Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest Post Match Thread

[olaftab]

Is De Laet really an improvement on Hutton?

[LukeJames]

I couldn't hear Forest at all from the Upper Holte, the atmosphere seemed decent from were I was to be fair.

[Matt Collins]

It sounded extremely flat until the last half an hour

And yes, I thought de laet was quite a lot better than Hutton

[QuintonVilla]

Disappointing, Frustrating, Promising.

Negatives;


The Holte End; shocking, like a morgue at times, admittedly I was in North Upper and I was louder. It should be a condition of sale of a ticket in the Holte that all fans must sing! Forest made us look like mutes! Embarrassing.

I said the same about the atmosphere, it was dead. I know it was an early kick off but a localish team, new signings, I thought it would be decent especially as the Rotherham and Huddersfield games were rocking at times. Ticket prices were too high though imo, £37 is too much for a Championship game especially on the TV. Same prices against Newcastle and Wolves, again both on TV. We need wins between now and then to get anywhere near 35,000.

I agree totally, was very weird atmosphere today.

Prices far too high, I booked tickets on phone and I had to borrow booking refs as the club classes today as a derby match!?!

The club need to relax their ridiculous rules and we might of been closer to 35k today!

The Holte was pretty full however, so doesn't really explain the lack of energy?

Needs to be like Rotherham and Huddersfield every week!

An unwritten rule I have is you can usually tell how the atmosphere will be from how loud and long the 'Villa Villa...' chant is when the players come out. Today it was barely audible and it never really picked up from there, apart from the spell after the goals obviously. First half was eerily silent, as quiet as any game last season.

[AvFc4eVeR]

Is De Laet really an improvement on Hutton?

In terms of final ball 10000% yes!

In terms of energy and determination (based on today) no, not yet.

Home debut though, in an almost new eleven, early days.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Is De Laet really an improvement on Hutton?

Yes Hutton is terrible

[PeterWithe]

Is De Laet really an improvement on Hutton?

I said the same thing, very, very similar players. When Rudi came on there was an argument that Bacuna should have followed as, despite Ayew having a solid game, the volume of crossing could have improved.

[cdward]

It's easy to say in hindsight that we should have put Jedinak on straight away.
Sometimes breaking up the flow of your team that has the upper hand can work against you. (Leicester away last season).
I trust RDM and Steve Clarke.

[Pete3206]

Is De Laet really an improvement on Hutton?

In terms of youth and hair yes. Apart from that, nope.

[Olof's Beard]

Playing well and not winning is just as irritating as playing shit and not winning. It's extremely frustrating. Di Matteo has to take his fair share of the blame because only he knows why he maintained a one man midfield when we had gone in front. We should have had Jedinak on for McCormack, Kodjia or Grealish to see the game out. As it was, they inevitably walked straight through the centre of our midfield and snatched a point.

We played well but 1 win in 6 is nowhere near good enough and we are already well adrift. Oh and that's 4 wins in our 46 leagues by my reckoning. We are all saintly for still being about to care.

On a brighter note, it was nice to watch the game with Eamonn of this parish after 12 years of H&V service each.

[UK Redsox]

Not sure about Ayew though...its something about his body language doesn't strike me as the best way to build a teamspirit.
He has so much talent, it just isn't applied at  winning together with his teammates...it looks like he is trying to win despite them.

Ayew was brilliant in the 2nd half and played a big part in both of our goals.

Hopefully he'll watch the video of that spell in the second half when he ran at people, looked up and passed the ball.

In the first half he was just a glorified Zog. Running with the ball until he was tackled or blazed the ball wide.

Great player, just frustrating a lot of the time

[Matt Collins]

It's easy to say in hindsight that we should have put Jedinak on straight away.
Sometimes breaking up the flow of your team that has the upper hand can work against you. (Leicester away last season).
I trust RDM and Steve Clarke.

Not hindsight, it was bloody obvious at the time

Good comparison to the Leicester game -  but we made the same mistake. Empty the midfield / leave it empty when trying to protect the lead

[PaulWinch again]

Is De Laet really an improvement on Hutton?

Yes Hutton is terrible

I think De Laet was really good today.

[PeterWithe]

Yup, Jedinak for McCormack might have been prudent, he was brushed off the ball far too many times today. I still don't think he looks anything like fit enough.

[oswald funkletrumpet]

I couldn't hear Forest at all from the Upper Holte, the atmosphere seemed decent from were I was to be fair.

i am about 12 seats away from the away fans and hardly heard the holte apart from a ten min spell after we equalised. forest did make some noise

however the acoustics are a bit strange at vp, ive been in a1 in the upper trinity and have struggled to hear the holte