Aston Villa 1-0 Sheffield United Post Match Thread

[Risso]

How many times does Targett whack the ball against the ankles of the defender he's trying to get past?  Drives me mad.

[Mister E]

Happy with a win.
McGinn's performance is exactly why we need another decent CMF - not to replace SJM but to take the pressure off playing him when not entirely fit. And, during the game, I'd have pushed McGinn wide and brought JG into the middle.

[Luke8]

We won. We weren’t great, but plenty of reasons for that. If we’re playing like that in 5 games I’ll be worried, but it’s understandable we were rusty.

Quite. Plus the red card obviously massively conditions the game. Won’t play too many more games where teams defend in such a deep block for the whole game.

[maidstonevillain]

Thankfully there wont be many games this season where we will have that much of the ball.

Predictable, no magic. McGinn? Where's the old McGinn gone?
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Injury maybe?  Or perhaps he's just not that good.

My thoughts also. Very good Championship player. Scores brilliant goals if has space. But the Premiership a step too far?

[Toronto Villa]

As I detach a little from the immediate emotion of the game is that we win 1-0. How many times did we do that last season? Did we? We won ugly. Huge room for improvement but a clean sheet as very encouraging. That performance was enough to get by to lower mid table.

[Loxton01]

A win is a win and a good way to start the season

Martinez looked excellent and will be a great signing. Always tough to break down ten men but we needed to move the ball faster have different patterns of play.

Targett was woeful defensively. I struggle why we bought a right back when we needed a left back. Konza is getting better and better Mings was great in the air not so good when someone running at him.

Cash not sure tbh not sure what Guilbert has done wrong

McGinn still looks a shadow of his former self. We need a runner from midfield. Jack was ok but needs to get rid of the ball quicker

[saunders_heroes]

3 points, thank you very much!

[AV82EC]

Well early doors last season we managed to stumble to a 0-0 against West Ham who were down to 10 men where we didn't look like scoring. Much better today against 10 men even if we did lack pace and fluidity and looked very rusty with little sharpness to our play. Scores on the doors:

Martinez - 9 MOTM Penalty save, utterly assured in everything he did superb debut

Cash - 7.5 assured debut, looks to have some pace and liked his link up play
Konsa - 8.5 very good, great goal and very assured at the back
Mings - 7.5 solid did what he needed to
Targett - 6.5 rusty

Luiz - 7.5 used the ball intelligently and protected the back 4 well
McGinn - 5 really poor, can we have the old John back, don't know if its just rustiness but really poor both with and without the ball tonight
Hourihane - 6 good set pieces but ineffectual outside that
Trezeguet - 5 poor, passive, marked out the game by Stevens and hardly took him on at all
Watkins - 6.5 not bad caused a few issues but lack of delivery into the box restricted his ability to influence proceedings
Grealish - 7.5 still takes the wrong option too often and needs to pass more, good to see him shoot more though

Davis - 6 caused a few issues when he came on

Smith - 6 he really needs to get a grip of playing against 10 men as despite the win it wasn't overly convincing. He also needs to work out a way of making teams pay/suffer for doubling/trebling up on Grealish, there must be space elsewhere and we don't make enough use of it.

All in all a rusty and uninspiring win against 10 men but we got the job done and thats good enough for me.
   
 

[The Edge]

A win on opening day for us is very welcome especially against such awkward opponents. On the plus side Konsa just gets better and better and Martinez looks top drawer. On the minus side it got very annoying watching them continually lump hopeful balls into the box against a team who's game seems built around defending crosses. We did get our goal from a cross but we really do need to add more variety to our game. I think Jack could get plenty of goals if he works on his finishing. He could of had a hat trick. Overall I'm quite a happy bunny tonight.
6.5/10

[liam]

Did anyone notice if Hourihane celebrated the goal? He had just slammed down his bottle (pissed off with being subbed) walking around the Holte End just before the corner came in.

I would have hooked McGinn and Trezeguet for the last 15 and put on Nakamba and El Ghazi to give us fresh legs.

Dean's passivity towards subs bugged me last season.

I thought the same and when the replay was shown, it didnt look like he celebrated...at least not immediately. Felt it was a strange sub, as i'd have hooked others. Conors dead balls were as good as always and although he has his faults to me its worth having on the pitch for those deliveries especially when we struggling to break them down through open play   

[ChicagoLion]

A throwback to the days of MON. Happy with the win.
It shows we are still a few players off being a decent team.

[rougegorge]

I thought it was going to be another failure against 10 men.

Whilst it wasn't great, at least we were generally solid apart form the penalty moment.

The biggest concern for me was the form of McGinn. He still looks miles away from the player he was two seasons ago.

[WilliamStanding]

3 points, thank you very much!

This.

End of.

[eamonn]

One thing that gave me encouragement on Watkins. The technique for that beautiful curler that just missed the top corner with their goalie stranded. If we get him in the right positions he'll be good.

[john2710]

Overall we did enough to win but were better when it was 11 v 11.
Plus points - Martinez looks quality whilst Watkins & Cash looked OK.
Trez worked hard but is simply not good enough.
McGinn & to a lesser extent Grealish were ineffective.
Thought Hourihane was unlucky to be pulled, when it should have been McGinn.