Wolves - 1 Aston Villa - 0 Custard Cup Final Post Match Critique

[pablo_picasso]

Ah Villa, there you are... But I still love you. You little rascal...

Tbf, the past few games are more about not having anybody to come in & cover for our first teamer's when the games piled up & jadedness kicked in. Yes, everybody has had the same amount of games in a row, but Im not sure of any squad in the Prem that is as small as ours. Its not an excuse, its just reality. Which means that we aren't good enough to qualify for Europe this year.

There is no shame in that considering our phenomenal run of form since Emery arrived. The turnaround from the garbage under that fraud Gerrard has been utterly ridiculous. In a good way. But the stench of Gerrards shiteness is so great, that is has all but ended our chances of getting into one of the good European slots three quarters of a season after he had been fired for incompetence.

Next year will be the time to really give it a go. If we bring in some real quality in the summer in key areas, along with bulking up the squad, it will be interesting to see where Emery can take us. Its just unfortunate that he couldn't take us there this year, simply because Gerrard was so shit at his job.

Even with todays loss & the realisation that Europe is probably a bridge too far, I am so excited about the future. We have a great new crest. We have Emery. We have Barcas Sporting Director (or whatever his title is) coming in. We have our owners & their ridiculous wealth. We have a window coming up that should be a big rebuild that we can slightly ignore FFP considering how little we have spent in recent windows. And we have a solid core of players that are decent, along with a few very bright youngsters simmering in the loan pot.

We are cooking up something that could be quite special over the course of the next few years...

[curiousorange]

Frustrating, we didn’t deserve to lose that. Missing the quality in attack - Mings should score. Watkins should score the header.

Should've. Could've. Ought to 've.

Didn't.

Should have put this underneath the new badge.

[Goldenballs]

If we don't finish in Europe it won't be because we've bottled it or the players are not good enough, it'll be because Gerrard was so shit. If we'd got the same amount of points under Emery but had a few of the poorer results mixed in with the good ones, and looked 'there or thereabouts' instead of charging up the table, it wouldn't be as disappointing to not make Europe.

Emery from the start of this season and we'd be in Europe no problem. Once Ollie's goal run stopped we were always going to struggle. Next is Luiz with 5.

[Mister E]

By far the better side but failed to take our chances.
Good to see Carlos and Kamara back.
Bailey is indeed a dud, and Buendia is not clinical enough (promises so much but final decision-making often leaves a lot to be desired).

[eamonn]

Sounds like the game was as much of a damp squib as my date was. Nice enough girl but I didn't feel butterflies. (For those awaiting an update)

[Skerra]

I thought, like last week, that we could have played all day and still not scored. I love the positivity about next season but, lest we forget, this is Villa we are talking about. I’m reserving judgment on that until I see how we start off next season.

[Skerra]

Eamonn, please tell us more as I’m sure it’ll be more impressive than our display today.

[Goldenballs]

Sounds like the game was as much of a damp squib as my date was. Nice enough girl but I didn't feel butterflies. (For those awaiting an update)

Did you feel anything else though?

[Meanwood Villa]

I think we've got the best manager we can have for the job in hand but there's the nagging fear that we won't get as close again next season. We have to take these opportunities when they (rarely) present themselves but we never seem to.

I'll be fine by 3 pm next Sat but distinctly dischuffed tonight.

[Meanwood Villa]

Sounds like the game was as much of a damp squib as my date was. Nice enough girl but I didn't feel butterflies. (For those awaiting an update)

You don't have to leave her hanging on the off chance of free accommodation in Slovakia at least

[john2710]

Emery has squeezed every ounce out of the players over the past 6 months. A few key players have been injured at an important time & others are running out of steam. If someone in October had said we'd be 8th, we would have been delighted.

We've had plenty of games where we've managed a win when we didn't really deserve it. In those games we were ruthless in front of goal, today we weren't.

Special mention to Stuart Atwell for a piss poor,  weak performance. I'd be surprised if we saw 60 minutes of actual football today.

[Nunkin1965]

Shame we couldn't grab a point but a rocking  VP next week and a 2-0 win and Europe is back on!

[Villafirst]

Lack of quality rotations in the squad is catching up. Crazy that we've only really had one senior striker since January - thank God Ollie has managed to stay fit! Still, I trust UE will rectify the situation for next season with some quality additions. Just annoying to lose to basically a crap Wolves outfit. 

[dicedlam]

I think we would still not of scored even if we were still playing now. We just ran out of ideas.

It has been a brilliant season and a minor miracle to be where we are, but I can see it just petering out over the next few games without gaining a European spot.

I think quite a few of our players will only be squad fillers next season.
We need upgrades on Bailey, Traore, Buendia and Ramsey, possibly Watkins too. There is just no consistency with any of them.

Hopefully, both Unai and Mateu can identify what we need for next season and we make a major push for Europe, even possibly a Champions League spot.

[PaulWinch again]

I knew this would be tough today. We’ve been off the boil going forward in the last 3 games. It’s a shame, but illustrates the squad depth isn’t there. We’ve run out of steam.