Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Nottm Forest

[OutByEaster?]

There's just too much. 

In the opening three minutes of the second half, we had three corners, there was a desperate clearance from under his crossbar from a Forest defender, we had two penalty shouts and shots from Grealish and McGinn blocked. That was three minutes.

It's frustrating, with the chances we had we should have scored more goals. We scored five goals. Those two sentences shouldn't belong together but they do. I'm not sure what the last one was disallowed for, I think we should have had at least one penalty for handball and I think Tammy should have buried the header just before halftime. On top of that, we had enough efforts on goal to win three games. It's frustrating, I'm frustrated, but I was grinning all the way home.

The two centre backs might take a lot of criticism tonight, individually I think Tuanzebe backed away from the ball for the second or third one and was responsible, but I don't actually think either of them defended all that badly, it's just that they were the only players that were interested in defending.

All of their goals seemed to come from players running through the middle of the park with no interference from our midfield - Grealish, McGinn and Hourihane aren't going with runners - there's not a naturally defensive bone in any of em. I think Hourihane dropped off a forward for the fourth when he should have been putting a challenge in, I think that's the only other one I'd put down to an individual. If we want this midfield, we need to put up with conceding goals. I want this midfield.

The keeper just isn't up to it and collectively we are just wide open at the back, but even with all that said, Forest scored with every single shot on target they had - they'll be as pleased with their five goals as we are disappointed with ours. There will be plenty of people who will be worrying about us tightening up at the back, who'll be concerned that you can't win games if you concede - it's true I guess, but it's not our defending that most concerns me.

What's very clear is that if you want to come to Villa Park and win, you need to bring ALL of the goals, all the goals you have, all the goals you've been saving up, all the flukey goals you've got and all the wonder strikes you have in you, because, we are going to score hatfuls this season. I'd back us to beat any team that don't score more than twice against us in the league. 

 

The front line of Abraham, Bolasie, Kodjia, Grealish and McGinn are a class apart from anything else in this league - they shouldn't be here. We will score five goals again this season. I can see us regularly scoring four. We're massively impressive going forward. I don't worry about us conceding, I worry about us switching off. Against sha on Sunday at 3-1 we took our foot off it and had a rest and they scored, tonight we did the same at 5-4 - Abraham dropped into midfield and everyone wanted a breather - we stopped and they didn't. It was made more obvious when we started up again after the final equaliser, put the ball in the net twice and created another seven hundred chances. That's the thing for me that we need to cut out of our game - if we play for 90 minutes we'll outscore anyone in this league. 

For their part, I thought Forest were lively - they're not bad at the back, they came into tonight's game on the back of three clean sheets, I thought Grabban was superb, Lolley played well and their number 10 was a handful - they played a part in a truly wonderful spectacle. While we're at it, I think their fans were the loudest I've heard at Villa Park this season. Fair play to em. We still should have won though.

As it was tonight, I think 7-5 would have been a fairer reflection of things. Which is a ridiculous thing to write. It was a ridiculous game. Following Sunday we're accidentally stuck in "epic" mode - we're the best watch in football, the most entertaining team in the all four divisions right now and we will score for fun. It's a little disappointing not to have won, but if you don't take some sort of joy out of nights like tonight I worry about you. 

Forest were a little lucky, we were a little unlucky, 32,000 fans were very lucky indeed. I'm not sure where we'll finish this season, although I'm increasingly convinced it'll be in the interesting part of the table, what I am sure about is that we'll get there in a massive storm of goals and excitement, and I for one can't wait.

 

 

 

[Nigel]

Nyland...hang your head in shame!

5 shots on target 5 goals, we would have been better off not playing a keeper!

He changed that from a massive sit up and notice win to a circus!

 

[briny_ear]

42 minutes ago, terrytini said:

And that’s why it’s not just about the points.

3-3 with only 10 men against Preston. .....yet I was questioning why I bother going.

5-5 against 10 men yet I loved it.

Its not just about points, it’s anout entertainment aswell.

I don’t regard conceding 5 goals as “entertaining”. “Shambolic” perhaps.

Particularly conceding the fifth against 10 men.

I never want to see a shambles like that again. 

[TheStagMan]

1 hour ago, Demitri_C said:

Only us can get to 10 men and concede again. Pathetic.what a chance blown. We ain't going up with this shit keeper and lame defence 

Don't be so down, apparently it is *really* hard to play against 10 men, so you should expect the worst.

[Only2McInallys]

Nyland at fault for last goal but others  due to bad defending or lack of defensive cover.

Midfield balance is wrong more defensive minded players eg whelan jed needed

[OutByEaster?]

The full highlights of this game last 135 minutes.

 

[Made In Aston]

1 hour ago, romavillan said:

we had a perfectly good goal disallowed for 6-5. 

I can't get over how weird that sounds. 6-5 for a game of football bonkers! 

[MikeMcKenna]

Couldn’t make it tonight as I had another event down here in Bournemouth and only had intermittent 4G. My son was texting me:

 

1st text: 0-2 down

2nd text; 3-3   

3rd text: Tammy hatrick

4th text: This is crazy!!

5th Text: 3-4   

6th Text: 4-4 Tammy!!!!!!

7th Text: 5-4 El Ghazi!!!!!!!    

8th Text 5-5    I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT I AM SEEING!!! 

 

[Tomaszk]

26 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

I don’t regard conceding 5 goals as “entertaining”. “Shambolic” perhaps.

Particularly conceding the fifth against 10 men.

I never want to see a shambles like that again. 

Aw, do you miss Steve?

[il_serpente]

1 hour ago, Lerner's Driver said:

Only one word for it.

Thanks.  That means...

[terrytini]

@OutByEaster? thanks you expressed my views better than I could. Great post, great fun, roll on Saturday !

[S-Platt]

Dean Smith does not do draws they said!!

That was amazing from start to finish gutted not to have won but you can see this team of Bruce's is going to get even better when Deano signs a few.

McGinn was playing with an injury for me and that allowed Forest to waltz through us at will.  

Nyland is awful I expect Bunn to get a run from now on.  

Tammy is great but missed his easiest header.

Bolasie looked loads better than Albert

Kod was shocking tonight one of his off games.

El-Ghazi nice little cameo another option off the bench which is good.

Chester getting worse Axel getting better.

Nice round of applause for Grabben classy from us.

Lolly put in a good job application!

Fantastic entertainment if you are thinking about a half season ticket then do it!

UTV

 

[fightoffyour]

1 hour ago, briny_ear said:

I don’t regard conceding 5 goals as “entertaining”. “Shambolic” perhaps.

Particularly conceding the fifth against 10 men.

I never want to see a shambles like that again. 

Batten down those hatches Stevie Boy, we’re in for a rough ride.

[The Fun Factory]

Premier league forward line

Pub league defending

Kind of both 1 point gained and 2 dropped over the course of the match. Bonkers.  Hourihane, Chester and Nyland all would score no more than 3/10 for me.  Massively exposed every time we lost the ball in midfield as Hourihane failed complety to do his job  tonight as the supposed DM and I have no idea what Chester was doing all night.The fifth goal was awful it should have been saved.

But good team spirit  coming back from behind 3 times as well. 

The squad is massively unbalanced due to the summer transfer window so Deano and the board need to identify new players such as a mobile young DM, a central defender, a left back,  and a new keeper in january, plus shifting some dead wood. If we don't do that there is no chance we will even get a top 6 spot this year.

Edited November 29, 2018 by The Fun Factory

[ExhallVillan]

just watched the goals again --did,nt realise that Lolley had a hand in 4 goals as well as netting a screamer--- reckon he ran midfield,  the lads a Villa fan and has been scoring regularily as has Grabban-- might well be worth a look at in January.

what a game not to be forgotten-----cannot understand why Elmos effort was disallowed it looked to me to finally roll into the net off a forest defender,

 

[TRO]

3 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Never thought I’d feel so deflated after a 5-5. I didn’t enjoy that. 

Need to see the replays of the goals to really understand what when on. 

I hadn't a clue what I was watching, it was a defensive nightmare.

[TRO]

3 hours ago, Mantis said:

While it's nice to be fun to watch, shipping 5 goals to crap like Forest is never acceptable. Please **** off Nyland.

but Forest are not crap....but the shipping of 5 at home is shocking.

[TRO]

3 hours ago, Daweii said:

Our attacking display was sublime yet again, perhaps slightly wasteful, but sublime. No one is faulting the performance in the final third, but we have a reason to be disappointed when our shite keeper means a potential 5+ goal win goes down as a 5 - 5 draw..

I wish it was just the goal keeper.

[TRO]

12 hours ago, stewiek2 said:

2 points lost thanks to frankly the worst defensive display I have ever seen from every single player. You defend from the bloody front and we did zero. The blues game defensively should have been a wake up call yet this defensive performance. Not good enough Villa and the sooner January comes the better. I'm fuming. From back to front that was utter dog turd defending. At least 3 of their goals came from Hourihane trotting around rather than either tracking or closing his man down. As for the keeper. Words fail me. Bruce chased him for  a good few years. He should have been sacked for that.

you obviously watched the game....I am with you all the way.

He was ball watching Pedersen's, goal on Sunday too, just a passenger, needs to get his foot in or body in the way.

Poor.

 

Edited November 29, 2018 by TRO

[TRO]

3 hours ago, thunderball said:

We are really ticking up front and across the middle. Tuenzebe looked terrific. Hutton has become a creative midfielder. Surely Nyland will pay the price although every attack by them resulted in a goal, and we must defend as a team.

Yep.....and we was miles off that.