Maybe promoting Carrick to vice captain might say he is either being phased out or should retire in the summer. I like Darren but he doesn't offer enough now. SAF kept players on too long, LvG has to be ruthless.
FA Premier League
Aston Villa 1:1 Manchester United
Villa Park
- Kick-off
- Sat, 20 December 2014 @ 3:00pm GMT
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Closed
Discussion Live Updates 59 Your Lineup Prediction
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First he missed an easy header totally misjudged it. Then Benteke easily turned him not once but twice, starting with his back to Evans. Evans ended up shielding the left side of our goal (totally unnecessary given the angle - that would've been the hardest angle for benteke to score from) and gave Benteke the entire right side to try that curler, unsighting DDG in the process (in addition to the other 2 mugs who went behind Evans instead of covering the middle). Evans messedup on the header and then the angles he covered - he was so out of position he couldn't even attempt a proper block. It was a great shot, but he had all the tiem & space to make it given how poorly Evans played him.
Dont agree. It was a lucky goal.Could you imagine, Rafael, Shaw, Herrera and even Fellaini in that team today.
The tempo would be much higher.
I am not as tactically astute as many here but I long for a day when we can at least be able to choose from Blind, Shaw, Rafael, Rojo, McNair, Blackett etc. Watchng Fletcher today was both sad and painful. With thanks and the greatest respect he should be at Motherwell or Hibs, working on his managing certificates....anywhere but Old Trafford. He has worked hard to get back and has been a loyal servant of the club but he simply isn't EPL quality, let alone Utd quality.The away form has to be adressed, imo it seems like LVG sets out to snatch a win rather than win in entertaining fashion. One would assume he thinks this back 5 is "less risky" and certain to guarantee more wins than a usual back 4. In that lies the issue, the approach is too negative compared to our approach at home. We beat ourselves up over it in the first and spend the 2nd half correcting mistakes. A poor side held us to a draw, a midfielder-less Villa.
Fletcher is finished, like Gerrard, he no longer has the box to box energy, he lacks positonal awareness and his passing is bordering worse than Spanish Tom's pussyfooting.
I just don't understand the lack of passing between Mata,Di Maria, Falcao,Wilson, Rooney and yet the most popular players were Valencia and Young, from start to finish got an unlimited supply.
This was David Moyes vs Fulham football all over again and LVG has questions to answer, LVG's purpose is to take us far away from Moyes Mediocrity and as quick as possible, his methods have to take us away from this one dimensional style of wingplay, Bayern, Barca, Real, Chelsea, hardly any teams play this prehistoric, wasteful inefficient style anymore.
Down the wings and cross it is wasteful, with our wingers, their is only 1/10 chance, we got a goal from 1 cross, doesn't mean, we will with another 10 attempts, for the life of me, I do not understand why Giggs and LVG played dumb and dumber, surely someone could have told the side to play to feet rather than aerially.Obvious where the weak points were today, Fletcher-Valencia-Evans.
Guess you couldnt spot Mata then.
Well ok I will take off 4 minutes. I might have been too tense watching the Villa fans throwing the ball backwards in the terraces.
How did Valencia get in that trio? He created a chance for both Rvp & Mata, defended well (in comparison to the CBs) ..and once he went off and Young took his position the whole side lost all momentum... or are you just one of those types?
Well we'll disagree - nothing lucky about curling a free shot into the far post when you're not being pressed - no deflection, no tackling, no blocking, no body on him, no challenges. That's quite a bit of "luck".Did LvG defend his tactics?
Moving Young to right and he becoming useless was a shocker and so was bringing Wilson after sacrificing RvP earlierThe mistake was starting Fletcher. We had no midfield engine until he came off. Carrick should have started in midfield and Blackett at the back.
The other problem is that Falcao and van Persie just don't work well together, but that may come in time when we buy midfielders, which we desperately need to do.
How the hell was that a lucky goal? Great play aided by shite Evans defending to create space for a shot and then he curled it inches within the post to the side net. How is that a lucky goal?
Probably lucky as they didn't pass the half way line before they scored the goal.Put it this way guys. It was highly unlikely that we were going to come out of this Christmas/New Years period with dropping points. And we got our dropped points out of the way early anyone with me? No. Damn I'll crawl back in my hole. Haha
What kind of flawed logic is that? Was Rooney's goal against Liverpool lucky too? They were by far the better team before that strike.
It took a deflection. That's why it was lucky.
They were? I must have seen another game then...
Evans stood there in block, he probably wont hit it like that in 10 games now.
That goal was pretty much your first attack of the game. Liverpool were on top and De Gea just pulled off a wondersave. Wonder what world you're living in.
Benteke has scored a similar goal before but yeah.....pure luck.
Well the first time you cross the halfway line you wouldn't normally expect to score, so I would call that lucky to be honest.
It was a quality goal. Against the run of play, Yes, but the goal in itself had no luck attached to it.There's a lot of drama in this thread isn't there? I thought Fletcher actually played quite reasonably yesterday. Perhaps wasn't creative enough for the game but then that's never been what he's good at. Apart from one very stray pass thought he won the ball and passed pretty well, even driving forward into space on a couple of occasions trying to cause a bit of confusion in Villa's defence. Showed urgency and tried to keep the ball moving forward on the whole which is not something I could accuse all our players of.
I don't think anyone was dreadful yesterday but nor was anyone exceptional which was the real problem. 7s and 6s across the board. For example, thought Rooney's passing was very good but defensively he was poor, Mata was passing quite well but still doesn't look to get the ball forward anything like quickly enough, Van Persie showed good touch but his decision making and finishing were a bit off and he ended up slowing the play down on a couple of occasions, Evans did OK but needed to get tighter to his man at times, same for Carrick, Falcao's touch and fitness were good but his movement wasn't quite right and he struggled to find space at times etc etc. Even Yong who was our best player in the end was very vulnerable defensively up until their goal.
All round we deserved a draw at a hard working Villa side. Not a good result but we've had plenty worse this season and we'll have more before the season's out.
Should probably mention, though, that I'm not sold on the 352. Now that most of our options are fit again it's time to look again at 433, 442 diamond or what have you.
It was 10 minutes into the game and they had 1 shot by then and we had a counter right after, nothing happened before. Hardly by far better or anything.
Im not saying it was lucky, giving potential reasons for the other guy saying it! Was also deflected apparently though.The reality is? there is just an unbalance in the midfield and attack of our team, and we are not stretching teams because of this, this was our problem at the start of the season, and its happening again. I just think we have way too many one paced midfielders and forwards in the team, and it shows. Mata rooney RVP falcao are not going to break the 100M barrier sprint, adding fletcher who is a shadow of his former self, its going to bite us on the backside from time to time.
VG defiantly needs to look to sign a few midfielders and a forward who can run at defenders, and this also takes the pressure off our defense. Has bad as our defenders have been playing, they are not helped by an unbalance of our midfield and front players who cannot run at teams, their lives would be made allot easier if they had better midfielders and forwards with acceleration to hurt teams, and midfielders who can pass the ball, instead of it all being relied on carrick who is playing in a 3 man defence. I just think if VG can get players to balance out a carrick di maria and rooney, we will be a much more potent unitBenteke scored a world class goal. To some people that is lucky. To others it's skill. But nevertheless it took a moment of magic to beat the defence. I think Villa only had one other good shot at goal which I think De Gea pushed to the cross bar. Other than that, Villa were largely contained.
Evans made a mess of the initial header that let Benteke have the upper hand on him and he never recovered. To be fair to him, he did managed to get back and block most of the angle, but Benteke somehow managed to curl a world class goal around 3 defenders into the left hand corner.
All in all, I think the team played well. Controlled the game for large portions despite the high amount of pressing from Villa, but the problem was the team simply failed to create and convert quality chances. That is something LvG himself has acknowledged. Let's hope that the team will kick on from here onwards. 3 games over the next week and a half. It's vital to keep the momentum going and keep the gap between us and the others below.Louis Van Gaal post match reaction:
Ridiculous, but completely unsurprising.
Of course. But what Im saying (and im sure the previous guy was saying too) is that normally a team will need to get themselves in that position a number of times before they can create a goal, so it was 'lucky' that they pulled it off first try.
Can't take anything away from Benteke it was a wonderful strike and a damn shame that he scored it too.- Status
Man of the Match
Runners-up
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25%
Radamel Falcao
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12%
Michael Carrick
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7%
David de Gea
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5%
Wayne Rooney
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2%
Phil Jones
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1%
James Wilson
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1%
Antonio Valencia
Player Ratings
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 425 ratings.
Score Predictions
676,35,38
- Man Utd win
- Aston Villa win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 21% Aston Villa 0:2 Man Utd
- 18% Aston Villa 1:3 Man Utd
- 17% Aston Villa 0:3 Man Utd
- 14% Aston Villa 1:2 Man Utd
- 8% Aston Villa 0:4 Man Utd
- 6% Aston Villa 1:4 Man Utd
- 3% Aston Villa 0:5 Man Utd
- 3% Aston Villa 1:1 Man Utd
- 2% Aston Villa 0:1 Man Utd
- 1% Aston Villa 2:3 Man Utd
- 1% Aston Villa 0:0 Man Utd
- 1% Aston Villa 2:1 Man Utd
- 1% Aston Villa 2:0 Man Utd
- 1% Aston Villa 2:2 Man Utd
- 1% Aston Villa 3:0 Man Utd
- 1% Aston Villa 1:5 Man Utd
- 1% Aston Villa 1:0 Man Utd
- 0% Aston Villa 4:0 Man Utd
- 0% Aston Villa 5:0 Man Utd
- 0% Aston Villa 3:2 Man Utd
- 0% Aston Villa 3:3 Man Utd
- 0% Aston Villa 4:4 Man Utd
- 0% Aston Villa 2:4 Man Utd
- 0% Aston Villa 3:1 Man Utd
Match Stats
- Aston Villa
- Man Utd
- Possession
- 35% 65%
- Shots
- 10 16
- Shots on Target
- 4 9
- Corners
- 3 9
- Fouls
- 9 10
Referee
Lee Mason
Man Utd Lineup
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replaced by James Wilson
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replaced by Tyler Blackett
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replaced by Angel Di Maria
