Aston Villa vs Man Utd Post-Match Thread

[pauliewalnuts]

Yep, for example when Bologna rock up next few weeks they'll likely park a huge pasta type bus and say come on then, relying on counters and a tight defence .

A massive, goalmouth sized frozen lasagne.

[Demitri_C]

As annoying as it is to drop two points against that lame utd side we at least didnt lose like last season. We will save our spankinv of them until final game of season

[Nii Lamptey]

Hate playing this lot..... Only plus point is that 'we didn't lose'.

Really don't understand why we kept feeding it out to the wings for a cross, when for most of the game (first half especially) we had no height in there against two big lumps. We should have focussed on playing through the middle imo.

Good to see Cash back, but then Konsa goes off injured... Hopefully, nothing serious and he's patched up over the break. As for Cash, it adds much needed balance back into the team, but we desperately need a mirrored version of Digne/Maatsen on the right. It beggars belief that Cash used to be a winger for Forest - His forward play and crossing especially is abysmal.

Was surprised to see Bailey in the team. Looked to be carrying an injury against Bayern, and the performance yesterday leads me to believe he's not recovered. Didn't once try and beat his man.

Shout out to the two 'forgotten men' - Tielemans and Barkley. Thought the two of them played really well yesterday.

[Monty]

Bologna will try to do to us what we did to Man City or Arsenal last year I think, midblock etc.

[eamonn]

Eh, two ugly draws in a row, it happens.

Is it "eh" or "er"? I always thought it was the latter. "Eh" is an interrogative, eh?

[eamonn]

I don't think we're going to be top 4 again this season, we just haven't got the squad for it.

Yeah but we didn't last year either!

[Monty]

Eh, two ugly draws in a row, it happens.

Is it "eh" or "er"? I always thought it was the latter. "Eh" is an interrogative, eh?

It's more 'eh' to rhyme with 'meh', and to mean the same too.

[Duncan Shaw]

Agree re: Bailey he offered no threat whatsoever yesterday (and hasn't really fired yet this season generally) so assume he is carrying a knock of some sort.

[Smithy]

I don't think we're going to be top 4 again this season, we just haven't got the squad for it.

Yeah but we didn't last year either!

Though we've lost two very influential members of that squad in Dougie and Diaby, we've added Onana, Maatsen, Barkley and Philogene who are ALL playing important parts in the first team, plus we have the return of Buendia and Mings who didn't play a part at all last season, and Kamara and Ramsey whose seasons were curtailed by injuries.  Plus Duran who appears to have come of age.  I think in sheer numbers and strength in depth, it's definitely better.  Is the first 11 better than last season? I'm not sure.  It's close.

I think our squad is definitely better this season than last.  That said, I think last season, our squad punched WAY above their weight and crawled over the line in the end.  This year I think it's good enough and big enough to compete on all fronts for the entire season - whether it's good enough to hold off teams like Chelsea, Newcastle, and Tottenham to stay in the top 4 again, I don't know.

[ChicagoLion]

 think the opposition for 4th is stronger, I am not convinced our first team is. Getting Kamara and Mings back to their previous levels would make a difference though.

[eamonn]

Cash, Digne and Watkins were all particularly shite.

I thought Digne and Torres were our best players on the day

Digne should have been taken off set-piece duties the third time his corner/free-kick went straight to their goalie or didn't clear the first man. Come on, is he really all we have now that Dougie's fucked off?

[London Villan]

But I'd argue it's not our first team that needs to be stronger. It's the depth of our squad which caused the biggest headaches last season and the reason we scraped home for 4th and lost a semi-final against a team we should have beaten.

We are already down 7 players that could be our first 11 - we'll be lucky to have fewer than 3 "first teamers" not available for selection for any game. The squad will be the difference between finishing 8th or 4th.

[ChicagoLion]

Our set pieces were kin awful.
Every corner and free kick wasted.

[eamonn]

Clean sheet but man that feels like a loss to me. As usual put in a lame performance against utd.

Utd are so bad and yet we struggled

Rogers was so awful today. Wont have done himself any favours for England callup with that today.

Motm for me was carlos. Solid

Why does it feel like a loss? we didn't play well absolutely, but it was just one of those days and we didn't lose. can't win every match

It feels like a loss because  that utd team is so bad and they were fucking awful. Honestly i think had we played 1/4 as good as against bayern we would have won that

Dropping two points at home is poor and a point is of course better than losing. But man such a deflating result

If we have aspirations of CL again we need to be winning these games. It seems utterly bizarre that we loaned out enzo and illing jr as both would have been handing today. Instead we had to name swinkels and young on the bench who were never hoing to get on pitch.

You keep making this point - but Enzo and Illing are barely getting more time at their loan clubs than they would for us. They're at the end of the pecking order and when our four injured midfielders return, they'd struggle to get bench time.

Illing being a winger might have been an option for a crocked Bailey/nascent Philogene but Enzo...c'mon, he's an investment punt, we'll sell him on at a premium or at best he might get a sniff if Kamara leaves one summer.

[eamonn]

Before we slash our wrists, let’s look at some of these beauties from last season:

“I feel like the Villa that starts the 2024/25 season will be unrecognisable in the way that a recently relegated team is because it's had to flog all of its stars, the difference being it'll be because we probably won't be able to offer Champions League football.


“We have totally fucked it now.

We are ten matches from the end of the season and will be playing 30% of those matches without our captain, who plays in a part of the field where we are already decimated.

Not only that, we are playing badly and have been for ages now, just putting in the odd good 45 minutes here and there. Even when we manage a good half we then keep on having an absolute stinker of a second.

We are absolutely fuxked with injuries and have a difficult run in. The next three matches are all tricky, and I can honestly see us losing them all.

I think we will finish sixth, which will be fucking devastating after the expectation of the first two thirds of the season.

Genuinely woke up this morning feeling exactly like I did after that Stoke match, that is how bad this is. Gifting three points to our closest rivals on our own ground and throwing in an eight GD swing.

Fucking hell, I hate football.”

“Yesterday was pretty fucking terrible, and it's gut wrenching to look at the table and see where Spurs are after tonight.

Yeah yeah yeah lots of football to come, but turn the tables around and if we were ahead of them with a game in hand, we'd be cock-a-hoop.

We've absolutely blown it. We're playing poorly, too, at a time when Spurs are starting to fire more consistently.

Gutting.”

Is that all from one person?

No. I  just saved them as a reminder of the hysterical over-reaction that occurs sometimes. Didn’t save the authors’ names.

Not Paul Winch, by any chance? Only messin' Paul