A draw it was then; a prediction I got right for once.
I felt we were probably well worth it, but I’m not convinced we did enough to warrant the win, as much as it seems many disagree with that and thought we were by far the better team.
Just as West Ham lack a cutting edge, so I think we do too.
And I still think Emery is giving players lots of chance to hang themselves. I see Bailey and Traore going in the summer. I think Buendia is on thin ice too, purely because he looks a liability, with his poor attitude, especially towards his fellow players.
I love the way he plays, but I think Emery will see him as too hot-headed and I’d suspect there has probably been a conversation where the manager has asked him to calm it down. If there has, it doesn’t looked like it’s worked.
After my moaning and complaining about Liverpool’s penalty yesterday, so West Ham were given what I thought was an incredibly soft one. I’m usually the first to admit if we’ve given one away, but I don’t believe for one minute that this one was.
Imagine my disgust then when Buendia had an equally good penalty shout, yet I don’t think it even got looked at by VAR. I might have missed it in the malarky that followed the incident, but if it was looked at, I find myself wondering how theirs was given and ours wasn’t?
Was it a decent performace?
On the face of it, an away point is always good, but it just seems there’s something seriously missing in our play. We show some nice flashes of sharp passing, especially when we counter, which now seems to be a dominating part of our game. But we also do the simple, short passes really poorly too.
Yes, I get that we will improve with practice, but I think we’ll improve more when we get players in that are simply better at it.
I do trust the manager, I think. We certainly wouldn’t have won this game under Gerrard, would we?
Still, it all feels like we’re sort of going through the motions now. I don’t mean specifically in the way we play, as the effort is good.
It’s more that I feel we’re waiting for the season to end and the window to open, where I think I’m going to really enjoy seeing who the manager is going to move in and out.
Meanwhile, it’s another point in the bag and you can’t really moan about that.
Bournemouth up next, at home should theoretically be 3 points, but they’ve had some really up and down results, so you never know.
UTV!
Do we think it was a good game?
I forgot.
I thought Martinez was quite poor today; a real off day, where he never looked convincing at all.
I suppose all players go through dodgy patches, even if they are WC winners.
Our team pretty much picks itself at the moment. I agree that there are a few players who need to be offloaded. As you said Badger, Bailey, Traore, Digne, Chambers, Dendoncker would be my first picks. There are a few out on loan who will be sold in the summer. Then there’s our better players who might get picked off, such as Martinez, Luiz, Kamara and Watkins.
I think the team that starts next August will be a lot different to our current starting XI.
Holte your list of departees is pretty much spot on; Coutinho might also be surplus to requirements but I disagree with Badger over Buendia. He cares, he plays with real passion and he’s our most creative player. I think Emery likes that in a player – just watch him on the touchline – all passion and energy.
I don’t, for one moment think our owners are going to sell our best players and nucleus of the side going forward – Emery’s not going to stand for it and he’s definitely in the power seat – at least for now.
Nice to see Carlos on the bench today and another goal for Ollie – that’s four in a row away from home which equals some other Villa EPL record!
McGinn was excellent again today – long may that continue and Martinez wasn’t as commanding in the area as usual although his distribution was spot on.
I didn’t think we did enough to win and I suspect West Ham created the better goal chances (which appears to have been the case all season) so I’ll happily take the point.
Just to finish – the Women beat West Ham (away) this afternoon 2-1 with Nobbs and Daly (again) on the score sheet.
It’s all looking positive isn’t it?
UTV
Hitch, don’t get me wrong, I really like Buendia.
But if Martinez is supposedly leaving because of his attitude, Buendia will be gone before him, imo.
I hope you’re right and we don’t sell either of them, but Buendia does need to calm down a bit, I feel.
There’s nothing worse than a player getting himself sent off for being stupid, imo.
Fair point Badger and Emery did hook him. – whether that was to enable the ‘iron curtain’ to be erected or because he was being wound up by West Ham (players and supporters) not sure but either way it was a good call.
And on that point I thought Rice was completely out of order getting in Buendia’s face after he flattened him in the penalty area – and yes, if Bailey’s ‘foul’ was a penalty then so was Rice’s challenge on Buendia – but then we’re a Midlands club so we don’t really count – do we?
A drawer was, as you say Badger about the right result.
Patchy performance, some slick passing and movement but lacking a real cutting edge.
Bailey was awful, his replacement Traore worse.
Chambers gets a nose bleed if he goes over the halfway line and Martinez was all over the place.
Big changes in the summer me thinks.
It must be an Argentinian thing with Martinez at Man Utd and Romero at Spurs all very on the edge. I like Buendia though for his passion and although it wasn’t one of his better games today, we can trust him to keep going.
Many of the best players come with a bit of baggage. Look at God!!!
Bit disappointed with today but there u go. Very dodgy pen. At least VAR chalked off the Saha goal last week. Swings and roundabouts…Roll on Bournemouth!!!
For those interested here’s an update on the Barca referee corruption story that was being discussed on a thread under Badgers last post (pre West Ham match post).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64930974
Cheers.
Why am I not surprised Hitch, you might remember the time when back handers was rife in the motor industry, back handers to companies that wanted business. It’s time to look deeper in the game of football , I firmly believe it’s going on in the game today. The comments I was watching from the pundits told me they was biased from their comments. I’ll go Hitch as far to say the FA not squeeze clean , time to get refs in from other parts of the referee’s institutions and not bring in ref that live close to grounds to save £sd on travel fees. I believe the games being spoilt with bent officials in our game . Thanks for that Hitch .
Bill, yes I can recall quite a lot of dodgy dealings particularly in the construction industry in which I worked!
On referees, I’d go as far as saying that the introduction of VAR, far from removing controversial decisions, has opened a completely new can of worms.
DSR in cricket has improved the game and has become an integral part of spectator experience – I don’t think you’d find any cricket fan that would want it removed. I’d venture to suggest that VAR and the associated instructions to match officials is doing very little to improve the game, is actually ruining the spectator experience and a majority of fans, if asked, would want it removed.
It’s like the Saha goal that was ruled offside last week. Although it worked for us, he was barely over the half way line and was millimetres past where our player was running. This sort of scientific approach backfires in sport. Maybe each team should be allowed to request 3 VARs each per game only, like in tennis. The only technology I’d have is if the ball crossed the goal line.
Hey BB what did you think of Ings performance yesterday?
RSS, from what I heard the service up to the front was one existent. All the Hammers fans are stumped as to why they’re so toothless. They were a swashbuckling side that spent a fortune on attacking players and they’ve gone backwards…
Anonymous is the word I’d have used BB.
I think he’s spent, prior to the knee injury a decent player but time and tide?
Emery imo pulled off a fantastic piece of business shipping him out whet he did and for the fee he got.
Hammers are managed by a guy who pays particular attention to the oppos weak spots. They have had success in the past getting a mismatch between the aerial ability of their big men and our set of markers at set pieces. We cured that in the main. The next big mismatch when Kamara and Carlos are out is the power and muscularity of Declan Rice. We cannot match that but we can isolate him to making solo runs. The flip side is our midfield pass better, link better, and think faster than the Hammers. They could not risk a high press. Cash is an oddity: Benrama turned him inside out but delivered nothing, Bowen on the other flank did more damage.
Moreno: archive time. Who remembers Didier Six? Crossed the ball in a looping style which could not be intercepted – it is far the best way. We have another Six.
Oh yes OLL, I was there on his debut when everything in the garden looked rosy but it pretty much went south for Mr Six from then on.
https://www.facebook.com/AVFC4LIFE1874/videos/on-this-day-in-1984-aston-villa-enjoyed-a-3-0-home-win-over-manchester-united-wi/2834607383427413/
Has anyone else noticed a particular stat in our matches (give or take the odd game) in that we hardly have any corners and yet concede so many!? I find it quite telling in that it shows we play so narrow and dont get our full backs/wingers high enough to the oppositions goal line. Yet, we seem more than happy to let other teams do it to us. In the last 4 matches, we’ve conceded 30 corners and won just 7 of our own. I feel like this is a problem, one that prevents us from stretching the pitch and making space for runners. Yesterday we went side to side and back, over and over again. Yes we played some nice quick passing at times but so often it doesn’t come off and we lose possession cheaply. I’d like Emery to fix this over the summer, get us in some actual wide players. I was impressed with Bowen yesterday.
Yep, totally agree Adam.
It’s the result of us playing narrow and is made worse by the way Moreno crosses, as OLL talks about. We rarely go to the back line and cross, but often allow the opposition to, because we’re so weak at defending the FB positions.
It seems this is acceptable given our limitations.
And there are many, along with the poor passing that you and I allude to. I’ve actually said it a few times.
We have too many players who are not suited to a short sharp passing game and I’m sure Emery will see them relegated to squad players, if indeed they’re not moved out.
As I’ve said, I expect this to include some of our supposed better/top players too.
I think Emery has already shown he can be ruthless and I expect this to continue.
His only favourites will be those who give him the stats he wants.
30 years ago today, Steve Staunton unleashed a pile-driver with the outside of his left foot from a ridiculous angle into Peter Schmeichel’s top-left corner at Old Trafford. Big Ron looked on picking his teeth, apparently unmoved. We were top of the league with two months to go and this was a great away point. I was 12 years old and totally in love with football and the Villa.
Mark Bosnich was emerging as a brilliant goalkeeper and was to become my boyhood hero, as I played in goal at school; very muddy school trousers were a regular fixture in the family washing machine. The psychedelic, kaleidoscopic Asics jersey of the following season is still buried in a drawer somewhere.
Oh, to be back in the early nineties; feeling slightly emotional!
UTV
Hey BFR, I remember Mark Bosnich as a player brought in and he sat with me and us stewards in our tea room at 1/2 time , he regularly came to our room in them days, am I right in saying he was an Australian? My memory not as it was have to say a lovely chap to talk to, he ever brought his girlfriend in for tea and pie.
Yep Bill – definitely an Aussie.
Second leg of the LC final at VP – the equalising goal by the great Dalian Atkinson and then the Bosnich penalty show. What a night that was.
An unbelievable goalkeeper, Bill; at his peak, he seemed superhuman, especially to a teenage boy who idolised him. Shame the demons got to him and his career was wasted – should have been an all-time great. I recall an RE project at school when we had to write about someone we admired – it was supposed to be a religious figure but I wrote about Bossie – the teacher wasn’t impressed, needless to say!
I wonder which girlfriend you remember? Was it Sarah Jarrett, his wife, if I remember rightly? (pre-cocaine Sophie Anderton days)
As for the semi-final vs Tranmere, regret to say I wasn’t there but such was the tension at home, I remember having a migraine once the match had finished. Wonderful days for those too young to remember the early 80s.
BFR, I can see him now in my mind’s eye but his girl friend as I recall was like a model had long hair and very pretty, he was a very quiet talking lad and polite. He only came twice as I recall then started playing for the club , Nigel Spinks was another that came in now and again I even got parts for his old car he was knocking about in a triumph Herald,he was only then a young up and coming reserve. Happy Days …
Bill, Bozzie’s girlfriend was a model and was mind-blowingly stunning! Did you get to give her a peck on the cheek???? 🙂
Bum Bum , just a smile alas, did manage to get her a cup tea.
If anyone wants to watch, Archer and Ramsey are starting for Middlesbrough v Stoke tonight, 8pm KO.