Leicester City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Simply cannot blame the ref.
The Bacuna / Vardy tangle, my initial reaction was fuck that's a pen. Was amazed he waved it away.
Dean was good today and we cannot blame him at all

I wasn't blaming Dean...just trying to avoid admitting how shit my team was and looking to blame anyone/anything/everything else.

btw silhill, took your advice and parked at Saffron Lane Sports Centre....good call mate - 10 minute walk to the ground and easy to get away after the game while I contemplated various forms of suicide.
Cheers.

[silhillvilla]

Simply cannot blame the ref.
The Bacuna / Vardy tangle, my initial reaction was fuck that's a pen. Was amazed he waved it away.
Dean was good today and we cannot blame him at all

I wasn't blaming Dean...just trying to avoid admitting how shit my team was and looking to blame anyone/anything/everything else.

btw silhill, took your advice and parked at Saffron Lane Sports Centre....good call mate - 10 minute walk to the ground and easy to get away after the game while I contemplated various forms of suicide.
Cheers.

Hi frank, glad you enjoyed that car park . It's a breeze in and out from there. Fair play to you and all those who went today, sound from away end was amazing at times.

[footyskillz]

Sherwood doesn't know his best team, formation and its all work in progress. Before match he said lets not getting away if we win the next 3 matches or if we lose the next 3 matches . our performances need to be married by the points. And yes I somewhat agree but its the naiveity that's annoying me in not getting the desired results. That said improvement will follow and think can match a lot of teams this season once we settle down. I wish villa park fans were loud like Leicester city palace and stoke who's get it going. Tbh most English clubs dont have a party, rocking atmosphere but credit to palace , stoke and Leicester who give it some.

Bacuna is not a right back and its unfair to play him there. Grealish started well and scored a deserved goal. Gabby made some decent runs Sinclair should have scored one or two and was anon second half. Gil was a mixture but took goal well. Sanchez should have come off and Clark or Hutton on with Bacuna moving to midfield. Gestede did very little. Ayew isn't interested today and needs a run in team but will have to fight for his place

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Fuck.  We go again.

[KevinGage]

Guzan has been iffy since at least the midway part of the season, but Hutton wasn't too clever for that third.

He was ropey in the recent European Qualifiers for Scotland too, so Bacuna/ Hutton isn't going to make a whole pile of difference either way on current form.

[OCD]

The negative (most of the second half) has been focussed on, understandably, tonight so I'm going to comment on the positive.

I saw a lot of promising things in the first half. We saw our way through a difficult start and then controlled the rest of the half, playing some good football at times. There were signs of an experienced centre back pairing giving the side composure, Westwood and Sanchez got on top of the game and Grealish/Gil gave some creativity. In future windows, the centre forward position will need to be nailed down and maybe we can add Adebayor now he's a free agent. He's not everyone's cup of tea but he could be valuable short-term - maybe a one year deal can be done, with an option.

We never really got started in the second half but Gil's goal illustrated the threat on the counter attack that we tend to possess and that looks no different.

After that, I agree with a lot of what has already been said. I could understand the decision to take Gil off at the time because Schlupp was getting forward and Gil couldn't track him, evidently because of injury. Changing to a 4-3-3 with Veretout coming on would have been sensible. I imagine he's struggling to adapt but then if he is, Ayew certainly is.

The final third of the game was a mess and embarrassing. I hope we can learn some valuable lessons and play more like we did in the first half going forward.

[tomd2103]

To be honest, there were warning signs before Gil scored and I still cannot understand the logic of the substitution at that point.  It was clear Gil was tiring and struggling to get back, so when he went off I thought Veretout or maybe even Hutton (slot in at RB and push Bacuna into midfield) would be standing there waiting to come on.  I was really surprised to see Ayew come on at that point and he just went on to confirm what I already suspected after watching him a few times - he isn't ready for the Premier League yet. 

Saying that, we still looked very comfortable up until Lescott and Bacuna got in a mix up and they scored from the resulting corner.  Once they scored, the equaliser was inevitable, but to go and lose the game in that manner was a real blow.

[GarTomas]

Chuffing hell, I am fuming. You know, this messageboard sees a lot of fans from of different ages, from different places, different countries and with different worries in life come together. Most of us don't know each other yet you know that for the entirety of the second half we were all to a man and woman sat there screaming for a defensive change. How can the manager not see the problem? Leicester won in a very English way, with the sort of style that has seen European teams overwhelmed in Europe over the years. They saw that we were better technically and just hounded us into submission using high energy and pace, we didn't respond. Even before Gil put us 2-0 up I thought we needed a change, Hutton for one of the front four would have done, push Bacuna up, allow someone to pick up Mahrez full time.

But, no. Tim send on Ayew when we are 2-0 up and then Gestede at 2-1. Madness!

I promised myself at half time that whatever happened second half I wouldn't forget the fact that we clearly have some wonderful footballers in Grealish, Gil, Amavi, Westwood, Sanchez et all. It's hard right now but they really were fantastic first half. Grealish will learn from this, he barely had a kick second half. Sanchez looks immense for 60 or 70 minutes and then completely shagged for 20 or 30. Not sure how that 'adjustment' to the pace of the English game is still happening.

Sherwood lost us the game though. And sadly in doing so, he has attracted a lot of negative attention for Ayew. I can see Villa fans on the internet claiming it's his fault. It wasn't. He should NEVER have been sent on in that situation.

Very true regarding Ayew I think

[ozzjim]

Ranieiri bought on 2 midfielders during the second half to make sure they kept winning the ball against our flagging ones. How Wilkins, Sherwood, Brown and Robson, all stood there watching, did not draw the conclusion that a couple of pairs of fresh legs in the middle of the park and shoring up the wide areas that they were now doubling up on was a good plan god only knows. Lunacy.

[Skerra]

The reason I went for a season ticket this year was simply down to Tim Sherwood. Unfortunately, I'm fast losing confidence in him as, it appears, he is totally clueless in his substitutions and, when I now look back since the start of the season, we should have at least 6 points more than we have all due to his very very poor decision making when carrying out substitutions.

Today, he took Gil off immediately after he had scored an outstanding goal. Tim, if you're reading this, I was a striker at a good standard of football so, I will give you some free advice - NEVER, NEVER take someone off when they have just scored and coupled with the fact that Ayew isn't going to cut it in this league as, I've now had a chance to see him play enough. He does not have anything in his locker to be a top striker and, ditto for Gestede. I think if you played these two all season I doubt they would score 10  between them.

I know Tim said in his interview that Gil was injured but, it didn't look that way to me and, the game turned on it's head as soon as the substitution had been made.

[robbo1874]

Almost any other team and stadium than today and we win today

Eh ? Really don't see that

I don't, either.

We were all over them in the first half. The degree to which we fucked it up in the second suggests it wouldn't really require a crack side - and this was Leicester, FFS - to beat us.

leicester are a decent side. Whilst I thought we'd win, it was always going to be a tough match. They're not second in the league now by a fluke.

[The Left Side]

Snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory, grrrrr!

[KRS]

A few concerns:

1. the comments from TS are starting to mirror those when he publicly criticised his players at Spurs. It will end very badly if he doesn't start to accept responsibility for his mistakes...if players like Sanchez and Grealish are making mistakes then ask yourself why and do something about it. Clue: affective use of available substitutes...and professional footballers should be able to last 90 minutes so do something in training to improve the overall fitness and stamina of these players for fucks sake.

2. Ayew and Gestede aren't PL quality. Approx £15m spent on 2 average at best players that will either take time to adjust or get to the standard...personally I dont think they have it in them to reach the standard and we dont have the time to give. We need a goalscorer or a new game plan to supply them with clear cut chances otherwise you may as well play Sinclair or Gabby up front. In hindsight, Austin should have been signed (thats if we are one of the few PL teams that Austin reckons approached him and he declined).

3. Adebayor has now being released from his contract at Spurs and is likely to make an appeal so he can play for another PL club. He's clearly completely batshit crazy but he's a much better option than any of our current CF options and could be the missing link. SSN have linked him to Villa again on the basis that we were in for him on deadline day...if the appeal is not successful then our current options are a genuine concern for me.

[Chris Smith]

We had the game won and blew it. A combination of the wrong substitutions and stupid mistakes cost us.

I hope all concerned, players and manager, learn from this because there is the makings of a decent side there. We just need to become a little more professional and composed  in how we see out games.

[pbavfckuwait]

Tim got it wrong with his subs, Guzan should have stayed on his bloody line and left Hutton and I think Richards to deal with it.
A midfield of Gill, Grealish, Carlos and Westwood will always over 90 minutes get over run, as apart from Carlos there is not a tackle between them.
 We know from last year and without a full pre- season, which he has not had, that you have to get Carlos off after 60 to 65 minutes, so if you do want to play him you need cover for his position on the bench.

Biggest concern not just over Carlos is the whole team seemingly lacking the fitness levels of a professional outfit, very very hard to correct that problem once the season has started and also maybe a reason for our continual niggly injury list.