BFTG Villa

[URZZZZ]

Disappointed to be honest, they were there for the taking, we wouldn't have scored if we played till tomorrow

Martinez 7 - great save of Abraham and looks comfortable with the ball at his feet

Yiadom 6 - did OK
Moore 7 - as said before, very good at the back but so slow on the ball
Miazga 8 - promising early signs, looks like a better Ilori to me, but appreciate it's early days
Blackett 8 - MOTM, played a few decent balls into the box/into the forward line, and defended very well

Rino 7 - few sloppy passes aside, very good again, class above the midfield
Swift 4 - poor

Ejaria 3 - a Sone Aluko 17/18 performance, drifted inside and kept losing the ball, very disappointed
Baker 5 - few decent touches but not enough
Harriott 3 - shocking, can't control the ball

Oliveira 6 - first half he played well, but ran out of steam and did nothing in the second half

Richards 5 - good defensive cover but a strange sub
Aluko 5 - meh, didn't do too much
Meite 3- comically bad

Attack line is severely depleted, Aluko should be in the 11 IMO. Oliveira is a class above the rest of our strikers but is understandably rusty, needed a striker on the bench though because Meite is useless

So in 7 league games :
Millwall - 0 goals (10 men for the game)
QPR - 0 goals
Swansea - 1 goal (when they were in complete first gear)
Forest - 2 goals (first one well worked, second was against 9 men)
Derby - 1 goal (they gave us the ball)
Bolton - 1 goal (penalty)
Villa - 0 goals
Not exactly inspiring, really need to start putting the ball in the net

[PieEater]

That's a good point against a decent Villa side.

Martinez look like a really good keeper.

My only beef is Baker taking that free kick. wtf?

[windermereROYAL]

Ejaria 3 -

You were not at the game.

[Hound]

Swift was decent as well. Not brilliant but certainly not a 4. Worked hard and played some nice stuff

Played a lot better than Rino on this occasion imo

[URZZZZ]

Ejaria 3 -

You were not at the game.

Tbf a lot of people put Ejaria as MOTM, I just didn't see it TBH, we created nothing from out wide, he kept drifting inside and kept running the ball into them. However, I did get him and Blackett confused a lot so maybe that explains the high rating for Blackett and the low rating for Ejaria

[Rea Ding]

Missed opportunity imo, another game closer to the end with us still being in the Relo zone.
Having said that we are playing better and no one had a shocker today. Decent game for a 0-0. Villa won’t get playoffs

[Schmeichel the dog]

Ejaria 3 -

You were not at the game.

Thought Ejaria had a very decent game, along with the keeper (who won us the point) and Miazga who was solid and calm. Slight disappointments for me were Yiadom, who was not at his usual level, Baker who obviously has talent but was too casual at times today and Harriet who couldn’t impose himself. Honourable mentions for Moore, Oliveira, rinomhota and Blackett. Swift was Swift. I’d have taken a point before the game so not disappointed. We’ve stopped the rot and are playing more attractive football. But we do need to start turning draws into wins soon. Rotherham game is massive.........

[Schmeichel the dog]

Ejaria 3 -

You were not at the game.

Thought Ejaria had a very decent game, along with the keeper (who won us the point) and Miazga who was solid and calm. Slight disappointments for me were Yiadom, who was not at his usual level, Baker who obviously has talent but was too casual at times today and Harriet who couldn’t impose himself. Honourable mentions for Moore, Oliveira, rinomhota and Blackett. Swift was Swift. I’d have taken a point before the game so not disappointed. We’ve stopped the rot and are playing more attractive football. But we do need to start turning draws into wins soon. Rotherham game is massive.........

[Royality creeps In]

Nothing between the sides although I thought we just edged it.
Their keeper kept them in it although to be fair Martínez made a decent one himself.

Thought Swift controlled the midfield and Oli caused them problems up front.
Still a little nervous with playing out from the back as we do.
Gomes has certainly got us playing better.
If Villa are play off contenders, we will have no problem staying up.

[Sutekh]

Ejaria 3 -

You were not at the game.

Thought Ejaria had a very decent game, along with the keeper (who won us the point) and Miazga who was solid and calm. Slight disappointments for me were Yiadom, who was not at his usual level, Baker who obviously has talent but was too casual at times today and Harriet who couldn’t impose himself. Honourable mentions for Moore, Oliveira, rinomhota and Blackett. Swift was Swift. I’d have taken a point before the game so not disappointed. We’ve stopped the rot and are playing more attractive football. But we do need to start turning draws into wins soon. Rotherham game is massive.........

Agreed. Ejaria didn’t stand out but worked hard, put in a good shift and got involved. Wasn’t quite sure what specific position he was playing though other than in the middle. I’d rate him as a 6.

Swift worked hard as well but with Baker seemingly taking the more forward role Swifty was generally taking up more of a defensive game which isn’t really his style. At least I left with the impression he gave all he could so again I’d give him a 6 if it mattered in the slightest what I thought.

Comedy moment was the ref losing his yellow card but sadly he had a spare on him

Frustrating though it was Meite’s doing all the hard work and having loads of time to pick a cross of his choice from the goal line but managing to slice the ball straight out of play was pretty funny.

The ref though was one of those fusspots who liked blowing for everything and stopping the game whenever he could. Never understand why referees aren’t coached to always play the advantage and bring it back if nothing good comes out of the opportunity rather than whistle as soon as something happens.

[Sutekh]

Also Martinez looks comfortable with ball and, to my mind, it has improved the defence as everyone can be more sure of their positioning and reasonably confident that the keeper won’t make stupid decisions. Doesn’t completely eradicate the annoyance and panic generated amongst fans of course but it seemed the fans around me were at least becoming less “frightened” with that style as the game wore on.

Of course it’s early days and there’ll always be dodgy moments doing that but at least there’s something there that can be built on and hopefully improve further as the players get used to each other.

So one wonders why on earth Stam, then Clement, didn’t invest in such a keeper when they were here.

[sandman]

Any other time you'd say a decent point. But we need more than a decent point in the situation we are in. Villa could have been 3 up at half time with Abrahams missing a sitter, Elphick hitting the post and Miazga handling the ball (although it would have been harsh).

Gomes has just been on the radio saying how he disliked us going direct in the latter stages of the second half. It's a good job we did as knocking it around the back the way he wants us to was getting us pinned back and the game was only going to go one way. We hardly got out of our own half for at least the first 25 minutes of the half.

Martinez - A couple of decent saves including an acrobatic one in the second half. 7

Yiadom - Another solid display as we have come to expect. Excellent block to keep it 0-0. 7
Moore - Didn't do too badly defensively. Too negative in possession bar one Ramos esque cross field ball. 6
Miazga - Did well against Abraham. His height was a big benefit. 7 MotM
Blackett - Solid if unspectacular. 6

Rinomhota - Not quite at his usual level. 6
Baker - Decent display, unlucky to be taken off. 7
Swift - Over hit several passes. Another solid but unspectacular. 6

Harriott - Poor. Several bad decisions and no end product. 4
Ejaria - Some very nice pieces of skill but again no real end product. 6

Oliveira - Put himself about and gave Villa something to think about. Awful injury which should have seen Mings sent off. Hope he's ok. 7

Subs:
Richards - Ok but nothing brilliant. Strange substitution. 5
Aluko - Did ok. 6
Meite - Lots of willing running. Gave us an aerial threat that we were missing. 6

[Lower West]

So one wonders why on earth Stam, then Clement, didn’t invest in such a keeper when they were here.

Suspect that it has to do with FFP. Hence Reading now offloading who ever they could sell. Unable to recruit permanent quality signings.

For a totally new side was ok. Defensively sound. Loanees obviously lack match fitness. Something to build on. Hopefully same team will start next week. Will require more game time to gel.

[Denver Royal]

Martinez - A couple of decent saves including an acrobatic one in the second half. 7
Yiadom - Another solid display as we have come to expect. Excellent block to keep it 0-0. 7
Moore - Didn't do too badly defensively. Too negative in possession. 6
Miazga - Did well against Abraham. His height was a big benefit. 7 MotM
Blackett - Solid if unspectacular. 6

Rinomhota - Not quite at his usual level. 6
Baker - Decent display, unlucky to be taken off. 7
Swift - Over hit several passes. Another solid but unspectacular. 6

Harriott - Poor. Several bad decisions and no end product. 4
Ejaria - Some very nice pieces of skill but again no real end product. 6

Oliveira - Put himself about and gave Villa something to think about. Awful injury which should have seen Mings sent off. Hope he's ok. 7

Subs:
Richards - Ok but nothing brilliant. Strange substitution. 5
Aluko - Did ok. 6
Meite - Lots of willing running. Gave us an aerial threat that we were missing. 6

Agree with your ratings and comments, well said.

[Singing Defective]

Odd how the ref seemed unwilling to give yellows initially. Then they must have burned a hole in his pocket, and he couldn’t pull them out fast enough. Oh, and contesting a ball in the air is now an automatic free kick against Reading.
Still not enough protest from our lot, yet he had a permanent retinue from Villa.

[Lower West]

Disappointed to be honest, they were there for the taking,

Is that we struggled to get out of own half for the first 25 minutes of the second half..............

Abraham is a real handfull. Good movement. Constantly making space for himself. Shows how poor our attacking options were prior to this window.

[Zip]

Are we improving? We didn’t have a single attempt on target in the second half. We had a good ten minutes just before half time and that was about it.

Martinez. 8 Two good saves in the first half and one terrific one in the second
Yiadom. 6 Started poorly but improved
Moore 6 Generally solid
Miazga 7 Good positioning and plenty of decent headers although one poor one towards the end,
Blackett 5 Infuriating in the first half just jogging back at times
Rinomhota 4 Really poor today. Some dreadful passes
Swift. 5. Struggled to dictate play and often his passes went astray
Baker 5 Disappointing and barely involved
Ejaria. 7 Showed some lovely skill in possession but too deep to hurt Villa
Harriott 5 Didn’t attack the fullback and was reluctant to go down the line. Ineffective
Oliveira 6 Showed some nice touches and at least tested the keeper
Aluko. 5 Created little of note
Meite 5 Won some headers but didn’t seem fit
Richards 6 I thought he did ok with one or two decent crosses

This continued playing out of the back continues to worry me. We take so many chances with little reward. There were still some alarming lapses in concentration with a Villa player completely unmarked from a freekick just outside our penalty area being allowed far too much time. On another occasion they took a short corner to another unmarked player. Not good enough.

We sat very deep in the second half too and on the balance of play it was a point won. We really missed Bacuna’s energy as our central midfield was poor.

[Lower West]

Are we improving?

A clean sheet against a decent side should be viewed as such. Given the run of form we've had.

[Denver Royal]

We really missed Bacuna’s energy as our central midfield was poor.

Tend to agree, and think Rino's form in mid has leveled off in recent games, imo. Hopefully Eza's return will help us.

[Zip]

I have just seen the facial injury to Oliveira. That looks very nasty. Was that a deliberate stamp by Mings? We didn’t even get a free kick for that.