Well that was a bit of an odd game. At 0-0 with 11 men we looked like being competitive, albeit set up to keep it tight and play for 0-0 and hitting on the break. Edwards sending off I thought was a little harsh, the first was a justified yellow (sliding through the back of a man on the counter attack and getting more man than ball), the second I thought the ref might have been a bit more lenient on - another challenge from behind, but looked like Edwards tried to pull out of it and definitely didn't go through with studs showing or high. From then on it was purely a game of attack v defence, with the two Villa CBs playing largely on the halfway line for much of the last hour.

The defending and keeping I thought tonight was full of commitment, vital blocks, clearances and headers all over the place. We looked committed, and Villa's weight of numbers eventually told as we still played for damage limitation. In the end we had Vito to thank for a string of what must have been 6 or 7 really, really good saves tonight to keep the scoreline respectable. With a lesser keeper tonight we could have leaked 6,7 or 8 given the volume of chances Villa created second half. The only blot on his copy book was the failure to clear for the third goal, but given the rest of his game I'll let him off.

Vito - 8 despitebeing guilty for the third
Blackett - 5, generally pretty solid, left far too over exposed by Barrow first half
Moore - 6, lots of clearances, especially first half
Illori - 6, see Moore
Gunter - 5, average, one really good low cross in to the box second half
Edwards - 4, two sloppy tackles, maybe harsh to get a red as mentioned above, but looked clumsy most of the night
Evans - 5, where is our Evans of last season? largely anonymous in a rearguard action
Bacuna - 4, another fairly anonymous performance in central midfield
Barrow - 2, one counter attacking break resulting in a blocked shot in the second half aside, he was an absolute passenger tonight, left Blackett exposed so often first half against Snodgrass, who just hugged the touchline and had 15 yards to himself for much of the first half. When pushed up front second half, did little to close down defenders when they had the ball, just jogged around in the vicinity of play. I like Barrow a lot, but tonight he was awful
Aluko - 5, worked hard, and at least protected Gunter more than Barrow did
Smith - 4, tried hard but just got outmuscled and outthought by two experienced centre backs tonight. Terry v Smith was actual men against boys - he'll learn a lot from tonight I hope.

Kelly - 5, not a great back pass for their third goal
Martin - 5, put himself about a bit, largely ineffectively
Clement (player) - 5, one of his better performances from the games I've seen this year, looked quite lively and put himself about a bit

Clement (boss) - 5, thought the changes were the right ones at the time, Smith did little up top, and Martin won a few headers more than Smith did. Barrow going up top against two slow defenders was a good idea and had we still got 11 on the pitch could have worked even better

Overall a frustrating night as what could have been an opportunity to take a point from a misfiring Villa became a comfortable win for them after the sending off, and once the first goal went in was just going to be a matter or how many we could restrict them too. Given the amount of chances Villa had, 3-0 is actually a bit of let off.

2 games, one shot on target.

With very few chances created whîlst the opposition have totalled over 50 shots. It will be interesting to see how Clement sets us up on Saturday. We are big underdogs in most of our games these days.

With very few chances created whîlst the opposition have totalled over 50 shots. It will be interesting to see how Clement sets us up on Saturday. We are big underdogs in most of our games these days.

Just shows what a shit state Stam left us in.

I don’t know what to say to that Brum. Suffice to say I disagree, hugely.

I think it flatters us to suggest that Edwards’ red card was the turning point. From what I saw we showed no desire to partake in the game and no willingness to even remotely compete, we came for a draw but if we lost we lost and we were hardly going to try and do anything differently. Disgusting performance. Should have just called VIlla and the EFL before hand and forfeited, taken the -3 GD and not wasted any energy. I would have preferred not to come put it that way.

Mannone 6 - several good saves to keep the score down, even though the backpass from kelly wasn’t great was at fault for our second, distribution poor and nonsensical. Kept lumping it up to Smith and then Barrow.

Gunter 1 - wasn’t sure what he was doing but it wasn’t playing football, might as well have not been there.

Ilori 4

Moore 4

Blackett 2 - hopeless, abject, useless.

Bacuna 5 - wanted it more than most but utterly ineffective

Edwards 0 - to make that challenge after he’d already been booked so early on is just criminal. Terrible excuse for a footballer.

Evans 4 - meh

Aluko 2 - did oxf*rd all

Smith 2 - effort was there but can’t give him a high score because he didn’t oxf*rd do anything, barely touched the ball, he’s not a oxf*rd target man ffs why did we keep lumping the ball up to him, if it went on the floor it’s was so hard it’s was almost impossible to do control, felt sorry for him, had no support.

Barrow 4 - ran a lot, completely ineffective.

Subs:

Martin 0 - waste of space
Clement 3
Kelly 4 - poor backpass to Mannone, some energy but didn’t contribute a lot.

Honestly we surrendered the ball at every available opportunity almost on purpose and showed no willingness to attempt to win it back, it was 3 nil until we decided to have a go and even that was an embarrassing effort. If Clements “tactic” is to sit back and not compete for the remainder of the season then oxf*rd me were in for a hell of a journey,

oxf*rd oxf*rd pcunt shit. oxf*rd bollocks. oxf*rd off.

Don`t hold back. just tell us what you really mean.

Pretty poor display, shows how poor our last few transfer windows have been, haven't seen Edwards do anything except be a spokesman to the evening post trying to flog his book, terrible signing and tonight looked lost before his sending off.

Blackett well, what's he doing playing left back is beyond me, turns his back on the crosser nearly every time, this was very apparent 2nd half.

Smith felt for him, young lad not ready to play at this level, but we're forced to after Stams lack of strike force that he started with in the summer.

Aluko, well a fluke goal Friday, back to his usual look down at floor routine.

Can't go on, just very little to be positive about this side, to be honest I'd almost enjoy going down having a total clearout, bringing in more of the youth and pushing on next year (that's if anyone wants to help us get rid of this dead wood we seem to have collected)

I’m doing “alcohol free april” and it’s painful watching us sober.

At least under Stam we'd retain the ball and make the other team work for it, and I'm sure we'd have managed more than the 1 shot on target we've had in the last 2 games...

I`m wondering what Mendes has to do to get a start?, throwing a young kid in against John Terry is just criminal. at least Mendes can put himself about a bit.
I`ve got a feeling Clement is getting bad advice from the coaching staff that didn`t leave with Stam because the same faults are still there.

I was thinking the exact same thing. I’d rather be bored to death watching us pass it around the back 4 and concede the inevitable goal then completely surrender possession and watch us concede 55 (FIFTY FIVE) shots in our last two games.

Obviously Stam had to go, but come on someone needs to tell the players they’re allowed to go for it wtf.

It was a training game. Attack V defence.

I was thinking the exact same thing. I’d rather be bored to death watching us pass it around the back 4 and concede the inevitable goal then completely surrender possession and watch us concede 55 (FIFTY FIVE) shots in our last two games.

Obviously Stam had to go, but come on someone needs to tell the players they’re allowed to go for it wtf.

It was a training game. Attack V defence.

Have a drink

We were woeful even before the sending off. Paul Clement has already had a noticeable impact on the defensive organization, which was a massive improvement in the first half. He's got a massive job on his hands.

Nobody is turning on Clement yet after 2 games. basically he came in blindfolded, had to take advice from the coaching staff that didn`t leave with Stam. but Stevie Wonder could tell him Blackett isn't a footballer.

It's taken two games, one of those against a top four side, one of those a win, for people to start saying they'd have preferred Stam in being charge

Football fans don't know what they want.

[quote="windermereROYAL"]Nobody is turning on Clement yet after 2 games. basically he came in blindfolded, had to take advice from the coaching staff that didn`t leave with Stam. but Stevie Wonder could tell him Blackett isn't a footballer.[/quote]

He joined a ship that had already sunk. We have been been atrocious for nearly four months. No one can blame Clement but I am concerned that he is setting us up to absorb pressure and try and hit on the counter even at home. Our possession stats are worrying. If we haven’t got the ball we are not going to win matches.

He's just trying to get us points by hook or by crook. It worked on Friday. I don't really care how we play, we could play the most negative football in existence but if it gets us enough points to stay up then I'm happy.

As soon as Edwards got sent off, I presume tonight's game plan went completely out of the window.

Literally no one said that.

Literally no one said that.

Not you, but I’ve seen it around on social media. And others suddenly piping up saying they’re not fans of Clement. You did say you’d rather be watching Stam’s style though.

I wouldn’t read too much into the style of football we are playing at this point.

With very few chances created whîlst the opposition have totalled over 50 shots. It will be interesting to see how Clement sets us up on Saturday. We are big underdogs in most of our games these days.

Just shows what a shit state Stam left us in.

And so it begins. Change the manager with 8 games to go and he can always blame the previous regime if he gets relegated. FWIW, Im not reading too much into this result, nor do I think we will get relegated, but you seem to have your excuses all ready if we do.

Anyone who expected Clement to turn things around straight away are naive. This is a pretty pants squad lacking any bite in midfield, threadbare up front and leaking goals at the back. He has a massive rebuilding job next season regardless of what league we are in.

Until then, any points we get won't be won in a pretty way. We will need to grind them out.

I expected a defeat last night and think our only chance of points away are at Sheffield Wednesday. We need to grind another win out on Saturday to get closer to safety.

And we won’t get any points away at Sheff Wed.

This season was a write off back in November!

PC just needs to do enough to keep us up, then look to put his own marker down over the closed season for next year

Didn't go last night, but from I read it seemed it was Snodgrass' delivery that was the difference between the teams. With the talent Villa had upfront, any half decent ball in the box would cause most teams problems. Given it was against 10 men dont think anyone can be surprised or even over react with the score.
Edwards on the other hand is an absolute moron. I hope he apoligised to the dressing room and addresses the fans - or at least the ones that traveled up.

He is setting us up to try and give us a strong defensive base, starting from a position of having none. Remember he has had very little time with the squad - the internationals only returned to training on Weds/Thurs and we've had two games since. He's had minimal time with the squad, so the obvious thing to do is try to make his hard to break down and leave the opposition to have chances from distance, whilst looking to utilise the pace we have to break quickly.

This worked against QPR and was working against Villa until half time. I can only think of one save Mannone had to make in the 1st half. The red card and the lapse in concentration killed us last night. Even with 10, if we had held out more than 90 seconds of the 2nd half, Villa could have started to get edgy - this was clearly the plan. Make them nervous, have players forward, win the ball and exploit Barrow's pace against 2 slow CBs. We only managed to work that opening once but lead to our only chance.

Once Villa scored, they relaxed and were in complete control - game plan out of the window.

As for Saturday, would expect Kelly/Swift back in for Edwards to give the midfield a little more attacking threat but probably not much else - 2 DMs to give cover to the defence.

Find 2 home wins from the last 3 and we won't need to.

Can confirm Snodgrass looked dangerous very second he was on the pitch. I thought he was Grealish for the first half till I checked the Villa squad numbers.
A lot of people seem to be saying Barrow gave Blackett no support but I think he just wasn't able to, Snodgrass was just too good last night.

Just shows what a shit state Stam left us in.

And so it begins. Change the manager with 8 games to go and he can always blame the previous regime if he gets relegated. FWIW, Im not reading too much into this result, nor do I think we will get relegated, but you seem to have your excuses all ready if we do.

No. I’m saying we’re in the shit. Stam left us in it.

Unfit, disorganised, unbalanced. That much is clear. It was fairly clear 5 months ago.

The board did nothing to rectify it except sack him too late and bring in a mate of the chief execs with less managerial games under his belt.

We will see what happens.

Birmingham have won 3 out of 5 games under their new manager the “fraud” Gary Monk so it can be done.

The most expensively assembled squad in the Championship, 4th in the league, vs one of the poorest teams in the league, who are away from home with ten men for an hour?

3-0 sounds about right. Guardiola would've done well to get a result out of that situation last night.