Match Day Thread Aston Villa versus Norwich City

Not really - despite our dominance today we lacked the quality to make it happen and Villa stole it with a decent goal. Yes we missed chance after chance, yes we hit the bar, yes Heaton made a couple of excellent saves but this league is cruel and we haven’t quite enough to keep us up.

Still, we Weill keep on supporting the boys because that is what we do.

OTBC.

 

I guess we have to remember how young our team is. And we did have a surreal number of injuries at the start of the season when a newly promoted team needs a bit of luck. Once the sharks in this league can sniff blood, they move in for the kill. Plus players who I thought would shine in the Prem - Buendia, Leitner - have disappointed for whatever reason.

We need a run of three wins now just to get back in the pack. It looks unlikely, but this team has surprised us many times so it's not impossible. My worry is keeping the whole thing together if we go down. I can see us suffering from blooding the young players at this level and then losing them once they have that extra bit of experience which would make them very good.

As the General would say, Bah!

 

IMHO Emi looked lazy (tired?) on the series that led to their goal. He didn't get back into position.
Their player, whoever it was, should have had at least a yellow for shoving Trybull by the head into the adv. board.

Oh well, only ourselves to blame. Totts on Sat.

 

And if Rick and Ilsa will always have Paris, we will always have the 2018-2019 season.

 

I agree about Emi. He had a poor game altogether. As you say, he was out of position when they scored, having sat on the ground with his arms up protesting about not getting a free kick when he should have been tracking back. Exactly the same against Wolves, when he gave the ball away and Wolves broke away to score their second, with Aarons left exposed.

 

Genuine inquiry: how much money is due to come to NCFC this season and when is it paid? When we get relegated do we also get parachute payments as well? Never been sure of the actual financial implications of being in PL other than NCFC can expect a large pay out for being in the league. Listened to an interesting program which explored the fact that all? or most? teams in the Championship were loosing money which could include NCFC.

 

All the chances we've created in the last 2 games and only 1 goal to show for it, do the players not do any shooting practice in training? We need to be more clinical in front of goal. Could have been well ahead before Villa scored today but yet again wasted too many chances

 

This is the premier league, same old story as last time we were in this division. You cannot rely on buckets of chances like in the championship. Here the defenders, even in the weaker teams, are exceptional.

We need to learn to defend. It’s not over - I reckon eight wins from here would just about see us safe - but it feels a long stretch. Our season has been ruined by too many defensive injuries and not a good enough defensive structure anyway.

 

We lost money last season, but we should receive somewhere around £100m, though a lot of that will go in higher PL wages. We will also receive parachute payments of around £42m the first year after relegation. We will also receive millions for the players we sell and then we'll start rebuilding all over again. Probably another batch of bargain continental players and some new young players who may come good.

 

As I understand it, we should receive somewhere between £95M and £100M this season (assuming we end up bottom of the league). Then, over the next two years, we will receive a further £70M, unless we go straight back up in which case the second year's parachute payment lapses.

 

It feels a very long stretch Rob! I can't see 8 wins out of the remaining 19 games unless DF proves readier than he has shown himself to be so far, to change things. Today once again we watched a game in which we set out to, and succeeded in, winning the possession battle, only to lose the game. We get better results when we let the opposition dominate possession, defend in numbers, and rely on decisive counter-attacks to score. That should become our standard approach, however much it grates with DF. Also, DF needs to accept that coming close to taking points game after game is not a reason to persist with the same starting eleven. Not changing a winning team is one thing; not changing a losing one is another.

 

I thought Bendy, Cantwell and, at times, Aaron’s looked tired today. Maybe time to switch Byram to RB, bring back Lewis and start Argos and Vrancic ??

 

We should of won we dint.

 

No, every week DF says he understands what we as fans want, and the he goes on to to the same things again. Scoring goals is far more difficult than preventing goals, yet each week we put the emphasis on scoring. If we make it more difficult for them to score, they have to increase their level of risk by committing more players forward. Instead we commit our own players forward and get caught out. Once that happens, they are in control, as happened today and so many times before. We either get wise to this, or we sink lower and lower.

 

Don't know about shooting practice but Byram needs some heading practice. Although it looks like he's spent some time learning how to deal with Cantwells defensive errors. Aarons needs a crash course in putting in effective crosses. 2 CB's & Krul played well. Tettey & McLean did ok first half but tired in second half. No doubt there'll be a few om here going on about the defence, but if we'd taken half the chances we'd created over last 3 games then we'd be 9 points better off. Still not beyond hope that we can stay up, but if I was a betting man my money would be on championship football next season. I wouldn't spend any money in the January window other than on players for the future.
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You could equally well say that if we hadn't gifted the opposition their goals in the last three games we would also have been 9 points better off. You don't win points for "IFs" and it's no good going on, as DF does, about having been unlucky. Look at the FACTS; we have 12 points, all bar 3 earned in games in which we adopted a more defensive approach and relied on counter attacks for goals. The exception was the second game of the season against a disorganised Newcastle side. Does anyone think we are going to win the return at St James Park playing the same way?

 

Some of your recent results have been baffling. Playing so many crucial games, and coming out of the run with so little. But having watched you in a couple of those games, it hard to understand how! You battered Wolves for the first 45 and should have scored more. Yesterday Heaton produced at least two WC saves, and along with that Douglas clearance, well it begs the question......what have you done to piss the football gods off?
Keep plugging away, your approach has been refreshing, if not overly rewarding. One win can change things dramatically.

 

You mean your facts. If we'd had taken just a couple of our chances yesterday we would have won. If you focus on performance over results we've actually done pretty well recently. We are creating chances we just need to convert more them.

But my issue is more about the long term project rather than concentrating on a few results or indeed a season. For much of this season we have shown, performance wise at least, that the difference between us competing effectively at this level and not is down to small margins and we haven't spent much money. When I said at the start of the season that I believe in the long term strategy over the short termism of judging Webber, DF & Co on how we do this season. Many on here appeared to agree with that view, however now faced with the reality of that belief many are starting to waver.

 

I really don't understand why DF can't look at the facts of our situation and see that some major changes are needed. The injury situation has eased, but the results go on the same. We have players well suited to counterattacking but they don't come on until we are behind and the opposition is sitting back with a packed defence. Pukki is best suited to scoring on the break when through the opposing defence. Instead he spends too much time trying to get the ball in the middle of a packed defence. There's no sense getting new players in if we are going to go on making the same mistakes, as I fear we will.

 

I agree Canario - those thin margins are exactly that - wafer thin. Those are the margins that are just stopping us getting those vital wins - we are not far away from being at the standard required but we are also not bridging the gap that the margins require us to.

The long term plan probably did not include us being in the Premier League this season so we have to view the fact we are as a bonus but, we should not forget that we are there - now - ahead of plan and we need to try to overcome the deficiencies that we see game after game to capitalise on those margins and turn great performances into winning performances and try our best to stay up.

Should we go down we will have a good enough squad to challenge for promo and go again - sure, some of the bright young things may get sold, but the strategy we have employed will ensure we get good dollar for them and we should invest that money in a squad more equipped to staying up next time round.