Monaco vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[eye digress]

Konsa was particularly shit. Constantly looked gormless in possession, and instead of trying to make an angle, he just jogged towards one of the midfielders, waiting until they were well marked, then very obviously and deliberately played them a slow hospital pass. He might as well have held a sign up.

That’s his way of playing, followed by a wave and a point.
I’m starting to find him ponderous and infuriating

These two comments made me laugh. Know what you mean. Think the idea was the midfielder would turn and break the line. But Morgz just turned straight into his marker about 5 times on the bounce. Comedy gold.

[PaulWinch again]

We desperately need Pau back. We can’t play Watkins and Duran together. Rogers is knackered and needs a rest.

Really poor.

Disagree. I think had Pau played, we’d have been 2 or 3 down. Mings made a mistake but he more than made up for it.

He made a few mistakes. Gave the ball away repeatedly too

Fuck me, you could say that about the majority of them.

You could, but the point is about what Pau brings and it is very obvious that passing out of defence absolutely killed us tonight. Not the only thing clearly, but Konsa and Mings consistently stopped us building any play.

I’m not sure Pau being on the pitch would have made much of a difference to say Rogers giving the ball away so much. The centre halves weren’t only ones giving the ball away.

Yes but if you watched Rogers a lot of him giving the ball away was the central defenders telegraphing they were going to pass to him, delaying, then passing to him which meant he got swarmed.

[villa for life]

We desperately need Pau back. We can’t play Watkins and Duran together. Rogers is knackered and needs a rest.

Really poor.

Disagree. I think had Pau played, we’d have been 2 or 3 down. Mings made a mistake but he more than made up for it.

He made a few mistakes. Gave the ball away repeatedly too

Fuck me, you could say that about the majority of them.

You could, but the point is about what Pau brings and it is very obvious that passing out of defence absolutely killed us tonight. Not the only thing clearly, but Konsa and Mings consistently stopped us building any play.

But they also stopped the opposition scoring more than one.

Yes, but also massively undermined our ability to score any and that was the same against Brugge. If they can’t link the play that kills us (as it did today).

Call me old fashioned, but i find it hard to blame two centre backs for “massively undermining our ability to score”

[85kota]

And thats why you and duran  do not play together ollie.

I think Unai made that decision

Oh really didnt know that.

As you are aware ollie said that they can play together on the weekend which was the original point

Good point, well made.

That being said, Ollie probably does think they can play together; Jhon might not care.

I think I saw Jhon say "I don't know what he said" to Ollie just after he came on.

[django]

I thought we were looking half decent for the last 10 mins if the first half but we struggle this season to build any kind of momentum in games.

Buendia looked quite good to me, he like a lot of our players looked absolutely knackered after about 55 mins.

[VillaTim]

What killed us was starting with 10 men , Bailey absolute joke , he missed a big chance as did Watkins . Defensively generally ok . Midfield looked tired but this talk of Torres being the solution you have to laugh , him on the pitch we concede 2 or More.

Buendia was ok but lacked control and the killer ball .

Set pieces were shocking absolutely shocking .

[itbrvilla]

Probably wrong about this but Emi M...does he have a habit of "saving for the cameras"? Sometimes when he dives for a shot and saves, it looks a bit over the top. For the goal tonight, does he have to jump so animatedly for the initial save? Cos it leaves him rooted to the ground once he parries the ball and it's an easy rebound header. I dunno, maybe the pace on the original effort grounded him but he has a habit of doing this.

I had the same thought. No idea how he ended up on the ground.

[PaulWinch again]

We desperately need Pau back. We can’t play Watkins and Duran together. Rogers is knackered and needs a rest.

Really poor.

Disagree. I think had Pau played, we’d have been 2 or 3 down. Mings made a mistake but he more than made up for it.

He made a few mistakes. Gave the ball away repeatedly too

Fuck me, you could say that about the majority of them.

You could, but the point is about what Pau brings and it is very obvious that passing out of defence absolutely killed us tonight. Not the only thing clearly, but Konsa and Mings consistently stopped us building any play.

But they also stopped the opposition scoring more than one.

Yes, but also massively undermined our ability to score any and that was the same against Brugge. If they can’t link the play that kills us (as it did today).

Call me old fashioned, but i find it hard to blame two centre backs for “massively undermining our ability to score”

Fair enough, but then I don’t think you’ve really clocked how we’re trying to play. Torres is a big contributor to our attacking play, his quality on the ball makes a big difference. For example, we don’t beat Bayern without it (and we didn’t concede 2 or 3 that day).

[django]

As pedestrian as we looked, if we’d been able to put a corner anywhere other than the keepers arms or into the first man we couple have got something from the game.

[brontebilly]

Awful start, like we were in the pub for the afternoon, rallied strongly before half time before almost conceding again. Fatigue obviously played a huge role in that second half collapse but that's more on Emery than anybody else. Leaving two subs to the 85th min verged on insulting them and playing Duran/Watkins together killed our midfield. Defensively a complete shambles yet again and we are going nowhere until that's addressed.

Martinez 6 - Hutton reckoned he should do better with their goal and top it over, bit harsh. Not inspiring the confidence either
Cash 8 - our best player by miles, he was still going at the end so maybe other players need to work on their stamina in comparison
Konsa 1 - blocked a shot in the first minute, only point he gets. Frankly gutless in the air yet again tonight, long punt down his side just before half time let's it bounce they nearly scored. Beyond abysmal with the ball. Few weeks in reserves long overdue. Attitude stinks.
Mings 3 - started horribly and beaten in air for goal. Distribution so bad, in the end five yard passes were too much. Fatigue has to be catching up on him. One goal saving block
Digne 6 - solid enough and not surprised he was fuming being taken off in comparison to others
Kamara 7 - slow start but settled well, moving out to right back was a cod that killed our midfield
Tielemans 6 - very slow to get going but got us playing after a while. Calved midway during second half
Bailey 3 - hard to watch the guy at the moment. Not displaying anywhere near enough fight or resilience. Great chance he missed too
Rogers 3 - decent first half and unlucky with a chance at start of second. But a 30 min spell afterwards that was Bowery esque. On Emery for not hooking him far earlier
Buendia 7 - few loose touches early on but very positive performance until he predictably blew up late on. Laid one on a plate for Watkins
Watkins 5 - tried hard but missed a huge chance and setup Rogers well at start of second. Bringing on Duran predictably finished any impact.

Duran 5 - predictably no impact next to Watkins
Maatsen 3 - awful cameo, carrying timber and needs to address that first and foremost
Emery 3 - not sure why Duran didn't start but not for first time this season made a complete mess of every switch he made during the game

[Demitri_C]

And thats why you and duran  do not play together ollie.

I think Unai made that decision

Oh really didnt know that.

As you are aware ollie said that they can play together on the weekend which was the original point

Good point, well made.

That being said, Ollie probably does think they can play together; Jhon might not care.

I think I saw Jhon say "I don't know what he said" to Ollie just after he came on.

Wish it would work as makes things easier. But its failed near enough every time.  We got worse when duran came on. Id have taken ollie off for duran like for like. Ollie really struggled when duran came on.

[itbrvilla]

Awful start, like we were in the pub for the afternoon, rallied strongly before half time before almost conceding again. Fatigue obviously played a huge role in that second half collapse but that's more on Emery than anybody else. Leaving two subs to the 85th min verged on insulting them and playing Duran/Watkins together killed our midfield. Defensively a complete shambles yet again and we are going nowhere until that's addressed.

Martinez 6 - Hutton reckoned he should do better with their goal and top it over, bit harsh. Not inspiring the confidence either
Cash 8 - our best player by miles, he was still going at the end so maybe other players need to work on their stamina in comparison
Konsa 1 - blocked a shot in the first minute, only point he gets. Frankly gutless in the air yet again tonight, long punt down his side just before half time let's it bounce they nearly scored. Beyond abysmal with the ball. Few weeks in reserves long overdue. Attitude stinks.
Mings 3 - started horribly and beaten in air for goal. Distribution so bad, in the end five yard passes were too much. Fatigue has to be catching up on him. One goal saving block
Digne 6 - solid enough and not surprised he was fuming being taken off in comparison to others
Kamara 7 - slow start but settled well, moving out to right back was a cod that killed our midfield
Tielemans 6 - very slow to get going but got us playing after a while. Calved midway during second half
Bailey 3 - hard to watch the guy at the moment. Not displaying anywhere near enough fight or resilience. Great chance he missed too
Rogers 3 - decent first half and unlucky with a chance at start of second. But a 30 min spell afterwards that was Bowery esque. On Emery for not hooking him far earlier
Buendia 7 - few loose touches early on but very positive performance until he predictably blew up late on. Laid one on a plate for Watkins
Watkins 5 - tried hard but missed a huge chance and setup Rogers well at start of second. Bringing on Duran predictably finished any impact.

Duran 5 - predictably no impact next to Watkins
Maatsen 3 - awful cameo, carrying timber and needs to address that first and foremost
Emery 3 - not sure why Duran didn't start but not for first time this season made a complete mess of every switch he made during the game

We had loads of possession but did duck all with it baring 2-3 half chances. They could of had a hatful if they had someone half decent up top..

[Percy McCarthy]

Probably wrong about this but Emi M...does he have a habit of "saving for the cameras"? Sometimes when he dives for a shot and saves, it looks a bit over the top. For the goal tonight, does he have to jump so animatedly for the initial save? Cos it leaves him rooted to the ground once he parries the ball and it's an easy rebound header. I dunno, maybe the pace on the original effort grounded him but he has a habit of doing this.

No, I’d agree with that, thought at the time, why did he jump.

[john2710]

We've lost to the 2 worst teams we've played. We were too careless, slow & predictable.

[Tuscans]

Unai Emery said some players didn't follow the plan and was unhappy with that. When asked why that was, he pointed to his temple.

Should of pointed to Cash, thick as spunk in a bath!