Aston Villa v Wolves Post-Match Thread

[Monty]

Just watching the 2nd goal again , the finish from Konsa deserves more credit. Also goal 3, the pass from Maatsen to Rogers is perfect as is Rogers ball across, you seem them overhit so often

Agreed, even Dave called it a 'bundle', when you could just as easily have called it a brilliantly improvised outside of the foot volley. To quote Paddy, the truth, as ever, is somewhere in between...

One thing for sure though, the cross is insane, just insane. And you're right about Rogers - the lad's literally turning into Kaká.

[olaftab]

The issue was with John McGinn playing wide right and Konsa at right back. Konsa  is not an attacker in that position and he was worried about Carlos, McGinn was  not worried about Konsa and that left lot of space for Ait-Nouri to exploit. Furthermore McGinn does not provide  attacking threat when playing there all he does is  receive turn back and pass to a defender or midfielder, again Ait-Nouri was not under pressure. Introduction of Bailey changed that. Wolves rather than just concentrating on our left side attacks had to move to cover against Bailey. Ait-Nouri dropped back and so did rest of their defence and midfield. After that it was just a matter of time.....

[olaftab]

Unai must have given them the hairdryer treatment at half time

Yep, he didn't look remotely happy. A similar performance to Wolves at home last season. A fairly limp first half, followed by a much better second.

How could he look happy after he obviously spotted me sitting there holding my head in my hands.

[olaftab]

When I go past their ground the work on the 50,000 seater stadium and surrounding state of the art entertainment quarter seems to be proceeding exceedingly slowly. You’d hardly realise that it was happening at all.

Rise is LEVELS is a slow process.

[eye digress]

And you're right about Rogers - the lad's literally turning into Kaká.

Puts Unai’s pithy description of our first half performance into context.

[Sexual Ealing]

Just watching the 2nd goal again , the finish from Konsa deserves more credit. Also goal 3, the pass from Maatsen to Rogers is perfect as is Rogers ball across, you seem them overhit so often

Agreed, even Dave called it a 'bundle', when you could just as easily have called it a brilliantly improvised outside of the foot volley. To quote Paddy, the truth, as ever, is somewhere in between...

One thing for sure though, the cross is insane, just insane. And you're right about Rogers - the lad's literally turning into Kaká.

That's a libel right there!

[rooboy316]

When Bailey came on two Wovvles players were immediately drawn towards him to stop his diagonal incursions. This didn't give him a lot of space to run into, but it did help generate space in the middle.

Rogers was taking up some really intelligent positions at the edge of the box when Bailey was being double teamed. It felt like Leon wanted to create single handedly and take on both defenders. Would have liked to see him look up a couple of times and use Rogers, to give the defenders something else to think about instead of rushing to double team him every time. Of course the way we set up, he rarely gets an overlap from Konsa/Cash.

[Beard82]

Did someone on here at half time really say we have a thin squad?!

The subs made the difference as you'd expect them to. Maatsen, Bailey and Duran would all start for teams directly below us imo.

Now let's see some of these guys get a prem start in the near future as they're earning the right from the bench most weeks.

Yeah I said that - and although I was clearly the first person that has over reacted on a match thread - I do have some concern. Being able change things up from the bench is clearly an improvement - but all out competitors can do that and it’s how the game is now played.  the point I was trying to make is we’re asking about 17 players to perform at ucl most weeks - and it is a big ask.

We might have two great left backs - but we have 1 decent winger and he wasn’t playing because he was coming back from injury.  Mean while we have McGinn in an ineffective position because of this.  We also don’t have a right back of the required level and Carlos isn’t of the standard we need.  A couple of injuries or loss of form away from potentially struggling.  It’s amazing that we’re now in a position where we can play badly go behind and still win - there are a lot tougher tests to come.

The squad is clearly the best we could assemble given the circumstances - but over the summer Monchi talked of having two starting 11 without a drop off in quality and although we have that in a couple of key positions were aren’t in others. 

[Hookeysmith]

I fucking love this team

Focus, determination, graft, collectiveness, togetherness and a shit load of tactical nous and pure footballing ability.

All conducted by a grand master of the art.

I am not sure when, but under ti's genius and with our trajectory, we will win the Premier league

[Percy McCarthy]

Did someone on here at half time really say we have a thin squad?!

The subs made the difference as you'd expect them to. Maatsen, Bailey and Duran would all start for teams directly below us imo.

Now let's see some of these guys get a prem start in the near future as they're earning the right from the bench most weeks.

Yeah I said that - and although I was clearly the first person that has over reacted on a match thread - I do have some concern. Being able change things up from the bench is clearly an improvement - but all out competitors can do that and it’s how the game is now played.  the point I was trying to make is we’re asking about 17 players to perform at ucl most weeks - and it is a big ask.

We might have two great left backs - but we have 1 decent winger and he wasn’t playing because he was coming back from injury.  Mean while we have McGinn in an ineffective position because of this.  We also don’t have a right back of the required level and Carlos isn’t of the standard we need.  A couple of injuries or loss of form away from potentially struggling.  It’s amazing that we’re now in a position where we can play badly go behind and still win - there are a lot tougher tests to come.

The squad is clearly the best we could assemble given the circumstances - but over the summer Monchi talked of having two starting 11 without a drop off in quality and although we have that in a couple of key positions were aren’t in others.

Where do you think SJM should play to be more effective? Instead of Tielemans, Onana, Ramsey, Rogers?

[Beard82]

Did someone on here at half time really say we have a thin squad?!

The subs made the difference as you'd expect them to. Maatsen, Bailey and Duran would all start for teams directly below us imo.

Now let's see some of these guys get a prem start in the near future as they're earning the right from the bench most weeks.

Yeah I said that - and although I was clearly the first person that has over reacted on a match thread - I do have some concern. Being able change things up from the bench is clearly an improvement - but all out competitors can do that and it’s how the game is now played.  the point I was trying to make is we’re asking about 17 players to perform at ucl most weeks - and it is a big ask.

We might have two great left backs - but we have 1 decent winger and he wasn’t playing because he was coming back from injury.  Mean while we have McGinn in an ineffective position because of this.  We also don’t have a right back of the required level and Carlos isn’t of the standard we need.  A couple of injuries or loss of form away from potentially struggling.  It’s amazing that we’re now in a position where we can play badly go behind and still win - there are a lot tougher tests to come.

The squad is clearly the best we could assemble given the circumstances - but over the summer Monchi talked of having two starting 11 without a drop off in quality and although we have that in a couple of key positions were aren’t in others.

Where do you think SJM should play to be more effective? Instead of Tielemans, Onana, Ramsey, Rogers?

I think the point is we shouldnt neccessarily be playing all of them every week as we risk getting to the end of the season and being knackered like we did last year. 

[Villa Lew]

For the 2nd week running another great comeback from the boys, the subs made all the difference, special mention goes to Ross, was class today. Hopefully SJM's injury is not serious, but reckon a few weeks off will do him good. Also all the best to Mosquera for a speedy recovery.

[Percy McCarthy]

Did someone on here at half time really say we have a thin squad?!

The subs made the difference as you'd expect them to. Maatsen, Bailey and Duran would all start for teams directly below us imo.

Now let's see some of these guys get a prem start in the near future as they're earning the right from the bench most weeks.

Yeah I said that - and although I was clearly the first person that has over reacted on a match thread - I do have some concern. Being able change things up from the bench is clearly an improvement - but all out competitors can do that and it’s how the game is now played.  the point I was trying to make is we’re asking about 17 players to perform at ucl most weeks - and it is a big ask.

We might have two great left backs - but we have 1 decent winger and he wasn’t playing because he was coming back from injury.  Mean while we have McGinn in an ineffective position because of this.  We also don’t have a right back of the required level and Carlos isn’t of the standard we need.  A couple of injuries or loss of form away from potentially struggling.  It’s amazing that we’re now in a position where we can play badly go behind and still win - there are a lot tougher tests to come.

The squad is clearly the best we could assemble given the circumstances - but over the summer Monchi talked of having two starting 11 without a drop off in quality and although we have that in a couple of key positions were aren’t in others.

Where do you think SJM should play to be more effective? Instead of Tielemans, Onana, Ramsey, Rogers?

I think the point is we shouldnt neccessarily be playing all of them every week as we risk getting to the end of the season and being knackered like we did last year.

I agree with that. Just wondering where SJM is more effective than right-midfield. To me, he’s cover for a number of positions when people are injured/rotated. Which is a sign of a pretty strong squad.

[Rigadon]

I fucking love this team

Focus, determination, graft, collectiveness, togetherness and a shit load of tactical nous and pure footballing ability.

All conducted by a grand master of the art.

I am not sure when, but under ti's genius and with our trajectory, we will win the Premier league

I feel it’s a top drawer defender away.  We’re that good. 

[Demitri_C]

Just watching the 2nd goal again , the finish from Konsa deserves more credit. Also goal 3, the pass from Maatsen to Rogers is perfect as is Rogers ball across, you seem them overhit so often

Absolutely.  That finish for a cb was breath taking