Aston Villa vs Sunderland Post-Match Thread

[brian green]

I understand the view that time wasting can be nullified by the length of the game being extended but that in my opinion is simply more of the manipulations called Game Management. If you take away the punishment of a potential red card, players will simply take the piss and games will routinely take 100 minutes or more. In addition games like the Sunderland game if extended for Sunderland's time wasting gives them more time to snatch a 3-2 win with a breakaway goal. So much that is bad about current refereeing has come about from the rules being blurred and muddled by referees taking "initiatives" the rules of the game clearly say are not permitted.

[Chris Smith]

The thing that annoyed me most was them deliberately pretending to take a free kick from the wrong place, knowing the crowd would react and bring it to the attention of the ref. They then go through the rigmarole of taking it back to the correct place and another minute is wasted. From our point of view it would have been better to ignore it.

[brian green]

Yes to that Chris but to add insult to cheating they would steal twenty yards, the crowd would react, the referee would wave an arm limply, the player would take the ball back three feet then when the referee had his back turned the ball would go another five yards further upfield. It is cheating, pure and simple and the fact that virtually all referees turn a blind eye to it demeans and impoverishes the game. See also Throws, foul.

[in exile]

I'm so glad we don't timewaste

[London Villan]

I wish we did sometimes. It's a way a breaking the flow of the game up in the last 5/10 mins. So many games we have need to do this, but we end up inviting pressure.

Is it right... probably not, but I'd rather have the few extra points disrupting the end of games like this than being the nice guys all the time.

[supertom]

Their total lack of ambition after the equaliser is pathetic really. I'd be pissed off if I were a Sunderland fan. Teams should be targeting our defensive weakness. After they started brightly and got their second we could well have been there for the taking. But to start timewasting after 60 minutes? Pathetic. Very negative indeed. If we were Man City I could understand it but we're a side who finished below them last season and has struggled to get going at the start of this while players bed in.
All that bollocks from their keeper was ridiculous. It must have wound up their own fans too, surely?

[footyskillz]

Sunderland were more than weak ! Is there an English word for this. I think they are going to have. A season of struggle if anything the midfield is non existent. It is frustrating there wasn't a victory and that's more to do with villa than Sunderland earning the point- time wasting aside.

[brian green]

Febrile is the word I think you are looking for footy.

[robbo1874]

I've just had an awesome home-made chicken vindaloo, so my head's tripping a bit, less bothered about opposition teams timewasting right now!

[Matt Collins]

Having just watched the AVTV highlights I'd only add:

Some of our passing moves were really very good, especially involving Gana
I didn't think Amavi had a brilliant game but he was still very involved
Gestede had a couple of moments that were better than I'd realised - he still should have scored though.
The openness for their second was very bad. Bad by Clark. Poor by Sanchez. Amavi too far up the pitch

Looking at it it seemed like Sinclair practically played up top with bacuna often I'm behind the forwards. It looked like more of a 433 at the game

[KRS]

Post match comments from TS suggested that we aren't playing with a fixed formation so our shape is naturally going to change from 4231 to 433 to 442 to 41212 depending on when you look at it...the emphasis seems to be on our midfield 4 or 5 rotating with lots of movement and passing which can't be a bad thing as long as they know where their supposed to be when we haven't got the ball and cover each other.

Clark was at fault diving in for their second...he should have known that Amavi and Richards behind him were both out of position so he should never have committed himself to allow their player to cut in and have a free shot at goal. Also made a couple of rash challenges sliding in allowing their players to literally skip past him down the wing as he goes flying off the pitch. He needs to learn to be patient and stay on his feet.

[Matt Collins]

Yeah the rotation is really good. I'm really happy with our midfield.

[martin o`who??]

I'm so glad we don't timewaste

i`ll take all the timewasting we can get away with if we`re 1-0 up 5 minutes from time.

[PeterWithesShin]

Guzan has done some quality time wasting for us over the years.

[LeeB]

Guzan has done some quality time wasting for us over the years.

Are you not confusing time wasting with being a fucking waste of time?