I walked past a Villa fan when walking back to my car. He was chatting to his mate and said this: "If it'd been 6-0 at half time, we couldn't have complained." 6-0 is a little extreme, but we definitely deserved to be about 4-0 up by half time. It was our own finishing, not Villa's defending, that cost us the points today. All we needed was the second goal to break open the floodgates and a hammering was on the cards. We got complacent in front of goal. We all know that in football you have to score when you're on top. No team (unless you're Barcelona) can dominate teams from first to last whistle. We seemed to expect to get more chances, but they dried up as the game wore on. Did we deserve to win? Hard to say. Did Villa deserve to lose though? Yes. They were terrible and we let this game slip through complacency.
It was our fault its as simple as that, we should have won and expected to win from the first minute but at 90 minute mark we were lucky to get a draw....swansea city beat swansea city and gave away an extra 2pts because we never took advantage of our superiority throughout the match. we were too complacent and there were too many back passes with needless passes when we could have took shots at goal. Vorm as to blame for the first goal and michu and danny could have done better when they had their chances, We scraped a draw at the end that at least gave us a point but 3 points went begging in a game we dominated...same old story with us against bottom sides...
I see both sides of this argument. We should have won on chances created but we didn't deserve to because we allowed a very poor side to get off the rack when we were spit roasting them. In football terms this bordered on criminality and I hope that Michael Laudrup roasted our players in turn when they got back to the dressing room. For me, this was all about character and attitude. We strutted our stuff and posed away without really hurting them after that opening 20 minutes and the intensity gradually drip fed out of our game. We were arrogant and failed to go for the jugular to kill them off as a genuine top team would have done. True, we are not one of the top teams and this is why. We need to learn from them and emulate what they do in similar circumstances. Let's be honest, our team didn't have the character or attitude to dig in after the disappointment of those early misses. I'm not being wise in hindsight but I honestly thought after 30 minutes that we would either draw or lose the game. I also believed that we had the ability to win it and posted as such but having the ability is a totally different thing to having the desire or the will to win. We lacked a leader out there, a snarling, battling Roy Keane type who would have inspired the players to keep on top. Instead, bit by bit we meekly surrendered our domination of the game and allowed Villa to gain confidence and go for it. As I said, criminal! We were unlucky because we twice hit the post and had a nailed on penalty refused but that is no excuse for what I regard as a second half capitulation. Some of our players need to take a long hard look at themselves because some backbone is needed to go with their talent. PLEASE, Michael, get us a midfielder who will drive the rest of them on.
So what you are saying is then that because we played like a Brendan team we got complacent ? Also 23 shots at goal would normally mean we would have won this game, and don't forget the two that hit the bar and the penalty shout that went begging. The ref was also poor in this game, which doesn't surprise me at all.
If Villa were poor, as you say (and they were) what does that say about us losing to them up until the 94th minute?? Sorry but Dai has got it spot on!...........
The same as drawing with them up until the 85th minute! We should have buried them by half time like bigkidderz mentioned above.
what has brendan got to do with anything the ref was good today. he never booked any of our players today and was fair. To blame the ref because of our finishing is a poor excuse, I could not care if we had 100 shots on target it shows the finishing was poor...Brendan my god
Is Ashley Williams doing his job as captain of motivating the players on the pitch? And if not who could take over from him? And make him captain!
Jager the reason we didn't bury them in the first 30 minutes was because we were not clinical enough in front of goal, now you'd expect after a half time pep talk by Laudrup, that they'd come out of the blocks all guns blazing, but instead we were given a poncy performance befitting QPR, so no way am I taking on board your view we should have won, or deserved to have won, as that clearly is in the realms of Walt disney!............... Ivor agree, a midfield general is definitely needed, there is no leader in the middle of the park! A Ferrie Bodde type attacking midfelder, come accurate pass master is needed, shame Ki was not the real deal!................
We can have no complaints other than with ourselves. We should have been out of sight and whistling Dixie after 15 minutes! Will be interesting to see how we respond against Arsenal
Absolutely Glam, all this fantasy talk, 'we deserved to win it' is complete bollox in my view, sorry if I offend, but lets call a spade a spade please!............
Dai the style of play Brendan had us playing was pass pass pass, we had limited shots on goal and we often lost by the sucker punch. Surely you can see that how we are playing now is different.
Phil you are contradicting yourself, you agree with glam saying we should have been out of site by the 1st half, yet when I say it you mention Walt Disney , tell you what mate try to be consistent with what you are saying
The quality of our passing in the midfield has dropped, and that is another issue altogether, and subject for further debate!...........
Quite frankly that performance after the first 20mins was a disgrace!! Swans thinking they were too good and got their pants pulled down yet again! i was so angry with what i saw today, Routs trying to showboat in his own area summed it up perfect, a lack of respect for the opposition and im almost sorry we drew the game !! Desire isnt there when things dont go our way, im getting fed up of playerss taking days off and picking and choosing their performances. I was so frustrated withthem today. I dont care if people think im being too harsh, what ive seen in the last 3 games are 3 poor performances overall. We were a goal line clearence away from losing at Reading,we were lucky as fook against Fulham where we were second best for most of the game, and today after 20mins we thought we were going to breeze our way through with minimum effort !! We need to buck our ideas up and battle for 90mins for a change its starting to piss me off big time. We gave Villa all the ammo they needed today,big time charlie attitude once again
Contradiction?? Elementary my dear Watson! Saying 'we should have been out off sight in the first 30 minutes', and 'we didn't deserve the win at the end' is completely consistent, not only in statement, but by the facts of the game, so what bit of conflict don't you understand Jager?....................
I'm saying on the balance of play, and I mean the whole game not the piecemeal you are talking about we should have and deserved the win. I'm sorry if its a bit confusing for you but we play 90 minutes so the assessment should be on all of the game. Yes the second half was poor but you got to look at the whole picture
