Post-Match Thread - Aston Villa 1 - 3 Abominable Kit Stealers

[Clampy]

Some credit needs to go to West Ham as well. They didn't give us any time on the ball and they obviously did their homework on us.

[ktvillan]

Unpopular opinion I know I've felt for a while that Martinez isn't that great a shot stopper especially if it's put in the corners or down low.   Brilliant on crosses and commanding the box and defence but there's been a few I thought other keepers would have got to.

Are we seriously having this conversation. He’s been one of our best players and kept us in the game on Saturday. 


Isn’t it so very convenient that tonight becomes the night you air that when Saturday he was absolutely brilliant. How odd

If you say so.  You didn;t see the error he made on Saturday then?  How odd.

I'm expressing an opinion, you happen to disagree. I'm sure you'll get over it with a bit of therapy.

What a shitty thing to say.

I don't see why. Can you explain?

[Legion]

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/12208050/debutant-lingard-inspires-hammers-to-victory

[Allan C]

Midfield was non-existent tonight & we were second best in almost every contest. I thought the defence was OK. But there was no protection in front of them.

We only have one way of playing & if it isn't working we're in trouble. Then Dean doesn't change it. We can't approach every game in the same way.

West Ham have had as many games as us in the past 2 weeks. They simply worked harder, were better organised & were more physical than us.

McGinn is simply not a defensive midfielder.

To my knowledge though they haven’t had squad members recovering from COVID 19 have they

[kippaxvilla2]

A very quick turnaround with a 12.30 kick off on Saturday.  Got to make changes.  Sanson for McGinn or Luiz take your pick.  Ramsey for Barkley.  Davies for Watkins.  Okay I made the last one up.

[Luke8]

Bit of a lesson in pragmatism. West Ham were clearly the better team, and it was a good performance, especially defensively, but it wasn’t like we were beaten by scintillating football. Still feel we need a bit more nous etc. to stay in games like this while we aren’t at our free flowing best (Saturday feels like the anomaly in this case).

Easy to say in hindsight, but it was a bit like watching our midfield from last season. Not enough spark and tempo  going forward and too far apart/open defensively.


Shouldn’t over react. We’ve seen how good we can be in lots of games this season - this is what happens when the performance level of too many players drops off.

It’s probably only the second game this season when we have put in a poor performance. I’m not excusing the performance, but it happens occasionally - we’ve seen Liverpool throw in two in the last two weeks for example.

[Olof's Beard]

Nice to see everyone turning on the whole team after one bad performance.

One bad performance? We've won twice in 7 league matches.

We are out of form and on the decline because we don't rotate. Smith is constantly starting out of form players and we have no plan b. If we concede first, we lose.

I said bad performance, not result. Those games include narrow loss to Man Utd to a dodgy penalty, a post Covid game against a Man City team who have won 12 on the bounce but needed a dodgy decision to break us down, a stupid defeat against Burnley when we played some great football and a draw at Chelsea.

Tonight was the only one of those five where we were shite.

I don't see why people can't see a bit of perspective, we had an awful year last season but have consistently outplayed teams this year. When we couldn't outplay teams, we still looked a threat. We were crap tonight but this team has earned our support.

And the post calling for Martinez to be dropped in ridiculous.

[PeterWithe]

We were poor unarguably, but were still in the game for the majority of it. We've come a long way.

[ChicagoLion]

Midfield was non-existent tonight & we were second best in almost every contest. I thought the defence was OK. But there was no protection in front of them.

We only have one way of playing & if it isn't working we're in trouble. Then Dean doesn't change it. We can't approach every game in the same way.

West Ham have had as many games as us in the past 2 weeks. They simply worked harder, were better organised & were more physical than us.

McGinn is simply not a defensive midfielder.

i am not sure Luiz is either, neither player did what Rice did for them
Moyes spotted that and had Lingard run off the back of them.
We were carrying Barkley and AEG so no wonder we were being over run, Smith did nothing to stop the gaping hole in midfield.

[eamonn]

I think we were a little unlucky to be the first team a fired-up Lingard had played all year. Whatever you think about him, he has undoubted talent but we had no recent game history to prepare for him playing for West Ham tonight. That element of surprise really gave them the attacking impetus to go with their hard working aggressive style that we did know about.

For me, McGinn and Luiz's lack of physical stature does put us at a disadvantage at times i.e when you're up against strong beanpoles like Soucek and Rice. McGinn's first instinct is always either to attempt a probing first time ball (which often comes off) or to shield the ball from an opponent as if he knows he's more likely to lose a 50/50.

Barkley is equally frustrating for different reasons. Big boned and aggressive he may be but his passing is often blasted or just wayward and he still doesn't work hard enough off the ball. He was dispossessed too often tonight too. He looked surprised and pissed off at being subbed. He has no right to give it the Big I Am, if he thinks he's doing little old Vila a favour I wouldn't be too sad to see him go back based on a mixed bag of performances so far. He's probably still not fully fit but with those hamstrings, I'm not sure he ever will be for 10+ games in a row.

[Villan82]

That was a dreadful performance. We looked tired and flat.

[Monty]

Some credit needs to go to West Ham as well. They didn't give us any time on the ball and they obviously did their homework on us.

Blasphemy.

[Smithy]

We were terrible and outclassed though.

I feel the same way, but I can see how any neutral fans wouldn't think that way - beyond us deserving to lose (which you can obviously do without being outclassed).

By this seasons standards, we were absolutely dire.  But I would also say West Ham actually played worse during our loss at their place than we did today (even though they won that day too) - we hammered them and lost that day.  I don't feel like they 'hammered' us today, just that we were shit.

[Clampy]

Someone mentioned McGinn not being a defensive midfielder and I have to agree. You can argue it's worked for us because we've looked a very good side and are having a decent season but I do miss him buzzing round the pitch making a nuciance of himself and chipping in with goals.

[TelfordVilla]

They haven't played the same 11 players in each of the last 5 games either. We should have rotated more. Nakamba should have played more, Ramsey should have played more, el ghazi should have played more. The problem is after those  its very slim pickings off the bench.