For what it’s worth, the scoreline I had in my head for this game was a 2-1 defeat, but I’m not at all happy that I got it right.
Hence it’s no surprise to me that we lost, but I didn’t think the way we approached the game was good.
You just can’t let a team like Chelsea put you under pressure for such long periods of the game and expect to withstand it. They’re just too good in attack and it was always just a matter of time before they scored.
That said, there’s no doubt that at half time the tactic was working and somehow we went in 1-0 up, but even so the writing was always on the wall.
I found myself asking what has happened to the swashbuckling footy that we played early in the season?
Are we really going to be doomed to watching us sit back and let teams attack us without really taking it to them?
Okay, this was against Chelsea, who we all know are a good side, where you might want to be very cagey against them.
But look at the fixture list.
We have Newcastle (a), Wolves (h), Liverpool (a), Man U (h), Palace (h), Everton (a), Arsenal (h) and West Ham (a).
The Wolves, Liverpool, Man U, Everton and Arsenal games are games that I would think we can pretty much write off as defeats. Are we going to sit back against them too?
Which leaves Newcastle, Palace and West Ham as maybe our only winnable games. And two of those are away.
My point is that if you consider 36 points will be required to survive, we are simply not going to get them as it is.
Hence we need to change something.
It can’t be the personnel, because I think most would agree we’re playing very close to our best eleven.
So that only leaves the tactics. Which means we need to really start attacking the opposition.
I’m sure Dean Smith would say we’re playing tactically as well as we can, given what we have and the opposition we face.
But it simply isn’t working and as it stands, I think we’re doomed.
Fair enough, going out and really taking it to sides might be doomed to failure too, but surely it’s better to have a proper go and maybe catch one of the big boys on the hop?
If we can pinch just one result against the big boys, it might make a massive difference.
The sad reality is that we just aren’t good enough, but we have nothing to lose by at least having a proper go.
The problem there is I just don’t think we have the battlers to do it. Take the odd couple of players out who I think might have the mental ability and frankly the team just looks like a load of wimps.
How many of them would cope in the Championship, where you have to battle even more, is a worrying thought.
I wonder if Dean Smith secretly sees it like that too?
As for the actual game today, well, there’s not much to say.
Our nine men behind the ball did as well as they could for as long as it lasted, but the result was always going to happen with the way we approached the game.
Which leaves me thinking that Dean Smith has bottled it too.
Comments
85 responses to “Villa 1 – 2 Chelsea; Tactically poor and lacking bottle”
1-1 is no good.
We need the win.
Now we’re showing a bit of urgency.
Way too late.
Poor defending yes. But if you can’t keep the ball up the other end for sustained attacking pressure you put your defenders under increased pressure. Best form of defence is attack. Its a case of can we be less shite than westham and Bournemouth.
Hourihane, you wanker.
A last chance free and he grubs it.
1-1, all over, we’re down.
Well what have we learned? Take off our 2 shite wingers and throw 2 up top and suddenly we dominate the game. Back to 4-3-3 against Wolves probably!
I accept we need to find a win but can I just point out there are three teams on 27 points. The sh*t show is that we have the worst goal average but, we’re not 6 points behind the game.
We didn’t give up and with better finishing we would have taken all three points!
Trying to be positive 🙂
We need 8 points from somewhere I reckon to be safe. I think we’re down though sadly. i just think Wolves will beat us, Liverpool will smash us, United will beat us. So then its 8 points from Palace, Everton, Arsenal and West Ham.
It’s a pity that no matter how well our defence is playing, you can be sure they will f**k up at some point. Mings and Hause were both guilty of letting Gayle wander unmarked. There was another Newcastle player unmarked! We MUST start with the line up that finished against Wolves and be brave.
better performance in patches but once again the defending is shocking. i don’t mean general defending just our defense has a error or two in every game we play. so we need to score two to win and we are just not that good.
the way newcastle scored was embarrasssing even if that school level, sportsteacher would hand out detentions, never get drawn out towards the ball on throw ins. even if your man is heading out to receive the ball. we had both centre backs drift over and both ignored the run of the back of them from gayle,
all season the bad decisions making and bad errors have made this season harder than it should be. it wouldnt have mattered playing different formations or different players. mistakes have been prominent all campaign.
that should be us down now, unless cherries or hammers have a equally bad finish. and we pick up a fluky draw or win.
ps my link was more dodgy than villas defense that was bad and i ended up getting really mad i nearlly ended my lappy tops life and it was probably just the link it kept pausing every second and commentary was about 2mins ahead of play
Nath, I’ve already given you the clue.
Vola sports.
Put it on your phone and fling it to the telly.
Or get a firestick.
20 streams for each game and they’re extremely reliable (about 85%), with mint quality.
damn i forgot that one and i tried my firestick at half time. i will download that tomorrow. my phone i still can not work it. i tried last weekend to download from appstore and it kept refusing me. i will be able to do firestick thou cheers
# i did see your hint lol cough
I don’t know why we don’t try playing louie Barry or one of the other kids with bags of pace. Even with 30 mins to go or something. Its too stale with Luiz, nakamba hourihane, elmo. All slow moving players even Mcginn is too slow at the moment. We need players that have energy and not afraid to take a risk. Something to surprise the opposition.
The problem for Smith is if he plays the kids and it doesn’t work he’ll be crucified – if he doesn’t play the kids and we go down he’ll be crucified.
If you were Smith,which crucifixion would you choose?
For once we all watched the same game and I have to single out Mings he is sh-te and I have said all along bring on the young guns for stamina pace and cunningness I would love for us to stay up and play where we deserve to be VTID
Absolutely, Mings is minging, vastly overrated. No wonder Bournemouth sold him!!!
You can guarantee that the defence will cock up big time, every match!
Mings gets the biggest criticism – biggest fee – but he’s not the biggest culprit – by far!
Without Mings we have no leader at the back.
The reality is that we have a poor defence from the GK down.
And what does JT actually add to the party? Maybe a big slice of criticism should be aimed in his direction.
If we go down, I can’t see any EPL club wanting to buy Mings for the price we’ll want. That may well work in our favour.
I’ve put my tin hat on 🙂
i agree not one player is too blame its a collective blame. you attack as one and defending is same you are a team. but collectively we have been nothing less than shocking all season
shocking all season WITHOUT the ball
It is a good point though.
Our play is so pedestrian, it’s unreal.
And we’re too easy to play against.
I always thought wingers were supposed to be pacy, but I’m not seeing it.
Actually, it’s probably the lack of pace in our game that makes us so boring to watch.