10 Man Sheffield United 1 Aston Villa 0 Post Match Thread

[Mister E]

Martinez- 6 .
... Felt rest were lacking and not enough to score anything other than below 6 to lose to bottom of table team who had 10 men.

How differently we see things:

• You're giving Barkley a score for having done nothing.
• You're giving Davis one of the highest scores; for what?
• You criticise Targett for poor crossing but score McGinn much higher despite doing the same thing
• The 'penalty' in the first half was outside the box; hence no VAR review.
• The sending off of Jagielka was harsh: the incident was a long way out; many a slip possible from there (particularly on last night's showing).

It was a horrible night, formed from a combination of this season's two Burnley games - lots of huff n' puff but no outcome; combined with some truly awful defending. I'd say that is a case of composite responsibility: no one player should take the can; they were all 'off it'. Or, put it a different way: Smith got it wrong with his selection.

[Allan C]

I'll take the blame for this not starting the match thread. Disappointing defeat. But it's who/what we are as a club at this point in time. And I have no doubt we will spend well again in the summer to help us push on again. Some current starters will be bench players. Some bench players will be gone. That's how it is meant to be done. We are better and deeper today to no longer be in the relegation discussion. Next year I hope we are in this spot again but with a much more ribust first XI and a genuine chance at the top 6. If we finish 8th this season as disappointing as it might feel given some of the highs it will still be a super campaign.

Absolutely 100% this.

[Ads]

How does Elmo get a higher score than Targett when Elmo was as fault for the goal and barely a forward to sling in any atrocious crosses?

[mr underhill]

still implacably angry over this, total brainfart. sort it Villa and quickly.

[Chris Smith]

All last night did for me me was confirm what most of us already knew, that as a team we are consistently inconsistent. We just made too many mistakes, wasted good possession and attacking positions and when we did create chances we fluffed them. You can point at this or that selection but the team picked should have been good enough to beat Sheffield United.

[Richard]

I think we will finish 10th none of the bottom half clubs look consistent enough to break into the top half. It's a good platform for next season with a couple of key signings made. Last night just showed we are not quite there yet for any top 6 discussion, well at least in terms of attacking variety. Defensively we are.

[PeterWithe]

I didn't think we were anywhere near as bad as some are suggesting. Even though we were off the pace and fielding a weak team we created enough to win even though, as Dean said afterward, we were far too wasteful in their third.

Credit where its due, Sheffield defended superbly closing down space and making some great blocks when we did look like getting a shot away. I think even Wilder knew they had got lucky.

[Duncan Shaw]

Elmo looked like his legs had gone, his crossing was poor and every time he recieved the ball he turned inside and passed sideways or back. 2 games in a row too much for him.
Shocking lack of awareness for the goal.
I would give him 3 out of 10.

This for me too - whilst the defensive lapse was obvious, his lack of tempo completely nullifies any threat we have down the right and he certainly can't play 2 games in quick succession (and it's gonna be 3 come Saturday)  I know it's raking over old ground but the decision to favour him as our cover over Guilbert is absolutely bewildering.  Yes Freddie was equally likely to have lost McGoldrick, but he'd certainly have given us a lot more going forward (see the Twitter link above)

It reminded me of the Bradford league cup semi 2nd leg!

[darren woolley]

Very disappointed with last night's performance we need to play a lot better against Wolves.

[LukeJames]

Elmo looked like his legs had gone, his crossing was poor and every time he recieved the ball he turned inside and passed sideways or back. 2 games in a row too much for him.
Shocking lack of awareness for the goal.
I would give him 3 out of 10.

This for me too - whilst the defensive lapse was obvious, his lack of tempo completely nullifies any threat we have down the right and he certainly can't play 2 games in quick succession (and it's gonna be 3 come Saturday)  I know it's raking over old ground but the decision to favour him as our cover over Guilbert is absolutely bewildering.  Yes Freddie was equally likely to have lost McGoldrick, but he'd certainly have given us a lot more going forward (see the Twitter link above)

It reminded me of the Bradford league cup semi 2nd leg!

All of this.

I thought of the Bradford Semi aswell, everybody in the box and putting hopeful balls repetedly into the box.

The decision to let Guilbert move on in favour of Elmo is one I can't get my head round. Cash and Guilbert are the same type of player so Guilbert could come in and cover Rb and our right side would be able to play the same way as if Cash was there. Putting Elmo in instead means a complete re-think on that side, he slows us down hugely. Every pass is backwards and theres no driving forward.

[martyn ellis]

I think it's good to be constructively critical. Most of us are on here and Smith is as well. If we don't do well enough then he'll say so afterwards. t shows a club with real ambition. having just watched the Villa TV highlights I'm again in the Burnley defeat mode of 'how did we manage to lose that?' As a neutral you would say we played some good stuff but just didn't manage the end product. And I'm sick of all the plaudits for teams that fling themselves all over the area an 'put their bodies on the line' Traore and Konsa (and probably others) both had strong shots that would have gone in on any other day.

[Risso]

Letting Guilbert go, for whatever reason, is shaping up to be a poor choice. We need good back up for every position if we want a realistic chance of European football, so to let one go and rely on the ageing Elmo seems very, very strange. I can only think there was a breakdown in the relationship similar to Engels and so they just wanted rid.

[Ads]

Letting Guilbert go, for whatever reason, is shaping up to be a poor choice. We need good back up for every position if we want a realistic chance of European football, so to let one go and rely on the ageing Elmo seems very, very strange. I can only think there was a breakdown in the relationship similar to Engels and so they just wanted rid.

It's proving a huge mistake. Elmo has cost us 3 goals in 2 games. Hard to know whether Freddie would, but what a player Cash is in comparison.

[Duncan Shaw]

Letting Guilbert go, for whatever reason, is shaping up to be a poor choice. We need good back up for every position if we want a realistic chance of European football, so to let one go and rely on the ageing Elmo seems very, very strange. I can only think there was a breakdown in the relationship similar to Engels and so they just wanted rid.

Like I said above - Freddie was equally likely to the defensive lapse, but the overall shape and attacking verve of the team down the right would have remained in tact.  These lack of options down the right have only served to put more pressue on the LHS IMO, further highlighting the lack of Jack.  I think a fully functioning RHS and we would not have noticed his absence as much.  Fair play to Matty Cash - stepping up from the Championship to being a key part of what we do.

It's proving a huge mistake. Elmo has cost us 3 goals in 2 games. Hard to know whether Freddie would, but what a player Cash is in comparison.

[Risso]

Personally I think Guilbert was much better defensively than Elmo. He was a lot quicker which meant he could recover more easily, and had a good tackle on him. He's not as good as Cash, but still a much better option than an ageing winger.