Villa v Leeds post match thread

[SoccerHQ]

Next five games

Southampton H
Arsenal A
Brighton H
West Ham A
Newcastle H

More than enough opportunity to put tonight behind us. But we have be much better because if Bamford good tonight, then Ings is many steps above. We give him space we will be fucked.

Southampton really had our number in the two games last season, we were never in either despite only being 1 down until last minute at St Marys.

In a funny way I'm more worried about that than Arsenal away where we'll get space and chances on counter attack.

Southampton will be really good yardstick for what our team mentality will be this season.

[AV82EC]

Overloaded out wide and Smith didn’t have an answer. That said shockingly bad all over the pitch. Cash and Konsa about the only highlights.

[brontebilly]

The really worrying thing was at 0-2 down, we threw in the towel all over the pitch. Mings (arguably our worst player tonight) trotting up the pitch like some kind of superstar. Hoofing the ball back to Leeds at every opportunity. Theres a horrible soft centre still there, as that could have been any score for a finish tonight. Leeds breaking six on three on us in the 92nd minute said it all.

Tactically, completely destroyed and the old Smith failings there for all to see with his in-game changes. Were were crying out for a tactical reshuffle but what he do. Like for like change, Traore for Trez with the net result we got even more torched on our right side. So many non performers tonight and the fact Smith didnt feel like hooking two of them cant be good for squad morale. For decisive in game changes, see Bielsa after 20 mins tonight.

Jack scores that worldly and maybe things would be different. But to be honest I dont think so as Leeds had our number in midfield particularly at that point. Smith's tactics of having McGinn and Barkley so far ahead of Luiz were horribly exposed. Luiz didnt have a chance, was crying out for McGinn to sit next to him or bring in Hourihane/Nakamba. I dont think we will get away with a midfield set up for much longer than includes McGinn, Barkley and Grealish so far ahead of the ball and making pitiful efforts to get it back.

Martinez 7 - dont think he could have done more with the second, looked sharp in general
Cash 4 - battled but destroyed lets be honest against an outstanding Harrison
Konsa 7 - our best defender by a long way, covering for Cash as best he could all night
Mings 3 - hopeless, timber legs stuck in the ground while Bamford embarrassingly turned onto his left foot and passed the third in. Terrible for all three goals actually.
Targett 4 - not my favourite player by any stretch but was doing ok until getting overrun into the second half, no support from Grealish
Trez 4 - anonymous with the ball but we sure did miss his graft without the ball when he went off
Luiz 6 - did his best but hopelessly outnumbered, sold down the river by Smith's tactics
McGinn 4 - anonymous for most of the game, unfortunately was up against superior athletes tonight and it showed
Barkley 3 - absolutely useless and should have been subbed immediately after his efforts to stop their second goal
Grealish 6 - should have had a peno and had two kicked off the line but lost the ball a lot tonight and his effort without the ball were risible, pathetic yellow card too
Watkins 4 - really poor in first half when he got lots of possession, made no impact in the second but we stopped playing at that point
Traore 3 - yikes, a bit of a horror show. looked miles off the pace but balance of team was totally wrong

We go again I guess

[SoccerHQ]

Shit that we didn't try and mix it up / try something different, three at the back or 2 up top.

Only one sub used

Should've put Davis on at 1 down.

Mind you we give Bamford all the stick in the world and he's probably stuck in around 50 goals since Kienan last got one in the league!

[PeterWithesShin]

No real reason we shouldn't be on at least 19 points after 10 games, i'll have some of that.

[Drummond]

2nd after 5 games.

Disappoint result but overall still doing better than expected.

But that was a very poor second half. Bielsa made the right substitution for them as they were lucky not to be down to 10.

They were faster and appeared hungrier. We gave their players too much time whilst they gave us none.

A lesson to be learned. Let's not give in though, so far this season on results we're the second best team. Tonight was bad night, we'll come, again.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

I thought the grass looked shorter than for the Liverpool game.

[Aldridge Villa]

Had bad vibes about this one and sadly proved well founded. Far too complacent, but I suppose we were due a bad one if you consider end of last season and start of this. Write it off, improvement v Southampton I suggest is likely.

[ROBBO]

That to a large extent was down to Dean Smith, we were getting killed on the flanks and he did nothing. Bielsa took a player off in the first half, Dean would never do that. We really needed to go more defensive just as Wolves did as they can only play one way, we were over run first half but i did expect us to improve as the game went on. Jack had a very poor game and without him firing we suffer.

[mrfuse]

It was inevitable, we were not going from scrapping to stay up to winning the league.
Leeds out passed us, out ran us and out thought us.
We knew exacctly what their plan was and we let them play it.
some dredfull peformances all across the pitch, maybe Cash who was run ragged tried the hardest but had little back up.
sobering us up for the next outing
As an aside, why is there a downer on here about Bamford, scored a hat trick and seemed decent to me.
The bench as has been said does little to inspire and Tarore was caught up in the Malaise when he came on

Couldn't agree more with your Bamford comment. Proved himself to be a very good footballer tonight and came over well in his post-match interview.

I'm not sure how to put it about Bamford he's just a twunt.

[ktvillan]

Villa 7- Liverpool 2
Villa 0-Leeds 3
Treat triumph and disaster as imposters - the truth lies somewhere in between.   

[PeterWithesShin]

Villa 7- Liverpool 2
Villa 0-Leeds 3
Treat triumph and disaster as imposters - the truth lies somewhere in between.   

We won 7-5 on aggregate so fuck all teams that start with an L.

8-5 if we include Leicester. L clubs are our bitches.

[brontebilly]

Cash defensively is a serious concern. The Liverpool game highlighted it as well.

I havent seen much of an improvement on Guilbert so far, I must say....

[Monty]

Overloaded out wide and Smith didn’t have an answer. That said shockingly bad all over the pitch. Cash and Konsa about the only highlights.

I know he didn't have the best game and made some frustrating decisions, but we mustn't be totally spoiled - Jack did nearly score literally the best ever goal.

[Proposition Joe]

We were looking better just before they scored the first and then we caved in. Leeds were good, but a few of our players let their heads drop.

Exactly this.  At the point they scored, you would never have predicted a 0-3.  It was disappointing the way we collapsed after conceding, though.