1958Villan

I think that could be said of quite a few.

For one thing, Ciaran Clark was a holding/defensive midfielder, that is until O'Neil played him as cover at centre-back. That is why he hasn't got the basics of being a central defender in his armoury, although with decent specialist coaching he could make the transition, if he really wanted to.

You forget that Grealish, Traore and Green are midfielders and so are unlikely to be considered for the centre forward spot.

I think Micah Richards has all of the physical attributes to make a really good centre back. What he lacks is knowledge of how to play the position and, more importantly, he lacks a degree of self-control. By that I mean he still has the mindset of a marauding right wing-back. That could be utilised more effectively by converting him, for the short term, into a box-to-box midfielder. Then into a holding midfielder before finally converting him to centre back.

I've been saying for years Ciaran Clark is a square peg in a round hole. There is no way he is a central defender and he never was, he has always been a holding midfielder, until the genius O'Neil decided to make him play in the centre of defence, without giving the lad any proper training in the position. Now it is too late to train him how to play properly as a centre back.

I'd love us to keep Amavi, Gana, Ayew and possibly Veretout of the newbies and build around them. I hope Gardner gets his chance this coming season. He was the best of that young crop that included Wilshire, Ramsey, Rodwell etc. They have all had injury problems but none so many as Gardner. I'd like us to be looking at players like Chris Gunther of Reading and Wales. Martin Caceres of Juventus, Marc Wilson of Stoke and Neustadter of Schalke and Russia. Those last three are all centre backs and all out of contract at the end of the month. I'd be looking at Lamine Sane of Bordeaux, another centre back as well. We could do worse than look at Ramirez, just released by Southampton and George Thorne of Derby. In the striker positions, I quite like Scott Hogan of Brentford, Lee Gregory of Millwall and Fulham's Moussa Dembele.

For all of the excitement, that Traore creates, I'm afraid he is one of those Raheem Sterling style players. Flattering to deceive all of the time. A flash Dan with no, or very little end product. And what is needed in the game is players who produce an end product on a consistent basis. Barcelona were willing to let him go, which says to me, that they had given up on ever turning him into a team player. The way he plays means that he will miss a lot of playing time because he will be continually injured. A shame really because the young man obviously has a great deal of natural talent but, just doesn't have the brain cells to make the most of it.

We had 3 defensive midfielders on the park and a player who has only really played at fullback under this manager. That is why we didn't create real clear-cut chances from midfield. Midfield players today were starting from too deep, most of the time, to properly support the forward. The few times the midfield did get close to Gestede, the shots he set-up for them, looked like they had been studying at the Gabby Agbonlahor shooting school for strikers. Again our most effective striker was left-winger Scott Sinclair and that was because of his movement, which nobody on the pitch was able to read. We would have done better, in an attacking sense, with Sanchez as the lone DM, Gueye as the box-to-box player, Cole as the attacking player and Gil and Sinclair as the wide midfielders. With his clever movement and ability to be in the right place at the right time, I think Kozak would have been the better choice as striker.

I was answering something another poster had said, when I mentioned about knowing where players can and can't play effectively, in different formations. My main gripe with Mr Sherwood's team formation and personnel choice, has been because of his insistence on using 4-3-3 for the initial two games this season, after using it almost exclusively at the end of last season. I found it bizarre, to say the least, that he used three defensive midfielders, as our midfield in those games. As I have said, who would think that three DM's could possibly create chances for a strike-force. It's things like this that worry me.

Pretty longwinded way of saying 'I've been a fan for years and years so clearly I know what is right and wrong' to be honest. You clearly think you know better than the manager and so base your opinions on that. Not at all Stefan, I base my opinions on watching what actually happens on the field of play and a lifetime of watching football from all around the world. I have no particular grudge against Mr Sherwood, apart from his apparent slowness in recognising when things aren't working and making alterations. In fact, just as with every Villa manager while I've supported the club, I wish them nothing but success and yes that includes McLeish. As for suggesting that I have said, or intimated, that I know better than anyone else, including Mr Sherwood, that's rubbish. All I have done is say what I see that worries me. And yes just like every other fan, I have the right to criticise, just as you have the right to praise everything, it is after all just two opposing opinions.

As one who has called Mr Sherwood tactically inept and has suggested, without using the words, that he has been clueless, with the personnel used in the formations he has used. I have also condemned his apparent slowness to recognise when things are not working and in changing them. To those who say it is too early to criticise, I say no it isn't. When you see something so blatantly wrong in one line-up and the exact same line-up is used in the following match, that would suggest to me at least, that the one in charge of picking the personnel for that formation, is either too stubborn to admit, even to themselves, that they are capable of making an error in judgement, or just not too quick in recognising when things aren't quite right. Quite like thinking Agbonlahor is a footballer, or Westwood shits solid gold bricks. I have been a supporter since, as my site name would suggest, 1958. That is for 57 years and I think that that amount of time following this club, gives me the right to criticise when I see something wrong, especially when the same mistakes are being repeated. As for those who say the manager needs time to work out where a player plays best, I say, rubbish. A manager should know what formations he favours against different clubs. He should then only purchase players he has had extensively scouted, that he knows can play in those formations. Purchasing players and then having to spend time finding out where and how they can play in different formations, smells like rank amateurism to me. Now I am more than willing to give Mr Sherwood time but, I would like to see a little proof that he is learning. One way of showing that proof of learning, would be in not making obvious errors consistently.

Adem first and major position is as a left-winger, then a secondary striker and finally as an attacking midfielder. A position he plays once in a blue-moon. To put it simply, he is unneeded as we are more than covered in his position. We do need another striker and an experienced attacking midfielder. Players like Alexandre Pato from Corinthians. Who scored 13, assisted 4 in 31 games last season, on loan at Sao Paulo. Pair him with Hakim Ziyech of Twente, who scored and assisted 17 last season in 40 games and has scored 3, assisting 1 in 3 games this season.

Last night was just further proof that our manager is tactically inept. He is a great motivator but, that is nowhere near enough. In the league games so far, he has played 3 defensive midfielders in Westwood, is there really a need to comment. Veretout, who has only played as a central, or attacking midfielder, on rare occasions, when filling in because of injuries. Gueye who has been a DM his entire career until last season, when again because of team injury, he was used as a box-to-box player. And of course Sanchez had time on the pitch. How, in the name of Christ, can a manager expect a midfield consisting of 3 Dm's to create chances for a forward line consisting, in the first two games of 3 left-wingers. Agbonlahor has played left wing for 2 years, mainly I suspect because he couldn't hit the ground if he jumped out of a window. Sinclair has always been a left winger. Ayew has also always been a left winger, until last season, when he filled in, in a central striker role because of long-term club injuries. Playing 6 of those 7 players in the same team means a lack of pace in trying to create. An impossibility to create for strikers who inevitably take the same ground. This means a totally unbalanced team. Another failing in the manager is his failure to understand that changes can be made before the 70th minute. For example the cup final against Arsenal, many fans were calling for tactical and personnel changes after 10 minutes but, the manager failed to act. Either because he didn't see what was wrong or, he was just to full of his own ego to see he'd got it totally wrong.

If it was up to me, I'd go for Alexandre Pato, who spent last season on loan at Sao Paulo, from Corinthians. He scored 13 and got 4 assists in 31 games. He also wants to return to Europe. I'd be going for River Plates left-sided centre back Eder Balanta or, Juventus Martin Caceres. I'd also be busting a gut to sign Twente Ensheda's attacking midfielder Hakim Ziyech who scored 17, with 17 assists last season and has 3 goals and 1 assist in 3 games this season.

Hes a forward :DActually, he's a winger. As is Ljajic. We are already overloaded with wide players, with Sinclair, Ayew, Grealish, Agbonlahor, Gil and now Traore. Ayew has been a left-winger all his career, until last season, when he was forced to play a central role because his club lost their central strikers to long term injuries and sales they didn't replace.

No, it isn't too early to judge. I was going to leave judging our new manager until the New Year but, unless he learns and learns very quickly what tactics are, that formations only work when you use the right personnel in the right positions and that formations and tactics can be changed before the 70th minute, he will succeed in doing what McLeish and Lambert, failed to do and that is relegate us.

Needing a goal-scoring, creating no 10. How about Hakim Ziyech of Twente. This season he's played 2, scored 1 and made 1. Last year he scored 17 and made 17 in about 40 games. He's still only 22/23.

Mr Sherwood. He hasn't been here long enough to form a solid opinion yet. However there are two or three things that will cause me a great deal of concern if they aren't addressed sooner rather than later. Impressed with the immediate impacts of some of his signings. Willing to give the others time to settle before saying yes, or no. Agbonlahor. My opinions on Agbonlahor are well documented, especially on Villa Talk. To sum it all up, I don't think Gabby would get a game, as a striker, for my local schools under 6 girls team. As a striker Gabby couldn't hit water, if he fell out of a boat in the middle of the Atlantic. Westwood. For a defensive midfielder, he can't tackle, shepherd a player into dead-ends, successfully pass the ball further than 15 yards. When receiving the ball, his first instinctive move is to pass to his defenders, his centre-backs first, then sideways to the nearest fullback. He has an inability to get a corner kick over the head of the first defender. Except in Bournemouth. Richards. I have always thought he would end up as a cracking good centre-back, even when he was getting rave reviews as a 17 yr old right-back. Give him a couple of years and he'll be playing international football again. I think he can be developed into a great team captain, taught which players to shout at and which need a hug.

I'm hoping for a finish somewhere between 12th and 16th. I think we'll score in excess of 40 goals. Maybe 46. Player of the year will be Jordan Amavi. Top scorer will be Rudy Gestede with 16 goals. Most assists will be Gil with 8.

The team we have played in the first two games has been very badly balanced and manned by the wrong personnel. Bacuna is not, and in my opinion, never will be, a right-back good enough to play in the premiership. There will be maybe 8/9 games a season, where he will give a good performance, going forward but, when the other 29/30 games demand that he defends well, he will be found sadly lacking in the skills needed. Bacuna should be played as a wide right midfielder. We played a suicidal 4-3-3 with 3 defensive minded midfielders. Is it any wonder they didn't create anything for the front three. Talking about the front 3, we played Sinclair, naturally a left-winger. We played Ayew, also a natural left-winger. Then we played Gabby, who has been played almost exclusively out wide left, for the past two and a half years. The goal we scored against Bournemouth was scored because, probably for the first time in his Villa career, Westwood managed to lift a corner over the first defender. I can't understand why Gabby is being played as a centre forward.. It is a role he is singularly ill equipped to play, especially when we have Rudy Gestede on the bench, a player who Mr Sherwood has said, is more than just a target man, he can play the hold-up role equally as well. We also have Libor Kozak, who while not either a hold-up, or target type of forward, has a knack of being in the right place at the right time, for the ball to bounce off some part of his anatomy into the net. Ugly but effective. We need to be playing a different formation, with some different personnel. My own thought is, that Mr Sherwood needs to remove the blinkers and drop his two favourites, Westwood and Agbonlahor.

I wouldn't mind seeing Dwight Gayle from Crystal Palace added to the forward line up, instead of GA. A central defender, Eder Balanta of River Plate, Martin Caceres of Juventus or Jeremiah Akaminko who has been playing for Eskiserihspor in Turkey, would fit nicely. An attacking midfielder like Dennis Praet from Anderlecht would be good.

The 'link' between defence and attack has been non-existent because of the formation and personnel we have played. Playing 4-3-3, with 3 predominately defensive minded midfielders, means your chances of that midfield actually creating a chance to score for a forward, are about the same as Gabby scoring a double hat-trick, against Real Madrid in the Champions League Final, in 2017. Playing a forward three consisting of two left-wingers and a player who has been played on the left-wing for the last two and a half years, doesn't exactly spell balance does it. Playing a player at centre-forward, who, to put it bluntly, would have great difficulty hitting water if he fell out of a boat, isn't the brightest idea either.

For an immediate improvement in the CB positions, I'd like to see Martin Caceres from Juventus brought in. He is in the last year of his contract and Juve have just signed a couple of CB's, one 3/4 years younger than Caceres, who's only 28/9 himself, plus a 22/3 year old. Caceres is adaptable too, he can play both fullback spots. So good cover. He has played over 60 internationals for Uruguay. I'd also like to see Eder Balanta of River Plate at the club. He is predominately left-sided and a big unit, like Richards. I think, long-term, they'd make a really good partnership. Throw Jeremiah Akaminko of Eskisehirspor into the mix and I think we'd have a central defence mixture to match any. I don't think Okore is going to make it as a top CB. He is too injury prone but, like Clark and Baker, it comes from diving into last ditch tackles instead of standing on his feet and shepherding attackers into blind alleys. Maybe, with his speed, he'd make a wingback. Clark might convert into a useful holding midfielder, while Baker would make more of a defensive midfielder.

Centre-back is our big weak spot. I believe centre back is Richards future but, right now he is vastly inexperienced in the position. This obviously means he is going to make schoolboy errors until he actually learns the job properly. An awful lot, like the clubs entire season, rests on Richards ability to learn quickly. The only centre back at the club that can teach Richards is Senderos, the rest are too young and inexperienced, prone to mistakes themselves. This is why I've been hoping to see a 3-man central defence, with Senderos in the middle of Richards and Clark/Baker, to talk them through games. With such an inexperienced central defence, defensive or holding midfield is going to need to be right on the ball, so to speak. In fact it might not be a bad idea to move Clark to D/HM with Baker at CB.

Grealish? Sinclair, Ayew, Tonev sorry. Christ Gabby's not a natural anywhere on the pitch. He and N'Zogbia are passengers who contribute no more than 5% of the time. Gabby should have been shown the exit door instead of being made club captain. A waste of space who drains £50k a week out of the wage-bill.