Aston Villa 1-1 Leeds Post match grumble

[paul_e]

Wrong team. Subs too late..Bailey and Buendia should not have played. The Onana/Dougie combo isn't working. Is Tammy the new Malen. Thought Torres would have helped in his passing. Lucky to get a point. The Chelsea result helps but the general level of play is so poor at the moment. Need McGinn back..

The selection I found most surprising was Mings for Torres, together with the reticence to bring Torres on as an attacking substitution – especially in that second half where we were on the ball for 70% of the time. Can only assume there is some lingering injury problem there. Maybe it was with one eye on Calvert-Lewin?

Great admirer of Mings, of course. But his passing is relatively blunt compared to Pau.

Stating the bleedin' obvious but we were very poor today, and got what we deserved.

But trust in Unai to make us competitive again when it matters.

I don't think Torres is fully fit, since he came off against Newcastle in the league he's been used really sparingly and he wasn't moving all that well in the game. Given he was out for a while with a calf problem I suspect there's an underlying issue that they're trying to manage so he can be fully involved again once the European games come back as he's a far better option than Mings for those.

[usav]

Some of this is on Unai.

Torres has to start.  Barkley has to start.  Watkins needs to be dropped and Buendia should be on the bench at best.

[eamonn]

A point. At home. To a poor Leeds team.

What's your point?

[LeonW]

Best thing to do when something clearly isn’t working is to keep on repeating it game after game because that always works.

Worst offenders today:

* Bailey: completely abject in every regard. We also saw some of the lazy tracking back we’ve all become use to.
* Watkins. One good cross field pass followed by plenty of lost duels, poor runs off the ball and poor hold up play. Couldn’t stay onside most of the time. A dream to defend against.
* Buendia: easily swamped, easily dealt with.
* The manager; picked Buendia again after the game at Eland road where he was easily dealt with. Picking Mings in another game where we have more possession and lack ball progressors. Continuing to pick a completely abject Watkins when we now have a good alternative.

Barkley was bright.

We are far too easy to play against although credit to Leeds who carried on where Everton, Brighton and Brentford went before them.

[eamonn]

Decent point in the end, but only because I remember how depressed I was before Tammy & the Burnley goal gave me a quick double hit of good news. Let’s hope other results keep going for us over the next two days.

Hopefully, Unai saw some things he can learn from today.

Does Unai ever show evidence he's learned from previous games?

[eamonn]

We can match what Chelsea do from here on in points wise, and we’ve got a six point head start. It sounds much better when it’s put like that I think.

I agree and a lot of the metrics look really positive, (i.e., 66 points should do it, 4, five more wins required etc). However, the problem is, the drop-off in form of late has been staggering. I knew we would struggle without the three lads in midfield, but I didn't think our general play would go to shit like it has.

Let's face it we were very lucky v Brighton and again today. Playing like that, I'm not confident of us beating anyone and I include Wolves in that.

Wolves just battled back to draw with the next Champions. We ain't winning there.

[andyh]

We got ourselves into an unbelievable position in the league with an incredible run.
There is absolutely no doubt that the injuries have hurt us BUT, that doesn’t excuse the performances of individuals over the last 6 weeks or so.
As I have said before, losing top, top players like Kamara, Tielemans and Ginny is a double whammy.
Not only do you lose that quality, but the replacements are shit.
Buendia and Bailey are players we tried to offload in the summer but no other fucker wants them.
I’m not convinced that Onana and Luiz can play together either.

For me, I am worried that we will also blow 5th.
The team looks devoid of confidence and the drop off in the quality of our attacking play is incredibly worrying.

One big positive for me is Rogers. We know how good he is, but it’s noticeable over the last few weeks how much more involved in play all over the pitch he has become.
He is becoming a proper leader and is doing his best to drag us through games.
Lots of others can take a leaf out of his book.

Finally, Bailey has his Callaghan moment today. He can fuck off.

[eamonn]

Proper frustrating. Buendia and Bailey swapped for Barkley and Sancho and we’d have won that. Onwards….

In the first half those pair were laughably bad, I try to find positives as much as possible but Bailey in particular was both utterly shit and completely disinterested. I'd honestly prefer it if we'd kept Jimoh and Young over this pair on that showing, Sancho and Barkley improved us massively and then Abraham for Buendia meant we suddenly had no one giving the ball away cheaply and we started to really dominate play and build pressure.

Unlike Bailey, at least Buendia doesn't give up. He nearly scored twice in the second half and was always going to be targeted by Leeds' physical players.

Barkley hasn't started a PL game in .... how many months (?), I'm not sure he has the fitness for it. Did well when he came on but also did a couple of stupid things that Buendia would get pelters for - a wayward shot from a position he was never going to score from and giving away a stupid free-kick with a push to the back in front of the referee when we were 1-0 down with less than 10 minutes left.

[Percy McCarthy]

Decent point in the end, but only because I remember how depressed I was before Tammy & the Burnley goal gave me a quick double hit of good news. Let’s hope other results keep going for us over the next two days.

Hopefully, Unai saw some things he can learn from today.

Does Unai ever show evidence he's learned from previous games?

Duran and Rashford forcing their way into the team. Maatsen the same.

That’s the kind of thing I’m hoping for with Tammy and Sancho in particular.

[dorsetvillian]

Exactly. Bogarde/Onana or Barkley/Onana might be better.

[PaulWinch again]

It’s not great at the moment. Least we salvaged a point, but if we don’t improve we’re going to finish 6th. We have to start playing with more intent, particularly at the start of games. It’s so lifeless.

[PeterWithesShin]

Emery reflects on 'deserved draw' against Leeds

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/videos/ckg34yd1g98o

[brontebilly]

Some of this is on Unai.

Torres has to start.  Barkley has to start.  Watkins needs to be dropped and Buendia should be on the bench at best.

Torres played v Newcastle twice and was average at best in both games. Lindelof should be playing instead of Mings and Torres.

[tomd2103]

Proper frustrating. Buendia and Bailey swapped for Barkley and Sancho and we’d have won that. Onwards….

In the first half those pair were laughably bad, I try to find positives as much as possible but Bailey in particular was both utterly shit and completely disinterested. I'd honestly prefer it if we'd kept Jimoh and Young over this pair on that showing, Sancho and Barkley improved us massively and then Abraham for Buendia meant we suddenly had no one giving the ball away cheaply and we started to really dominate play and build pressure.

The problem is that we have a number of players who look good in 20 minute cameos yet are poor when they start. 

[Paul.S]

We’ve just got to keep battling away.
I thought the support was appalling in places. Boo’s from some at half time and that sarcastic cheer when Bailey went off. We’ve been here before with Rogers.