Taken from the BBC for what they are worth Possession Aston Villa 48% - Norwich 52% Attempts on target Aston Villa 6 - Norwich 7 Attempts off target Aston Villa 6 - Norwich 2 Corners Aston Villa 6 - Norwich 6 Fouls Aston Villa 11 - Norwich 9 Majority of possession? Did you think the same? Those stats make decent reading despite losing away and certainly support PL's statement that some of the defending cost us 2 points or possibly more.
Not bad for being away. Crucially we are scoring goals at the moment. Letting in a few less would help. When are Whitbread and Ayala back to give us a few more options?
What I also though a short time after posting those stats was.......... Although last night many of us were in agreement that perhaps a 4-4-2 is not the best selection for an away game.....maybe it could be? Had Barnett not had a nightmare and we either drew or even won the game would we not be singing the praises of PL for using that formation?
Well the official "stats"can often seem a little odd. Suprised by that possession % for sure Anyone see motd? Our friend lawro described us as defending like a championship team. Probably not that harsh tbh, we certainly can score goals but need to tighten up at the back. Most of our CBs are injured that doesn't help!!
I saw it, max. You couldn't tell if the stats were right or not as there wasn't a great deal of highlights. At the end of the game when the "experts" summarised the game, they showed zero highlights of our play apart from Barnett's mistake. They couldn't even bring themselves to show Pilkington's classy free kick. Imagine if it was Rooney or Gerrard - we would have watched it from about five different angles. I suppose its what we have to expect though.
I'm surprised by those stats, I thought Villa had the better game, but that's not to say that we were poor. It's good to read though. I think playing against world class players (agbonglahor) did expose us a bit today, being "youngry" can only take us so far, and when push comes to shove, there's not much anyone can do against a player of that calibre. Loads of positives to take though!
To be honest, that is the first time I have seen Agbonglahor play for a full 90 minutes. I was of course well aware of his goal scoring ability but not so aware of his all round play. Hell, he is very good player and could have a great career ahead.
the stats are largely irrelevant. villa were the better team and played well. city did well last twenty minutes when we were chasing the game. the only stat that counts is the one that read 3:2. as for motd, lawro was right about the defending but i wonder if rooney had scored that free kick whether they would have waxed lyrical about it? not even a mention for pilks! the handball which led to the goal? nothing, not a mention, but we can hardly complain as it went in our favour last week
..............is it true that we failed to score yesterday, because not one mention of any city goal on motd by the charisma bypass duo. i'm sure i remember us scoring a couple.
Bring Whitbread back any day those defensive nerves have crept back in. Up front we need to consider starting Jackson instead of Morison who apart from scoring didn't do much in my opinion, people whinge about Chris Martin not chasing down balls I lost count how many times this guy gave up. They pilled through our midfield, when we started we were pressing them high up the pitch some cracking stuff, after their equaliser they got into shape and they were running through our midfield. Wes had a bad game he lost of possession, tried short set pieces, took on too many people in general he made some terrible decisions. Even though his defensive side of the game has not been good but the minute Fox came on we were pinging passes about and keeping the ball.
Tbh though when whitbread was playing he was making dodgy mistakes! Lets face it, they were right... We are defending like a championship side, look back to last season cause we barely got a clean sheet in that league so i dont know why people expect us to tighten up in a league much more stronger attacking wise.
