Aston Villa 2 Crystal Palace 2. Post Match Thread.

[Demitri_C]

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.

A good positive post i wish i was this optimistic- but you are right it is a marathon  but we are almost half the season in so we better start improving quick!

Id say there is zero chance there are no signings in January.  We will be busy i would imagine as god we need reinforcements

[BC Villain]

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.

Exactly.  We've been a car crash at the back for months now, yet I see nothing to suggest this is improving.  It's almost as though he revels in "you score two, we'll score three". Now we've stopped doing that, he's exposed.

[KevinGage]

It's inescapable that with Torres at the back - as fabulous as he is at some of the other stuff - we are weaker defensively.

Him and Carlos together for any period of time is asking for trouble.

The hope is that Mings can come back and hit the levels he previously did. But it is only hope, with an injury that severe.

If that doesn't work Unai might need to be more pragmatic and invest in CB who will -realistically - be starting over both Torres and Mings.

Links with Laporte at Real Betis during the week. But that looks like more of the same, TBH.

[LukeJames]

It's inescapable that with Torres at the back - as fabulous as he is at some of the other stuff - we are weaker defensively.

On the flip side we don't score the first goal without Torres initial pass between the lines.

[PaulWinch again]

It's inescapable that with Torres at the back - as fabulous as he is at some of the other stuff - we are weaker defensively.

Him and Carlos together for any period of time is asking for trouble.

The hope is that Mings can come back and hit the levels he previously did. But it is only hope, with an injury that severe.

If that doesn't work Unai might need to be more pragmatic and invest in CB who will -realistically - be starting over both Torres and Mings.

Links with Laporte at Real Betis during the week. But that looks like more of the same, TBH.

I’m not sure it’s inescapable- he played in the run when we we really good last year didn’t he? The difference is our midfield is.

[Paul.S]

Defensively terrible yet again from front to back. There seems to be no cover in front of the back 4 when we lose the ball in midfield. It’s like a straight line and as soon as the opposition pass it through us they are straight into the defence.
It has to improve otherwise we won’t be going anywhere.
Saying that, Watkins had enough chances to score 3 and I think it’s time for Duran to start a league game now. We cannot keep missing chances after chance.

[Ads]

As long as we keep being easy to score against, we'll struggle to get results.

The first goal is 1 pass to find space behind Barkely and another to feed their player through. The 2nd is a copy of the Liverpool goal and an awful one to concede.

You need to take chances. Palace are 18th, 1 win all season, they're dross and in the relegation zone for a reason. But if you make it easy for sides with gifts or predicatable patterns of play, you'll struggle to get a result. You cannot gift a penalty opportunity.

Lots of factors. Form is one. Bailey is not contributing anything at all. No goals, no assists, worse, little to no percentage ball as he refuses to cross with his right. He's very easy to funnel and check back to allow them into a better defensive shape.

Tielemans without the physical protection today looked off and his form has followed suit. Delayed the pass, not that there was much movement.

Rogers. He's still way off it. His first touch has abandoned him. That air shot early on perhaps symptomatic.

But then that's the other issue. The system is designed to go through him. We're so slow in feeding the ball or in transition in general of late, that he's easy to smother. If it's not going through him, we look clueless.

The last 6 minutes of injury time today, we created nothing. In fact we didn't even get in their box. We barely made Henderson do anything from open play. Atrocious performance, meanwhile they had a shot and a cross.

It's just not been good enough of late and the defence, which I'll save for last, doesn't get off. Carlos was due to be sold for a reason. He is nowhere near the quality we need. Konsa, obviously injured today, but needs to play at centre half. He is our best defender. I cannot fathom Bogarde beyond Cash not being fit- I can accept that.

No Emery side ever defends well, but this is going to cost us if it continues. We need, for me, a pivot of Onana and critically, Kamara. I think Rogers needs to go wide and Bailey needs to be out the side, with a replacement in January. That is  not Philogene, who has not contributed anything attack wise all season.

I'm not sure if I read it on here or heard it elsewhere, but somebody said the Villa never break a losing run with a win. I remembered that before the game and it definitely came to mind when the first went in.

We need better. Much better.

[Legion]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cwy9204l4wyt

[Beard82]

We haven’t looked right since the start of the season - we got away with it initially - often inspired by Duran.  But it looks a long way off where we need to be. 

At the time I thought the summer business was questionable we seem to have weakened the first team - and the added depth hasn’t helped. 

I think ultimately - none of the business was stuff we wanted to do.  It’s was an all around gambling to try and stay within ffp. 

For the first time, I worry that Unai doesn’t know how to fix this.  Our transfer wheeling and dealering hasn’t really worked out are squads weaker and key players are injured and out of form.   

Our Defense is a mess - that needs to be sorted as we’re gifting way too many goals.  But it been like that for ages and is just getting worse. 

My nagging worry is how low can we get away with finishing before it causes bigger issues like key players wanting to leave etc

[Dante Lavelli]

Bloody hell it’s a very weird phenomenon at the mo. We know Unai is an elite coach, but everything about us screams badly coached - disjointed, incoherent, confused. It’s not great.

Paralysis of analysis - I think that’s what it’s called - might be a risk.  the players are so overloaded with information that the instinctive element of their game has been forgotten. 

That said, I only saw the last 20 minutes and thought we were generally pretty decent. Just lacking in confidence and luck.

[Demitri_C]

Good post ads

[Hookeysmith]

Ifs buts and maybes.

But for a brilliant save by Emi at the end we lose that game, go into the break in the lead from scoring the pen I felt we would win with ease. Fine margins.

Thought Rogers was anonymous
McGinn poor
Carlos too sloppy and too lackadaisical
Tielemans shit pen or great save? Not sure till I see it again
Philogene is a waste of a shirt

Better

Watkins scored a great goal
Bailey was better
Barkley very tidy

Must admit I thought  palaces last ditch tackling was superb

[Nev]

I'm not going to argue with any of the assessments of our team, all perfectly reasonable.

What I will argue with is the nonsense of VAR who saw a penalty that absolutely nobody appealed for or who wanted.

Now, we may have scored and won the game and it's our fault that we didn't but this sort of reffing the game from afar is absolute bollocks. The same level of scrutiny was missing up in Liverpool.

Many may cry that it was the correct decision, and perhaps it was, but it still smacks of "have a look if you feel like it".

The ref was appalling, and I like to defend officials but alongside a piss poor showing from us, the crap that we have to endure from refs, where inconsistency seems to be the watchword drives me mad

[KevinGage]

I thought Bailey looked much brighter today.

Would still like to see us bring in an option to play that side when he's off it or knackered.

[kippaxvilla2]

If Ads is posting that it must be worrying.