Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Everton

[sheepyvillian]

6 hours ago, Ponky said:

Martinez was pretty poor for their first goal but I thought he really made up for it in the second half coming off his line and really dominating

Ditto!

[TRO]

Once again defensive vulnerabilities over shadowed the good work.

We do seem to like making it hard for ourselves.

We can't keep relying on wonder goals....no matter how much it was worth the entrance fee alone.

Edited Sunday at 09:08 by TRO

[John]

Shades of Savo at Wembley in 96 about Duran's brilliant winner I thought. Youri bossed the midfield and Ollie broke his goal drought, just before we begin the CL games. 

Loved the "2-0 and you F***ed it up" chant, which even brought the odd smile to a few Evertonian faces. Twice in successive league games, you're never beaten if you are playing Everton are you?  

[TRO]

10 hours ago, allani said:

I agree on the first foul.  Second one I think was fair enough - but it should already have been a free-kick to us.  Emi's booking was bizarre given how often their defenders didn't release the ball when they were pinged for a free-kick - definitely pre-meditated by the referee.  And I'm slightly surprised (not surprised) that they didn't look to see whether Tielemans was being pushed for the offside check.

I thought we were well worth the three points though.  Good to see Ollie back in the goals (although he'll be disappointed not to have complete his hat-trick) and Duran's goal - just wow.  It looks better and better from every different angle.  Emi's reaction is priceless. 

In terms of possession and goal scoring chances yes, but Calvert Lewin had 2 gilt edged chances missed too.....once again the long ball undoing us, it's so damn obvious, other teams like Man U exploit it too...it's common knowledge, now.

They are  bottom of the league, and to be 0-2 down at Home, gives plenty of room for debate......debate on why at times we are defensively inept.

I have said this so many times, if we want to win things, or make an indelible mark on our game, we have to defend better than that as a team.

We have seen first hand, it is not always possible to create enough bonafide chances to fire our way out of a hole.

We are simply too benevolent and too easy to play against at times.....we have to tighten up.

[TRO]

9 hours ago, Jas10 said:

 

"Its normal"......what a boy!!!

[TRO]

Jhon Duran is a " Wrecking Ball" it's official.

Rarely have i seen a boy with the power and precision in his shot like that. His belief in his ability to score, is through the roof.

If he can learn the art of forward play, he can be anything he wants to be.....He is such an exciting prospect, does remind me of the Andy Gray Story coming to us at 19, in such thunderous fashion.

Edited Sunday at 09:15 by TRO

[TRO]

9 hours ago, nick76 said:

Wonder strike by Duran

Glad Ollie scored a couple and even managed to miss a couple.

Tielemans was superb, sublime and MOTM imo

Torres needs to toughen up as he gets knocked off the ball to easy. Quality player and great bringing the ball out but he will get targeted more by physical strikers.

I’ve send Calvert Lewin a number of times but never realised he had such a turn of pace.

Fantastic game, great to come back and in such a way.

Need to stop conceding so often and so easily.

It has to be said.... and fair play for saying it.

It almost looks to me like we are playing with 2 sweepers.....we need a dominant Centre back, who is competent in the air too. The problem is, I think opponents have cottoned on, so they raid with long balls, for a quick fix.

If we are going to concede, we need to make it hard for them....but it's all too bloody easy and galling, its happening too often. I would like to know who the defensive coach is?

On the positive...............Tielemans was superb, aided and abetted by a smooth Ross Barkley, when he came on.....He tipped the balance.

Edited Sunday at 09:26 by TRO

[TRO]

15 hours ago, Lichfield Dean said:

I am SO glad we kept Duran. I loved his little cameos last season, and this season he's just ramped it up beyond all belief. Ollie and Duran as our strikers? Incredible options, we are so lucky.

Shame about the defensive frailties though. But maybe that's the price we have to pay for the attacking side of things.

but that doesn't apply to the best teams in the league, something we have to work on.

The defensive frailties, do not just apply to this game, sadly.

Hopefully a fully fit Mings and Kamara, will help with Onana needing to settle in, in time.

[TRO]

15 hours ago, srsmithusa said:

normally, I would argue that it's rediculous to give MOTM to a late sub.  Much less give it based on one touch.  but this was not a normal day.

He said it was, down the tunnel.

[TRO]

15 hours ago, 479Villan said:

Won my pregame bet of Villa and Watkins to score.

Won my halftime bet of final score 3:2.

Not bad.

when will they stop the boats

[TRO]

14 hours ago, ROTTERDAM1982 said:

Pau is in the team for his passing. Hes not a bad defender, probably needs a more physical, quicker defender next to him. Hes one of the 1st names on the teamsheet for me.

I accept that....but you can't have 2 like that....someone has to take the Alpha Male role.

Ezri and Pau are good footballers, no doubt about it.....but Centre Backs do have to be able to deal with aerial threats too.....I am not sure that's their forte.

Undoubtedly, Ezri misses the dominance of Mings.....but it's up to the manager, how he deals with it.....but whatever the opinion, we concede too many and too easily.

[CLARETANDBLUEFOXY]

I think the most satisfying thing about that win - is having to endure the smug Everton faces at 2-0 only to see their crushed confused faces at 3-2

Edited Sunday at 10:27 by CLARETANDBLUEFOXY

[Corleone]

A typical VT Match day thread

 

[TDR V2]

1 hour ago, John said:

Shades of Savo at Wembley in 96 about Duran's brilliant winner I thought. Youri bossed the midfield and Ollie broke his goal drought, just before we begin the CL games. 

Loved the "2-0 and you F***ed it up" chant, which even brought the odd smile to a few Evertonian faces. Twice in successive league games, you're never beaten if you are playing Everton are you?  

The "how shit must you be, youve done it again" was better

[onmeedson]

The wrecking ball strikes again, what can this lad become.

[The_Rev]

14 hours ago, FLVillan said:

Second goal, offside trap only fails because their player is pushing/blocking Tielemans.

 

Part and parcel of the game these days, we did the exact same thing against Leicester last time and it resulted in a goal.  Our high line and offside trap was so good in 2023 that everybody has spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to deal with it. We've got to react to the fact that it's not working as well any more.

[VILLAMARV]

Great comeback. Watkins with a couple of confidence builders and Duran with the thunderbastard wonderstrike. Tielemans though was on a different level. Was great to watch us, as others have already said, kinda always thinking we'd get back into the game. Duran's been written off in here for different reasons at different times, it's nice to see him making a name for himself.

Great star to the season so far.

[AVTuco]

Just watching the game.

Youri is such a wonderful player. So classy, and smart. Unai has given Youri his trust and Youri is so confident out there. Excellent.

Edited Sunday at 17:30 by AVTuco

[allani]

7 hours ago, TRO said:

In terms of possession and goal scoring chances yes, but Calvert Lewin had 2 gilt edged chances missed too.....once again the long ball undoing us, it's so damn obvious, other teams like Man U exploit it too...it's common knowledge, now.

They are  bottom of the league, and to be 0-2 down at Home, gives plenty of room for debate......debate on why at times we are defensively inept.

I have said this so many times, if we want to win things, or make an indelible mark on our game, we have to defend better than that as a team.

We have seen first hand, it is not always possible to create enough bonafide chances to fire our way out of a hole.

We are simply too benevolent and too easy to play against at times.....we have to tighten up.

And yet we're fourth in the league in points won since Emery joined.  It's nearly two whole years of Emeryball now.  We had the best record of results against the other CL challengers last season.  We've the best record of any team in the PL over the last 13 months in terms of fewest points dropped having taken the lead.  If we were that easy to play against and that benevolent then how comes this is the case? 

We're a WIP for sure and there's definitely room for improvement - but we've yet to start our best XI this season and have already opened up a decent points gap to teams like Spurs, West Ham, Palace and Utd - all teams that some posters claimed had better summer transfer windows than us.  Our goals against last season was in line with our nearest rivals with only Utd and Everton being notably better than us from the teams below us (both of whom had a significantly worse goals for record).  Whilst I agree that a few more clean sheets would be nice - we do need to be careful that that doesn't come at the cost of being a threat ourselves.  7th, 4th and 4th (early in the season I know) suggests we are doing more right than wrong.  Yes there is a big gap to the Top 3 to close but I wasn't that impressed with Liverpool yesterday - they also have plenty of defensive frailties to target.

[FLVillan]

7 hours ago, The_Rev said:

 

Part and parcel of the game these days, we did the exact same thing against Leicester last time and it resulted in a goal.  Our high line and offside trap was so good in 2023 that everybody has spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to deal with it. We've got to react to the fact that it's not working as well any more.

Agreed.  Calvert Lewin got lucky as he moved into that space well ahead of everyone else.   The amount of shirt pulling, pushing and grabbing that goes on in the build up to set pieces in the modern game is mind blowing.  Given the multitude of cameras you'd think it would be less prevalent and easy to stamp out, but it's far worse now than ever.  

Growing up you marked a player by standing goal side -  if someone pulled your shirt they could fully expect to get booked and/or a right hand to the jaw... Shirt pulling was the ultimate cheap-shot and a studs-up slide tackle was good honest hard tackle as long as you made contact with the ball