Aston Villa v Leeds - Team/News/Reports/Ratings

[Cjay]

We've spent £25.59m, got £15.75m back in sales.

Amazing how you can spend £25mil on players £500k on a coach and go backwards.

[danhirons]

We've spent £25.59m, got £15.75m back in sales.

plus we got about 6 mill for Charlie Taylor. had a net spend of about 0 until we signed forshaw

[60sUnited]

IMO, Ekuban, Grot, Lassoga........not really footballers ! Saiz, who we all rave about....yawn oh he lost the ball again and again........if a club comes in for him paying good money then let him go.

[Ronan]

IMO, Ekuban, Grot, Lassoga........not really footballers ! Saiz, who we all rave about....yawn oh he lost the ball again and again........if a club comes in for him paying good money then let him go.

Seems like a team that are already on their summer holidays

[Cjay]

Ali didnt look happy being brought off.
Saiz didnt start.

Is the old fashioned manager upsetting the flair players?
Jansson getting injured heading a ball, Berardi committed season suicide.

And why is Hecky not being asked things like,
Why not start Saiz?
Why didnt you start Alioski and Saiz vs Preston?
What was the thinking behind the Alioski sub today?
What was the tactical plan?
Does he realise playing Pablo on the left naturally will leave the left back exposed?
Is he telling our players to go long to that giant CF Kemar Roofe?

[YorkshireSquare]

Ali didnt look happy being brought off.
Saiz didnt start.

Is the old fashioned manager upsetting the flair players?
Jansson getting injured heading a ball, Berardi committed season suicide.

And why is Hecky not being asked things like,
Why not start Saiz?
Why didnt you start Alioski and Saiz vs Preston?
What was the thinking behind the Alioski sub today?
What was the tactical plan?
Does he realise playing Pablo on the left naturally will leave the left back exposed?
Is he telling our players to go long to that giant CF Kemar Roofe?

I think taking Roofe off was a questionable decision. We were back in the game to a point at that moment, faded again after Lasogga came on.

[gessa]

Adam Pope
Adam Pope
@APOPEY
·
46m
Paul Heckingbottom mentioned sloppy passing in the first half, a failure to capitalise on a strong half an hour after the break & then could not hide his frustration with the subs Grot & Lasogga. #lufc

[Cjay]

I think taking Roofe off was a questionable decision. We were back in the game to a point at that moment, faded again after Lasogga came on.

Said to my Dad at half time, Saiz will come on then he will take Alioski off for Grot about 60mins then throw on Lasogga for the last 10mins.

All very predicable.

I get the impression the players dont want to play for Hecky tbh.

[Clive]

Adam Pope
Adam Pope
@APOPEY
·
46m
Paul Heckingbottom mentioned sloppy passing in the first half, a failure to capitalise on a strong half an hour after the break & then could not hide his frustration with the subs Grot & Lasogga. #lufc

He brought them on.

[Clive]

Why did Pennington suddenly reappear?

Was it a fake injury?

[Muppet the Cat]

As my initial post, perhaps a brief introduction is only polite and in order......

(Well, my first game (age 9) at Elland Road was in 1973 against Liverpool, when we won 1-0. At the time we lived in a village called Dunnington, just outside York, but since then I've moved around quite a bit and since 1993 have lived in Cardiff - which I can tell you has been no great joy (from a footballing sense) since 2002 !!
'Muppet the Cat' is an unimaginative name I know, but she/our cat was sat by me when I had to think of a name.
Every photo I tried to download as an avatar was blocked as too many pixels, so I ended up with Smiley badge, maybe a good job as Muppet the Cat looks uncannily like 1964white's avatar).

Anyway, what prompted me to actually commit to a post was having watched (most of) the dross of a game this evening against Villa and several other recent games was the fact that there seems no desire/skill/drive/purpose in this team which is leaving me increasingly disillusioned with it all. Having watched Leeds for >45yrs the current shambles is some of the worst in that time and I can't see us getting promoted into the Premiership in a month of Sundays.

When we were in Div 2 in the 80's at least there was still a certain flair and expectation (unless my memory is muddled by rose tinted spectacles) in the team and the play, but I just don't see that now. Some of them ie Grot (in particular - how many chances are we going to give him ??) and Ekuban would be out of their depth in the Conference let alone the Championship. As regards Heck I'm becoming increasingly of the 'twist' opinion.........but please not McLaren !!

What makes it worse, living in Cardiff, is that 'Neil' has got the Bluebirds doing really well and has spent next to nothing, albeit they may just fall short of automatic.....but they're doing a damn site better than us !

Anyway, got that off my chest :-)

[HarryofOz]

As my initial post, perhaps a brief introduction is only polite and in order......

(Well, my first game (age 9) at Elland Road was in 1973 against Liverpool, when we won 1-0. At the time we lived in a village called Dunnington, just outside York, but since then I've moved around quite a bit and since 1993 have lived in Cardiff - which I can tell you has been no great joy (from a footballing sense) since 2002 !!
'Muppet the Cat' is an unimaginative name I know, but she/our cat was sat by me when I had to think of a name.
Every photo I tried to download as an avatar was blocked as too many pixels, so I ended up with Smiley badge, maybe a good job as Muppet the Cat looks uncannily like 1964white's avatar).

Anyway, what prompted me to actually commit to a post was having watched (most of) the dross of a game this evening against Villa and several other recent games was the fact that there seems no desire/skill/drive/purpose in this team which is leaving me increasingly disillusioned with it all. Having watched Leeds for >45yrs the current shambles is some of the worst in that time and I can't see us getting promoted into the Premiership in a month of Sundays.

When we were in Div 2 in the 80's at least there was still a certain flair and expectation (unless my memory is muddled by rose tinted spectacles) in the team and the play, but I just don't see that now. Some of them ie Grot (in particular - how many chances are we going to give him ??) and Ekuban would be out of their depth in the Conference let alone the Championship. As regards Heck I'm becoming increasingly of the 'twist' opinion.........but please not McLaren !!

What makes it worse, living in Cardiff, is that 'Neil' has got the Bluebirds doing really well and has spent next to nothing, albeit they may just fall short of automatic.....but they're doing a damn site better than us !

Anyway, got that off my chest :-)

Welcome aboard

Well we certainly didn't spend as much time out of the top flight in the 80s but really only challenged for promotion once (losing a play-off final as usual) apart from the season we actually went up.

But mostly we were in the upper-midtable placings in those other seasons. And finished quite close to what would have been the play-offs nowadays.

But we probably did have some better quality players then than we do now overall.

That is due in no small part to football being a very different game in those days. You didn't have the EPL in those days with its vast resources of funds for the big clubs and while the owners of the top Division clubs were no paupers, they didn't have anything close to the financial resources that we see at the likes of Man City, Chelsea and so on today. The squads were much smaller in those days - no club had international players on their reserve team's bench,

That meant that the talent was more evenly spread around and there were very good players in the old Second Division. The Championship is not empty of talented footballers, but the talent pool is much more concentrated in the EPL nowadays compared to the First Division back in the 80s,

[Ronan]

As my initial post, perhaps a brief introduction is only polite and in order......

(Well, my first game (age 9) at Elland Road was in 1973 against Liverpool, when we won 1-0. At the time we lived in a village called Dunnington, just outside York, but since then I've moved around quite a bit and since 1993 have lived in Cardiff - which I can tell you has been no great joy (from a footballing sense) since 2002 !!
'Muppet the Cat' is an unimaginative name I know, but she/our cat was sat by me when I had to think of a name.
Every photo I tried to download as an avatar was blocked as too many pixels, so I ended up with Smiley badge, maybe a good job as Muppet the Cat looks uncannily like 1964white's avatar).

Anyway, what prompted me to actually commit to a post was having watched (most of) the dross of a game this evening against Villa and several other recent games was the fact that there seems no desire/skill/drive/purpose in this team which is leaving me increasingly disillusioned with it all. Having watched Leeds for >45yrs the current shambles is some of the worst in that time and I can't see us getting promoted into the Premiership in a month of Sundays.

When we were in Div 2 in the 80's at least there was still a certain flair and expectation (unless my memory is muddled by rose tinted spectacles) in the team and the play, but I just don't see that now. Some of them ie Grot (in particular - how many chances are we going to give him ??) and Ekuban would be out of their depth in the Conference let alone the Championship. As regards Heck I'm becoming increasingly of the 'twist' opinion.........but please not McLaren !!

What makes it worse, living in Cardiff, is that 'Neil' has got the Bluebirds doing really well and has spent next to nothing, albeit they may just fall short of automatic.....but they're doing a damn site better than us !

Anyway, got that off my chest :-)

Sadly a spot on post...welcome MTC

[1964white]

Positives.
BPF
Pearce
O'Connor.
It was only 1-0.

Negatives
Lack of attacking threat.
Could have conceded more
Another defeat
Predictable substitutions.
Tactically 1 dimensional
Villa didnt really have to play well to win.

Hey you!

A man of my own heart Cjay

[1964white]

Positives

Peacock-Farrell
Pearce
O'Connor.
Still in the game at 1-0
Our superb support once again

Negatives

Lack of attacking threat
Woeful passing
Only two shots on target
Hernandez's poorest game in a while, shame as Pablo makes us tick
Pennington's non-challenge for Villa's goal
Dallas is still not a RB, unsure what he is to be honest
Not a fan of Roofe but we were worst when he was subbed
Ekuban a waste of space
Lassoga - the lump couldn't be arsed to applaud our fans, straight down the tunnel at the final whistle
Grot what is the point
Kalvin's new haircut
Vieira still gives the ball away
Saiz one sublime pass & that was it
Alioski's shot on target in the first few minutes & that was his lot for the night
Still convinced we have four League One strikers on our books & that's being generous
Villa were nothing special
Another defeat


8 Peacock-Farrell
5 Dallas
7 O’Connor
6 Pennington
8 Pearce
5 Phillips
5 Vieira
4 Alioski
5 Hernandez
5 Roofe
1 Ekuban
Subs
5 Saiz
0 Grot
0 Lasogga

[The Subhuman]

Can you criticize Pennington for the goal and not praise him for that goal saving tackle ?

[Cjay]

Positives

Peacock-Farrell
Pearce
O'Connor.
Still in the game at 1-0
Our superb support once again

Negatives

Lack of attacking threat
Woeful passing
Only two shots on target
Hernandez's poorest game in a while, shame as Pablo makes us tick
Pennington's non-challenge for Villa's goal
Dallas is still not a RB, unsure what he is to be honest
Not a fan of Roofe but we were worst when he was subbed
Ekuban a waste of space
Lassoga - the lump couldn't be arsed to applaud our fans, straight down the tunnel at the final whistle
Grot what is the point
Kalvin's new haircut
Vieira still gives the ball away
Saiz one sublime pass & that was it
Alioski's shot on target in the first few minutes & that was his lot for the night
Still convinced we have four League One strikers on our books & that's being generous
Villa were nothing special
Another defeat


8 Peacock-Farrell
5 Dallas
7 O’Connor
6 Pennington
8 Pearce
5 Phillips
5 Vieira
4 Alioski
5 Hernandez
5 Roofe
1 Ekuban
Subs
6 Saiz
0 Grot
0 Lasogga

But what a shot it was

[hector]

But what a shot it was

HE MISSED!!!

[Cjay]

HE MISSED!!!

No!!!
It was saved by a world class goalie

[Muppet the Cat]

That is due in no small part to football being a very different game in those days. You didn't have the EPL in those days with its vast resources of funds for the big clubs and while the owners of the top Division clubs were no paupers, they didn't have anything close to the financial resources that we see at the likes of Man City, Chelsea and so on today. The squads were much smaller in those days - no club had international players on their reserve team's bench,

That meant that the talent was more evenly spread around and there were very good players in the old Second Division. The Championship is not empty of talented footballers, but the talent pool is much more concentrated in the EPL nowadays compared to the First Division back in the 80s,

That is quite true HoO.

However, at the end of the day we are a lot nearer Sunderland at the bottom, than Wolves at the top. Whilst at the same time teams like Millwall, Brentford, Sheff Utd, Bristol City and Preston are all (on merit) above us and the same allowances also apply to them. In terms of attracting talent you would hope that Leeds is a more attractive proposition than (with no disrespect to them) Brentford and Preston, even if that pool of talent is somewhat shallow.