Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Man Utd

[sheepyvillian]

Anyone get the feeling some of our fan - base is becoming somewhat spoilt? Those players gave their all Wednesday night and still some expect a repeat 4 days later, we're not at the level where we can take such games in our stride and it will be a while before we are.

[TRO]

30 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

We looked flat as a pancake, United are dreadful, and we were still the better side by a distance. The ref did his very best to keep them in it by not sending off Rashford, then going off the field for seven minutes to kill our momentum, declaring six added minutes and coming back on - clown.

Still, a point more than we got from them last season and a clean sheet - we regroup, hopefully get a couple back and see what we can do after the break - perhaps four points lost over our last two, but it's a long season and we'll see how we go.

 

When Unai in a recent interview reacted to some praise, he smiled and said “We have a lot of work still to do”

His honesty is reassuring.

[Nigel]

I hope Ten Haag did enough to keep his job!

[The_Steve]

Both fouls were bookings, the second is way more blatant and cynical than the first. Ref bottled it.

 

[DaveAV1]

26 minutes ago, stewiek2 said:

But it wasn't pretty. And we've not been great all season tbh

We weren’t too bad on Wednesday. 

[TRO]

19 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

Anyone get the feeling some of our fan - base is becoming somewhat spoilt? Those players gave their all Wednesday night and still some expect a repeat 4 days later, we're not at the level where we can take such games in our stride and it will be a while before we are.

I don’t think it’s being spoilt sheep’s, I think it’s more to do with some overrating us and how far we have come.

Thats not to mean our progress hasn't been short of phenomenal, but even our manager recognises we have a long way to go.

On our night, we have proved we can beat anyone, but we are yet to prove we can do it with consistency.

When we suggest we have gone up a level and teams play us like we have…..we falter to drive home that supremacy.

this is an observation not a criticism.

When the manager says “We have some way to go” I can see clearly why he says that.

I think his honesty is the reassuring factor, but we will get there.

Edited 32 minutes ago by TRO

[TRO]

9 minutes ago, Nigel said:

I hope Ten Haag did enough to keep his job!

They played like they wasn’t going to lose, and we played like we wasn’t going to challenge that stance…..sadly.

Edited 19 hours ago by TRO

[allani]

42 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Absolutely. 

But we also need to win games against teams like this.

Could be worse - we could go 2-0 up and then lose 2-3.  Although Spurs will be lucky to keep it under 6 at the rate they are going....

[allani]

1 hour ago, Rodders said:

Yes with a bit of reflection it's not a bad result today, helped by Chelsea also drawing. We need a rest and reset a bit. 

Got to improve performances either side of euro games though, whether that's squad rotation or what I dunno but today we were drained and last week we weren't fully focused on the game infront of us. We do that for all the euro weeks we'll drop a lot more points

So far this season we've played two UCL matches.  In the four PL matches immediately before and after we have won 2 and drawn 2 - picking up 8 points out of a possible 12.  I don't think we've done too bad and I would certainly settle for a similar record for the remaining UCL league matches.

For comparison / context.  Man City have also claimed 8 points from their 4 matches around their UCL matches, Liverpool 9 and Arsenal 10.  So we aren't doing bad.

[Davkaus]

 

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

The ref did his very best to keep them in it by not sending off Rashford, then going off the field for seven minutes to kill our momentum, declaring six added minutes and coming back on - clown.

 

 

Just to be clear, you reckon the ref went off to address technical issues being some kind of deliberate attempt to stifle our 'momentum'?

You have some awful takes on referee 'corruption, but this is absolutely ludicrous.

The 6 minutes stoppage time was declared before the ref cam back on, and then we played longer than that to account for the additional stoppage length.

[It's Your Round]

As much as we like to deride man united as being a terrible side, they’re still a Europa League side and still capable of getting results. They had something like £340m worth of Ten Hag’s signings on their bench. It was a bloody frustrating game and we were nowhere near our best, but we kept a clean sheet and didn’t lose. Something we shouldn’t take for granted against those words removed. 

The international break has come at a good time now. We need some players back and some time to rest. 

[rodders129]

37 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Anyone get the feeling some of our fan - base is becoming somewhat spoilt? Those players gave their all Wednesday night and still some expect a repeat 4 days later, we're not at the level where we can take such games in our stride and it will be a while before we are.

Absolutely this! They’re not robots. Wednesday night was a historic, emotional victory in a massive game. Clean sheet and a Point vs Man U is perfectly acceptable tbh. We’re not title challenge level yet 

Edited 19 hours ago by rodders129

[OutByEaster?]

1 minute ago, Davkaus said:

Just to be clear, you reckon the ref went off to address technical issues being some kind of deliberate attempt to stifle our 'momentum'?

You have some awful takes on referee 'corruption, but this is absolutely ludicrous.

The 6 minutes stoppage time was declared before the ref cam back on, and then we played longer than that to account for the additional stoppage length.

If he hadn't gone off I'd have expected five minutes or six minutes to be added given the delays in the game, he was off for more than six.

 

[allani]

33 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Anyone get the feeling some of our fan - base is becoming somewhat spoilt? Those players gave their all Wednesday night and still some expect a repeat 4 days later, we're not at the level where we can take such games in our stride and it will be a while before we are.

5th in the PL and 6th in the UCL and yet some posters seem intent on only finding negatives.  There's a difference between being negative and pointing out where there's room for improvement.  I think we all know we are still a WIP, our squad could still do with being deeper, etc.  But it sometimes feels like we're back in the days of scrabbling around trying to avoid being sucked into a relegation battle.  Unai, Monchi, NSWE all know we still have a way to go to get to where they want us to be.  They've also highlighted that we are ahead of schedule in our progress and that our continued progress is being curtailed (or at least made a lot more difficult) by the financial rules that are there to stop teams like us challenging the "old elite".

[It's Your Round]

I don’t believe the ref was purposely trying to stop our momentum, of course not. But the time added wasn’t really enough to compensate for the delay. Not that I’m too fussed, it was a terrible watch that was best finished asap.

[allani]

6 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

 

Just to be clear, you reckon the ref went off to address technical issues being some kind of deliberate attempt to stifle our 'momentum'?

You have some awful takes on referee 'corruption, but this is absolutely ludicrous.

The 6 minutes stoppage time was declared before the ref cam back on, and then we played longer than that to account for the additional stoppage length.

The only slightly odd thing was that they announced 6 minutes stoppage time whilst the match was still stopped.  No conspiracy but it seemed odd.  Why not wait until the technical issue had been resolved and then announce exactly how much time was left to play (pending any additional stoppages)?  I get the feeling that an announcement of 8 minutes injury time as we were about to take the free-kick or throw (can't remember which) would have got more of a roar from the crowd than 6 minutes whilst the players were wandering around waiting for the referee to have his battery pack changed. 

Another of those things where other sports seem to have found a way to deal with this better than football - in rugby the stadium clock is stopped when the referee stops play.  So everyone know EXACTLY how much of the game is left to play.

[islingtonclaret]

We didn't lose to Man United, who are cack right now. Regardless of anything else, that is a positive because these have been doing us despite being shite for over ten years now

[OutByEaster?]

As an aside, I  thought Carlos was decent again when he came on. Hopefully his pre-season issues are behind him and he's a bit more settled.

[foreveryoung]

13 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

 

Just to be clear, you reckon the ref went off to address technical issues being some kind of deliberate attempt to stifle our 'momentum'?

You have some awful takes on referee 'corruption, but this is absolutely ludicrous.

The 6 minutes stoppage time was declared before the ref cam back on, and then we played longer than that to account for the additional stoppage length.

You can't tell me if the batteries go in equipment they have to stop the game. This PGMOL are worse than we really know. To not have a back up and waste time changing batteries is amateur at best.

[allani]

Just now, OutByEaster? said:

As an aside, I  thought Carlos was decent again when he came on. Hopefully his pre-season issues are behind him and he's a bit more settled.

True.  Although I do still feel more comfortable when we play the ball out down the left through Pau and Digne than I do when it comes out down the right through Carlos and Cash.  However, Carlos had a pretty decent game and seemed to keep his concentration levels up for almost the whole match.