Aston Villa v Leicester City Post Match Thread

[hipkiss92]

I think to be truly comfortable playing it out from the back you have to be a lot less one footed than Mings is, and just generally miles more comfortable on the ball.

Is he any more one footed than Konsa? As often suggested, just stands out as its his left

[Risso]

I think to be truly comfortable playing it out from the back you have to be a lot less one footed than Mings is, and just generally miles more comfortable on the ball.

Is he any more one footed than Konsa? As often suggested, just stands out as its his left

Dunno. I'd replace the pair of them to be honest.

[BC54 VFC]

Maybe giving up in the January transfer window wasn’t such a good idea.

Dunno about you, but I didn't even really bother with the result today - was too busy celebrating the amortisation win on Ings' contract.

Very good! 

Yep, I like self-depreciating humour as well.

Lol - you must be in finance!

[Axl Rose]

I think to be truly comfortable playing it out from the back you have to be a lot less one footed than Mings is, and just generally miles more comfortable on the ball.

Is he any more one footed than Konsa? As often suggested, just stands out as its his left

Dunno. I'd replace the pair of them to be honest.

Those pair have gone on for far too long. They have the odd good game, which just isn't enough to be challenging at the top end of the table.
I really hope Carlos comes back as the player we need, and someone is bought to go alongside him.

[tomd2103]

I think to be truly comfortable playing it out from the back you have to be a lot less one footed than Mings is, and just generally miles more comfortable on the ball.

The problem hasn’t been when the defenders split and receive the ball on the edges of the box.  To be fair to Konsa and Mings, they do it OK and even if they were to make a mistake, it isn’t in the danger area. 

Playing a ball out to a central midfielder with his back to play, right in front of goal and on the edge of or inside our own box is very risky unless they are in acres of space.  It has cost us a few goals under Unai Emery already.

That's not to criticise Unai Emery and I understand what he is trying to implement.  It's the decision making of the players that lets us down too many times.

[Pat McMahon]

We beat ourselves today with those defensive mistakes. I get we are learning to play out from the back but I think the players have to assess the situation in front of them and not slavishly follow a plan. Leicester were very sharp today and laid traps for us and we were happy to oblige them. 3 of the goals were handed to them.

Once again the playing across the back is very slow and turgid. I don’t mind us sucking the opposition in to break their press but there were several occasions when Mings and Konsa each had 4-5 seconds with the ball at feet waiting for inspiration. Mings tends to stand out more than Konsa as the latter tends to pass the buck whereas Mings will eventually take responsibility and carry the ball as he did with one notable surge in the 2nd half.

Today was a lost opportunity to jump up into the top half of the table but I think this type of inconsistency is why we are in our current position. I trust Emery to develop the players and improve the squad in the summer.

[Brazilian Villain]

Maybe giving up in the January transfer window wasn’t such a good idea.

Dunno about you, but I didn't even really bother with the result today - was too busy celebrating the amortisation win on Ings' contract.

Very good! 

Yep, I like self-depreciating humour as well.

Lol - you must be in finance!

'Fraid so although in Ireland we also studied accounting in school from the age of 12 to 18. In those days we simply knew it as depreciation and so I've always viewed amortisation as a bit of an Americanism even though there are technical differences between the two terms.

[Cropley10]

Emery has been in long enough to know what our shortfalls are. Emi was at fault for their first with a suicidal pass inside our own box! (Not for the first time this season!). That goal changed the game, as we were looking like getting a 2nd.
We just haven't got good enough players in defence to play out all the time.
Mings' long ball game is rubbish and Emi has proven time and time again that he is willing to take silly risks with the ball.
That was a home win all day long, just tossed in the bin!
We played well going forward yes, but the errors killed us.
Watkins took his chance well and runs all day, but he will never be a top class finisher.
Unai sees the same games we do and we should keep the faith that he will sort things out.

[Hillbilly]

The galling thing is we lost to a team with Harry Soutar in defence. He’s a mix of Scottish, Aussie, Championship donkey and Maguire, none of which are positives for defender.

[Jimsta]

To me that was typical villa. Soon when we can really push up the league and make a challenge we put in a performance like this. Get our hopes up to crush them in no time.
With Man City and Arsenal we be hovering around 11th for a good time now. Opportunity is lost.

[Scott Nielsen]

Watching it back, we still did create a lot of good chances in the second half. Bailey had to score his one, brilliant play from Buendia. Cracking delivery from Coutinho that nearly resulted in another own goal. Likes of Moreno and Coutinho had other decent chances. Watkins not sharp enough when slipped through by Coutinho another time. Our attacking play today was far better than it was against the likes of Southampton, Leeds or Wolves.

I agree with this but maybe out attacking prowess was the cause of our defensive disintegration. Leicester scored four away from home but, frankly, they could have had one or two or more, we were that bad defensively.

[Scott Nielsen]

Today is really frustrating - because somehow despite having an inept manager for half the season so far - we’re still in with a small shout for Europe - but too many days like today and that will be a pipe dream and another lost season.

Europe is demonstrably not on the agenda. The club has made that clear with the January window and the comments from Emery how avoiding relegation is the priority. Obviously I assume the latter is an attempt at re-setting expectations but it sets the tone nonetheless.

Time will tell if the club has made the right decision with this approach.

[Percy McCarthy]

No, we won the toss again and decided to kick towards the Holte again. This is something that really needs to stop!!

Why?

We always come out firing when we do that, today, Leeds, Brentford and Man. United all leading within 10 minutes so I actually think it's a really good tactic

Yes, I mentioned those latter 3 games in the match thread just before we scored.

[LeonW]

Today is really frustrating - because somehow despite having an inept manager for half the season so far - we’re still in with a small shout for Europe - but too many days like today and that will be a pipe dream and another lost season.

Europe is demonstrably not on the agenda. The club has made that clear with the January window and the comments from Emery how avoiding relegation is the priority. Obviously I assume the latter is an attempt at re-setting expectations but it sets the tone nonetheless.

Time will tell if the club has made the right decision with this approach.

I would say the approach of the hierarchy is about being shrewd ‘at the right moments’ with recruiting certain players but not significantly progressing things in the short term to accelerate progress. Which always runs the risk of losing the best players who won’t wait until everything is in place. I do sometimes wonder whether the Joe camp actually correctly gauged this.

Did they make a mistake in the window just gone? I would say yes, in the sense that there was an opportunity which we didn’t take advantage off whilst there was flux. The rest of the world is-rightly or wrongly- feeder clubs to the money of the premier league, so there are markets to exploit and in the case of La Liga -where Emery has sound knowledge- players, all of whom have buy out clauses . Yet we’ve been focused on counting pennies with the sale of Ings and moving players off the wage bill until the summer and how much that might save us. When did we get to the stage of counting every bean again if we’re serious about kicking on? I said it recently and I’ll say it again, I’m getting Doug vibes with alot of things recently.

[RamboandBruno]

Criticising Watkins for his performance today is ridiculous. Sure he missed his easiest chance.

The bold bit is why the criticism is justified.

Every forward misses chances. Watching back the highlights here, Bailey's miss at start of second half was arguably worse. Watkins had a very good game today.

I agree with this, Watkins has 3 in 2 games, the first half chance was a bad miss, the second chance with the through ball from Coutinho, wasnt easy and i dont think it was a bad effort from him. Crazy someone asking why cant he score them all, who does, 100 million pound forwards perhaps. Watkins played well and is on good form.