Basel vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[eamonn]

Sick of winning 2-1. Our GD in all the leagues we're in is that of a midtable team. Whine whine truth truth

[SaddVillan]

Re coming second in the league, which would guarantee playing the 2nd leg in future games at home.

Apparently Lyon and Midtjylland have easier fixtures - here they are, with current league position and points shown

Lyons
Young Boys (A)   21 9pts
PAOK (H)             18  9pts

Midtjylland
Brann (A)                    22  8pts
Dinamo Zagreb (H)   25  7pts

Villa
Fenerbache (A)           12   11pts
RB Salzburg (H)           31  3pts

[brontebilly]

Really poor performance. Strong start and again after Tielemans came on for a while. To be honest I'm looking forward to the knock outs as the standard of the group stages is awful. No intensity at all.

Bizot 4 - started ok but bottled the challenge for their goal
Cash 6 - silly yellow card but one of our best players in first half
Konsa 4 - like so many tonight just far too casual
Lindelof 7 - not that comfortable on his left foot but defended in the main well
Digne 7 - solid and professional display
Onana 4 - after a strong start he just didn't want to know once they improved
Bogarde 6 - really poor first half but improved a lot at right back in the second
Guessand 4 - scrambled home the goal but that was a hard watch again. His crossing efforts were woeful, missed a big chance too
Sancho 2 - pathetic again. Few nice touches early on but avoids physical contact at all costs.
Buendia 7 - passed the ball away far too often in the first half but showed some grit to make the second goal and a chance just after it
Malen 4 - hardly involved at all, bit of a non event when a defence sits back
Tielemans 8 - outstanding cameo. Stood out a mile and got the winner. The rest of the subs came on with the same casual attitude as the guys they replaced.

[lovejoy]

One more win at Fener or home to RB Salzburg and its top 8 isn’t it?

[Toronto Villa]

8 changes, looked disjointed but job done.

[usav]

I thought Lindelof was good tonight.

[Tony Daleys Shorts]

14 wins out of 16 games. We’re the form team in Europe.

Winning these tricky away ties whilst not busting a gut is no mean feat. Just so happens we have a master at it in charge of our team.

[VILLA MOLE]

i wish we go for the jugular and get a 3rd , it might be more comfortable at the end

[Chris Harte]

We did just enough. That'll do, an'all that.

One to West Ham on Sunday.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Poor performance overall but job done.

[eye digress]

Lindeløf was majestic - or rather, the pairing worked well, in so far as the Pau-Mings (I think) partnership at GAE did not.

Guessand, where do you start? The goal was flukey, but you wouldn’t begrudge him that. The rest of the performance, however, was footballing Fawlty Towers. Painful to watch. When does this geezer get rid of the shackles?

Rest of the were average enough for the points.

[eamonn]

winning when you are poor are what the top teams do who win things .

Youri MOM

Don't they also play well and pummel teams? 

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Lindeløf was majestic - or rather, the pairing worked well, in so far as the Pau-Mings (I think) partnership at GAE did not.

Guessand, where do you start? The goal was flukey, but you wouldn’t begrudge him that. The rest of the performance, however, was footballing Fawtly Towers. Painful to watch. When does this geezer get rid of the shackles?

Rest of the were average enough for the points.

Credit where it’s due, I don’t think his goal was a  fluke, his one in Holland was. The rest of his performances was what we’ve come to expect though.

[eamonn]

Looking at some of the opposition, couldn’t an offer for a couple enhance our squad. Surely the purchase figure wouldn’t be too high, particularly if we can get rid of a couple.

We tried that with Boateng and Hadji. Moderate successes at best. Still, Georgie throwing a dirty Lesta player's boot over the Filbert Street roof was worth the transfer fee alone.

[pauliewalnuts]

We really are stuttering through this competition. We are making hard work of it.

It feels like we should be strolling through it - that’s not being arrogant, we have by far the best team/squad, but we are not scoring enough goals, so every game feels like far more of a battle than it needs to be.


But we are now 3rd with no guarantee of finishing in the top 2.

We’re rotating a lot in Europe but it’s clear the squad depth isn’t really there.

If we’re serious about winning this competition we’re going to have to play the first 11 in later rounds - trouble is that coincides with the business end of the premier league. I wonder which Emery will prioritise?

Jesus.

We're 3rd - on goal difference, equal points - of a league of 36 teams - having played 6 games and won 5 of them.

How on earth is that 'stuttering'?