Aston Villa vs Sunderland Post-Match Thread

[paul_e]

fucking hell, we signed a whole team and lots of people, correctly, said it was going to take a while for people to settle and yet we're apparently in a relegation battle after 4 games, some people really need to chill out.

Today Amavi, Sinclair, Gueye and Westwood were superb, Richards, Sinclair and Hutton were very good and Gil was very good when he came on.  On top of that Guzan had nothing to do.  Yes there was a bad mistake by Clark for their equaliser which is a concern and Gestede looked static but there's plenty of positives and we're clearly improving so lets give it a rest on the doom mongering for a couple of weeks.

[Tuscans]

fucking hell, we signed a whole team and lots of people, correctly, said it was going to take a while for people to settle and yet we're apparently in a relegation battle after 4 games, some people really need to chill out.

Today Amavi, Sinclair, Gueye and Westwood were superb, Richards, Sinclair and Hutton were very good and Gil was very good when he came on.  On top of that Guzan had nothing to do.  Yes there was a bad mistake by Clark for their equaliser which is a concern and Gestede looked static but there's plenty of positives and we're clearly improving so lets give it a rest on the doom mongering for a couple of weeks.

Claps

[Archie]

Ok, we played quite well, but it is hard to accept not to win at home with Sunderland that - apart from Defoe - appeared a very poor team.
I have always the impression that, despite our great tradition, our marvellous fans, our beautiful stadium, etc.,  for one thing or another we are nit able to reach the level that other teams like Palace, West Ham, Swansea and similar reach without problems.
That's frustrating....

[Chris Jameson]

No excuses.  Not beating Sunderland at home is totally unacceptable.  It says a lot that even with the amount of work done in the Summer that we are still well short.

This

Is
Why
I
Shall
Avoid
The
Match
Thread
For
A
Few
Months

[pauliewalnuts]

Some real hilarity in the match thread today.

Genuinely struggling to believe anyone actually thinks we are deep in it and playing must-win games in August.

Absolutely risible.

[Axl Rose]

Blimey, after the eye-bleeding bollocks served up by McLeish and Lambert in recent seasons, I'm a bit surprised at the way people are laying into that performance. I thought it was OK!

I feel much the same mate. There's unnecessary gloominess at times from some.

[phantom limb]

Why couldn't they have kept Cattermole on? Bastards.

[Ian.]

Note to self.

Avoid match thread until after Xmas, ridiculous some of the nonsense posted today.

I agree.

[supertom]

Gil should have come on sooner. Bacuna was horrific.

I thought we largely did okay until the final third. Their second goal was woeful from Clark. We've got to cut out the stupid errors.
Gestede had a game to forget, albeit he improved in the second half. I think he's too slow to be anything other than a potential impact player. Kozak is different in as much as he finds pockets of space in the box and is an instinctive finisher. Of the two my preference would be Libor, but much depends on how his legs hold up.

I think the game today was crying out for Grealish and Troare. We'd probably have mauled them with those two. Grealish just draws defenders to him and opens space for others, whilst Traore would have had a field day against their left back.

I do think there's some good signs though. Gana and Amavi look quality. Sanchez looks like he's up to the league now. We just need a bit of luck in being able to put out our strongest 11.

Another striker is an absolute must though. We need a target man who has some mobility.

[pauliewalnuts]

No excuses.  Not beating Sunderland at home is totally unacceptable.  It says a lot that even with the amount of work done in the Summer that we are still well short.

This post brought to you in association with Hyperbole Today.

True

Also mentions "all the work done in the summer" straight after saying there are "no excuses" without spotting the enormous link between those two lines.

[ozzjim]

I thought we look a really good team in patches. There is much to able, we pay nice football work hard and the midfield is very decent, but we need a centre half and a striker by Tuesday desperately.

[Toronto Villa]

Ok, we played quite well, but it is hard to accept not to win at home with Sunderland that - apart from Defoe - appeared a very poor team.
I have always the impression that, despite our great tradition, our marvellous fans, our beautiful stadium, etc.,  for one thing or another we are nit able to reach the level that other teams like Palace, West Ham, Swansea and similar reach without problems.
That's frustrating....

Yes frustrating but don't you think this is the most complete the side has looked so far this season. And that's even without two of our most potent attacking threats in Traore and Grealish. There are going to be games like this and ones where we play worse and win. This side will get better and better as the season goes on. This time last year we were sitting top of the table and it got worse and worse. It's not how you start it's what happens in the middle and end that matters.

[LTA]

I thought we were ok. Better than I expected given the personnel

We've got to get a centre fed tho

Gestede was appallingly bad

Need a keeper, centre back, right back and a forward.  Clark has regressed from last season, Bacuna and Hutton are mediocre and Gestede not ready.

[villadelph]

I guess August is just a month of throwaway games? 

In any of the last five years a few extra points in August would've changed the entire complexion of the campaign. We need to win when we are supposed to. We seem to have gelled if I'm honest. The midfield plays with great flow and continuity and the backs did well today except for Clark.

Today is a home match we had to win.

[passitsideways]

What do people think about the challenge by Clark that got him his yellow? Necessary or unnecessary? Because I think that was decisive in their equaliser, in the sense that if he wasn't on a yellow, there's no way he would've allowed Lens to get past him - would've just hauled him down just outside the penalty area and challenged someone to uncork another freeick.