Aston Villa v Olympiacos - Post-Match Thread

[London Villan]

One thing I haven't seen being mentioned, but Villa Park was loud last night - particularly pre-kick off.

[Demitri_C]

One thing I haven't seen being mentioned, but Villa Park was loud last night - particularly pre-kick off.

I might be biased but one of the best away fans too.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Only real positive is away goals is no longer a thing. If that were the case I think we’d be finished, as it is we have a small chance if we turn up and perform.

I think the pressure got to us a bit, and hopefully Olympiacos experience something similar at home.

I still believe being completely outnumbered in midfield was the key factor. That and spending the first 20 odd minutes playing about at the back. The two combined wasn't Unai's finest hour.

[Paul.S]

Only real positive is away goals is no longer a thing. If that were the case I think we’d be finished, as it is we have a small chance if we turn up and perform.

I think the pressure got to us a bit, and hopefully Olympiacos experience something similar at home.

I still believe being completely outnumbered in midfield was the key factor. That and spending the first 20 odd minutes playing about at the back. The two combined wasn't Unai's finest hour.

I don’t think we’d have lost this if Tielemans was
fit as we’d have had that extra body in the centre of midfield. I’d have to agree that we were outnumbered but with the injuries we had I don’t think there was much choice.
I was surprised we still passed it out so much due to this and thought a Newcastle type tactic from last season would’ve been better suited to what we had available.

[VillaTim]

One thing I haven't seen being mentioned, but Villa Park was loud last night - particularly pre-kick off.

It was mentioned quite a bit on TNT .

[Paul.S]

What last night proved was the quality we’ll need to bring in to compete in whatever competition we are in next season.
We haven’t really played well in Europe at all this season and the ease in how Olympiacos and Lille the round before carved us open is worrying.
I’m sure the club are working on this but it’ll need some real upgrades to allow us to compete.

Starting with 2/3 top notch full backs and a back up keeper that can step into Emi's boot's seamlessly.

I’d definitely put a number 2 high on the list
along with a right back. I thought Cash had a decent game and I’d like to keep Digne on the left. Kamara won’t be fit until after Christmas so the scouts have some job to do to try and find a replacement there.

[Ian.]

I know we won the penalty in the end last night because of the foul, but didn't the ref wave play on after the defender practictly caught it with both hands and his thighs right before the foul? I was screaming for hand ball.

My stream started buffering around this point, so I didn't see any replays. I even missed the penalty. It resumed and the ball was in play and the core was still 2-4.

There were two handballs and a foul, it was take your pick which one to award it for.

Did I see the ref wave play on though?

No, I think he pretty well awarded it straight away.

The ref did the cross arms action to signal no penalty for the hand balls then he blew up for penalty when Duran went over. We’ll never know if he or VAR would have awarded a penalty for the hand balls.

Ha! I thought so, I can go back to shouting fucking twat at him again!

This is the link on a refs blog covering the appointments and how they did. The ones who posted it thought it was soft for the foul from the angles but he definitely indicated no for the handballs.

https://streamin.me/v/73ce809f#google_vignette

He was completely useless. I thought at the time, how can that not be handball afte calling out the one against Dougie.

Even the goal ruled out against us could easily have been given as it’s didn’t really interfere. Another night that’s a goal. The same with their first goal. I don’t think their striker would have had too many complaints if ruled out for offside. Then the decision to pull back play as mentioned earlier by Nick Harper when Bailey was through you just felt the ref was completely one sided.

What a crazy game it was.

[Nii Lamptey]

One thing I haven't seen being mentioned, but Villa Park was loud last night - particularly pre-kick off.

It was mentioned quite a bit on TNT .

I thought so too. By far the most that the Trinity has joined in with the singing in recent times. Shame about their 3rd and 4th goals as that killed it stone dead.

*And no, it's not meant as a 'better fan than you' contest, but again, the amount of people drifting out post 80 mins when the team needed us most, in a European semi-final was embarrassing. Tonnes rock up to post videos of flares outside the trinity pre-match, but then fuck off with 15 minutes of the game still to go, where ANY goal could prove critical.
 

[The Edge]

I know we won the penalty in the end last night because of the foul, but didn't the ref wave play on after the defender practictly caught it with both hands and his thighs right before the foul? I was screaming for hand ball.

My stream started buffering around this point, so I didn't see any replays. I even missed the penalty. It resumed and the ball was in play and the core was still 2-4.

There were two handballs and a foul, it was take your pick which one to award it for.

Did I see the ref wave play on though?

No, I think he pretty well awarded it straight away.

The ref did the cross arms action to signal no penalty for the hand balls then he blew up for penalty when Duran went over. We’ll never know if he or VAR would have awarded a penalty for the hand balls.

Ha! I thought so, I can go back to shouting fucking twat at him again!

This is the link on a refs blog covering the appointments and how they did. The ones who posted it thought it was soft for the foul from the angles but he definitely indicated no for the handballs.

https://streamin.me/v/73ce809f#google_vignette

He was completely useless. I thought at the time, how can that not be handball afte calling out the one against Dougie.

Even the goal ruled out against us could easily have been given as it’s didn’t really interfere. Another night that’s a goal. The same with their first goal. I don’t think their striker would have had too many complaints if ruled out for offside. Then the decision to pull back play as mentioned earlier by Nick Harper when Bailey was through you just felt the ref was completely one sided.

What a crazy game it was.

And the one when Cash was bombing down the right wing and he brought the game back to give us a run of the mill foul just outside our own area. That's just shocking. I'll probably get pelters for this but I do feel like the whole of Europe hates the PL because of our financial clout compared to them. And how popular would it be to have a team from Athens in the final in Athens? I said way back in this thread that we have got to batter these good and proper because we will not be getting any favours.

[Mister E]

I still believe being completely outnumbered in midfield was the key factor. That and spending the first 20 odd minutes playing about at the back. The two combined wasn't Unai's finest hour.

Totally. The starting line-up - with 2 midfielders - seemed a bit crazy to me. Playing Tim would have allowed McGinn and Luiz to be 2-3 metres further up  the pitch and braking their play down a bit and also picking the 2nd ball (which we were poor at last night).
And the lack of intensity from the off meant we were chasing the game.

[Ian.]

I still believe being completely outnumbered in midfield was the key factor. That and spending the first 20 odd minutes playing about at the back. The two combined wasn't Unai's finest hour.

Totally. The starting line-up - with 2 midfielders - seemed a bit crazy to me. Playing Tim would have allowed McGinn and Luiz to be 2-3 metres further up  the pitch and braking their play down a bit and also picking the 2nd ball (which we were poor at last night).
And the lack of intensity from the off meant we were chasing the game.

Tim’s not that player though. I’m sure his strengths are more where Dougie would be playing in Kamara is fit.

[London Villan]

Makes it even stranger that dendonkar was let go.

[walsall villain]

Makes it even stranger that dendonkar was let go.

I think Emery wants that player to be really comfortable on the ball and be pivotal in playing from the back, neither big Tim or Dendonkar seem up to it. Only having two available midfielders is killing us though.

[Ian.]

Tim looks comfortable on the ball, he’s just not a number six. Dendonker wasn’t good enough. I guess Emery hoped McGinn, Dougie or Tileman’s would cope for a game or two if needed and Kamara sustaining that injury was just terrible luck.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I still believe being completely outnumbered in midfield was the key factor. That and spending the first 20 odd minutes playing about at the back. The two combined wasn't Unai's finest hour.

Totally. The starting line-up - with 2 midfielders - seemed a bit crazy to me. Playing Tim would have allowed McGinn and Luiz to be 2-3 metres further up  the pitch and braking their play down a bit and also picking the 2nd ball (which we were poor at last night).
And the lack of intensity from the off meant we were chasing the game.

Tim’s not that player though. I’m sure his strengths are more where Dougie would be playing in Kamara is fit.

From what we've seen on his season long loan at QPR, he can play both though the DCM position looked to be his preferred. We just need him to keep it simple, break up play, maybe take a few strides forward and pass it to the feet of a more talented attacking player.