Aston Villa v Olympiacos - Post-Match Thread

[paul_e]

How on Earth though do you legislate for the amount of injuries we’ve had? Look at our bench tonight…..We don’t have the luxury of a big squad. To be where we are is incredible even though things have been incredibly disappointing of late. During the match threads feelings are magnified and that’s why things seem so bad.

Spot on.

The season overall has been fantastic, but whilst injuries are a factor they are not an excuse for tonight’s performance. Or to put it another way, would any of the Olympiacos players get in front of the Villa starting 11 tonight? Maybe I’m ill informed but I don’t think so. The season has been brilliant, but injuries or not tonight was dreadful.

Isn’t it just the season taking its toll? Injuries, suspensions and generally running out of steam. Luck not quite on our side too? It’s happening at Liverpool who have far more resources than us.

At times tonight going forward we looked excellent but whenever they attacked we looked vulnerable and very disjointed and lacking in confidence, which sums up what I said above.

Agree mate, that speed of reaction, incisive running, anticipation and spontaneity is not there.

Reaction times and concentration levels are normally the first 2 things to go when fatigue kicks in, the sharpness drops out everything you do, passes get sloppy, following runs takes half a second longer and you start snatching at chances, we're showing every one of the signs you'd expect. The only criticism I can see that has an element of fairness to it is that maybe we should have used some of the kids a little more freely over the last few months and managed the load on a few keys players better but that's hindsight and there's no guarantee it wouldn't have cost us games/points.

[astonvilla82]

How the f you can blame Olsen for the defeat,one was a penalty and the other a deflection,

[Forge10]

Its not just tonight though. We fell apart 2nd half against chelsea and almost lost the game.

Injuries are nit helping we know that but somwtimes you have to give some youngsters a chance to breed some energy. He is rarely used kesler or kellyman for example.

Honestly thwy should be embarrassed by that performance.  They masisveky disgraced themselves tonight ans the fans expected better

Nobody disgraced themselves, please stop talking utter shite.

Ok you accept mediocre results like this if thats what you prefer and not to win anything  but if you think that peffor.ance ronight was acceptable your expectations are low.

Lose a game but bloody die for the shirt. So none of that. We collapsed just like we did saturday. So dont see how i am talking shit wh i just want to see a bit of passion from the players and we have seen veey little of that.

As i said before if fatigue is a issue why isnt unai using playees like kesler and kellyman.more ?

So what’s your assessment of the season so far?

[PeterWithesShin]

I'd fancy it's a lot less physically and mentally demanding playing a season in Greece than it is in the PL.

No doubt, but on the flipside PL teams have the resources to have better players.

It doesn't matter if you're Messi or Dave from the Dog n Duck. When fatigue kicks in there's no easy fix while the season is ongoing.

[Risso]

How the f you can blame Olsen for the defeat,one was a penalty and the other a deflection,

The defeat wasn't his fault, although he played a part in it. He should have saved the deflected goal as the deflection actually took it straight at him. He should have saved the second one too.

[rougegorge]

As has been said, I think if we'd just been one down after tonight, we would have had a reasonable chance. They have shipped plenty of goals in Europe this season.

Luiz has been poor for a while, and tonight summed up his recent form, which was very costly.

When we played at pace, they struggled, but they were happy with our slower deliberate moves.

The referee wasn't great. Easy to say after losing, but why do we get an Italian referee when the other semi features an Italian team?

[ChicagoLion]

How on Earth though do you legislate for the amount of injuries we’ve had? Look at our bench tonight…..We don’t have the luxury of a big squad. To be where we are is incredible even though things have been incredibly disappointing of late. During the match threads feelings are magnified and that’s why things seem so bad.

Spot on.

The season overall has been fantastic, but whilst injuries are a factor they are not an excuse for tonight’s performance. Or to put it another way, would any of the Olympiacos players get in front of the Villa starting 11 tonight? Maybe I’m ill informed but I don’t think so. The season has been brilliant, but injuries or not tonight was dreadful.

Isn’t it just the season taking its toll? Injuries, suspensions and generally running out of steam. Luck not quite on our side too? It’s happening at Liverpool who have far more resources than us.

At times tonight going forward we looked excellent but whenever they attacked we looked vulnerable and very disjointed and lacking in confidence, which sums up what I said above.

If that is the case we may as well not turn up next week, because it won’t get easier. I just think it’s a bit of an easy out to say it’s down to injuries, resources etc. I don’t doubt it’s an influencing factor, and I’ve no idea how many games Olympiacos have played but I imagine it’s plenty. The team we had out tonight should have been much better, but they underperformed. They have a chance to fix it, but it was dreadful tonight and that team should have coped better.

Yes they under performed because they are tired, probably a few carrying injuries because unless you haven’t noticed we have lots of injured players and not much squad depth. So we are having to keep putting the same players out based on who is available.

[Somniloquism]

I'd fancy it's a lot less physically and mentally demanding playing a season in Greece than it is in the PL.

They play 26 games for the "regular" season, then they split the table (top 6, bottom and those halves have a mini league with points from that  added to the full table. So 36 games in total but having to play the top teams four times.

[ChicagoLion]

How on Earth though do you legislate for the amount of injuries we’ve had? Look at our bench tonight…..We don’t have the luxury of a big squad. To be where we are is incredible even though things have been incredibly disappointing of late. During the match threads feelings are magnified and that’s why things seem so bad.

Spot on.

The season overall has been fantastic, but whilst injuries are a factor they are not an excuse for tonight’s performance. Or to put it another way, would any of the Olympiacos players get in front of the Villa starting 11 tonight? Maybe I’m ill informed but I don’t think so. The season has been brilliant, but injuries or not tonight was dreadful.

Isn’t it just the season taking its toll? Injuries, suspensions and generally running out of steam. Luck not quite on our side too? It’s happening at Liverpool who have far more resources than us.

At times tonight going forward we looked excellent but whenever they attacked we looked vulnerable and very disjointed and lacking in confidence, which sums up what I said above.

Agree mate, that speed of reaction, incisive running, anticipation and spontaneity is not there.

Reaction times and concentration levels are normally the first 2 things to go when fatigue kicks in, the sharpness drops out everything you do, passes get sloppy, following runs takes half a second longer and you start snatching at chances, we're showing every one of the signs you'd expect. The only criticism I can see that has an element of fairness to it is that maybe we should have used some of the kids a little more freely over the last few months and managed the load on a few keys players better but that's hindsight and there's no guarantee it wouldn't have cost us games/points.

Sanity at last.

[Villan82]

How on Earth though do you legislate for the amount of injuries we’ve had? Look at our bench tonight…..We don’t have the luxury of a big squad. To be where we are is incredible even though things have been incredibly disappointing of late. During the match threads feelings are magnified and that’s why things seem so bad.

Spot on.

The season overall has been fantastic, but whilst injuries are a factor they are not an excuse for tonight’s performance. Or to put it another way, would any of the Olympiacos players get in front of the Villa starting 11 tonight? Maybe I’m ill informed but I don’t think so. The season has been brilliant, but injuries or not tonight was dreadful.

But the injuries mean you are putting the burden on fewer players, it wasn’t injuries tonight but it was fatigue. I do not understand why people can not see that.

They don't see it because they want to slate the players/manager instead. He didn't pick Pau? it has to be because he wants to throw the tie, it couldn't possibly because there is a fitness issue.

[Footy-Vill]

Positives for sure where the 2 goals scored.
Watkins and Diaby finishing was superb!
Seemed a bit over run in midfield areas in transition however another day Villa score several more.
Prayers and thoughts to the supporter who was taken to hospital I hope that they will be ok.
Does anyone have any info or knowledge on this?
I only heard the reports at halt time on TNT sports and they spoke of a cardiac arrest.
God bless them for their health.
That's the most important thing tonight the welfare of supporter

[astonvilla82]

How the f you can blame Olsen for the defeat,one was a penalty and the other a deflection,

The defeat wasn't his fault, although he played a part in it. He should have saved the deflected goal as the deflection actually took it straight at him. He should have saved the second one too.

Couldn't see the actual deflection and probably won't for another few years, thanks anyway

[PaulWinch again]

I’ll bow to the greater wisdom here, but if that is the case then there’s little sense in turning up for the rest of the games isn’t there? The players who might come back have plenty of games too so they’ll be tired. Like I said, I’m sure it’s a factor, but it doesn’t excuse how bad we were tonight.

[Risso]

Positives for sure where the 2 goals scored.
Watkins and Diaby finishing was superb!
Seemed a bit over run in midfield areas in transition however another day Villa score several more.
Prayers and thoughts to the supporter who was taken to hospital I hope that they will be ok.
Does anyone have any info or knowledge on this.
God bless them.
That's the most important thing tonight the welfare of supporter

Medical attention will almost certainly be more useful than prayers.

[Nii Lamptey]

Electric atmosphere until their 3rd/4th/Dougie shitting the bed.
Crowd 10/10
Players 4/10 - Only ones who come out with any credit are Cash, Watkins, Bailey and Diaby.

IMO, whether we get through or not depends on one thing. If it’s Tielemans alongside McGinn, we go through. If it’s Dougie, NOT A CHANCE.