Aston Villa vs Sunderland Post-Match Thread

[Louzie0]

Hull & Kingston Rovers have had rather a bad day.
Rugby scores always sound comical compared to 'association football' results, but even so.

50 - nil. Nowhere to hide, really.

But Leeds are happy, so that's all right then.

Now looking forward to watching Chelsea and Liverpool on MOTD.

[Chris Jameson]

i like plums plums are nice they are my favourite

Your favourite what?

my favourite.... please?

That's better. Manners cost nothing.

[PaulTheVillan]

I'd even be happy with Adebayor now.

[berneboy]

i like plums plums are nice they are my favourite

Your favourite what?

my favourite.... please?

That's better. Manners cost nothing.

I've enjoyed this bit of banter.
It has caused me a problem however. I chuckled and had to try and explain to my wife why i found it so funny. It's not easy!

[supertom]

i like plums plums are nice they are my favourite

Your favourite what?

my favourite.... please?

That's better. Manners cost nothing.

I've enjoyed this bit of banter.
It has caused me a problem however. I chuckled and had to try and explain to my wife why i found it so funny. It's not easy!

I often had to explain my H&V chuckles to my ex...possibly why she's now my ex.
The shithouse thread lead to many a bewildered stare from her.

[Chris Stares]

I don't get the blaming of Guzan's starting position for their first goal. Surely, if he carries any blame it is because he positioned the wall badly. The wall is supposed to prevent those curlers around the side and protect the near post, while the keeper covers the middle of the goal and the far post.

We are sat directly behind the goal but elevated above it right at the back of the Lower Holte and I said before the kick was taken that Guzan was too far over to the right of his goal, and so it proved.  It was a good strike but given you knew he was going to take it right-footed which would naturally curve it around the wall towards the top left corner (if he got it right, which he did) then I thought Guzan should've positioned himself more centrally to cover that more likely possibility.  It would've had to have been a Ronaldo-esque strike to have beaten him as far over to the right of the goal as he was standing.  The most likely option was the one which played out, so for me, I agree with others who have said that Guzan's positioning was poor for the free kick.

Guzan is a professional GK who took up the position he thought best. He left that space as he thought the wall would cover it. It was a great free-kick. As far as I can see, his only problem as a GK is his kicking.

Doesn't mean he can't make a mistake.  I'm not questioning his general ability as a goalkeeper (kicking aside as you point out) just that on this occasion I thought he got it wrong.  It was a very good strike but I think if he was more central he would have probably saved it.

[passport1]

My first live look at our new look team. Ahead of the game I thought it would be high scoring due to both sides poor defences.

I have to say however I was reasonably impressed with Villa's first half performance and was not surprised that Sunderland put there no.  20 on Sanchez in the second half to stop him dictating Villas play.

Villa are a work in progress but some progress appears to be taking place.

Probably sensible not to be making snap judgements on the new players yet as we are only four games in and even some of the top sides take 8 to 10 games to get into their stride.

Definitely signs of the makings of a decent team though.

[silhillvilla]

Only seen it on TV but I thought it was quite low into the goal and catchable if Guzan had positioned himself properly.
Guzan is worrying me.

[passitsideways]

Before the season, if we had been asked to predict the amount of points we'd have after these four games, I think most people would have gone with 4-5. We're at that exact spot, despite having all these players to integrate. Yeah, we probably should've been beating Sunderland regardless; but on the same basis, maybe we "shouldn't have" been beating Bournemouth away in their first PL game, yet we did.

[robbo1874]

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.

i wouldn't say Leicester is a 'must win'. I think we'll do well to beat them and I'd be fairly happy with a draw to be honest. If you're talking about must-wins then albion probably classifies as such, as does blues in the cup.

[ROBBO]

We've gone from a manager that played dire negative football to one that believes in attacking and scoring goals so thats a plus.
We played well with some of our new players really looking like they have played in the premiership for years, yes there are obvious weaknesses and we need to strengthen in a couple of areas but i see a lot of positives. Gestede still looks a bit lost and we do need a stiker to give him time to settle, Clark makes too many mistakes for my liking and Bacuna should be nowhere near the starting line up. We have good players to come back in and if we get say Adebeyor then we will do well.

[robbo1874]

I don't get the blaming of Guzan's starting position for their first goal. Surely, if he carries any blame it is because he positioned the wall badly. The wall is supposed to prevent those curlers around the side and protect the near post, while the keeper covers the middle of the goal and the far post.

We are sat directly behind the goal but elevated above it right at the back of the Lower Holte and I said before the kick was taken that Guzan was too far over to the right of his goal, and so it proved.  It was a good strike but given you knew he was going to take it right-footed which would naturally curve it around the wall towards the top left corner (if he got it right, which he did) then I thought Guzan should've positioned himself more centrally to cover that more likely possibility.  It would've had to have been a Ronaldo-esque strike to have beaten him as far over to the right of the goal as he was standing.  The most likely option was the one which played out, so for me, I agree with others who have said that Guzan's positioning was poor for the free kick.

Guzan is a professional GK who took up the position he thought best. He left that space as he thought the wall would cover it. It was a great free-kick. As far as I can see, his only problem as a GK is his kicking.

Doesn't mean he can't make a mistake.  I'm not questioning his general ability as a goalkeeper (kicking aside as you point out) just that on this occasion I thought he got it wrong.  It was a very good strike but I think if he was more central he would have probably saved it.

i get that everybody makes mistakes. I was never a goalkeeper, it's a largely thankless task. But with all their training - and guzan's no fresh newcomer, he's been around a bit and is a decent keeper- so you would expect better positioning from a free kick from there. If people in the crowd can predict what's going to happen, how can he get it so wrong from where he's standing? I'm not wanting to kick him, as I think he's more than worth his place in the side for all the times he's pulled us out of the shit in the last few seasons. But it does seem like he needs to focus a bit more and cut out the errors a bit better.

[Matt Collins]

Re Guzan - i don't get the criticism. That's the side the wall is protecting isn't it?

[pbavfckuwait]

Not ready to slit my throat just yet, thought more pluses than minuses. I think with Rudy if he was going to take him off, he needed to do it at half time as I thought he came into the game second half. Gana looks a player and a half, Sanchez growing better each game, Amavi still a little worry there. I thought Hutton had a decent game, Westwood I am not sure about, Sinclair covered a hell of alot of ground tracking back, as well as I have seen a forward at the Villa for years, plus he is a natural goal scorer and probably the only one we have on the books, so that need for a goal scorer still needs addressing.
Down points, Clark all he had to do was push him wide. but the only thing he did was push himself passed the player and made it very easy, but also a deflection took it passed Guzan.
I think the free kick was a mixture of the wall and the goalie, but Guzans responsibility for both, I think he lined the wall up incorrectly and also his positioning where he placed himself then was also poor. The only player I was really disappointed with was Bacunna, just not top league quality.
Second goal from the Villa was a thing of beauty and something we have not seen down at Villa park for a long long time, to bloody long. A work in progress.

[Richard E]

It was a cracking game, I actually went home feeling like I'd been entertained, which to put it mildly hasn't always been the case in recent seasons.

I thought Sanchez was excellent for us, this season we will hopefully see the best of him now he's acclimatised to this League.

We were unlucky not to win. On another day we will play worse than that and take the 3 points.

Sunderland need to be relegated just so there is no danger of having to spend 90 minutes looking at that hideous away kit ever again.