Aston Villa vs Sunderland Post-Match Thread

[class-of-82]

Any other day we would of beat these 5-2, they was a disgrace with there keepers time wasting, it's slowly coming together when Adana is back to fitness then a front three of Sinclair Adana and gestede/ayew will look pretty good.

Richards for England surely it got to happen with the way he is playing

[CT]

Any other day we would of beat these 5-2, they was a disgrace with there keepers time wasting, it's slowly coming together when Adana is back to fitness then a front three of Sinclair Adana and gestede/ayew will look pretty good.

Richards for England surely it got to happen with the way he is playing

I'd rather he didn't. Every time one of ours gets in the England set-up they're as good as sold.

[old man villa fan]

I am surprised nobody noticed that after Guzan set the wall up he then pointed to move it right.  It was a good strike but a wall should be positioned to cover that type of shot.  You take the chance that a for a right footer to curl it up and over the wall into the top left it would be some goal.

Annoyed with the ref when their goalkeeper was time wasting in added time and the ref signalled that he was going to add time and then blew up 2 seconds after 4 minutes.

[peter w]

Guzan - 5 - thought at the time he got the wall wrong. M'Vila could only really go for that side of the goal so an extra man on the end of the wall or would have made M'Vila have to bend it outrageously. As it was he hit it well but it wasn't as if it snuck in just past the post. Unlucky for the second, though. That's 4 points we've lost to deflections.

Hutton - 6 - Willing runner but no quality in the final third. Did his defending job well enough.

Richards - 6 - Nothing he could do for the goal that should have been. Thought he defended well. Please don't get injured soon.

Clark - 5 - Thought he did okay until he got turned too easily for the goal.

Amavi - 6 - Good first half and promising start to the second but looked knack erred as the half wore on and the overlapping runs stopped; the skinning attempts stopped and he needs more time to get fully fit.

Bacuna - 5 - Willing runner but poor

Sanchez - 7 - Good on the ball and if he lost it or was in a cul-de-sac he always seem to get the ball back or manoeuvre it to another player. Looked bright and promising.

Westwood - 7 - As above. He tried to keep things ticking over and made more runs into the box. Unlucky with his shot late on.

Gana - 7 - Bright and promising. Always looking to carry the ball. Would have taken him off with 10-15 mins to go though as he was another who tired.

Sinclair - 8 - For the goals and for being able to take a penalty.

Gestede -  6 - slow and off the pace to begin with but I think he grew into the game as the second half wore on. Held the ball better, laid it off better, and his flicks started to come off. Should have scored late on.

Subs:

Gil - 5 - Poor for me. Went sideways too often and offered little to suggest Jack has competition or Vertout will struggle to get in the team when he's up and running. What disappointed me was his decision making. Too slow on the ball and the penalty decision wasn't one that needed to have been taken as the ball broke to him in the box with a lot of space for him to have hit it first time. He didn't and the opportunity turned into a yellow card.

We are promising and it was nice to see us on top against a team. It is only August so we will still take time to get it all together and hopefully not too many will be away over the international weekend as we still need to keep working on the training pitch. I hope that these types of game will soon become what we haven't had for a long time; a routine home win.

[Clark W Griswold]

Pretty good assessment Peter, i'd agree with most of that.
I think a top class keeper would have been a bit disappointed with the first goal, but it wasn't a howler by any means. Bacuna (who i like) was our least effective player. Sinclair MOM for the goals, Sanchez gets better and could be a star. Clark is good at blocking stuff (particularly crosses) but time and time again lets us down with odd moments of atricious positional play. Happened once in both halves and he paid the price in the second half. Gill struggled a bit coming on and his touch was poor which led to the yellow as you say. I think he'll offer a lot this season though. Gestede is limited but if we play to his strengths he'll be very effective. I would stick with him and Sinclair as the first choice pair unless we are able to get Austin.

2 goals should be enough to beat Sunderland, so the problem for me was more at the other end and despite us missing a couple of our best attacking players.

[bugdozer]

History is just repeating itself.
Like history just tends to do.
Repeatedly.
And we're here to witness it.

It's Andy Gray...then David Platt...and now Christian Benteke.

Sell our mega-star player and the result is a whole lot of fun...

(the resulting sort of fun is, of course, variable.)

[mr underhill]

Far. Out. Man.

[brian green]

I am with you on the matter of time wasting OMVF. It is now so ingrained in the game, along with stealing yards which their keeper was up to all the time, it is called Game Management and has only come about through weak and self opinionated refereeing. Regarding the time wasting the referee eventually carded the keeper but he instantly went back to doing it immediately he was shown the card. The take appears to be I have paid the price of my time wasting so I am free to go on doing it. No, it should be red for not stopping time wasting. If a player gets yellow for an outburst of foul language at the ref is he then permitted to carry on doing it? No he will get red because it upsets the ref. Time wasting and yards stealing and all the other cheating only upsets the fans and they don't matter.

[Percy McCarthy]

I don't care about players getting cards for time-wasting and neither do they. I want the time back. It should be punished with an extra two minutes added on, that would stop it.

[LeeB]

I don't care about players getting cards for time-wasting and neither do they. I want the time back. It should be punished with an extra two minutes added on, that would stop it.

Precisely.

[Dave]

I am with you on the matter of time wasting OMVF. It is now so ingrained in the game, along with stealing yards which their keeper was up to all the time, it is called Game Management and has only come about through weak and self opinionated refereeing. Regarding the time wasting the referee eventually carded the keeper but he instantly went back to doing it immediately he was shown the card

Not to mention that while Pantilimon was doing it he was holding his watch in the air to show that he was adding on the time for it, yet still blew for full time at 94 minutes on the dot.

[robbo1874]

That's not a bad idea Percy. You could end up with games regularly going for 100 mins as opposed to 94 though? The players will have to get even fitter! Maybe also a scenario of the losing team ( or drawing team on top) deliberately time wasting to get an extra couple of minutes. Or would it only apply to the side who is winning? Hmm - maybe needs a bit of thought

[LeeB]

Strict additional time keeping is only upheld when one the Champions League clubs needs it.

It's one of many grey areas which are kept to allow enough room for the big boys to exploit in their favour.

[john e]

Take the time keeping away from the ref like in Rugby, any time wasting or injury the clock stops for all to see,

Then get a big horn to blow for full time, not a poxy little whistle a big massive horn blow is what is needed

[UK Redsox]

I don't care about players getting cards for time-wasting and neither do they. I want the time back. It should be punished with an extra two minutes added on, that would stop it.

or a free kick could be awarded to the other team. Maybe from the centre spot