Lille vs Aston Villa post-match thread

[mrfuse]

I don't think Martinez did much wrong, really. Nothing that warranted a yellow card. It's football, it's emotional, he's a character. He makes the game better. He's a lead guitarist amongst a peer group of bass players and drummers.

The yellow card in normal play was a fucking terrible decision as well, I'm utterly convinced the ref got confused by how many times Emi was stood in open play with the ball at his feet waiting to be closed down and had it in his head that he'd been time wasting so was looking for the first possible chance to book him. I don't think he'd taken any longer ofver that goal kick than any other in the game.

There was even a hilarious camera shot of Lille fans waving the imaginary card when Emi had the ball in open play at his feet. As he said himself Why would he be time wasting when we wasn't winning the game?
The Lille keeper was doing exactly the same when they went ahead but nothing was done about that.

If you are going to book Emi for his antics in the shoot out then how many cards would you have to dish out for celebrations when players score in normal play, The shushing the crowd celebration is a weekly occurrence.

[Baldy]

I think, as others have said, that might be the hardest part of the whole competition for us. We made it harder than it needed to be by being absolutely way off the standard we set at Arsenal but we got away with it, thanks largely to Emi but with a big contribution from Bailey during the match who seemed to breath some life into us as an attacking force. I hope we step it up in the next matches though, I think playing something like our best it should be straightforward from now on.

From the outset and to date, our approach to this cup has been mind boggling!!

We have never performed to our best levels. Our players approach feels like 'if we win, we win, if we don't, so be it'.

Our bread and butter is the Premier League and that is clearly our priority. But, now that we have reached the semis I fully expect our focus and commitment to increase ten fold.

Especially as we are the sole representative left from the UK and our profile is likely to increase. Let's grab the cup and the marketing opportunity with both hands.

[Legion]

The reason Emi should take it down a notch or two is to avoid unnecessary suspensions.

I want him ignoring the crowd in situations like that and concentrating fully on his game. The best way to rile a hostile opponent is to not let them bother you

I want him doing whatever makes him feel like he’ll win us the match.

Same. He's ours and he's ace.

[Rigadon]

The puke inducing commentary, the TV camerawork, the shocking ref.  All made that win sweeter. 

We'll go on and win this cup now and we'll finish 4th in 4th league. 

[AV84]

Before the Ajax game (one of the other games must have gone to penalties?) I asked who you'd have take the penalties for us.

Don't think anyone had Cash, except Drummond, who clearly wasn't expecting any saves.

Luiz
Pau
SJM
Digne
Bailey

Zaniolo
Rogers
Irogbunam
Duran
O'Reilly

Luiz
Tielemans
Watkins
Digne
Zaniolo
Diaby
Torres
Cash
Duran
Lenglet
Martinez

Luiz
Watkins
McGinn
Torres
Digne

Tielemans after 120 minutes football? He wouldn't finish the walk from the half way line.

  😄

[SamTheMouse]

Every time the crowd started yowking about something, the ref was swayed by it. Martinez didn't really do much for either yellow. One of the weakest officials I've ever seen.

[LeeS]

As a hedge on the 4th/5th place thing I had an acca with all the English teams to go out. Cashed out on 85mins. Made what happened next even sweeter. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of telling the missus how much I'd won and now she wants a part of it.

[LeeS]

As it’s the morning after there is now some perspective on the game. First off, why were we so flat? Was it the risk and worry about suspensions or just tiredness.

The second point is, despite being so bad we had the two best chances to win the game, in extra time.

Aa final point, the players will have learned so much from this to take forward into next year’s European competition, whatever that might be.

We are running on fumes, Sunday will have taken a lot out of them.
Just hope we can muster enough energy for Bournemouth on Sunday.
Another massive game.

Agree, the Arsenal game will have taken a lot of energy out of the players. The FA should adopt a free weekend before this stage of tournaments like the french did. Lille clearly looked fresher than we did from the extra days off.

This isn't actually possible. A free weekend now means an extra game somewhere else. If you keep progressing then the extra games just pile up. When would we play them? Also, the French league play 4 fewer games per season so it is easier for them. And they ditched their equivalent of the League Cup in 2020 - which frees up a whole load more games. 

[Proposition Joe]

I didn't watch any of the penalties, I just couldn't.

Same, it was Tranmere all over again.

Come on, if there's one thing Villa have historically been good at it's penalty shootouts. Whenever a tie goes to penalties, that's it, we've got it in the bag.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

A cracking trip to Lille! Lovely city and friendly people. They were well supported from all 4 sides of their ground. The Villa team and fans were subdued in the main until Cash’s goal and then the away end came to life until long after the pen shootout! Emery’s way of setting the team up to be patient works generally and did so last night despite the frustration of some. Emi does what Emi does and it works. Lille’s fans were giving him shit all night, so what if he puts his finger to his lips. If they’re big enough to dish it out, they should be big enough to take some also. The ref was piss poor, but there are so few good ones out there. Onto the semis. UTV! Oh What a Night!

[Richard E]

Why is Martinez shushing the home supporters a yellow card but it’s unremarkable that a home player gees those fans up to make more noise? Both should obviously be allowed.

[AV84]

Ditching the League Cup isn't a terrible idea. Although it doesn't usually add that many games for us, but I suppose there's weeks where league  games have to be caught up on, so it congests things even if you're not in it.

Taking the Prem sides out of it and leaving it for Championship and below is an idea though. Winner gets into qualifying rounds of Europa or Conference maybe.

[eamonn]

These French commentators are an excitable pair.
https://twitter.com/Sung_JiWoo_S/status/1781087782330347582?t=sAirQm4jRYL95ibCm2ky6Q&s=19

I have bad French, hope Bad English cam translate and that he's not public enemy number one in school today.

[AV82EC]

I envisaged BE strutting into his school like some WWE wrestler giving it large this morning.

[Clampy]

I didn't watch any of the penalties, I just couldn't.

Same, it was Tranmere all over again.

Come on, if there's one thing Villa have historically been good at it's penalty shootouts. Whenever a tie goes to penalties, that's it, we've got it in the bag.

I didnt watch the ones against Sandwell in the play offs either or the ones against Bolton at Wembley so you have me to thank for being a big girls blouse.