| Aston Villa | Middlesbrough | ||
| El Ghazi McGinn Adomah |
28′ 44′ 88′ |
||
| Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls |
61% 18 5 6 9 |
Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls |
39% 4 1 2 16 |
Pulis raises white flag at Villa
Coming into this one Dean Smith exclaimed that his Villains are playing with swagger again. That’s certainly a claim that Tony Pulis couldn’t make versus a side his Teesside Tenure had seen repeated capitulation. With confidence levels lower than a snakes belly after Preston and Ayala’s sending off on Wednesday night maybe this is just the sort of game that Boro needed to get the monkey off their backs and flush things out of their system.
TP had some good news yesterday with Ayala’s card being rescinded and therefore available for this afternoons encounter. Of greater concern however to Pulis was the seeming inability of his players to take their opportunities and actually put the ball in the net. His thinly veiled criticism led to the expectation that there may be a shuffling of his pack for this one.
Dean Smith had a few selection dilemmas of his own with no less than six players expected to be unavailable. Nyland, Tuanzebe, Chester, Elphick, Lansbury and Traore destroyer Alan Hutton were all ruled out.
Pulis as expected adopted a safety first option with his selection benching the new front pairing of Assombalonga and Fletcher for the solitary Hugill and a back five or three with Shotton, Ayala, Flint, Fry and Friend. The eccentric Besic was a liability that TP wasn’t comfortable with instead preferring Saville reinstated into midfield. It looked like strong and stable was the mind set behind this selection in an effort to avoid another humiliating performance against the Villains. The ominous omission of Tavernier on the bench told us all we needed to know about what Pulis had planned.
The opening seconds saw a quick Villa attack and an El Ghazi cross held up in the wind headed over Randolph’s goal by McGinn. The wind looked like it was going to have a major influence on the afternoon’s proceedings. Four minutes gone and El Ghazi won a corner which was taken short and fired in low only for Saville to be alert to it. Another corner this time off Fry saw Grealish take it short, again linking up with McGinn in a packed Boro box which went out for another corner that was cleared. The rapid corner count went up when Flint deflected a shot to prevent Abraham opening the scoring.
The opening ten minutes was all Villa with Boro sat desperate and deep, clearing everything that Villa were throwing at us. The signs were already there that we couldn’t keep this up for 90 minutes, and incredibly we had a manager who actually believed that this tactic was viable despite having failed him massively before. The early Villa impetus was thankfully slightly subsiding on the quarter hour mark but we still couldn’t get anywhere near the ball. And just as we thought we could breathe again another El Ghazi ball into Abraham was fortunately read and cut out by Randolph.
My initial thoughts pre kick off was if we were going to play with a back three or back five, both were wrong as it just looked like a back eleven . Ayala came to the rescue this time blocking a McGinn effort as we struggled to not so much impose ourselves on the game but to even get into it. Déjà vu came to mind with twenty minutes gone as Villa were all over Pulis’s Boro once again and we couldn’t lay a glove on them sat back too fearful to attempt to break out. A long diagonal ball to Shotton did require Jed Steer to come out and clear the first serious threat Boro had mustered so far. The resultant throw in bounced in the Villa box but typically there was nobody in a dark blue Boro shirt to attack.
Howson carelessly lost possession allowing Abraham to feed El Ghazi and it was Ayala once more who had to be alert to save further embarrassment to the ex-Leeds man for the second game running. A foul on Hugill allowed the big Boro lads to get up for a Wing delivered free kick which saw Hugill miss a half chance on twenty five minutes completely against the run of play.
Another lapse in concentration this time from George Friend surrendering possession gifted El Ghazi who didn’t need any more assistance to put it past Randolph. So far it had gone pretty much as most would have predicted with Tony Pulis’s spineless negativity in this game. Another insipid and cowardly set up with zero threat, spending the entire game clinging on somehow hoping to survive. A bizarre substitution then followed on thirty five minutes with Downing coming on for Ryan Shotton and Fry going to RB, Downing right and Wing left (the stupidity of having no Tav or VLP laid bare).
If possible this was an even more lacklustre and defeatist showing from Boro against Villa but then again it is how TP has always underwhelmed against a side that we used to have some good games against. A heavy Saville challenge whipped up a frenzy with the home fans baying for blood but the Ref saw the opposite and penalised the effervescent El Ghazi who was showing everything that this Boro selection didn’t have and couldn’t cope with. Seconds later it was El Ghazi again this time putting Grealish in and the effort went out for a corner which McGinn took but Randolph collected after a Friend slip in the box.
It was Friend again this time at the other end who nearly brought things level but hit it but straight at Steer who threw the ball out quickly and but for the quick thinking and reading of the danger from Saville we could have been two down. In the fortieth minute Boro won their first corner which Downing floated in safely for Mings to clear in another inept set piece. Downing was at least offering some sort of outlet but the fact that we had to go a goal down before attacking was even considered spoke volumes of the negative dross being presented to nearly 2,000 of the Travelling army.
Abraham then left Ayala and Saville for dead with a burst of pace, played a ball in to El Ghazi which was fortunately over hit to go out for a goal kick. El Ghazi again linked up with Grealish and Taylor to have Boro hearts in mouths and then a rare Boro foray up the pitch died with a poor ball from Hugill trying to feed Wing was poorly executed and that allowed Villa to counter. Breaking quickly McGinn burst to the edge of the box between two Boro defenders and skilfully rifled in the second. Villa realised that Boro had absolutely nothing, no pace, no tactics or organisation and zero threat. They could afford to gamble and push on with complete impunity as our energy levels were on a par with a Taiwanese “AA” battery from North Ormesby Market on Christmas day.
Tony Pulis seems to be in total awe of Aston Villa Football Club to the point where he almost deifies them. Instead of seeing Villa as just another Championship side he absolutely bottles it each and every time and that he does the same again after his previous disasters is testimony to his sheer incompetence. A complete change in tactics and playing style handed the initiative to Villa even before we Kicked Off. A massive overhaul, rethink and double substitution required at half time but unfortunately the only substitution that the fans wanted wasn’t going to happen until the summer at least.
Unsurprisingly Villa came out unchanged but crazily Boro were also unchanged in what must have been a cunning plan from Pulis or just a signal that he was totally clueless. The good news was that there were only 45 minutes left to endure the worst of Pulis plus a three and a half hour drive home in wet and windy miserable conditions which were nowhere near as miserable as those Boro tactics. The dark almost black Boro shirts were very apt under the circumstances in what looked like a funeral for Middlesbrough Football Club.
After Besic had been warmed up ready to come on Wing made way for Assombalonga and Besic sat down just as another lightning Grealish attack found El Ghazi all too easily who fortunately over hit the final ball for Abraham to spare our blushes. This was poor beyond belief; once again Tony Pulis had us playing with our pants around our ankles against Aston Villa.
A Villa free kick found Whelan who hit a ball that was just too much from Abraham to react to as we looked totally lost. El Ghazi left Ayala for dead with Flint backing off him and when the Dutchman fired his shot Flint was able to finally block for the ball to go out for a Villa throw. At this stage the only doubt and question was how many goals Villa would score as Boro were looking shapeless and as clueless as the capped one. JOM was booked as the embarrassing pantomime continued unabated.
The next few minutes was again all Villa pressure, it’s pointless even commenting or reporting on them as apart from a Britt strop and hissy fit there was nothing at all from Boro. Fletcher ironically was warmed up now as Pulis once again realised he screwed his tactics up and restored the pairing that he had just dismantled. Meanwhile Villa had two quick opportunities just before the lumbering Hugill went off and Albert Adomah was readied by Dean Smith. Albert came on for the youngster Andre Green who had troubled Friend all afternoon. The stage was now surely set for yet another Typical Boro moment.
A fantastic opportunity came totally against the run of play as Friend played a ball in to Assombalonga who as is his want needed another four or five of them before he finds the target and predictably missed by a mile. Being honest a Boro goal would have been a travesty as we weren’t remotely in this game all afternoon. Downing then fired in a back post cross that eluded Britt but Friend rescued it and forced a corner. The corner came in for Flint but was blocked by Mikel then the ball came back in to Ayala who as is his want blatantly fouled his opponent. That was the best and most creative Boro had been all day.
Abraham went off with a knock for Kodjia on 70 minutes to get a run out in what was now just a fitness gathering exercise for Villa against a very poor Boro collective. Thankfully El Ghazi went off after tearing us apart and destroying us with his pace and energy meaning that the arrival of Keenan Davis saw a complete front line change. A foul by Fletcher on the edge of the Boro 18 yard box saw Grealish hit a fierce ball aimed at Tyrone Mings with Ayala in attendance and it going out for a goal kick.
McGinn and Grealish were a class above anything Boro could produce in midfield, they simply bossed the game without any threat or serious challenge on them. The ease at which they could strut their stuff unopposed all afternoon was quite frankly embarrassing. We were now just counting the clock down and hoping the Ref would blow his whistle as without Wing any chance of a clever or creative pass to Britt or Fletcher was non-existent. Meanwhile McGinn came close again with Flint managing to stick with him long enough to put him off. A late charge and shot from Adomah led to claims of a handball from Aden Flint in what would have been the icing on the cake.
McGinn and Grealish were still buzzing and as they pummelled us again a shot fired in saw Randolph parry the shot and Albert showed what we had been missing and what Britt, Hugill, Fletcher, Gestede and co. are incapable of doing and poke the ball into the net. In fairness to Albert he didn’t celebrate his goal. Three nil and it didn’t do Villa justice as three minutes now went up from the fourth Official. Kodjia should have added a fourth in added time but Fry got in a block to keep it at three nil.
Again there was no Boro MOM, Downing was the best of a dire lot but to even contemplate saying that we had someone who put in the required effort to be remotely acknowledged as a performance of note was impossible. Three defeats in a row now and each of them with a bizarre story to tell but this one was as I predicted it would be a weak, negative meek surrender from Pulis even before the Kick Off. That I expected and confidently predicted such a shambolic and humiliating display here at Villa Park weeks before hand is testimony to just how poor things are.
What Steve Gibson does now is up to him but there is no future for MFC with Pulis in charge any longer. He is very clearly a spent force and at this level has neither the nous nor the ability to get a side promoted. Today was a foretaste of exactly what will happen if we somehow managed to hang onto a play-off place which based on what I am currently witnessing I would rather miss out on than be put through any more of this dire negativity.