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villa4life

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  1. I suggest you missed a fair amount then The biggest difference between them is that it looks like Veretout can actually carry the ball and commit defenders potentially opening up space for others Westwood has a tendency to recieve the ball and immediately give it to someone else (be that sideways, backwards or on occasion forwards) A massive deficiency in the way that we have played for the lat few seasons is in just how little the midfield contributes to our attacking moves and a lot of the problem is Westwood and his lack of desire / inability to try riskier work that forces opponents to adjust their defending shape If you dont have players capable of beating men, then you are stuck with the kind of speculative (and outdated) football we have played for the last few years where everything gets funneled to the wings and hopefully thrown into the box Having players that can beat a single man in midfield causes another opponent to shift their defensive assignment which alters the entire setup and creates the space for other players as well as freeing up players that may have been previously man-marked Westwood is neat and tidy and his stats 'look' impressive when taken in isolation but its his very style of play and unfortunate limitations that make it obvious (in my opinion at least) that he's not suited to this level. I wish it wasnt the case, I was raving about him after his first season and am as amazed as anyone that he is EXACTLY the same player that he was when he first came. He hasnt kicked on at all Veretout did enough today and in glimpses over the course of the season so far to show me that he is a better answer if we ever want to play a more modern game that isnt reliant on "get it on the head of the big man"
  2. I don't think that its the issue here. We have been awful pretty much the entirety of this season but a few flattering results make things seem a lot better than they are Our problems are thus: 1) We defend a little too deep. Linked to our counter-attacking style but the opposition is often get far too much time on the ball inside our half. Hence the dismal possession stats 2) Because we defend so deep, the gap between midfield and attack is too large hence why we rarely see much interaction between those two groups 3) Our players take too many touches on the ball. When we are actually trying to attack, we don't do so with any great pace. Its all very plodding 4) Very few of our players have the confidence / permission to actually carry the ball or pass forwards 5) The midfield don't seem to have a remit to get forward at all. All of the attacking responsibility is on the full-backs and strikers 6) Our players are never aware when they have space to turn in to. Preferring the simpler backwards pass even when they literally have no opposition players within 5 metres 7) Our movement from midfield onwards is awful. No players coming short, all three strikers seem to just hoon towards the box as soon as we get possession. It makes disrupting any well disciplined defensive unit impossible as currently, we simply lack the ability to consistently cause chaos in opposition penalty areas 8) The full backs get nowhere near enough assistance on the flanks from the midfield or attackers as both units are too narrow. The problem with playing these useless flick-ons off Benteke is that one / both strikers have to tuck in to be effective positions to profit (Assuming that the header is even successful). Unfortunately as every team is aware of what is going to happen, it has become pretty easy to nullify that part of Benteke's game. Full back's cover the wide strikers, strongest in the air on Benteke. Other centre back to cover. Couple that with the fact that the midfield is so far away from the strikers and when the defender does win the ball, we rarely have anyone in a position near enough to where the ball ends up 9) The system is incredibly rigid. Everyone has one role and one role alone. It becomes too predictable and gets easier for opposition managers to prepare against 10) We have only 2 game plans. a. Midfield pass back to defender / keeper on to Benteke's head or b. Interception and long pass to initiate a counter-attack. Thats it, thats pretty much all we have Its incredibly frustrating as the team was much better set up last year but more and more, Lambert has turned into a manager who sticks too long with something that worked once, a while ago because he doesn't know any other way to succeed. I will put my hand up and admit to hating counter-attacking. Its exploiting the oppositions willingness to attack / entertain and as a result I am not a fan. A lot of people forget the fact that football isn't life or death, its a game, its supposed to be entertaining! Our biggest problem is that we have always had Gabby and other quick players and managers have used that as a get-out-of-jail-free card. Hence our tendency to gravitate towards counter-attacking. Its no coincidence that O'Neill also turned us in to a long ball countering side. Its not how he originally set the team out when he first took the job Just because we have pace in the side, why should that automatically mean that counter-attack is the only way we can play. Man-for-man, Arsenal probably have around the same level of speed and yet they don't play counter-attacking football. The obvious response is that they have better players but my response would be that if West Brom can play decent on-the-ground stuff, theres no reason we cant. With the added bonus of being able to unleash our pace for good, instead of for evil! Sorry, long post but this is 15 games worth of venting but ultimately. I'm saying that the manager can sort this out, with our existing personnel. Its the system that is all wrong
  3. OK points all taken but in our own half, just outside the centre circle, the default setting for all of our defenders is just to clear it into the opponents half regardless of whether a team mate is free There has to be a better way, especially if our football is ever to evolve from counter-attacking which is pretty much been our style of play since MON first came in
  4. This is just a quick post about something I have observed that would improve our team immeasurably if it were fixed When we make clearing headers between the 18 yard box and the centre circle, pretty much all of our players have a tendency to head the ball back in the direction it has come, as hard as they can. Particularly frustrating is on occasions when our player has an opposition player near them but is not being physically challenged for the airborne ball Whilst this is a no-nonsense safety first approach, we rarely keep possession of the ball and in many cases allows the opposition to get the ball back far higher up the pitch than we could potentially be allowing If you watch the better defenders (Rio Ferdinand is a good example) and midfielders in the league, the clearance header is not the de-facto choice and they often look to find a teammate who is either in space or is strong enough to control or challenge for the cleared ball This isnt a Lambert criticism as this is something we have been awful at for years now (Same as our throw-ins) What do our players lack that mean we arent doing this. Is it general composure, confidence in teammates, heading technique or oversights by successive defensive coaching staff? Thoughts?
  5. Im just speculating here but I suspect the problem with Bent and Lambert (and possibly why he has moved from so many teams) is that at some point Lambert will have tried to integrate him into the philosophy, by asking him to expand his game maybe learning how to play as a wide forward and Bent has probably refused Everyone who has played the game at any level will at some point have played with someone like this, talented but egotistical Pure guesswork but it would go a long way to explaining why his style of play is pretty much exactly the same as when he was at Ipswich way back when. Might also be the reason why Lambert has decided that he is surplus to requirements, much as other managers seemingly have in the past?
  6. I know I feel this and other people might do as well. I want Villa to be past the point where we sign players that other teams no longer want (Spurs especially) and instead pack out our team with players other teams covet want. Huddlestone is the kind of player that match of the day tells me is amazing although I have never seen it myself. Anyway, this is the Bacuna thread so I should add that he is the signing I am most excited about. I think he could be a big player for us but his first job is to break into our midfield 3. Probably at the expense of Delph who plays a similar position. We'll see how it all pans out Looking forward to the Wycombe game and the start of the season in a month. Havent felt this positive about a season in ages UTV!
  7. My original point is that whilst in the case of release clauses there is an absolute amount that will secure the player's services, it is still possible to get a deal done for less. It is advantageous to us as the entire amount does not have to be booked into a single calendar year's finances (And essentially the finances are what have been dictating our policy for the last couple of years) Im not too worried over the club quibbling over the odd 500k. If anything the last few years should have shown us that casually tossing money away on fees and wages just because, is a recipe for disaster. (Its always easier to spend other peoples money eh) Who knows why we are trying to save the money, maybe there's another marquee signing mooted for whom we may need to save the pennies for... If other teams were making bids that were being accepted and we were still offering less, THEN I'd be worried
  8. Well that's it. Save money I guess, if it were true. Not sure other than that. Maybe as a way of confirming our interest to the player but slowing things down as we're waiting to off load someone first. Or possibly the exact figure of the 'release clause', if there is one, was in doubt. I'll be honest I know the square of sod all about the player but it's been an entertaining bit of speculation and it'd be very funny, considering the abuse she's received, if Julie B turns out to be correct. Even if she's done herself no favours with her tweets. Just to weigh in We may have offered less than the clause as meeting the clause means that its a straight cash deal. Rather than offer that, it is entirely possible that we are trying to structure some deal with a lower fee but more add-ons such as appearance and sell-on clauses to incentivize Nuremberg into accepting the lower initial amount Good for us as we don't have to meet the fee initially and save a little money (Think about what Lambert could do with 600k!) Good for them as potentially they receive more money than the actual clause amount I'm going to stick my neck out and say that if there is a clause, his agent has told us about it in which case he wants to come and this gets done at some point soon. The report of a second bid seems to indicate that he is our number 1 target and interestingly no-one else seems to be linked with him..... If there is a clause, Nuremberg's only real move to keep him is to get him to sign a new contract with a higher clause or no clause at all, asap
  9. Hey everyone, just joined today as I have written a lengthy post in response to some messages that I have seen floating around The upshot is why I am positive about the season coming I will get it up once I get posting priveleges Been a Villa fan for over 25 years and have been reading this site (the best out there IMHO) for a few years now Its going to be different actually contributing to the discussion rather than just keeping my opinion to myself! UTV
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