Aston Villa Reserves v Forest Post-Match Thread

[remy]

Truly outstanding win!
I am supremely happy I was jumping up and down with joy at FT.
Two top teams going at it for 90 mins and Villa came out on top. We played some outstanding football during the game, rode our luck and had some close shaves, missed some glorious chances but our overall performance deserved the victory.
We made 8 changes which took brass balls from SUE and I got a bit worried about it 4.30pm - 15mins in - WTF do I know !
In the context of the season it was a monumental win at the right time during the run in against a very good team.
7 on the spin going into the biggest match for 42 years - what a time to be a Villan!

[PeterWithesShin]

Playing a team above us that are bang in form and beating them relatively comfortably despite resting half a dozen players ahead of a European Cup quarter final in midweek is... nice?

It's in Paris, not Nice.

[Dave]

By design I suspect we played very much in eco mode for much of the game hence letting them have the ball . Emery will want everyone as fresh as for Paris .
Effectively after a fast start we won in 2nd gear .

I reckon only Rogers, Martinez and Tielemans are definite starters in Paris though. With Watkins a probable, Asensio and Mings possibles.

Anyone else would be quite surprising, so a lot of the "staying fresh" was happening off-pitch.

Yeah possible , hard to read Emery sometimes but I think he wanted some energy conservation across the pack.

No, I think you're definitely right - but I don't think that's unique to this match. Most games we have a period where we're clearly deliberately dropping our intensity levels.

[SoccerHQ]

We just needed to find a way to hold on there. Heart in mouth when Murillo was shooting. Honestly thought from where I was sitting it was going top corner.

Little bit disappointed we've again dominated a game for a half and still only won by a goal. Thought with how we were playing, Forest not at full strength and what we had to come off the bench we could've won that 3 or 4 nil just to get the GD up before Southampton away. The story of the season in a way but the league season is looking promising again at least and I'd expect us to comfortably get over 60 points now which looked a big ask after the Ipswich draw.

Rogers now at 13 goals in league and cup. His all round game can veer dramatically but there is no question he's going to be an exceptional player in two years time when he matures more. We will command a bigger fee than Grealish.

Great to see Malen score again, should've played more than he has so hopefully he fully has Unai's trust as think he'll be a good option for the SF.

[paul_e]

Even PWS on the match thread said they were "battering" us at times and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one having palpitations in that second half.

Anyhoo, we won, so UTV and bring on Qatar St Germain!

There was a 15minute spell at the start of the 2nd half where we let them have too many chances and they scored with the only one they got on target. For the rest of the half we had more chances and better chances and their keeper kept them in the game. First half we were well on top for the majority of it, so we were the better team for about 75minutes.

[brontebilly]

Why did he take Garcia off?

Worried about Elanga I reckon. But Disasi wasn't great at centre back and I'll be kind and say he didn't improve at right back.

[VillaTim]

By design I suspect we played very much in eco mode for much of the game hence letting them have the ball . Emery will want everyone as fresh as for Paris .
Effectively after a fast start we won in 2nd gear .

I reckon only Rogers, Martinez and Tielemans are definite starters in Paris though. With Watkins a probable, Asensio and Mings possibles.

Anyone else would be quite surprising, so a lot of the "staying fresh" was happening off-pitch.

Yeah possible , hard to read Emery sometimes but I think he wanted some energy conservation across the pack.

No, I think you're definitely right - but I don't think that's unique to this match. Most games we have a period where we're clearly deliberately dropping our intensity levels.

It's not unique , we seem to do it in game on a weekly basis . The possible genius of SUE is he has employed the same concept on a macro-season level and we are hopefully peaking now for the last part of it.

[AlexAlexCropley]

Why did he take Garcia off?

Worried about Elanga I reckon. But Disasi wasn't great at centre back and I'll be kind and say he didn't improve at right back.

I reckon you watch games with blinkers on

[brontebilly]

First 30 mins were as good as anything we have seen all season. We were brilliant.
Onana, Maatsen, Mings and Garcia were excellent in that period.

Whoever is doing player ratings, if they give Ollie a 4, it will be too much.
He looks absolutely devoid of everything.
His final pass, his final effort, his ability to hold off the defenders and fight to hold the ball, were all lacking today.
I love Ollie, I desperately hope he finds his mojo again.

Ollie was awful. We had a three on two at one stage in the first half when Forest were on ropes. Think it was Rogers on left and Malen on right. He duffed a pass to Rogers and the defender cut it out. That was shocking really. His all round game was poor.

Rashford's inability to even challenge for the ball in the air was piss poor too. We had no out ball when under the cosh late on, or at least until McGinn came on. Back to goal he offers very little.

[ChicagoLion]

Why did he take Garcia off?

Worried about Elanga I reckon. But Disasi wasn't great at centre back and I'll be kind and say he didn't improve at right back.

I thought that change made us worse, The problem in the first half which got worse in the second half was more about how we gave up possession so easily in attacking positions.

[taylorsworkrate]

Our xG was 2.5 to their 1.2.

The correct team won the game

[VillaTim]

First 30 mins were as good as anything we have seen all season. We were brilliant.
Onana, Maatsen, Mings and Garcia were excellent in that period.

Whoever is doing player ratings, if they give Ollie a 4, it will be too much.
He looks absolutely devoid of everything.
His final pass, his final effort, his ability to hold off the defenders and fight to hold the ball, were all lacking today.
I love Ollie, I desperately hope he finds his mojo again.

Ollie was awful. We had a three on two at one stage in the first half when Forest were on ropes. Think it was Rogers on left and Malen on right. He duffed a pass to Rogers and the defender cut it out. That was shocking really. His all round game was poor.

Rashford's inability to even challenge for the ball in the air was piss poor too. We had no out ball when under the cosh late on, or at least until McGinn came on. Back to goal he offers very little.

I'm hoping Watkins hasn't checked out already . Thought he was awful today .

[brontebilly]

And Elliot Anderson, their midfielder, was the best player on the pitch, I thought.

Delighted/relieved we won but I'm just surprised at how we were bullied for a lot of the second half.

I'm not sure about being bullied. But we lost control of the game, it even started before half time. Anderson and Gibbs-White really started getting into it and we got very sloppy on the ball. Taking stupid shots on etc. We had our foot on their throat at 2-0. Fair play to Forest for getting back into it. The half time change at right back really didn't help matters.

Kamara and Tielemans were disappointing I thought in second half. That's three PL games on the spin Tielemans has struggled. He kept getting caught ahead of the ball. Right side of our defence poor all second half, Watkins awful.

Ramsey and McGinn particularly helped turned the tide at a sticky time. I don't like Rogers on the right but he was always a threat today no matter his position. Outstanding goal. Mings was solid and Maatsen after an outstanding first half I thought battled well in second too.

That first 30 mins was glorious after an incredibly brave team selection from Emery.

[paul_e]

Our xG was 2.5 to their 1.2.

The correct team won the game

Yep, for me those numbers are a fair reflection of the game. They had plenty of shots but very few were from areas where you'd expect to beat a keeper as good as Emi, even if they'd been better at hitting the target.

[tomd2103]

Very good first half, but thought them dropping off allowed us to play.  They changed it in the 2nd half, pressed us at goal kicks and we just continued to pump balls up for their centre halves to win.  We just couldn't get a foothold in until late on in the 2nd half, but had a few chances to make it 3 late on.

Great win though overall and keeps us right in it.