Aston Villa vs Stevenage Humiliation Post-Mortem

[Nunkin1965]

The only reasoning behind it is that we have a match on Friday night. Even so, play your best 11 and try to get the game done asap. But no. Piss around with the ball slowly going nowhere is what we did for the most part. Where’s the invention, ability to get beyond players from Division 4?

I found it surprising that Martinez didn't start.
I kind of get all the others but why have your no.1 keeper sitting around doing nothing in the cold when he could have been safely in goal probably standing around doing nothing in the cold. Just like Man U away. If he'd played I think we'd have won.

[Nunkin1965]

We've had 11 managers since we last won an FA Cup... Tie. Never mind the fucking trophy.

Apologies if I'm missing a joke but I count six even if you include Eric Black (which I don't normally)

Reverse order..
Emery
Danks
Gerrard
Smith
MacDonald
Bruce
Clarke
Di Matteo
Black
Garde
MacDonald
Sherwood

Wow!
What a stat that is.

[john e]

We don’t take it seriously, not just Emery any manager we’ve had down the years
Even those like Smith got us to finals by default a lot of the times in the early rounds,
Started taking a bit more seriously when we got near

We’ve played the same sort of side against Stevenage and against Manchester United, whether it’s a top side or a bottom side, the selection is the same and it’s one that says I think these are capable of winning the game, but not the most capable ,
that’s where we are. That’s what we do. Emery don’t care about the FA Cup or league cup

I like Emery, I’ve got no problem with him being our manager but he’s not sitting at home tonight Crying about going out the FA Cup, he won’t be that bothered
I know he’s a cup specialist in other countries where cups are not that important, and I don’t imagine he was selecting weaker sides in the Europa cup
Unfortunately, he has a 100% record with us

Year after fucking year this happens, I just want a manager that will go out to win the cup and not fuck about

[RamboandBruno]

I don't blame Emery for today at all, as the only way he's going to get to know what he's working with is by seeing them play. He will have learnt an awful lot today in that defeat.

How many times does he need to see Olsen exactly? He picked a bad team, and seemingly couldn't organise or motivate them properly to see off a 4th division side.

Other than Chambers, Benderak and Sanson, those players playing today have been getting regular game time under Emery and before him. There have been cup games in recent seasons where we’ve changed 8/9/10 players, this wasn’t one of them. I don’t think the selection was the problem, it was the players.

Augustinsson's played 80 minutes all season. Dendoncker's got 30 minutes of first team action spread over the last 4 league games. Coutinho hasn't played for more than an hour since the middle of October. The least said about Olsen the better.

Ok fair enough referencing the minutes played, but Coutinho played a half against Wolves and has been getting increased game time since the post WC re start, Donk was a regular until Emery and played at the WC. I agree Olsen shite, but he has played 3 out of the last 4. None of them came to the game cold imo.

[tomd2103]

So who should have played that makes a significant difference? Emi Martinez sure. But if as a club we are at the end of the game only 1-0 up against Stevenage that’s not a keeper issue. How about Ollie Watkins? Hardly known for his scoring or individual brilliance. The midfield created nothing for Ings so how would Watkins have done better. Kamara is DM. Did we really need a DM today? Do Digne, Mings and Konsa make a huge difference had they played? McGinn was hurt so that’s moot. I don’t see why this team today couldn’t win this game. If we’d played a better Championship side or PL then maybe we needed closer to the first XI. But we had more than enough to win the game. And as much as the keeper pissed me off at the end it wasn’t all down to him. We had 60%+ possession and did pretty much fuck all with it. That’s why we lost more than the ultimate ineptitude of the keeper.

Yep, that's how I see it really.  Never felt that Stevenage threatened really and that we had some control on the game, but we were just so lethargic and went through the motions when we should have been upping the pace to finish the tie off.  The self inflicted implosion in the final minutes was inexplicable and was poor beyond belief. 

Part of the problem is we've got a lot of similar types of players.  Buendia, Coutinho, Sanson - no real pace there and as a result we hadn't really got an outlet.  Bailey was positioned wide quite often, but is really struggling.

[Meanwood Villa]

We've had 11 managers since we last won an FA Cup... Tie. Never mind the fucking trophy.

Apologies if I'm missing a joke but I count six even if you include Eric Black (which I don't normally)

Reverse order..
Emery
Danks
Gerrard
Smith
MacDonald
Bruce
Clarke
Di Matteo
Black
Garde
MacDonald
Sherwood

Wow!
What a stat that is.

Garde won an FA cup tie and you can't seriously count Clarke. Macdonald and Danks.

[Risso]

I'm not sure what VAR were looking at to be honest. They seemed to slow down on the shirt pull outside the area so I thought they were going to give a free kick. I think it is probably fair to penalise the offending team in the way they did, it's like they've played advantage for first foul and given second one, but I doubt this is some sort of shift in policy and more that they're making it up as they go along.

Also, 'denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity' was doing a lot of heavy lifting there, seeing as we had two defenders in the area in attendance. It's crying over spilt milk and we got what we ultimtaely deserved, but we seem to have been done a bit there. But as it's Stevenage, even mentioning it is a bit embarrassing. I'd appeal the red card but then it might be successful meaning that Dendonkey is available again, so probably best left.

[pablo_picasso]

It's largely irrelevant now, but the ref's made a mistake hasn't he with the sending off and penalty?

The double jeopardy rule says that it's only a red card AND penalty if there was no genuine attempt to play the ball. The shirt pull was worthy of a red card, but that took place outside the area, so if that was the action that got him sent off, it shouldn't have been a penalty. If the penalty was for Dendoncker bringing him down in the area with his legs, well that was an attempt to win the ball. Still a penalty, but no red card.

I wonder whether there will be an appeal and overturned as I reckon you're right.  Clearly, the foul started outside the box, I can only presume the referee didn't want to give the shirt pull as a foul?

VAR made the decision & when they were focusing on the shirt pull they looked at it from when he started the shirt pull, which was clearly outside the box, & then focused on where it ended. Which was inside the box. I was under the impression that free kicks are given from where incidents start. Otherwise, one could easily start pulling the shirt from inside the box & let go when they run outside the box. Would that make it a free kick or a pen? But whether the VAR made a mistake or not, should not detract from how complete & utter shite we were.

I'm not sure what VAR were looking at to be honest. They seemed to slow down on the shirt pull outside the area so I thought they were going to give a free kick. I think it is probably fair to penalise the offending team in the way they did, it's like they've played advantage for first foul and given second one, but I doubt this is some sort of shift in policy and more that they're making it up as they go along.

They didn't look at the foul inside the box at all though. Would have been a pen, but then no red card. Especially as Chambers was right over too at the point. I have said it for a long time, VAR is just a way so they can manipulate results.

[PeterWithe]

To be fair the covering defenders were only in a position to maybe get a tackle in as Dendonker had slowed the fella down by pulling his shirt and then chopping him down.  No argument on the red but thought it would have been a free kick for the initial pull.

[Toronto Villa]

Every PL club rotated their first team in round 3. This notion that because we did we don’t take it seriously is nonsense.

[Risso]

Every PL club rotated their first team in round 3. This notion that because we did we don’t take it seriously is nonsense.

I don't care about any other club. We haven't won an FA Cup game in 7 years, and have nothing else to play for.

[Drummond]

We've had 11 managers since we last won an FA Cup... Tie. Never mind the fucking trophy.

Apologies if I'm missing a joke but I count six even if you include Eric Black (which I don't normally)

Reverse order..
Emery
Danks
Gerrard
Smith
MacDonald
Bruce
Clarke
Di Matteo
Black
Garde
MacDonald
Sherwood

Wow!
What a stat that is.

Garde won an FA cup tie and you can't seriously count Clarke. Macdonald and Danks.

They've all been in charge, as manager /Head Coach, so of course they count.

Garde won a replay with Wycombe, I'd forgotten that. But he lost the next so that makes 10. I'd argue a technicality but there's no point. We've been garbage in the Cup since the semi final against Liverpool.

[ChicagoLion]

Every PL club rotated their first team in round 3. This notion that because we did we don’t take it seriously is nonsense.

I don't care about any other club. We haven't won an FA Cup game in 7 years, and have nothing else to play for.

By not playing a stronger team we have pretty much ended the season.

[Legion]

In the long run, we're going to regret sending Archer out on loan this season.

[Risso]

I thought it was quite a funny stat Drummond, you crack on son.