We are currently: - 4 points clear of Chelsea! - 5 points clear of Swansea - 9 points clear of the relegation zone - 1 point behind Liverpool - 6 points away from a European spot and Spurs - 7 points behind Arsenal Compared to the GT Prem season where virtually every team blasted 4 or 5 past us (including Wimbledon, who also got relegated!), this is an incredible debut season so far. If Capoue hadn't missed that free header against Southampton we'd be in 9th right now, ahead of Liverpool and Southampton!
Yeah of course, but I would disagree in saying they deserved a point, and I don't think they believed they earned one either. In terms of those in the stadium, I'll compare it to when I sat in the stoke home end. There was very rarely any arrogance in the form of 'we should be beating this lot', and I think that's come from all the bad performances stretching over so many seasons, stokes set were f watford this, we should be beating them that. At current I think villa fans just want to see there team perform well, I didn't notice booing at the final whistle. During the match, the fans jumped on the back of the players after about 60 mins, lack of forward passing and simple mistakes drew the angst from the crowd. I think they could have got a point in terms of we weren't up to par, but they knew their team wasn't up to scratch either. From my friends who are villa fans, they, again were more focused on how bad villa were, acknowledging that the attack is one dimensional and the defending is toothless, with the reason being that the players aren't good enough. All to the betterment of watford fc though
This thread has covered quite a lot of ground between the match finishing and me logging on to here so it's difficult to add anything not already said. But on the topic of Guedioura...great cameo appearance by him and definitely pressing his case for a starting berth. However I've not seen anyone put his performance in the context of the game at the time. It's fine saying how great and dynamic and threatening he looked but by that point Villa were in full-blown all out attack mode. Most of his forays into their half looked decent because frankly they weren't defending at all. I'm sceptical that we can draw many conclusions from it. For all Cathcart lost Micah Richards a bit at the freekick I'm surprised more hasn't been made of the fact he was offside when he scored. We were well beaten in the middle of the park all game. It's a great shame Behrami is injured. Watson has dropped back a level performance-wise and we could do with someone else in there. Even his marking for their second goal was lacking. Arlauskis - I think he's the first goalkeeper I've ever seen to wear short sleeves in England! Very difficult time to come into a game. The weather was atrocious. It was good fun being in with the Villa fans too. Bless them they ain't half depressed. The ones around me were on the backs of their team inside 10 minutes, very little in the way of supporting going on, just whinging instead. They were having a good go at Deeney too. All fair game except I thought the abuse while Gomes was down being treated was unnecessary. And god knows what he was booked for. Pathetic decision by a referee who frankly lost all semblance of control in the last 20 minutes or so. And finally we really need to up our game for next week or Norwich will beat us comfortably.
100% same experience for me. Absolutely disgusting things said about a clearly very much in pain Gomes. Fair play to everyone who clapped though!
Precisely. It made me cringe watching Abdi getting repeatedly mugged off down the left hand side. It's admirable how well he's fought defensively this season, but it's time to either give him role he can excel in, or give him a rest. I love Almen, but there's no point trying to just accommodate him in a system and position he's completely unsuited for. The way we play requires good athleticism, which for all his qualities, is not one of his strengths. It makes it all the more confusing that we've had the ideal athlete in Guedioura sitting on the bench all season. Particularly when he comes on for ten minutes and is an absolute monster.
I don't know, Almen may not be the strongest and paciest of our players (as expected when he's 29) but he's got a lot of stamina and energy and capable of covering a lot of ground in a pretty short space of time when he has to. "Athleticism" isn't necessarily about making lightning fast sprints a la Usain Bolt or even Nyom.
He was part of the frankly abhorrent performance at Villa Park and as such, should be released. Along with the rest of the squad. Wouldn't you agree?
Right. But in a game like yesterday, where we only have 38% of the possession, we're still much better off with Guedioura. This is not a stab at Abdi. He's still the best possession player at the club, and If we aren't playing long ball all game then I'm wanting him in the team all day long.
Haha I blocked him long ago, has the sad act been making little comments about me this whole time?? :jumping1:
He's been poor. You just know when prodl is back britos will be dropped though. Abdi + gued is fine by me.
Why would either be dropped for Prodl? Don't forget he himself was dropped and allowed Britos into the side.
Britos has done it quietly and under the radar, but he's been one of our best and most consistent performers since coming into the side.
I followed the match via the shoutbox & with Sky Sports on. It was like 2 different games..shoutbox made us sound terrible, Le Tissier was of the opinion that, improved as Villa were, we were still the better team, looked dangerous whenever we had the ball going forward, and somewhat let them off on the quality of chances. Villa had been told this game WAS the crux of the season for them...you could see by how pumped Richards was...no wonder they played well & remember last home game they drew with Citeh. People need to remember that in this league even the poorer teams can do you in a single match. We need some perspective & humility.
Based on the number of seats in their stadium, we are minnows compared to them! Based on the number of point attained we are nearly 4 times bigger.
Who the hell was that Adama guy? He was tearing our entire teams to shreds - I'm glad he didn't start.
I remember watching his debut for Barcelona a couple of years ago against, of all teams, Granada. [video=youtube;UBKd1B1daWI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBKd1B1daWI[/video] I also recall thinking how comfortable a certain Allan Nyom looked. Handled him a couple of times in that video, apart from the lovely skill at 1 minute. Fessi-esque from the young lad.
Definitely. I wonder what happened to the people who, after his red card, said he was a diabolical thug, should never be near the Watford first team and ought to be released to make space for another player given that we had a whole week to find a replacement.
