Aston Villa 0 West Ham 1. Post Match Anger.

[saint13]

Well in truth in was a poor game of football, and in the end the main difference I guess was luck - bad luck for Villa that Digne’s corner just drifted out of play, and good luck for West Ham that Fornal’s speculative shot deflected over the keeper.

Moyes got our formation horribly wrong first half. Id hoped that it’d be a 3-4-3 but it ended up a flat back 5 with 2 DMs and Fornals barely getting forward. The net result was that West Ham offered no attack threat, and constantly gave the ball back to Villa. Nonetheless we were solud at the back and, in truth, Villa didn’t seem to have a lot of ideas of how to score despite the quality players you have.

Luckily Moyes saw the error of his ways and brought Benrahma on. The second half wasn’t vintage but it was better. Gerrard taking Luis off, who I thought was playing alright, seemed to open things up and create more space for us which led to the goal. The result never really looked in doubt after that, and there was no expected Villa onslaught.

You lot dont seem to have any balance to your team, and I cant work out what Gerrard is doing. I was concerned about Ings before the game, but I dont remember him doing anything. Im also not sure what McGinns role is supposed to be? When we played you before Cash was great down the right, getting crosses in. One of your best players, but he didnt seem to get forward as much yesterday.

Youve added some great players on paper but the team looks like its gone backwards if anything.

Yes. Spot on mate!

[Bad English]

Another thing from yesterday is that penalty shout we had in the second half which VAR looked at for a whole 20 seconds again. Was there anything in it?

No. Never a pen.

[sendô WHU]

Well in truth in was a poor game of football, and in the end the main difference I guess was luck - bad luck for Villa that Digne’s corner just drifted out of play, and good luck for West Ham that Fornal’s speculative shot deflected over the keeper.

Moyes got our formation horribly wrong first half. Id hoped that it’d be a 3-4-3 but it ended up a flat back 5 with 2 DMs and Fornals barely getting forward. The net result was that West Ham offered no attack threat, and constantly gave the ball back to Villa. Nonetheless we were solud at the back and, in truth, Villa didn’t seem to have a lot of ideas of how to score despite the quality players you have.

Luckily Moyes saw the error of his ways and brought Benrahma on. The second half wasn’t vintage but it was better. Gerrard taking Luis off, who I thought was playing alright, seemed to open things up and create more space for us which led to the goal. The result never really looked in doubt after that, and there was no expected Villa onslaught.

You lot dont seem to have any balance to your team, and I cant work out what Gerrard is doing. I was concerned about Ings before the game, but I dont remember him doing anything. Im also not sure what McGinns role is supposed to be? When we played you before Cash was great down the right, getting crosses in. One of your best players, but he didnt seem to get forward as much yesterday.

Youve added some great players on paper but the team looks like its gone backwards if anything.

Two teams devoid of confidence in a game settled by a bit of good fortune in West Ham's favour. I thought Rice and Soucek were really poor, have they been like that for a while? Apart from one trademark surging run second half Rice did very little all game, where usually he murders us. I feared the worst when I saw the teams lining up for the handshakes. It was hard to know who was the mascot and who was the player with Coutinho, then down the line there was this big tattooed beast for West Ham. Needn't have worried though, he was absolutely dreadful.

Zouma might be a deeply rubbish human being, but he's a very good defender, and he won everything in the air.

Rice hasn’t been at his best all season. He’s started slow and not improved. It might be a confidence thing. The added pressure of now being club captain added to the expectations ramping up now we’ve had two good seasons and spent a load of money on new players. Mark Noble used to do an awful lot behind the scenes, especially welcoming new players, helping them settle. There’s also the fact that his partner has just had a baby. Fornal’s form went to shit last season when he had a kid.

Soucek did alright, but he’s never going to be the player to carry the ball forward. He needs to win it then lay it off, and wait for the team to move up the pitch so that he can get into the box.

I think Scamacca will come good, but we can’t play him like we play Antonio, fizzing high balls at him. He wants balls to feet with his back to goal, you can see he has the footwork for it. We just need Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals et al to get closer to him.

[Risso]

He reminded me of a big useless lump we had a few years ago called Kozak.

[WassallVillain]

He reminded me of a big useless lump we had a few years ago called Kozak.

Kozak  is a good yard stick. I thought he would destroy our centre backs. Turns out he was a plodder of the highest order who will get devoured by the premier league. I suspect Moyes already knows that but thought he might get some joy out of a relatively small Villa team.

[tomd2103]

There was still the usual scrotes popping on a hi-vis and charging everyone £5 to park on the road. No point arguing with them especially when we've got a kid with us, and don't fancy coming back to a scratched car.

Whereabouts was that?  I parked on Trinity Road and the only ones I saw were taking money for cars parking on driveways, not on the road. 

Didn't go to the Everton game, but yesterday the school at the top of Trinity Road was open for parking.

[rooboy316]

I think there is a little bit of an over-reaction going on.  Yes, it's not been a good start, but we were the better team yesterday in the first half and ultimately lost on a deflected goal.  The problem he has is that we will lose the next two games and then his position is pretty much untenable. 

I said it before the season started, that the best 3 midfielders are Ramsay, Luiz & Kamara.   The problem he has is that he made McGinn the captain and he won't drop him.   Coutinho needs to sit until he finds his form, at least we get work rate out of Emi.

Ramsey has been rubbish for ages now. He's a young player still, so you expect the ups and downs in form, but he was rightly dropped yesterday. He was terrible when he came on too. If it was my job on the line against Arsenal on Wednesday, I think I'd go:

Martinez

Cash Konsa Chambers Digne

Luiz Kamara

Buendia McGinn Coutinho

Watkins

Not that it would probably make much difference, it all feels like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic at the moment.

You both make good points. We didn't deserve to lose yesterday, but we also didn't deserve to win as we could have played for another 3 hours and never look like scoring. They got an arsey goal, but didn't look like scoring otherwise.

Controlled play and tempo in the first half, but in deep areas with no end product. I feel like this describes our situation for a number of years now. There has never been discernible patterns of play in the final third, no method to how we might create chances. It's mainly been down to individual moments of skills (mainly Joe) that have created chances.

I'd go with Risso's team, but swap Bailey for Coutinho. Changing personnel is tinkering at the edges though - it will make nowt difference unless our system changes.

[holteender1]

This is very early days. We all need to remember that when we take to these forums. We are lucky to have Gerrard - FACT. He only knows success - FACT.
He's The only reason we have signed Coutinho - FACT.

Its too early to panic, if he dont read these forums some of his family will. Alot of tactics are about luck anyway, on another day his system would work, ie a goal goes in and its a different story / different outcome.
I honestly think we underestimate him. He's under enough pressure being part of our club as it is. His decisions will come off in the mane.
The lads in the dressing room do rate him, trust me... my sons best mate is one of thems brother!

[Rigadon]

This is very early days. We all need to remember that when we take to these forums. We are lucky to have Gerrard - FACT. He only knows success - FACT.
He's The only reason we have signed Coutinho - FACT.

Its too early to panic, if he dont read these forums some of his family will. Alot of tactics are about luck anyway, on another day his system would work, ie a goal goes in and its a different story / different outcome.
I honestly think we underestimate him. He's under enough pressure being part of our club as it is. His decisions will come off in the mane.
The lads in the dressing room do rate him, trust me... my sons best mate is one of thems brother!

Difficult to know whether this is a FACT-based genuine opinion or a wind up...  We aren't lucky to have him, quite the opposite at the moment I'd say.  He is the only reason we have Coutinho, but that isn't working out very well right now either.  I"m sure the players respect the player Gerrard was, but when results are so shite, they won't respect him as their manager, because their career trajectories are built on results.

[holteender1]

The main point here is, lets just give him more time. Agreed, he hasn't made perfect decisions but Its his 1st full season. It was a decent 1st half on Sunday, play that game again and youll see a different result!

[Rigadon]

Hmm...

[rob_bridge]

The main point here is, lets just give him more time. Agreed, he hasn't made perfect decisions but Its his 1st full season. It was a decent 1st half on Sunday, play that game again and youll see a different result!

Well we can't play That Game again and can you articulate why it would be different? Gerrard (who is far luckier than Villa to be in the manager seat) wouldn't play a different formation or tactics or subs. That was the difference between he and Moyes.

Villa manager/head coach has never been a place to learn on the job and, even if it were, he certainly isn't learning.

[sid1964]

Awful game of football - it was more interesting listening to the lad who sits by me talking about his holiday.

Ings looks like a sunday morning pub footballer who has been on the piss all night, smoking 20 fags and then eaten a doner kebab on the way home at 6 in the morning - awful signing - but will be here for the next 3 seasons on £100k a week - and we are told that Purslow knows what he is doing!

Too many very average footballers who are massively overpaid - Martinez must already be telling his agent he wants out after the world cup.

We will finish bottom 6 unless there is a dramatic improvement

[paul_e]

This is very early days. We all need to remember that when we take to these forums. We are lucky to have Gerrard - FACT. He only knows success - FACT.
He's The only reason we have signed Coutinho - FACT.

Its too early to panic, if he dont read these forums some of his family will. Alot of tactics are about luck anyway, on another day his system would work, ie a goal goes in and its a different story / different outcome.
I honestly think we underestimate him. He's under enough pressure being part of our club as it is. His decisions will come off in the mane.
The lads in the dressing room do rate him, trust me... my sons best mate is one of thems brother!

The only bit of this that is right is the bold bit and it's one of the reasons he's failing, not a strength. To go against the grain of the forum I think he has a good idea of what he wants to do and I think how he wants to play would work but he hasn't got the experience or natural ability to actually deliver it. In scotland he got away with it because the rest of the league was so weak that even a poorly implemented version of his vision was enough to be 'successful'.

For us he has a whole bunch of problems that he isn't addressing and better managers are targeting us in those areas. It started out with us letting the fullbacks bomb on but not covering in behind, so teams started playing in behind our fullbacks and finding huge amonuts of space. To 'fix' this he's basically abandoned our midfield. This has left us with no way to play through teams so now we're hitting long balls into the channels or seeing Coutinho 20-30 yards deeper than he should be, and, unsurprisingly, his game has fallen apart as a result.

Oh, and anyone who has to put fact in all caps after a statement is talking out of their arse, just FYI.

[Goldenballs]

There was still the usual scrotes popping on a hi-vis and charging everyone £5 to park on the road. No point arguing with them especially when we've got a kid with us, and don't fancy coming back to a scratched car.

Whereabouts was that?  I parked on Trinity Road and the only ones I saw were taking money for cars parking on driveways, not on the road. 

Didn't go to the Everton game, but yesterday the school at the top of Trinity Road was open for parking.

Vicarage Road. I went through the process of an online chat with WMP who said to contact the police force who's local to Aston, then ended the chat, which was helpful.