Aston Villa vs Sunderland Post-Match Thread

[Percy McCarthy]

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.

I must say I worked that out the first time he said it was a 'must-win' game.

The plum.

[silhillvilla]

Whilst I hate the term "transition season", I think we are genuinely going to have one. It's fairly clear already it's going to be another long bumpy journey. I'd take 14th .

[Chris Jameson]

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.

I must say I worked that out the first time he said it was a 'must-win' game.

The plum.

The next game is a really must win game otherwise we will either draw or lose it.

[damon loves JT]

i like plums plums are nice they are my favourite

[PeterWithesShin]

We must win our next 34 league games, and if you don't agree then you just don't care enough!

[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.

I must say I worked that out the first time he said it was a 'must-win' game.

The plum.

The next game is a really must win game otherwise we will either draw or lose it.

Seriously though, Leicester next.. I mean we have to win that one right? These are the stats we bitch about come April. How we couldn't beat those around us or losing to XYZ FC.

Baggies after that, must win right?

Doesn't matter guys.. early days. Keeps my blood pressure low, whatever.

[villa `cross the mersey]

VCTM - 'there' is (hopefully) playing much better football, creating good chances and winning more games. We should be aiming for beyond 'there' but I'll settle for 'there' at the moment. In my opinion we are now a proper striker away from being top half. It may be that the £16m spent on Ayew and Gestede may have been better spent on one striker (Austin is the only name that pops into my head at the moment) but who knows how good or otherwise they will turn out right now? Importantly also I think we are on our way to becoming more solid and difficult to overrun which we saw quite a lot last season and before.

Thanks for responding buddy - I agree about Ayew and Gestede - whether Austin would have been a better option is  open to debate.
I am frustrated that once again survival seems to be the goal rather than aiming for top ten. Sherwood is attempting major surgery and his patient will need plenty of time to recover ... yes we need to be patient also but after so many years of abject home performances I am perhaps  yet to be convinced that he is the man to take the club forward .... draws at home  to a very poor Sunderland side dont inspire me

[four fornicholl]

do I watch the magnificent aston villa on snf scrape a draw or Liverpool get fucked? decisions decisions

[Chris Jameson]

i like plums plums are nice they are my favourite

Your favourite what?

[Pat McMahon]

I'm pretty disappointed after that. I find myself agreeing with numerous posts above, both negative and positive.

I really think we have shot ourselves in the foot defensively today - for the first goal  Amavi gave away a soft free kick and Guzan was too far to the right ( like Aftab, I was urging him to move left a bit). The second seemed like a catalogue of errors from my seat in the Holte but I may be wrong.

Going forward Sinclair showed good movement and our second goal was from a lovely move. I was majorly chuffed that Amavi picked out Sinclair and didn't just pump it in the air for Gestede to attack.

Positive signs elsewhere were Sanchez and Gueye in midfield, plus Hutton defensively ( I may be in a minority here) and I thought Amavi was good for an hour, though his positional play needs work.

On the infuriating side I thought our shooting was shite, as was our crossing, Bacuna had a poor game and Gestede didn't hold the ball up well enough . To his credit, I thought Gestede had a better second half and didnt hide, but I can't see him being a big threat yet. My biggest gripe was that I have seen the stats of 22 shots with 6-8 on target but I can't remember their keeper making proper saves. I certainly don't recall the worldy that Tim referred to. I thought the atmosphere was pretty flat too. And I nearly forgot, but I was frothing at Gil's dive as I thought he should have got a shot away before throwing himself to the ground. A definite yellow in my view.

I completely understand many of the frustrations by previous posters tonight - to improve on the past few seasons we need to be beating Sunderland at home as there will be much harder games to come. We missed a really good chance today to pick up 3 points against one of the poorer teams in the league and improve our abysmal home record.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'm going to watch MOTD, I want to see again Guzan for the freekick, plus our cracking second goal, and also the 'dive'. That i'll sea Chelsea and Liverpool dicked at home is an added bonus.

[damon loves JT]

i like plums plums are nice they are my favourite

Your favourite what?

my favourite.... please?

[villadelph]

[Olof's Beard]

For those knocking Gestede, he has actually started in very similar manner to Benteke. Like Benteke, he scored as a substitute on debut but also like Benteke, he looks a little clumsy at the moment while settling in. That said, I thought he improved as the game went on and his hold up play was pretty good. He was involved in most of out better moves, and he rolled Kaboul for the chance that he snatched at as well. I think he will be fine.

As others have said, Traore, Gil or Grealish for 90 minutes wins us that game. To have all three out at the same time is bloody unlucky.

It's hard to judge the performance really. Some players looked good, but they were up against an awful Sunderland side so I am not sure how much you can read into it. Sanchez was probably the pick of the bunch, Marvin had a storming second half and Gil looked lively when he came on too. Awful dive mind, surprised Sherwood defended it.

[four fornicholl]

ts is obviously playing rudy so he gets used to the prem.
we will be fine this season with what weve got.
a decent cup run,dont know which.acouple of cracking results,
and a mid table finish
live the dream UTV