Manchester United battle for point at Villa: Media view
Sunday, 23 November 08, 05:26 AM · Comments (43)
We could have dominated for 80% of the game, had three times as many shots and missed four penalties, but it would have still been us holding Manchester United for a point. Well, actually, that's bullshit.
Sure they had the majority of the possession, but that's about all that they had the majority of yesterday. We had just as many shots on target and we were not playing with £100mn. of talent up front, we battled and beat them and were actually unlucky not have walk away with the three points. But let's look at the best bits for the papers, instead.
Paul Wilson, The Observer: "So comfortably, that Martin O'Neill's side may come to regard this as a missed opportunity. With Arsenal in crisis and United off colour, they will never have a better chance of hitting third. That would have been a travesty, as for all Villa's midfield muscle they created even fewer chances than their opponents."
David Walsh, Sunday Times: "With Agbonlahor isolated up front, the challenge for the midfield was to get forward quickly enough to support the centre-forward. This was something they failed to do in the opening half, their inability to get men forward reflected in the relative quietness of their wide players, James Milner and Ashley Young."
David Harrison, News of the World: "It could have gone either way with Villa and United enjoying passages of supremacy without ever threatening to seize total control."
Duncan White, Telegraph.co.uk: "Villa came out for the start of the second half how they should have done for the first, mindful of their undoubted quality and less so of United’s."
Steve Tongue, Sunday Independent: "Defences were generally in control, with Martin Laursen for the home side and Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic for the visitors all excellent performers."
Bottom line as far as I'm concerned is we got a good result and four points against United and arsenal is exactly what we needed. Nobody would have bet on six points and every single one of us would have taken four points and fourth place three weeks ago.
Man of the Match
This isn't an easy one today but if I had to pick one player I'd say Martin Laursen. I might have even stretch that to James Milner or Gareth Barry - which would have surprised me - but yesterday Laursen had a fantastic day and I think he deserves it.
Overall Rating
Performance wise, we were a bit slow to come out of the blocks but you can accept that, as to some extent you want to tread carefully against a side that has so much potential. Maybe even stifling them early on was part of the plan; as in never really let them get going.
They did though, at times, but so did we and we had a shout for a penalty and a second off for them, which if we'd got, we may have won. Still, we've always got another chance this season and beating them isn't that far away.
We also find ourselves 4th in the Premier League and we've now got to take advantage of our position and with matches coming up against Fulham, Everton and Bolton, now would be a very bad time to not take advantage.
Yesterday gets an 8 out of ten. They only had two more chances than us and it was close. I'd happily take that result against Manchester United every week.
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43 Comments · Add yours
If I put this comment where it belongs on the previous article it will never be seen, so I’m sticking it here.
kohoutec
Yesterday’s match analysis was spot on. You da man.
Barry gave the ball away cheapily yesterday. Nowhere near man of the match. Laursen I agree with and Milner becoming the player that the sensible ones on this site knew he would be.
Also thought that Luke Young did well at left back defensively but we loose out going forward because he cant support Ash Young and deliver crosses with his left.
Overall though good performance and champions league here we come! especially when Liverpool's bubble bursts
I think it was a great performance highlighting what we should do defensively against attacking minded teams. We can atleast shut all the top teams down defensively. But it did emphasize a need for a killer attacking option, or a finisher....To be fair, we didnt really threaten so much...ok, Ash went close with a long shot, that was kind of a cross....what i will say is we did have some probing crosses and decent balls come in which was extremely eocouraging, but too few of them were met by us. I am pretty happy with that result of course, but my point is, it will take more than Kevin Doyle to "add" to our strikeforce. Its gonna take a player capable of individual brilliance, Martins or similar. Thats the difference in games like that really....look at Torres...Rooney...Henry...each one worth so many competition points in a season....Kevin Doyle??
we have lost once against the top four this season so things are looking good.
all the media hate it when someone bursts the big fours bubble
Possibly a point more suited to the previous post but i would like to see what ronaldo's stats are like when playing against 5 in midfield. He looked ordinary yesterday, id hazard a guess that milner was much more effective in the same role due to his willingness to compete. Maybe this could be a note for all teams playing united, because with ronaldo's effectiveness weakened by double teaming, and the rest of the midfield cramped the flair, and particularly the final pass quality to the front men was missing. The one chance they had came from a hit and hope over the head lob to rooney, apart from that the service was atrocious. UTV, very happy.
Your spot on with the theme of this article, as for me the media coverage of this game was so biased its untrue. Listening to 606 on the way back home after the game, i couldn't believe when alan green thought Man u were very unlucky not to beat the Villa. We played fantastically, shutting them out, Reo completely beat Ronaldo in the game skipping past him numerous times. Ronaldo eventually sulking off after theatrical dive after theatrical dive. Ferdinand, Vidic and O shea were constantly fouling off the ball and nothing was given to the constant pushing of agbonlahor not to mention the vidic incident in which he should have been sent off. I have never seen such a cheating team in my 3 seasons of having a season ticket. We were getting nothing from the ref and the Man U players were surrounding him when a few of the decisions went to us. THey were constantly fouling. It is pretty sour grapes of ferg to not conceed that vidic should be sent off, motd all agreed it was a blatent foul. Agbonlahor never fell over in cartweels and flips when brushed or even rembasted by vidic and ferdinand yet numerous united players including ronaldo roll around on the floor trying to provoke actions from the ref. Not once the villa players surrounded the ref as united did, showing no respect whatsoever. The one thing i take from that game having been at the ground is that the whole man u team contrive to conspire and cheat to win the game. For once Villa held there own.
I'll take a point from yesterday. If Man United are being honest, so will they. We could have been overrun as we were by Chelsea. Instead, however, we dug in and demonstrated that we can compete against the best of them.
By the way, there is a rumour that Barry is going to part ways with agent Alex Black.....wonder what that means?
We will have to stay in 4th place for a few weeks before the media take our challenge seriously. Man U always give out the sour grapes when they don't win.
Reply to Leroy:
That Barry blames everybody else for his own failings?
Reply to keefvilla:
In fairness, I'm sure that he relied on Black to advise him of the best course. That's what agents are for.
I checked the match report on BBC sport yesterday and read Fergie's comments on the match and was gobsmacked. He said that they were the better team apart from 15 minutes, which is ok fair enough, I dont agree but. The he said that we defended for our lives whilst they were comfortable. I just dont get that, both teams had some hairy moments and of course our defense had to be strong but so did theirs.
He has imo disrespected the way we played and tried to act like we played for the draw when if anything we were the team who, before the last 10 minutes, were pushing for the win. They had a few goalmouth scrambles themselves and in all fairness we could have easily won it ourselves.
We only ever troubled them twice ,once when gabby was fouled the other when milner skined Oshea.We at best competed which is what you'd expect us to do.I feel if we would have started with carew we would have faired a bit better.As for MOTM you need look no furter than petrov
Villa defo had the better, more threatening chances...Defending for our lives? Absolute bollocks. That said, it was a tight game, and I do believe Villa started slowly because they finally pulled their fingers out and set about shutting down Utd., harrying and disrupting them so they couldn't get settled and find their rhythm.
Once that was done, Villa were more free to play. In the past, Villa showed too much respect and space, and were slaughtered. Yesterday they finally stepped up and got in Utd's faces and found they're not superhuman.
This possession argument is so obviously pointless. You can kick the ball around all day and you get nothing for it. Did Utd put in the net? No, for the first time in 36 games. All that passing is lovely to watch, and in the past, Villa have been mesmerized, ball watching and a step behind. Yesterday, all that lovely passing came to naught and was just so much pointless wanking off. Villa had a couple breathtaking one-touch passages of play covering 40-60 yds that were just as skillful as anything Utd produced. I really couldn't believe it was Villa.
I have all the respect in the world for players like Giggs...But his whinging expression was really getting on my tits, as much as Ronny's diving. O'Shea, Vidic...Acting like Joey Barton off the ball. Alright, it's a man's game, but just get on with it and stop all the whinging. Villa showed far more class.
And if Villa can play like that, we won't be out of place in the Champions League. That performance might go a long way to making a UEFA Cup title much more realistic, despite the big fish awaiting us.
Reply to churchil:
Cheers, churchil. It's fun feeling so good about our team isn't it?
Really proud of them.
keef...I like the way you keep having a jab at Damian about him keep mentioning Milner.....Which I see your point about.
However.......
Someone keeps bringing up how shit Barry is...! lol
kohoutek u love to giva a full anaylsis dont you
I enjoy these media view posts, it's interesting to see how different reporters look at the match. Villa were good value for that point and I didn't even consider the point that Vidic could've been sent off for a last-man foul as MON pointed out. Had that happened (and lets face the ref should've blown the whistle before Gabby was in the area) and Aston Villa got a free kick and to go against 10 men, maybe they'd have pinched a winner. As it is, Villa get a long run of games against teams not in the top 4, it is time to start building momentum and confidence for the holiday fixtures.
EVERYONE LOOK!!!!!
OWEN WANTS TO LEAVE!!!!!
LINK
I think Barry dropping his Mister 15% suggests that he will be signing a new, final big career contract with Villa either in Jan or the summer to come.
He knows what he will be offered and there is no point in paying Black anything to negotiate a done deal. The Liverpool thing is dead, he's weathered the fan backlash for the most part , he's the first name on Capello's team sheet and he probably finally believes that he can do the champions leauge with us...
I thought Barry was MOTM. He gave away the ball sometimes, but tried to dictate the game with forward passes. Also, United are excellent at closing down the ball before it comes to an opposition player so a lot of the time we reverted to backward passes. The passing has to be really incisive to get thru utd.
Petrov was good again, he's got European nouse about him, he's able to win free kicks in tight areas and knows how to use his limited body strength well. However sometimes he needlessly pisses around with the ball in our own half which invites pressure and United are very agressive in winning the ball.
It's a cliche but united are superior in footballing ability so you have to match them for workrate and aggression. We did and got a fair result.
Our lads in the England set-up is a good thing, they'll become less scared off trying to express themselves in the big games. I've watched Rio deal with Gab with ease before but y'day he gave a little more respect which worked in our favour. Also notice how Rooney & Co were giving our lads respect during/after the game? United haven't done that before.
Reply to avfc-anthony:
lol...my girlfriend doesn't care, and no Villa fans around me, so I've no one else to bore about the Villa.
I thought we matched Man Utd saturday and I can't remember the last time we did that in recent times - certainly not last season.
I don't think anybody had a bad game, Laursen and Davies were fantastic considering how Rooney and Tevez can rip teams apart. Curtis looked on a par with Ferdinand - you wouldn't have known Ferdinand cost £20m more based on saturdays game.
I thought the midfield were superb and Gabby worked hard on his own against two of the best centre halves in the league. I am not a fan of playing one up front - i have always thought it was a negative tactic and much prefer 4-4-2 but the midfield is looking so good that I wouldn't drop any of them.
Ash and Sidwell will have better games but I didn't think they were poor by any stretch of the imagination. Ash worked hard - typified by the class tackle on Park when he looked certain to score. Sidwell's game seems to be similar to Lampard's - you don't notice him too much but he is always in the box whenever we attack - I can see him notching 15 goals a season in coming years.
Man Of The Match for me has to come from Stan, Barry or Milner - I thought all were fantastic. Petrov won a lot of tackles and was always in the right place at the right time. Barry looked a far superior player to Carrick and showed it with that nutmeg on him. Taking the ball off Rooney, turning him and putting the ball down the line to Gabby was absoulte class (even Match Of The Day had to say it was a clear foul and Vidic had been skinned by Gabby).
Milner gets my Man Of The Match vote though - I thought he was excellent. He won pretty much every tackle he made (which was a lot) and his distrubtion was much better than recent weeks. I don't think there's another winger around like him when it comes to battling, tackling and tracking-back and we are lucky to have him. He works as hard in the 90th minute as he does in the 1st and I thought he was pretty faultess Saturday.
Overall - very very happy - bring on Fulham :-)
Reply to Harleystaggers:
I think thats just wishful thinking mate. Barry has probably sacked his agent after the piss poor advice he gave him in the summer over the transfer. I fully expect Barry to be playing in north london by the end of january.
Reply to fastbackace:
Don't get too excited fastbackace - the Blackpool Gazette isn't the best source to quote football matters from
Excellent Result. 4 points from the last 6 is a great return and a lot more than expected from most. I sometimes wonder though if these media types even watch the games. We have to push on now, Fulham at home this weekend, we must pick up the 3 points.
I think MON should be going all out to bring Podolski to Villa Park in January. There's a player who will instantly turn us into a team capable of gatecrashing the top 4.
Reply to keefvilla:
Newcastle striker Michael Owen is willing to take a pay cut in order to leave St James' Park in January. (Sunday Express)
It'so sad seeing referees week after week being hoodwinked by the disgraceful cheating by the top 4 teams (except us. In fact I'm sure they are instructed to treat them differently from every other team to allow constant advantage.
I just love watching PETROV fairly sliding in on the portuguese ponce to claim the ball and accidentally raking his ankle - beautiful! MON got it right in interview that the call was 'too difficult' for the ref when VIDIC assaulted GABBY. If it was against Wigan, Fulham etc.. no problem.
I thought NRC was excellent and only usurped by the classy consistent PETROV. GABBY improving in ability and confidence nicely.
Not normally being one to comment on footballers talking crap in the press but here goes rant no:1 for me on here.
how the F**K Vidic can come out and say we played with ten men behind the ball all day and didnt attack is complete boll**, what a twat,
if you look at the overall stats we had more corners, more shots on target, and the same shots overall, man u also committed 3 more fowls than us, not including the foul/pen that never was, granted in the first half i thought we were still overawed slightly by the fact we were playing manu, but all credit to MON, he must of roasted em at half time because they were up and at em second half.
Am i the only one who was genuinely impressed with Milner on Saturday? seeing as he has only been with us a couple of months (even though in his second spell) if looking at the game as a total newcomer i would of thought he was a local lad who grew up supporting villa all his life, and was living the dream playing for them! now i know we would all like to see genuine World class players at the Villa, i for one would love someone like Saviola (where is he now anyway???) but that flair has to be neutralised by a crux of genuinely hard working players.
To me on Saturday Milner (and petrov) were the epitomy of working hard for the course, my god man even Milners final ball looked Dangerous!!
oooops i mean foul, not chicken lol
and should be 'cause' lol
vivavilla86 - I am in agreement, he's quality! Goes without saying but he would be a better choice than Doyle
podolski would more than likely work very well with Gabby but not unable to mix it with Big John, would be a fantastic addition and would definitely be a hit in the prem i think.
Personally I'd stick him on the left wing and move Ash over to the right. It would give us another striking option as well of course.
Reply to __AA__:
You must be talking about me mate!!!!
Went straight over your head there Leroy, but seeing as I need to explain it.....
I meant keef, not you..! Do you get the irony of it..!
Reply to __AA__:
What! Irony on a football blog? Behave.
Reply to keefvilla:
You reckon? I not even that huge a fan of Barry, although I would like him to stay, I think we are a better team with him in it.
Whatever happens i guess we can look forward to another Barry dominated transfer window in Jan!
Just done the premier league predictor on BBc website and with my villa goggles on got us finishing first with 90 points...so they sky is the limit!
Reply to __AA__:
I was just playing mate....i totally understand. As you well know im not Barrys number one fan, and i do take most opportunities to raise my opinion regarding him.......thats why i mentioned the rumour about him and his agent parting ways...just stirring the pot a bit to see if anyone else feels the way i do about it all
Curtis Davies was awesome.
It seems that when we normally stop a bogey side beating us every season we seem to draw the games we play against them and then whallop them the following season. Happened with Blues so I'm looking forward to the Man U game next year!