Aston Villa vs. Sheffield United: Player Grades
By Josh Tonti
Aston Villa and Sheffield United played to a droll, 0-0 scoreline at Bramall Lane was the headline UNTIL ROBERT SNODGRASS CURLED A 90th-MINUTE WINNER.
Aston Villa Football Club continued their promotion push on Tuesday evening, defeating 7th-place, and fellow promotion contenders, Sheffield United at their home venue. The claret and blues jump up to third, from fifth, for the time being.
The Blades began the match on the front foot, consistently peppering Sam Johnstone’s goal with mixed efforts. On the evening, his five saves kept Villa competitive.
There were not a whole lot of positives to take away from Villa in the first 30 minutes or so, save a firm defensive shape. Steve Bruce’s men looked lethargic and were quite poor in possession. Villa had one shot-on-target the whole match. One.
That belonged to Robert Snodgrass who took the ball from the right wing, dribbled inside, cut to his left, and hit a wonderful, curling effort beyond the outstretched hand of Blades’ ‘keeper Simon Moore.
Sometimes, all you need is a bit of quality.
Still, it was a bit worrying the club were more reliant on individual performers than overall plan for the match – at least offensively.
Below, player grades:
8.0. Aston Villa’s Man of the Match had an important performance in keeping a clean sheet. Johnstone’s 4 saves in the first-half, 5 total, kept the club competitive in a fruitless offensive outing (Snoddy aside).. GK. Aston Villa. SAM JOHNSTONE
5.5. Far too wasteful with the ball (59.7% passing in the first-half, 64.2% ending) from Aston Villa’s leading touch man.. RB. Aston Villa. AHMED ELMOHAMADY
Aston Villa. JAMES CHESTER. 7.0. James Chester was dominant in the air and equally dominant in possession. This Villan hasn’t missed a minute of Championship action all season. Ended another match with 90%+ pass accuracy.. RCB
John Terry was very good, too. The Chelsea F.C. legend mixed in a few well-positioned clearances.. LCB. Aston Villa. JOHN TERRY. 6.5
6.5. This was Alan Hutton’s first match upon knowing he would not be with the club beyond this season. He responded with a professional, solid outing at left back. Had two really poor turnovers in the first-half, but his match stats were quite good.. LB. Aston Villa. ALAN HUTTON
7.5. Bjarnason’s place in the team had been put into question following Mile Jedinak’s return to the bench and Axel Tuanzebe’s loan acquisition from Manchester United. He responded with a dud for the first 30 minutes or so before growing more comfortable away from home. Ended with four aerial challenges won.. CDM. Aston Villa. BIRKIR BJARNASON
5.0. Uncharacteristically bad match from Conor Hourihane. The Republic of Ireland struggled to impact the match in any way. Subbed off for Josh Onomah around the 74th-minute mark.. CM. Aston Villa. CONOR HOURIHANE
ROBERT SNODGRASS. 7.5. Take a bow, Robert Snodgrass. What a season he is having.. RM. Aston Villa
CAM. Aston Villa. JACK GREALISH. 7.0. Everything revolved around Jack Grealish in the attack. Frequently dropped deep into possession only to surge forward, dinking the ball everywhere in the process. Mixed bag of end product from he and his teammates.
6.0. Adomah was okay on the evening. Nothing really of note offensively, but he worked his tail off on the left wing. Subbed off for Mile Jedinak with five minutes to play.. LM. Aston Villa. ALBERT ADOMAH
6.0. Eight touches in the first-half. <em>Eight. </em>His lack of involvement continues to be a worry following a two-goal, twelve touch appearance with Barnsley. Eventually the goals will simmer and Hogan needs to find a way to contribute in other areas. Still, he was reasonably dangerous in limited action, even if WhoScored didn’t love his performance.. CF. Aston Villa. SCOTT HOGAN
All data provided by WhoScored match center. Aston Villa go again Saturday against basement-dwellers Burton Albion.