Aston Villa v Sheff United Post Match Thread

[dave.woodhall]

We had to win. We didn’t. I absolutely fear the worst now.

We didn't have to win at all.

No. Not in terms of games remaining. But given the games we have left especially the next few what gives you any confidence at all we will win those? A win today would have been a huge boost and taken the pressure off the game vs Chelsea. It’s going to be a tough road ahead anyway, made tougher after not taking advantage against a very average Sheff Utd side today.

It would have been good to win but it was more important not to lose. We didn't 'have' to win at all.

[Nii Lamptey]

Played out as expected in hindsight. Lack of adrenaline with no crowd present, and have a feeling all of the remaining games will have a much slower pace to them.

Lucky with the goal, but we're definitely owed one or two, so just scratch Palace away off the list.

Player performances were generally okay - Thought we were more solid defensively (Hause and Nyland's brain farts aside!), but thought Elmo offered more at RB than Konsa when he came on.

Luiz was my MOTM. Looked the fittest Villa player by a mile, and was all over the park, helping out defensively where needed.

Not a big Keinan Davis fan, but thought he did okay tonight - Just needs more support when the ball is pumped up to him. Felt we lost something when he was replaced with Samatta, who didn't really offer anything. El Ghazi/Trezeguet both blow hot and cold - neither are the answer really.

Grealish drifted in and out, Hourihane seemed to perform better without the crowd on his back, and McGinn just warming up (and was it just me, or did he seem to be packing a fair bit of timber compared to pre-injury?).

Disappointed with subs - Generally like for like. Still haven't seen that tactical nous from Smith where he can change a game.

First game in, so not going to be too worried about the draw, but we're going to quickly run out of games to secure survival if we don't start bucking our ideas up - Starting with Chelsea on Sunday.

[Sexual Ealing]

Samatta needs to start next time.

Unless it's alongside Davis, I totally disagree.

Why? He’s by far the greater goal scoring threat. We need goals and we need our best forward on the pitch to do it.

I have no problem with the lad, but we generally play much worse when he's on his own up front because there are at least 20 metres between him and the rest of the team. Davis compresses space, which I think helps.

[The Edge]

We're gone, done for, Kaput, deary me have you forgotten there are half a dozen sides around us that are just as bad as us, it's still up for grabs.

We are 2 points from safety with 27 to play for. I find the defeatist attitude from some of our fellow supporters quite bizzare sometimes.

[Sexual Ealing]

We had to win. We didn’t. I absolutely fear the worst now.

We didn't have to win at all.

No. Not in terms of games remaining. But given the games we have left especially the next few what gives you any confidence at all we will win those? A win today would have been a huge boost and taken the pressure off the game vs Chelsea. It’s going to be a tough road ahead anyway, made tougher after not taking advantage against a very average Sheff Utd side today.

It would have been good to win but it was more important not to lose. We didn't 'have' to win at all.

Quite. If we can take 4/5 points from the first 3 games of the restart, and then continue the pattern, we'll be home and hosed.

[Flin5tone]

A decent result against a top 6 side but thought we were well off the pace as were they .

Grealish non-existent , McGinn not fit , they should have had a goal.


Can't see how we will stay up we simply do not have the quality

[olaftab]

You don't need quality to stay up you just need to be not totally shit.

[Exeter 77]

We're gone, done for, Kaput, deary me have you forgotten there are half a dozen sides around us that are just as bad as us, it's still up for grabs.

We are 2 points from safety with 27 to play for. I find the defeatist attitude from some of our fellow supporters quite bizzare sometimes.

Matching West Ham's results over the next 8 games would make that last Sunday a bit tense.

[Clampy]

We looked a lot more solid and organised than I thought would be. We did ok overall although it's a shame we didn't take advantage of the decent amount of corners we had. As for their goal, we got away with it and I'll take that after the shit decisions VAR dished our way earlier on this season.

[themossman]

What I found funny is that Davis is a really good target man. He drags defenders around, makes a nuisance of himself the whole time, stuff sticks to him and he can hold the ball up. So why didn’t that translate into us having players get past him in space, especially when we had so many players on the pitch who should be able to do that.

It didn’t help that Grealish had so little success carrying the ball. Plus, SU weren’t great but they are well drilled and physical so I don’t think there’s any shame in being kept quiet up front.

[Legion]

Would be better if he could actually score a goal or two.

[themossman]

True but we had 5 midfielders who know where the goal is. He must have been there to bring them into the game but they didn’t seem interested.

[Lastfootstamper]

If anybody's not heard, Hawkeye was working, we somehow became the first side in over 9,000 matches to manage getting defenders to 'occlude' enough of the 7 cameras to stop it reaching its decision. Quality defending right there.

[dave.woodhall]

A decent result against a top 6 side but thought we were well off the pace as were they .

Grealish non-existent , McGinn not fit , they should have had a goal.


Can't see how we will stay up we simply do not have the quality

Oh, you're back.

[SoccerHQ]

This second game is showing what a genuinely bad first day back would really look, Arsenal have had 2 players off injured in 20 minutes. We couldn't stay up today but a handful of injuries could've seen us going down.

They were awful and have little to play for in the league. Can see them losing to Brighton on Saturday given the quick turnaround which won't help us but we really need to be beating them at the end of the season.

It's one of three games I think we need to win to stay up, Newcastle and Palace the other two.