Aston Villa 2-0 Bologna post match thread

[PeterWithesShin]

2 years ago we could rarely win any game. Now a 2-0 win in the Champions League feels like a routine performance.

[tomd2103]

Another great night at Villa Park tonight.  Thought that was probably our best home performance since we've been back in European competition.

These really are great times to follow the club.

[ROBBO]

Who do we play next?

[astonvilla82]

Denial still.


wolvesnl
Groupie
What's mad about the Villa situation is I still don't think their 11 tonight is much better than ours: McGinn, Rogers, Bailey, Tielemans, Onana, Maatsen, Carlos.

Emery is absolutely brilliant at building a system that's worked for them. With Martinez, Torres, Watkins/Duran he's got real quality.

It's reminiscent of Nuno IMO. Their collective has far outweighed their individual quality. But fair play. ****s.
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Can someone translate this to English, please?

Need to purchase a black country vocabulary book or if you want a cheaper version try the Beano comic

[Rory]

No game highlights yet but TNT have several post match videos.

Full time scenes

John McGinn interview.

Youri.

The boss.

What McCoist and Fletcher thought.

Thanks mate, great interviews 🙂

[tomd2103]

Denial still.


wolvesnl
Groupie
What's mad about the Villa situation is I still don't think their 11 tonight is much better than ours: McGinn, Rogers, Bailey, Tielemans, Onana, Maatsen, Carlos.

Emery is absolutely brilliant at building a system that's worked for them. With Martinez, Torres, Watkins/Duran he's got real quality.

It's reminiscent of Nuno IMO. Their collective has far outweighed their individual quality. But fair play. ****s.
Like
Reactions:

Can someone translate this to English, please?

Need to purchase a black country vocabulary book or if you want a cheaper version try the Beano comic

I'll try, "Wolves, who currently have just one point all season and currently sit bottom of the Premier League, are just as good as Aston Villa who sit fourth and are currently top of the Champions League group". 

[Rory]

Denial still.


wolvesnl
Groupie
What's mad about the Villa situation is I still don't think their 11 tonight is much better than ours: McGinn, Rogers, Bailey, Tielemans, Onana, Maatsen, Carlos.

Emery is absolutely brilliant at building a system that's worked for them. With Martinez, Torres, Watkins/Duran he's got real quality.

It's reminiscent of Nuno IMO. Their collective has far outweighed their individual quality. But fair play. ****s.
Like
Reactions:

Can someone translate this to English, please?

Need to purchase a black country vocabulary book or if you want a cheaper version try the Beano comic

Not that I spare a thought for Wolves whenever we're not playing them, but apart from the bollocks about their squad being as good as ours, seems relatively gracious to me?

[PeterWithesShin]

I don't watch much of Wolves so can't comment if it's remotely accurate, but it's also not completely outlandish. A large portion of this current squad that's doing so well were at the club 2 years ago when we were utter shit under Gerrard. Sometimes it really is down to the manager. Swap our respective managers tomorrow and there's no chance we're challenging for a CL spot at end of season, or that they are anywhere near the bottom 3 imo.

[tom jennings III]

Just beautiful

[VillaTim]

Morgan Rogers, going from Boro in the second flight, to where he is now, starting week in week out, and looking such a fucking good player, what an amazing turn of events.

We just have quality all over the pitch and on the bench, too.

To think, we've achieved the last season without Mings, Kamara and Buendia, too. Mindblowing.

It’s miraculous really. Wes and Nas, and Deano and Unai, have made so many brilliant decisions, one after the other, for year after year.

Plus a Steve Bruce signing scored tonight and is club captain. Credit where it's due

[Drummond]

Unai Emery's Press conference after #AstonVillaBologna

What pleased you most about that win?
Good evening. I am delighted with how we are facing this competition each match, playing disciplined and serious. I think the experience we had last year in the Conference League was perfect, helping us this year because we can remember against Zrinjski here we won 1-0 in the last minute; against AZ Alkmaar and Legia Warsaw we came back after being 1-0 down in the second half, and those experiences were fantastic. Of course, the Champions League is more difficult, but we are respecting the opponent, respecting the competition, playing mature and responsible. One thing I am always repeating is our strength is the group. They are coming back—some players who were injured. Today was very good news: Kamara is coming back, Emiliano Buendia already did, Tyrone Mings is coming, and I am pleased because we are enjoying here with our supporters as well.

It's three games now, three clean sheets. You're also top of the table—of course, more games tomorrow—but are you surprised at all by how well the players have adapted to the step up?
Of course, it's brilliant in this competition. Young Boys, Bayern Munich at home, and today we kept the same mentality. It's important for the group to keep the same mentality, respecting the opponent—Young Boys, respecting Bayern Munich, respecting Bologna—and then playing, trying to impose our game plan, our positioning, our idea. I think today against a team really not getting the points they deserve, but they are always playing tight results like today, more or less. But we created more chances than they usually concede to the opponent. My summary about the match today is we played disciplined, we played safe, we played mature, and we won because we deserved it.

Bologna went man-for-man when Villa were building from deep. What did you try to do to counteract that?
We prepared the match trying to avoid their man-to-man, trying to play imposing, stopping them, and then getting our position on the field. We did more or less, but 50% was the duels on the field, and sometimes they were winning. But more or less, we won more duels individually, and we could get into the attacking third with a very good position to threaten them, and we created chances after—that was the game plan. But teams like them sometimes are very difficult for us, and we must always improve. Every match we are playing is experience we can use for the next matches because there are a lot of teams, even in England as well in the Premier League, playing like that. Today was a very good experience for us to try to analyze deeply and hope we can face matches like that today.

Top of the league—it might only be for one night—but does that change the aim in the Champions League now? Should the aim now be to finish in the top eight rather than just the top 24? Can the fans dream even bigger than that?
We are going to focus on each match and how we are in the moment we are arriving with the position on the table. Of course, we won the first match away at Young Boys. We played in Munich. We were speaking about the objective to try to get to the next round, but even winning, we could get another objective: to be in the top eight. Today was a challenge again and an opportunity. We were thinking about those three points. We got those points, and of course we are going to try to focus on the next match against Club Bruges, and if we keep repeating the same performances and getting points, of course we can change our objective to be in the top eight. But I want to feel it as something like a natural way we are doing and not a surprise because if we are playing good performances, we can be there. Of course, there are other team contenders for the top eight, but we are being consistent, and we are getting points, and we are feeling comfortable.

Unai, you made four changes today. I just wondered how you felt about the performances of the four players who came in.
We struggled in August and September without some players; they were coming back not fit or injured. We got points, but we were thinking the better moment was with players available to play like today or Saturday as we did against Fulham. Now is a good moment as well to try to be intelligent doing some changes but thinking it's the best thing for each moment, and I did it today after our win against Fulham because it was a really very good moment to do it. The response of the players was fantastic, fantastic. The players that were in the starting eleven like Maatsen—he played a fantastic match. As well, John #McGinn after his injury played well. Jhon #Duran scored his goal and #Konsa played as usual. Then when we needed other good legs or fresh legs in the second half, we did with Jacob #Ramsey, with #Watkins, with #Jayden, with Ross (#Barkley). I think this is the way, and of course Kamara coming back today was perfect, and of course he is another player that can help us with his quality.

Three Champions League games, three clean sheets—that must be very satisfying for you.
Yes, most of all for Emiliano Martinez. He's very happy; he's pushing a lot for clean sheets in these matches. But really, I think this is the consequence. The consequence is we are playing seriously. We are playing being organized and being disciplined tactically as well. In our style, we have to try to get that always.

Obviously a great goal from Jhon again. What do you make of his performance but also his reaction to being substituted?
Fantastic, fantastic. It was his first starting eleven match this year, and he played different moments, and of course it's always more difficult when you start in the match. Every player, they are full energy or they are fresh, but he worked very well, and he scored the goal. When he was watching maybe his change, he accelerated to score the goal, and of course for us, for him, it was fantastic. I think now it's good to try to manage the strikers playing individually, playing both because we did and we will do it, sure, sometimes. When they are getting their performance like today in Jhon Duran and before in the matches he played, and Watkins as well, I think it's the best for the team.

Do you have any issue with how he reacted to coming off?
No, no. Of course, I am managing everything and the reaction of the players as well. But everything—we are sending the message in the dressing room: respect our values and try to be mature and responsible. Sometimes someone, because it's not only Jhon Duran; before as well some players sometimes they are reacting a little bit... It's under our control or under my control, and of course it's not relevant

[dave.woodhall]

Denial still.


wolvesnl
Groupie
What's mad about the Villa situation is I still don't think their 11 tonight is much better than ours: McGinn, Rogers, Bailey, Tielemans, Onana, Maatsen, Carlos.

Emery is absolutely brilliant at building a system that's worked for them. With Martinez, Torres, Watkins/Duran he's got real quality.

It's reminiscent of Nuno IMO. Their collective has far outweighed their individual quality. But fair play. ****s.
Like
Reactions:

Can someone translate this to English, please?

Need to purchase a black country vocabulary book or if you want a cheaper version try the Beano comic

I'll try, "Wolves, who currently have just one point all season and currently sit bottom of the Premier League, are just as good as Aston Villa who sit fourth and are currently top of the Champions League group". 

Wolves in a nutshell. Nuthin ay as good as the one Wolves ave got

[Rory]

Denial still.


wolvesnl
Groupie
What's mad about the Villa situation is I still don't think their 11 tonight is much better than ours: McGinn, Rogers, Bailey, Tielemans, Onana, Maatsen, Carlos.

Emery is absolutely brilliant at building a system that's worked for them. With Martinez, Torres, Watkins/Duran he's got real quality.

It's reminiscent of Nuno IMO. Their collective has far outweighed their individual quality. But fair play. ****s.
Like
Reactions:

Can someone translate this to English, please?

Need to purchase a black country vocabulary book or if you want a cheaper version try the Beano comic

I'll try, "Wolves, who currently have just one point all season and currently sit bottom of the Premier League, are just as good as Aston Villa who sit fourth and are currently top of the Champions League group". 

Wolves in a nutshell. Nuthin ay as good as the one Wolves ave got

Hang on, you don't like Wolves now, Dave?!

West Brom AND Wolves?

The cuddly doublies?

The 'we day hate nowbudy but aitch uther' twins?

[dorsetvillian]

Just home. What another fantastic Champions League night under the lights. Just how far can this team go under Emery. The positivity amongst supporters is almost scary. The players don't seem to fear
anyone.

[edgysatsuma89]

My brother said Emery went spare at Nanny McPhee for quite some time after they hit the post from a corner. Even got back up off the bench to bollock him a bit more. Poor bloke.