POST MATCH THREAD: Aston Villa

[Somerset Fulham]

I have absolutely no idea what BDR has done wrong, he has been more than good enough this season when called upon.

Tonight though, that was a really bad night for everyone involved. Villa were almost as abject as we were and the whole thing had a tired feel about it.

Stil. Its nice to know that a bad performance isn't going to end up being the bad peformance that gets us relegated so as far as the season goes, its all good.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Tonight was not our finest hour, but these things happen when you play away in mid week against a very inform team who are extremely confident.
We lost Willian in the warm up and Wilson early in the first half.
So had to readjust and in doing so shipped a goal.
The only goal of the game as it
happens but enough to lose.

This is English Premier League Football, not Premiership, but Premier League.
That should have sunk in by now.
Even my Garden Gnome calls it Premier League.

Nevertheless back to the match.
We did not do ourselves justice, but that's football.
All ifs and buts and we live to fight another day.

[Nick Bateman]

Once BDR came on I knew we would lose. Really mystifies me what Marco sees in him? Hard tryer but headless chicken! Vinicius still has no fight - lightweight!

[Motspur Park]

We played with no intent yesterday. We set ourselves up with no attacking threat and we got what we deserved.... Well, perhaps not, we deserved to be thrashed. Dan James is not a striker and offered absolutely nothing in that position.
We had limited options but the manager and initial selections are the reasons for this loss. I can't see that Brentford would have capitulated so meekly. We have had a few of those games this season and that is what concerns me.
The problem was not Vinicius or BDR, it was the setup, formation and intent from the off.
Despite all of the above looking like a rant, it really isn't. Just my thoughts on yesterday's performance or lack of one. We have had a great season and are being hampered by Mitro's absence.
If ever there was a game to demonstrate where we need to strengthen next season, this was it.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Once BDR came on I knew we would lose. Really mystifies me what Marco sees in him? Hard tryer but headless chicken! Vinicius still has no fight - lightweight!

Vinicius does not punch his weight,  he could not trap a bag of cement.
His positioning and lack of creating space for himself and others would put a sunday morning footballer to shame.
He trains during the week with hours of coaching and conditioning and his timing and first touch is still mediocre as is his work rate.

[Lordedmundo]

It was just a very flat performance. I wouldn't pick out any particular players for criticism. There was just not enough forward momentum from the middle of the park, so our attacking midgets were mainly chasing lost causes and being muscled off the ball - especially in the 1st half.

I wasn't all impressed with Villa - although you could argue they didn't have to do much to beat us, we were pushing them back a fair bit in the 2nd half. Both Liverpool and Brighton will finish above them I think.

Clearly, losing Willian and Wilson was a blow, as they are two of our most in form players at the moment.  Hopefully both are back on Sunday and we will at least give Man City a game...

[@jolslover]

Solomon criticism doesn't make sense as he was our only player yesterday that looked like he could make something happen (I went) - so to identify him as a weak link is somewhat strange

Tosin, Ream and Palhinha had decent games and Cedric looked alright when he came on. Think it was just one of those days really - forget and move on

[wback]

I think we should be pretty happy with how we drained Villa of ideas. They've been on a great run and Watkins has been very dangerous. They scored with a flick on from a corner, and didn't really have any other xG.

Obviously it was bad that we really didn't do much to build on the limited momentum we had in the 2nd half. Thoughts:

- Solomon didn't offer a lot. Feels like his decision making isn't quite there. Either cut onto the right and get the shot off or slide a pass, or head for the byline and cut back/chip to the back post. But make a choice!
- Same for James. A couple of times where you can see his pace, but wouldn't just take his man on.

Harrison Reed was probably our most dangerous player. Says a lot.

[Woolly Mammoth]

The problem sometimes is that if 3 or 4 players are not on their game it affects others and has a domino effect, and then the team as a whole gets dragged down.
I am not making excuses for Fulham but you see it at all levels.

Look at Spurs the other day and that 20 minute spell, they have real problems.
Look at Man U at Liverpool when they dropped their heads.

last night we only lost by one goal.
So we have to use that defeat as a strength to bounce back and make up for it in the next game, we have no need to fear anyone if we play without fear.

If an average player plays in a team of super stars, they will make him look good as he plays a part in their system.

If a super star player plays in a mediocre team, it will rub off on him and he can get dragged down and then is unable to play to his best.

It can work both ways hence the reason why it is important to have balance which restores consistency, and consistency is the key for Fulham to punch their weight in the Premier League.

[alfie]

Vinny comes on for the last few minutes and gets blamed, can anyone tell me a ball forward that he could have done anything with. We spent more time passing backwards, sideways, anyway but forwards. The whole team had no fight, we were more worried about what they could do instead of doing what we can do.

[demeant0r]

Vinny comes on for the last few minutes and gets blamed, can anyone tell me a ball forward that he could have done anything with. We spent more time passing backwards, sideways, anyway but forwards. The whole team had no fight, we were more worried about what they could do instead of doing what we can do.

Yes, he was in the right side of the pitch in or close to the Villa side. A ground pass that was pretty good was made to him. The defender that was making just stood his ground and got the ball while vini bumped into him and didn't. If vini stood his ground he'd be able to get to the ball. He's absolutely clueless.

[filham]

Losing the two Ws must have had a psychological affect and put us on the back foot from the start. Attack wise we just weren't competitive which shows how we lack depth in that department. I know we have an abundance of wingers but, apart from Willian they all play in fits and starts - occasionally brilliant but not consistent. Biggest weakness is in not having players to replace Mitro in the scoring department. The two Ws are our best hopes for scoring and both we're missing.  Think the defence did pretty well, especially Tosin. They handled everything Villa threw at them except for a very good goal which most teams would have conceded. James, BDR, and Solomon are all good enough as backups but the team can only afford to play one of them at a time or we lose any kind of cutting edge. It's been a good season but recruitment is needed if we are to repeat it next year.

A good post but would just add that the old routine of having full backs on the goal line when defending corners would have prevented that goal.

[Sting of the North]

Losing the two Ws must have had a psychological affect and put us on the back foot from the start. Attack wise we just weren't competitive which shows how we lack depth in that department. I know we have an abundance of wingers but, apart from Willian they all play in fits and starts - occasionally brilliant but not consistent. Biggest weakness is in not having players to replace Mitro in the scoring department. The two Ws are our best hopes for scoring and both we're missing.  Think the defence did pretty well, especially Tosin. They handled everything Villa threw at them except for a very good goal which most teams would have conceded. James, BDR, and Solomon are all good enough as backups but the team can only afford to play one of them at a time or we lose any kind of cutting edge. It's been a good season but recruitment is needed if we are to repeat it next year.

A good post but would just add that the old routine of having full backs on the goal line when defending corners would have prevented that goal.

It would also likely have presented opportunities for Villa to exploit elsewhere. I assume there is a thought behind not using players on the goal line, and not just an oversight.

[rogerpbackinMidEastUS]

I only managed to watch the last 25 minutes.
What disappointed me most was the amount of times our forwards
were running into great positions, desperate for a through ball
or one over the top.
Villa seemed to be playing quite 'high up' and with the pace we
had we missed several great attacking opportunities.
I hate to say this but one of the main culprits was Tim Ream.
He had several chances to 'lob one over the top' but instead
turned back and squared the ball. He wasn't the only one.
Several time the left sided attackers had their hands up, in plenty of space up and started very well timed runs.
BDR got better service and as someone said, he made a couple of things
happen. A couple of his 'traps' were almost Berbatovish, but not quite
Oh well.

[heylookitsjacob]

Maybe I'm biased because of how much this forum likes Solomon, but thought he was really really poor yesterday. No one was very good, but Solomon's first touch looked really bad and whether it was rust or just poor I'll leave that up to Silva.

Losing to a really in form side 1-0 isn't all that bad, especially with how bad our team played. If Willian is out for the rest of the season and Wilson misses a couple games, we are going nowhere but down the table.

[Matt10]

For me, we just didn't want to take any chances despite many good forward runs. We have James in those positions for a reason, why did we not use him? Instead we sent Reed on a run where he's offsides. Also, there was a point in time where Tete could have crossed the ball or sent in a through pass from the wing, but opted to recycle around for no reason.

Overall, we looked like an attacking team that wanted to walk the ball into the net. Even the likes of Solomon trying to connect with blind passes rather than take on a player 1v1 and shoot. With the amount of possession, we really should have come away with more than one shot.

Also, Vini wasted 3 of our 5 minutes of stoppage time. Absolutely pointless putting him on anymore where he's going to try to square up, in the most pathetic obvious fashion, to a defender and lose out in the battle. Not to mention when a ball is crossed into him he doesn't know the very basic movements of a forward who tries to get open. Promote a youth team player at this rate, or better yet, throw in Duffy to play target man.

[KJS]

Considering everyone in the Media is blowing smoke out of Vila's backside I thought that despite FFC being under strength throughout the match Villa were actually not that much better than us!!
Losing Willian and Wilson hurt our tactics that had been developed in training to deal with the opposition and the only player who in my mind deserves to be chastised is Vinicius, then again who else is there at the moment to replace our out and out striker??
We need good recruitment in the summer but I'm sure the club already realise that and I for one am glad we won't be in Europe as I've seen how Wet Spam have struggled in the Premier league with a far better squad than oursbdue to their European exploits COYW

[colinwhite]

We gave them too much respect in the first have and they got lucky goal, played much better football but created nothing. 2nd half we were much better but its hard to create chances against a well organized Villa who have only conceded 3 goals in the last 15 games if Im not mistaken. Willian and Wilson could have mad a difference last night. disappointed in Solomons performance. I thought he looked very lightweight. BDR didn't do much was decent in possession.Dont understand criticism of him,hes been excellent for us all season.

[Blawarmy]

Piss easy next match to bounce back from the poor performance last night. Its not like City are playing for anything either. 

[WindyCity]

Definitely a bit crap, but it's not realistic to expect an electrifying performance every match. We go again

For a top half table side, I'm sorry, no excuse or rationalization allowed for such a poor show.  JMHO