Aston Villa News 24/7It’s a long story, but it was a late night last night.
I’m talking about me, not Villa, I don’t know what the excuse is for that.
This was the first game I’ve missed in I can’t remember how long. There was an hour gone and we were 3-0 down by the time I got to it. I already knew the score when I tuned in.
I saw the 4th and we looked terrible during the half hour I saw. I nipped out of the room during the last five minutes of normal time and missed the fifth, but caught the sixth in injury time.
That’s all I have right now. My head is pounding and I have no sense of humour at all, let alone any sense of perspective.
What I will say is that we apparently played the best XI we had available and aside from Carew missing an early penalty, the stats show me a side that was comprehensively outplayed. Comprehensively outplayed by Newcastle who have just come up from the Championship.
Maybe beating a West Ham side who were beaten 3-1 at home yesterday by Bolton wasn’t anything to get carried away with.
There’s been three 6-0 games this weekend, we’re one of them and I can’t describe how bad that feels.
That’s it. I’m going back to bed. Not a happy camper.
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16 Comments to “Newcastle 6 Aston Villa 0”
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Never thought I would say this of KMac, but he played the wrong positions and wrong players. 2 Crucial Mistakes:
Simply put, you can’t replace Milner with a pure attacking Midfielder, Place for Place. Which is what happened. Playing Stephen Ireland in the middle of the park with Petrov was one big Facepalm.
The second mistake was Playing Albrighton and Downing coming off from a long week, with both players having 2 full games. Both Looked flat, maybe giving them a half each on the wing?
Young and Albrighton/Downing should have started on the wings, with Ireland in the hole. We needed a ball winner in the middle of the park, but instead we lost everything in the middle of the park. NRC should have started paired with Petrov, and the best i saw Villa play was when they were 4-0 down but finally with players in the right positions, sadly it was too late and the damage already done.
I can understand now why O’Neil was looking hard at a replacement for Milner, we need that engine in the middle of the park, without it we will struggle till we find a new rhythm. NRC could lift his game and become that engine to a lesser degree, but the fact we were losing everything in the middle of the park meant all the pressure on our defenders would be converted into goals.
Ireland once he was playing in the hole started to have flashes of form, and i think mixing him and Young playing off the striker will work for us. Having Albrighton able to play right wing means we can rotate Young/Downing/Albrighton enough to keep them in peak form, while using Ireland to offset things in the middle when Young plays wide.
There were lessons to be learnt and I think we can build on this, but that hole in the midfield needs to be addressed tactically.
Hi Dan…..I just wanted to say hi. It is a beautiful morning here in Long Beach California. The birds are singing and I was thinking of you. Take care and I will talk to you soon. Jacob NUFC
That was…brutal. I cannot tell you how badly I wished I stayed in bed. My idiot brother, Jacob, was with me and gloating the entire time. This could be a really, really long season. – Newcastle still sucks.
6 nil my brother…….6 nil
We need…
- A striker who can take penalties (carew can’t, we miss Milner and Barry there)
- James Collins & Carlos back fit
- A box to box midfielder. It’s not gonna be Petrov, it’s not gonna be Ireland.
- A winger so that we’re not relying on Downing, Young and Albrighton for every game
- A tactician to take over as a manager, with KMac part of the regime.
That is all…!
That was absolutely brutal. Where the hell do we go from here? Just a blip? I don’t think so. We’ve no money. No manager. Glaring weaknesses in our starting XI and from the look of it a total lack of team.
Ooops missed the end off that post.
…… a total lack of team cohesion. There MUST be a player power issue going on here somewhere.
One of the biggest problems we will
Face is that we have hung on to a number of players because we are dangling the carrot of European football. When that carrot has disappeared over the horizon those players are going to be off.
Hind sight is always 20/20
But…
We were bullied in the middle of the park….and in the penalty area. Ireland looked like he has missed competitive football – and could not compete with the biting of Smith, Barton and Nolan. He will come good. Young looked isolated in the hole – without the out ball to make an impact (he will need to gauge Ireland’s positional supporting runs – which he seemed blind to taday). Carew looked tired and his physicality was too obvious compared to Carroll’s.
Friedel had a shocker (which I have been dreading but expecting!) – his movement around the box is starting to worry me. In pre-season teams were successful when they shot from distance – has he lost his quick feet and the ability to get to the ball?
The referee allowed a combative battle to occur and we were not up for it. NRC is not the answer. Heskey did not add the impetus.
Gabby or Delfonouso could have been a massive in against the Newcastle defense. This performance will raise the hearts of the blue-noses especially considering their midfield!
This game was a bit of a wake up call and hopefully only a blip. Against Chelsea last year we gave up, did we do that today? Did we write this one off at 4-0? Did KMac rescue Albrighton and Clarke from further hits to their morale? Or make tactical changes to support the team?
Hopefully they can analyse the problems and sort them for Thursday. Shockingly at 3-0 down we still looked the better team, but at 4-0 we looked like a rabble!
UTV
Gutted, just like everyone else but I think we are just seeing a team with a “caretaker” manager. MacDonald can’t be trying to put his stamp on the team — it isn’t “his”, so we have a group of talented players trying their best but that just doesn’t cut it in the Premier League.
A couple of things stood out to me:
1) Carew several times looked to make contact with the defender rather than just get the ball. It almost looks like he wants to get physical rather than get the ball and score.
2) Ireland looked lost but had a couple of real bright moments. I agree fully – he is not a like for like exchange for Milner. The team needs to change to fit the new squad.
3) I saw at least 3 or 4 times where A. Young passed a ball to space only to see the defender get it or the ball roll out for a throw-in. Every time there was a player in claret and blue standing still, dumbfounded as to why the ball didn’t roll directly to their motionless feet! A.Young looked like he was getting angry about people not moving into to space — were they tired? Maybe, but I think some players are trying to move and pass while others are still playing long-ball. Worrisome!
Eh, just throw this one away and hope that it gets better next week. The squad had to deal with losing one of their best players as well as multiple games in one week. Hopefully they’ll wake up.
Cliches abound, gutted, sick as a parrott, pig-sick….it’s one thing get hammered by an established premiership force as Chelsea or Arsenal, teams with a variety of goal scoring options be it pace, guile, power, width, intricacy etc, but to get pumelled by a newly promoted team (albeit former premiership stalwarts) is not so much embarrassing as a big, big, big worry.
We all know Villa lack potency up front but a miserly backline has afforded us the luxury of having not one player who threatens 15-goals per campaign let alone twenty or more. Now, if we’re going to start to ship goals then our reluctance to invest in a real striker will be thrown into starker resolve and watching the Villa today was somewhat reminiscent of Wigan, toothless and defenceless.
The answer? Firstly, Randy has to make clear his intentions. If he’s reluctant to invest further then we need to know so that our ambitions can be tempered. I can live with frugality and mid table mediocrity so long as I know. For the time being, I’m clinging to the beleif that Villa are on the cusp of something better, the hope that last years semi-final and final can be converted into silverware and maybe the groundhog day which is a sixth place can be transformed into a fourth place finish. Until I’m told different I’d like to think that around the corner is that financial impetus which will see the players we so very sorely miss arrive at the club.
Evolution rather than revolution is in order with the nucleus of a great team already in situ. For this season, the proven premiership duo of the comabative/creative Scotty Parker and the prolific Robbie Keane should at least be on Villa’s compass. Ostensibly affordable, both would instantly enhance the squad without the need for the blooding which can so very often lead to costly mistakes, wasted chances and dropped points. Additionally, with such youthful promise filling the ranks, the addition of established talent could not only improve the now, but enhance the future.
Ultimately, if specific players evade capture, then we should be looking at players of their ilk…rather than seemingly nobody at all… but without a gaffer which player of real quality would sieze a chance to play for us? Unless that player is a makeweight with little or no alternative?
One way or another we need clarity and purpose both on and off the pitch. Typically of our great club another season is underway and the transfer window is ebbing away without the club making progress…worse still…with a manager we have regressed and today at St.James reality bit hard and without a boss and someone who knows where the onion bag is we’ll suffer an uncertain and vulnerable future.
We need to ‘be prepared’ boys.
I plead for calm in Villa Nation – there were a lot of variables today – not only an interim manager, first game with Ireland, without Milner, but the first home game for Newcastle back in the Premier League, with all the excitement and adrenaline they were up against, and a tough first road game for inexperienced Clark and Albrighton.
And I think if Carew makes the penalty (and then there is Young’s goal ruled offside) it is a completely different game – not necessarily a win, but certainly not a rout.
Cuellar, Collins, and Agbonlahor will be back, they will figure out how to use Ireland. There are a lot of grounds to look at this as an abberation.
Last year they lost to Chelsea 7-1, and they bounced back to form – it was an abberation. They will not be facing a particularly confident team in Everton next week. UTV
Good words, Brotha!! UP WITH VILLA!!! I am taking a RAPING on posts from angry Newcastle fans for my PreSmack… It’s so funny how desperate they are to cling to this fluke. Did we look good? hell No. We looked like shizzah. But it’s only one game. It’s a long, long season.
Yeah Up The Villa……….6 nil……….yeah Up The Villa………..humiliated……….
UP THE VILLA!
why? because as a supporter I will support them through thick and thin. Even though I live on the otherside of the world I make all the effort I can to see games, and I will take everything on the chin. I sure love to see Villa win, but more than that I just love to see them play, even if its playing badly. I am also ever the optimist, even at half time i was turning over in my head that there is some rather obscure chance of turning it arround, and I actually believe we will be stronger for this loss. KMac has learnt 2 fast lessons this season, the value of youth and the value of experience.
Now lets see the boys come out and play Rapid Wieners at Villa Park and make our mark in Europe!!
Once again; UP THE VILLA!
Well said! If a guarantee of winning is necessary to be a fan, you can support Manchester United or the New York Yankees, and ride the bandwagon.
I think the comment about youth and experience is very astute – these two games form a kind of matched set, showing the difference these can make at the extreme.
It will come together, but even if it didn’t, we will be with the Villa – thick and thin!