10 Nov 2022 22:15:37
Didn't fancy that high line,looked way to high . They soon sussed it out in the second half .I know Olson hasn't had much game time,but he he looked dodgy at times .
Chalk that one off and get set for Brighton,that should be a hard game, so will need our best .
Would have loved to beat the United again,but we just couldn't hang on to the ball tonight.
Onwards&Upwards Villaforever
11 Nov 2022 08:25:50
Olsen gave the defence no confidence and we forgot to use sorry play the wingers.
The usual problem of teams exposing our defence with long balls down the wings and the middle left us in the mire.
Our play at the back was at best, poor.
Even when we had our No1 full backs on the pitch we were no better.
Still no go to player, no midfield holder. In fact no bright spots.
Emery will have a busy January unless he can find a way of linking front and back
Sunday was a false dawn, United were poor.
Hopefully the players will respond at the weekend.
11 Nov 2022 09:28:40
Nevertheless, we scored twice, that's five against a Man Utd side that has been conceding very few recently. This is a process and Unai is giving everyone a chance to show what they can do. An opportunity missed by a number of starters, especially Olsen, who can't take to the pitch without conceding four goals. A shame we are out, but this is the start of a long rebuild, with one or two about to be shifted on, and some replacements in January. I see positives and I'm actually really happy with it. Things will be much better this time next year.
11 Nov 2022 11:40:45
TOV, Wise words as usual, we are definitely short of quality players, let's hope Emery's purchases are far better than the previous incumbents. My constant gripe is players ability to make telling passes, any footballer earning millions should, as a minimum be able to pass in difficult situations, yet a lot of our current squad can't comfortably do this. Hopefully January brings us what we badly need to push on.
11 Nov 2022 12:22:52
I am also optimistic Villa56.
In many ways I am glad we are out of this competition as Emery can now concentrate on moving us up the table.
11 Nov 2022 19:38:47
Im certain with our full strength we wouldve won that last night ??
12 Nov 2022 00:19:09
I agree NV.
12 Nov 2022 07:48:07
We play Martinez and we win that game, we didn't even need a full strength side, Olsen puts the whole team under unnecessary pressure, our defence looked shakier than it has all season, can't be a coincidence. That being said, Emery has to find out which players can adapt to his system, yes I would have liked to go full strength and make the next round (especially given the teams that exited this weekend and the subsequent draw) but Emery has stated it's a clean slate for everybody so to not give players a chance would set a very bad precedence. The reality is there will be a lot of our current squad moved on, players like Ings, McGinn, Olsen, Chambers etc most likely won't be with Villa next season and (rightly or wrongly) the Cup was a good opportunity to find that out. That being said, despite that, we were an absolutely abysmal goolkeeping performance away from winning at OT IMO which for me shows progress, Emery will have learned a lot about his squad this week. Win against Brighton on Sunday and we'll be in a great position to push on in the new year.