Ratings & Reactions: UCL3: Villa v Bologna

[Strog]

A very good team performance and many other good individual contributions, but Maatsen get MoM for me - very impressive.

[Zatman]

We have already got more points than United and Newcastle got in last seasons group phase

[Brumstopdogs]

What a match that was. A brilliant evening at Villa Park which is such a special place to watch football. Well worth getting home at 1.30am for!

I thought Rogers and Maatsen were the standout performers but everyone put a shift in and superb to see Kamara back on the pitch towards the end there.

We played some wonderful stuff at times. Thank you Unai. UTV!

[villa4europe]

57 minutes ago, Rob182 said:

Me and @lapal_fan said the same during the match. The one ‘mistake’ we picked out was Barkley’s booking, which felt incredibly harsh. Other than that the ref was decent.

It's seriously swung the other way (KW) 20 years ago the PL was physical and tough and European refs gave away loads of daft soft free kicks, now we get a no nonsense European ref and us lot who are used to soft daft PL refs can't cope with it

Or the ref being shit is so ingrained in fans that the poor guy doesn't stand a chance which is actually a massive part of the problem 

[Brumstopdogs]

17 hours ago, mottaloo said:

They actually had a firework display before their crucial game tonight.

Against Bolton.

In the 3rd division. 

I am rattled.

Mate.

They were proppa fireworks though mate. Made in town and made by the hands (6 fingers on each) of proppa brummies that live within the B9 postcode mate.

Edited Wednesday at 14:31 by Brumstopdogs

[Powehi]

Player ratings:

Martinez - low key very good. Always claimed high balls successfully and held every shot that came his way. 8
Konsa - solid and unspectacular. Could often be seen verbally marshalling the backline which pleased me greatly. 7
Carlos - keeps his decent run of form going and kept their frontline quiet. 7
Torres - some excellent through balls and stepped up after his lack of muscle against Fulham. 8
Maatsen - ridiculous pace, close control and engine on the boy. He's gonna be a heck of a player for us. 9
Onana - broke up play well and dovetails so well with Youri. Came off at half time otherwise his score would probably have ended up higher. 7
Tielemans - not quite as amazing as he was against Bayern, but still extremely good. Rapidly becoming the Prince of Villa Park. 8
Bailey - getting a lot of unfair stick on here, when Ramsey is doing similar and getting away with it. Tried his best but its not happening at the moment. 5
McGinn - great to have him back, and he played well, worked hard and deserved his goal. 8
Rogers - i've been a little sceptical so far this season - lots of style but not a lot of end product - but he shut me up tonight. Magnificent. MOTM. 9
Duran - great for him to start and he came up with the goods. Not a worldbeating performance but he can't stop scoring. 7

Kamara - how good to have him back. Looked like he'd never been away. 7
Barkley - not his best sub cameo and still suffers with holding on to the ball for too long. 6
Ramsey - very poor and completely blew the two opportunities he had with a messed up assist and shot. He knew it at the end too. 5
Philogene - never really got into the game. 6
Watkins - never really got into the game. 6

Edited Wednesday at 07:49 by Powehi

[Eligius]

We look a serious team, after the first 15 minutes I thought we dominated playing some incredible football. Hard to pick a player of the match because so many played well. Great to see Maatsen start and play bloody well, Duran was a handful and Rogers was immense.

Something special is happening at Villa under Unai and his team.

[Mic09]

Great performance by the ref. Let the game flow, even if it got rough. Stopped for head injuries. VAR was smooth. Very good performance. 

[Davkaus]

The ref certainly wasn't perfect, he got a few fouls the wrong way, the one that jumped out at me was Bailey being fouled in the first half and it going the other way, but we can't expect absolute perfection for every little decision when it's made by a bloke running around the pitch that could be 30-40 yards away with players blocking his view and other things they need to be watching. We sometimes expect too much and judge them by the view we get on TV.

There weren't many big decisions to be made, but it was a very good ref performance, IMO, comfortably the best we've had this season (low bar, I know ) 

 

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

We have already got more points than United and Newcastle got in last seasons group phase

“YoU’lL gO oUt In ThE gRoUpS”

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

 

[TRO]

11 hours ago, Panto_Villan said:

So how much do we get for winning the Champions League?

Fort Knox

[TRO]

11 hours ago, GrootVilla said:

Compare this to some of our conference league performances, just absolutely composed compared. Outstanding.

That was our apprenticeship.

[TRO]

11 hours ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

Beautiful. Controlled, professional performance from Champions League Aston Villa. 
 
Top of the league. Job well done

This is trophy winning football.

[TRO]

11 hours ago, romavillan said:

Maatsen looked like he'd been starting for us for ages. We made 5 subs and cruised second half, such a very long way from getting schooled by Albion under Bruce. If we can win against Bournemouth, then we can make a lot of changes fro Palace and stay fresh. The fact we don't play Murderball and we now have more of a squad might mean we can go deeper in all comps.

We have only really touched last seasons levels in the game we lost against Arsenal and defensively against Bayern maybe. When we click someone is in for a right ****.

Bailey needs to relax and just get the basics right, so many times he could have just played a simple first time ball and he wanted to be super Bailey, maybe if he'd have scored he'd have sorted his head out a bit. Rogers great but Tielemanns is off the scale, looks effortless, he's a couple of seconds ahead mentally every time. Lovely player.

So so good to be a villan.

I too think Bailey is trying too hard....Now that might seem paradoxical, but you are right, he needs to relax, do the basics right, ease his way back in to top form.

I don't think we need to give someone a drubbing....This controlled consistent winning is scary in its own right.

[TRO]

11 hours ago, ferguson1 said:

Give it a polish and leave it where it is! It clearly belongs to us.

precisely, 150 years on from that date......its our year.

[TRO]

11 hours ago, mottaloo said:

They actually had a firework display before their crucial game tonight.

Against Bolton.

In the 3rd division. 

I am rattled.

Mate.

[TRO]

11 hours ago, villa4europe said:

Same every week...

Who voted the ref very poor? I thought he was good, let a lot go, the PL has gone soft, most importantly he was pretty consistent and no big decisions to make, the only real controversial decision was the free kick they didn't get before we did obviously in our favour 

Also liked how VAR for our goal took seemingly one look and said nah bollocks crack on, our VAR would have taken 17 replays and probably got the lines out while they were at it

Maybe letting them pull us back by the arm and letting it go, persuaded some to give him a miss.

I love robust football, with precise tackles, and clinical ball winning....but playing the man and not the ball, is not going soft for me, its fouling... I wasn't taken by him. I thought there was times they was cynical and he was over lenient towards them.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 09:09 by TRO

[villa4europe]

4 minutes ago, TRO said:

Maybe letting them pull us back by the arm and letting it go, persuaded some to give him a miss.

I love robust football, with precise tackles, and clinical ball winning....but playing the man and not the ball, is not going soft for me, its fouling... I wasn't taken by him. I thought there was times they was cynical and he was over lenient towards them.

Honest I thought the majority of the stuff last night was vs bailey and I was more disappointed in him than the ref, especially cos it wasn't given in minute 1 why was bailey still looking for soft fouls in the second half? Didn't adapt at all

Any time a bologna player went near him he was looking for a foul rather than playing football, ref was having none of it, I've got no issue with that 

[sharkyvilla]

My first game at Villa Park in over a decade, it was absolutely brilliant.  Bit of a shit drive home but worth it, loved every moment.  I thought everyone was excellent except Bailey, I went for Maatsen as MOTM and it was great management from Unai to rotate a bit, no let off in quality at all as the squad is incredible.  The reception Mings got was great too, plus Kamara of course.