Aston Villa vs Sunderland Post-Match Thread

[brian green]

That is the trouble Oswald, he does practice it endlessly but when the pressure is on he seems to panic. Before the game yesterday with the two coaches he was kicking the moving ball first with his favoured left foot then with is right with precision over the half way line. In the game he will always put the ball on his left foot then because that has taken half a second he rushes the kick and our target man has to run to try to flick on the ball to some effect. Identifying the problem is the easy part. Getting the player to correct the fault in play is the hard part. The list of uncoachable faults is endless. Bannan's Hollywood passes, KEA running behind his opponent, Marc's wild tackles, Charlie not looking where he is running, Brad Guzan's distribution.

[ROBBO]

Re-Guzan i thought he had taken a position inviting the taker to go to that side and that as it was being taken he would move one pace across. Cannot believe he left that much space.

[Clampy]

Yesterday reminded me of Palace a bit last week. They came out in the second half, made a couple of changes and it took us a while to cope with it. Overall I think we deserved to win though with the chances we had and if Grealish and Traore had been fit, it might have been different, especially given the amount of space Hutton had on the right hand side in the first half.

[john e]

My observations of the day

Sanchez was my MOTM thought he was excellent he does stick out because of his hair so you notice him a bit more for good or for bad

Few mistakes made here and there but the only player to have a poor game for me was Gestede he doesnt look quite there yet

Having been less than lukewarm in the past about Sinclair thought he played really well yesterday,it's my first live match of the season and you notice the amount of work he puts in a bit more, seems to be regaining his quality

We should have won , but that's football, I came away feeling as though we had lost and had to keep reminding myself that we had drawn, although it still felt like 2 points thrown away

Sunderland are poor, I think they will drop, but have great support they deserve better but I'm not that arsed about them really

I'm not keen on Plums

[john e]

I also thought we lost the 2 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half,
 we didn't react to their subs, we let them get back into the game instead of killing them off, you could see and sense we weren't at it at the start of the 2nd period Until they equalised,
Sherwood needs to be aware of this

[oswald funkletrumpet]

That is the trouble Oswald, he does practice it endlessly but when the pressure is on he seems to panic. Before the game yesterday with the two coaches he was kicking the moving ball first with his favoured left foot then with is right with precision over the half way line. In the game he will always put the ball on his left foot then because that has taken half a second he rushes the kick and our target man has to run to try to flick on the ball to some effect. Identifying the problem is the easy part. Getting the player to correct the fault in play is the hard part. The list of uncoachable faults is endless. Bannan's Hollywood passes, KEA running behind his opponent, Marc's wild tackles, Charlie not looking where he is running, Brad Guzan's distribution.

good point brian, i am going to get there early for the bitters game and what the warm up

[nigel]

Sanchez and Gana very good, again.

All Clark had to do was stay on his feet and the chap would never have got his shot off.
Unsure if it was a free kick for their first, but nothing anyone could do about the strike itself.

Was it a 2nd half penalty on Gil? Couldn't see from my position.

I thouht Guzan positioned himself badly for the first.

Agreed.

Logic would say you cover the nearest post to the free kick taker yourself and tempt him to beat you at the furthest post from him, thus giving you more time to scramble across, as the ball has to travel further to reach the net.

Science lesson over.

That apart, worth a watch again on MOTD tonight, I also suspect someone in the wall wasn't prepared to get hurt there, I'm not sure it was that far from being 'blockable'.

It's an easier free kick that way, as the ball has more distance to get up, down, bend, whatever.
If you watched MotD you will see there was nothing wrong with Guzans position, as I mentioned before, the ball went around the wall, not up and over. Hutton actually stuck his head sideways a good foot to try and deflect it.
It was an excellent free kick.

[Risso]

It's an easier free kick that way, as the ball has more distance to get up, down, bend, whatever.
If you watched MotD you will see there was nothing wrong with Guzans position, as I mentioned before, the ball went around the wall, not up and over. Hutton actually stuck his head sideways a good foot to try and deflect it.
It was an excellent free kick.

I don't agree Nigel, by standing where he did, Guzan gave the taker all sorts of opportunities.  It was a good free kick of course, but then when you give the opponent a huge amount of space to aim at, they've always got a chance of rifling one in.

[john e]

It's an easier free kick that way, as the ball has more distance to get up, down, bend, whatever.
If you watched MotD you will see there was nothing wrong with Guzans position, as I mentioned before, the ball went around the wall, not up and over. Hutton actually stuck his head sideways a good foot to try and deflect it.
It was an excellent free kick.

I don't agree Nigel, by standing where he did, Guzan gave the taker all sorts of opportunities.  It was a good free kick of course, but then when you give the opponent a huge amount of space to aim at, they've always got a chance of rifling one in.

But let's face it Risso, you got a bee in your bonnet about Guzan,
he's not ever going to do anything you like and the only thing your going to do for the rest of his time here is pick at the negative bits of his game all the time

 The lad could save 3 penalties in a game and you would pick fault somehow,
I know how it goes, I was the same with NRC, Downing and N'zog, they never did anything of worth in my view

You just have to admit it

[brian green]

I also thought that there were distinct similarities with the Palace game. We played well and dominated the first half. Pardew shuffled the deck at half time and took the momentum out of us and Advocaat did the same yesterday. Sunderland took the initiative and until we brought on Carles Gil they forced us into playing less constructively. For a critical twenty minutes Gestede's head became the out ball choice. The half time shake up has become very much part of the game and a very viable alternative to using substitutes only for impact purposes late in a game. For what it is worth I would have brought on Gil for Bacuna and Kozak for Gestede at half time. Apart from anything else the opposition manager makes his half time changes based on the opposition remaining unchanged. Sherwood duly obliged.

[Ron Manager]

It's an easier free kick that way, as the ball has more distance to get up, down, bend, whatever.
If you watched MotD you will see there was nothing wrong with Guzans position, as I mentioned before, the ball went around the wall, not up and over. Hutton actually stuck his head sideways a good foot to try and deflect it.
It was an excellent free kick.

I don't agree Nigel, by standing where he did, Guzan gave the taker all sorts of opportunities.  It was a good free kick of course, but then when you give the opponent a huge amount of space to aim at, they've always got a chance of rifling one in.

There were punters blaming Shay Given for the goal scored by Sanchez in the Cup Final. There appears to be unjust critisism of Guzan at the moment. He and he only is responsible for every goal we concede. Sometimes you have to admit that the dead ball experts on the opposition sides are very very good at their job. We have Ashley Westwood who plainly is not.

[Matt Collins]

Some good highlights here http://www.safc.com/news/team-news/2015/august/highlights-aston-villa-v-sunderland

Gestede looked a touch better than I thought at the game (ie not quite as shit)

Amavi looks great going forwards.

Don't agree it was bad Guzan positioning.

Noticeable that Bacuna is nowhere to be seen in the highlights

[Percy McCarthy]

Bacuna rightly getting stick for a poor performance in midfield, but I think he'd have done a lot more than Hutton if he'd played right back. Maybe they were both a couple of the ones not affected by the flu bug.

[Clampy]

Bacuna rightly getting stick for a poor performance in midfield, but I think he'd have done a lot more than Hutton if he'd played right back.

I was thinking that during the game. There didn't seem to be any need for them both to be on the pitch.

[Rudy65]

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.

Having watched MOTD, Guzans is positioned to far over. He is just asking to beaten from there. good free kick though.

Sometimes you wonder whether it would be better not have any wall at all so Guzan can see where the ball is going, or at least have a better view