Luton vs Aston Villa post-match thread

[The Edge]

There has been a lot of dissatisfaction over the years with the way previous managers have handled substitutions, no plan B, time of introduction and who has been hooked or not. 

Now Unai Emery has arrived and shown us the light.  He doesn't always get it right but in the main he does.  I've never seen four hooked and replaced at the same time but Unai did it and it worked, it might not have but he had the balls to try it. 

We're fortunate enough to have him and we need to trust him.  After so many managerial failures I can understand the difficulty in changing our mindset.

Luton had a grip on the game with their hustle and bustle style. The 4 substitutions wrestled the game back in our favour. Unai is a fucking magician and we're so lucky to have I'm.

[PaulWinch again]

There has been a lot of dissatisfaction over the years with the way previous managers have handled substitutions, no plan B, time of introduction and who has been hooked or not. 

Now Unai Emery has arrived and shown us the light.  He doesn't always get it right but in the main he does.  I've never seen four hooked and replaced at the same time but Unai did it and it worked, it might not have but he had the balls to try it. 

We're fortunate enough to have him and we need to trust him.  After so many managerial failures I can understand the difficulty in changing our mindset.   

Very true, but I think in an ideal world we’d have addressed our second half issues before they’d equalised. It worked out and they were bold subs, I just think we need to work on our control early in the second half at times. Unai is clearly brilliant, and has done an incredible job, but there’s always opportunity to improve.

[VillaTim]

Aye, we are pretty harsh on players sometimes. Young Tim came on in the 79th minute with the game and momentum completely against us. He gave away a few fouls but wasn't alone there. We had a better shape with him on the pitch and ultimately won. I wouldn't be writing him off as a potential starter based on that short cameo.

He came on like a bull in China shop. Then once everything was smashed he settled into a better rhythm for the last 4 mins

As opposed to Teilemans and Rogers who hadn’t engaged in a challlenge for 10-15 mins, bull in china shop was exactly what was required

Bottom line it was 2-2 when he came on,  and we ended up winning.

Yup, 4 great subs…hindsight tells us :-)

Perhaps needed bringing on earlier

[Percy McCarthy]

Out of interest, I wonder if anyone joins in the match thread whilst they are actually at the game?

I posted about Chambers warming up at half-time last week.

[ROBBO]

Like others have said, it was clear early in the second half what the problem was but the changes were made only at the desparation stage.

[VillaTim]

I don't think I've ever seen us make 4 subs all in one go in a proper game before , a unique moment ?

[The Edge]

I don't think I've ever seen us make 4 subs all in one go in a proper game before , a unique moment ?

Unique to us but I've seen plenty of clubs do it before. We've probably never had enough quality in depth before 

[Somniloquism]

Luton had a grip on the game with their hustle and bustle style. The 4 substitutions wrestled the game back in our favour. Unai is a fucking magician and we're so lucky to have I'm.

2nd half, they had something like 7 shots with five on target including the 3-2 chance for them straight at Emi. We had only one.

After the subs we stopped them having any chances until deep in stoppage time. We also still had only one more chance at goal though but buried it.

[pablo_picasso]

Anyone who knows the xG shit know why our XG on the end of the match was 1.83 and Luton's was 2.28?

Because xG means the grand total of fuck all.

[Monty]

xG seems useful for individual players and useless for teams.

[VillaTim]

Emery on the 79th minute rescued a bad situation that was unfolding, very good management really. Other previous managers we've had (i'm not going to name names), under such pressure would have gone to the dugout, sat down and adopted the crash position.

[Somniloquism]

Or piled everyone on, and told the team to just lump the balls into the box and hope it falls to someone. (Not naming any vegetables).

[MorrisNielson]

Highest points total after 27 league games:
55 Pts - 2023-24 - Luton Town - W 3-2
52 Pts - 2008-09 - Stoke City - D 2-2
52 Pts - 1989-90 - Coventry City - L 0-2
50 Pts - 1992-93 - Ipswich Town - W 2-0

[London Villan]

Where did it go wrong in the second half - we've let that happen a few times this season and got away with it against Forest, Luton and FUlham, but not Man Utd.

[paul_e]

xG seems useful for individual players and useless for teams.

and even for players how it should be used and how it gets used are often very different. Basically the entire point is an attempt to add some context to conversion rates.