I’m really not in the mood for writing about this game, because I’m disgusted and a bit worried that I might go over the top.
But I feel I want to put it down for posterity more than anything.
First off, I just want to congratulate Stevenage. They worked hard and quite simply deserved it.
Which is what I find so galling.
How can we play with such a seeming lack of effort and pace?
It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve thought it either. I’ve been saying it for quite a while.
We lack pace, movement and just general fight. It’s this lack of desire that led to me saying we need probably eight players clearing out, the other week and it’s something I stand by.
Emery will rightly be fuming at that rubbish and as I’ve hinted previously, I think he’s been playing some players to prove themselves either way.
And some will surely have signed their own death warrants when it comes to Aston Villa.
Coutinho was hopeless overall, but I said during the game that he was at least actually moving around. Everyone else was stood showing no desire whatsoever and even Dion Dublin mentioned it.
But he had nothing on Leon Bailey, who was abysmal. He will surely be gone at the first opportunity.
Dendonker? What was he thinking when he grabbed the Stevenage player’s shirt? This is supposed to be an experienced backup player. He’s just another who is quite simply a journeyman and not good enough if we want to progress as a club.
Olsen? I was willing to give him every chance and even said I’d be okay with him starting, but I regret that now. Another who isn’t even good enough for backup.
I could live with this result if we were in some way unlucky.
But we weren’t. We were the architects of our own downfall and I think it’s a mental thing, where we think we’re a lot better than we are, making us think we don’t need to try to hard.
I said in the previous post that if we lost, we’d deserve it.
Sadly, I was proven correct.
The clearout, although I know it won’t happen quickly, can’t come soon enough for me.
Good riddance to those deemed not good enough and here’s hoping we get some players in that are actually willing to work for a result.
Comments
82 responses to “Lazy bastards 1 – 2 Stevenage; Utterly disgraceful performance.”
I’m fuming.
We haven’t won an FA cup game since 2016, FFS!
It’s time that managers understand if you put players into a game like cup matches and you don’t play them in league games they are earmarked for the chop, Would you play your heart out.? would I f×+k you end up with sub standard games and disgruntled players who say to themselves sod it
That’s a fair point Bill.
You’re are unlikely to risk life and limb if your future lies at pastures new.
Yes Badger. A shambles entirely down to the manager. The story about fielding a strong team was merely to put more bums on seats.
In fact if he told the second string to ‘try and lose it because we want to concentrate on EPL games’ he would have been wondering how they could in the last 10 minutes, because Stevenage never looked like scoring one. I am not sure Dendoncker and Olsen were that convincing, the foul for the pen looked deliberate, and Olsen made no effort to stop the winner.
The second objective: to convince the owners about a clear out was achieved. By putting all the doubtful players on at once they were never going to look like a team which understood each other.
Mind you, the owners might enquire what goes on at BMH – because practising basic skills like shooting at the goal does not seem to happen.
Absolutely spot in Badger!
I have previously posted there would be variable days under Emery until he stamps his players across the team. It would be fare for Emery to have had an insight that the back up team are not up to it with the loss in the Carabiner cup to Man Itd. Now he knows without degree of uncertainty that he has a job in his hands.
I would ask why Emery didn’t play more 1st team regulars. There are only 2 more matches this month. Plus for many having a World Cup break player burn out is not an issue.
This is an unacceptable loss.
I thought our downfall was over confidence. As I’ve already posted we showboated, f++ked about instead of putting the game to bed.
Too many touches, to over elaborate and a lack of respect for the opposition.
We are not a terrible side but that group of players is never going to win anything or rise above mid table mediocrity.
Over to you Unai.
There was me thinking that things couldn’t get any worse, the rumours that Harry Maguire is on his way to us gathers momentum.
We are an absolute joke.
But he’s only £3 a month.
ADOPT A DONKEY
That’s being unfair to donkeys RSS 🙂
And still too expensive 😂
I’ve heard £28 million.
United will be pissing themselves if that turns out to be true.
Then again, a lot of Villa fans rate Mings, so perhaps they’ll make a good pair?
Villa and United pouring cold water on that story. Maguire was down to play golf at The Belfry.
We have more pressing positions to fill than Centre Back.
With his pace it’d take him 3 days to get around the Belfry 😁
Dear God Badger No!
Please tell me this is some kind of wind up?
The geezer makes Mings look like Beckenbauer.
Emery has to take a big slice of the blame for this debacle. It’s not acceptable for him to use The FA Cup as a vehicle for making a statement about how poor our squad players are.
And 8 changes – that’s disrespectful to Stevenage and we / he got what we / he deserved. We are now the laughing stock of Birmingham – again!
Emery’s supposed to be a master tactician; hasn’t he watched any of Stevenage’s games. They were always going to sit deep and they’re adept at playing as a unit, both of which was evident today – yet Emery changed nothing at half time when we needed to hook players like Bailey and Coutinho – why?
I’m not quite at 8 players but Dendonker (£14m) is a disaster as is Digne at £25m and Bailey at £30m (?). Olsen looks out of his depth as did Chambers and you can add Cash to that mix. OK – so I’m getting close to 8 🙂
Can’t see us doing a massive amount of business this window but would expect some incomings and hopefully some outgoings.
Of course we’ll all be back watching on Friday hoping for something different – I’m reminded of the definition of madness – not sure why though 🙂
That was something that I noticed in Unai’s pre-match interview when asked about Stevenage, we was evasive.
So you maybe be on to something in that he never even gave them the respect of doing his homework on them?
Badger 123. Warrior here we were worse than you explained every player on the park should donate their wages to a local charity they were dismal pathetic rubbish They won’t be in the premier for much longer playing like that our local Sunday league could give them a run for their money can’t write any more I’m still numb
Arrogance and complacency have cost us yet again, we were comfortable until Dendoncker decided to overdo things on the edge of our own box. Not Emery’s fault that an experienced Belgian international messed up so badly.
As for Bailey, I’m done with him. £30m down the pan for a player whose confidence is shot and is most of the time not in control of himself…let alone the ball. Coutinho and Buendia are not far behind in terms of being overpriced and underperforming players.
For a club of our stature, we have to be better. Our FA Cup record since 2016 is simply inexcusable.
66′ – Philippe Coutinho comes off.
The substitution took longer than usual as they had to dig him out of Luther James-Wildin’s back pocket.
That’s a tweet from Stevenage which is funny, but it’s not!
Ouch!
There’s a lot of Emery blaming here, I’m sorry but I have to disagree, he hardly played a complete second eleven, and that team should have put Stevenage to bed easily enough, the players were at fault, you take two incidents like that stupid foul that actually wasn’t even a penalty as it was outside of the box, and not picking up the short corner, and we would have won the game, albeit unconvincingly.
I think some on here need to get a grip, appreciate emotions are high but try to take a pragmatic view on it.
At the end of the day, had Emery played the same side that played on Wednesday most would be moaning he should have given the likes of Sanson and Coutinho a run out.
Mate when a bunch of handsomely rewarded millionaire premier league players get turned over by a forth division outfit (in old money) there’s going to be a kick back.
Guest, I agree we gave the game away by two pieces of extremely poor defending / play.
If the referee had already blown for the initial foul (the shirt pull) then he cannot award a penalty. Dendonker would still have received a red card though.
However looking at the game as a whole we were extremely poor and the manager has to take responsibility for his team selection and tactics.
What’s worrying is this trend that’s emerging where we seem incapable of playing against ‘inferior’ teams or teams we should be beating at home. It’s almost as if the players just think they can win by turning up – again this has to be down to the manager / coaches as well as the players.
Emery has only been in the job two months so he’s entitled to some slack but it’s still worrying given how Villa are consistently able to ruin careers!
And we look with envious eyes at other clubs IE Kompany at Burnley.
Why do we always get it wrong??
Do we always get it wrong or are Villa unmanageable?
“Try to take a pragmatic view on it” I’m sorry but we were 1-0 up albeit not convincingly against a team we should be turning over easily. It’s fair to say today is one of the worst results in our history.
As for Emery, I think he should make changes but 8!!!! It is disrespectful to our fans especially the ones who attended VP today, desperately wanting a good cup run and to get past 3rd round FFS!
All that’s left for us now is to achieve enough points to avoid relegation as there is absolutely zero chance of us getting into the top 8.
Emery hopefully today and first half against Wolves will realise that we lack players with leadership and courage. We need players with a winning mentality just like how John Terry came in and injected that belief into those around him.
Unfortunately it will take a few transfer windows to not only sign the type of players we need but also to offload the deadwood which are becoming increasingly less attractive to any potential buyers.
I agree, Holte. What pisses me off time and time again with AVFC is this lack of a winning mentality displayed by our players. Managers come and go pretty quickly at VP, but we always seem to be left with a squad who are apathetic and missing that real desire to win. Losing at home to Stevenage in the 3rd round of the FA Cup is inexcusable and utterly embarrassing. If I were Emery, I would remind them of that every single day for the remainder of the season.
I wouldn’t Steve.
They wouldn’t be there!
Apart from God, have we ever got a player from Utd who’s been any good? In the meantime we’ve given them Young, Bozzy and Yorke. All medal winners.
I’m too tired to be angry. I just laughed when their goals went in…
“We need players with a winning mentality just like how John Terry came in and injected that belief into those around him.”
Spot on. We don’t have a single player who can take a game by the balls and drive us on.
I said as much in the preview post;
“purely because as a club we’re not winners”
And we never will be until this changes.
Oh, RSS, the McGuire rubbish has been denied all round, thank god.
Thanks Badger.
I can now sleep soundly 😂
Rumours persist that Corinthians still want Coutinho.
My advice to Emery fwiw is sell him, bite their hand off for whatever you can get and take the reported £120k a week off the wage bill.
Coutinho was Gerrard’s vanity project and isn’t worth the money we paid for him or are paying him; get rid now.
Barca fans did warn us!
Can he take Bailey with him too Hitch? I heard that Bailey was dispossessed 19 times yesterday against the mighty Stevenage plus AGAIN he had two calamatous shots that he sliced as if he is kicking a hot potato. How many ‘confidence boosting’ minutes will he be allowed before the penny drops? I would rather see Kaden Young get a chance. He can’t do any worse.
I’m with you Holte.
After Stevie G sold all our wide players Emery has no choice but to play him as there’s no one else! It’s a big ask to put a 16 year old on with very little experience. Maybe he should recall Louie Barry from loan? Oh for one of El Ghazi or Trezeguet – both would offer far more than Bailey.
And Dendonkey can go as well.
Actually thought Sanson looked OK yesterday – given the general substandard level of ability shown by Villa. Might be worth keeping him as a squad player but it seems Nakamba doesn’t have a future with the club.
B’ham Live saying that Villa have agreed a £15m deal for Betis left back Alex Moreno. We certainly need some new quality signings but is he the answer?
On top of a scintillatingly bad performance (is that an oxymoron 🙂 ) we also managed to lose two full backs to injury and have a player sent off. Pretty good days work all round!
Matty Cash off to Chelsea?
If they make an offer – fair chance as I’m not sure that Emery is convinced.
He’s a decent defender but he can’t cross a ball to save his life.
Sky now picked up on the Moreno deal – fee thought to be €15m (£13m) and could be announced before the end of the week.
It’s not that surprising that Emery is turning to Spain for reinforcements.
Will we end up with a team of Spanish speaking footballers 🙂
Hitch your earlier comment regarding Barca fans warning us, well if you look at this through cynical eyes – they (Barca) paid £142m but let him go for £17m?
On reflection perhaps some alarm bells should have been ringing??
Absolutely – but we got a whole list of reasons why it didn’t work at Barca / PSG and why it would work at Villa – because of Stevie G being his mate! And we fell for it!
Was he ever really worth £142m and £300k per week, or whatever he was on; not surprised they called him the magician – some trick that.
Tbf he can still play, it’s just we can’t afford a luxury player who only turns up for three or four games a season!
Aston Villa are now closing in on Alex Moreno deal. Agreement around €14m fee, expected to be signed in the next hours, documents being checked — here we go soon. 🟣🔵 #AVFC
BBC confirm Moreno deal to Villa for €15m.
Nothing on OS yet.
Hopefully this will sharpen up Digne, if not he’ll be polishing the bench!
Hitch
The question is will Emery’s approach be evolution or revolution?
Press reports (limited accuracy) expect 3 signings. All would have to go straight into 1st 11. When summer transfers occur, which I would guess could be 4/5 new 1st team players, then our team will be greatly different by August. The only players I would expect to escape the ensuing cull would be:
Martinez
Carlos
Kamara
Ramsey
Thereafter we have a number of players, who for once have a sell on value, allowing funds to buy better replacements, with expected NSWE cash injection based on promises to attract Emery in the first place.
Sid it’s good question and will, I guess, depend on the available budget. As you say this can be enhanced from sales income assuming the owners will allow all of it to be reinvested (in addition to any additional monies allocated).
I honestly think it will be evolution rather than wholesale revolution and I think we have more than four players that are good enough to contribute within a good quality EPL squad.
All about opinions – glad I’m not Emery.
This Moreno deal, why am I not excited?
Same here RSS. I feel a bit underwhelmed with the signing but I’ve not seen him play so I dont know why. Maybe because in this current climate £13m doesn’t usually indicate a top signing but maybe that’s because he’s 29 and likely to have only 2 to 3 good years left. Apparently he only just missed out on going to Qatar with Spain though so must be held in some regard over there I guess. I trust Emery to get the business right too so fingers crossed!
Underwhelming is about right Adam.
Not expecting us to sign Mbappé any time soon but a journey man 29 year old left back hardly sets pulses racing.
Gerard Deulofeu link is interesting but then again we could potentially be lumbered with another Coutinho
)-:
Moreno doesn’t make me want to put any bets on us winning anything although surely he is an upgrade on the other two LB’s. At nearly 30 years old though he isn’t going to be long term especially as wing backs probably need to be the fittest ones in the team.
As for Deulofeu, HELL NO. Another former Evertonian who has played for too many clubs for my liking and is nearly 29!
It is a results business for players and managers. The same has to apply to Directors of Football. The role itself is a slap in the face to a decent manager, because having a DoF implies the manager isn’t to be trusted to buy and sell players.
Johan Lange is the latest addition to my bomb squad. He has had long enough to grasp what is required, and he seems fixated on a player’s statistics while ignoring the mental aspect. Does a recruit have a winning mentality? Answer no if he has ever played for a relegated team. The idea of buying young players who can be improved and sold on is fanciful. The brutal truth is less than 10% of raw youngsters with potential actually make the grade in the EPL. If they are coming through the Academy this is not costing Villa much money, but if we are buying them the policy is unlikely to give a positive return – given the cash spent on 90% flops. Lange isn’t coming up with many proven winners. Now Emery is in place we can save Lange’s salary.
Now £11.9m for Real Mallorca’s Lee Kang-in?
All a bit moneyballish?
I’ll believe it when it happens.
Fwiw OLL, I would think it’s Emery not Lange pushing for the Moreno deal – after all one would be entitled to assume Emery knows La Ligue pretty well.
You’re right Hitch, this k.d. lang thing is probably just click bait.
*OLL, apologies, I should have added – ‘which rather reinforces your point’
Adam…” Maybe because in this current climate £13m doesn’t usually indicate a top signing but maybe that’s because he’s 29 and likely to have only 2 to 3 good years left. “….
yes doesnt sound exciting and maybe hes not any better than what we have BUT I think Emery may be looking for players that show some energy……we were beaten by a League 2 club full of energetic players which shows what that can do…..the next match will be against more energetic players as well….help !!
Exactly right Villaaway. That’s why I trust Emery to bring in the right sort of players he needs, to play how he wants them to. It might not sound like a sensational signing but if it works then brilliant. Agree Energy and work rate is key and Leeds will be full of it. If they press us high we will make mistakes. We need to be at it from the off.