Aston Villa 3-3 Leeds United Post Match Thread

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Positives

Buendia continues to impress. Felt we lost control after he went off. He links up so well with Countinho who was fantastic, hopefully it's a minor knock and he's back Sunday, as he really is an excellent player.

JJ is starting to look more and more like a certain somebody. If he can add some doggedness and steel off the ball in a defensive capacity to, then he really will be something incredibly special.

Attacking style. We're good to watch. I'm liking how insanely high both full backs go. Digne is night and day with Targett, a significant attacking upgrade.

I feel the system will work best when he have a genuine 6 and Dougie can compete for one of the 8s.

Negatives

Mings. Leeds don't have a preset, they sort of resemble a cartoon Tasmanian Devil who has sunk a couple of cans of Monster. It's all tempo, energy and arm waving headless chicken play, which is why I don't think they exert too much pressure even with the ball, as it all doesn't make a great deal of sense.

The line they did pick with some discipline was the gap either side of Mings, who was slow to engage and absolutely woeful for the most part tonight. As was Konsa, who was deservedly sent off for some stupidity. A genuine 6 would cover some of their blushes, but you cannot accept the individual errors that lead to all the goals.

People are asking about what we were doing the past 18 days; self evidently working on some next level Attacking play that can and will blow sides away in the blink of an eye. But you can talk about shape, distances and energy as much as you like, work on it as much as you like, but it counts for nothing when you give goals away like that. In fact the last 5 against at Villa Park have all been so soft and poor. How do you coach that? Players take responsibility and eventually come the summer Lange will do the same for our left sided centre half. He isn't consistent over 90 minutes, never mind game to game.

Felt we were too passive after Buendia went off second half and we allowed the game to be frighteningly open throughout.

Watkins another negative for me. Seemed slow in the press and didn't offer a threat.

Some of the reactions on here are incredibly over the top.

[Matt C]

Exhilarating, encouraging, frustrating and disappointing all wrapped in one.

Not for the first time against this lot, we got dragged into playing it their way and a few too many of our lot got wrapped up in the frantic basketball game they like to create.

In the end, a point is far from a disaster.

[Scott Nielsen]

👆👏 in response to Pat Mustard

Seconded.

[adrenachrome]

👆👏 in response to Pat Mustard

Seconded.

When I first saw the quoted post, I thought the first emoji was the middle finger. Strange coves, these emojis.

Emojis aside, I agree. I think. 

[Rory]

My expert insight is: Leeds can and should fuck right off.

It may or may not have been my birthday today, and I was considering going along. I hate Leeds, so beating them would've been good, but I decided last week that losing to them would've ruined not only the day but the week. Risk vs reward.

I did try to contact Bielsa to see if they could lose to make it worth my while, but the bucket-loving twat ignored me. His selfishness would've disgusted me, but it's Leeds, so frankly, I'm not even surprised.

I don't have much faith in modern football, but ignoring the wish of a terminally ill child*? Whose parents were gurkhas killed on 9/11*? And not only ignoring him but shitting all over his special day?

Beyond the fucking pale.

Absolutely disgraceful, and it's no wonder everybody hates them.

*may not be true

[Sexual Ealing]

My expert insight is: Leeds can and should fuck right off.

It may or may not have been my birthday today, and I was considering going along. I hate Leeds, so beating them would've been good, but I decided last week that losing to them would've ruined not only the day but the week. Risk vs reward.

I did try to contact Bielsa to see if they could lose to make it worth my while, but the bucket-loving twat ignored me. His selfishness would've disgusted me, but it's Leeds, so frankly, I'm not even surprised.

I don't have much faith in modern football, but ignoring the wish of a terminally ill child*? Whose parents were gurkhas killed on 9/11*? And not only ignoring him but shitting all over his special day?

Beyond the fucking pale.

Absolutely disgraceful, and it's no wonder everybody hates them.

*may not be true

Happy birthday, Rory!

It's mine on Friday. I hope you had a good, if slightly less good than the one I'll have, day.

[ROBBO]

They waltzed through our midfield and the pace of their wide players caused us problems. Coutino is a brilliant player and Ramsey will get the benefit. Bielsa deserves credit for them playing to the same system no matter how many injured players they have. JM looks lost and the defence in general really struggles with corners. That twenty minute spell in the first half was what we should be looking for the whole game.

[martin o`who??]

One of the oddest games I've ever seen - first half was game of the season stuff, second 45 was just a horrible niggly slog. I can't honestly remember the trainers coming on so many times and it was a frustrating watch at times. Plus points Buendia superb again as was Coutinho, minus points Tyrone scares me at times and I do think the veneer of his public image is no longer protecting him from criticism from what I heard last night.
Was Martinez taking the piss out of their lot when he just fell over towards the end?? - if he was I just love the bloke.

[PaulTheVillan]

Jesus Christ, the state of some of the comments on here. Just back from the game, and we looked like what we are - a team that is still getting to grips with a new way of playing. The defence was a mess at times, and there was a clear gap in front of them that a proper DM would fill. But on the other hand, some of the football going forward through Coutinho, EMI and JJ was an absolute joy - give it time and that will be unstoppable.

And also, why is Mings getting so much stick? Konsa was more than culpable on a number of occasions and was stupid getting himself sent off how he did. Mings made the clearance off the line and the header away before the third goal, at times it seemed like he was doing the job of both centre halves so was probably entitled to the mistake on their third.

Finally, the criticism of the manager for the subs. Both Buendia and Coutinho picked up knocks as far as I could see. Given they have also been halfway round the world playing matches for the last two weeks it was probably a good idea to rest them if there was a doubt - I’d rather see both playing the majority of our remaining games than be screwed for the rest of the season.

Whilst Mings made the costly mistakes, I felt he was [attempting] to do all the defending on his own. Konsa was pathetic. The narrow attacking midfielders is really exposing our full backs and McGinn and Luiz don’t offer enough protection.

[RamboandBruno]

Jesus Christ, the state of some of the comments on here. Just back from the game, and we looked like what we are - a team that is still getting to grips with a new way of playing. The defence was a mess at times, and there was a clear gap in front of them that a proper DM would fill. But on the other hand, some of the football going forward through Coutinho, EMI and JJ was an absolute joy - give it time and that will be unstoppable.

And also, why is Mings getting so much stick? Konsa was more than culpable on a number of occasions and was stupid getting himself sent off how he did. Mings made the clearance off the line and the header away before the third goal, at times it seemed like he was doing the job of both centre halves so was probably entitled to the mistake on their third.

Finally, the criticism of the manager for the subs. Both Buendia and Coutinho picked up knocks as far as I could see. Given they have also been halfway round the world playing matches for the last two weeks it was probably a good idea to rest them if there was a doubt - I’d rather see both playing the majority of our remaining games than be screwed for the rest of the season.

Well said Pat.
Mings made some mistakes, but also saved us on numerous occasions and drive us forwards on a number of occasions, when nobody else was.
Like another poster said, im disappointed we never won but relieved we never lost as only one team looked like winning in 2nd half and it wasn’t us. The goal before half time plus the injuries to Beundia and Coutinhio prevented any 2nd momentum for us. We get a point and move on to Sunday.

[algy]

My expert insight is: Leeds can and should fuck right off.

It may or may not have been my birthday today, and I was considering going along. I hate Leeds, so beating them would've been good, but I decided last week that losing to them would've ruined not only the day but the week. Risk vs reward.

I did try to contact Bielsa to see if they could lose to make it worth my while, but the bucket-loving twat ignored me. His selfishness would've disgusted me, but it's Leeds, so frankly, I'm not even surprised.

I don't have much faith in modern football, but ignoring the wish of a terminally ill child*? Whose parents were gurkhas killed on 9/11*? And not only ignoring him but shitting all over his special day?

Beyond the fucking pale.

Absolutely disgraceful, and it's no wonder everybody hates them.

*may not be true

Happy birthday, Rory!

It's mine on Friday. I hope you had a good, if slightly less good than the one I'll have, day.

Happy birthday, both.

[Risso]

You won’t see a worse attempted clearance all season than Mings tamely passing to their player a few yards out. Woeful.

[ChicagoLion]

The way Gerrard plays means that here is inevitably pressure at the central defensive area and this game proved we are no where near strong enough there.
Would love to see a centre forward that could feed off Coutinho and Buendia.

[Ian.]

👆👏 in response to Pat Mustard

Seconded.

Very good summary Pat.

[LeeB]

Pat watched the same game as me, well said sir.