They stood off him because of the handball rule/VAR fear that he'd go down under any type of contact. No excuse but it's the truth.
Quote from: eamonn on October 26, 2020, 09:32:29 AMThey stood off him because of the handball rule/VAR fear that he'd go down under any type of contact. No excuse but it's the truth.They shouldn't be standing off the ball though. Mings was diabolical for that. Standing up like a statue while Bamford had time to move to his left foot and shoot. Reminiscent of Mings defending against Man Utd post lockdown where Keane called him out at half time. That was the worst performance I've seen from a Villa centre half since Tuanzebe against Lewis Grabban in the 5-5. If we had any proper competition at centre half (we don't), Mings should be fighting for his place.
Quote from: brontebilly on October 26, 2020, 10:19:00 AMQuote from: eamonn on October 26, 2020, 09:32:29 AMThey stood off him because of the handball rule/VAR fear that he'd go down under any type of contact. No excuse but it's the truth.They shouldn't be standing off the ball though. Mings was diabolical for that. Standing up like a statue while Bamford had time to move to his left foot and shoot. Reminiscent of Mings defending against Man Utd post lockdown where Keane called him out at half time. That was the worst performance I've seen from a Villa centre half since Tuanzebe against Lewis Grabban in the 5-5. If we had any proper competition at centre half (we don't), Mings should be fighting for his place.I watched with disbelief as Bamford was allowed time to look up pick his spot then aim the ball into that exact spot. For the life of me I can't understand why Mings didn't just stick out a foot and poke the ball away from him. As others have pointed out Bamford seems to have Mings completely rattled but he just seemed transfixed and unable to react while Bamford just picked his spot. Quite bizzare really.
Quote from: The Edge on October 26, 2020, 10:33:01 AMQuote from: brontebilly on October 26, 2020, 10:19:00 AMQuote from: eamonn on October 26, 2020, 09:32:29 AMThey stood off him because of the handball rule/VAR fear that he'd go down under any type of contact. No excuse but it's the truth.They shouldn't be standing off the ball though. Mings was diabolical for that. Standing up like a statue while Bamford had time to move to his left foot and shoot. Reminiscent of Mings defending against Man Utd post lockdown where Keane called him out at half time. That was the worst performance I've seen from a Villa centre half since Tuanzebe against Lewis Grabban in the 5-5. If we had any proper competition at centre half (we don't), Mings should be fighting for his place.I watched with disbelief as Bamford was allowed time to look up pick his spot then aim the ball into that exact spot. For the life of me I can't understand why Mings didn't just stick out a foot and poke the ball away from him. As others have pointed out Bamford seems to have Mings completely rattled but he just seemed transfixed and unable to react while Bamford just picked his spot. Quite bizzare really. The endless replays make it look as though they stood around for ages waiting for him to shoot, in reality it was a split second hesitation due to the fear of him diving again but at PL level that’s all that is needed. They shouldn’t have done it and hopefully will learn from it but unfortunately his premeditated diving has worked for them. Another feather in the cap for the much lauded Bielsa.
Bamford had a really good game and much as we all dislike him and think he is a limited player he looked very good on the night. The second goal was excellent and if one of our players had scored it we'd be rightly laudinging them for it. Hopefully his bubble will burst because he's an utter twat, but credit where it's due.
I've held back from the thread for a couple of days to let people get things out of their system but now on to how I saw the game.In my opinion there was nothing much between the teams until the first goal, both sides had decent chances they hadn't been able to take and both defences had been doing a good job so the game was on a knife edge to be tipped one way or the other by a bit of brilliance or a mistake. In the end it was a couple of very small mistakes by us that turned the game, Martinez needed to push the ball away better and Mings was probably a yard to narrow which meant he couldn't deal with the 2nd ball.After that I think the defeat was always on the cards because they had control over the game. That said the 2 goals we conceded were really disappointing because we stood off and let him pick his spot both times, he's not a good enough player to deserve that much respect.
As disappointing as the result and performance was, we are miles ahead of where most thought we would be after the opening five games. Leeds will cause problems for a few of the top teams this season with their approach to games, and have a team that functions better than the sum of its parts largely down to the coaching and management. they will run out of steam about half way through the season when fatigue sets in.The Villa defence looked like it did before lockdown. Lets hope it is a blip and not a return to normality. Mings was terrible most of last season, and we would benefit with better competition being brought in in January if we can offload Engels or Hause. Cash had a bad game, but we do have other good options there if he hits a bad run of form.