Villa away post match 1-1

[The Doctor]

No six points. We should have beaten Bournemouth and Villa yesterday Penalty goes in against Bournemouth we win 1 0. Penalty had

Gone in yesterday it would have been 2 1 us. That's six points not 4?

Yes, we drew both games thats two points. However, we should have bloody won them and got six points not bloody two! Mathmatician effin Einsteins.

brilliant. We took 2 where we should have taken 6, so we've lost out on four points, because that's how many extra we should have had.

[daddylonglegs]

Easily the worst we've played in the Premier League since I've been watching. Wasn't helped by tactics in second half though, first game I can say that Ranieri's subs were entirely wrong. to not beat Villa is a bit embarrassing but we're at worst second at the end of play this week.

[weller54]

Bright spot....

Manchester city only drew there recently too.. And Palace lost....

[foxes161]

Bright spot....

Manchester city only drew there recently too.. And Palace lost....

city drew there?

[oohaahmustafa]

You would take a draw against that abject dross? It's a horrible result. The worst of the season and the worst performance too. I actually thought we were second best against the comfortably worst team in the division. Haven't got a clue what it is about Villa Park that turns us so negative and so shit.

Atmosphere today also one of the shittest of the season. How are our ends this flat?

Can't moan at a draw away from home to take you top. Although yes on top form we could of dicked them.

[Stevosevic]

city drew there?

Yes and West Ham

[Bluetintedspecs]

I wish people would think about the big picture,be measured and reasonable instead of kneejerk.

I was as disappointed as others but ffs weird and frustrating results are happening everywhere! We've still only lost 2 ALL SEASON and are top.

We're not Barca all of a sudden and we will have dips or blips, who wouldnt have taken 4 from 6 points last 2 away games? Yes frustrating but this may lead to some galvanising and tweaks.

Some of the overreaction on here you would think we were in a relegation dog fight.

[Webbo]

I wish people would think about the big picture,be measured and reasonable instead of kneejerk.

I was as disappointed as others but ffs weird and frustrating results are happening everywhere! We've still only lost 2 ALL SEASON and are top.

We're not Barca all of a sudden and we will have dips or blips, who wouldnt have taken 4 from 6 points last 2 away games? Yes frustrating but this may lead to some galvanising and tweaks.

Some of the overreaction on here you would think we were in a relegation dog fight.

I think you're over reacting to the supposed over reaction here. People are moaning about the performance, the result and general direction of the last 4-5 games. Only 1 or 2 people are talking as if it's the end of the world.Most of us would be very happy to concede that we're doing far better than expected but we'll probably never have this chance again and we don't want to blow it.

[Dr The Singh]

I think you're over reacting to the supposed over reaction here. People are moaning about the performance, the result and general direction of the last 4-5 games. Only 1 or 2 people are talking as if it's the end of the world.Most of us would be very happy to concede that we're doing far better than expected but we'll probably never have this chance again and we don't want to blow it.

Well said Webbo

[Dr The Singh]

city drew there?

So foooking what, we should never have drawn that match. Forget everyone else, we were under par, but had enough to win, it was 2 points dropped for me.

[Buzzell]

Bright spot....

Manchester city only drew there recently too.. And Palace lost....

Doe's that make a draw a good result then?

[foxes_rule1978]

Doe's that make a draw a good result then?

Certainly not, but what he is saying is that sometimes you don't always win the games you should, that goes for any one. It is how we respond to this that matters, the first half was good, the second half terrible... move on from that and lets get back to winning ways

[weller54]

Doe's that make a draw a good result then?

No.. I'm clutching at straws!

[foxes161]

After we aren't heavy favourites to beat teams even at being top so being heavy favourites maybe was difficult

[Lasty]

I think you're over reacting to the supposed over reaction here. People are moaning about the performance, the result and general direction of the last 4-5 games. Only 1 or 2 people are talking as if it's the end of the world.Most of us would be very happy to concede that we're doing far better than expected but we'll probably never have this chance again and we don't want to blow it.

Absolutely spot on.

[Matt]

Couple of things that wound me up about yesterday:

 

1. How is it fair that their player can commit a hand ball a point blank range, get a yellow card, then we only get the CHANCE to score again? He's taken a yellow card and then been allowed to play on and help them towards a point.

 

2. Gestede's fvcking hand got an assist and he's earned them a point by doing so.

 

Nigel Pearson fine margins- absolute robbery.

 

But in all fairness they should have probably had a penalty for Huth swinging his arms again, if it was against us i'd be calling for it and annoyed if we didn't get it, we got let off there.

 

I haven't seen anyone mention this factor yet (Including myself, I got myself too wound up about how we played and forgot about this moment until just).

[Bluetintedspecs]

I think you're over reacting to the supposed over reaction here. People are moaning about the performance, the result and general direction of the last 4-5 games. Only 1 or 2 people are talking as if it's the end of the world.Most of us would be very happy to concede that we're doing far better than expected but we'll probably never have this chance again and we don't want to blow it.

Maybe I am Webbo, in the context of wanting to do our best or not blow it

I can understand the frustration àt dropping points to a pretty shit Villa team!I say consider these points:

Compare our squad to so called power houses, normal big 6/7 teams with ours.

It was never going to be sustainable to maintain the 100 mile an hour pressing game as tiredness and injuries set in!

Claudio is managing us through this difficult time has had to make some tweaks and adjustments to accommodate this.

We have still only lost 2 games and are still top!

Claudio and his management team know a damn site more than the kneejerk, FM, FIFA knowitall brigade and I took exception to the, imo, OTT criticism in some quarters. I am entitled to my passionate feeling to these opinions and reasoning behind it am I not?

[Webbo]

Maybe I am Webbo, in the context of wanting to do our best or not blow it

I can understand the frustration àt dropping points to a pretty shit Villa team!I say consider these points:

Compare our squad to so called power houses, normal big 6/7 teams with ours.

It was never going to be sustainable to maintain the 100 mile an hour pressing game as tiredness and injuries set in!

Claudio is managing us through this difficult time has had to make some tweaks and adjustments to accommodate this.

We have still only lost 2 games and are still top!

Claudio and his management team know a damn site more than the kneejerk, FM, FIFA knowitall brigade and I took exception to the, imo, OTT criticism in some quarters. I am entitled to my passionate feeling to these opinions and reasoning behind it am I not?

Of course you're entitled to your opinion and no offence was intended. Moaning about the football is one of the primary purposes of this forum and if we can't moan about the fact we threw away 2 points to a team at the bottom of the table then what's the point?

[Bluetintedspecs]

Of course you're entitled to your opinion and no offence was intended. Moaning about the football is one of the primary purposes of this forum and if we can't moan about the fact we threw away 2 points to a team at the bottom of the table then what's the point?

I didn't take offence and I was having a moan about the, in my opinion, OTT and unrealistic criticisms and kneejerk reactions! So I was using the forum to moan about the moaning

[Len Finsbury]

In any other season, probably in our history, an away point at Villa would be a celebration.

I wonder whether those that are moaning the most on here are relatively younger supporters than us who have had only a handful of successful seasons in 35+ years.

Yes, Aston Villa are bottom of the league but they're fighting for survival. Do you think those teams that we beat towards the end of last season were thinking their world had ended because the bottom side beat them? 

We all thought that our players were capable of more than bottom position last year, I'm sure Aston villa do too. A wounded animal is always more dangerous remember. We didn't take advantage of our early control of the game, in particularly the penalty, but Villa did nothing to us that we did to so many last year.

Next match please. Forget this one.

[Bluetintedspecs]

So foooking what, we should never have drawn that match. Forget everyone else, we were under par, but had enough to win, it was 2 points dropped for me.

Yes it was 2 points dropped, or waa it 1 gained against a team fighting for its premier life like we were last year? Stop bitching and moaning about it ffs it changes nothing. That games done, move on and get real...shit happens in football, the Premier League and especially this season! Just a counter point of view Doc

[The Doctor]

Yes it was 2 points dropped, or waa it 1 gained against a team fighting for its premier life like we were last year? Stop bitching and moaning about it ffs it changes nothing. That games done, move on and get real...shit happens in football, the Premier League and especially this season! Just a counter point of view Doc

 

Leading against cannon fodder is always two points dropped. Now the dust has settled, we weren't necessarily all that bad yesterday - they had no penetration, just passing from wing to wing 40 yards out - in most aspects it was a classic away/underdog performance with the misfortune of a questionable handball decision. The problem was that villa are absolute muck and we shouldn't be playing tight and looking to knick it against a team as shit as them - by doing so we invited them to have a chance. 

[demon_dog]

I blame Lawro!

[Dr The Singh]

Yes it was 2 points dropped, or waa it 1 gained against a team fighting for its premier life like we were last year? Stop bitching and moaning about it ffs it changes nothing. That games done, move on and get real...shit happens in football, the Premier League and especially this season! Just a counter point of view Doc

, I wish I had your blue tinted specs

[Thracian]

Glad I stopped watching after 75 minutes because I knew exactly what was going to happen and had a private bet on it with my missus.

 

Worse, having lauded Ranieri as much as anyone this season I wondered what the hell he trying to to our team since Christmas.

 

Let's start with the obvious. There's nothing wrong with a player or manager making a mistake but refusing to learn from it is just a form of professional suicide. 

 

Loud and clear I said Mahrez should never be allowed near a penalty again but no, there he was, just like his manager demonstrating that he too doesn't learn from his mistakes, because it was a piss poor repeat of a stop-go penalty in every sense and effectively  cost us two points.

   . 

Added to the two points he cost us against Bournemouth and the extent of the damage is emphasised because if we'd added those four points to our current 44, qualification for Europe would be all-but odds-on already.

 

Never mend just the penalties - Mahrez seems to have had his head turned so far by all the speculation about his future that he's hardly been worth his place for a few games now and certainly not yesterday. If his name was King, Shinji or Ulloa he'd have been in the stiffs.

 

Do I think it's temporary? I'm sticking my neck out but no. If anyone were daft enough to give us £30 million for the bloke I'd transfer him tomorrow. I'd also think about a replacement for Gray because if that lad can't offer better than yesterday's effort by Mahrez - and the few before - then he's here on false pretences. How the hell must he have felt sitting on the bench watching that?  

 

Now to our master tactician manager who so waxed lyrical about our speed on the break, fantastic spirit and our desire to win, win, win.

 

Yesterday painted all those comments as mere words. It  was a tactical surrender. He talked about never being a champion (which I've finally come to understand) but being always someone to fight, fight, fight which I naively believed.

 

Well, yesterday was the most limp-wristed form of fighting I've come across since watching Richard Dunne get pounded by Joe Bugner in one and a  bit rounds at Wembley.

 

I just thanked God Villa Park wasn't built on a mountain because if we'd stepped back any further we'd have fallen off.

 

I've nothing against the tactic of luring the opposition forward a little and then striking fast and sure like trained killers
But two banks of four from the edge of our area was Pearsonesque until he learned better and saved our status. It was also a repeat of the boring, ambitionless  approach we used in begging a home point off Spurs.

 

But Villa weren't Spurs and, put bluntly, we should have won the game by half-time but went straight into negative mode later on and gave Villa the kind of chance they were never deserving of by simply inviting them onto us.

 

Even when Drinkwater did get a chance he didn't show anything like the bottle needed to take it. I wasn't surprised. Yes, Drinky's started shooting more which is a plus but he's never seemed comfortable in the depths of the penalty area and yesterday was no different.

 

Just as bad, we've started playing far to much aerial football, far too many long balls and far to few give and go's. As a consequence we giving the ball away like Christmas cards in December.

 

Where was the focus we needed not just to respect Villa but to destroy them?

Villa escape relegation like we did? They've no chance. They offered very little but what we gave them.

 

Huth's miskick may have been his biggest mistake - and should have cost us a goal but for Villa's indifference - yet it wasn't his worst aspect.

 

Most disappointing was his being so aerially dominant yet nodding so many interceptions right back to them. And then seemingly doing all he could to give the referee an excuse to award the sort of home penalty which that Cup referee would surely have given in an instant at Tottenham.

 

There was the odd bright spot.

 

Fuchs yet again, Shinji with another trademark "ugly" goal, Vardy for the deft flick and other threats of which he should perhaps have capitalised at least once - and Andy King for somehow staying on the bench and not being a party to such an abject performance.

 

Bottom line is I don't mind contain and destroy but "fall back and frustrate"is the sort of Italian-style defensive formula I detested and never want to see associated with Leicester City. 

 

So lets get back to being positive. Let's have our centre-forward taking penalties and lets get back to pressing opponents higher up the pitch and genuinely breaking at pace and in numbers, even if some of our current selections don't seem to want to do that.

 

Let's get back to playing with attitude. Lets get the ball back on the floor, let's have some movement, as much support in attack as defence and let's find some attitude again for scoring goals and being ruthless about winning games that are handed to us on a plate.

 

We might not be the finest football team that ever topped the Premiership but let's not voluntarily turn ourselves into apologists for being there. Let's show faith in the style and the spirit that got us there.