Millwall held a frustrated Aston Villa scoreless at Villa Park
By Josh Tonti
A feisty, scoreless afternoon at Villa Park led to frustration for the claret and blue. Millwall set-up in two blocks of four and countered viciously with pace. Thanks to Sam Johnstone and Chris Samba, Aston Villa held The Lions to one point.
By today’s match, one would never guess Millwall sit in 17th-place in the EFL Championship. The Lions of London frustrated Steve Bruce’s side all afternoon. Outside of Jack Grealish’s curling effort in the second-half, Villa failed to record another shot-on-target.
Despite earning an incredible 11 corners, the dead ball situations came to absolutely nothing. Part of this was Robert Snodgrass making way for Jack Grealish, but Henri Lansbury didn’t exactly place precise crosses in, either.
Millwall’s Jed Wallace and Lee Gregory were the main threats on the afternoon, the latter striking the cross bar. Millwall honestly could have scored 3+ goals if it was not for A: Sam Johnstone, B: Chris Samba, and C: a complete inability to finish.
Without further ado, player grades below on a 0-0 draw.
. SAM JOHNSTONE. 8.5. Monstrous first-half performance from Sam Johnstone. The Manchester United loanee made two vital interceptions and denied Jed Wallace on a 1v1 situation. Distribution still needs work, however.. GK
5.0. Decent performance from Alan Hutton. Nothing outstanding, but defended ably. 58 touches on the ball before being replaced by Ahmed Elmohamady in the second-half.. RB. Aston Villa. ALAN HUTTON
7.0. Though the Villa defense looked unorganized as a whole in the first-half, Samba was the best of the bunch. The Congolese defender headed out an obvious open goal scenario. Easily Villa’s best outfield performer. <strong><em>Injured </em></strong><em></em>in the 77th-minute and replaced.. RCB. Aston Villa. CHRISTOPHER SAMBA
Aston Villa. JAMES CHESTER. 5.5. Did not complete an errant pass for the first forty-five minutes, but Chester was dispossessed twice, leading to Millwall counters. Partnered Tommy Elphick after an injury to Christopher Samba.. LCB
LB. Aston Villa. NEIL TAYLOR. 5.5. Neil Taylor operated as a very nice attacking outlet on the left, but the final product was often missing. Conversely, he had trouble containing Millwall’s main attacking threat, Jed Wallace who himself had a 0.75xG in the first-half.
4.5. Not Glenn Whelan’s best. Held Aston Villa’s shape together, but the Republic of Ireland international was a black hole offensively.. CDM. Aston Villa. GLENN WHELAN
5.5. The stats don’t say it, but I though Henri Lansbury was one of Villa’s more important players in the first-half. His 51 first-half touches led the club where he operated as a true two-way player. Quiet second-half.. CM. Aston Villa. HENRI LANSBURY
JOSH ONOMAH. 5.0. 77.4% passing on thirty-nine first half touches. Onomah did okay, but outside of a key pass that played Davis in, he did not spark much creativity. Really poor in the air, where Villa lose possession on several long-balls. Fared a bit better in the second-half.. CAM. Aston Villa
5.0. Meh. Pressed really well defensively, but much of that was forced through his own doing. Snodgrass created several poor turnovers off of unsuccessful dribbles. Replaced by Jack Grealish in the 59th-minute.. RM. Aston Villa. ROBERT SNODGRASS
ALBERT ADOMAH. 5.5. Adomah was really Aston Villa’s only attacking creator in the first-half (shocker). WhoScored had him down as completing under 70% of his passes, however. Switched to the right flank once Grealish was introduced. He, alongside Josh Onomah, won a ton of corners for the home side.. LM. Aston Villa
It’s becoming one of those, “copy and paste from every match report” scenarios for Keinan Davis. He’s an excellent outlet up top, passing fairly well and threatening, but the end product is just not there, and it’s hurting Villa. Quiet second-half.. CF. Aston Villa. KEINAN DAVIS. 6.0
Aston Villa travel to Derby County next Saturday, December 16th. All data provided by WhoScored match center.