Andy

Time for Matt Ritchie imo

Fatigue is definitely an issue and we'll improve when players return, but we've been naff away from home all season tbf. There's a little more to that than just fatigue imo.

Fair enough City. The other games we didn't give a good account of ourselves at all - Wolves away is a game we should be winning and dominating, we were lucky to get a draw. Brighton are no great shakes either this season - they have only beaten us, Brentford, Bournemouth and Luton at home. As others have said it's the difference between home and away form that is concerning, as it suggests there's probably a bit more to it than just the fatigue and injuries.

While that's true, our away form (and performances) have obviously taken that to the extreme this season. We are close to being bottom three in the league away from home, and were before the injuries hit too. I'd be very surprised if it isn't something that Howe is concerned about, I doubt he's just dismissing it.

We manage to control games at home though, to me it's either a physiological issue or and instruction to drop off once we score away from home. We've done it all season, not just during the injury crisis.

Yeah it's not helping with the fatigue issue either. We can't control the game away from home so end up chasing the ball for the majority of the match, anyone who's played footy knows how tiring that is compared to maintaining spells of possession. I'm not sure if it's the formation or how deep we drop after scoring, but it's been an issue all season away from home.

More likely that the exchange with the fan was an early sign that something else isn't quite right with him tbh. Was out of character for him to bite back like that.

There's something not right with him man. Looks pale and gaunt, he's either ill or has some shit going on. Never for one minute should have been taking that penalty like.

I wonder if there was something in the "personal issues" that he was sent home from England for? His form has been iffy ever since then

What's going on with Trips man. He looks a shadow of himself mentally and physically.

So is Ritchie

Nothing in Hall's performances so far has suggested he would offer less than Matt Ritchie here like. Really odd.

We had to win the game to qualify, I'm not going to rip into them for pushing on and having a go like, even if it was a bit naive. Quite happy to fuck the Europa League off, we can clearly do without the additional fixtures.

It's how he's played all season and been praised for it the team is clearly structured around Schar making these bursts, the cover should be there if he makes a bad decision or pass.

We had plenty of players back covering, it should have been dealt with.

Surprised Schar is getting the blame like, he's been praised for those runs all season. The issue was Bruno and Isak letting their midfielder walk through them, absolutely has to be a tactical foul there, guarantee Howe will bollock them for that.

He's a decent shot stopper and generally looked fine in a low block under previous coaches. He has no idea where to be when we're further up the pitch though, starting position is woefully bad, he's as far from a "sweeper keeper" as you can get.

I've been critical of Pope for his kicking in the past, but this game has really emphasised the importance of starting position, which he is excellent at.

Tino was limping a bit earlier like, maybe carrying a knock, to give Eddie the benefit of the doubt.

It's easy to blame Trippier, Lascelles etc, but the defensive errors are becoming frequent due to how poor we've been on the ball recently. Our midfield is non existent.

Shoulder I thought

Villa are class, quality goal that.

Villa are similar to us last season, a good (and somewhat underrated) set of players who are also riding a wave of positivity, with a good manager and an effective system. They'll be very hard to displace.

Wasn't he training away from the team this week? Was evident in his performance even prior to the two errors that he wasn't at the races, looked mentally out of it as well as physically.

Not a great performance in general, but you can't really account for the two horrific individual errors that put the game beyond us. Biggest problem for us is that when Tripps and Schar are off form like today and Bournemouth, pretty much our entire attacking game-plan falls to bits. We aren't incisive enough through the midfield to break teams like this down.