Not too bad a game for us, obviously spoilt by some truly awful refereeing decisions but a another good performance from the R's. The R's controlled the first half with Taarabt strike inside 5 minutes that had Given beaten amongst the highlights. The best chance of the half fell to Villa in the 45th minute when Bannan free-kick was hit sweetly over the wall and seemed destined for the top corner when Paddy came flying across his goal and got a strong hand on it even though the ball was behind him. The second half however had enough controversy to last a month as the referee Michael Oliver felt the need to become centre-stage. Villa started the second half like we had the first and were rewarded with a goal, albeit in the most dubious of circumstances. The penalty that was awarded, was of such surprise to the players, the fans, the commentators on sky and even the assistant referee so much so that when it became clear a penalty had been given they had to zoom on all of the interactions in the box to discover where the foul might have been committed. Kenny was unlucky to save the resulting spot-kick but it was perfectly executed by Bannan. The R's then should have been awarded a spot-kick of their own when Collins deliberately used his hand to stop Derry's goal bound header. Mr Oliver however waived away the appeals much to the dismay of the players and the fans. I don't know about the rest of you but this had me thinking it wasnt going to be our day. Traore unneccessarily got himself sent-off late on, yet can have little complaint having already been booked over the 'penalty'. Yet karma would come roudn to reward Rangers for an awful refereeing display and a good performance with a lucky that wouldnt look out of place in Sunday league. A ball across the box turned goalbound by Helguson was saved only to be deflected by Dunne (ironically Sky's MOTM) into the net. Player Ratings: Kenny 7 (MOTM) - good performance and made great save from free kick and no real errors Traore 4.5 - loses marks for getting sent off however did little wrong today and definetly didnt give away a penalty Hall 5 - looked average. think he is even further out of his depth now. Slow and unlucky not to be booked or even sent off when he rugby tackled Agbonlahor Ferdinand 6 - good game and showed poise to put the ball out when needed Young 6.5 - also had a good game yet wasnt confident when going forward Derry 6 - strong typical performance from Derry with little wrong Faurlin 6 - misplaced passes on occasion and touch looked heavy again on occasion but solid Taarabt 6 - caused Villa a lot of problems in first half yet was anonymous for majority of 2nd Barton 6 - looked solid, lucky not to be seriously injured by some truly cynical challenges flying in SWP 5 - first touch was off and seems to be lacking in confidence, chose not to shoot on to many occasions Boothroyd 5.5 - was a typical bothroyd performace, won everything in the fair, good build game, no shots, no goals Referee Michael Oliver 3 - bottled all the big calls yet is young so he'll learn, very unlikely for him to get a top flight games for the next fortnight
Thanks Super. I think todays performance leaves us with a lot more questions than answers. Our team has to start learning quickly that goals win games. For long periods we controlled the game but i felt that we lacked a killer touch up font. I really dont want to be reading thread after thread this year about bad ref decisions, hand balls, hitting the post or just being unlucky. If we dont put the ball in the net then we can have no complaints. I thought Barton was poor today and gave the ball away to often. I was surprised he was not substituted. Bootsy continues to look lively and nobody can fault his effort but!!!!!!!! Several people are loosing the run of themselves on this site talking about Europe and finishing top ten. We will do very well to finish 17th. Out team has no depth and if we pick up one or two injuries we will be in trouble. This Villa team is very solid. Not too many teams have a better back five than them. Todays result is disappointing but not unexpected. I also felt that Villa were far to physical for us today. They played like the home team and were not afraid to lay down the law with hard tackling. Dare i say i think we are lightweight and need to be far more physical especially at home.
Aston Villa limped to half time and then sorted us right out in terms of formation ... no time on the ball and upped their game. The pressure showed and they got pen. We have to convert and score then we look strong ... the longer it went on the less it looked like we would score. Still on reflection result was at least fair. Already there is a transparency to us QPR ... contain a very creative midfield and take your chances is what i guess most of the sides will be saying. On the upside its nice that teams are looking at how dangerous we can be ... on course for me and a good season ahead i expect however a few fickle doomers will pick at it. Traore deserved a better score than given as unlucky first booking been a great player so far
For me undoubtly the game was about the poor decision making of Michael Oliver who looks completely out of his depth as a ref at this level. Thats all im saying on this subject. A point was at least half way to justice but once again Jay Boothroyd is not the answer up front. Fancy a result at Fulham and a win aginst Blackburn before we start to take on the big teams. 4 pts out of the next 2 games is a must.
No cutting edge up front, time and again we got down the lines and there was no end product, one up front at home is not going to yield too many wins this season. HH made a difference when he came on and showed the advantage of the extra man up front and his good reading of positioning. HH and DJ should start the home games with Barton withdrawn to cover Derry's position. Today's formation is far more effective away from home. Traore's red card will leave us exposed with Hill gone...
Thought that both DJ + HH made a difference - not sure that Jay up on his own is ever going to score many looks like he needs a partner to work with.
We played very well, your ratings are way too harsh, for a team to draw with Villa you have to have an average rating of over 6, especially considering how dominant we were. Anyway, here's my analysis: **** ref, dirty team.
"Can we have a referee?" Nuff said. I suppose we will get the rub of the green eventually. I read yesterday that Adel has had the most number of shots on target in the PL yet without scoring. That will not last for too long either ( I mean he will score, not stop being on target of course ) In the end the draw felt like a win due to the relief but we could / should have won that game. Full credit to the lads for displaying what one might call the 'Derby Spirit' - still one of my favourite comebacks from last season!!
Exactly. Some good work at times down the flanks, but when it came time to cross into the box there was nobody there. Can't rely on long shots and through balls from the middle.
Barton and SWP were both poor today,Taarabt,Derry and Ferdinand were our best players today although Helguson looked dangerous and alot more of a threat than Bothroyd!
Can't agree with some of your ratings. Imo the most difficult thing for us this season is going to be our formation when playing at home. I heard Hanson talking about Man City's formation which is the same as ours. He was saying that 4-2-3-1 is difficult at home cos the away team will deny space and make it difficult, whereas away, they will get more space to play. The same is true for us. Credit to NW for taking Derry and Betty off and changing to 4-4-2 with HH and DJ up front. That made a difference, as did Smith who looked lively. Fantastic save from Paddy from the free kick, which, as it turned out, earned us a point. I thought Villa were very solid defensively and will finish in the top half of the league imo. Overall, it felt like a win to snatch the goal in stoppage time whilst down to 10 men. Thought the ref was pretty dire but I need to watch the game back before I can comment on the penalty etc. My ratings: Kenny - 8 Fantastic save kept us in the game Young - 7 Solid and reliable Ferdinand - 7 Good game. Kept Gabby quiet Hall - 7 Not his biggest fan, but I thought he had a reasonable game, apart from his distribution Traore - 5 Silly challenge whilst on a yellow card and lost possession in some bad areas. I like him and he's excellent on the ball. Just needs more experience at this level imo. Derry - 6 Solid game, but looked off the pace for the first 25 mins of the 2nd half imo Faurlin - 6 Similar to derry, although he used the ball pretty well SWP - 6 All this talk of England and Cappello seemed to affect him today. A bit of an off day, but he was hacked down a lot by a very physical Villa Taarabt - 6 Choosing the right pass more and more and worked hard to win the ball back at times. Fantastic shot in 1st half that curled onto the post Barton - 5 Bit of an off day for me. Gave the ball away a lot Betty - 5 Good at holding the ball up but he does himself no favours by looking so laid back. I feel I want to give him a kick up the harris to get him going. I think at home I may be tempted to play 4-4-2 with HH & DJ up front! HH - 7 Did very well when he came on DJ - 7 Also looked sharp when he got on Smith - Again looked lively when brought on
Things I disagree with you on: Fitz Hall pretty much one every single air ball that was available to him but was just a bit lacking in confidence when it came to attacking the ball and giving Villa players some muscle. I don't think he showed himself to be completely out of depth. You're wrong about Jay Bothroyd having no shots. He had some amazing touches tonight, dizzying defenders. He's got a fantastic touch at times. Also, did anyone else think that Helguson looked really good when he came on? And his work led to the goal. And... how many REAL chances did Villa have today? Bugger all. The only real chances they had were a penalty and a free kick. Nothing real from open play. Our defence were actually really good today... but that tackle from Treore was bad.
HH did look good - shows he won't be out of his depth when called upon. I think we could do a lot worse than starting off with him up front with either of the other front men. BTW anyone see greaseball Paladini with Capello - as if the England team weren't in enough trouble without his input!
Some very negative posts here esp you NUTS, I'm surprised! I thought we played well and on another day we win the game. The lack of a finisher though must be addressed. That and someone who can actually find the target with a free-kick. I've no doubt we'll stay up. Can anyone honestly compare these performances to the way we played last season even though we won the League? Last year our football was atrocious. Now we can play.
When I said i no shots, i meant to say no shot. His finishing ability that we've seen so far at least I think is the one thing holding him back. As far as Hall goes, I personally dont rate him having watched too many horror shows from him over the years yet he did have a reasonable game today and is good in the air, yet does get completely beaten when faced either in a 1 on 1 situation or when the ball is on the floor.
Well swords we are all entitled to our opinion. The points i raised i felt were fair and realistic. Nearly every point i mentioned has been raised by others in this thread or others in the last 24hrs. I can assure you i am not a negative person but instead see myself as being realistic. a. If we could turn ball possession or chances created into goals we would have won the wigan, newcastle and villa games. Therefore i think it is very valid to say that we need to start converting our chances. b. Barton was very poor yesterday. Nearly every person who posted here yesterday referred to this. In another thread i mentioned that players are not robots. Barton will have plenty of great matches for us. But yesterday, he was poor. c. Bothroyd will run all day for us. He seems to have a good touch. But IMO he has not yet looked like he will score us goals. Maybe the formation we are playing is not helping him. Maybe he needs to play off somebody. But again i think its fair to say that as of yet he has not proved himself at the top level. d. We were lightweight yesterday as regards being physical. AV did play like the home team in the way they pressed and tackled. They were not afraid to put the foot in. IMO they almost bullied us at times. I dont want our players to play like thugs but i think a team playing at home needs to be more physical and assertive. I dont think we have enough physicality in our team/ Its just my opinion. I am not being negative i am just making an observation. I have read a lot of rubbish on this site where some of our fans have been talking about Europe and top tens. As i said, i see myself as a realist. If we pick up even a few injuries you will see how paper thin this team and squad is. Remember that Bolton hammered us 4-0 at home with our "old team". Every point we pick up will be invaluable. We will do very well to stay up. This AV team is very solid and will finish in the top 6-8, yet some people were predicting 3-0, 4-0 results. We played very well yesterday and i take great heart from the fact that we more than held our own. But we will not survive if we dont start turning possession into goals. Just ask Blackpool. I know this is a forum for opinions, thats why i eventually joined it. I love listening to other peoples opinions, especially if there is a bit of thought put into it. But some poeple on this site have to calm down and be realistic. The points i raised were valid, realistic and fair. I call it as it is Swords. Also, you cannot compare our team, squad or performances from last year. That was the championship mate. Bolton showed us how good a championship team will be in the Prem. Last years QPR team would not have picked up 20Pts this year. NW and KC as much as said so. Our football was also consistently good last year.
