West Ham 2 - 1 Aston Villa Post Match

[Monty]

Not going to wail or gnash my teeth, they're ahead of us right now. We gave them a game despite not playing well, and scored a top goal.

Wondered when the front two would hit the wall. Emi B surely deserves a look in now.

[LukeJames]

Its always a bad sign when our best player is having to come so deep to collect the ball. We were very very slow today.

[olaftab]

SG got this wrong today. Should have made changes at start or HT.

[Smirker]

Pleased Ramsey got another goal. And what a goal it was. Didn't see this explosion of form coming from him.

[astonvilla82]

Disappointed in the performance, more than the result

[Scott Nielsen]

I thought we did well. They played at home and were a bit better as you'd expect them to be.

[Nev]

Given the chances we had it was a narrow defeat, we couldn't match their physicality (and ability to thump our players with impunity). Perhaps the substitutions could have been made earlier but let's face it their first was a brilliant finish and the second a counter when we were chasing.
The pivotal moment was Ings chance that rebounded into the keeper's hands.

[steamer]

Tired 30 mins show at  beginning of 2nd half
livened up with subs, could have come on 10 mins earlier

[Clampy]

Both teams looked like they played two days earlier. We wasn't quite up to it today and in hindsight, maybe freshining it up a bit might have been a good idea. Still, not too downhearted.

[villadelph]

Didn’t really have any expectations for a result. McGinn, Ollie and Ings looked tired. That was a rough match and I thought the ref was poor. Next run of matches will be difficult, hopefully we can collect some points and get past 40 over the next three.

Every time I say that I’m worried about Watkins he scores, but he was just completely absent today. Couldn’t trap or pass a ball and didn’t have a single decent chance. We played narrow, they played wide and were dependent on their physicality. Long term, I prefer our approach.. just weren’t at the races today. A little bit of player rotation was probably warranted.

[brontebilly]

Was a very poor game in truth, though Yarmolenko certainly was a big improvement on the lumbering Antonio. Game was constantly disrupted with stoppages and injuries. Wrong team selection by Gerrard for me and mad matters worse by delaying his attacking subs. No complaints about the result. They bullied us physically in the second half.

Martinez 6 - jumpy in first half, one great save but poor for both goals
Cash 6 - poor in attacking areas, jaded
Chambers 5 - good first half but struggled with Yarmolenko in the second
Mings 7 - solid game throughout
Digne/Young 6 - Young tried hard but lack of a natural left footer hurt us going forward
Luiz 6 - good first half but swamped after half time
McGinn 5 - same as Luiz but hopeless for their second
Ramsey 7 - solid display and a fine finish
Coutinho 5 - started very well but dropped far too deep, struggled with intensity
Ings 4 - looked gassed from early on, one dreadful.clearance nearly cost us first half. Almost scored
Watkins 2 - absolutely appalling, not a single positive.
Bailey 6 - surprise first sub but their sub left back was terrible so was worth targeting. Much better cameo but lost ball badly for second goal.
Buendia 7 - brilliant assist and should have been on far earlier.
Gerrard 4 - poor team selection and timing of attacking subs left a lot to be desired.

[Villafirst]

SG needs to rotate a bit more. Bound to be some tired legs having only played on Thursday night.

[Axl Rose]

SG got this wrong today. Should have made changes at start or HT.

Agreed mate.

Thought we were poor. Really lacking any excitement.

Midfield wasn't good enough, and neither was Ollie.

[Villa Lew]

Buendia should have come on around the hour mark, hopefully Digne's injury is not too serious.

[Risso]

It wasn’t the day for Watkins and Ings together. Their midfield is very good and we mostly had no answer to it. Watkins was terrible today, really, really poor. And what a ridiculous trek back to the station after for away fans.