Aston Villa 2 Crystal Palace 2. Post Match Thread.

[Monty]

Cash coming on helped change the game for us. For all his faults he's got so much tenacity, really helped us retain control in transitions.

But he is only a right back, and transitions happening elsewhere continued to look like a goal against literally every time. There's no fucking pressure in the midfield, and too many players (Bailey and Rogers especially) who are losing it cheaply, often in promising situations.

What would I do? Start only one of them, and wide. Push Tielemans up into 10 and play two midfielders deep who can actually put pressure on the ball when we lose it. Maybe one of them can be McGinn while everyone's out, who knows. But this shape is not working at all right now.

That said, score the penalty and who knows etc etc. Another game we really should've won and didn't because of sloppiness. But, while you can't legislate for things like Mings forgetting which sport he's playing, a lot of this sloppiness is starting to look like (excuse the horrible cliché) not a bug but a feature of how the team are set up. It's got to change.

[Demitri_C]

Stick Mings in. He was as responsible as anyone for the fantastic run in end of 22-23. We're definitely missing Diaby (at least first half of last season Diaby). I'm all for giving Unai time to work it out, he's going to have bad spells and this is one of them.

I agree. We need to go back to basics a bit, and remember how to defend. Torres is great on the ball, but he's an absolute liability when it comes to the actual basic art of stopping the other team from scoring.

Agreed. So where would you play Torres? Midfield? He’s not the quickest.

Its getting to the point that our defence is so bad we may have to go 3-5-2 mings pau and carlos

[Risso]

It’s a shit result but still close in the top. Need to adjust some expectations and has been 12 months nearly of inconsistency. I am hoping this is a stop the rot moment and we spring on.
Who knows.

We're going to concede an absolute hatful against Chelsea next week, it won't be pretty. It's OK being only so many points off the top places, but to close the gap you have to stop conceding goals and actually win games.

[PaulWinch again]

Torres can defend, he’s proven it plenty of times - that outstanding run at the start of last season being an obvious example. The defence is being exposed because there are cavernous gaps in the midfield, combined with the sheer inability to control that midfield.

[garyellis]

Relieved for the players.  Annoyed with the manager.

Why? I am the opposite. I am annoyed with players under-performing.

It's like groundhog day trying to watch this team defend. Same old issues, week in, week out.

I think Mings (at the level he was under Emery in his first season) has to get back into this team. I haven’t checked the goals against from November 2022 to May 2023 so happy to be proven wrong.

[wince]

It’s a shit result but still close in the top. Need to adjust some expectations and has been 12 months nearly of inconsistency. I am hoping this is a stop the rot moment and we spring on.
Who knows.

We're going to concede an absolute hatful against Chelsea next week, it won't be pretty. It's OK being only so many points off the top places, but to close the gap you have to stop conceding goals and actually win games.

Can I have a hug off you rather than Demitri then?

[Risso]

Cash coming on helped change the game for us. For all his faults he's got so much tenacity, really helped us retain control in transitions.

But he is only a right back, and transitions happening elsewhere continued to look like a goal against literally every time. There's no fucking pressure in the midfield, and too many players (Bailey and Rogers especially) who are losing it cheaply, often in promising situations.

What would I do? Start only one of them, and wide. Push Tielemans up into 10 and play two midfielders deep who can actually put pressure on the ball when we lose it. Maybe one of them can be McGinn while everyone's out, who knows. But this shape is not working at all right now.

That said, score the penalty and who knows etc etc. Another game we really should've won and didn't because of sloppiness. But, while you can't legislate for things like Mings forgetting which sport he's playing, a lot of this sloppiness is starting to look like (excuse the horrible cliché) not a bug but a feature of how the team are set up. It's got to change.

As I said on another thread, there's only so long you can put things down to xG and individual mistakes before you have to conclude that we're just not set up properly. Even after we scored the second today, they had two absolute golden chances roughly 60 seconds straight afterwards.

[PaulWinch again]

The gap to the top 4 is going to stretch and stretch unless we stop being so bloody careless and disjointed.

[Monty]

I get the frustrations with Torres, but it's the fault of the set-up that he gets so often put in a position where he'd have to be prime Maldini to be expected to deal with everything. Until we sort out the midfield we're going to get punished no matter who we've got sprinting desperately towards our own goal.

[Risso]

It’s a shit result but still close in the top. Need to adjust some expectations and has been 12 months nearly of inconsistency. I am hoping this is a stop the rot moment and we spring on.
Who knows.

We're going to concede an absolute hatful against Chelsea next week, it won't be pretty. It's OK being only so many points off the top places, but to close the gap you have to stop conceding goals and actually win games.

Can I have a hug off you rather than Demitri then?

A hug? You can have a Pot Noodle AND a reach around. Love you man.

[PaulWinch again]

I get the frustrations with Torres, but it's the fault of the set-up that he gets so often put in a position where he'd have to be prime Maldini to be expected to deal with everything. Until we sort out the midfield we're going to get punished no matter who we've got sprinting desperately towards our own goal.

It is 100% that, the defensive issues are rooted in the utter mess the midfield is. It is not working at all.

[Demitri_C]

It’s a shit result but still close in the top. Need to adjust some expectations and has been 12 months nearly of inconsistency. I am hoping this is a stop the rot moment and we spring on.
Who knows.

We're going to concede an absolute hatful against Chelsea next week, it won't be pretty. It's OK being only so many points off the top places, but to close the gap you have to stop conceding goals and actually win games.

Can I have a hug off you rather than Demitri then?

I give better cuddles. Or we can make it a three way.

#cuddlefest

[wince]

It’s a shit result but still close in the top. Need to adjust some expectations and has been 12 months nearly of inconsistency. I am hoping this is a stop the rot moment and we spring on.
Who knows.

We're going to concede an absolute hatful against Chelsea next week, it won't be pretty. It's OK being only so many points off the top places, but to close the gap you have to stop conceding goals and actually win games.

Can I have a hug off you rather than Demitri then?

A hug? You can have a Pot Noodle AND a reach around. Love you man.

So long as it’s a Bombay bad boy!

I may hide during the chelsea game. Memories of 2012 sat with the noses in the masons in Solihull. The horrors. We may need to get the medics in on here next week

[Ian.]

Positives - Bailey at times looked like his old self, there was flashes of that happy winger from last season. Ollie was sharp and really up for it. Cash made a big difference.

Too many not playing well, not sure why, but if we can start shutting teams out and not have to rely on scoring more than 3 to win, that’s surely the requirement.

[Baldy]

Our players have barely seen each other in last 3 months due to international breaks. We played like it today.

Next international is March. Now plenty of time for Unai to sort things out on the training ground and have us firing on all cylinders come January.

Top four still beckons as only Liverpool showing any consistency and they have not been that brilliant.

This is a marathon, not a sprint. Patience my friends.