Michael Oliver v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Nunkin1965]

Personally I thought we played well at times and looked very much like the home team for long spells.
Most of the media go on about how poor United were but that's always the same when somebody outside the top 4 give one of the headline clubs a game.
It's never we were good its always they were poor.
Don't bother with most of the negative stuff. You can find it in any game and in any player of you want and besides its mostly pish anyway.

[nick harper]

https://www.skysports.com/football/man-utd-vs-a-villa/report/461013

I think the poster who gave us 3' and 4's in his ratings should have a look at this. Mostly 7's and 8's for our players. That's a more accurate and level headed view from a neutral sports journo.

I thought we played well largely but what I don't know is whether that was us being good or them really being awful.

The sky sports reporters scores for the Villa players are a far more accurate assessment of the game i was at than some of the ultra negative posts. I would of though given Mings and Konsa a 7 each. We werent clinical enough, United are a top 4 United at the moment, but that doesnt make it a poor performance by us. And the poster who said any premier league side would of beaten them last night (apart from us presumably) is speaking nonsense.

I said most and I stand by that. Wolves should have been out of sight long before they eventually scored last week and United were every bit as bad last night. They have completely lost their way and we let a demoralised, disjointed side off the hook. Need put it right on Saturday.

[LeeB]

There is systemic bias within refereeing in this country, they should be fucked off. Says it all that David Ellery, the biggest fussy twat of yesteryear, is all powerful at the head of it.

[Bobby Boy]

The morning after and I've calmed down a bit. Watched Gerrard's post-match interview and must say I agree with his measured assessment.

We have got something for sure but it's about making those chances count, being defensively switched on. Gerrard sees that and will act on it.

It does worry me that we have lost to teams in the last two games who played poorly against us. For all the promise that has to end. Both the Brentford game and the Man Utd game were almost identical in some ways (apart from the bent officiating). Lots of positive forward play with no end product, good defending undone by lapses of concentration or passivity.

Mostly though our midfield as a collective is weak. Every player we can talk though their individual attributes which they have but collectively there is far too much sloppy play, poor decision making.

Saw the Wolves game on the box against Man Utd and their midfield barely made a mistake, was positionally disciplined, didn't give them a sniff.

We have got to work as a group there and make it much harder to play through us and against us.

The potential is there but we have to stop 'nearly' being good or 'nearly' winning matches.

Gerrard will sort this out.

[sid1964]

I thought that when players were subbed that they had to go off at the side of the pitch they are nearest too?

Fernandes walked to the goalkeeper from the halfway line to pass over the Captains armband and then walked off the pitch he must have taken well over 1 minute to leave the pitch (My Nans funeral procession was quicker)

I can imagine them in the VAR room after Villa had equalised looking through the rules to see if there is any reason not to give the goal, personally if VAR cannot be used at every ground in the FA Cup then it should not be used at all

I hope on Saturday we destroy these wankers!

[Beard82]

Think the midfield is the key problem - initially it was working much better - but I think
Nakamba being out has messed up the structure of the midfield.

 SJM and Luiz need to give the away ball less.  Really like Ramsey and his ability to travel with the ball - some of decision making will improve and I think he’ll be a hell of a player

Although ings and Watkins wasn’t as bad last night - still think you play Watkins centrally or not at all - he looks pretty average otherwise. 

Full backs are a let down at the moment - think Targett struggles in his own head a lot and need confidence - and I think that’s gone because he is well aware he isn’t the kind of fullback that SG wants - I swear he was better in the final third until recently - Not good, but not as awful as now.

With Cash - he seems to be playing within himself - he seems to have lost some of his directness.  His crossing is also shit. 

Without fullbacks as an stacking option it forces us narrow all the time and Beundia seems to be the only one with the cuteness to unlock teams.

Unfortunately in the forward positions basically every player has suffered injuries and or loss of form at some point this season - basically leaving us most of the time without the cutting edge we had with Joe Bert and Watkins last season. 

SG has a clear way of wanting to play - which I like - although worry it is too narrow at times, but currently we’re too easy to score against due to lack of concentration and struggle to take our chances.

So for me positive and frustration in equal measures

[London Villan]

Ings will probably work well with Buendia and Phil, lots of clever through balls for him to finish. Watkins is a better presser and pulls people all over the place - probably better with wider forwards around him.

Nothing wrong with having two systems, but Ings and Watkins doesn't work.

[Mister E]

Strange game really.
No doubt we were the better side, even a lot of Man U fans said so.
We looked like the home team, especially 2nd half, pining them into their own half for long spells and them trying to catch us on the break.
We played some good stuff at times but there were also a lot of stray passes.
I knew we would get that goal chalked off.
I have never seen any VAR decision like it, where they are looking for any reason to disallow a goal.
They keep banging on about it having to be "clear and obvious" to change a decision which it clearly wasn't.
Isn't Ramsey allowed to stand his ground? He didn't make any movement to prevent Cavani running into the pen area.
The length of time in deciding to rule out our goal clearly upset our momentum and we seemed to run out of steam after that.
I was born in 1958, the year after we last won the cup.
I really am thinking it will never happen again in my life time.
I hope we smash them on Saturday, they were very poor tonight.
UTV

As a fellow 1958-er I agree entirely with your sentiments and assessment of the game.

[Mister E]

The practical side of me says that yes Ramsey clearly takes a step into Cavani's path...   

I've watched it several times and Ramsey's feet do not move until Cavani clatters into him.

Yup, that's how I saw it. Cavani ran into the boy; clear.

[steamer]

I am a 56er Dont think we had a TV when I was born, so not seen a win either.

[Drummond]

VAR went so far back, they were looking for a foul by Mortimer on Stapleton.

MacParland on the 'keeper.

[baddowvillans]

The practical side of me says that yes Ramsey clearly takes a step into Cavani's path...   

I've watched it several times and Ramsey's feet do not move until Cavani clatters into him.

You need to watch it again because Ramsey is clearly moving to his right.  If he hadn't we woukd have scored.  Yes I agree its harsh but my point was that would never have been looked at if it had been for us and Oliver saw it and dismissed it

[sickbeggar]

An error strewn and disjointed performance against an equally abysmal Man U

Martinez 7
Targett 4
Mings 4
Konsa 4
Cash 5
Luis 3
McGuinn 3
Buendia 5
Ramsey4
Watkins 4
Ings 4

Gerrard 4
VAR Punch in the face.

Ridiculous marks, mate. We played well and were cheated as we always are in this fixture.

Disagree. The obvious predicted cheating has masked the fact that Man U were abysmal and we still couldn't lay a glove on them for most of the match.

Not long home. I know being at the match and getting carried away with the emotion and adrenaline, clouds objectivity. But saying we didnt lay a glove on them is frankly ridiculous.
We played really well tonight. I dont want us to be plucky losers and not does SG listening to his post match interview. But some of the negativity on here goes beyond disappointment or realism. Yes its an average Man Utd, but as someone posted earlier in the week, weve beat them away twice in the same season maybe once in our history. Nevertheless we should of won tonight and i really dont understand not only not seeing the positives, but seeing a different performance than the one that actually took place.

I don't know Rambo. I set the VAR decision aside and ignored it because a)VAR is bollocks and b)tonight is what its there for, to stir up controversy, the best guy lost etc, WWE do it all the time. You only have to see that personality vacuum Lineker taking our side - ooer Villa were robbed - loving every minute of the fact he has something to talk about. Well call for it to be scrapped then Gary?

Back to the game, yes we should have won which is the point of my complaints really. We had 4 shots on target? I guess that doesn't include the "goal" and the offside (good move I thought) so for all that domination we didn't really show it. VAR had nothing to do with their goal - the very definition of soft - which Gerrard obviously noted in his post match interview, but the worse thing was all the misplaced passes including setting up Man U attacks with their pinpoint accuracy. If that goal had been given would we have won because we were still struggling to test their goal keeper and after 70 minutes we had lost our way anyway - all set up for VAR penalty.  what i'm saying if we'd  played a "normal" team away would we have been happy with our performance? They were really bad and the whole us against VAR narrative sort of disguises the fact we should have won easily. We've played much better under Gerrard imo.

[Mouse Potato]

I saw it like this...
The cross comes in with Ramsey in an offside position.  He simply stands his ground and Cavani runs into him, right in front of Oliver. who obviously doesn't deem it a foul.
We score the goal, then VAR look at 2 possible offsides and a handball, all which cannot be proven, even with multiple slo-mo replays.  So, what else can we look at? Ah, the 'foul' by Ramsey, that was right in front of Oliver.

He now thinks he has made a clear and obvious error... it's an absolute load of cheating horse sh!t!

[Drummond]

I'm excited for Buendia and Countinho playing behind Ollie.

I actually think that Ings and Buendia are on a better wavelength.