Aston Villa v Sheff United Post Match Thread

[john e]

motm - refs watch

[Nev]

Grealish is our best tool to stay up but we're not using him correctly and that will only lead to one thing.
And that was being said pre Covid 19.

[themossman]

With our fixtures I think we needed to come roaring back and mcginn needed to miraculously find his feet immediately. 0-0s are no good to us now, we pissed away the half of the season where they were useful.

We're heading down with a whimper, sadly.

[Mister E]

I thought Targett and Konsa looked fine today. Hause is defo an accident waiting to happen. Mings got better but stll not great.
Luiz was excellent, and I thought Hourihane looked tidy, if a little in and out (his corner-taking was pretty good). Grealish tried to do too much - KISS. McGinn just needs more minutes on the pitch.
Davis was good; should really have come out of that game with a goal. AEG - very in and out.
Trezeguet looked lively. the other subs were insignificant (other than Nakamba who nearly gifted the game).
Nyland: I thought he was fine. The 'goal' incident was more about Davis' momentum thna Nyland's handling and other than that he dealt with whatever came his way.

Balance of play says we should have won: 2 good penalty shouts and several on-target attempts. Closing down and general shape were actually pretty good, I thought.
We need to become more dynamic and punish teams when we're in front of goal and on the charge.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Grealish with the exception of one run, reminded of Ashley Young before he left us. Played where he wanted, destroyed the shape of the team and looked a shadow of the player we all loved. If we needed another defensive midfielder Marvelous was on the bench.

Agree with Mr Cropley, Targett was MOTM for the first 80 minutes of his performance.

[villa `cross the mersey]

I called it out as a draw earlier - I stick by my comments about the paucity of the squad - will be a mammoth task to stay up - not enough goals in the team - after all what has gone on over the past three months it's hard to get too upset over football....

[BoVillan esq]

Why do some opinions have to be hyperbolic?
Maybe it’s only the better fans who don’t say anything negative.

Hyperbolic isn't that a steroid for treatment of Erectile Dysfunction.

[Rory]

We're 1 point off 17th with 9 to play and the majority of other teams haven't kicked a ball competitively for three months. Why the negativity?

I'm no happy clapper, but I struggle to understsnd what some people expected.

[hilts_coolerking]

He was one of the best players on the pitch, he needs a goal but he's a long way down the list of people to be criticised.

Yes they should've scored but we had a couple of good shouts for penalties and got 6 shots on target to their 1. On top of that there were 7-8 times where they relied on their scramble defence which they do well. Don't forget that's the 2nd best defence in the league and that's built on them making it very hard for teams to get shots away and a very solid keeper behind them.

That isn't saying a great deal though is it paul, to be fair.  He didn't do any more or less than he normally does which is put himself about, hold the ball up extremely well and not look like scoring.  He should have buried that close range header.  That's why I say I don't know what Dean saw in training.  If we're only playing one striker it can't be him.

It's saying that singling him out after that performance as the only player to criticise is completely unfair. He did exactly the job he was picked to do and bullied their back 3 on his own but we didn't make the most of that. It's not his fault AEG wasn't getting closer to him or that Samatta didn't start next to him and it's not his fault that they have a defence that is very good at stifling things out around the box.

He isn't the only player to criticise.  Do I have to do it in a specific order?

[Goldie.7]

We are never going to create or score the goals we need to remain in this league. Grealish's "free role" is also a major hindrance on our attack. His constant running to the ball instead of into the space breaks down the team attack momentum most of the time. Why he's still allowed to come into the defence to retrieve the ball by Smith is unbelievable.

He can get away with it in the Championship but if he moves on in the summer I'll bet anyone now that you won't see him doing that for his next club, he won't be allowed.

[hilts_coolerking]

Why do some opinions have to be hyperbolic?
Maybe it’s only the better fans who don’t say anything negative.

The Superfan siren just went off.

[DB]

We still have too many defensive mistakes in us. Even though it was first match back and expect some caution and lack of sharpness, we just are not good enough.

[Sexual Ealing]

That passage of play where Nakamba tried to dance around his attacker several times in our defensive third when there was a simple pass on to get him out of trouble should not happen, ever. And then the ball squirted to Jack deep in our box and he tried to do the same before a weak clearance to a United player on the edge of our box, the same. Fucking stupid.

[mike]

I'm way off the pace... is Samatta not available? Is Wesley not recovered? Is Engels still persona non grata?

[themossman]

Samatta came on!