Aston Villa 1-4 West Ham Post match debacle.

[Sexual Ealing]

Yep Rice is a quality player, the bastard. Far too good for West Ham😜

I hope they hold onto him all this too good for them is the same as we had with Grealish

I agree with that, John. Despite not being fond of them as a club. They're doing well and it's good to see that it can be done.

[SW9-VILLA]

Whats happened to the defence? we have scored more goals than half of the teams in the premiership but the defence which was being lauded as the best we have had for decades has suddenly looked slow and disorganised. We try to play out of defence but a hard press makes us look slow and cumbersome usually leading to a long punt at the end of a succession of either sideway or backwards passes. Players are pointing at each other but in truth they all are responsible.

John Terry ?

I've wondered that. To be fair he was also part of the coaching staff when we were leaking goals for fun pre-pandemic. I think switching to 3 at the back obviously takes getting used to and we've not taken to it particularly well or quickly. 

[LukeJames]

If we're going to stick with the rancid long throws and hoofs then you may aswell stick Davis in there.

[The Edge]

Well I'll say one thing, it was a bit of a whirlwind of a game. It had a real feel of a derby about it.

Villa started really badly, and after the first went in I wondered if they'd implode and it'd be a thrashing, but all credit your boys dug in and came right back at West Ham. The extra body in midfield seemed to help, and Villa were making good inroads down the flanks. The equaliser was probably deserved on the balance of play.

Then it went from the sublime to the ridiculous as a good equaliser was followed up by allowing Rice acres of space to have a pop. I felt for your keeper who was probably unsighted for both of West Ham's first two goals.

Fouls and cards galore through the second half. I felt for Konsa, it's one of them ones isn't it - is it a clear goalscoring opportunity or not? What way is the ball going, is there a covering defender, did Bowen have time to line up the shot? Letter of the law he was last man and pulled Bowen down. The ref actually gave a yellow, but it was VAR that overturned it. Hause however should have gone straight red for that forearm smash straight into an onrunning Fornals. I don't know how VAR have not given that - bottling out of giving Villa two reds for one passage of play? Most likely.

The Fornals foul on Nakamba looked like two players diving in at a loose ball. I didn't see studs up or two feet so can't see how more than a yellow was warranted.

The third and fourth were harsh on Villa given the overall balance of the game - I thought you lot were the better team with ten men until Moyes hooked Benrahma for Lanzini - but that's what happens when you're chasing the game with ten men, you get picked off.

I honestly thought Villa played well for chunks of the game. It was certainly more even than the score suggests and like I said above, at 2-1 with you down to ten men you looked the more likely to score. I thought Matt Cash played well, McGinn looked decent, and your keeper pulled off a couple of excellent saves including the Bowen shot that Fornals put in for the third. Watkins showed why he is a quality striker who will always get goals, twice getting himself into space in the box, scoring one and forcing an excellent save from Fabianski at the back.

The main issue seemed to be you were far too open at times, and made silly mistakes at the back. There's some good players in the team still. Certainly on paper Villa are better than the current league position.

All the best for the season lads.

Pretty much agree with all of that sendo. West Ham are starting to look like the real deal and top 4 is definitely on the cards. For all our spending we don't seem to have clicked yet. Too many of our lot seem to be out of sorts and we need them to get their act together pronto. All the best for the season.

[kippaxvilla2]

Didn’t Sendo shithouse us on KUMB a while ago?

[LeeB]

Yep.

[sickbeggar]

Not going to get all knee-jerk about it. Suffice to say the injuries and refereeing played a major part - even Man City struggle with 10 men. However the problems been there since the summer as many pointed out at the time and its the midfield. With ratboy leaving the focus on stopping us has moved from him to the rest of the midfield and while on a good day he could occupy 2 or 3 of their players for 90 minutes they don't have to worry about him now. Smith concentrated on the offensive side of replacing him and forgot the defensive side basically, hence all the different formation try-outs. Bottom line is a midfield of Nakamba and McGinn isn't good enough, Ramsay may be the answer but we need a quality operator in there. Sticking Young there in an emergency is mental but tbh there wasn't much on the bench anyway (you know you're down to the barebones when Davis makes the bench). He needs to buy a midfielder in January because no amount of formation tinkering is gonna solve it.

[Sexual Ealing]

Nice to see you back, sb.

[Richard E]

I think we rather lost our heads after the Fornals/Nakamba incident. Until then we were still well in the game.

[Brend'Watkins]

West Ham's high press was very effective but we still tried to pass it out from the back with no effect.  Down to 10 we went long and were a bit more effective.  Hause contained Antonio very well I thought but like Arsenal they controlled the middle of the park with ease.  Oh for a Declan Rice type player. The nearest we have could be Chucky but Ashley Young gets the nod and good payer that he was he offers little now.  Smith has to get a result v Southampton otherwise the owners patience will run out and you couldn't blame them.

[Legion]

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8uCFQ3H/

[sickbeggar]

Nice to see you back, sb.

Cheers SE

[Mister E]

West Ham are a good side, but right from the first kick, we made it so, so easy for them.
We spent the entire summer stressing the need for a CDM, but didn't get one.
Watching that today, us with the enthusiastic but not good enough Nakamba in that role, and them with two absolute top class players in that role, that was horrible.
Then to make things worse, Ramsey goes off and is replaced by Ashley Fucking Young playing centrally? What on earth was the thinking there?
He then compounds the mistake when Konsa gets sent off by not hooking Young, but taking Buendia off.
That is Smith in a nutshell there. Terrible game management ...

Yeah, agree with all of that.
WHU weren't great yesterday, but we were inept.
I actually thought Nakamba (he intercepted and tackled well and his passing was limited but generally safe) and Hause (positionally and defensively better than the recent performances from Mings) played okay; but we did not have the guile and strength to get Bailey and Buendia into the game. I'm not sure what instructions were given to Bailey, but standing out on the left for most of the game was not very helpful to us and he was easily marked by the Spammers defence.
The game seemed to break down whenever the ball went to McGinn and Targett; distribution generally was piss-poor.
Why does Cashski think that - because he scored his first Villa goal earlier in the season - he should shoot whenever 40 yds from goal? Stop it FFS!!
I'm afraid Ashley Young is not up to the Premier League game any more. And, it was his poor pass which led to the break which in turn led to the red card incidents.
As others have said, there is something very not right at VP currently, and I'm not sure Smith will sort it out.

[cdbearsfan]

Didn’t Sendo shithouse us on KUMB a while ago?

Let's not get all Newcastle about it. Not everyone has to like us.

[LeeB]

Didn’t Sendo shithouse us on KUMB a while ago?

Let's not get all Newcastle about it. Not everyone has to like us.

That's true enough, but then being all of our mates for years then going back to your lot and absolutely ripping us as an entitled bunch of bellends was a bit below the mark for me.