Aston Villa vs Man United Post-Match Thread

[amfy]

Not a fan of those photos unless you achieve something. Lose the next 3 and you look as daft as Newcastle used to.

They've just won 10 games in a row which we hadn't previously done in the top flight since 1914. I think that's an achievement worth a photo. When the run ends it'll be too late to have a photo marking it.

[Nev]

The result was a ‘heist’ according to the guardian ‘talking points’.
 

"Villa were very lucky..." Well, maybe but both sides had several chances to score more goals. In the end, Villa's solid defence did its job well. What is more interesting is that Manchester set the team up in  way which Villa found difficult to cope with ... which makes the victory even more creditable.
The narrative that without Rogers we'd have lost is lazy: yes, he scored one outstanding goal and was well-positioned to score the second, but they were team goals created from good passing and individual skill from other players (McGinn's pass to Rogers for the first should be given far more credit than I've seen / heard / read-about, and Tielemans' persistence and skill for the second was classy). Furthermore, without Heaven's first-half defending display, Villa would have been out of sight.

Tim de Lisle, who was also the minute-by-minute guy, literally writes a Man Utd fan Substack.

I don't really care about the silly press coverage re us vs. the Big Fucks, but it's got extra silly this weekend I must say.

Even other fans are taking the piss in the comments section, as they do whenever Simon Stone writes a Newton Heath love letter on the Beeb.

[andyh]

I do think the crowd tension might have been reflected a little in that last 20 minutes performance ….you could sense most were just waiting for the ‘inevitable equaliser’ or ‘inevitable penalty’.  The roar at the end when Guessand was dribbling and Oliver blew the whistle felt more of an exhaling of breath than a cheer :-) - shows what history does because we weren’t playing Madrid or PSG we were playing a bang average team who played slightly above themselves

I think this is 100% bang on the money.
It was incredibly tense. It was nerve shredding.

[Lsvilla]

It was tense. As we've all seen this game played out before and usually with a disastrous ending. But this team is different and hopefully we can overcome that tension in future versions of this fixture. I also think we did play with half an eye on the next two games hence a more controlled approach rather than pressing them hard. On another day we're out of sight by half time given the early chances we had.

[ROBBO]

That last free kick of theirs had me thinking it's going to happen again.

[VILLA MOLE]

That last free kick of theirs had me thinking it's going to happen again.

There set pieces were awful , luckily 

[danno]

That last free kick of theirs had me thinking it's going to happen again.

There set pieces were awful , luckily

The long throw straight to Martinez was a highlight

[Stinkin_Thinkin]

Villa won and didn't even get out of 2nd gear.  Utd's goal was an xmas gift there was only a minute to go before half time! Cash could of launched it. I never felt they were a threat at all although Dorgu did keep cashy on his toes all game. If Rogers has a good world cup we will be fending off record bids in the summer.

[Pete3206]

I'm loving that Newton Heath fans are moaning about our luck and how much better they were.

They have a case but hey, fuck off anyway and keep crying.

[Smithy]

That’s probably the worst our midfield unit of Kamara, Onana and Tielemans have played in ages, they wasn’t particularly good at hardly anything. They were out bossed for most of the game. However we still probably had the best chances, albeit early on, but we’re still showing we have World beaters in the team, even when off our game.

Selection error from Emery for me. Without Torres we have no distributor at the back, an issue made worse by Tielemans playing higher up the pitch. Too easy to press Onana in particular. Tielemans was the worst of the three of them today but the other two weren't much better than their no show last May.

I don't think it was a selection error, we just need to have a plan for teams brave enough to go man-for-man when they press us.  It's been pretty rare this year we've faced a team doing that, so we've always been able to move the ball quick enough to find the free man - but there wasn't one against United.  All three midfielders had players up their arse when the ball was going across the back four, and that removed our ability to control and dictate the play from our own box.  I'm sure Pau would have been able to pick a few passes to get the ball to McGinn/Rogers had he been playing, but without him, we need to be better at dealing with a man-for-man press.

I'm absolutely sure Unai has a plan should Chelsea try the same thing at Stamford Bridge (Man Utd had a certain degree of joy with this tactic, so I'd expect it to be copied).  It wouldn't surprise me to see McGinn or Rogers drop deeper to make a midfield four, pulling their fullback deeper and leaving it 2v2 up top for a longer ball.

Either way, teams are figuring out how to press us better, that's 2 goals in 2 games conceded while being pressed, and so we need to evolve. 

[LeeB]

They had a lot of the ball and it mostly ended with them plopping a cross straight into Martinez hands. They had that Sesko chance which was from a mistake, that ball shouldn't have got through about 6 players, and Cunha fluffing that header, and that was it.
Wulvz caused us as much and maybe more bother, and they got fuck all as well. They think they're in the fight but we're in 2nd gear.

[cdbearsfan]

Yeah, we rarely twat anyone. Unai wants to win while using as little energy as possible. Even the best managers can still learn and he has learned from how knackered we were at the end of the season two years ago and determined not to repeat that. Ten wins in a row, nine of them by the odd goal, isn't a fluke, it's deliberate.

[Sexual Ealing]

Agreed, but I’d love us to gub someone 10-0

[cdbearsfan]

We should have put ten last Young Twats, tbh. They were shite.

[LeeB]

Agreed, but I’d love us to gub someone 10-0

I'd like to save that for the FA Cup if at all possible, and against yesterday's opposition.