Aston Villa vs Sunderland Post-Match Thread

[villadelph]

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.

Sunderland are bloody awful.  If we want to be clear of trouble, we have to be taking maximum points from games like this.

I'm with you.

I don't think we played bad at all, but three points is why we play. That was always going to be one of the easiest home matches of the year. Had to win.

[dicedlam]

 
I would love to see this side given a chance when they are all fit and up to speed.


                             Guzan

Hutton       Richards         Clark/Lescott       Amavi
 
                      Sanchez   Ghana

     Adama                   Gil                      Grealish

                               Ayew

[PeterWithesShin]

Yet again I've left VP feeling entertained. Positive signs of a team there. Frustrating that we get punished for errors but on another day we'd have scored 5 or 6.

[Steve R]

I thought we played well for the most part today but in the end were carrying too many concrete blocks to get over the line.

Sherwood - This was no day to come over all O'Neill/McLeish/Labert and shit a brick when writing out the team sheet. If Carles Gil cannot get a start at home in a game like this, when does he? Again we see the opposition make an adjustment and there is no response at all.

Gestede - Looks totally out of it. What little he has to offer is disappearing fast as his confidence goes out of the window. I could make out whether he missed an own goal from 6 inches out or actually clearing a goalbound shot on behalf of the opposition.

Hutton - Saw so much of the ball in space and yet did so little with it. All Sunderland had to do was clog up the other flank and it was all but job done. Amavi had a much harder job yet stuck at it and still worked a couple of potentially match winning positions.

Luck - Another shot that is easily covered by Guzan gets deflected out of his reach. Thank you God.

It's not a bad point truth be told, and for the most part a good performance, but we do need a credible striker very quickly.

[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.

There are no "have to win" games in August.

At least not in football.

With all due respect I completely disagree, when 38 points is all you can count on.

So what is the upshot, then, of having drawn a match rather than won it with 34 league games left?

There must be some dreadful consequence with it being a must win game that we haven't won?

Don't want to single you out, and I am normally at the half empty rather than half full end of the scale myself, but some of the overreaction today is amongst the most nuts stuff I've seen on here in years

"Deep n trouble", " right in it ", " must win game".

In August? Sorry but that is hilarious

Not what I said or even implied.

Sunderland at home this campaign (I don't care if it's in August, December or May) is a game we have to win. The point value and importance of victory doesn't change. Don't treat August like preseason, that is incredibly naive.

[ktvillan]

I doubt we'll face poorer opposition all season so it's  a concern we didn't win it.  Doesn't matter how much you dominate or how well you play, if you are going to gift goals away through piss poor defending you aint going to win many.  We pretty much gifted two to Palace last week and one today.  Clark has been at fault for two of them.  I've never understood how people rate the bloke, I think he's way out of his depth.  He's too weak and too slow for the PL and his decision making is poor.  That "challenge" today was sub-schoolboy error standard, just awful.  At least there were signs of some attacking cohesion coming together and we were a bit unlucky with the one that came back off the post.

[citizenDJ]

I think there is plenty to be positive about from that performance - albeit we didn't get the win that I thought we probably did enough to deserve.

Richards looks like a very handy centre-back, and Amavi seems like he could be extremely good indeed, and he's doing pretty well already. Hutton was largely untroubled at right-back, and these days he seems like a fairly reliable option there.

Gana and Sanchez is potentially a very solid base for our midfield. They are both mobile, tenacious and (usually, in Sanchez's case) good with a pass - Gana's pass for the second goal was excellent, as an example.

Scott Sinclair is really finding some form…without seemingly doing too much! He's a classy player, I think, in that he is frequently in just the right place. He is much better than Agbobnlahor.

The way we are trying to play, and are getting better at doing, is good. We look a lot better than we have at most points during the last few seasons and even if results might not be as we hope, the style of play is getting there. Slick passing, entertaining goals, actual honest-to-God movement from our players….we actually look like a Premier League team this season.

So, disappointing not to win, but I think we'll do OK. As others have mentioned, we have a lot of new players, and a brand new coaching team. We have to be patient for things to 'click'.

[Ron Manager]

 
I would love to see this side given a chance when they are all fit and up to speed.


                             Guzan

Hutton       Richards         Clark/Lescott       Amavi
 
                      Sanchez   Ghana

     Adama                   Gil                      Grealish

                               Ayew

Im afraid you can only pick eleven.Sanchez and an entire country would be unfair...and the ref would possibly notice.!

[pauliewalnuts]

Sorry when you said it was a "must win game " I thought you meant it was a must win game

I don't like not taking chances either but going into hyperbolic panic mode with 34 games left to play is just absurd

Sunderland at home is not a game we have to win, either. There aren't any such games until you start running out of matches left to play.

I assume Bournemouth away was not on this have to win list, mind, so imagine you'll be balancing this result out with that one?

[Tayls_7]

 
I would love to see this side given a chance when they are all fit and up to speed.


                             Guzan

Hutton       Richards         Clark/Lescott       Amavi
 
                      Sanchez   Ghana

     Adama                   Gil                      Grealish

                               Ayew

Great. Are you going to be the one to explain that to Scott Sinclair?

[villadelph]

Sorry when you said it was a "must win game " I thought you meant it was a must win game

I don't like not taking chances either but going into hyperbolic panic mode with 34 games left to play is just absurd

Sunderland at home is not a game we have to win, either. There aren't any such games until you start running out of matches left to play.

I assume Bournemouth away was not on this have to win list, mind, so imagine you'll be balancing this result out with that one?

What a terrible approach.

[dave.woodhall]

General agreement on the train home is frustrating, but there's something coming together.

[Doorbell]

I'm a bit confused as to why Gil is having such a hard time getting game time and what does Kozak need to do to catch a break?!

[villadelph]

General agreement on the train home is frustrating, but there's something coming together.

The midfield already looks pretty "gelled"

Gana, Westwood and Sanchez knock it around very well, and having Amavi and Hutton getting involved also is a huge plus. 

[Toronto Villa]

Sorry when you said it was a "must win game " I thought you meant it was a must win game

I don't like not taking chances either but going into hyperbolic panic mode with 34 games left to play is just absurd

Sunderland at home is not a game we have to win, either. There aren't any such games until you start running out of matches left to play.

I assume Bournemouth away was not on this have to win list, mind, so imagine you'll be balancing this result out with that one?

What a terrible approach.

That's not remotely at all what he implied. And especially in August. It's reality though that when games run out you need points for various reasons not just staying up. But right now clearly we are building something and coming together. I don't think that's hard to see irrespective of today's result. The perfomance was very encouraging.