Former PL club Aston Villa 2-3 Watford - post mortem thread

[Jimmy Buffett]

Who the hell is Paddy Riley and what are his credentials to be in the type of position he holds? Will he come out of his bunker and tell us what his thinking is about the current situation and how we ended up there? I'm waiting for some management development guru to pick up on the last five years at Villa Park and use it a book as an object lesson on how to fail in business. Clueless amateurs from top to bottom and I include the current playing squad in that.

[aj2k77]

Another shambolic performance. 

Many on here felt this was a mid-table squad being mis-managed by Tactics Tim, but on this performance, I think it's clear that as a group these players are not capable of playing football at this level.

The defence makes mistakes but for me the midfield is the real problem.  Constantly giving the ball away, creating nothing, never getting control of a game, never protecting the back four.  Abysmal to a man (whichever man) - Vertout was probably the best on Saturday, but he's still way short of being half way decent.  Sanchez ... where do you start?  When we're attacking he's behing our back four, when defending he's still on the same spot, but in this case way behind their attacking line.  And that's before he's played them in nicely for yet another goal scoring opportunity by giving the ball away.

Whats' the answer?  We can't 'play' football so 3 central defenders, 2 wing backs (we've got no full backs anyway), mop up pressure and play direct on counter. 



 

The midfield created plenty, two goals and had 69% of the ball in the first half.

If you're defending as badly as we are, and look at the 10 goals we've shipped in the last four games and its no wonder why we are where we are. Watford's second and third were laughably poor goals to concede.

I'd add the first goal to the list too, ball bouncing and ricocheting around like a pinball, Sanchez taking a wild swipe at the ball and it going no where, ball back in to the box, defender playing the last man onside. All round atrocious again from the back 4.

[Brian Taylor]

Villa now 1/4 to get relegated and 7/2 to stay up. 7/2 can't be all bad. I thought maybe 10/1. £100 down William hills can pay for the summer hols..in Rhyl maybe?

[Nev]

Prior to Saturday I was convinced that, given a few things going the right way, we could survive.

After my first visit of the season that optimism has all but drained away.

I saw a team who can play football but have no heart (Richards aside perhaps). The prime example was late in the game where the opposition goalkeeper was forced wide, out of his box. Gestede was the nearest player but until a roar of dissaproval came up from the crowd, he couldn't be bothered to close the 'keeper down.

Piss weak, cowardly, not me 'guv, bowed head acceptance, think of the money, have a go but not too much, look concerned for the cameras, say the right things to the press while rattling along to oblivion for the club but a tidy move with signing on fee for myself.

That's what I saw from the players on Saturday.

[The Edge]

I think we have analysed the situation to death now. Our famous old club has been hijacked by a bunch of egotistical wanabees at the top. We are being used as some kind of experiment in how to run a football club. The bottom line is this. The clubs mantra is this money ball bollox. You sell a couple of top drawer players and gamble on filling the squad with half a dozen players with "potential" & hope to uncover a diamond in the rough. Then do it all again. Voila......It's foolproof. The system can't fail can it Mr Fox,Mr Amstrad & Mr Riley?
Rant over. 

[Hillbilly]

Fair play but, without wanting to sound rude, the bit about a 'using a Bayesian approach' made me laugh out loud as statistics and the application of Bayes theory is part of my day job. If you really think we should be 1/20 for the drop then I'd lump on at 1/5.

Same here - so you know I'm not wrong then. W.r.t taking a bet I will however invoke the Ron Saunders clause.

[Tayls_7]

Villa now 1/4 to get relegated and 7/2 to stay up. 7/2 can't be all bad. I thought maybe 10/1. £100 down William hills can pay for the summer hols..in Rhyl maybe?

I'd rather we went down than have to holiday in Rhyl ever again. There, I've said it.

[PeterWithe]

This is the worst Villa side I have ever seen and I have bee supporting them since 1966. Shame on Lerner for what he's done to our club.

Some people will say that there is a woman to blame....