I’m in two minds what to think about this game.
I thought we were shocking in the first half, so much so that I find it somewhat concerning that I don’t think we’ve played well for a good few games now.
We got better in the second half, but not by much and there was me thinking that it couldn’t be much worse too.
But then, I suppose we always knew that this match was going to be a tough old grind because Duncan Ferguson had his team well fired up and willing to dish out the rough and dirty stuff.
I can think of many, many games where opposition such as that would have had us folding almost immediately, with a resulting defeat.
To have come through this game with a win is very impressive and exactly what we need to help us get points in the rest of this season.
So while I can’t say I was impressed with our performance, so other people’s views on individual performances perplexes me.
I note that the Evening Mail has Tyrone Mings as man of the match. I can understand why some might think he was good, because he did help a stalwart defence when we were facing an aerial assault in the middle to later section of the second half, but I feel that overlooks the amount of times he just kicked the ball out of play totally needlessly.
I detest players who can’t do the simple stuff like pass the ball and while I can forgive the odd once or maybe twice he must have failed at this simple task five times and it really annoys me.
Perhaps I’m just complaining about stuff that doesn’t matter, but I don’t think so. When you’re part of a team that we’ve often complained about for sloppy passing and giving the ball away, it really needs to stop and Mings, as captain ought to be setting an example.
It really, really bugs me.
Anyway, my point is there were players who were in my opinion were much better.
Buendia is an obvious example. He was involved in pretty much everything and as I said last week, he’s really starting to prove his worth. Even his heading is quality for such a small player and he is great to watch.
Matty Cash got the motm award on the channel I was watching and I don’t begrudge him that. He’s been generally very good for weeks now, although it’s interesting to note that I’ve seen fans commenting on other sites that they really don’t rate him. Whatever, I like him. Yes, his crossing isn’t always the best and he never goes round a player, but I feel he adds to our game.
Coutinho on the other hand was very quiet. I guessed Gerrard might start him because he wants him to get his fitness up, but I feel he should have been subbed for Chukuemeka earlier.
Lkewise, I’d have bought Hause on for Buendia earlier too, mainly because he’s the obvious choice when we’re facing that onslaught.
Still, Gerrard’s the manager and it’s difficult to argue with his choices when we got the required result.
So the defence proved pretty solid overall and I don’t remember Everton having any particularly good chances.
The midfield did pretty well too eventually and didn’t allow itself to get roughed up too much by an Everton side where it’s a shame to see them playing such a dirty game. On paper, they’re much better than that.
That said, we didn’t create much either and I found myself thinking that if we hadn’t taken that lead, I’d be thinking that we scratched out a draw in a pretty poor game of football.
It’s funny how a goal makes all the difference.
So it’s a win, when it could so easily have gone against us and you can’t ask for any more than that.
I’d much prefer us to actually turn out a decent performance over two halves for a change, but I’ll happily keep taking wins any way we can get them. That’s all that matters, after all.
So now we have a two week break, which seems ridiculous when so many games have been postponed, but hey ho.
At least it’s given the papers a story because now it seems that John McGinn has gone on holiday to Dubai with Harry McGuire and Marcus Rashford. This obviously means that McGinn is going to Man U.
Except none of the pictures show McGinn with any other players at all and it’s just a coincidence.
McGinn won’t be going anywhere.
And then, after the break we have some very winnable games coming up.
Leeds at home is probably the toughest, but then it’s Newcastle away, Watford at home, Brighton away and Southampton at home. There’s fifteen points to be had there and you’d have to hope we can take the majority of them.
I’ll gloss over the fact that the following five games are tough as hell because I’m trying to get the positive vibes going.
Yes, it was a very satisfying result.
UTV!
Comments
94 responses to “Everton 0-1 Villa; Not pretty, but very gritty.”
Keep those wins coming and I’ll be a happy bunny 🙂
I described the first half as middle table football played by two middle table sides but Everton aren’t (mid table) – are they?
What’s interesting is the divergence of views on our first half performance although I think describing it as ‘shocking’ is a little harsh.
Where I feel all will agree is the demonstration of real determination by Villa when ‘Dunc-an Disorderly’ decided they would play the second half like Wimbledon of old! Having said that I was mightily impressed by Gordon who probably should have started for them.
It seems Buendia ran 11km in the game, more than any other player and he’s really starting to show why we paid £30+ m for him. The idea of Buendia and Coutinho playing narrow each side of Watkins (or Ings) is a tasty prospect.
Really good signs I thought and a great win ahead of the IB / winter break (you were right Badger there are some World Cup Qualifiers over the next week or so).
In other news it would appear we are in negotiations with Juventus to sign Rodrigo Bentancur, an Uruguayan International defensive mid fielder with quite a European pedigree. By all accounts technically very good and would be quite a coup if we can get him (rumoured £20m)
Happy Days.
Ah, I thought I’d seen mention of qualifiers a while back, cheers.
I forgot about Buendia’s stats.
He also topped another list and came near top of yet another one (I forget exactly which), which shows it’s not just skills but pure out and out workrate too.
He’s really impressed me over the last few games.
I thought our first half display was awful and stand by it, but yes, it’s all about opinions.
I definitely agree about Gordon though. He seems a very useful young player and caused more problems than most of their team.
I think Dunc made 5 changes. I’ll bet most of those players he brought back had fallen out with Benitez.
The write up from Everton wrt to Benitez and Digne (and the fact that they let the player go so easily) tells me there was a major fallout which has left a really nasty taste at Everton.
My total guess is that Benitez was in the middle of a major sort out and it’s rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way. My bet is Ferguson is one of those and while he’s involved I think Everton are in real trouble.
I’ve seen mention of Bentancur, but not read anything about him.
Uruguayan defensive mid eh?
Those South Americans are usually tough, dirty, cheating bastards (I’m not going to change my opinion just because one might come to us 🙂 ) and he sounds like exactly what we need!
I hope we get him, especially at £20 mill.
It’s not exactly a major risk.
If we do sign him that’s 5 major South Americans in our side. 2 Brazilians, 2 Argentinians, and one from Uruguay. Quite a statement considering how they don’t play like the Uruguay of the 1950s.
Here we go, from the Evening Mail;
“he made the second-most tackles (4), blocks (2) and carried a goal threat by racking up the most shots (4) and the most touches in the opposition box.”
Very impressive from a little bloke.
Gerrard’s comment;
“He’s all-in for the club, the cause, the badge and the fans and we need more of that.”
Badger, you and I must have been watching different games if you saw our 1st half performance as “shocking”.
I saw an excellent display of controlled, posession football, with some superb attacking moves; the only thing missing IMO was the end-product.
In many ways it was more of an old-fashioned cup-tie than a modern PL game: all blood & thunder- but fun for all of that – and that was clearly down to how Ferguson had sent a pumped-up team to try and bully us off the ball.
If nothing else, it proved that we do have players who apart from being skillful are also prepared to get stuck-in and hurt – something which I feared we’d lost in the last few years.
Heh, that’s all fair comment, Ardent.
I just saw one poor team dragged down to the level of another poor team, because of the way they played..
Different games indeed.
It’s as I said, the Mail had Mings as our best player. Would you agree with that, I wonder?
Vive la difference, I say 🙂
I thought Mings did very well – led by example.
But I thought that Buendia was my MOTM, even without the goal; his play was superb – he just kept popping up everywhere and wasn’t afraid of mixing it with any of the big guys that Everton set on him.
Just one other thought.
It was good to have McGinn back, but to me he looks as if tries to do by brute force what Buendia (& I’d also suspect Couthino-) do by skill!
Nowt wrong with a bit of steel in your midfield.
See McGinn and Grealish have gone on holiday together! That made me laugh…
I’ve just seen Liverpool’s penalty yesterday. HAHAHAHAHA! Take a bow Kevin Friend, you clown. Again, countless pundits hammering the officials for ‘clear and obvious’ mistake on their part. It’s time the shower of shit that is VAR is scrapped. Absolute disgrace.
Do these morons get any training? Surely, they must get together a couple of times a season, and get shown endless examples to discuss? Can they really be that thick and incompetent? I don’t think so. The game is corrupt. End of story.
BFR – the biggest irony in football.
VAR introduced to reduce controversial or unfair decisions prior to its use manages to create far more of both,
Either get rid of it and live with what’s always worked in the past or sort it out properly and stop re- refereeing games.
No one likes it – absolutely no one.
Philogene-Bidace came on second half for Stoke (against Fulham) and got good reviews in local press.
Cameron Archer has gone to PNE on loan.
Good moves as long as they get game time.
Regarding them so called pens, BFR your definitely right something wrong and my belief is this, we do have refs that are ruining our game on what they want and not by legitimate rules of the game, it’s the same 4 that the FA think they are the best. My other feelings are that Man Utd must not lose a game as they owe millions to the bank’s, if they don’t get gates then the club suffers and so do the Banks and directors who put money in to Man Utd. ,needless to say Utd must win to pay Bill’s.I wish someone would look into what going on regarding refereeing and that club that’s bent as a five bob note.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and defend VAR. I think most times it is used it gets the right outcome. That said, even with the technology and ability to review the incident it’s still sometimes a subjective decision.
Referees make many poor decisions in real time. Same with linesmen. You can’t possibly watch as the ball leaves a players foot and watch the movement of the last man and attacking player.
I think it would be fair to adjust the definition of offside (which they have anyway) to take into account the technology can rule offside over a cm difference.
I’m not sure there is bias in it though. If there is then we have to accept that referees are cheats and they can do that in real time and probably get away with it anyway.
I’m sure most probably disagree with me but hey ho.
For me DS the real issues is the failure to abide by the ‘clear and obvious error’ mandate which is the overriding guidance on use of the system.
We’ve seen too often VAR re-refereeing games when there is no clear and obvious error. We’ve also seen that once referees are asked to ‘view the monitor’ then they inevitably accept their original decision was wrong.
Taking 4 minutes to decide (as in the Villa / United game) is a clear indication that there was no clear and obvious error. They have to put a time limit Ona review – one minute is more than enough time to decide and forget the pitch side monitor.
They don’t ask the umpires in cricket to view the decision of the third u,pure to see whether or not they agree.
Football has it badly wrong but the authorities are so arrogant they can’t see it.
End of rant 🙂
Spot on.
Ranieri has been sacked.
Watford are an absolute joke and because of that awful owner I hope they get relegated and stay down until he’s gone.
See Watford are turning to the ‘escape relegation magician’ Hodgson.
That’ll suit them as whether they escape or not they can replace him for next season or maybe even before Easter 🙂
On a serious note, I wouldn’t bet against Hodgson keeping them up.
They won’t be pretty to watch but he’ll make them hard to beat.
Villa’s women’s team have signed Jill Scott on loan from Citeh until the summer. Very good player and England International (I think she was England captain for a time). She’ll add real experience and quality to the midfield.
Good move and shows our owners have ambition for our women’s side beating off competition from a number of other WSL sides.
Archer scores for Preston 10 minutes after coming on.
Just read that Badger.
If he continues in that vein he’s going to be pushing for a first team start next season,
I have one more beef about VAR. It has to be a good idea for a referee to see again and from different angles an incident he only saw once in real time and from one angle. The problem is – that does not help a referee who does not understand what he is watching.
The dirty dogs (aka tactical coaches) are ahead of referees as you would expect, and a virus the CL clubs seem to have caught is the intentional collision in the penalty area. Liverpool’s latest scam penalty being an obvious example. Jota plays the ball past the Palace keeper: his only possible option which lets him catch the ball before it runs out is to run straight down the track of the ball, which is the line he was on. Instead he veers into the keeper and collides with him.
The question the ref needs to ask himself is: “Has a player changed track and if so was the new track consistent with playing the ball to best advantage?” We saw before Salah jumping in front of Mings, but to a position facing the corner flag not the goal. Once you are clear about that you can rule against a penalty which the forward is conning you into awarding.
And Cavani’s ‘non collision’ with Ramsey leading to a disallowed goal is another example OLL
Sending off the forward for simulation is the only way to stop it.
Sadly that’s not going to happen as they’re all players with the hallowed Sky 6.
Don’t agree. Ramsay was in an offside position and stepped into Cavani’s path. By the rules it’s a foul. It’s also what he was put there to do. My only problem with that being given as a foul is a) it probably didn’t affect the play/goal and b) every corner/free kick sees defenders trying to deliberately block attackers and other attackers doing the same.
It’s all too subjective. They are either all fouls or all not fouls.
Ramsay block was against the rules but they are broken all the time without being penalised
The problem I have with it, DS, is that it took them 5 minutes to find it and they weren’t even looking at that initially. I don’t see how Ramsey blocked him. He’s a physical entity who was occupying that space and Cavani ran into him. If he was a wall or a car, would it still be a foul? As Cavani is, like Ramsay, not a phantom, when he ran into him, a collision occurred and he fell, even though he wasn’t going to get anywhere near the ball. So if players running into other players is a foul, in your opinion, Jota’s ‘collision’ was a penalty, as it every other cheating bastard who veers into the goalkeeper to deliberately ‘collide’. No, DS, sorry. Your thought process is what’s causing the ‘pro’ ref’s tiny brains to go haywire. Just my opinion, no offence.
No offence taken BFR. I agree the time taken is a nonsense. It’s really frustrating. I think it will get better over time but it will probably involve some tweaking of the laws.
Part of the problem is that teams are trying to push the limits of the rules. This whole standing in an offside position when a free kick is taken to gain an advantage in the second phase maybe needs to be addressed. It just creates another grey area that means more confusion
Back on the Ramsay incident. I still disagree. Ramsay is in the position purely to stop Cavani getting involved. As Cavani runs into the area Ramsay steps in front, still looking at Cavani and paying no attention to the ball that is now behind him. If he was on the turn and moving towards the ball but stepping across Cavanis line he would have got away with it. I don’t think that Cavani would have been able to influence the play anyway but it gave him the chance to claim a foul. It’s soft but I would want to be given that foul if we were the defending team.
I can’t comment on the Jota one as I have seen it.
The reason McPhee has Villa players standing offside at free kicks as the kick taker starts towards the ball is that “an offside player’s natural course is a straight run back to an on side position”. The importance of this is – any other case of a player running away from the ball leaves that player liable to be obstructing a player running towards the ball. In the Ramsey case he is moving on the only acceptable line. Cavani needed to be running diagonally toward the near post to be running towards the ball, but he does not make that run – he runs straight at Ramsey. The collision was not a foul by Ramsey who did not change direction to intercept Cavani.
Also if you watch closely Cavani seems to be falling into Ramsey so seeking the foul.
The essential point here though is that the ref did not make a clear and obvious error so why are they looking at it. The possible hand ball by Ings – fair enough but after that move on – good goal.
Not true OLL. If you watch the incident from the camera view from deep towards Villa half you will see that Ramsay is there to block Cavani from getting to the ball played to the far side of the six yard box for Konsa. As soon as Cavani makes a move (he is watching the kick taken, Ramsay doesn’t even look as he knows what is planned. He looks at Cavani the whole time) he made a step into Cavanis path to ensure he couldn’t interfere with the move. Cavani runs into him and makes a meal of it. I think Cavani knew he couldn’t get to Konsa so was happy to run into him. If Ramsay had behaved “normally” and followed the flight of the ball he would have been able to get in Cavani’s way without it being given as a free kick even with VAR. Cavani would never have got there anyway which is even more frustrating.
Anyway I’m sure you don’t agree so I will shut about it now!
UTV
OLL, if a professional football referee can’t see that the attacker is deliberately changing direction towards the goalkeeper in order to “collide” and win a penalty, after watching it in slow motion and from different angles, then that referee is incompetent at best, corrupt at worst. It’s not a case of training the referees. It’s a case of “can’t you f****** see what the rest of the world sees?” If you can’t, you should lose your job. It’s not a training issue. Kane did it last season at VP and again, Lineker said it was “clever”, alluding to the fact that it was cheating. Again, if we all see it, why can’t the referee when it’s his job? He’s supposed to be the expert and is being paid well to do the job. It should be a yellow card for the attacker, no questions asked.
As an aside but on the same subject, VAR stands for ‘video assisted referee’, so other officials at Stockley Park are simply NOT required. The referee on the field has video assistance, so all that’s needed is for the match official to use the monitor pitch-side when required. He should get 60 seconds, maximum. If he still can’t make the right decision when viewing in slow motion, he should lose his job. Simple as that. STOP drawing those f****** lines on the screen. If it’s clear and obvious, the match official should see it with his naked eyes on the screen, IF he requires ‘video assistance’. It’s all very simple, but there are too many people involved, all making too much money, which is why the whole thing is f*****.
I can think of very few ‘clear and obvious’ errors in history when VAR would have helped. Henry’s hand-ball ‘goal’ against the Irish is one; Maradona’s ‘hand of God’ another. After that I’m struggling. They over-use it, which is half the problem,
I’ll oversee it for free, for the good of the game; I’m sure there will be a ten-fold improvement over-night. F****** clowns. Sick to death of them. The concept of VAR is not the problem; these bent muppets are.
BFR, I think if there was a poll carried out by the 14 not so glamorous premier league clubs fans to whether VAR should be scrapped, I’m convinced it would be 90+ percent get rid. Too many idiots hiding in an office making dire decisions trying to justify a wage bill that isn’t needed or necessary. Players cheating like Cavani and Jota who deliberately collided in the box to ‘win’ a decision in their favour. Pundits call it clever but it’s cheating and VAR favours them because they play for the ‘Sky 6’ As for clear and obvious, well that’s already been proven as not adhered to. 5 minutes to decide a decision is a piss take and don’t get me started on the ‘Slo-mo’ replays which exaggerate incidents. Grrrrrrrrrrr 😡
One our own,
They are old enough and big enough to be used ….
But, once on-loan Aston Villa striker Archer had marked his debut with his first league goal just 12 minutes after coming on as a second-half substitute, there never looked likely to be a repeat of that sort of finale from a limp Albion attack, badly missing injured New Year’s Day signing Daryl Dike.
By contrast, for Archer, it was an 11th goal of the season, having already scored four for Villa in the Carabao Cup and six for Villa Under-21s in the Papa John’s Trophy – and they have all come away from home.
He will now be expected to make his home debut on Saturday when North End host Bristol City.
It would seem we’ve signed Callum Chambers from Arsenal on 3.5 year deal.
Any views – assume he’s to replace Tuanzebe.
No set fee but might cost us up to £2m in add ons. Seems like a sensible deal.
Good, if not thrilling, signing. He is cover at CB and RB so a cheap way to give us experienced cover where we need it. Came from nowhere though didn’t it?
We needed reinforcements in defence and Chambers offers experience at the top level and will be motivated by a fresh start. Also he isn’t South American or African so not affected by tin pot tournaments.
With only a few days of the transfer window remaining it will be interesting to see if we get a surprise signing.
With players returning from international duty, Gerrard should have a good selection problem for the next game. Our upcoming fixtures offer an opportunity to get a good haul of points. Although after the Brentford result, we can’t be sure we will.
That’s come out of the blue??
Ninja signing indeed.
And the Beeb have just reported that we’ve got him on a free.
I like that price.
And experienced but only 27.
I like the way we keep our cards close to our chest -a smart bit of business
The Chambers signing has no downside; it’s a free.if nothing else he’ll offer some very experienced cover for a couple of positions, and who knows, could turn out to be like Martinez – a hidden gem that Arsenal basically lost through carelessnes.
Rather like Martinez then?
Oops sorry Ardent you already said that – must near to read properly -:)
* learn to
Rumours about Villa players.
Villa turn down £30m offer for Luiz from ‘unknown’ EPL club – not Arsenal
Cash in talks over £40m move to Athletico Madrid in summer. Is his contract up on the summer otherwise he can’t be in talks with anyone?
Cash contract runs to 2025 so unless Villa have accepted an offer – unlikely – story is so much bs
£40m for Cash?? I don’t believe it but I would take the money if it’s true.
I like Matty Cash because he is always fully committed and if he could improve his crossing in the final third then he would be top drawer. £40m is a lot of money but who would we replace him with? Chambers isn’t the answer neither is Guilbert who hasn’t done enough to impress when he was here. Kessler could be the future but it’s a big ask and we would have to be patient just like Ramsey who has been given enough games to improve to now being a first team regular. I’m certain that if Gerrard wants to keep a player then he won’t be forced to sell.
I think that’s more likely true if we didn’t have the spectre of FFP sitting over all this. I think Gerrard wants us to be buying top players rather than hunting for bargains. It’s what we need to make faster progress. These players will cost serious money so I can see an upgrade policy. Sell Douglas Luiz to buy Bentancor. Sell Cash to buy xxx and so on. If we sold both for, say, £70m and spent £100m on replacements we could help make that jump.
If our owners were free of FFP I think we would have added this level of player before without the need to sell good players. That said, the struggles Newcastle have had show that no decent player wants to join a club on such a precarious position. That was us a couple of seasons ago. At least we are on the position where such a player can see the direction of travel
Louie Barry on loan to Swindon. Let’s hope he gets some real game time.
Philogene-Bidace starting for Stoke tonight – good to see that.
Well done Villa. Callum Chambers on a free. Provided cover at centre and right back.
Even better allows additional funds to be spent on one transfer fee rather than 2.
Bidace starts a move and then hits the post, but the move leads to a Stoke goal anyway.
He hasn’t had that much involvement, but when he does, he moves the ball well.
I’m watching games to see how our young lads doing, Preston have too many players with lead boots specially number 4 . They will learn sod all at those clubs tell you that, both clubs are down and no chance of winning. What a waist…
I was really pleased to see that Traoré had had a haircut until I realised he wasn’t playing in tonights quarter final. Hope he comes back the player that he can be, it would be like having another big signing.
Traore is a goner, imo, because he doesn’t suit Gerrard’s way of playing in the slightest.
In other news, Archer is being portrayed as having played a striker’s role last night.
The media must have been watching a different game to me, because he hugged the left touchline for most of the game, moved inside like an old fashioned inside left later on for about 10 minutes and then moved into a central striking position for the last 10 minutes at the most.
Just saying.
That sometimes the reporting is pathetic.
Badger, could Traore, with all his skill and talent, not, theoretically, play the role that Buendia is currently doing, essentially providing competition for the little dynamo? I say ‘theoretically’, because Gerrard recently gushed that Buendia is a “warrior” on the pitch and is “all in for the badge.” Traore’s talent is undoubted, but can he perform to levels consistently to gain similar praise from an uncompromising manager?
BFR, yes, Traore probably could if he was the player we want.
The trouble is, I don’t think he’s that sort of player.
You want my honest opinion?
He’s a fanny who relies on how happy he feels.
And we have too many of those.
It’s the sort of attitude that will see the Villa going nowhere.
This is exactly the sort of attitude that Gerrard won’t stand for, imo.
And mine is the sort of attitude that will see me crucified by some parties.
Suffice to say, we need to toughen up and Traore isn’t part of that plan, imo.
Gerrard said it all about Buendia;
He fights for the club, the fans and the cause.
Does that describe all of our players?
You know who Gerrard is talking about there, as well as I do, I’m sure.
You’re probably right, Badger, which is a shame. I’ve seen Bert do things with a ball that probably only the likes of Merson could dare to try and pull off, and that includes end-product. He’s 26 so just coming into his prime. If only Stevie could attach two big balls to this “fanny”, we’d have a monster of a player. In this day and age, adding balls to a fanny shouldn’t be a problem! 😉
I have to add, Badger, he’s been injured all season so we can only judge him on last season, when he didn’t do at all badly, in my opinion.
You’re right BFR. He’s an exciting player.
But his overall contribution isn’t enough.
Being massively skilled, but a lazy twat has no place these days and you can’t afford such luxuries at the higher levels.
Even the likes of Ronaldo and Messi have hard work as part of their game.