Aston Villa v West Ham Post-Match Thread

[auntiesledd]

At least we didn't lose (again) - which is as positive as I can be at the moment.

We go again...   

Westwood at the end though.

Now I understand! God knows how he got away with that. Brains of a rocking horse, as my Dad used to say.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

Garde has got to give Traore at least a full 2nd half. He was only on the pitch for a few minutes and got two corners and created a match winning chance .....

[oswald funkletrumpet]

the ideal opportunity to bring traore on was straight after we equalised fuck me gestede did the one centre half for pace so what would traore have done?

you cant tell me that gestede is a better option than traore and ayew playing off centre halves which would shit most teams up.

the best half of football i have seen was the first half against city, we let their centre halves win everything in the air but then won every second ball

its not that difficult to undestand is it

[Lastfootstamper]

I think that had we gone in at half time one up rather than one down, we'd have seen Adama a lot earlier. Maybe not straight away, but given it ten minutes, see if we still look settled, not getting pulled apart, then give him a good 35 minutes. We've not really seen him pitted against centre-halves, and there's only one way we'll find out if he's effective. At some point he has to be given a try, surely.

[SoccerHQ]

The fact he didn't give them a couple of half shouts after ours was a Christmas miracle. He is still though, a massive twat.

I'm surprised more hasn't been made on here or elsewhere that Ogbonna should've been sent off after the penalty?

Did I imagine he was on a yellow before the penalty award as seems no one is talking about it.

[SoccerHQ]

I don't think I've ever heard the award of a penalty celebrated like that by the Holte. It was like scoring five goals at the same time.

I'm funny like that. My reaction to a penalty is "who will take it?" followed by negative thoughts of spooning it over the bar. I never celebrate it.

Well done to Gestede for winning it today though, as I didn't think he had that in him. He never gave up.

It's funny when I first start going in the 90s and we had a very good team we seemed to miss a penalty every week at home....Alan Thompson, Dublin, Merson all seemeed to be missing them in 98/99 and we were never that great at them in that era.

Last 10 years we seem to score most of the penalties we get awarded at home....Barry never missed (and we got a lot of them in the MON era) then Young took over and scored a few then Benteke I think missed one v Evetrton and now Ayew has taken over the mantle. His record at taking penalties for Marseille and Lorient was very good so he's a very reliable option if we get a few more this season.

[Chris Smith]

The fact he didn't give them a couple of half shouts after ours was a Christmas miracle. He is still though, a massive twat.

I'm surprised more hasn't been made on here or elsewhere that Ogbonna should've been sent off after the penalty?

Did I imagine he was on a yellow before the penalty award as seems no one is talking about it.

We said that at the time, I don't think the ref said a word to him. Perhaps all that haranguing he was getting from their players made him forget.

[Dr_Fegg]

Second home game in succession and to be fair a marked difference. Couldn't decide on Veretout or Aye for MOTM.
Still not a Westwood fan and felt with him and Gil on (after Sánchez sub) we left Veretout with too much work to do attacking and covering for them both that he became less effective.

And god Rudy needs some help up front - how many balls did he send in that went across the box with no one making an effort to get on the end of one. No idea what's happened at BMH but surely Libor deserves a chance?!

Will we stay up, probably not, do I care, actually not that much. There will still be football at Villa Park and relegation issues aside I enjoyed yesterdays game and I hope the large volume of kids there (at least where we were) might support their local team and come back. If this is more about entertainment then I'm all for it.

[martin o`who??]

Definiteley a big improvement, we battled, passed it about well, kept possesion, and didnt look a half-bad side at times - if we`d played like that all season we would be mid-table if not higher, the one big negative was this, all that possesion, created numerous chances and still couldn`t score from open play.

[VicMackey]

My first visit to VP in over a year - we were better than I expected.  The main takeaway for me is that when the players actually go for it and show some attacking ambition the whole mood of the crowd is lifted and I thought the 10, 15 minute period that we had after the goal was a great atmosphere.  If we'd scored again then I think there would have been a collective orgasm - it wouldn't surprise me if when we do finally get a win then we put together a bit of a run.  However, I think it's all too late and we're down anyway.  I hope we go down with a fight though.

I was quite impressed by Gestede too - no he's not the most capable player but he put a shift in, won a lot of balls and created problems for them.  We don't play to his strengths enough , we should get the ball into him quicker.  The general quality of crosses is terrible.

Hutton was another one getting a lot of stick from a bloke near me - he seemed to be blamed for everything.  Again, he has his limitations but I wish some of the other players would show a nasty streak like him. 

[Bad English]

There is hope. I saw Gestede trap a firmly-hit pass. Was it on MOTD?

[old man villa fan]

We had a lot of possession yesterday but our problem is that we do very little with it.  The reason is that most of that possession is with players that do very little good work with it e.g. Hutton, Westwood, Bacuna. I am fed up with hearing that they put a lot of effort in.  the truth is that they are wasting good possession. To be fair to Bacuna, he is playing out of position and his defensive work is not bad considering.

Our defence is weak and we are having to rely on Sanchez and Gana playing deeper than they should do.  This is compounded by Hutton playing too far up the field, with no end result.  We need more players of Veretout's ability to use the possession we have and then you might see the best from Traore.

Gestede's only good point is his ability in the air but he put 3 good chances wide or over.  We cannot afford a player that cannot put away chances that are supposed to be his bread and butter.

We played better yesterday and like most, I am pleased with what we are seeing from Ayew and Veretout.  However, our shortcomings are down to those player that have generally been around for the past 3 or 4 seasons.  I still think we should be trying our hardest to add to the squad in January.  I would say try and buy one key player that adds to the team whether we are relegated or not and bring the rest in on loan so as to, hopefully, get a better quality of player.  I say we need a keeper, right back, central defender , one (preferably two) midfield players an a striker.

[ChicagoLion]

The bare minimum is Goalkeeper Striker and Left Back just to deal with the obvious deficiencies.
The fact that we need a central midfielder and maybe centre half speaks of how weak this team is.

[Toronto Villa]

There is hope. I saw Gestede trap a firmly-hit pass. Was it on MOTD?

 No you didn't. If you did it was because of some bad cheese or the after effects of your Christmas overindulgence.

[Damo70]

I thought our support was magnificent yesterday and the second half performance from the team was as good as I have seen this season. I have more belief we can stay up now. Given the opposition the next few games are massive but we do seem to have some belief and spirit on the pitch and in the stands and in a season that is looking like 1986/87 that could be the difference.