WakefieldVillan

Seems to me like there is no middle ground between him bleeding the club and just taking a wage packet (if he stayed) or having no desire / confidence to fight for his shirt (if he left).

I personally think he should / could have stayed for the remainder of the season and tried to prove Gerrard wrong by performing to his utmost capabilities, who knows what may have happened, IE injury or a lack of form to Digne - Ok may not have happened but you never know.

Targett's best season came with no crowd (& with Grealish) and I think that and the fact that he's decided to go out on loan say's a fair bit about his character (negatively than positively).

Fair enough assess the situation again before the start of the season but I think he lacks fight and to be honest he won't fit in the system that SG has us playing (that may be the major factor in all this) - I've not read the interview.

All that said I would have been more than happy to see the season out with him as first choice and us get a real combative midfielder in but that's probably for another thread.

Massive game, need to see a huge reaction from yesterday which was as bad as I have seen us in years, well months.

Not convinced by our current formation but I don't think that's going to change any time soon so it will all be down to personnel and who gets the chop and let's be honest it could be anyone of 7!

I'd stick with the back four who defensively at least weren't too bad, though we need the full backs to play so much better for this system to work.

I was tempted to start Chuck instead of Luiz but I think that might be a bit too much of a gamble to drop Luiz and McGinn so the former gets a reprieve. 

Up front we have to go with Ings as Watkins has been stinking the place out all season and I am not sure Bailey is the answer either. 

                   Martinez

Cash  Chambers Mings  Digne

       Sanson Luiz Ramsey

Buendia       Ings         Coutinho

Won't be easy despite their league position and current form, we have (on paper) the better players but we need to have the right mentality or this (the crowd) could turn ugly. I'd take a hard fought 1-0 or 2-1 right now.

2 minutes ago, Spoony said:

I know people love to moan about refs on here but it’s absolutely on us being shit

We are s*** no doubt about that, but every decision is going their way and McGinn is walking a tightrope now after 2 fair tackles. He also couldn't wait to point to the pen spot. The ref is a c***.

As for us, worst I've seen us play in a long time. Not one player comes out of that half with any credit.

As I said previously, I'd give Watkins 45 mins tops if he's not at it, we have good options on the bench not to.

1 minute ago, Farlz said:

 

Happy enough with that. Wont be easy. Cut out the mistakes and we have more quality. UTV 

3 hours ago, El Segundo said:

Watkins - needs to take some lessons from Keinan Davis on how to keep the ball under pressure from defenders.  Almost every time he either mis-controls it or else controls it but has neither the strength nor the skill to stop the defender dispossessing him.  I even think using Davis as a focal point for the interplay of Coutinho, Buendia, Ramsey McGinn et al would work really well. 

 

Brave putting that on here, but I agree - I think it would have worked a treat last night.

23 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said:

On McGinn, you seem to group his level of performance as the same as watkins. Watkins literally did nothing. Mcginn not at his best but far, far better than ollie.

Also, mcginn is undroppable - SG absolutely loves him

Yes I agree, apologies, I shouldn't have categorised them both performing at the same level.

McGinn wasn't at his best last night but he has been performing pretty well overall since Gerrard came in - Watkins hasn't.

I don't think any player should be "undroppable" but I do agree SG loves him - And I feel more confident when he's in the side for sure.

Always liked Davis, glad he's getting a run of games and performing well - Whether you rate him or not, it can only be a good thing for Villa (and currently Forest).

I think most would agree that the ones in bold if fit will definitely start:

GK - Emi

RB - Cash

CB - Hause or Chambers  

CB - Mings

LB - Digne

DM - Chambers or Luiz

CM - McGinn or Sanson or Chuk

CM - Ramsey

AM - Buendia

CF - Watkins or Ings

AM - Coutinho

Part of me would like to see Hause at the back and Chambers in DM which may give us a more solid looking base to let the flair players do their stuff - But not ideal to have two left footers in CD.

I think I'd stick with both McGinn and Watkins but they need to both vastly improve from last night and particularly in Watkins case he needs to be dragged at HT if it's not working.

Playing the wrong striker tonight

1 hour ago, chrisp65 said:

Killed me  

1 hour ago, Follyfoot said:

Had mine at 36 and 38, (assuming I have a few years on you, I am in my 50's) the older they get the less you have the worries you mention funnily enough. They become your mate as well as your kids, its great, their perception and yours of age becomes irrelevant 

I hope I am still in a "fit, healthy" stage by the time my child becomes my mate - I'm 44 and my wife is 15 weeks pregnant (with our first),  I might be 45 by the time he/she is born! That's certainly got me thinking about my age recently! 

I look younger than I am ( I think having no children as helped with this ) but I think it's all about to change in the next few years . Keep telling myself age is just a number, but my body doesn't feel like that!

35 minutes ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

They then went and lost at home to Newcastle, to be fair.

Agree though--it won't be "easy" but no game ever is.

True  Think that's why it's a difficult one to call. By all accounts Leeds should have won that (TBH though not seen any of the match).

I'd love us to smash these **** - but that goes without saying!

56 minutes ago, Lord Willard said:

With their injury concerns we really shouldn't be getting anything other than a win. 

We have a brilliant squad now with 1 injury, we need to be winning the next 4 games if we are to be ambitious of a top half finish. 

 

They went and won at West Ham not long ago with a "depleted" side and fully deserved to do so, so it won't be easy.

But I agree it's a game we could do with winning to set us up for hopefully a strong finish to the season.

Tough game to call but I feel more confident in our style of play / formation under Gerrard going into this than I would have been under Smith where I felt we played into Leeds hands (particularly the home game).

No Bamford or Phillips though so that should work in our favour, though we need to keep Raphinha and Harrison quiet, match their work rate and hopefully with the likes of Buendia & Coutinho we will have that extra bit of quality.

Prediction 2-2 (hopefully we nick it)

Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne; Luiz, McGinn, Ramsey, Coutinho, Buendia; Watkins.

Result better than the performance, but I think we'd have all took that pre game. To keep a clean sheet is massive for confidence as is the win.

On chances, a draw may have been a fairer result, but we we're due a bit of luck and I think we got that with their poor finishing, so f*** em!

Buendia MOTM, he has real quality, cracking goal, nice touches, also works tirelessly. Cash and Ramsey also decent. 

Would have been nice to see a bit of composure second half but a wins a win! UTV 

58 minutes ago, meregreen said:

As a tactic, I’m not too sure of the effectiveness of having one of our players standing in an offside position anyway. Any kind of interaction that affects the game, he’s immediately going to be flagged.So what is the point of putting him there.

I presumed it to be more of a confusion tactic and to be less easily marked. Though in last nights case it was obviously a plan to stop their guy (Cavani) getting a run at the ball.

I've done it loads of times at free kicks and as the ball is struck I would try to get back onside and in a position to score from a "second phase" knock down and it does work. I've scored once in about 500 games doing it   

Just been reading their "Red Café" forum and it's quite funny seeing the majority of the posters expecting us to turn them over, probably never happened in our entire history.

They are there for the taking, for sure, but they have very capable players that can hurt us if they are on it. 

Hard one to call, just hope we play well, don't concede any soft goals and don't get done by the ref/VAR/on pens, etc etc, and what will be will be.

I expect us to go as full strength as possible, which I hope may give us the edge.

Phillips > Bissouma 

I think he would be an absolute monster under Gerrard. Can also play at CB. I think it's highly unlikely this summer, but I never imagined we'd be able to sign Coutinho so why not dream... 

7 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Still a frail personality in this team.

Will take a long time to change the mentality.

Team selection was also wrong imo.

I'm not sure a change of team selection would have changed the result.

First half we had less of the ball (expected) but good shape, the better moments and but for good Chelsea defending, poor final shot/pass and a Matty Cash brain fart we go into the break 1 up.

Second half we never got going, Lukaku give Mings the shits, conceded poorly and never really recovered with the subs probably making us weaker, though I can see why they were made.

But the goals came from ridiculously poor defending not from team selection. 

Hate Chelsea. W4nkers.

Frustrating. Better side first half, very poor second half. Inevitable Lukaku would score. Really terrible goals to concede so disappointing not to get a point, they weren't anything special. 

Cash, mings, then Konsa all poor moments - can't do that and expect anything.

Luiz MOTM.

Sanson / Targett decent enough.

Rest meh.

We move on. 

I love Dean and we have a lot to thank him for with what he did for us and nothing will change that. I was sad to see him go and hoped that he could turn it around but I understood at the time that losing 5 on the spin and suffering many defeats in a calendar year that his time was unfortunately up. I liked that he was mild mannered and not too up and down (after a victory or a defeat) however maybe that was his downfall, it may have rubbed off on the players and may be they all were to accepting of defeat ? I don't know. I mean no one likes losing but may be it was all a bit too "nicey nicey" in the camp. What Gerrard has done so far is bring passion, fight, a desire to win which we hadn't seen for a long time (odd game aside) plus the most noticeable thing we all can see is that we are much harder to play against, we are much harder to break down and I like that a lot. We needed to be less open and we are so. Whether that comes from Gerrard or Beale or McAllister or whomever I don't care it's a good philosophy to have (obviously not rocket science - making yourself hard to beat is probably on every managers priority list) but wanting it as opposed to implementing it and getting the players to believe in it are two entirely different things but so far so good, he's started his managerial career with us fantastically.

I'm not surprised though, I felt he was the right fit for the job, he's a born winner and he is only going to go one way, to the top (like he did as a player) - That said, we're only 6 games in, things change awfully quick in football but with a couple of solid acquisitions in January then it could be a decent season. I think he will get us European football, but probably next year!

Nor me. It's one or the other (at the moment) unless we are chasing the game or freshening things up, but Ings is a great option to come off the bench and still has a big role to play.

Back to back wins would be great to see.

We have far more ability than these, just need to be up for the battle.

Obviously dependant on injuries/fatigue/Covid etc but I would start the same team as last night but with Chuk in for Young (who looked a little jaded).

Ramsey 9/10

Cash 8.5/10

Luiz 8/10

Rest  6's and 7's

Solid overall performance, very professional, clean sheet, 3 points, 4 wins out of 6, and signs of real quality from our youth department. Great stuff. UTV.