Philosopher

Good hardworking, disciplined performance from the team. El-Ghazi may be starting to prove me wrong (I hope so), was a solid performance all round, capped with a goal. Nakamba was excellent MOTM, lead the press, never gave them a moments peace, won a place for the next match. Traore did a fine job defensively, never seen him work as hard or try as hard to get challenges in. Young Ramsey looks very reliable. Could become our Nicky Butt! If Jack is fit for the next match who do you drop? It will have to be one of El-Ghazi, Traore or Ramsey!?!? Bamford is one of those people that I really don't like. He acts like such a nice well mannered boy in interviews, but on the pitch he plays like a dirty scheming diver, waiving fake cards every five minutes, trying to get players sent off. We gave him the rough stuff yesterday and he hated it. That said he and Raphinha were the only two Leeds players that were a threat. This proved what I thought before the match, this Villa squad has a lot of hard workers which means you always have a chance. That is what the foundation of this team has to be. Jack then adds the sparkle! To make us dangerous to any to any team. Extra shout out to Traore and El-Ghazi, it was their excellent defensive work tucking into a midfield 5 when without the ball in our half that made it so hard for Leeds to break us down.

It's not ideal for Tammy nor us. Watkins contributes way more than goals compared to Tammy, this makes him clear no1. Tammy won't come here to be number 2. For us we will have a fit Wesley who we will need to give games in order to get money for even if we did want to move him on. However I see Wesley as having some promise. I also see Barry being the third choice next season. As a result this coming window isn't the time for signing new strikers. For me right wing, left back, and a centre back are all more pressing. Plus if we sell Hourihane he will need replacing. I feel the only top quality creative attacker we have is Jack. We should be looking to spend upto 50m on a top class creative attacker (Barkley isn't top class and I would be going for one comfortable in both wide positions). I actually think Hakim Ziyech who is struggling at Chelsea could be ideal as although he is not in great form a good run in a well organised team like ours he would find his feet. He is excellent at set pieces (a weakness in our team) has a fine passing range and can carry the ball. Buying Tammy would be the wrong allocation of funds imo. We will need to spend 10 to 15m on the other two positions, however we have the younger Ramsey and Carney Chukwuemeka coming through so another CM probably isn't necessary. However I'd love to see Sander Barge Come in. A midfield off any 3 of McGinn, Luiz, Sanson, Ramsey, Nakamba or Barge is strong, that would be great depth as well.

He has been used as both a left and Right midfielder at his previous club and is two footed.

I don't think Smith is a great tactician. I do think he is a good student and is always looking to learn, so hopefully he has learnt his lesson. Smith needs to be careful now. Without Jack we need to adapt. He did nothing to adapt for the Leicester game, which is not a big deal as he had little time. Now however he has had a week. He needs to come up with something different, otherwise we lose.

I wouldn't put McGinn left wing. Sanson is accustomed to that role so I'd go with him and switch Luiz out for McGinn.

Harrison had also put a number of teasing deliveries that on another day Bamford would have had a double hattrick. The problem we have is we are too wide open in midfield. The defense drops deeper and the attack presses high this leave loads of space in between. Leeds movement and workrate will find all those holes just like Leicester, Brighton and Southampton did. 433 or 4231 will struggle. I would go 41311 or 4321 with two hardworking 10's so we have more bodies in midfield. The 41311 would be one 6, three 8's the wide ones supporting the fullbacks in defense and attacking their own flank when the play is on their side of the pitch. With a 10 getting close to Watkins. I'd play Trez and Sanson as the wide 8's and Traore as the 10. Or the 4321 with a 6 two 8's supporting the fullback on their side with two 10's behind Watkins with them taking turns to track back or mark the opposing defensive mid. The two 8's would be Sanson and Mcginn, and the two 10's would from Barkley, Traore and Ramsey. We need a hardworking midfield that provide support to the fullbacks. If we line up how we did against Leicester we will need Trez on the right and Sanson in for Barkley, to stand a chance. Playing Leeds is like facing a swarm of bees. They use their workrate to double up on the opposition both in and out of possession. We need to match them for workrate at the very least. The man on the ball will always need at least 2 players close by to support him, and we will need to double up on their widemen as they both possess good quality. They way they play will also leave openings so we will have opportunities to get at them. We absolutely must not play all stretched out over the pitch if we defend deep and have our front 3 very high up pressing we will get slaughtered. We will need to be compact, no need to defend deep, as Mings and Konsa are both capable of keeping up with Bamford, but not suicidal high line either. Just thought there is another option for the 433. Play Watkins wide left, his workrate will help protect Targett, Trez the same on the right and Traoré as a false 9 up top.

We can beat Leeds but we need to play a team of hardworking fighters. Our defense is good, Watkins is a handful and our fullbacks even though I worry about Elmo defensively are fine crossers. We need to play the line up I suggested for Leicester only with Traore in behind Watkins, Trez right and Sanson left. Let match there workrate only with better defensive discipline and we can at least get a point.

I have never been so excited about young players coming through as I am now. We have 3 knocking on the door all 19 or under. Another couple making a lot of positive noises. In 3 years time I would not be surprised to see 2 or three of them as squad regulars.

Definitely better left I agree. Still not good enough though.

Well that was disappointing. 2-1 could have worse. As Jack was out, we never were really going to e able to win it. Leicester finished the match with 4 defensive midfielders on the pitch, I didn't think they looked desperate at all though. Lax defending at the start of the game and the midfield being too easy to play saw us carved open. Targett put in a number of good deliveries so I'll give him man of the match. I

I'd say Barkley has had his best game since coming back from injury. That's not really saying much, he's been average rather than anonymous.

Terrific play from Targett for the goal.

Yep hard work will be essential. Leicester are a good team. We need to be first to the lose ball, we need to bully them a bit too. We also need to give Jack the freedom of the pitch, which having McGinn on the left of two 8's would afford.

When we played them last time out Smith stated in the post match interview that he had to change the system to one 6 and two 8's as we were getting over run. So I expect us to line up like that. I would certainly not be surprised to see Sanson drafted in as a result. I also think Trezguet deserves a start, our best football this season has come with him in the team. With a midfield 3 of Luiz, McGinn and Sanson then Jack and Trez wide you can even change to a flat 4 across midfield and put Jack behind Watkins as Sanson is adept at playing as a wide midfielder as well as box to box. This could be done if Jack is struggling to get in the game, and we are on the back foot like in the last 3 matches. Looking at Leicesters stats only Leeds and Southampton work harder. This line up could out work almost any team and with a live wire like Jack and the threat of Watkins we should still offer enough going forward.

I think he deserves a start. I also think Trez deserves a start too. Let's inject some extra energy into the team. We will need to work very hard to beat Leicester. If we can bring the likes of Traore and Barkley late on to snatch a winner that would be lovely.

Defending is also about interceptions and blocks. Also we have played 2 less prem games and got knocked out of the cups early so that would also make the stats look worse than they are. BTW we are second from bottom in tackles won (Burnley are bottom). We have played at least 1 game less than all the rest with only 2 teams on 22 with us on 21. We have the 6th highest tackle success vs dribbles. Let's be clear we tend not to press that high, compared to Leeds, Southampton and Leicester at least. Our counter is the biggest threat, to maximise its effectiveness we tend to draw teams out of their own third and into our own half to create the space in behind to play into. The misplaced passes are an issue for me. This is down in part to how aggressive we are on the counter always looking to the quickest route forward. The other part is down to being poor at playing out from the back. The ball is moved too slowly often passed back to Martinez to hit long. Not having a defensive mid adept at long passes doesn't help either. This is why when teams press us high we struggle. For all the lauding our defense gets the transition between defense and midfield is too rushed to get forward quickly and too slow going from side to side. We relied on Barkley to come deep and bring the ball out of our own half and this has been pounced upon by our opponents getting tight to him. The laboured side to side play is also meant to draw teams onto us to make it easier to play through them quickly, but teams know what we are upto now so it's harder for us. Unfortunately Mcginn and Barkley have been extremely wasteful of late. But at least McGinn offer defensive graft and tenacity. I think Sanson deserves a start.

Anwar isn't good enough for where we are trying to get to. Nice lad, talented, but lacks the intelligence and mindset to succeed from what I have seen. He is a good championship level player. He deserved to be dropped as he played badly. Apart from a decent performance against Chelsea his other 2 good performances were against bottom feeders. He should've had a hattrick against Burnley but we came away with a nil nil. I hope he proves me wrong, but I doubt it.

Tricky game that we should win. However we have tended to lose focus against these kind of opponents. Welbeck and Lampety hurt us on the counter last time out. If Lampety is out that's great. Solly March being out is also good. Would love to see Maupay go off for a concussion substitute. The Missus is the bane of my Villa supporting and always kicks up a fuss, fortunately I can usually fob her off!

Not blaming him for the goals as such but better decision making we could have kept the ball in those circumstances. I thought the team and manager were guilty of many bad decisions, with Barkley chief offender.

They were definitely cheap. Both poor first and second touches.

Also I cannot give Watkins motm as his giving g the ball away started the counters that lead to the 2nd and 3rd wet spam goals. They were cheap giveaways as well.

Deano f***ed up here. El-Ghazi had 3 good game against weak opposition and people were comparing him to Ronaldo. He is a flat track bully and a poor choice to start. If not Traore then Trez should be starting. Barkley was terrible, should have been rested, what did we buy Sanson for? Seriously though Barkley shouldn't be rested now he should be dropped! Cash had a poor game too. Luiz got taken off, but he was our best centre midfielder.

Watkins has given the ball away cheaply twice both times we got countered. This is a horrendous performance from the team.

Barkley seems like a West Ham player with the amount of times his touches end up with them getting possession. Is El Ghazi on the pitch? Simply not suited for these games, he's a flat track bully. West Ham looking good, Lingard has given them an extra dimension. We need to improve our build up play.

How the funk have we won this?