Barcodes-1 Aston Villa -1 Post Match Thread

[Risso]

I like the look of him I like how he always takes the ball on the half turn ready to go on the offensive. There's plenty out there who take the safe option every time. Control the ball turn back or sideways and play a simple ball. Think Ashley Westwood. I really think we will see the best of him when Jack is back and we start playing well again. I'm looking forward to watching him develop as he gets used to the pace of the game here.

Traore is a bad one for this. He's capable of doing something special, but the majority of the time he'll turn round and pass it back to one of the players behind him, rather than take the defender on.

[Legion]

He did that a lot this evening.

[KevinGage]

Dreadful. ball retention, dreadful passing, dreadful crossing. It all seems to have gone. We have looked very good in the past with an ability to keep the ball in tight situations, with crisp and accurate passing, and some accurate shooting. All seems to have gone. I'm not one to blame it on Covid but something has happened since then to turn us into the kind of team a neutral would groan about when he looks at the upcoming matches on TV. And Barkley ... Need I go on? He consistently runs into trouble and gets robbed so easily. Awful performance.

Defended Barkley a fair bit on here recently.

He has quality and could come good for us again in the run in.

But he was woeful tonight.  The anti cameo.

[The Edge]

I like the look of him I like how he always takes the ball on the half turn ready to go on the offensive. There's plenty out there who take the safe option every time. Control the ball turn back or sideways and play a simple ball. Think Ashley Westwood. I really think we will see the best of him when Jack is back and we start playing well again. I'm looking forward to watching him develop as he gets used to the pace of the game here.

Traore is a bad one for this. He's capable of doing something special, but the majority of the time he'll turn round and pass it back to one of the players behind him, rather than take the defender on.

I agree we are crying out for full on wingers who get the ball and their first thought is to destroy his marker. It's an area where I think they will be looking to improve on in the summer.

[Risso]

I agree we are crying out for full on wingers who get the ball and their first thought is to destroy his marker. It's an area where I think they will be looking to improve on in the summer.

I hope they do. Traore would seem to have the most chance of making it, but I wouldn't be at all upset if both Trez and El Ghazi were moved on.

[brontebilly]

We should have bought another forward in January. When Watkins is struggling we have nothing else in reserve, and for 75% of the time El Ghazi, Traore and Trezeguet are utter shite.

No point in getting in a decent backup striker if Smith won't rotate his squad. Watkins has played every minute this season, it's obscene really.

Maybe the lack of rotation is due to Dean not been too keen on the options. I'm pretty sure if our options were of a much higher quality we would see plenty of rotation.

He didn't rotate at all in the earlier part of the season and we are dealing with the consequences of that now. This MON esque approach and the recent Mike Bassett type comments about not believing in player fatigue (after 6 games in 18 games) would be laughed at if it were a Pulis or Bruce.

Guilbert and Hourihane were two perfectly acceptable backup players who were let go without getting much of a sniff. Now we are left with a 33 year old Elmo afraid to cross the half way line instead.

[tomd2103]

Turgid performance against a really poor side.  To have only taken a point from tonight and the Sheff Utd games speaks volumes about our performances at the moment.  Didn't think we did enough to win the game tonight, but to get ourselves ahead so late on only to then get pegged back because of really poor game management was very frustrating.

I think it is pretty obvious that we are still having to rely on too many sub par players too often.  If our wide positions are filled with two out of three of Trezeguet, El Ghazi and Traore then we are going to struggle to win games in the top flight.  Add in Elmo and with Watkins having a shocker tonight and Ramsey struggling a bit, then we offer very little in the final third. 

We defended OK until the latter stages and that's even with Mings being all over the place at times and being the only centre half to have been given a tough time by Joelinton since his arrival in this country.

[Sexual Ealing]

I wonder how it affects team morale to have these undroppable, unsubable players like McGinn when the likes of Trez, AEG and Traore (bad as they sometimes are) go in knowing there's a fair chance that they'll be hooked.

Not a dig at DS, who is the right man for the job, just an idle thought.

[The Edge]

I agree we are crying out for full on wingers who get the ball and their first thought is to destroy his marker. It's an area where I think they will be looking to improve on in the summer.

I hope they do. Traore would seem to have the most chance of making it, but I wouldn't be at all upset if both Trez and El Ghazi were moved on.

Yep. We're on the same page

[SoccerHQ]

I wonder how it affects team morale to have these undroppable, unsubable players like McGinn when the likes of Trez, AEG and Traore (bad as they sometimes are) go in knowing there's a fair chance that they'll be hooked.

Not a dig at DS, who is the right man for the job, just an idle thought.

I imagine there's huge respect in dressing room for likes of McGinn so don't think it would be personal issue. All managers have their favourites but yeah the world wouldn't end if McGinn was on the bench for a game or two whether that's in October or March.

Interesting seeing West Ham have had Bowen on bench for last couple of games. Generally done well for them but get the feeling if we'd signed him in last year he's another we'd have been playing every single minute of every game. Smart move by Moyes to keep him fresh just in case Antonio's hamstring goes again in the run in.

Tonight was ideal game for targetman striker to hold it up a bit better. We really struggle getting up the pitch when Jack isn't around so we simply need a decent one at least as a squad option next season.

[mcgrath_85]

Garbage performance. We haven't put in a good 90 minutes for months. The midfield is all over the shop at the moment. Really poor quality football. The make up of the midfield 3 needs sorting out. Sanson should not have been on the bench for a very raw kid. McGinn and Luiz for me are a poor central two. Elmo can be put out to pasture now, shouldn't have loaned out Guilbert. Smith needs to wake up, the season is petering out and selecting any permutation of midfielders isn't working when it's the same formation every single fucking week.

Overall, another crap night.

Here here

[brontebilly]

I agree we are crying out for full on wingers who get the ball and their first thought is to destroy his marker. It's an area where I think they will be looking to improve on in the summer.

I hope they do. Traore would seem to have the most chance of making it, but I wouldn't be at all upset if both Trez and El Ghazi were moved on.

Even in his brief time on the pitch Traore was again absolutely useless. McGinn made a great run into the box at one stage, simple pass for Traore to make on his right foot to play him in but of course he turned onto his left and the chance was gone.

[tomd2103]

I agree we are crying out for full on wingers who get the ball and their first thought is to destroy his marker. It's an area where I think they will be looking to improve on in the summer.

I hope they do. Traore would seem to have the most chance of making it, but I wouldn't be at all upset if both Trez and El Ghazi were moved on.

Agree Risso.  I think if Grealish is going to stay with us next season then he will have to move into a central role as teams have worked out how to negate him on the left.  I think, therefore, upgrades on Trezeguet and El Ghazi are needed.  Both have contributed, but mainly getting on the end of things created by others.  When the ball is given to them and the onus is on them to create something, they end up giving the ball away far too often.  Both give away needless fouls away on a regular basis as well which is infuriating. 

Traore has shown glimpses of real quality this season, but has been inconsistent. 

[robbo1874]

I only remembered we were playing when I came on here and saw the match thread was live only saw the last 7 or 8 mins including stoppage time from I think just after we had scored.

Just mistakes and giving the ball away all over the place. But it did seem for a little while we’d get a second goal. But credit to Newcastle for fighting it out for a point. It looks like they’re willing to fight for Bruce.

[knowsleyvillain]

Fair result to be fair but performance wise was  poor it's been like this for the last 5\6 games.Agree going forward we need better  options out wide as El  ghazi  & Trez are not going to get us to the next stage.We have also struggled in  the centre of the park we have options but the manager keeps going with the same 2 most games.We have a solid base to work with as the keeper & back four have been very good  most games.A bit more quality in the summer will hopefully keep us moving upwards.