Credit to https://www.flickr.com/photos/graham_pride/albums/72157662420335941
A very happy new year!
It is for us Villa fans anyway.
How great was it for us to get three points today when practically everybody, myself included had written this one off a a “no chance”?
Maybe Dean Smith reads the Villa websites after all, but it wasn’t rocket science that made him go five at the back, was it?
Whatever, it worked and the defence in the first half particularly, looked much more confident.
Jack Grealish played more centrally and you can see the difference it makes.
He’s much more involved where the real action is and even managed to bring Wesley into it for a goal.
It’s taken the manager a while to realise this, but fair play, he made the changes and they worked.
That said and I’m not trying to detract from the performance, but Burnley looked a really poor side, especially in that same first half. We were beating them to all the second balls in midfield, which made a really pleasant change.
As for the goal that was ruled out for Wesley being offside, what an absolute joke.
Even BBC sport said the goal should have stood. I was reminded of Liverpool’s goal against us and it was almost identical. I said then that their goal should have been classed as good, so you can’t say it’s bias on my part.
VAR is supposed to be looking at obvious and clear errors.
That simply wasn’t one.
My hope is that they will sort this over time, but in the meantime my concern is that it’s decisions like this that can turn games and maybe even get a team relegated.
If it’s that close to call, just don’t bother with VAR, simple.
I’m tempted to brush over the second half, but basically we knew Burnley would come out all guns blazing and we looked a lot poorer, being sloppy, sitting back and nearly letting them back into the game.
The bad news is that both Wesley and Heaton have possibly suffered Anterior Cruciate Ligament injuries, which can leave a player out for many months. As a worst case, we might not even see them again this season.
But I’m sure another player had the same injury not so long back and recovered a lot quicker. I just can’t think who it was.
Regardless, we have no choice now, but to get a decent striker in and hopefully we’ll have already been planning for it.
Kodjia, who I’ve often espoused should start for us, looked horrendous today. Some say it was a lack of interest, but the commentators I listened to said he looked leggy, even though he’d only been on a few minutes.
Which makes sense, given that you’d think he might want to put himself on display for a move. He definitely didn’t look in good shape.
Ultimately, it was a decent first half against a very poor Burnley which got us three points and got us out of the relegation places.
I’m not sure how long that will last, but I’m happy to say I got it wrong in my prediction.
Up the Villa and happy new year!
Comments
89 responses to “Burnley 1 -2 Villa; Massive three points, but bad news too”
sorry to repeat or harp on about kodija. that incident was just one example, but we could have mentioned two or three more. having made a wrong decision ok if he never saw that ball. much worst than not seeing the trez pass. is never considered the roll across to trez. which was a tap in compared to kodija acute angle, also this kind of selfishness affects the team.
i hope we can find two strikers this window, Hogan might be worth a look in. because if he fit and can be given supply like last game we produced. i really think he can finish,he certainly makes the right runs. he is also much more team player.
Saïd Benrahma i have watch this guy a few times since season having been linked with us in summer. i think he would definitely be able to step up and he will cause opposition lots of trouble. he is lightening quick like traore was but said seems to have more footballing IQ and has more tricks.
My post did a Hitch. It’s jumped up 4-5 places.
do you think we will be able to find some =links looking bleak sofar bill
Ive got it nath, its on BEIN MENA 11 508.
strong team picked for fulham. its like the micky mouse league cup smith picked his players who are not in 1st team. which is utilizing the squad, a few youngsters on the bench. not seen fulhams team yet but i think they will do the same, they are 4/5 th in league they will want to avoid injuries too
anybody wondered where josh onomah ended up. well he is in the fulham team today hope he didn’t take offense with most villa fans who didnt rate him much.
fulham team looks strong, not sure if they made many changes as i expected
i got a link bill 🙂
tight game, not many chances jota had a half volley edge of box and el ghazi had a late chance but a comfy save and wait for this chance made from a pass from kodjia.
better second half we can only hope for
1 shot on target and we miss it. It’s time to throw the FA cup in the bin.
my 1 nil prediction looks good now. lol
Shots in now…one – nil…
Once again we concede a goal shortly after half time.
Even acknowledging this is a weaker side, when are we going to concentrate for a full 90 minutes?
Not watching game but reading fans posts suggests we are poor again. No Grealish = No chance! Unfortunately our squad is a championship squad excluding a few of our team.
Also Smith has gone 4-3-3 again despite having success with 3-5-2. I know we are down on strikers but he could play El Ghazi or Jota down the middle.
Having said that, I would rather lose than draw and get an unneeded replay.
Not particularly fussed today – we cannot afford more cup games with the paper thin and weak squad.
Having said that Smith should at least have given some of the under 23’s a chance. We didnt need another game to prove the likes of Jota, Taylor and Lansbury are garbage and bottom 6 championship players – we already know this!
my summoning up on this game is, we need to get a striker or two fast. cause if we are relying on kodjia we might as well relegate ourselves now. he will probably fight el ghazi for that goal we scored (greedy t wa t ), but the rest of the game was frighteningly bad. up against two poor defenders. he was caught offside so many times. hardly surprising when he stands in offside position to begin with.he offers nothing no holding up. no actual passes to a claret and blue. he hardly runs into any channels, when he did manage to move he was never found as our passing was also frighteningly not accurate. tbf the game was often in neutral. fulham deserved the win just for the two goals they scored which were too good for the game which they won. both teams won the worst game to watch when you could do doing something more constructive with our time.
ENOUGH SMITH OUT NOW.
Awful players, awful manager who clearly is too arrogant to admit when wrong.
Formation wrong
Players bought wrong
Team selection wrong.
Yes I’m happy for us to concentrate on the Prem and go out but play players who will run, fight, battle and try not players like Hourihanne (can’t believe some suggest he should be a regular starter) he can not run, has no pace, has no physicality, can’t tackle, he runs up to the opposition skips and stops, one of the worse players I have seen at Villa. Can’t believe Smith took Marvellous off and kept Hourihanne on.
Jota probably worse than Hourihanne, but it’s close.
Kodjia lazy, no effort.
These three should never play again.
But they will because Smith has his favourites.
Give the youngsters a go.
If Smith was a Villa fan he would resign.
Smith OUT
Apologies I should have included El Ghasi so so so so so LAZY.
Considering the FA Cup is a distraction too much for our paper thin squad, I don’t know why Smith didn’t give a few more kids an opportunity. At least they would have shown effort and enthusiasm.
Kodja and co keep getting opportunities to shine but fail nearly every time. We desperately need two forwards, a strong CM, a goalkeeper and at least one winger. Try hard to offload Kodja, Kalinic and Lansbury. If we can only get one forward, preferably Mitrovic, could we swap Hogan for Kodja at Stoke? At least he puts in a shift and is a team player. I wish we could get rid of Jota too. None of our wingers are premier league quality but he is too slow and how many goals has he scored? Surely we can loan him out. I would rather bring back O’Hare.
Smith needs to act quickly, especially on the striker front and not leave it till the end of the month or we might be out the Carabao cup and in the relegation zone before we know it.
I didn’t see the game so not going to directly comment other than I’m surprised anyone is surprised we lost. We all know the inherent weaknesses in the squad worsened by long term injuries (as an aside Villa have more long term injuries – in numbers and accumulated days – than any other team in the EPL by a country mile) and, whilst Smith won’t say it I believe he’s concentrating on the EPL and the Carabao Cup.
I did post earlier that I read Stoke we’re considering ending Hogan’s loan period as he isn’t even making the bench, let alone starting. In many ways I agree with Holte in that Hogan would be a better option than Kodjia. Again it seems clear to me that the Villa management agree otherwise they would not be letting his contract run down.
Notwithstanding we just have to sign a quality, experienced striker and quickly.
Here’s hoping we see the back of Kodjia and soon.
A PS – Ted questioned why he substituted Marvelous – i would suggest it was more about protecting him with two major games coming up than any other reason.
Holte, Hitchens why have neither of you mentioned a Hourihanne?
One of the worse players I’ve seen no where near good enough.
Please explain why some supporters are intent on defending him or demanding he plays.
Yes he may score a goal but this is offset by the negatives can’t run can’t tackle can’t go past players can’t dribble no physicality and lazy at best a sub.
Ted, I agree with you in that he is lightweight. The more I see of him, the more I see him as an impact sub. For the reason that he nearly always gets around 10 goals a season from midfield means he’s more valuable than Lansbury IMO. The formation used against Burnley meant Nakamba and Luiz CAN play together. Unless we buy a top striker and winger, we must persevere with 3-5-2 which enabled Grealish to push forward to join up with the front man. If Smith goes back to a 4-3-3 after today’s inept showing, I will have to question whether he should remain as head coach.
Ted – neither have we unconditionally supported his contribution. I think he’s a decent squad player and all teams need them. It doesn’t really matter how he does it but his goal contribution has been critical already this season (as recently as the Norwich game).
If his role is as an impact sub then I personally am happy with that.
Not only lightweight but lazy, no pace, can’t/won’t tackle, can’t go past a player, runs up to players skips and stops won’t tackle.
Lazy, no pace, can’t/won’t tackle, can’t go past a player! TBH, that could be a number of our players. Whilst I agree that Hourihane is lightweight and can’t tackle, he can shoot and pass and he scores a good chunk of our goals. And goals means points/prizes. Like Grealish, there is little point in them backtracking when they are more influential in the final third. If we are 1-0 down and have a free kick 25 yards out, I would bring Hourihane from the subs bench just to take it. I stated previously that we need another CM to cover for McGinn. That would mean we could offload Lansbury who has produced nothing.
What about his skipping?
Runs up to a player skips and stops?
Perhaps he is wary they might pinch his rope! 😂
It seems like fans are mostly angry about Nakamba’s performances with a lot saying we should get rid. Personally I would like to see formation used at Burnley where for the first time we got Nakamba and Luiz playing well. It might have been a one off but who knows unless Smith tries it out again. Against Leicester, I think the 5 at the back will be vital to keep it tight for the 2nd leg at Villa Park.
i don’t think that playing 5 at back or 352 is the answer for all ills. playing Leicester will not suit 5 at the back because they will hit quick breaks and more players you got back their more chance vardy will beat the offside. also when you got three players marking one player, you will get three statues as they all will think the other will act and none will and vardy will nip in. three at the back against burnley were defending two good heading forwards both very physical. while Leicester are more pass and move and very nippy two different games
i was surprised we switched three at the back with little work on that formation. i don’t think the system actually worked defensively. first half burnley were dire and second half they improved. where the 352 worked for me was grealish played more as a second striker and got linked up with wesley who also had his best game, because he had somebody like grealish to link up with. trez also had a free attacking role and he had his best game, luiz also looked for better but all this could have been because burnley were so bad. they rarely play 90 minutes and not threaten the opposition. don’t think they had one attempt on target first half. also having mings back would have raised the other players levels.
No one actually can assess from this game, this 5 at the back, this is how Liverpool plays and it works, but you should have the players to understand the system and Villa don’t..again I’m loosing Faith in Smith’s ability in understanding football at this level. We lost, and as someone who played the game it should hurt to loose. But we have players that it don’t matter, you get the money then you should deliver. We have players that don’t die for the club. Get rid.
I struggle to understand why some fans cannot see how useless some of our players are, Nath sums it up , OLL sees it, i dont think some fans see the game, OK by the attendance of most clubs the FA has lost its appealing interest, but it annoying to see us ridiculed by useing the FA cup not for our youngsters but players that are known to be useless in the first team. If we are going to throw that cup match show us our young hopeful player of the future. Mind boggles, Badger, my grief is tomorrow I don’t know how I’ll be he was Villa from head to toe, with Villaa car plates on his i8.
I give up…. what have we got that we can call footballers. I say no football’s with no brains. Sake the fucking lot.
I’m really struggling with some of the very negative comments. OK we don’t have the best squad; OK we could get better players if we spent a few ‘trillion’. OK our owners may be able to afford it but FFP sort of puts a downer on that. And we are suffering the sort of long term injury crisis to key players that would basically stuff any team in the EPL.
We are trying to build a side for the future (having finished last season with a squad of ageing and loan players) and in so doing there will be mistakes made but, and I sometimes think this fact is too easily forgotten, it was only 12 months or so ago that Villa stood on the precipice of financial disaster since when our owners have pumped £millions into the club not only to finance transfers but to ensure the football club is liquid and financially sound.
Criticism is OK as long as it’s fair and balanced!
Before today’s game many were saying it’s not a priority and survival in the EPL is the main goal. No one likes losing but it’s hardly a surprise is it?
Not only did we put out a second string, which wouldn’t be first choice even in the Championship, we were playing in London. If anyone can remember the last time we won a game in London (against a London team) then perhaps they can remind me because I can’t remember one.
Minor rant over.
UTV
my paddy was mainly on kodija. if you watched him throughout the game and his movement. you would moan too lol trust me i seen more movement in a squashed hedgehog on the m6. the guy stands in a offside position and expects to be onside.
also if the idea was too lose this game, i would have played the full under 23’s hourihane almost injured himself turning a ankle.we learned nothing about this team. it was standard team but no firepower. el ghazi struggled to cross the ball jota started slow but got more into the game. but both wide boys kodija struggled to hurt fulham where it matters. who also changed at least 8 players from their last league game defeat.
also i would have used the semi finals in the micky mouse cup to play weaken sides and play a stronger side in the fa cup more money etc fulham were not great too in general play. they won the game basically by scoring to very good goals. both were not fitting for this game which was dull and contested by too ordinary sides well matched.
One look at the team sheet was enough to convince me we were “schooling in public”. A horse-racing term for deliberately setting out to lose in order to improve the chances of winning another race. We have one cup semi to play and really did not want any more cup matches while the injury list is long and reinforcements are not yet bought.
I realise that with this post,I am going to attract a lot of negative comments for my ‘old-fashioned’ attitude but I really am disappointed that most,if not all, Premier League clubs and some Championship ones treat the FA Cup with such negativity. It is the oldest cup competition in the world for god’s sake. It used to be the ‘Jewel in the crown’ of English football.It’s all well and good changing your squad beyond recognition in order to protect your first choice players for the rigours of the Premier League but,let’s face it, since the ‘mega-money’ people got involved in football, the thought of falling out of the top division is unthinkable. And so it is now a case of all the supporters of Bournemouth,Watford,Norwich and clubs who are always going to be in the bottom-half of the table,including us, have to look forward to is the remote possibility of at least competing against a Sky top 6 team every now and then but the real hope is that there are at least 3 worst teams than yours come the end of the season.The domestic cups take a back seat for the ‘golden egg’ of Premiership survival. Even Dean Smith said that the changes he made against Fulham showed where his priorities lie.So sad that a club that has won the famous trophy 7 times has relegated it to being an inconvenience.
I find it staggering that Liverpool were moaning about fixture congestion recently. They were having a go at the Football League because of the EFL cup fixture date.Surely the blame lies with UEFA and FIFA for creating the huge financially rewarding competitions like the Champions League and the World Club Cup. I find it ironic that there was no moaning about fixture pile-ups when it was just the League winners taking part in a two-legged knokout of the European Cup and the next six or seven teams doing the same in the UEFA Cup.Not forgetting the Cup Winners’ Cup.All this with 42 top flight games, both domestic cups and a small squad. Oh, the good old days of honest football,local players.
End of rant.
All good points Mark.
Tbf to Dean Smith I don’t believe he would have fielded that team if we didn’t have our two first choice GK’s, last seasons player of the season and our record signing and first choice CF all on the long term injury list. If he’d played Grealish and Mings or evening Hause and any of them had been injured what reaction then from the Villa fans?
In the past Smith has spoken of how important the cup competitions are and we are in the semi of the Carabao Cup – I fully expect him to play a strong team Wednesday evening.
We need to be realistic about what’s achievable this season.
i agree with the posts all being bemused by the team we fielded and surrendering of the once great fa cup. i can understand not wanting to field grealish mings. but smith could have fielded the team he did yesterday, but leave out the front three of el ghazi kodija jota. i would have loved smith say to his youngsters, here you go / show us what you can do. ramsey and the yank came on but 10 minutes left what could they do. when fulham were playing keep ball. we know kodija is in hibernation el ghazi and jota are not on form and lacking sumat. play the youngsters in the forward area. they might surprise you and fulham. at the bottom line they might show more movement and effort.
Again fair points Nath and when we had lost the game there would be some criticising Smith for not picking Kodjia, El Ghazi and Jota!
In some circumstances managers just can’t win.
kodija is the only fit striker we have. so why risk him for this game. ?? personally i would have picked a different front three the two kids which came on and another to help them with communication. fulham would not have known these players too and wouldn’t know how to handle them.
our fans would have accepted this defeat better had smith played the three youngsters up front. we know what kodija jota ghazi do and can not do. maybe one of the three youngsters could have stepped up and if we lose the game at least we tried something different. we just might as well refused to turn up and surrender
there was very little for our fans to watch or get excited about. if the mindset was to not pick up injuries and lose with dignity. i would have preferred to lose playing the kids and you might be surprised by them, i felt sorry for the two that were brought on,the game was over and fulham always take the pi ss playing keep ball at the end. so the youngsters had nothing to do but chase them around.
also do we really think we will beat the foxes in the micky mouse cup, i am positive we will lose and lose bad over two legs. so i would have thrown these two games and try to stay in the fa cup. if we win the micky mouse cup we will have to beat Leicester and one Manc club , highly unlikely
actually you are correct hitch. smith can not win in this situation. i just think the hard core fans would be more happy to lose, if we blood the kids in the cups. rather than play the players we know are well short of something.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results wasn’t nath who said this lol throw in the kids and who knows we might have discovered the next gem