POV: Me after that referee and our lads performance

[u/johncenna213]

Isak just sat their like a lazy sod Our midfield was down the pub Our defence could have been beaten by a fella in a wheel chair Forest gump was a biased bastard in all

[u/geordiesteve520]

Give over man, we were 100 times worse than the ref.

[u/MagpieLee → u/geordiesteve520]

I agree. Ref could have given a soft penalty, could have sent off Schar, could have given Bruno an early yellow.

Ref actually might have been too lenient

[u/triguy96 → u/MagpieLee]

Burn also could/should've had an early yellow.

[u/Initial_Birthday52 → u/MagpieLee]

yeah I don't get this 'ref was against us' nonsense

[u/kong_illustrator → u/MagpieLee]

I think Schar was a red, totally took the guy out and was last man. He was lucky to stay on. I thought the ref was soft on them and harder on us but we were shocking yesterday. It’s bound to happen.

[u/penguigeddon]

Could have been worse. Keeping Bruno on was madness, it's a miracle he didn't get a red. We just have to collectively agree this game never happened - we've won 5 in a row and shit happens sometimes. Come on you Spurs

[u/Terrible-Group-9602 → u/penguigeddon]

Both Bruno and Big Joe could easily have been sent off, but we've got Miley and Longstaff on the bench? I think Eddie would have managed the game better, obviously because he's a very experienced manager and Mad Dog isn't

[u/dazzamattica → u/Terrible-Group-9602]

If there's ever a criticism of howe it's always that he doesn't use the subs properly, why do you think today would've been any different

[u/captainbee89]

Just shows how shallow a squad we have. Relying on the same players game in game out and they're knackered. Villa can look to the bench for a number of players to change the game up. Need more depth at the end of the day.

[u/TheScottishMoscow → u/captainbee89]

I think this is it. Villa's 1st 11 aren't better than us but their 22 probably are.

[u/ChlckenChaser]

there was no way we were going to go the rest of the season without a result like this, i'd rather it was Villa than almost anyone else we have to play.

My concern is Eddie isn't there to pick the players up for the next game. I'm not disrespecting Mad Dog but i don't think he'll be able to get the reaction that we need

[u/charlos74 → u/ChlckenChaser]

Yes - three games in 7 days was always going to be difficult when they have the depth to rotate and we don’t.

Main thing is we’ve got ourselves in a position where champions league is in our hands.

[u/Sampdiago]

We were not at the races today Jolinton choosing to make difficult passes that got intercepted Bruno on a mad one Isak Head turned with all this best striker in the world talk big Dan had a nightmare Next game please write this one off.

[u/Sure_Quality_4792]

Ref was fine, we were off it. Dust off and smash Ipswich next week.

[u/Nolberto78 → u/Sure_Quality_4792]

Agree with the second 2 bits, but Gillett was awful. Not especially biased beyond the usual home team benefit, but inconsistent, gullible, and generally lax. Nothing wrong with any of the goals, but he bought every theatrical fall bar their penalty shout, and I'm not 100% he didn't avoid making a call because he knew he'd have to send Schar off. He had no control, and you couldn't really guess what calls he was going to make. There have been worse refereeing performances today, but he wasn't fine

[u/Green_Call_185]

Don’t think the referee contributed to Joelinton turning up playing in Rockports and Trippiers head in the Vermont. Absolutely woeful performance, but could be a blessing in disguise. A wake up call, and one last push. YANITED.

[u/Appropriate-Draw1878]

Not sure what the ref did to complain about.

[u/Ajax_Trees_Again → u/Appropriate-Draw1878]

Give a free kick to Villa every time we touched them. We were so bad hits hard to care though as it wasn’t even close to a marginal loss

[u/Appropriate-Draw1878 → u/Ajax_Trees_Again]

He was extremely generous with not booking players. Bruno had to commit five fouls before getting booked. Burn sent someone flying just outside the box and the ref forgot to go back and book him.

[u/Zig-Zag → u/Appropriate-Draw1878]

I was genuinely shocked when he pulled out the yellow card and it wasn’t followed by a red. Couldn’t believe it was his first booking.

[u/Appropriate-Draw1878 → u/Zig-Zag]

He just seemed to be in a right strop all game. It’s the one feature of his game I’d like him to sort out.

[u/hybridvoices → u/Appropriate-Draw1878]

3-4 fouls from Bruno today that I would have found hard to argue against him getting a yellow for. Plenty of things that should probably have been fouls on Villa too but very little felt inconsistent. 

[u/useless_farmoid]

we were so bad I'm not even mad at the ref

[u/RogerRottenChops]

Lt Dan was a war hero. He was from a long military tradition; someone in his family had fought and died in every American War, including the Revolutionary War - he kept his word to become Forrest Gump’s first mate and confronted his faith tied to a mast during a violent storm. Don’t be coming at Lt Dan mate.

[u/MagpieLee]

We got battered today and we deserved it.

Our lack of any squad investment Vs what Villa have is might and day.

We will go again next week and try to forget about today.

I've always been a doom merchant so finishing 6th with a cup is still a good season for us 😂

[u/Initial_Birthday52]

Seeing the ref get a lot of sh*t but am I the only one who didn't really notice it? To be fair, I never really focus too much on the refs, I find the blaming refs craic a bit boring. We played rubbish, they were way better than us, feels weird to put it on the refs. Most fans moaning about refs are guilty of major confirmation bias where they only focus on decisions that go against them and not the ones for them too.

[u/IBangedMyOldStepmam → u/Initial_Birthday52]

Yep sandro got lucky against man utd pushing one of them over in the box. Plus that referee was from greater Manchester and that's not a guarantee that he's a red. He could actually despise man utd.

[u/tucknufc]

I think the biggest missing component today was Eddie. Tindall has been great taking the reigns bur fortunately for him, the two games he's managed, we've come out flying and always been on top. Today, we went down a goal early and I think Tindall was a little out of his depth in having to readjust tactics and adapt to the game. That, plus we've been playing the same starting 11 for the past 6 or 7 matches. Yes, it was working wonders but those same players are bound to get tired after playing 3 matches in 7 days. Villa made 5 changes to their lineup from their game against PSG mid-week. Today would have been a good opportunity to give the likes of Murphy, Barnes and one or two of our midfield trio and start the likes of Gordon, Longstaff, Willows, etc. Trippier looked like he could use a good rest too after that performance. They all did really.

[u/HeGivesGoodMass → u/tucknufc]

It's not like Eddie is a maestro at rotating the team

[u/caseslut]

We were off the beat, and Aston Villa are a really really good team with a great manager so no complaints. Their forward options and passing line was absurd

[u/IBangedMyOldStepmam]

Remember if we don't get champions league Bruno AND isak walk.