In over 50 years of supporting the horns I can’t remember such a late goal scored against us, which actually made a difference to the result, has there been one?
He brought Kabasele on after 90 mins! Pereyra is an experienced EPL player , Pussetto had played 15 mins until tonight. Pedro is 18 , not scored in 10 Games , neve scores in EPL and is a long way off from being a game changing sub. Apart from that I agree with all your points .
In relative terms, I'd imagine Nuhiu's on the final day of the season would be even more impactful, and at a similar time.
That won't be the message he gives to the players. That is the public message. There rarely any benefit in roasting the players in public.
Typical defeatist , apologism from the happy clappers who think Pearson is a positive force for the club .
Ming’s shouldn’t of been on the pitch after that handball, also their first goal scorer should of received a 2nd yellow which the ref gave a foul but looked at the player and never reached for his pocket. To lose in such a manner will hurt I know I’m hurting but really only ourselves to blame the dark arts bite us on our own arse today. Thought we really missed Sarr his pace would of got on the end of a few things Pereyra never managed to overall I think we looked tired especially 2nd half. That double save from riena was the game changer, massively disappointing for our run to come to an end but it had to happen at some point. Could go on and blame players for certain performances but overall we looked tired and maybe that was just one cup final to many, let’s make the Vic a fortress concentrate on our home games Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Maybe him coming on actually caused confusion when defending the set play. Agreed generally he has done well and is a good defender if fully focused. This same back line (nearly) managed to hold out against this lot with 10 men and possibly more impressively Wolves without giving many chances away so we can do it..
Mings should have been sent off. Zero doubt about it. Losing Chalobah and the subsequent formation change upset our balance. We didn’t play well, but I felt we’d be comfortable enough holding onto at least a point and gambling on a few breaks upfield. Pearson got it wrong today with his changes, but he’s earned the benefit of the doubt to this point. No shortage of effort, or commitment, but without Sarr as an outlet, it allowed Targett much more freedom to go forward and he linked up well with Grealish. Both of their goals came from Villa players being first to the loose ball, which isn’t good enough. Absolutely gutting to lose that way, but it was always likely we’d throw a result like this in here and there. The aim now is to make sure that we pick ourselves and put this performance to bed with another huge relegation battle coming up. We can’t afford to drop too many points when playing teams around us, and I’m hoping this game, and the manner of our defeat will be enough to ensure any complacency that may have crept into our game is quickly extinguished. All eyes on Pearson now. This is the first real hiccup of his time in charge, the reaction vs. Everton and Brighton will tell us a lot about his ability to really get into the heads of this squad and get them to the required level for the rest of the season.
**** sake. I didn’t even realize the winner deflected off Mings and into the top corner. Looking at the replay, without the deflection, it’s probably saved by Foster. It’s bad enough he was the one to pick up the first loose ball and cause further chaos at the back, but see him rolling on the floor and inadvertently deflect it over Foster is too much to take. I was starting to feel better about it, but now I’m even more sickened. Horrendous bottle job to not send him off. **** sake.
Pereyra get rid, he doesn't want to be here he hasn't played well in a year. Gray, good movement but he fundamentally cannot kick a football correctly so get rid. How he didn't slip delofeu in I don't know. Mapps needs replacing, not sure what the plan is. Femenia? Janmaat? Femenia now a left back? If Janmaat isn't going to be back any time soon I think we need to sign a right back ASAP. By God we need sarr to be back for Everton. Without him we're going down, with him we'll be fine. Atmosphere was dreadful, split tier didn't help but we didn't seem up for it which was odd for such a big game.
Fair enough. But I hope, and believe, that NP and the players will not use the referee as an excuse for what was a pretty poor performance.
I thought the ref had a decent game overall. He wasn't card-happy (be careful what you all wish for) and he kept the game moving as much as possible despite our obvious efforts to slow it down and time-waste. I can forgive one error in 90+ minutes. The result wasn't down to the ref. It was down to the lack of quality left on the pitch at the final whistle.
The test was always going to be after his first defeat. We couldn't have picked a worse team to lose to though.
I thought he had an appalling game. Aside from not giving Mings a red, he let the 2 footed studs up on Massina go, he let the greasy Grealish dive go, and he gave them more of the decisions more of the time. A definite homer. Shouldn’t be refereeing top level games. But you are right the result wasn’t down to the ref it was down to us. Without Sarr we had no width and less pace, and we ended up 442 I think which didn’t work either. They focussed on Mapps who really struggled against greasy. Let’s hope the Tranmere game is used to try out different options at right wing and right back.
Pearson basically said that - great to have a little run but there would be lows as well which the players will have to react to. BTW Dean Smith likes a moan eh? Even after that winner for them still complaining they should have had a penalty and there was wasn't enough injury time!
I'm sure there's a positive correlation between the amount of times Deeney makes that 'pointing to temples to signify "think/concentrate"' gesture and the amount of costly mistakes the team subsequently makes in the match.
ha that did cross my mind. All the hype about pearson and WFC in general. This defeat was inevitable wasnt it. Lawrenson has the last laugh as per usual.
The same defence that kept clean sheets at Bournemouth and against Spurs. No real reason to change it on the back of those results. Dawson and Cathcart have been a great partnership in those two games so it is a positive message that Kabasele won't just walk straight back in.
But those stats should not be ignored as some sort of fluke. We are clearly better with Kabs in the side and the results dramatically back that up. We were within 10mm of losing to Spurs and not keeping a clean sheet and we conceded twice to a poor Villa side last night. Don't get me wrong, I think Dawson has done ok, but he's only really a back-up option. I get that Pearson is probably saying, if you come into the side and do a good job, then you keep your place, but now is the time to bring Kabs back into the team.
Agree with all counts. We aren't going to win every game against teams around us. Difference is we've pulled more than enough out the bag since our 9 points in December recently that whilst it's obviously not good we aren't in a dire situation. I don't care we've dropped to 19th because we could be 16th in the next game given how close the table is this year at the bottom. There are no teams that are cut off; even Norwich at a push can be that. So long as we're consistent in picking up points (Which won't be every game) we'll see ourselves through. Don't buy the red card would help argument, we looked arguably better with 10 at home against them than wed did with 11.
Can the players lift themselves? Any person who is a professional athlete understands loss. Of course they can. They have to,it's part of their job and that of the management team. You learn more from your defeats than victories. This should motivate them. It darn well should if they have any gumption.
I just managed to make myself watch the highlights. Their winning goal was scored 32 seconds over the allotted 4 minutes of injury time. FFS. 94:32. Then we kick off and he blows his whistle. I guess Atkinson was playing the "next Villa goal wins" rule. c***. Clear handball by Mings too. Second yellow for sure. Atkinson is one of the better referees as well. I absolutely despair at the standard of refereeing in this country. It's just abysmal.
Everyone knows it's a minimum of 4 minutes. And we made a sub in injury time so more time was inevitably going to be added on. We can have no complaints on that front at least.
That's fine, they're only opinions aren't they. I try to be objective and take my WFC blinkers off (not suggesting you don't). We've been in a great run that has caught us up with the pack but we all know we can't extrapolate that run forwards. The 2 teams above us have won their last game as has the team below us. Burnley and NUFC keep picking up wins/points just when we expect to catch them. There are no dead certs for the drop, even Norwich are only 6 points behind with a game in hand. I think it will be norwich and 2 from the next 4 and we are currently bottom of that 4. I don't see any reason to expect us to beat Everton who are packed with players we can only dream of signing (including Pickford who we did sign of course) then we have a couple of difficult games. That game last night was SO important....
I thought Capoue was poor by his standards. Made more sloppy mistakes than usual and lacked his usual verve.
It does show how far behind we were but yes there is a feeling of back to square one! We'd be better losing to Spurs and getting the draw last night. UEA is right - it's a minimum amount. They seem to be claiming there was a foul on Mings in the build up so might have been a penalty regardless.
I thought the same. Looked like a player who had started to believe his own hype. I think a few of our players were like that. Only natural I suppose given the run they'd been on. Hopefully pearson can get them all back on track v everton. I'm glad that's a home game.
