Villa 2-3 Wolves: Verdict Thread

[WolfmanOz]

Not the greatest game, but those last 10-15 minutes were highly memorable for the pulsating excitement of our comeback.

Surprised no-one has mentioned the comeback win against Man City, 2 seasons ago. 2-0 down, yes they were down to 10 men but it was fucking Man City. Probably the most emotional, incredible game (especially because of who the opposition were) of the Nuno era for me (away at Cardiff in the Championship comes 2nd).

 

[Paul]

I still think we need to bin passing goal kicks out from the back though. We’ve nearly been caught out more than once and it is only a matter of time that we concede from it.

I'd like to see us concentrate on passing to each other in the same team, even Moutinhos pass for Neves's yellow card was poor from a player usually so unflappable

 

[Pompey Wolf]

The only other one I can think of was blues at home when bully got the winner

Haven’t read the whole thread yet so may have been mentioned but we came from 2-0 down at Pompey to win 3-2 in about the last 15 minutes (I think) in the Akinbiyi season…99/00?

 

[sycophantia]

I'd like to see us concentrate on passing to each other in the same team, even Moutinhos pass for Neves's yellow card was poor from a player usually so unflappable

Tbh I think our passing has been 'off for some time, going back well into last season. Even in the first 3 or 4 games when we were dominating possession often a pass would be just a bit behind or too far in front which meant the chances created weren't as good as they should have been. Not sure why this is....maybe our players aren't as good technically as we think?

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Haven’t read the whole thread yet so may have been mentioned but we came from 2-0 down at Pompey to win 3-2 in about the last 15 minutes (I think) in the Akinbiyi season…99/00?

Yep.

It hadn't even happened in the whole of Premier league for 8 years.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I'm a little surprised at the criticism of Semedo, last season when he made 4 or 5 mistakes that lead to goals and he was criticised there was a lot of defence of him.

This season he's been really solid defensively, has improved his concentration, positioning, even his heading has improved, and he is getting criticism! First and foremost he is there to defend, and for me that is a hell of a lot better.

Attacking wise he generally makes good decisions and keeps the ball, i think he is under instruction not to bomb on. (certainly against Newcastle)

 

[sycophantia]

I'm a little surprised at the criticism of Semedo, last season when he made 4 or 5 mistakes that lead to goals and he was criticised there was a lot of defence of him.

This season he's been really solid defensively, has improved his concentration, positioning, even his heading has improved, and he is getting criticism! First and foremost he is there to defend, and for me that is a hell of a lot better.

Attacking wise he generally makes good decisions and keeps the ball, i think he is under instruction not to bomb on. (certainly against Newcastle)

I've been happy with Semedos defending for a season and a half tbh, in fact if we could cut out these occasional brain farts, our defence would be excellent ( they haven't been terrible all season). My issue with Semedo is going the other way, again not bad but I was expecting more...he's an excellent athlete

 

[jd1981]

I think this one has hit the Villa fraternity very hard.
Gary Thompson called us the smaller club on WM, think it was just emotions running high.
The other way round id be just angry with ourselves.

 

[Tony Towner]

I'm a little surprised at the criticism of Semedo, last season when he made 4 or 5 mistakes that lead to goals and he was criticised there was a lot of defence of him.

This season he's been really solid defensively, has improved his concentration, positioning, even his heading has improved, and he is getting criticism! First and foremost he is there to defend, and for me that is a hell of a lot better.

Attacking wise he generally makes good decisions and keeps the ball, i think he is under instruction not to bomb on.

There isn't any criticism of him as a defender from me it's what he is and has improved a lot since he gifted the game to Villa about this time last season. He isn't a wing back though, he doesn't beat a man, can't cross, can't finish and his link up play is average at best. That's not his fault he's not that player, but as with Marcal it holds us back whilst we are playing with 3 centre halves

 

[Carsy]

There isn't any criticism of him as a defender from me it's what he is and has improved a lot since he gifted the game to Villa about this time last season. He isn't a wing back though, he doesn't beat a man, can't cross, can't finish and his link up play is average at best. That's not his fault he's not that player, but as with Marcal it holds us back whilst we are playing with 3 centre halves

Yep. It’s not the players fault being asked to play a position where his attributes don’t flourish.

maybe once Fosun hopefully back Lage and get the centre halves he wants, and we revert to a back 4 it won’t be an issue. Personally don’t think it’s a huge issue currently anyway.

interestingly, if we go to 4 at the back, do people think RAN has the attributes to play LB?

 

[1986]

To date we have 4 wins and 4 defeats in the League . Normally we'd have a draw at this stage and more than one . Draws can fool the mind , you finish the game sometimes glad of a point at times when we hardly deserved it - and that's perfectly fine and few would disagree with that view .
However there definitely have been far too many occasions when we seemed to settle for the point when a win was there for the taking . A draw is only 1 more point that what we pick up if we were beaten by 5 goals . A draw at times is far too easy .
A win does so much more for you in terms of confidence , belief , team building etc . It allows you to be more ambitious than what you would if wins are rare .
We now have 4 wins in the last 5 games and we are moving nicely up the table . We're not world beaters and we continue to have problems .
We have conceded just 8 goals to date - and that's another key factor in building confidence . It's noteworthy that all teams below us in the table have conceded more than 8 - some have scored more , but defending is an skill that is never given enough credit .

Our bench too contains a lot more threat than previous years , another improvement .

 

[Tony Towner]

Watched MOTD I know it's a hobby horse of mine, but Coady's defending against Ings for both the goal and his missed chance in the first half really isn't very good, twice in no mans land, just doesn't sense danger and ball watches

 

[Dire Wolf]

Watched MOTD I know it's a hobby horse of mine, but Coady's defending against Ings for both the goal and his missed chance in the first half really isn't very good, twice in no mans land, just doesn't sense danger and ball watches

Watching it live I thought the Ings goal was a combined fuck up by Saiss and Coady. Thought Coady's positioning was terrible and he seemed to lose concentration.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Watched MOTD I know it's a hobby horse of mine, but Coady's defending against Ings for both the goal and his missed chance in the first half really isn't very good, twice in no mans land, just doesn't sense danger and ball watches

Think it's a virtue of how he's generally been allowed to play in that back three since Nuno arrived. He's rarely had to do any direct defending, he's just been there to defend the space whilst his associates flank him and do the hands on stuff. As soon as Saiss pulled wide he lost that protection down one side but still stuck to his original role of just guarding the space between the posts. Kilman seems to just about spot the problem late in the day but he can't make up the ground to the Ings, and nor should he have to.

 

[Tony Towner]

Think it's a virtue of how he's generally been allowed to play in that back three since Nuno arrived. He's rarely had to do any direct defending, he's just been there to defend the space whilst his associates flank him and do the hands on stuff. As soon as Saiss pulled wide he lost that protection down one side but still stuck to his original role of just guarding the space between the posts. Kilman seems to just about spot the problem late in the day but he can't make up the ground to the Ings, and nor should he have to.

He's become more exposed since Bennett and Boly stopped being the regular players either side. Tall players like Mitrovich, Antonio, Ambrose and this season Toney have always pulled on to him and bullied him physically but we are now expecting him to pick up the runs and movement of the likes of Vardy and Ings which he can't do. Basically we now want him to play as a 3rd centre half rather than a sweeper which I don't think he can to the level required

 

[The Bear]

As an aside, why was Neves going for the corner where the goalkeeper was standing? If it hadn't hit Targett it'd have gone wide or been easily saved as it didn't look like he got much height on it.

 

[Carsy]

As an aside, why was Neves going for the corner where the goalkeeper was standing? If it hadn't hit Targett it'd have gone wide or been easily saved as it didn't look like he got much height on it.

He was likely going for top bin and hoping Martinez commited to other side? Obviously not executed well

 

[MARKakaJIM]

As an aside, why was Neves going for the corner where the goalkeeper was standing? If it hadn't hit Targett it'd have gone wide or been easily saved as it didn't look like he got much height on it.

Maybe he felt someone owed him a favour after his pathetic efforts on the second Villa goal? Turned his back on that like a U10.

 

[machin05]

He was likely going for top bin and hoping Martinez commited to other side? Obviously not executed well

Did it against Pickford a few years ago.

 

[big mean bunny]

Missed all of yesterday as was at the Zoo and managing the little one, my only involvement was checking the final score about 3 hours after it finished l. On MOTD though when Neves FK goes in Bruno is just calmy looking up into the stands!