Bournemouth v Aston Villa Post Match Thread

[FatSam]

Bournemouth worked really hard in an efficient, organised way. I would have said the same about us on Tuesday night, but we still relied on Nyland to keep us in the game. Today we seemed a bit clueless until Grealish got on the ball further up the pitch. The two goals were disappointing; Nakamba losing Billing for the first, and Grealish not following Ake for the second (as well as Reina’s parry). I know they have struggled recently, but Bournemouth looked hard to beat today, whereas this has rarely been the case for us. If the players are ‘coachable’ as Smith often says, I’d like to see a bit more evidence of disciplined application of the plan in games like today.

[RichardBatchelor]

Reckon the game on Tuesday took a lot out of us today. Crap excuse I know, but we’ll be up for the spurs game.

It's a terrible excuse.  We had no game at the weekend due to being out of the FA Cup, so Tuesday/Saturday shouldn't be beyond a team who haven't been playing in Europe.

It’s a really good excuse and absolutely classic and you see it time and time again. We kept an unchanged side due to poor squad depth and that did us. We looked particularly knackered in the last fifteen minutes. The root of the problem is lack of squad depth.

[Steve67]

Reckon the game on Tuesday took a lot out of us today. Crap excuse I know, but we’ll be up for the spurs game.

It's a terrible excuse.  We had no game at the weekend due to being out of the FA Cup, so Tuesday/Saturday shouldn't be beyond a team who haven't been playing in Europe.

It’s a really good excuse and absolutely classic and you see it time and time again. We kept an unchanged side due to poor squad depth and that did us. We looked particularly knackered in the last fifteen minutes. The root of the problem is lack of squad depth.

And yet Dean tells us we have two players for every position.  I think you're right though, the depth of the squad isn't as good as we need it to be and with the likes of Lansbury and Jota to come in if we have any further injuries to midfielders, that just tells us how lacking we are.  Only having two transfer windows and FFP issues are also to blame too.

[SheffieldVillain]

Reckon the game on Tuesday took a lot out of us today. Crap excuse I know, but we’ll be up for the spurs game.

It's a terrible excuse.  We had no game at the weekend due to being out of the FA Cup, so Tuesday/Saturday shouldn't be beyond a team who haven't been playing in Europe.

It’s a really good excuse and absolutely classic and you see it time and time again. We kept an unchanged side due to poor squad depth and that did us. We looked particularly knackered in the last fifteen minutes. The root of the problem is lack of squad depth.

And yet Dean tells us we have two players for every position.  I think you're right though, the depth of the squad isn't as good as we need it to be and with the likes of Lansbury and Jota to come in if we have any further injuries to midfielders, that just tells us how lacking we are.  Only having two transfer windows and FFP issues are also to blame too.

We do, technically, have two players for each position. The problem is that the replacements aren't good enough. The next step when we stay up is to bring in 3 or 4 really good quality (Mings/McGinn level) players - quality not quantity this summer, who will see the likes of Lansbury, Jota, Taylor, Hourihane etc out of the reckoning completely and push the likes of Nakamba, Targett (unless he steps up more consistently) and El Ghazi onto the bench.

[Steve67]

Reckon the game on Tuesday took a lot out of us today. Crap excuse I know, but we’ll be up for the spurs game.

It's a terrible excuse.  We had no game at the weekend due to being out of the FA Cup, so Tuesday/Saturday shouldn't be beyond a team who haven't been playing in Europe.

It’s a really good excuse and absolutely classic and you see it time and time again. We kept an unchanged side due to poor squad depth and that did us. We looked particularly knackered in the last fifteen minutes. The root of the problem is lack of squad depth.

And yet Dean tells us we have two players for every position.  I think you're right though, the depth of the squad isn't as good as we need it to be and with the likes of Lansbury and Jota to come in if we have any further injuries to midfielders, that just tells us how lacking we are.  Only having two transfer windows and FFP issues are also to blame too.

We do, technically, have two players for each position. The problem is that the replacements aren't good enough. The next step when we stay up is to bring in 3 or 4 really good quality (Mings/McGinn level) players - quality not quantity this summer, who will see the likes of Lansbury, Jota, Taylor, Hourihane etc out of the reckoning completely and push the likes of Nakamba, Targett (unless he steps up more consistently) and El Ghazi onto the bench.

I agree.  Quality over quantity if we can survive.

[Flamingo Lane]

One positive, albeit small, I did like the way Samatta reacted to his goal, with only one thought in mind, to get the ball back as quickly as possible.  No exaggerated, or indeed any particular, celebration.

[ROBBO]

It's the Villa way to make things as hard as possible, if we had played with the same passion as we did against Leicester we would have won easily but there are too many in the side that just don't put in. Without Grealish we are a championship side and its all very fine to go out and get good prospects but we are woefully short of seasoned professionals. Still not convinced by Smith but when I look at Wet Spam we could be worse off.

[ChicagoLion]

Reckon the game on Tuesday took a lot out of us today. Crap excuse I know, but we’ll be up for the spurs game.

It's a terrible excuse.  We had no game at the weekend due to being out of the FA Cup, so Tuesday/Saturday shouldn't be beyond a team who haven't been playing in Europe.

It’s a really good excuse and absolutely classic and you see it time and time again. We kept an unchanged side due to poor squad depth and that did us. We looked particularly knackered in the last fifteen minutes. The root of the problem is lack of squad depth.

And yet Dean tells us we have two players for every position.  I think you're right though, the depth of the squad isn't as good as we need it to be and with the likes of Lansbury and Jota to come in if we have any further injuries to midfielders, that just tells us how lacking we are.  Only having two transfer windows and FFP issues are also to blame too.

He just doesn’t freshen it up though, we win a game and you know he will pick the same team,it was not working in the first half, does he change it ?no
Same all the time.
They outnumbered and out fought our midfield and went about the game with energy.
They are a pretty shit team but they had enough to beat us easily.
It was only the sending off that let us back in and even then we were ordinary.

[auntiesledd]

I've just seen the 'highlights' on MOTD & was utterly appalled by that shambolic & lackadaisical defensive horror show. What the Hell happened to them since the gutsy, committed performance we witnessed on Tuesday night? On the evidence of what I witnessed, Bournemouth were worthy winners: but how easy did we make it for them FFS?! Smith needs to get this sorted in the next 2 weeks, or we - & probably he - will be toast.

[Scott Nielsen]

 

The only thing dafter than calling Grealish shit, is calling people noobs, aren't you 50 odd ffs.

so what would you call them. I could think of a lot of names but I can't repeat them on here.

How about disagreeing with them without calling them names?

grealish is shit comment doesn't deserve an ounce of respect the guy is a xxxx

Read it again - I don't think that is what he said. He criticized Smith for playing Grealish too deep and for Smith having to answer "that garbage today". You are reading it as him saying Grealish was garbage.

[Mister E]

Not long in and not read the thread but today left me frustrated to say the least. Too many players off the pace, not enough brains used, especially when they went to ten men. We should be intelligent enough by now to make the man advantage count, yet time and time again, we are found wanting. Hate to say it, but we got what we deserved today - nothing.

Let’s hope we use this two week break to work on getting the basics right, notably creative passing and decent crossing because today there was little or none of both.

This is the real issue though: we've been saying on this forum for several years that we don't defend set pieces well, that our ball retention is poor, that our off-the-ball movement is poor ...
If we can see this, what the fuck is the coaching staff doing?!

[geolex]

The only thing dafter than calling Grealish shit, is calling people noobs, aren't you 50 odd ffs.

so what would you call them. I could think of a lot of names but I can't repeat them on here.

How about disagreeing with them without calling them names?

Agreed... we all want the same thing but just because one persons opinion is different it doesn't make them wrong ,stupid or clueless ...as adults we should be able to debate discuss etc without resorting to petty childish insults

[mr underhill]

If we don't know how to do the basics by now, a two week hiatus isn't going to make one iota of difference. I honestly think we are simply too inconsistent to not go down, as we don't have the experience needed to put two or three consecutive wins together. I will be sad if we get relegated, but ultimately it won't make any difference to my life . i will renew my ST as soon as they are on sale for next season and go to support them whenever I can. Of course if we are relegated, we can say goodbye to the three or four unquestionably good players we have, but that's  football for you.

[itmustbe_it is!]

I've just seen the 'highlights' on MOTD & was utterly appalled by that shambolic & lackadaisical defensive horror show. What the Hell happened to them since the gutsy, committed performance we witnessed on Tuesday night? On the evidence of what I witnessed, Bournemouth were worthy winners: but how easy did we make it for them FFS?! Smith needs to get this sorted in the next 2 weeks, or we - & probably he - will be toast.

MOTD showed that their second goal should not have counted due to the obvious push on the edge of OUR box, and that we should have had a penalty for the punch on Engels .

[RamboandBruno]

I'd rather have lost on Tuesday and got 3 points today. Premier League survival is paramount to keeping our best players and not having severe financial implications.

I think many of us are in that camp ...as much as I am looking forward to Wembley the potential repeat of the Arsenal FA Cup Final result will have a terrible draining effect on the club and fans - conversely a win could be the catalyst to survival ....
Today's result doesn't define the season but coupled with the result earlier in the season against Bournemouth and it sends out a message that we are short of quality for the league but that should not excuse the lack of commitment or application

Didn’t see the game yesterday so can’t comment on performance, other than being hugely disappointed after the highs of the last couple of weeks. It’s going to go down to the wire, West Ham have had virtually no new manager bounce and Watford may have had theirs.

In terms of Tuesday, there are literally a handful of occasions in my 37 or so years going down the villa that I’ve been in the Holte when it’s reacted like that to the winner. My kids also will I guess never forget the night that we got a last minute winner to get to a cup final and are still totally buzzing with the prospect of Wembley. No matter what the result against city and no matter if we go down, those memories stick and are what supporting a team is for me all about.

I also don’t think we’ll go down, it’ll be close but.