DotsandCrosses

Something like this. I reckon, anyway. Apologies for messy diagram, did it quickly.

Dunno why everyone wants Jol, mediocre record just about everywhere. He's won, what, two Dutch domestic cups (as in, not the title) and that's it? Admittedly did pretty well with Spurs, but he's no spring chicken. I'd rather have Moyes (and yes, I acknowledge the hypocrisy in criticising Jol for lack of trophies then suggesting Moyes). That said, IIRC Jol does have a brother called Cock. Cock Jol. A scout. Cock. Jol.

Brilliant, I saw a Pac-Man dude when I passed the Emirates. Great to see.

Got to say, I didn't get a ticket today because I had a prior arrangement earlier in the day, but I came back from said arrangement by the Emirates (I live in London. Lived in Aston when I got into football though, so Villa are my team!) the away fans were absolutely fantastic as they were coming out of the stadium. Well done, anyone who went! Thank you very much. Football's all about opinions, after all, we can agree to disagree eh? :winkold: I am looking forward to the Liverpool game a lot now.

Excellent job, mate. It's only a detail, but I think that your scheme confirms just that our formation was 4-2-3-1 because Reo and Petrov were behind Delph, and Delph was almost on the same line of the wingers. Not quite. Petrov was on a similar line with Delph. If it was a 4-2-3-1, Delph would be much further forward. Compare that diagram to the one I did for the Carling Cup final and you'll see what I mean. The positioning of the three is much more extreme in a 4-2-3-1. You misunderstand me, I think individually they were exceptionally good TODAY (um, yesterday, come to think of it). Over the course of the season they've been pretty pathetic, as I said in the graph showing their tackles made next to the conclusion, but today, as individual defenders, they excelled. Having a go at them over the RvP goal would be harsh really, considering it was a goalmouth scramble and they had been defending more or less for the entire game minus the first 20 minutes. Heavy Arsenal pressure would eventually pay off, but it was due to their good defending (partially) that we didn't concede more.

He did extremely well today I think, hassled the opposition well and ran from deep tirelessly. We didn't get to see too much of his attacking skills because we were forced back for about three quarters of the game but he worked his socks off.

Or was it 4-5-1? It was 4-2-3-1 imo. How? There was no one in the 'hole'. Agreed. It was a 4-3-3, Delph was working on roughly the same axis as Petrov but running from deep to link. I've written about it over on my blog in much more length though, so I won't bore anyone who doesn't care here! What a fantastic match. Voted Friedel MoM because he was superb, though Bent ran him close in my eyes. Collins was immense, too, best defending I've seen from the backline all season (though the competition isn't all that great, admittedly).

Excellent performance. 25% shots to goals conversion rate for the team as a whole, we could only dream of that under O'Neill. Great stuff.

I think how it is performed is critical. Walking around waving and soaking up the applause just isn't on for a team that has failed so badly this season. What would be acceptable is them clapping the supporters specifically to thank them for their support.

I'm sure he'd be flattered. Hell, I would.

Brilliant news, good to see some loyalty and sense of repayment. He's improved immeasurably from the one-dimensional up-and-down winger we signed. Turns out 12 mil was a pretty good deal.

One player. Young can't create to save his life. He can create space for others to create in extremely well, just he himself doesn't possess the vision and passing ability to take advantage of it. Downing is the only one who can.

I write a pretty in-depth blog about tactics to do with the Villa mostly. Most of the match reports I do are Villa (apart from the occasional one that takes my fancy) , and using diagrams and stats from sources like WhoScored. Anyone who likes stuff like ZonalMarking or Jonathan Wilson should enjoy this. Check it out. http://dotsandcrosses.wordpress.com/