Aston Villa 1-2 Bournemouth Post Match Thread

[brian green]

If that is Footyskillz he has taken a krash korse in speling and grammer.

[KRS]

MicrosoftWordskillz?

[lukey27]

I think the real barometer will be where we are after 10 games.

We were hit with two real sucker punches and 2-0 down is a difficult position against anybody in this league.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him change both full backs and rotate the wide players in the the next few weeks. I imagine if we play Targett and Guilbert we wouldn't necessarily have to play out and out wingers in front of them, which could see us bring Hourihane, Nakamba and Jota into the mix.

[olaftab]

I think the real barometer will be where we are after 10 games.

Yes however I will refuse to accept that if we are in the bottom 3. I witch to 20 games at that stage☹️

[KRS]

It all depends on cutting out the mistakes and how quickly Wes gets up to speed (no pressure). We’ve given away goals and haven’t carried much goal threat going forward in both games so far, so when we can fix both of those issues then we’ll see more positive results and points on the board.

[Oscar Arce]

Having calmed down a bit I'd like to take the positives from the game, which for me were the performances of Taylor, Mings, Engels McGinn and Luiz, after the mistakes.
I do fear for us unless we quickly get our forward play sorted, Wesley looks hopelessly out of his depth I'm afraid, he's too slow getting into the box and his general hold up play (which is what I think we bought him for) is poor. Too much time on the floor and moaning at the ref, too far behind play, making our wide players, who were also poor, check back before crossing when they should be whipping the ball in and expecting him to be somewhere on the end of it.
I also thought Grealish and McGinn's starting positions were too far forward in the early stages, we started only to get more of the ball when they dropped a bit deeper.
I just can't see this formation working in the Premier League, Bournemouth, nowhere near the top teams, were more fluid with their movement, with players interchanging positions, our formation looked static with two wide players standing waiting for the ball.
We are too light up top, Wesley is the only real centre forward we have, and I know it's early days but I'm concerned we don't have the players to play two up top with the three centre backs and getting width from the new full backs, which would cause teams more problems.
Smith was employed as the master coach, so this will test him now, mistakes I know cost us, but we didn't create enough to win the game , despite the possession.

[Nii Lamptey]

After watching the highlights back, just wondering what the hell Heaton was doing for the penalty? It looks like he had time to dive down and smother that ball, so why did he go in with his feet (and even then his little kick out appeared delayed)?

Hopefully, that's all of the little gremlins out of the system now. 

[Risso]

At least with the current owners you know that should we be struggling come December, that they'll be willing to spend in January.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Guilbert put 7-8 lovely flat crosses in from roughly in line with the penalty spot during pre-season, it was the thing that impressed me most about him and is why I really want him in the team, I think he'll make a massive difference. On the other side I reckon a bag of cement would have more attacking impact than Taylor.

Agree on Guilbert, what surprised me on his pre-season was not so much his attacking flair, that was noticeable with the few games I watched whilst he was still in France, but his defensive capability. I was expecting that to be his weakness but he looks the real deal.

I think you're being extremely harsh on Taylor. Overall he had a good game. He did his best to get forward but El Ghazi when receiving the ball immediately played it back to him and then failed to move. In fact there were very few if any options for Taylor on the left, maybe that's why Jack decided to go out there and play in El Ghazi's position. It's near impossible to overlap when you have nobody to play a 1-2 with. I don't expect to see El Ghazi start another game, he's been that poor, instead we'll switch Trez to his favoured left side and Guilbert come in on the right with two defensive midfielders to cover him when he goes forward.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

One point not seen mentioned on here was our fans. I thought they were utterly brilliant on Saturday. More of the same please on Friday.

[Risso]

One point not seen mentioned on here was our fans. I thought they were utterly brilliant on Saturday. More of the same please on Friday.

It was great in the build up, but then their first minute penalty killed the atmosphere pretty well stone dead for the rest of the first half and until we scored second half.  Then it picked up again massively.

[Damo70]

One point not seen mentioned on here was our fans. I thought they were utterly brilliant on Saturday. More of the same please on Friday.

It was great in the build up, but then their first minute penalty killed the atmosphere pretty well stone dead for the rest of the first half and until we scored second half.  Then it picked up again massively.

It reminded me of the Juventus game when Villa Park was buzzing in anticipation and Paolo Rossi scored in the first minute.

[chrisw1]

One point not seen mentioned on here was our fans. I thought they were utterly brilliant on Saturday. More of the same please on Friday.

It was great in the build up, but then their first minute penalty killed the atmosphere pretty well stone dead for the rest of the first half and until we scored second half.  Then it picked up again massively.

To be fair whilst it certainly quietened down, it felt to me that the crowd largely stuck with the players and there was still reasonable noise in the Holte end at least.

[Deano's Mullet]

We certainly stuck with them, North Upper was v v noisy and even at full time whistle we were singing. I can't believe how quiet the away support was.

[Tuscans]

One point not seen mentioned on here was our fans. I thought they were utterly brilliant on Saturday. More of the same please on Friday.

Decent review of a Bournemouth fans first visit to Villa Park. ( I cut out the match write up )

"After an underwhelming opening day draw to Sheffield United posed more questions than answers, Bournemouth travelled to Villa with some trepidation, especially given last season's wretched away form.

This was my first visit to Villa Park and after a couple of beers in the away fans' marquee at the Whitton Arms, we headed in to soak up the atmosphere in the sunshine. First impressions were excellent; a proper football stadium with steep stands, fans close to the pitch and impressive atmosphere. As we built towards kick off, the noise from the home fans was deafening, unlike anything I've heard in the Premier League before and far better than atmosphere I've witnessed at Wembley, Anfield or any of the other big stadiums. Obviously, this was partly due to the fans' high spirits at their Premier League return, but as the banner in the Holt End says, they'll definitely be a 12th man for Villa this season.

Verdict - An excellent away win in an intimidating place to visit. A game I think we would have lost last season. We looked far more comfortable in a 442 and with the changes in personnel. Neither Mepham or Rico are quite ready for the rigours of this kind of game.

We really needed a strong start today and we got it. The defence were immense but something still isn't clicking up front. Hopefully Brooks can be the missing piece of the jigsaw when he's back. Better substitutions from Eddie today though, proactive instead of too late.

Villa looked threatening and I think they'll stay up, McGinn in particular was a livewire throughout. I hope they do survive, as I'd love to return to Villa Park, a proper football stadium! Fans on the way out all seemed very reasonable, honest and fair - don't believe everything you see on a forum!"