Aston Villa v Everton Post-Match Thread

[Clark W Griswold]

I'm very definitely in the 'Olsens the worst keeper i've ever seen' camp. Nothing personal against him, he does his best but honestly he's a fucking disaster of a keeper. Why we didn't do something there in the summer is beyond me.

[AV84]

I don't think he's as bad as some make out, and he's done alright behind a proper defence this season, but I doubt we'll see much of Olsen again. If we don't make it out of our group in the conference, Martinez will play FA Cup, I reckon.

[Drummond]

The problem is that our defensive line needs rehearsing. When it's a makeshift line-up they just aren't drilled and aren't confident in doing what they need to do, especially so because they have Olsen behind them.

[Skerra]

I think our defensive problems are more than just Olsen. Having McGinn at left back and, playing the high line when we don’t have a lot of pace in defence doesn’t help much either. Villa are not the only ones though, I’ve already seen plenty of goals given away by other teams this season by trying to play out from the back with some disastrous passing.

[Brend'Watkins]

Only seen the 2nd half after we went 2 down and thought we weren't that bad but never looked like we could break them down to get the equaliser. In truth I was pretty nonplussed by the result as we are not strong enough squad wise to be competing on so many fronts especially with our injury situation as it is.

The ticket pricing for this has left a bad taste in the mouth and dented the feel good factor somewhat.  What were they thinking? Whether the reduced attendance had any impact on  the performance is an unknown but it couldn't have helped. 

We have 3 competitions now to focus on.  Play our best in form players to get the results required. 

[1 of 54,437]

Why did he take McGinn off at half time and not Tielemans??

[Axl Rose]

Why did he take McGinn off at half time and not Tielemans??

He doesn't look fully fit. In just guessing of course, but maybe he wants him fresher for Brighton. There's no way Tielemans will be starting on Saturday

I hope not

[Bully2345]

Unai has said there was a pre-game plan to share minutes but some players he had to play for longer because of the score (presumably Diaby and Luiz). The plan obviously wasn't for Tielemans, Dendoncker and Duran to stink the place out.

I also think we'd have been better off with the shape that was suggested on the teamsheet rather than the McGinn left back experiment. Dendoncker struggled in midfield with the press and may have been better off at centre back for 45 minutes, facing the play and maybe having more passing options. It would have allowed McGinn to have more of an impact on the game further forward too before coming off at half time for Digne and reverting the shape around a bit.

[simon ward 50]

Why not just play the kids if we are not going to take the competition seriously?

[AV84]

Why not just play the kids if we are not going to take the competition seriously?

We've none left.

And we were taking it seriously, everyone was just shit, as they have been every other game this season.

[brontebilly]

If you look at the Chelsea game, I think they had three one on ones with Martinez. Now the ones I remember were from the sides really, Sterling down our left, Chilwell and Jackson down our right between Konsa and Cash. Martinez makes it look easy as his starting position is so high he has already narrowed the angle when the forward takes his first touch. I'm not expecting a backup keeper to be in Martinez class but we should have a keeper comfortable of coming off his line like that and also able to use his feet. Without that the defenders last night are second guessing themselves.

It beggars belief really ahead of a 50+ game season that we continue to have Olsen, Chambers, Lenglet as backup for key positions who are completely unsuited to the game we want to play. Zaniolo and Tielemans again don't look a good fit either. Aaron Ramsey playing in a left sided role for Burnley against Man United would be a far better bet than Tielemans in covering for his brother and letting us retain some semblance of a shape.

[usav]

Why not just play the kids if we are not going to take the competition seriously?

I think people are confusing "not taking it seriously" with "the players played like shit".

[Paul.S]

I'm very definitely in the 'Olsens the worst keeper i've ever seen' camp. Nothing personal against him, he does his best but honestly he's a fucking disaster of a keeper. Why we didn't do something there in the summer is beyond me.

I’ve got to agree. He struggles with his passing and kicking and the defence have absolutely no confidence in him at all. It was chaos at times last night and I know we’ve not been that good defensively this season but he makes things worse.

[RamboandBruno]

I'm very definitely in the 'Olsens the worst keeper i've ever seen' camp. Nothing personal against him, he does his best but honestly he's a fucking disaster of a keeper. Why we didn't do something there in the summer is beyond me.

I’ve got to agree. He struggles with his passing and kicking and the defence have absolutely no confidence in him at all. It was chaos at times last night and I know we’ve not been that good defensively this season but he makes things worse.

I think Olsen is one of if not the worst keeper in my time. I also don’t think he was to blame last night. Poor kick from a really shit back pass for the first goal, but there was a couple of mins and a whole phase of play before the shot on goal.

I think there is conflation with last nights result and summer recruitment. Other than Digne, Watkins and Kamara and Martinez, we were largely playing our first team, taking into account injuries, which are more problematic in my view than the summer recruitment.

[chrisw1]

Unai has said there was a pre-game plan to share minutes but some players he had to play for longer because of the score (presumably Diaby and Luiz). The plan obviously wasn't for Tielemans, Dendoncker and Duran to stink the place out.

I also think we'd have been better off with the shape that was suggested on the teamsheet rather than the McGinn left back experiment. Dendoncker struggled in midfield with the press and may have been better off at centre back for 45 minutes, facing the play and maybe having more passing options. It would have allowed McGinn to have more of an impact on the game further forward too before coming off at half time for Digne and reverting the shape around a bit.

If you think Donk was shit in midfield, one sure-fire way of making him shitter would have been to play him out of position in defence against DCL and where he is expected to play out from the back against an energetic high press.

If you're going to bodge, you'd expect McGinn to be the more capable of the two in adapting.  An alternative would have been Chambers at right back and moving Cash over, but Chambers blew that idea with his performance in Warsaw.