Aston Villa 2 Crystal Palace 2. Post Match Thread.

[PaulWinch again]

Memo to Unai

SORT
OUT
THE
DEFENCE

Sieves and colanders belong in the kitchen, not on the pitch.

Sort of the midfield and the defence will sort itself.

[Beard82]

Bayren was a great result and tactically spot on, I didnt think we played great but executed a game plan perfectly.  But in the 9 games since then - we have only beaten Bolonga and Fulham. 

Edit: Ah - sorry I said "showed what we're capable off" - I meant to say "showed what we're capable off going forward"

[PaulWinch again]

I agree entirely we need Onana and Kamara fit and they both need to play in the base of midfield. We have to start getting a semblance of stability in midfield.

[RamboandBruno]

From my seat on the half way line Crystal Palace had the perfect tactics to handle us. A back line of five with five in central midfield in a box in front of them when defending.

This completely stopped us building slow methodical attacks through Barkley, Tielemans and Rogers.

The obvious approach was for us to use the width but the passes weren’t there and Maatsen played strangely deep. Bailey got better as the game went on when he finally dared go around the outside.

I think we’ve been rumbled now along with our bizarre approach to corners which leaves us so exposed.

No doubt Juventus have been watching closely.

Finally goodness knows what Monchi’s role at the Club is. We didn’t replace Luiz and signed players playing in England and two make weights from Juve.

It’s strange but as we got heavily ambitious off the pitch we got complacent on it!

Surely it was Onanas fault today?

[Beard82]

Onnana and Kamara as a double pivot - Teilemanns as 10, Ramsey left, Rogers rightI think would be best.

Reliant on Ramsey and Kamara staying fit though

[Nev]

Before the game kicked off you could see how weak our central midfield was. Great players that Tielemans and Barkley are there is no steel. I'd have put SJM in there

[andyh]

I haven’t read the thread, but so many talking points.

 2 weeks planning down the shitter after 3 mins. A poxy, poxy goal to concede, but one that one again highlights our complete lack of pace and physicality at the back.
The only defender who would have dealt with that situation was Mings.

Tielemans had his worst game since joining. Not only was it a shit penalty, but he got caught in possession too many times and wanted 5 touches too many every time he had the ball.

Rogers has dropped off  a cliff, so quickly. His touch was awful, time and time again.
Maybe he needs a proper rest ?

I thought Bogarde did well, but cash definitely offered more attacking threat.

Bailey played himself into game and after a truly woeful 30 mins got bettter.

After a shit penalty we get a corner and exactly like in our last game, we concede from it.
How exactly the fuck does that happen ??

But again, my biggest bugbear is our inability to show any drive, power or urgency. Especially late in the game.
I know our game is based on patience and possession, but Christ, we HAVE to mix it up, and speed it up, especially when we are chasing a win.

It’s like we believe our own press now. And all the success we have playing this way, means it’s the only way to play.

Clearly it’s not working at the moment and unai has got to find a way of making us quicker.

[nordenvillain]

Might be the stopping of the rot you never know.  A point is better than none.

We certainly didn't deserve any more. Created lots of chances but we were piss weak without the ball. 
We weren't any better with the ball with the exception of Barkley. Far too slow, no chance of catching Palace on the counter. We really missed a proper defensive midfielder to give the back 4 some cover, Tielemans is not such a player - He looked like he had been watching old videos of Ray 'Crab' Wilkins. Bogarde does not look like he'll make a right back, why not give 'Ned a chance ?

[Beard82]

Before the game kicked off you could see how weak our central midfield was. Great players that Tielemans and Barkley are there is no steel. I'd have put SJM in there

I think there both too attacking minded - deep lying playmakers rather than base of the team

[john e]

Defensively we were shocking today

That’s it, that’s the post

[olaftab]

From my seat on the half way line Crystal Palace had the perfect tactics to handle us. A back line of five with five in central midfield in a box in front of them when defending.

Really? So we scored two against that perfection and could have had two or three more if Ollie and Morgan had been a bit more composed.

[rougegorge]

Barkley was good on the ball and Tielemans wasn’t awful but off the ball they were not so good. I thought McGinn was going to come back from Scotland full of energy, but he wasn’t great.

Rogers’s form has been slipping for a while and today he was really out of form.

The openness and slowness at the back was awful at times and I can only assume Cash wasn’t fully fit as playing Bogarde made no sense.

Buendia and Philogene came on to no effect at all again, just when we needed impetus to go and win.

[Drummond]

We need Kamara back. That's the issue.

Barkley is looking good.

Pissed off with that result but we're 3 points from 3rd and 4 from 2nd. No need to panic.

[JJ-AV]

Konsa, Mings, Torres, Digne

When Konsa’s back that should be the four for me

[Demitri_C]

Konsa, Mings, Torres, Digne

When Konsa’s back that should be the four for me

Id love to see that back four even if its dominated by left sided defenders. I mwan lets be real it cant be any worse than these horrible defensive displays we have seen this season