Deserved nothing

[super_pig]

I would disagree with the theory that we didn’t deserve anything from the game. We outplayed Villa in the opening 30 minutes and could easily have had a couple of goals, fans claiming we never looked like scoring are talking nonsense, we rattled their bar, Johnstone made some fine saves and Wilson’s overhead kick was only a fraction off.

I said in the chat box at half time that as a team we were playing the better football. We looked fluid, the team look like they know each other’s games, there was some brilliant pass and moves going off and by and large we were creating the better chances. Lee Evans and John Fleck looked good on midfield, Clarke was working hard for the team and Baldock looked a threat marauding up the flank again.

However, what Aston Villa possess what we unfortunately don’t and that’s out and out match winners. At any moment I could see Grealish weaving some magic and creating a goal, or Adamoah’s pace hurting us on the left with Baldock not at home. But the one thing I could see happening (and I predicted it in the chat box at half time) was a Snodgrass screamer. We were allowing him so much time on the ball all game. His set pieces looked dangerous and moments before his last minute winner he tried the same trick but Stevens fortunately managed to cut him out. To allow him, their biggest threat, to come inside like that was criminal, but it’s been the story of our season and it was so predictable. We’ve dropped so many points, having dominated teams, to individual moments of brillIance - usually long rangers.

As per so many games this season, whilst looking the more cohesive unit, we lack the individuals to win us games with moments of brilliance like tonight and thus we are destined to scrap it out for 6th place (which is no embarrassment given how far we’ve come).

I would note that Moore, O’Connell and Stearman all looked solid again tonight. 7/10.

Basham - 6/10. Did some awful things with the ball tonight, looked dead clumsy. His engine is useful and he is wholehearted in everything he does but the quality is often lacking. Potentially a position we should look to improve upon.

Baldock 8/10, he’s improving. He’s a good athlete and is starting to improve going forward. Had two good efforts on goal and put a couple of decent balls in (one of which was at head height and went right across the 6 yard box, nobody attacked it).

Enda Stevens 5.5/10. His attacking output continues to disappoint (though he did chip one nice ball to the back post first half which made a nice change). I’m assuming it was him who let Snodgrass in for the goal? If it was him my mark is correct. If not, I may be being harsh.

This Lee Evans fella could turn out to be a great find. Some moments of real quality tonight and looks to have a bit of fire in his belly. Likes a tackle and can play a bit too. 7/10 along with Fleck who put in his usual busy shift. The pair of them had some appalling attempts on goal though. We need to improve our shots from range.

Ryan Leonard 5.5/10. He looks nervous on the ball. He took the easy decision every time and tried to shift it on like a hot potato. You can see why Wilder likes him and I’m confident he will come good, but Lundstram must be disappointed to be overlooked on his account given early performances.

Clarke and Wilson I would give 6/10. Both worked hard but nothing really fell for them. It’s a shame Wilson isn’t fully match fit yet, he looks dangerous.

we simply have to stop players having 30 yard pot shots at goal.. it’s ok in L1 the ball ends up on Shoreham street but in the efl some of these players (like snodgrass) are prem quality and they ‘will’ score

 

[Tynemouth Blade]

We got exactly what we deserved from that game. No creativity or guile going forward at all. All huff and puff to no avail. Why is our player of the season sat on his arse when we are crying out for some craft and composure going forward . Clayton Donaldson must wonder what he has done wrong to not be starting

Very poor tonight in my opinion from Tufty. Never did enough to win it even when we had decent spells

I see a correlation to Leon going off the boil since he was handed the captains band. he needs to be left to roam free and give the job to Bash or Stearman

i cannot believe that he is changing up what has worked so well all season. Duffy has to start every game for me

think this is the end of the playoff charge , now with a trip to Wolves

Bollocks!
We played well tonight, bossed Villa for most of the game and had 4 very good chances, with some top class saves fromtheir keeper, but were beaten by a very good goal when the game was heading for 0-0!

 

[boo radley]

We got exactly what we deserved from that game. No creativity or guile going forward at all. All huff and puff to no avail. Why is our player of the season sat on his arse when we are crying out for some craft and composure going forward . Clayton Donaldson must wonder what he has done wrong to not be starting

Very poor tonight in my opinion from Tufty. Never did enough to win it even when we had decent spells

I see a correlation to Leon going off the boil since he was handed the captains band. he needs to be left to roam free and give the job to Bash or Stearman

i cannot believe that he is changing up what has worked so well all season. Duffy has to start every game for me

think this is the end of the playoff charge , now with a trip to Wolves

Your 'e' has fell off.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

I find criticisms of Wilder crazy. It’s his first season at this level (as indeed it is for the majority of our players) and he has a team with scant resources comfortably competing with the best sides in the division. I have seen very few teams play as good a football as us, or look as innovative and creative in their play. We lack individual quality which unfortunately is difficult to come by without money.

Hand Aston Villa’s squad to Chris Wilder and they’d be gone by now. I think Wilder sits in the best 2 or 3 managers in the division.

 

[Paulus]

Frustrating night in the end, don't get this deserved to or didn't deserve to bollocks, there's no such thing in football, we got caught out by a class strike and we failed to score. We played well in the first half but they certainly had the better of the second.

We were sloppy from the off in the second and it remained a constant theme, too many poor touches, too many thumps up field where Chester and Terry bossed everything. I thought Fleck, Evans and O'Connell were very good, Wilson, Clarke, Baldock, Moore, Stearman didn't do much wrong (although Wilson's first touch wasn't as good as I would have expected given his pedigree) I thought Basham, was below par and Stevens had an ineffective night. (we created little from our left and it was no surprise the goal came from there. Not sure what to expect of Leonard but I though he was the least effective of the midfielders. I thought the subs made us weaker and we lost our structure a bit. A goal for them had been becoming a real possibility for the last 20 minutes or so.

Just feel that we are at a difficult point in the team's development at the moment, we don't seem to be getting the rub of the green but on the other hand as the standards and expectations increase the more is demanded of the players and one or two of them seem to need to be playing at the absolute top of their games to compete, when they drop a fraction they are out of their depth. As others have said I question the subs, we were crying out for Duffy to try and unpick the defence I don't understand why he didn't come on for Leonard.

 

[alcoblade]

We got exactly what we deserved from that game. No creativity or guile going forward at all. All huff and puff to no avail. Why is our player of the season sat on his arse when we are crying out for some craft and composure going forward . Clayton Donaldson must wonder what he has done wrong to not be starting

Very poor tonight in my opinion from Tufty. Never did enough to win it even when we had decent spells

I see a correlation to Leon going off the boil since he was handed the captains band. he needs to be left to roam free and give the job to Bash or Stearman

i cannot believe that he is changing up what has worked so well all season. Duffy has to start every game for me

think this is the end of the playoff charge , now with a trip to Wolves

Utter shite. As per.

 

[Davalon]

Deserved a draw on the balance of play imho but I do feel teams are more wise to our style of play now.

They can't stop us having the ball but they're closing down space quicker and better.

 

[ucandomagic]

not really. just not got the rose tinted spectacles on. We simply didn't do or create enough in the final third to win the game. sorry if that isn't what you want to hear Happy Clapper !!

What game did you watch - we had 16 shots, 6 on target, we hit the woodwork with the keeper beaten and the keeper made 3 or 4 quality saves. I’ve just got back and watched the end on a recording and all the commentators were drooling over their keeper, and their Asst Manager Calderwell(?) said they’d got away with one. That was a great game of football between 2 teams playing well, and decided on very fine margins. Games like tonight are what we have dreamed of for 6 years. When both teams have quality you don’t always win.

The Magic Continues

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

I disagree with the OP, I think a draw would have been a fair result. I've been to both games this season with my villa mate and we felt that two draws were about right - he said they didn't deserve to win last night.

The way I see it, we dominated the first half and they edged the second half with us not creating as much.

 

[Steve Mackan]

What a load of over-reactionary shit.

RIght about Duffy though.

 

[Liverpool blade]

I think we should have won last night after that first half showing!!. We have just been unlucky yet again!. The lads need to keep plugging away and our luck will change!. At the moment wilder is trying to fit 3 new players into the side and they're not up to the desired fitness level just yet. We'll get there but I think the top 2 might be a struggle?. Let's just hope we can grab a playoff spot. If we don't I'm not going to see it as a failure!!!. We've come such a long way in less than 2 years!!. It's a hell of a journey and I'm loving it. Long may it continue. In wilder/knill we trust. BLADES FOR LIFE.

 

[Deleted member 875]

I thought we was on for a draw against one of the best sides in the Division and that was cruelly snatched from us. I think we will lose at Wolves and then we have a run of games where can find a bit of form again and get back amongst the mix again.

However having read the OP I now feel enlightened. We are shit, Wilder is shit, the board is shit, the new players are shit, the players we already had are shit, and we might as well write this season off as we aren’t going to make the play offs.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Watched it back last night when I got in. Without doing down any of our players, the difference between the sides isn't a big one and if you swap keepers we win.

 

[South Bucks]

All this deserve stuff is irrelevant santa claus believing tosh. Football is all about being more effective and scoring more than the opposition. In our last four home games we have scored one goal from a penalty. We are very ineffective up front, slow, predictable, poor movement, tactics, decision making and technique. If it was a one off I could buy the bad luck bit but this has been going on for some time and in the longer term you make your own luck by what you do and unfortunately we are not learning and trotting out the same ineffective stuff at home. Is it bad luck or not what we deserved to keep kicking or heading it over the bar for example.

 

[Sparky]

From Villa’s forum says it all really

 

[Darthblade]

Really? You agree that we deserved to lose?

We certainly didn’t do enough to win but we didn’t deserve to lose. We had a lot more attacking intent than Villa, you can’t say they deserved the 3 points

Correct mate ...... even Villa's own fans don't think they deserved 3 points !!

A £15m player earning £42k a week was the difference between the sides .......

UTB & FTP

 

[Chali 2na]

We got exactly what we deserved from that game. No creativity or guile going forward at all. All huff and puff to no avail. Why is our player of the season sat on his arse when we are crying out for some craft and composure going forward . Clayton Donaldson must wonder what he has done wrong to not be starting

Very poor tonight in my opinion from Tufty. Never did enough to win it even when we had decent spells

I see a correlation to Leon going off the boil since he was handed the captains band. he needs to be left to roam free and give the job to Bash or Stearman

i cannot believe that he is changing up what has worked so well all season. Duffy has to start every game for me

think this is the end of the playoff charge , now with a trip to Wolves

Allow me to be the first to say; I'm glad you were exiled

 

[Lawrence]

the poster is correct about us needing that top end championship player to unlock a close game. Most of the top half teams seem to have that certain player, be it a midfielder or attacker. The closest we have is Duffy who was sitting warming his arse. but in these 0-0 games that's the diff between say us and likely finishing 8th or 9th and the teams who will get in 4th to 6th

I agree with the OP to a certain degree, and don’t think it is an over reaction bearing in mind our current form,
I can’t understand CW starting with 3 of the new players, don’t know what he saw in training? it was evident to see in particular the fluidity of the midfield was disrupted, lot of passes going astray, OK Evans had some nice little touches and played some good cross field passes but gave the ball away quite a lot. What would have been wrong with a safe and proven midfield of Fleck, Duffy with the addition of EVANS? to see how it goes, then look at introducing the other slowly over the next few games + Donaldson had to play!

Also with references to the ‘Budget Thread’ of a few weeks ago... CW was talking after the game about these special players that the likes of Villa have and that he has done the best he could with ‘The money I was given’ and not the players he might have wanted to get the job done?
I know it’s early days but I don’t see Wilson being that special striker that everyone on this form were asking for!

 

[Ridgeway Blade]

Disagree with OP. How you can say there was no creativity when we played really well first half and were unlucky not to lead at half time and, even if we huffed and puffed at times in the second half, we made the goalie make at least three good saves. You must expect a top team to have decent spells of possession and create chances but we defended very well and Moore didn't have much to do. He had no chance with the goal.
Team selection arguments will continue as we now have a few different options which is good as we are bound to get injuries and suspensions at some stage.

 

[Torrix1889]

We got exactly what we deserved from that game. No creativity or guile going forward at all. All huff and puff to no avail. Why is our player of the season sat on his arse when we are crying out for some craft and composure going forward . Clayton Donaldson must wonder what he has done wrong to not be starting

Very poor tonight in my opinion from Tufty. Never did enough to win it even when we had decent spells

I see a correlation to Leon going off the boil since he was handed the captains band. he needs to be left to roam free and give the job to Bash or Stearman

i cannot believe that he is changing up what has worked so well all season. Duffy has to start every game for me

think this is the end of the playoff charge , now with a trip to Wolves

What a load of utter bollocks. Read Roygbiv view from and the Villa fans perspective and then tell me we deserved nowt.....