Aston Villa are a top team that have made it to the Champions League Quarter-Finals. Our team is an accumulation of the work of England's worst recruitment department let loose for 3 years after years of spending drought before that. (There can't be anyone worse in terms of resource to output in the entire Football League, surely?) We are just so so far from the standard. That said there is still room for more effort and far far far more footballing intelligence than we have been seeing. Some of the decisions our players make on the pitch are utterly baffling.
There was a point early in the second half when Watkins, Digne, Malan, McGinn and Kamara were all warming up together. All of whom would walk into our XI with ease. But if comparing them to our starting XI was bad enough, then comparing them to our bench was utterly painful. It's hardly a surprise that all three of Villa's goals came from those players. The gulf between the two sides is huge. And yet the day before we sacked Ralph, we were both level on points with 12 points from 13 games. Just a few days earlier, they sacked Gerrard and replaced him with Emery. We sack Ralph and replace him with Jones.
I thought we defended pretty well until the first goal. But when you don’t offer much of a threat on the break, that just makes everything that much harder.
In fairness again to our less than PL standard defenders, they are under almost 90 minutes of constant pressure rebuffing the opposition’s efforts, that I’m not surprised how we let in so many goals. I dared to think that today we just might have kept a clean sheet, but the moment Rambo pulled of that penalty save, the writing of probable defeat was clearly on the wall. It simply is not going to be any different if we continue (not sure we have many options!) to have a toothless midfield who continue to give the ball away and offer goal threats on the scale we are currently doing.
Having an attack as toothless as grandma gums in front of a uncombative midfield failing to support a leaky defence means despite the best efforts of one of the better goalkeepers in the division defeat is the most likely outcome at this level.
I concur with this. The game was heading towards a goalless draw and the end score did not reflect the performance. I think we played well in the first half but lost our coordination after half time when we started to play slower and reverted to playing out from the back again. Just felt like the ghost of Russell Martin was guilty for the second half performance. Have to say out forward players Tall Paul , Archer , Stewart and Dibliing were dreadful. Suleman and Ramsdale were are best players. I would not be sad to see these 4 players moved on.
The culture of playing football is all wrong. There is no pace or ability to play progressive football. I think we will not see any improvement until the owners gave gone. There is an inability to understand about winning. I just feel thst Rust is a cintinuation of what was wrong under Martin. I would like to see a wholesale clear out of the playing and coaching staff if we cannot have new owners. The whole mentality within the club is wrong.
Well the last part you're going to largely get. Whoever is coming in will bring their own staff, and the playing side will change a fair bit.
You think Bournemouth and Brighton are North of us? I’m amazed you find your way home from St Mary’s Thank goodness for SatNav
I am sympathetic towards Ross Stewart, but him coming on in a PL game against a Champions League side is a Golden example of everything wrong with the club. - Pinnacle of career was 13 appearances in the Championship, all career except from that at L1 level or in Scotland. - Last year of contract at Sunderland and still recovering from 9 months out with ACL injury, spent £8m+ when other Championship strikers would have been available for a similar amount, a massive unnecessary risk. - Almost totally absent for two years with major injury issues, 9 League appearances and 0 goals. - Coming on in the Premier League against CL quarter-finalists because we have failed that badly with subsequent transfer dealings. So in a nutshell our transfer dealings have been so bad that we brought on a League One player who has been injured for nearly two and a half years against a Champions League side. This is also one of now many situations where the majority of fans correctly called the outcome of the transfer at the time and the ‘professionals’ at the club got it wrong, something that should barely ever happen.
Surprised there wasn’t more praise for Fernandez on here. Thought he had a pretty good game & was trying throughout.
He was, as always, our most impressive looking outfield player, but his passing was very iffy yesterday.
In the general circumstances of our ‘team’ I can look over the pass problem he had yesterday!! 11 like him and we’d be thinking of Europe next year, not Fratton Park!
"There was a point early in the second half when Watkins, Digne, Malan, McGinn and Kamara were all warming up together. All of whom would walk into our XI with ease." And this can rightly be said against just about everyone we have played bar the other 2 promoted sides. Personally I think Fernandes is our only outfield player of premiership quality. Some will be in the future (Dibling and THB) but are not currently. KWP is of course decent but if you watch full backs of other teams, they are all bloody good. Whilst both Martin and Juric have been awful in different ways, neither getting the best out of this mess, ultimately Pep and Klopp would not keep them up, the squad is terrible.
I enjoyed the comment on TSP that Lallana should get MOTM for completing his first 90mins of the season (in the technical area). FWIW, I thought we were okay on Saturday. Low bar, my expectations are very low but I didn’t see it as a lack of effort at all. But the gulf in both quality and the pace, power and physicality that the Villa players had compared to ours was very evident. We obviously have an incredibly fragile mentality too, which you’d expect. But we competed for the most part and there’s been plenty of games where we haven’t. There were last ditch tackles and blocks etc. and I thought for the most parts the team worked hard. The subs and moving Fernandes from the heart of the midfield just opened us up. Highlighted on TSP (clearly a fanboy) but it’s incredibly frustrating watching us make the same mistakes over and over and over playing Smallbone in a 2 man midfield. He couldn’t do it in the Championship let alone in the PL where athleticism, pace and defensive positioning are all the more important. Anyway, this game will be quickly forgotten. Hopefully the West Ham game will be a real opportunity to pick up a point. This never was really despite making it to 70mins at 0-0. It was always a matter of time. Actually, final word for the ref. Absolute ****. Desperate to give them fouls for **** all and us absolutely nothing, often for similar things. We’d have lost anyway, but **** me he was a twat.
Enjoy the Imps instead. I certainly would if I lived where you live. Why burn up all that money to see a **** team? And I don't go with this through thick and think, I was born with Southampton blood running through my veins argument. To me it is similar to having a love for a local bar. As soon as the beer gets lousy, the service deteriorates and the people there are not so amenable, I cease to go. Same with a football team.
Finally decided to watch the “high”lights. Jeez I know we had already lost at 0-2 but the follow up after Ramsdale’s 2nd pen save was naive to the nth degree. Still WH here we come.
