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Aston Villa News and Views News Villa 3 -1 Manure; Have it! and the ghost is exorcised

Villa 3 -1 Manure; Have it! and the ghost is exorcised

6 November 20226 November 2022| Badger123Badger123| 91 Comments| 4:23 PM
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I’ve been saying for ages, probably along with many others, that Man Utd are really not a good team.
And today, if you’d taken the club colours away, you’d have thought that we were Man U.

We just looked a different side than we have previously this season under any Gerrard game and I’m now 100% convinced that the players had downed tools under Gerrard. That’s not a good indicator of the player’s character really, but I suppose it’s always going to be a big ask to work flat out for someone you don’t rate.

Was this a new manager bounce? I’m not convinced it was.

The players were just freed to play with more freedom and you could see it.
Which is a coincidence, because Luiz did an interview recently, where he thought Gerrard played too negatively and shackled the players. Or at least that’s what was insinuated.

Our play was excellent off the ball and we seemed to have a lot more movement.
We passed back far too much early on, but that seemed to ease as the game went on. Was it because we went two up or because they were instructed to stop it? I’m not sure, but certainly Emery was more animated and I’d like to think the players appreciated being told what to do.
We still passed back at times, but it was more when it was necessary, than just for the seemingly absolute fun of it.

Were we particularly good or were Man U particularly bad is the question and I think it was some of both, but more 65-35 in our favour.
Everybody and I mean that, played well overall.
Buendia was the only player who caught my eye for a possible slating, but it was more about things not working for him, as his passing was more often than not, poor. His workrate, thinking and desire was faultless.

Ramsey was superb, as much as I don’t like to encourage him in thinking he’s the full package, but his attacking play was again everything you expect from him.

And dare I say, Mings was excellent? See, I can say it if I think he deserves it 🙂

The whole defence did well overall, but I can’t say I saw much from Cash and Digne (his goal apart).
I believe Emery likes his Full/wingbacks so it’ll be interesting to see how he sees them.
If I’m looking at them from an attacking pov, I’m not sure Cash will last long, as much as I like him.
I’m not convinced Digne will either, as much as he’s more attacker than defender.

Otherwise, I think we just looked more organised and it seemed we actually had a much more fluid formation. Ramsey started off wide right, but soon came more inside, from what I could see. My SIL and the grandkids are coming round for dinner, so I’ll ask them about that.

Whatever, whereas everything normally goes in Utd’s favour, so today it didn’t in the slightest really and they just looked very, very normal.

Their seeming invincibility against us looked gone.
Long may it last.

The main takeaway from the game?
Unai must be wondering why we’re where we are in the table.

That’s easy mate; Gerrard is the answer.

Meanwhile, we’re up to 13th and wow, that just feels so much better.

UTV!

91 thought on “Villa 3 -1 Manure; Have it! and the ghost is exorcised”

  1. Get in!

    The Barcodes won again to go up to third.
    Perhaps last week wasn’t such a bad thing after all and they have something about them?

    1. Ramsey dare I say he is potentially better than Jack?
      Remember Jack at the same age? Flashes of genius but went down far to easily (imo).
      Ramsey looks mature well above his years. Continue to progress at the rate he is and we are going to have some player.

  2. Cracking hoodoo to finally break, especially with Ronaldo in the side who’s historically scored against us for fun.
    Have to wait and see who in the squad has a face that doesn’t fit. It’s all just guess work up until then. Players to come back from injury, January window opening soon and a reborn squad. Exciting times ahead! Roll on MOTD2!!!!

  3. A thoroughly entertaining game all played well , I just hope its not a flash in the pan and we still struggle at the end of the season . My man of the match? Bailey. Followed by Minns and Ramsey, i dont think we will do that again on Thursday FA cup game just keep improving I say .

    1. Watkins was excellent too Bill ( feel guilty for slating him last week).
      Looked back to his old self, not playing with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

      1. I forgot about Watkins in my post.
        He was indeed, excellent and as you say, RSS, back to his old self.
        It would seem the rumours that he and Gerrard didn’t get on were true.
        No doubt along with many others.

        My take?
        It’s okay giving stick, but you have to give some carrot and appreciation too.
        I don’t think Gerrard knows how to do that yet.
        And I suspect he suffers from that same problem Keane did, in the players probably not being as good as them.

        Top player doesn’t make a top manager it would seem.
        Unless you’re Clough.

        1. Funny about the players not performing for Gerrard. It’s just human nature really and something he obviously doesn’t understand. What’s the old saying about class being permanent and form just temporary…
          Do you think Unai has taken them all out for paella tonight???? Remember how well Dean’s pizza nights worked?

          1. Good for bonding and I do think that’s important.
            I doubt Ron S did any of that, but indeed it worked for Dean.

            Can you actually get a decent Paella in Brum?
            My missus loves them, but I’m not keen on seafood.

            2. Under Sir Ron I think the players were doing their own bonding thing down at the Holy City Zoo.

            3. Not since Los Canarios (Park St) got demolished as part of the ‘Eastside’ redevelopment…

        2. Cloughie was a prolific goal scorer Badger but I believe mainly in the old second division.

          1. Yes, almost all of his games were in the old Division 2 – where he was absolutely prolific.
            According to Wiki he only scored 1 goal in his 3 appearences in the 1st division before his playing career ended because of injury.

      2. I agree RSS it’s hard to pick an individual. Having said that Martinez did some brilliant saves again . Thinking about it we scored all the goals .

    1. I’ve heard he chases the players around the training pitch wielding a large chorizo…😁
      (No, not that sort of chorizo you dirtý minded buggers!).

  5. What we have seen – albeit in one game – is that Gerrard just didn’t have the experience nor the communication skills to coach at the level required in the EPL.

    Add to that his awful man management skills that were there for all to see and it becomes evident that he was trading on his name and Purslow got sucked into it.

    Footballers are no different to any other employee (OK I concede they earn a shed load more money than most) in that if they’re not settled (happy) then their performance deteriorates significantly.

    From what I’ve been reading, it seems like Watkins, Ramsey, Bailey and Mings have responded quickly to Emery’s all round skill, knowledge and experience. It may take others (such as McGinn) longer.

    Onward and upward.
    UTV

    1. I’m quite glad that Emery didn’t ditch all of Aaron Danks’ decisions; he had the courage to leave Martinez as captain, McGinn on the bench and Couthino out of the matchday squad altogether.

      Clearly a manager who’s determined to do things as he sees fit, and not based on any player’s performances / reputation six, twelve or eighteen months ago.

      1. I’ve heard players always appreciate that ‘clean slate’ situation when a new manager comes in…

        1. But it’ll be intersting to see what McGinn has to do to win back a starting place (other than somebody else’ injury).
          I can’t quite see where he fits in now…

      2. I think Coutinho has a quad injury.

        Slightly surprised Archer didn’t make the squad though.

        1. A quad injury? Those bikes are lethal…Ozzy Osbourne, Rik Mayall…I’m surprised they’re allowed to use them!!! 😁
          We beat Utd today!!!!

  8. 27 Years! That’s quite an old monkey to shake off and some of our young posters would not believe how many flukes, refereeing errors and bias, Fergie time extensions and Penalties went into those annual debacles. Especially the penalties. I thought “we’ve just had that b*****d Michael Oliver – he cant get the Manure game” and thank goodness we got Taylor. No dodgy decisions for the reds from him.

    When the ball flew in off Ramsey, I thought ‘here we go again!’ But no, Villa tweaked the script – and Ramsey levelled his personal tally. Champagne is about to be quaffed. UTV.

    1. Before the game I was actually expecting that we’d have at least 1 penalty against us (Ronaldo to score) as usual, and probably have at least 1 of our goals disallowed by VAR after a 10-minute replay searching for a foul in the build-up…

    2. Federico Mached’s injury time wonder goal (the only thing of note in his whole career).
      Nemanja Vidić not being sent off 2010 League cup final.
      Danny Ings equaliser FA cup last season (let’s go over and over it on VAR until we find a reason to chalk it off)
      Are three that instantly come to mind.

      1. Not to mention Greenwood’s joke penalty award for stubbing his toe in 2020.

        Phil Dowd. The fat *******.

  9. Yeesssss! Finally we beat Man Ure at VP! The downside for me was finding a bar in Portugal that had us on which I managed eventually at 2-0 without sound! All I could think was keep a clean sheet till half time and then their lucky deflected goal. Fair play that we scored fairly early second half to resettle the nerves. Let’s hope we can repeat things on Thursday.
    And congratulations to Emery on his first game to be the guy who broke that hoodoo Utd had on us.
    UTMV!

  10. Unless I somehow missed it, our game didn’t even get a mention on BBC News just now.
    Surely I must have got that wrong?

    1. After waxing lyrical about Mr Potter I must admit you’re not wrong, totally out of his depth .
      At the time of singing his praises I must hold my hands up and admit to be a fully paid up, totally committed and active member of ‘ABBA’ (Anyone But Binbipper Association) so forgive me my misguided judgement.
      😁

    2. Chelsea fans not happy with him on TalkShite. Even reporters giving him stick at the press conference.
      On another note, Luiz got high ratings yesterday but no real mention of his performance. How was he???

      1. I saw him make a forward pass. I about spat out my drink

        He indeed, had a good game. He chased a lot down and was well up for it.

    3. I still think that Potter is a good coach; but Chelsea looks like the wrong place for him – too many prima-donnas, possibly a lot of interference from the owner, and fans who’ve become too used to continuing ‘instant gratification’.

      I imagine that he’ll be gone before the end of the season.

      1. I’d agree he’s a good coach, his teams very easy on the eye BUT Brighton always struggled to score – last season 42 (joint lowest tally outside the bottom 3). The two previous seasons a return of 40 & 39.
        Now is that due to the lack of a decent finisher, lack of chances created or over playing it or all three?
        Personally on what I’ve seen of Brighton and Chelsea under his charge I’d say it’s more the latter.

  12. I spotted that Badger, not a mention as if it didn’t matter . I’ve always said Manure fans are fans that don’t live in the city and grown up to a winning team in the past. Ref, commentators, and media reporter’s are them fans .

    1. I bought the ‘i’ newspaper this morning for the Villa report and guess what? The whole article, bar a tiny paragraph (a sentence) about who scored Villa’s goals, was about Ronaldo and what a d*** he is. Villa just beat United at home for the first time since ’95 (kids ‘n’ all that, could have given the journo an Villa angle for Ronaldo acting like a baby?) with a prestige manager making his debut, and all they can come up with is Ronaldo’s petulance. Absolutely pathetic!

      1. Lots of good stuff about Villa in The Times this morning including the latest extract in O’Neill’s new book – this one about when Deadly hired him.

        It includes a great story about Deadly stomping into the dressing room after his first game in charge at Arsenal which we drew 1 – 1, the précis of which is Deadly demanding to know why O’Neill had brought Larsen on as a substitute with 3 minutes to play?

        Needed to strengthen the defence came the response to which Deadly said that it just cost him £3k for 3 minutes as Larsen was on ‘pay as you play’ contract to which O’Neill retorted – well that’s your fault not mine, you organised the contract! As O’Neill left the dressing room he said to Deadly – Is it OK if I play him Wednesday as we have an important match – and left without waiting to hear the response.

        You have to read it in full to get the nuances but it’s very funny and I suspect typical of their relationship.

        Overall a really good read.

        2. Deadly loved the limelight he ran Villa Park and you did what he said , we lost a lot of managers because they didn’t get the say on buying or selling . There was one thing he couldn’t do that’s understand a tv remote. I’ll give him his due he built Villa Park and he will always be remembered for that. I have many photographs of him and me given the chance he jumped on every picture when a cameraman took a picture. Terry Weir was the club photographer in them times.

          1. I have no love for Ellis but I didn’t realise he was responsible for the purchase / establishment of the Bodymoor Heath Training Ground so credit where credits due.

          2. RSS, he took on the board to start corporate boxes with his own money, the board turned down his requests but let him start in Trinity rd boxes with his money. He was only a member of the board coming from the scrum .

              1. Saying that RSS, I’ve still got Aston Villa Christmas cards I used to send too staff, I’ve also sent to my Blue Nose friends in the past in a joke just said on them from Aston Villa. 😂

            2. You could ebay them Bill, probably worth a few bob (-:
              Hey Bill just been poking around Deadly’s wiki page, now this here package holiday thing, where he allegedly made his millions?
              How come no reference to the name(s) of these here companies on his wiki page?
              It’s like he appeared in 68 at VP from nowhere, very strange.

              4. Ellis did a lot of things that made business sense in terms of the non football side at Villa. What he never understood was that investment in the football sidecwould drive revenue. It was the classic understanding of the cost of everything and the value of nothing!

                Shame really because Deadly could so easily have become a legend at Villa and I believe he genuinely loved the club.

                The block – winning the European Cup without him – it ate away at his soul and he never could accept it and build off it – because it wasn’t his invention!

                I hope for the European success he could never achieve – for his sake as much as every supporter at VP and beyond.

                Shite – I love this club,

                UTMV

              5. When we had stewards meetings at Christmas time food was paid for and entertainment by him the best steward was given from him a week’s holiday ,it only happened once that’s when he owned the holiday company. He was, have to say it a understanding person, I had two occasional times that I won an argument, stewards coats ,and off duty police useing identity cards getting in free.

    2. Yes William it was pretty quiet in my local here in Surrey after that result, except for the Citeh contingent now growing in the fertiliser of their recent dominance. In a few years – who knows – we might see some Surrey Lions!

  13. Do you think we should sack the manager and employ a new one before every game for the new manager bounce?
    Emery OUT! 😂

  14. Birmingham Live
    Villa co-owner Sawiris presented Emery with the club’s ambitious strategic plan to eventually compete in the Champions League and his commitment to keep investing.
    Sawiris handed Emery a blank sheet of paper and pointed to it, asking the Spanish coach to draw a winning club for him. “Train my team and build me a new and winning Aston Villa,” Sawiris said.
    (Wow)

    2. To me there are two massive messages –

      1. Our owners are absolutely committed to our club and

      2. Purslow is no longer involved in the football side of the club.

      Both fill me with hope and a belief that, at last, my (our) beloved Villa might actually awake from it’s slumbers.

      UTMV

  15. I do actually think that Man United are a good side to be honest.

    I think on Sunday we were excellent, and not many sides would have beaten us, especially in the Premier League.

    I think we will do the same on Thursday and beat them in the Carabao Cup too. We will follow it with a league win against Brighton at the Amex as well I think.

    Let’s not get carried away, though, we know where that can get us sometimes…

    I am excited for this Emery era and will back him all the way. UTV!

    1. Thursday will be interesting:

      Will ManUre do the usual thing that their ilk do in the early stages of the League Cup and put out a team of reserves – or will they be desperate for revenge and actually put out a senior team?

      Can Villa actually win two games on the trot – against anyone, let alone ManUre?

      I’m hoping that Emery will actually out-think ten Hag, rather than just ride the new-manager bounce; either way I really hope we can win at OT – would silence their smug fans for a while…

      1. Win on Thursday and that would be four games unbeaten against them.

        Currently our three game run has come under three different managers. Excellent strategic use of new manager bounce 🙂

    1. Tried to vote on it????
      Vote on new badge.
      Watch Video.
      Log on to vote.
      Log on.
      Put in ID.
      Enter ID.
      Back to vote.
      Watch video.
      Press vote.
      Back to video.
      Press vote.
      Back to video.
      WTF??
      Is just me???

  18. I have that badge in a presentation box . Do you think it’s a money thing ? ££££££££££.

  19. The badge redesign is quite interesting – not the actual designs which seem pretty typical to me of a design company charging a lot of money to produce something so uninspiring and very little changed – hardly inspired design thinking.

    The FA have recently introduced a regulation (following on from the super league debacle) which requires all clubs to provide evidence of consultation with fans on a range of matters that affect the club brand / image including the badge. As I understand it Villa are the first to carry out such a consultation since the new regulation was introduced.

    What is also interesting is the club restricting the choice to two options and not including a ‘don’t like either’ option (or something similar). The club is obviously hoping for a clear majority vote one way or the other – rather than a three or four way split – so they can present ‘clear evidence’ of the process and a clear fan mandate to proceed!

    Personally I’m underwhelmed with both so don’t feel obliged to vote for either.

  20. It would seem, with Kamara and Digne omitted from the French WC squad that Emery will have a full first team squad (missing only Martinez) for the six week break.

    This is excellent news being like a pre-season for him to work with the squad.

    1. That is awesome news as a Villa fan. We’ll be fit, rested, drilled and chomping at the it in 7 weeks time!
      Even if I lose the rose tinted spectacles I can see us flying up the league. We were brilliant against Brentford and brilliant against ManU. The trick is to perform at this level consistently.
      On another note, the Daily Mail report we wasted over £10M bringing Gerrard and his crap backroom team to VP. What a waste of money. And still his mates say he got a raw deal. Idiots.
      I’m going 2-1 to Villa tonight!

      1. Watch the camera view on the official site on Unai and watch him for the Ramsey goal.
        Watkins breaks forward, Unai isn’t watching him, he’s looking for the run from the midfield runners.
        Straight off the training a
        ground and f¥¢{ing brilliant.

        1. Brilliant, yet so simple, RSS. There is a fine line between genius and simplicity! Stupid people complicate the simple; intelligent people simplify the complex. Oh, and people with half a brain know when something is already simple and doesn’t need simplifying!

  22. Is anyone tracking the MON book release and series of articles out on B’ham mail? I remember the day he was announced as our manager and had the broadest smile all day and loved that period with him, but like many the way he left devastated us as a club and sent us into a tail spin.

    It’s interesting to hear his side of the story for sure – but what really irked me today was reading that when Matt Kendrick tried to pin him down for an apology when he was at Sunderland, he stormed off and they hadn’t spoken since – yet they’ve reunited now that MON needs Matt’s voice to spread the news about his book. The arrogance is just off the charts.

    2. Agree entirely.
      The other interesting point in those articles on B’ham Live is the reminder that while MON bought some good players during his time at VP, he also wasted a shed-load of Lerner’s money on some real dross signings.
      Overall, I remember his spell here as being exciting, but the manner of his departure still galls me to this day. He could have been a legend.

    1. While I’m glad we won’t lose Mings, I do feel a bit sorry for him; can’t imagine how that donkey Maguire is still being picked for the WC when he can’t even get a regular game for ManUre – and is usually hopeless when he does.

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