Villa v Man City Post-Match Thread

[Meanwood Villa]

Re the Coutinho decision, clearly a complete cock up but their defenders stop playing so I don't think he necessarily gets the shot off if it wasn't for the whistle. A shame we will never know.

[RamboandBruno]

I always get nervous before a Villa game even after all these years, but i just felt a bit apathetic going to Villa Park yesterday and fully expected them to get an early goal and for us to then get completely turned over. Everyone around me in the lower holte was the same.
Cut to midway through the second half and the realisation we could get something out of this, i haven’t  heard the ground rock like that for a long time, brilliant atmosphere.
Young brilliant and arguably kicked started the game for us with that great tackle on De Bruyne that eventually led to Watkins chance. Thought Mings, Konsa and Digne looked solid and put in a huge effort. Luiz was superb, Ramsey was subdued until McGinn came off then came to life. McGinn was anonymous and also looks unfit, i thought he was so slow to close Silva down, which led to a pass to De Bruyne and their goal. He simply has to be taken out of the team.
Watkins immense and had their defence rattled. I think Bailey is really lightweight and too easy to knock off the ball, but he is a confidence player and it grew after his superb finish.
What an unexpectedly great afternoon!
Does it kick start our season?

[Chris Smith]

Its quite remarkable to see the change in attitude due to one game.

Iv been saying, give Gerrard time..he is class, and look what happens, he pulls out a plum against a side who were going to annihilate us if you were to believe all the naysayers.

Hopefully some of the idiots might get off his back now and let him do the job he was paid to do.

He’s rightly getting some credit for yesterday, the team was setup well and the players did the jobs and defied expectations. In other games he hasn’t set us up correctly and the players struggled in the system. It’s one game though and Gerrard himself said that yesterday will mean little if we don’t follow it up next week.

[Ian.]

Its quite remarkable to see the change in attitude due to one game.

Iv been saying, give Gerrard time..he is class, and look what happens, he pulls out a plum against a side who were going to annihilate us if you were to believe all the naysayers.

Hopefully some of the idiots might get off his back now and let him do the job he was paid to do.

He’s rightly getting some credit for yesterday, the team was setup well and the players did the jobs and defied expectations. In other games he hasn’t set us up correctly and the players struggled in the system. It’s one game though and Gerrard himself said that yesterday will mean little if we don’t follow it up next week.

Quite right, your judged on your last performances, Gerrard has been getting criticism for a playing the same system week in and week out for many matches this year.

He’s getting credit for setting up in a way to combat yesterdays game, which we looked far more organised and had so much more energy as well. The team looked far happier.

This needs to be witnessed going forward and he needs to stop being stubborn on who is playing. Again yesterday he showed that.

[Flin5tone]

I haven't enjoyed a match that much for a long time, I was expecting a quiet crowd and at least four put past us .... The fans were unbelievable from the start, the whole ground getting behind the team and the players responded.

Ashley Young was fantastic when he came on and shown how it's done.

For all the lows we put up with and all the mediocre crap we endure ,nights like those make it all worth it.

[Risso]

I haven't enjoyed a match that much for a long time, I was expecting a quiet crowd and at least four put past us .... The fans were unbelievable from the start, the whole ground getting behind the team and the players responded.

Ashley Young was fantastic when he came on and shown how it's done.

For all the lows we put up with and all the mediocre crap we endure ,nights like those make it all worth it.

Er, are you OK?!

[PeterWithe]

Well ‘One Swallow a Summer does not make’ but the team looked motivated and showed a lot of heart as, after 30 mins, I still thought we were going to get stuffed as soon as they’d got their first, which was looking somewhat inevitable.

Gerrard set up the team in a different way and, most importantly, changed it for the better early enough for it to make a difference and for that, he deserves credit. We now need to put a run together and create some distance between us and the relegation spots otherwise the ‘Gerrard Out’ threads will again attract the most traffic. He’s got the attacking players to win the next few games now we look a little tighter at the back, can he do it? He’s going to have to.

[Clark W Griswold]

Its quite remarkable to see the change in attitude due to one game.

Iv been saying, give Gerrard time..he is class, and look what happens, he pulls out a plum against a side who were going to annihilate us if you were to believe all the naysayers.

Hopefully some of the idiots might get off his back now and let him do the job he was paid to do.

He’s rightly getting some credit for yesterday, the team was setup well and the players did the jobs and defied expectations. In other games he hasn’t set us up correctly and the players struggled in the system. It’s one game though and Gerrard himself said that yesterday will mean little if we don’t follow it up next week.

Quite right, your judged on your last performances, Gerrard has been getting criticism for a playing the same system week in and week out for many matches this year.

He’s getting credit for setting up in a way to combat yesterdays game, which we looked far more organised and had so much more energy as well. The team looked far happier.

This needs to be witnessed going forward and he needs to stop being stubborn on who is playing. Again yesterday he showed that.

Yep, for as long as i can remember i've seen Villa teams shite for a few weeks against crap teams and lose/draw, raise it and play well for a couple of weeks against good teams and draw/lose narrowly (i thought we were good second half against Arsenal too) and then drop off again the weeks after against crap teams again. We must not let it happen. Play with the commitment and organisation that we did yesterday all season and we'll do pretty well and Gerrard won't have to worry about his job.

[supertom]

Superb. I went in hoping we'd just not get pummelled. I was terrified about our defensive organisation. The reason Arsenal won't win the league, is that the first half of our game with them, they should have scored 4-5. City would have, given that kind of space. We were much better second half of that game, carrying it through and improving further into this.

Defensively we looked good. Bailey tracked back to help the fullback. On the other side, it seemed like McGinn moved out whilst Ramsey slipped into an 8 again to defend. I like Ramsey further up. He did well and it just took a touch of pressure off him. When he came back slightly in the second half to start from deeper and drive at them, he and we improved.

We were just more organised all round.

Ashley Young I thought was fantastic. Probably my man of the match. I have an issue with playing Cash and Digne in the same side. When you play as narrow as we do and fullbacks supply the width, and both are very forward thinking, you end up exposed. We actually looked better under Gerrard with Targett, probably because Matty doesn't spend as much time in the opposition third than Digne (and cash is doing the same on the opposite). Young came in and naturally at his age is more conservative, less inclined to bomb on as much and subsequently, we weren't getting quite as exposed.

So going forward, I think we need to pick and choose games where you play Cash and Digne. It's less of an issue if we've got the defensive side of the midfield on point.

Now let's not be predictably Villa and take our foot off the pedal in the next game.

[rob_bridge]

Best result we have had in a long time. Best performance for a for a good while too.

Please can we have more.

[oldtimernow]

I’m staring to think they bought Joe off us purely to p*ss us off.

Done to nullify a potential threat ,see also Arsenal and Luiz

[Clampy]

Fair play to Gerrard. He could have panicked and threw on a couple of forwards but he stuck to the gameplan and just tweaked it a little. Well deserved point and a decent performance. It's just a shame the ref and that linesman were both absolutely apalling.

[Risso]

How are 'professional' refs allowed to be that fat and seemingly unfit? The ref was absolutely diabolical yesterday.

[Bad English]

Its quite remarkable to see the change in attitude due to one game.

Iv been saying, give Gerrard time..he is class, and look what happens, he pulls out a plum against a side who were going to annihilate us if you were to believe all the naysayers.

Hopefully some of the idiots might get off his back now and let him do the job he was paid to do.

Ah, you must be new to watching football.

[Smithy]

Fair play to Gerrard. He could have panicked and threw on a couple of forwards but he stuck to the gameplan and just tweaked it a little. Well deserved point and a decent performance. It's just a shame the ref and that linesman were both absolutely apalling.

I think that's precisely what he was planning to do just as we scored.  He said on Sky that his amusing reaction to the goal (jumping up wildly then immediately telling the bench to calm down) was because he was about to make a more attacking substitution and then didn't need to.

As for the 'offside' goal, it's a shame, but VAR is never going to help in those situations. Once the whistle goes, that's it. It's precisely why the refs and linesmen as encouraged to err on the side of the attackers to give the benefit of the doubt (knowing VAR will correct it).

I suspect the refs union will defend the on-field decision by saying the moment Coutinho was going away from goal and out of the box with the ball it became a 'new phase' of play, so blowing the whistle to pull it back for the offside was "legitimate" in the ref's eyes.  I don't know if he scores if everyone carries on for another second, but it would have been nice to find out.  He really needed it for confidence too, he looked well up for when he came on (having a good tustle with John Stones towards the end too), so a goal would have been great for him.