Aston Villa 2-1 Blackburn Rovers Post Match Thread

[Deano's Mullet]

Got home about an hour ago. Atmosphere was best of witnessed for a long while. Blackburn's away support was small and ultra quiet until they scored. Villa well on top and sublime in first half, very nervy after Rovers scored but never looked like conceding another. Mings and Hauser immense, Mcginn inspirational and Whelan was phenomenal. Not sure what happened second half in upper North but looked like a Villa fan ejected for fighting another. Also saw some amusing baiting between Rovers fans and Villa supporters behind them in a box.  Decent day all round.

[taylorsworkrate]

Jack had his least effective game since his comeback just when Gareth Southgate turns up.

Id disagree with that. He was at the centre of everything we did well, and he always picks the right option. He made it look effortless at times today

[KRS]

Another win, another 3 pts and the promotion juggernaut marches on, on, on!

But what a weird game...not quite a game of 2 halves, but may be 2 thirds? We started where we left off against Boro, controlling the game, dominating possession and grabbed the much needed early goal. We were so all over them that the Rovers fans must have been collectively shitting it and wishing that it was going to be less than 3 or 4 nil at half time...and that scoreline wouldn't have flattered us.

Mings and Hause give us a reassured solid foundation at the back, and the midfield trio of Jack, SJM and Whelan was working like a well oiled machine...winning everything, first to the ball, excellent interplay from front to back, confidence flowing through the team and creating chances with free flowing high press football. I thought I was watching Brazil or Barcelona at times today...and Whelan deserves an honourable mention as he was excellent again today...the Irish Xavi?!

We should and could have been 3 or 4 up at half time. It's hard and would be harsh to be critical of anyone but we need to be putting teams to the sword when we are dominant like we were in the first half. It was good to see Abraham get back on the score sheet but he really needs to be more clinical...he's definitely a talent but he isn't a Premier League standard player yet.

Very good crowd and atmosphere...and the Holte was back in good voice.

I'm not sure why the performance dropped off a cliff in the last 25-30 minutes. Our second goal seemed to energise Blackburn with little response from ourselves and they came back into the game...you could see they were well up for it and knew their goal was coming from the needlessly conceded set piece. Their little ginger no.4 started to dictate the game in midfield as we sat back and stood off, but I don't know if it Mowbrays changes or if we just tired badly after playing such a fast pace high press in the first half?

[tomd2103]

Taylor was ok, largely inconspicuous in that he's not noticeably dreadful like he was previously.

I thought he had a decent game, but we still look short of quality in the wide areas, particularly going forward.  There were times today when the ball went out to Taylor in space but he just hadn't got the pace to drive forward. 

As much as I really want him to do well, I thought Andre Green was largely disappointing. 

[wittonwarrior]

Game should have been sowed up by half time.  We ended up doing a Brucey once we went two up putting players  behind the ball rather than continuing to take the game to Blackburn.

In the end given Blackburn's final 15 mins you could argue just about the correct result. 

Oh that miss by Abraham - top premiership player no.  His strength is finding positions but his conversation rate absurd as it sounds is moderate.

Mings an Empire State Building - walk round  him and admire him.  Far too good for this division and Hause had an excellent game.

Steer not good enough sorry to say in  my opinion.  Another case of a Bunn.

Finally the right wing position - am  I completely bonkers but I would  try Adomah on the left and the Egyptian on the right both cutting in.  What was Adomah  doing near the end.

[KRS]

El Ghazi kept coming inside or hiding instead of offering himself out wide, and Green needs to put in extra hours on the training ground hitting crosses.

[Hookeysmith]

Jack had his least effective game since his comeback just when Gareth Southgate turns up.

Good

I think an England call up would distract him at the moment. Let him wait till he is in the premier with us

[LeeB]

Jack had his least effective game since his comeback just when Gareth Southgate turns up.

Good

I think an England call up would distract him at the moment. Let him wait till he is in the premier with us

I agree.

[CT]

The atmosphere beforehand was tingling. The positivity was obvious, maybe it was the sunshine as well, who knows.

So I was convinced we'd lose.

First half was excellent, we should have been three or four up. Things changed after they made their subs, and they seemed to find gaps everywhere.

Mings was immense, again. McGinn was immense, again. Whelan, Hause.

I'm just hoping that next week sees the standard Smith v Bruce type of game where Bruce's team get a lesson in pass and move.

[PeterWithe]

First half was among the best performances we have seen from us in this division, we looked like a team 20 points clear at the top. Every player had a swagger about them and we were playing first touch into areas where players were moving into, it was terrific. We just couldn’t convert chances and the final ball at times, particularly from Green, was lacking. They looked to exploit Steers lack of height from corners and we really should have coped better with that but no harm done.

Second half I thought Jack looked to be carrying a knock and the work rate off the ball dropped meaning the available options for the ball holder were fewer and we lost fluidity. Green seeemed to lose confidence and tire rapidly and he became very wasteful. Their substitutions changed the game as they had two players playing between our defence and midfield and they started to have more possession in our third, that said we regularly forced them to cross from poor positions and Mings and Hause cleared. It really would be great if the crowd could control their nerves as it spreads like wildfire and clearly affects the players.

Some great performances, some more eye catching than others, I thought among the lower key ‘get the job done’ examples, Hause and Whelan were immense.

[PeterWithe]

Also worthy of mention team spirit, everyone bar the keeper congratulating the goal scorers. Love to see that.

[andyh]

Two observations from me.
1. At times the atmosphere was incredible. The best for quite some time.
2. I looked behind me to see who was doing the Sky reports to discover it was the gorgeous  Michelle Owen ❤️ who was only about 10 rows back. I’m in love.

[Clark W Griswold]

Yes, the atmosphere was tremendous, not really before the game but got better as the game went on and was particularly good second half. As for team performance, this was the opposite. Started extremely well, and continued for the first half an hour, could have been 3 or 4 up. We stayed solid then throughout but lacked the fizz that was shown in that first half an hour. I thought Grealish and Abraham were the main reason we started well but they strolled in the sun a bit as the game went on. The defensive players were excellent, Hause, Mings, Whelan and McGinn who also drove forward well. We lacked a bit out wide, particularly from the wingers and this must be the main area for improvement. You do wonder how good we might be at the moment if we had wingers playing even close to the level of Abraham, Grealish and McGinn.

[Clampy]

Good win. We made much harder work of it than we should have but we're going to have games like that now and again.

[Leicester_Villian]

Seems like those who weren't at the game want to knock Steer ....yes he made a mistake yesterday but how many did Tammy make ? Are people having a go at him?
Steer has played a massive part in the defence since he came in and you can always hear him organising the defence
Any keeper when a mistake is made can concede a goal - lets not look for someone to have a go out. The whole team yesterday were excellent in the first half and should have been 4 up but second half everybody stopped playing