Post match thread. Villa 1 Leicester City 2

[ChicagoLion]

I also just have good things to say about Elmo. Composed, smart, positional sense, seems a person that carry himself well as you say on here. Might not be the fastest anymore but gives what he have for the team. 

His positional sense was atrocious on Saturday. All over the place, not helped at all by the fact he hasn't got the legs to recover any more.

every one knew he was going to be exposed, so it was hardly a surprise that he was all over the place. he had no cover against an inform quick winger in Barnes.

[kippaxvilla2]

By the way my unbeaten run has come to an end so I’m handing over the pre match thread baton to Footy.

[rougegorge]

I have respect for what Elmo has done for us. He's not the best but by no means the worst we've had.
He clearly wouldn't be a first pick, but if he is Cash's replacement,  that is down to Smith and we can't blame ElMo too much. Also Traore is not effective at providing cover which also adds even more weight to Cash's form.

I also don't see why Smith would be getting Guilbert back next season.
When the league recommenced last season, Smith always favoured ElMo over Guilbert which suggests Smith doesn't rate Guilbert highly enough anyway.

[RamboandBruno]

Expectations have been raised because we have been fucking brilliant right up to the West Ham game
Even in the games we have lost Man United, Man City, West ham 1st game etc we have still been a joy to watch

West Ham were the first team to out play us and since then we haven’t been the same
Unfortunately when we have hit these bad runs of form in the past Smith has come up short in knowing what to do about it

I’m not interested in where we were two years ago I am more bothered about where we are going to be in two years time
The opportunity is now
The talk of well we are improved from last year is okay but it’s defeatist

The future is very much dependent on Grealish for us at the moment
We need to give him a platform and that platform needs to be higher than a mid-table team even if that is is an improvement
We are at the crossroads

Are we just going to be satisfied with doing better than last year or are we going to believe in Ourselves like we did at the start of the season and play with no fear and attack the opposition

We know we can do it because we have
If Smith doesn’t get it right soon we will be kicking ourselves in a couple of years time and looking back saying that was when we had the opportunity and we screwed it up the same way we did a number of times with the Doug Ellis

I would have taken A mid-table place at the start of the season
But not now my expectations have been raised by the team by the performances I’ve seen by the players
i’m not willing to settle for second best now I want the best

I want us to be going for Europa football it’s the best way of hanging onto Grealish
And it’s where a club the size of ours with the financial backing we have and one of the best players in the country on our books should be aiming for imo

I agree about looking forwards and wanting more from this team, especially after the style and swagger in which we’ve played at times.
However, the problem with not wanting to look at the past, is you can say things like smiths come up short when we’ve gone through other bad runs. After Xmas in the promotion season we were on a terrible run of form, but came through it to win ten in a row and went up. Last year we were dead, but came back after lockdown and against all the odds stayed up. Not all down to smith, some luck involved, but he would of also been integral to these up turns in form. My point is, we’ve had a really good season and whatever happens in the next couple of games, Smiths history at the club, indicates he will turn around this mini slump.

[Pete3206]

We haven't got a strong enough squad to get into the European places and our better players are starting to look a bit fatigued and out of sorts. We'll pick up a few good results along the way and I reckon we'll finish about where we are now, as long as we don't suffer more injuries and suspensions.

[Three Spires Villa]

We haven't got a strong enough squad to get into the European places and our better players are starting to look a bit fatigued and out of sorts. We'll pick up a few good results along the way and I reckon we'll finish about where we are now, as long as we don't suffer more injuries and suspensions.

Which I will be delighted with

[Allan C]

Expectations have been raised because we have been fucking brilliant right up to the West Ham game
Even in the games we have lost Man United, Man City, West ham 1st game etc we have still been a joy to watch

West Ham were the first team to out play us and since then we haven’t been the same
Unfortunately when we have hit these bad runs of form in the past Smith has come up short in knowing what to do about it

I’m not interested in where we were two years ago I am more bothered about where we are going to be in two years time
The opportunity is now
The talk of well we are improved from last year is okay but it’s defeatist

The future is very much dependent on Grealish for us at the moment
We need to give him a platform and that platform needs to be higher than a mid-table team even if that is is an improvement
We are at the crossroads

Are we just going to be satisfied with doing better than last year or are we going to believe in Ourselves like we did at the start of the season and play with no fear and attack the opposition

We know we can do it because we have
If Smith doesn’t get it right soon we will be kicking ourselves in a couple of years time and looking back saying that was when we had the opportunity and we screwed it up the same way we did a number of times with the Doug Ellis

I would have taken A mid-table place at the start of the season
But not now my expectations have been raised by the team by the performances I’ve seen by the players
i’m not willing to settle for second best now I want the best

I want us to be going for Europa football it’s the best way of hanging onto Grealish
And it’s where a club the size of ours with the financial backing we have and one of the best players in the country on our books should be aiming for imo

You are bang on John but at this stage
We don’t have the squad for it. At the start of the season when they were all fit and fresh we looked good. The problem was always going to be what happened when they got tired and injuries occurred. Add COVID into that and a ridiculously high amount of games in such a short period you have the recent performances. With the exception of Ramsey and Sanson, possibly Nakamba, the quality isn’t there to replace the first team regulars. That will take time but it’s coming

True
but the further you go up the league the finer the decisions you have to get right

when your best fit right back has joined the French foreign legion and your relying on a player who’s contract has every chance of not being renewed at the end of the season because he’s not up to the job, they are the decisions that you get away with in the championship and if you just want to avoid relegation but not if you want to compete for a Europa spot

the line ups and tactics have to be spot on
you can’t let a game drift on for an hour being outplayed then make like for like changes and hope it will some how come good
the Manager the coaches and the players have to learn, and learn quickly that the finer things are now important things that can have big outcomes

This is the difference between surviving or challenging

This is fair comment. Everyone agrees that we are progressing but to go further still we need to be more savvy with team selection and in-game management.

Brendan Rodgers seems to be pretty switched on as do the likes of Guardiola and Tuchel but these are the top level.

Hopefully we're heading in the right direction.

You both make great points, and in hindsight releasing Guilbert where the only other alternative was Elmo was worrying. However it backs up my point about a weak squad. Neither of them are anywhere near as good as Cash. The three managers mentioned have been plying their trade at the highest level for years and learning and hopefully Smith will join them at the summit. But currently his hands are tied by a lack of quality in the deeper squad

[robbo1874]

Guilbert is our best right back? I know players get better when they aren't playing but to say he's better than Cash is ridiculous.

I think someone said our best ‘fit’ right back. And I agree. Cash is way better, but he’s injured. If Guilbert was available I’d have picked him, no doubt at all about that one.

[GordonCowansisthegreatest]

Maybe it was thought better to give him some game time or lower the wage bill for the rest of the season!

[robbo1874]

I think when they signed Guilbert he was probably seen as the replacement for Elmo. I liked him a lot from what I saw of him. But they probably just saw signing Cash as a no- brainer. He’s quality and we’ll miss him when he’s out injured. I do think we fkd up a bit letting Guilbert go out on loan. Circumstances though probably. I do hope the loan spell improves Guilbert and he comes back improved for next season.

[Hookeysmith]

This might go against the grain to some but next season

SJM should not be a first team regular but more a squad player

Simply not good enough for the level we want to aspire to

[Footy-Vill]

Excuse me as I have not read the entire post match comment but upon reflection did anyone else not see this as not so bad a second half performance. I mean not up to our usual standards this season of course but that outside of first half which I scored at 5.5 Villa were better in the second period and perhaps the better team in what was quite a straightforward win for Leicester.
But the thing I saw was that Leicester were not much fair either and it was maybe a case of 2 halfs with Villa better and of course I think with Grealish would have won but the game itself would not have been unjust to have taken a point.
I think Villa are on the right track here and what was pleasing wasn't a heavy defeat after 2-0 down 24 minutes
I think Villa were OK by and large second half for sure.
Be interesting what line up will be made in Leeds and four days later vs Sheffield Utd.

[kippaxvilla2]

Leicester had just played a full game in Europe though with a lot of the same starting line up so I’m guessing they eased up or tired in the 2nd half.

[TelfordVilla]

Wherever we finish in the league this season, Deano is going to have to learn to rotate his squad which means sometimes picking less than the best team for matches. Thereby keeping all the squad involved and avoiding situations where the likes of Guilbert and Hoorahan ask to go on loan to get game time.

[Risso]

Leicester had just played a full game in Europe though with a lot of the same starting line up so I’m guessing they eased up or tired in the 2nd half.

That was another really annoying aspect.  We've had two games in a row with whole weeks in between, but we still played them both like every player had just run the London marathon.