Leicester v Aston Villa Post Match Thread

[Drummond]

Completely convinced that Suso went to Bruges and spent £30m on two average looking players when Smith wanted Maupay and Phillips.

On that, it would have cost us £70m rather than £30m. Given FFP, it's not bad money.

Nakamba started really well, but perhaps needs a break.

£70m?

I'm sure that £50m was the sort of number being quoted. Even if it was £30m it would still be an expensive upgrade.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Great post Quinton, especially your last paragraph (not sure about the Nakamba comment though)
Great result last night. Would have taken 1-1 before the game and would take the same result in the league game to come.
Talking about the problem with Taylor as a wingback is just stating the obvious. There's no sense piling into the guy because I'm sure he and Deano realise it themselves. What is relevant is that he's doing it for the team and that team came away with a great result.
Luiz at the moment has too many mistakes in him, which has cost us especially in the league. I still feel he may be better coming off the bench. I'm hoping he will come good but that may be next season. Monopoly City won't be buying him back any time soon on current form.
Really pleased for Nyland and Mings is a colossus and is rightly being talked about as a great Villa centre half in the same breath as Mellberg, Laursen, Evans, McNaught etc.
Keep up the good work Villa!

[Nelly]

To quote Lambo, I thought we were excellent! Leicester are a really good team and we managed to set up and defend in a manner that nullified their most potent threats for most of the game. Considering a lot of our players are new to this league, or that we didn't have a striker or our first choice keeper and are generally patched up and limping a bit, we did a fantastic job.

The other thing was that after the league game with Leicester, apparently some of our players were a bit shellshocked and you can sort of see that in the results that followed. Hopefully this gives us a bit of pride and swagger back.

One big effort at Villa Park and who knows. Up the Villa.

[Smithy]

We do give the ball away too easily and all of our problems stem from this.
I blame Konsa for the goal, it was a stupid pass to Luiz.
Nyland is a very decent goalkeeper, lets hope Danny Drinkdriver improves our midfield.

I don't blame Konsa too much for the goal.  Clearly at the point he got booked he's gesturing to the players that no-one made the run he was expecting (which I assume is the instruction he has from the manager for free-kicks in that area).  Then, after being booked Luiz shows for a short pass to get us moving again.  He's in about 10 yards of space when he calls for the ball, and still has 5 yards when he takes his first touch (which is terrible), all while slowing down and letting Choudary get close.  A first-time pass back to Konsa to recycle possession and it never happens.  A better first-touch and it never happens.

Yes, Konsa could have just thrown the free-kick up front, or put it in the channel where no-one had run, but for a team that's supposed to be comfortable on the ball, a fifteen-yard pass to a midfielder under no pressure when the pass is made should NOT lead to a goal.

[QuintonVilla]

We do give the ball away too easily and all of our problems stem from this.
I blame Konsa for the goal, it was a stupid pass to Luiz.
Nyland is a very decent goalkeeper, lets hope Danny Drinkdriver improves our midfield.

I don't blame Konsa too much for the goal.  Clearly at the point he got booked he's gesturing to the players that no-one made the run he was expecting (which I assume is the instruction he has from the manager for free-kicks in that area).  Then, after being booked Luiz shows for a short pass to get us moving again.  He's in about 10 yards of space when he calls for the ball, and still has 5 yards when he takes his first touch (which is terrible), all while slowing down and letting Choudary get close.  A first-time pass back to Konsa to recycle possession and it never happens.  A better first-touch and it never happens.

Yes, Konsa could have just thrown the free-kick up front, or put it in the channel where no-one had run, but for a team that's supposed to be comfortable on the ball, a fifteen-yard pass to a midfielder under no pressure when the pass is made should NOT lead to a goal.

I get what you're saying but if Luiz had passed it back to Konsa then the chances are that he would have just hit it forward anyway as he'd have been put under pressure. So to me he may aswell have just played it forward in the first place. We hadn't been near their area for ages either so play it right up to the edge of the box and hope for a flick on and who knows or even just try and win a throw high up the pitch and break their attacking up.

[Smithy]

We do give the ball away too easily and all of our problems stem from this.
I blame Konsa for the goal, it was a stupid pass to Luiz.
Nyland is a very decent goalkeeper, lets hope Danny Drinkdriver improves our midfield.

I don't blame Konsa too much for the goal.  Clearly at the point he got booked he's gesturing to the players that no-one made the run he was expecting (which I assume is the instruction he has from the manager for free-kicks in that area).  Then, after being booked Luiz shows for a short pass to get us moving again.  He's in about 10 yards of space when he calls for the ball, and still has 5 yards when he takes his first touch (which is terrible), all while slowing down and letting Choudary get close.  A first-time pass back to Konsa to recycle possession and it never happens.  A better first-touch and it never happens.

Yes, Konsa could have just thrown the free-kick up front, or put it in the channel where no-one had run, but for a team that's supposed to be comfortable on the ball, a fifteen-yard pass to a midfielder under no pressure when the pass is made should NOT lead to a goal.

I get what you're saying but if Luiz had passed it back to Konsa then the chances are that he would have just hit it forward anyway as he'd have been put under pressure. So to me he may aswell have just played it forward in the first place. We hadn't been near their area for ages either so play it right up to the edge of the box and hope for a flick on and who knows or even just try and win a throw high up the pitch and break their attacking up.

My understanding is that's not the way Dean wants us to play. And we didn't have a recognised forward to aim for, either.  Look at the number of seemingly pointless short passes Man City make, back and forth, going nowhere.  The point of doing that is that everyone else is moving around, and in the second or two Konsa got between passing and getting it back, who knows what would have developed in front of him.  Maybe nothing, and it ends up a long ball anyway. Maybe something else. But we recycle that possession in the hope something better turns up.

I might be wrong, obviously, and Konsa's instructions were to play it longer regardless of options in front of him, but it doesn't feel like that's the way the team is sent out to play these days.

[LeeB]

We do give the ball away too easily and all of our problems stem from this.
I blame Konsa for the goal, it was a stupid pass to Luiz.
Nyland is a very decent goalkeeper, lets hope Danny Drinkdriver improves our midfield.

I don't blame Konsa too much for the goal.  Clearly at the point he got booked he's gesturing to the players that no-one made the run he was expecting (which I assume is the instruction he has from the manager for free-kicks in that area).  Then, after being booked Luiz shows for a short pass to get us moving again.  He's in about 10 yards of space when he calls for the ball, and still has 5 yards when he takes his first touch (which is terrible), all while slowing down and letting Choudary get close.  A first-time pass back to Konsa to recycle possession and it never happens.  A better first-touch and it never happens.

Yes, Konsa could have just thrown the free-kick up front, or put it in the channel where no-one had run, but for a team that's supposed to be comfortable on the ball, a fifteen-yard pass to a midfielder under no pressure when the pass is made should NOT lead to a goal.

I get what you're saying but if Luiz had passed it back to Konsa then the chances are that he would have just hit it forward anyway as he'd have been put under pressure. So to me he may aswell have just played it forward in the first place. We hadn't been near their area for ages either so play it right up to the edge of the box and hope for a flick on and who knows or even just try and win a throw high up the pitch and break their attacking up.

There's fault on both players, but for me Luiz is the main culprit. The slackness in the touch and awareness is something he's making a bad habit of too.

[john2710]

Great all round team performance, most of Leicester's best opportunities came form slack play on our part. We've given ourselves a chance.

Marvellous just doesn't have the composure for the pace of game here. I'm convinced, other than having little of no attack, most of problems are in that central midfield area.

Mings was immense & dishing out bollockings left right & centre, including Jack.

[darren woolley]

I've not been to bed yet after getting back from the game last night so proud of the lad's but the fact we are still in with a chance makes me proud of them they were great one loss of concentration cost us a goal but I will forgive that after the way we played and a big shout out to my fellow Villa Fans we were tremendous last night I just want us to beat them at Villa Park in the return leg.

[exigo]

Brilliant away day. But, by god, do Leicester plod turn up for every game like they're expecting full-scale nuclear war?

[QuintonVilla]

Brilliant away day. But, by god, do Leicester plod turn up for every game like they're expecting full-scale nuclear war?

They do when we're there, always been a history of trouble between us and Leicester. I remember a lot of aggro before the last cup game we played there including a pub being smashed up. I expect the police presence to be massive for the 2nd leg aswell with 4200 of their fans and a lot at stake on the pitch.

[LeeB]

Brilliant away day. But, by god, do Leicester plod turn up for every game like they're expecting full-scale nuclear war?

I met our kid at the Hinkley Knight at the end of the A5 before the game. When I pulled up a coach was parked, and it was a group of ours, about 30 lads. There was no noise or singing, a few lads playing pool, and then after about 15 minutes a police wagon turned up and they stayed the whole time we were there.

It was very odd.

[exigo]

Brilliant away day. But, by god, do Leicester plod turn up for every game like they're expecting full-scale nuclear war?

They do when we're there, always been a history of trouble between us and Leicester. I remember a lot of aggro before the last cup game we played there including a pub being smashed up. I expect the police presence to be massive for the 2nd leg aswell with 4200 of their fans and a lot at stake on the pitch.

The Football Ground Guide made for interesting reading. Seems they're a bit heavy-handed whoever's in town: clicky

[mallo]

I can accept the backs against the walls defending - Leicester ripped us one when we tried to play openly against them. If you'd offered me 1-1 at Leicester beforehand I'd have taken it faster than a tramp on chips. Great result and should boost belief in the squad after the dust of a lack of focus leading to the goal settles.

I think with 2 systems now (and a striker or 2) I'm pretty hopeful for the rest of the season. Play a bit more defensively against the top sides and we will probably stop leaking goals through protecting the defense more. A quick striker would give us a real outlet when defending deep.

I think I'd put as much blame on Luiz as Konza - he was really dawdling.

[Drummond]

I mean WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK.