Aston Villa 2-3 Leeds United Post Match Thread

[mr underhill]

just home having left early as you could see there was only going to be one winner once they had equalized. What hurts most is that after two and a half years in this division we are not one inch further forward to getting out of it. We threw games away under RDL, Bruce and now Smith. TBH I wouldn't do more than shore things up a bit a the back in January as I don't think we will make the play offs now. With so many players going back from loans and/or out of contract in the summer leave major surgery until then.

[David_Nab]

Elmo for first goal is as bad as he was for Stoke Pen , just can't handle someone running at him the attempt to win the ball was so piss poor as well the only thing that little foot out was likely to do was give away another pen.

Leeds where fitter than us but that comes from a solid Pre season with a new boss , I understand why they did it but keeping Bruce on in Summer continues to haunt us ..the only thing I give him credit for it is John McGinn who at times was a 1 man mf closing them down untill he tired.Houriane still flatters with his goals the rest of his game is so average

Talk of new players is one thing but Leeds are top with holes being plugged with kids how do we not have anyone from the youth that can step up !! Could a kid of the under 23's play worse at full back than Elmo

[PeterWithesShin]

I don't like Dean's griping.  They were better than us throughout, don't blame the official because had they done their job properly, Whelan's blatant handball gets punished too.   

He does say they were the better side and we didn't deserve to be 2 up at HT. As you say though, his saying the officials were poor is right, but saved us from conceding 2 pens.

Here is his OS interview for anyone that hasn't heard it

https://twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1076871360872353792

[PeterWithesShin]

We never seem to do it when we've got a full house. Agree with poster above- very poor/non existent game management.

What’s the attendance got to do with it? If we had 36000 today would it have stopped our defenders making stupid errors?

Did you read the post ?

Apart from we do tend to do it with a full house.

[SoccerHQ]

From 2-0 up that felt like we were playing Man United, not Leeds United.

Today we saw the standard of a top 2 team and after the good first half hour we fell painfully short.

Reasons? Big one is without Grealish we simply are too slow getting the ball out to our wide players and it's no good having Bolaise and El Ghazi/Kodjia out there if we can't get them the ball. They become passengers in the team then.

Leeds were so quick transitioning the play from central midfield out wide and well that 12 year old kid Clarke and Allioski had field days one v one against AEM (easily his worst game for us) and Hutton.

McGinn was out MOTM I thought but he can't press for 90 minutes as he needs help from others. I thought Whelan was decent aswell. Apart from goals and odd good free kick Hourihane offers little in general play and going forward he should just be a squad player.

Hopefully this dosen't knock us back too much. It was a reality check for top 2, not play offs as Boro, Derby, Forest and possibly Norwich are more on our level tbh.

[Toronto Villa]

Blame Smith or Terry for the second. Why the fuck was Hutton and not Abraham marking their only threat in the air. That wasn't the keepers fault.

Isn’t that the captain’s responsibility on the pitch though? And Hutton had been marking Jansson and got away with two decent penalty shouts.

No, it's the person whose organised them's job. I.e. the manager.

The plan by the manager was to set up Hutton to defend Jansson and it was a calamity waiting to happen. And he should have had a penalty. Maybe it should have been Abraham instead but you have to trust your best CB versus theirs. That’s a player issue.

[mr underhill]

we could play without a keeper - or a defence for that matter - and not really notice it.

[Steve67]

I don't like Dean's griping.  They were better than us throughout, don't blame the official because had they done their job properly, Whelan's blatant handball gets punished too.   

Dean can only coach the players he has and he cannot make those players take the right decision.  Quite what the fuck Elmo was doing with that header at the end was schoolboy poor.  Chester, Bree and Hutton were poor as well.  Our midfielder has huge holes in it and McGinn cannot do it all on his own. 

Kodjia, El Ghazi, Hourihane, Elmo, Whelan and BB are so very inconsistent that we seem to take two steps forward and one step back.  The defence needs fresh blood and we are absolutely desperate for a quality, mobile central defensive midfielder.  We were done by the better side today and that's hard to take as it's to a horrible slag side.  Lots of injuries to cope with but even with them back in, we are NOT at the top table yet in terms of quality. We CAN still make the play off's but we need at least three or four more players to come in.

Elmo's header might as well been a leeds player setting up his own player

Maybe Nyland did not shout.

Are you seriously blaming Nyland for that goal?  Utterly ridiculous if you are.

[andyh]

I haven’t read the tread yet so don’t know what the general consensus is but my take on it is that we are down to earth with a crash and a massive dose of reality.
Leeds were far better than from the off. Their tempo, their pressing, the movement, everything was better than us.
I have never been so nervous at 2-0 up, and that can’t be right.

If we are being honest, Nyland prevented that from being 6 or 7, he conceded 3 and was still outstanding. Their keeper barely made a save in the second half.

As for individuals, well, there is far too much to comment on.
Individual errors at bad times, bad choices and decision making at others.

Special mention though for Elmo who was particularly shite, as was El Ghazi.
 And then there is the enigma that is Hourihane. A decent left foot on him but one of the most lightweight midfielders around, his inability to tackle, for a midfielder, is pretty fucking spectacular.

We have a huge squad but ar3miles away from Leeds.

I think we just might have to endure another season in this league. It will another 2 transfer windows at least until Deano can get a team that can play and challenge like Leeds did today.

Sad.

[SoccerHQ]

Blame Smith or Terry for the second. Why the fuck was Hutton and not Abraham marking their only threat in the air. That wasn't the keepers fault.

Isn’t that the captain’s responsibility on the pitch though? And Hutton had been marking Jansson and got away with two decent penalty shouts.

No, it's the person whose organised them's job. I.e. the manager.

The plan by the manager was to set up Hutton to defend Jansson and it was a calamity waiting to happen. And he should have had a penalty. Maybe it should have been Abraham instead but you have to trust your best CB versus theirs. That’s a player issue.

TBF second goal was just a brilliant corner I thought. Brilliantly whipped in to six yard box and Jansson must've been 8ft in the air when he powered it into the corner.

It's the sort of corner where you wonder why teams bother with the floater to the back post nonsense we seem to like as to me curl in enough of them towards the six yard box and someone will get on the end of it.

First goal was far worse. Just leaving our FB one v one against their tricky wide players and we had enough of those warnings in the first half.

[ChicagoLion]

I don't like Dean's griping.  They were better than us throughout, don't blame the official because had they done their job properly, Whelan's blatant handball gets punished too.   

Dean can only coach the players he has and he cannot make those players take the right decision.  Quite what the fuck Elmo was doing with that header at the end was schoolboy poor.  Chester, Bree and Hutton were poor as well.  Our midfielder has huge holes in it and McGinn cannot do it all on his own. 

Kodjia, El Ghazi, Hourihane, Elmo, Whelan and BB are so very inconsistent that we seem to take two steps forward and one step back.  The defence needs fresh blood and we are absolutely desperate for a quality, mobile central defensive midfielder.  We were done by the better side today and that's hard to take as it's to a horrible slag side.  Lots of injuries to cope with but even with them back in, we are NOT at the top table yet in terms of quality. We CAN still make the play off's but we need at least three or four more players to come in.

Elmo's header might as well been a leeds player setting up his own player

Maybe Nyland did not shout.

Are you seriously blaming Nyland for that goal?  Utterly ridiculous if you are.

No, I am trying to work out why Elmo inexplicably headed it.

[Steve67]

I don't like Dean's griping.  They were better than us throughout, don't blame the official because had they done their job properly, Whelan's blatant handball gets punished too.   

Dean can only coach the players he has and he cannot make those players take the right decision.  Quite what the fuck Elmo was doing with that header at the end was schoolboy poor.  Chester, Bree and Hutton were poor as well.  Our midfielder has huge holes in it and McGinn cannot do it all on his own. 

Kodjia, El Ghazi, Hourihane, Elmo, Whelan and BB are so very inconsistent that we seem to take two steps forward and one step back.  The defence needs fresh blood and we are absolutely desperate for a quality, mobile central defensive midfielder.  We were done by the better side today and that's hard to take as it's to a horrible slag side.  Lots of injuries to cope with but even with them back in, we are NOT at the top table yet in terms of quality. We CAN still make the play off's but we need at least three or four more players to come in.

Elmo's header might as well been a leeds player setting up his own player

Maybe Nyland did not shout.

Are you seriously blaming Nyland for that goal?  Utterly ridiculous if you are.

No, I am trying to work out why Elmo inexplicably headed it.

Probably tiredness and just plain decision making mate.  He could have let it go, or headed behind.  Had he been their centre forward, it would have been the greatest 'set up' seen today.  Just a really bad error.

[Matt Collins]

Yeah I thought their corner goal was just a really good goal

Nyland not at all at fault today played well

[SoccerHQ]

I thought the Hogan substitution was a strange one. His only attribute is that he is a goal poacher, (allegedly). At the time we were not creating anything. What we needed was pace up front to turn them round at the back and a bit of strength to hold it up. He gave us neither? Surely Davis would have been a better shout?

Davis not played in a year so way short of match fitness. Personally at that point I'd have just put Jedinak on and closed out the 2-2 as a point in the circumstances is better than what happened in the 94th minute.

Mad to think aswell in the 94th minute Leeds had a throw in right by the Holte end corner flag and 30 seconds later it was in our net. Shows how quick their transition was on counter attack compared to us.

[andyh]

Apparently now 17 points lost, from a leading position, dreadful. .......

Sorry but these kind of stats are just utter, utter bollox.
The points aren’t won or lost until the game is over.

It’s just more fucking Sky wank.