Preston NE 1-1 Aston Villa Post Match Thread

[Three Spires Villa]

On the train back from Preston, and we were poor. Passing & movement was painful. Forget the top 2, hope for the playoffs.

[The Edge]

Just watched the highlights. Nyland when he dropped the cross. Wtf was that? Abrahams screwing at El Ghazi for not passing it to him for a great chance. Rightly so. Barneys miss. Absolute shocker. Let's just take a point and move on. And let's not forget that this is still Bruce's imbalanced shitfest of a defense. Deano will get it sorted. I'm convinced of that.

[Villa75]

With regard to the Grealish excuse, of the 21 Championship games he has played, we have failed to win in 13 of them.

The problems run a lot deeper than some would like to acknowledge.

[john e]

I don't see how posting honestly about a under par performance that you have just watched
pointing out what you see are the strengths and weakness of the side and how you think we should move forward is always seen as being negative

while I'm on the negative theme,
if there is not one single player in the youth/academy/outer squad who isn't good enough to replace just one of the following Whelan, BB, Hourahane, Taylor, Elmo, Hutton, Hogan,Lansbury Nyland when they play poorly or are tired

we might as well close the entire youth academy down, because although they seem to get  good results and we rave about them from time to time, it just isn't working

or Smith isn't brave enough, take your pick

[SoccerHQ]

With regard to the Grealish excuse, of the 21 Championship games he has played, we have failed to win in 13 of them.

The problems run a lot deeper than some would like to acknowledge.

In fairness he hasn't reach the heights he personally did last season (and even then he was only a match winner from January).

However I'm amazed anyone can't see we are so painfully slow at moving the ball to our wide players when he dosen't play and that obviously restricts our ability to murder teams like we did at Derby and Boro when we had excellent wide play which set up the goals.

[avfcpg]

With a few additions this league is far from over....4 points from two away games with a patched up squad and injuries isn't exactly a disaster. 
The next 5 games are big for us....whilst we play teams outside the top 6/8, many of the others play each other...whilst we have QPR, Wigan, Hull , Ipswich & Reading (3 at home) the others include..

Derby v Boro
Forest v Leeds
Leeds v Derby
Blose v Boro
Baggies v Norwich
Norwich v Blose
Stoke v Leeds
Norwich v Sheff Utd
Blose v Forest
Baggies v Boro
Leeds v Norwich

Plenty of twists yet...keep the faith.. !!

[sickbeggar]

Happy enough with a point if not the performance. 5 points off the play-offs at the years end is on course considering the mess Smith inherited and his limited options to change things till now. Now lets hope he has some room to manouvre in the transfer market because with the injuries this side has gone about as far as it can atm.

[boutrosboutrosgnarly]

Match highlights

Some miss by BB at the end.

McGinn was abysmal for their goal. Ball watching for a simple give and go pass. He is a liability without the ball too.

Bizarre statement.Can you give anymore examples apart from the one incident in todays game why Mcginn is a liability without the ball?I'm struggling to think of any.I rather think the opposite, that of our midfielders he is the one that is most effective without the ball.

[PeterWithesShin]

Maybe being a booking away from a 2 game ban and us having no fully fit CM to replace him had an effect on him today.

[boutrosboutrosgnarly]

The negativity on here is awful.

We didn't play at all well today but arguably our best (most creative) player is out injured, we have lost a solid CB, we did not lose, we picked up a point on the top two (who both lost), we have a new quality keeper in the wings, and the transfer window opens next week when finally Dean will get the help he clearly needs. We all knew the squad was not good enough thanks to SB - but if you had offered me 22 points and a new management team, 13 games ago after the original Preston debacle at VP (along with great wins at Derby, Boro, and at home to Small Heath), I would have snapped your hand off.  We are 5 points off 6th and 9 off of 3rd and todays results at Leeds, Norwich, Baggies and Millwall just show that everything is still up for grabs.

Compared to 3 months ago, or 6 months ago, we are on the up and in a far better place and one poor result doesn't change that.

In Deano we need to trust. Lets get behind this lot - we can (and will) do it.

VTID

Totally agree

[SoccerHQ]

Maybe being a booking away from a 2 game ban and us having no fully fit CM to replace him had an effect on him today.

Can see him being booked on Tuesday and missing cup game as one of them (unless it just counts for league games?).

In any case he will be missed particularly with Grealish still fair bit off a return.

[ROBBO]

Until the January trade is over Smith is operating with the Bruce squad, add to that he is missing his two best form players with little defensive cover. What has been shown I believe in the last few games is the need to get cover for Grealish. The fact that Whelan is getting the amount of game time that he is points to our weakness in midfield. There are a number of players that we need to move on and we have to give Smith time to get it right.

[ktvillan]

In think in DS's best run we were largely overcoming the obvious defensive shortcomings/shiteness with some brilliant attacking play.  The latter has gone off the boil a bit, for various reasons -  Jack's injury, possibly fatigue and possibly playing at a slower tempo, maybe due to Whelan playing.  We also have to remember that since the Albion game,  we've lost to injury our only "proper" left back, one of only two proper centre backs, Grealish, and, I understand, O'Hare and Lansbury, either of whom might possibly have come in for Jack.  Smith really doesn't have much to choose from in either defence or midfield, not to mention the list of comedy keepers Bruce left us a leaving gift.  I don't think Jedinak would add much. Maybe Doyle-Hayes could be worth a shout but other than that he's a bit stymied.  I think we have to give Smith a chance to bring a few in or back from loan in the window and then I think we'll get back on track.  I'm still fairly confident of at least the play-offs.       

[Edvard Remberg]

The negativity on here is awful.

We didn't play at all well today but arguably our best (most creative) player is out injured, we have lost a solid CB, we did not lose, we picked up a point on the top two (who both lost), we have a new quality keeper in the wings, and the transfer window opens next week when finally Dean will get the help he clearly needs. We all knew the squad was not good enough thanks to SB - but if you had offered me 22 points and a new management team, 13 games ago after the original Preston debacle at VP (along with great wins at Derby, Boro, and at home to Small Heath), I would have snapped your hand off.  We are 5 points off 6th and 9 off of 3rd and todays results at Leeds, Norwich, Baggies and Millwall just show that everything is still up for grabs.

Compared to 3 months ago, or 6 months ago, we are on the up and in a far better place and one poor result doesn't change that.

In Deano we need to trust. Lets get behind this lot - we can (and will) do it.

VTID

Exactly

[brontebilly]

Match highlights

Some miss by BB at the end.

McGinn was abysmal for their goal. Ball watching for a simple give and go pass. He is a liability without the ball too.

Bizarre statement.Can you give anymore examples apart from the one incident in todays game why Mcginn is a liability without the ball?I'm struggling to think of any.I rather think the opposite, that of our midfielders he is the one that is most effective without the ball.

Joe Allen's goal v Stoke comes to mind in recent weeks