give him half an hour today?

Overall, I'm pretty disappointed by the result, but the performance was better than it has been so far this season.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Not sure if it's been mentioned enough but what an absolute beautiful piece of football our second goal was. I think it was Richards that won the ball and gave it to Gueye who played an amazing slide rule pass from the half way line to the advancing Amavi down the left. His perfect cross just needed the simplest of touches from Sinclair who had timed his run to perfection to tap it in. That alone gives me a little more faith in Sherwood and helps relieve the frustration of not picking up the three points today.

[footyskillz]

Was hoping for all 3 points and the performance attacking wise at times was just right and merits a victory. I felt there was a lack of width apart from the full backs amavi and Hutton and that Clark was sold to easily for the equaliser. The system relies too much on full backs but looking at positives they got forward all be it against tow of the weakest opposing defenders in league.
I not sure how Richards missed from excellent Sinclair and that a change in las 15 mins was needed apart from Gil who was on the ball and dictating play. I would have liked to see kozak and we really struggled without gabbys pace up top with gestde who was mixed at holding it up but was at times very problematic ijn air. The ref didn't add on the time at the end which was rather scandalously bad as pantimllion was time wasting outrageously. That said the lacking fnishing by Westwood in particular who often seemed to be in good positions to score ment villa didn't get the points.

[PaulWinch again]

The people saying Gestede is not the answer after two games in which he has started are ridiculous. He held up the ball and distributed it pretty well and got himself in scoring positions. He needed to do better with the end product, but every striker has better and worse shots. People on here need to relax.

I think Gestede should be an option from the bench rather than starting right now but I'm in no way writing him off, I just think he needs to learn how to fit in with the club and I think the confidence bashing he'll take from games like today won't help him do that.

To be fair Traore is an exceptional kid, so I don't think he should be used as an example.

For what it's worth, it took Traore 5 minutes to prove his worth and show his class. He's a kid and Rudy is certainly not.

Edit: I guess Rudy did win us Bournemouth.

[Lastfootstamper]

Was I the only one who thought Pantilimon didn't actually have that many saves to make, aside from Westwood's shot I'm struggling to think of anything else he had to do.

We had lots of pressure as you'd expect in a home game v Sunderland but not sure it was quite a hammering.

I think poor finishing was a part of that. Bacuna had a couple of good opportunities but fluffed his shots both times. Westwood fired wide in a good position when he should have worked the keeper. Gestede had that turn and shot, the one time I really mugged Kaboul today, but fired disappointingly wide.
I think we had about 20 attempts and only 6 on target.

Richards open goal miss was huge too. How that didn't go in, I have no idea.

We dominated for the most part but whilst we do need to create more clear cut openings, we need to improve our finishing. I still think a new front man is required. However I'm quite happy with the attacking blend we have aside. They will click soon enough and we need Grealish, Gil and Traore fit.

Didn't go today, gave up the ticket to my nephew in advance as I had tickets for the cricket. Gotta say, on top of a bloke netting 5 for us in as many days, having 4 other players mentioned regarding fluffing chances is kinda heartening after some of the turgid bollocks dished up in recent years. Onwards and upwards.

[brian green]

Just home. Disappointing. I wonder if Libor has upset Sherwood by turning down the loan move to Celtic. Warming Kozak up for ten minutes or more then still not giving Gestede the hook, struck me as very queer. Libor is one of our few players who is savvy and instinctively comfortable in the box. I would have brought him and Carles on at half time.

[villadelph]

The people saying Gestede is not the answer after two games in which he has started are ridiculous. He held up the ball and distributed it pretty well and got himself in scoring positions. He needed to do better with the end product, but every striker has better and worse shots. People on here need to relax.

I think Gestede should be an option from the bench rather than starting right now but I'm in no way writing him off, I just think he needs to learn how to fit in with the club and I think the confidence bashing he'll take from games like today won't help him do that.

To be fair Traore is an exceptional kid, so I don't think he should be used as an example.

For what it's worth, it took Traore 5 minutes to prove his worth and show his class. He's a kid and Rudy is certainly not.

Edit: I guess Rudy did win us Bournemouth.

Yeah, I see what you mean. That's why is tried to throw a fwiw in there. Traore's pedigree is unrivaled.

I just don't want to see us become dependent on striker who we hope comes good. We could do with some assurance up top. I hate to say Rudy is old, but I guess we're just young-ish now.

[olaftab]

The way I see it you don't win league titles by drawing at home to Sunderland, the last time we won it, Sunderland were routed 4-0 at Villa Park.

 Youre right we may just miss out this year.

Yes not thrashing Sunderland combined with the fact that we are 8 points behind mancity already makes  me think you both could be right however remember we still have to play them home and away and that's 6 points!

[rob_bridge]

Was I the only one who thought Pantilimon didn't actually have that many saves to make, aside from Westwood's shot I'm struggling to think of anything else he had to do.

We had lots of pressure as you'd expect in a home game v Sunderland but not sure it was quite a hammering.

I think poor finishing was a part of that. Bacuna had a couple of good opportunities but fluffed his shots both times. Westwood fired wide in a good position when he should have worked the keeper. Gestede had that turn and shot, the one time I really mugged Kaboul today, but fired disappointingly wide.
I think we had about 20 attempts and only 6 on target.

Richards open goal miss was huge too. How that didn't go in, I have no idea.

We dominated for the most part but whilst we do need to create more clear cut openings, we need to improve our finishing. I still think a new front man is required. However I'm quite happy with the attacking blend we have aside. They will click soon enough and we need Grealish, Gil and Traore fit.

Maybe add Altidore too to the mix

[LukeJames]

I haven't seen any of the game but the 7-5 score over the past two games is what I expected when Sherwood took over, glad Sinclairs banging them in, as previously stated I really like him and think he's vastly under rated by a lot of our fans.

[rob_bridge]

I haven't seen any of the game but the 7-5 score over the past two games is what I expected when Sherwood took over, glad Sinclairs banging them in, as previously stated I really like him and think he's vastly under rated by a lot of our fans.

He looks 10 times the player Gabby has been recently.