Aston Villa - Nottingham Forest

[Plymouth red]

Gutted we’ve lost this game but deffo due to injuries to key players and Villa having more energy from an extra days rest and not playing most of their best players against Spurs

Hope Arsenal beat West Gam on Saturday so we can relax for last few games as morale will be low after this

Also think that Anderson, Murillo and unfortunately MGW will go at the end of the season, although I would love MGW to stay

Also thank you Pereira and Forest for giving me some good memories in Europe this year. Let’s hope we can get there again in the near future

Right now, MGW is the one we need to keep. Anderson is good and it would be great to get another season but even with champions league that probably would have been unlikely. Murillo is probably the one I would be least sad to lose. I feel cunha could be a good replacement and cashing in on Murillo could mean we can reinvest in other areas of the team.

But securing safety has to be our only aim now. Sods law will see west ham beat arsenal if we don't see off Newcastle. Perhaps Murillo, Sangare and mgw could be back for that match. A chance to bounce back.

[ToryTom]

Vitor has done a brilliant job for us getting us to the semi final and hopefully avoiding relegation but that performance looked like an early season Wolves effort and probably why Mr Maranakis should look elsewhere in the summer. i know we had key men injured but it was never a contest.

[wassy04]

I guess ultimately we were undone by not being higher in the league and able to rotate more at this stage like Palace (and Villa). Did amazing to get this far despite having to rotate and prioritise the league really.

[Fumanchew]

Thought Anderson tried too hard and then when he got out of position they just waltz through the middle

Milenkovic should have known better then to give that penno away

Dunno what more we could do with what we had would bakwa as wing back and a back three have helped? Who knows

[RyanR]

To be honest I don't know what else Vitor could have done. Due to squad limits and injuries we just did not have enough to cope. I don't think it is fair to say our league form is papering over the cracks - we have been undone by a better team on the night. We've been undone by injuries to probably three of the four most influential players in the team in mgw, Sangare and Murillo. We've been undone by having lost aina and then losing abbot.

I'm gutted and this is hurting. Who knows when we will get European nights again. The summer could see a huge rebuilding job - hopefully we can keep hold of mgw at least and rebuild the team around him.

That is true and you’re making valid points. It is tough to take this performance tonight. All season I’ve found it frustrating that our new signings like Ndoye, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Lucca, McAtee have all struggled to contribute. I know they’ve had 4 managers and it does look like we’ll stay up, but it’s hard to view this season as anything but a catalogue of mistakes. Somehow we’ve stumbled on Vitor Pereira, who possibly deserves to be given time, but whatever happens in the summer, we need to get some clear direction back at the club

I wonder if that direction now means a new manager from Fulham

Silva seems the obvious one to me. He keeps Fulham stable with limited resources. He’d get more money to spend here and could hopefully kick on. I don’t want to discredit VP’s contribution because he has achieved safety, but I question if he’s the man to take us to the next level and not get dragged into a scrap next season

[JWJW]

Too many injuries...... And also playing Monday did not help... Villa had an extra day's rest.

Obviously the injured are being rested for Sunday. Premier League is more important for us.

Hope Freiburg win the final... I will be cheering them on.

[Plymouth red]

Vitor has done a brilliant job for us getting us to the semi final and hopefully avoiding relegation but that performance looked like an early season Wolves effort and probably why Mr Maranakis should look elsewhere in the summer. i know we had key men injured but it was never a contest.

I think that is really harsh. We had lost our talisman to a completely unlucky clash of heads. We were without the majority of our starting midfield and no effective full back due to losing aina and then Abbott in successive games. It was fighting an uphill battle against a team that had been rotated since the last game and played a day before. Imagine if they had lost mcginn in their last game and had to rely on Jadon Sancho and Tyrone mings. We would be talking about a completely different game.

[DR Forest]

It’s a symptom of being new boys in the league
Recruitment this season hasn’t helped but we haven’t had the luxury of time to develop proper squad depth

So the best 11 get flogged and we can’t rotate
We then get injuries and don’t even have that first eleven to go toe to toe.

Same as last season when we ran out of steam and fit players.

A reset in the summer and we go again

Be proud, we are moving forward even if we do stumble quite often

[Stojanm]

Reds 73 & Sniffer - you guys both seem to be in the know

Assuming we stay up. which key players are likely to go. It sounds like Anderson is gone. Do you expect Murillo, who I do like but think he has gone backwards a bit this season, MGW and any other key players to go.

I really hope MGW and Neco stay

Sorry to put you guys on the spot but would be great to get your thoughts

[ozzyten10]

Well the dream is over and we got stuffed. Looking back in retrospect and we got the balance of the team so wrong but we had done so well with the system I can totally understand Vitors thinking. 541 would have been better with Yates starting. And Bakwa and Williams as wing backs. Aina, Sangare, MGW and Murillo were huge misses. The pen was atupid but Villa did a number on us and their methods whilst questionable worked. We didn’t get the run of the green with some decisions tonight either - ref let loads go - but more for them.

[JWJW]

Can't blame the performance on the manager......

Villa were at home and fully rested and we have half the starting line up injured.

You cannot blame him for Anderson slipping for their 1st goal or a stupid shirt pull for a penalty.

Once they took the lead it was all over.

[Magictorch]

We had injuries to key players yes but I don’t think that excuses what we saw tonight. If you have a talent deficit, you can out work the better team. And we didn’t do that for whatever reason. To me it was either a lack of energy or lack of belief or both. It was almost as though we didn’t think we could win. We had the same look in the first half at Wembley last year.
I can accept losing but to do so like that is difficult to take