srsmithusa

McGinn farther forward than Youri?

UTV !!!

3 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

That's what I thought and why I asked if he did something? Maybe a knock or a disagreement with Unai? There's no real explanation he was rested at the weekend and not playing tonight, I'm a little confused.  At least we have him as an option to change the game.

after there is a goal or two, the game will open up.  when the match is more open, with more space, Diaby will come on. 

Tielemans is better in tight spaces where incisive movements and passes are key, Diaby is better in open spaces where speed and movement are key.  I think the line-up reveals what Unai is expecting from Lille.

10 -15 minutes of completely unacceptable defending.  You cannot be satisfied with a. o.K. positioning thinking it’s likely they wont get to it.  Every moment needs to feel life and death stakes to have their forward controlled with a “ no way he’s playing this ahead of me”. Attitude.  
 

instead we got a “we’re better and have a two goal lead, good enough effort is fine” attitude.

orher than that completely unacceptable, intolerable, run all week and still lose starting in the next match lapse, it was a good day.   Well done lads. 

commentators say that we have not won here since Martin O'neal and John Carew, but some of ya'll act like it was a certain win if we had only started different unhurt players.

1 minute ago, stewiek2 said:

Game over. But every loose ball goes to one of their players.

IMO subs came too late.   Zaniolo, Rogers, and Luiz were dead on their feet.

1 minute ago, Django_Zooms said:

Rodri and Akanji should have been booked for simulation.

i would suspect that Darren England has not booked a player for simulation in this league.

youri on for Doug.   Bailey on for Rogers.

6 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

Stupid free kick again from Luiz

cowardly from Zaniolo

Wish we had Ollie, McG and Emi

I wish we had McGrath, Pele, and Messi

4 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Martinez isn’t on the bench at all now, though. He was lined up to start and now won’t feature at all… so it seems a bit weird to have other ill players, but not Emi, on the bench. 

he's not eligible to enter as a sub.  they are.  BTW spoonful of cinnamon works better than imodium.

2 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

Jeez you lot are flustered, it’s obvious you don’t feel confident either or you wouldn’t be responding to any of my negative posts.

 

But it’s negative because of that lineup. No true Villa fan can look at that lineup and be positive about this game. 
 

I don’t like watching my team get embarrassed, that’s why I’m so angry. I’ve seen enough hammerings this season, it seems Emery likes losing badly.

it's getting old Leeroy

2 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

If we get thumped and then don’t beat Brentford serious questions have to be asked.

 

You just don’t put that team out at Manchester City. If we get a hiding today it not only damages GD but also confidence. 
 

I genuinely don’t know know what Emery is playing at tbh.

Somebody need their medication and a nap

Alex Moreno was clearly not at his best.  But I think that was partly a chosen strategy from wolves, based on our clear intent, from our likely, and announced starting roster  (and the fact that Cash was hurt).  When  you see that our back 4 is Konsa, Carlos, Torres, and Moreno its doesn't take a genius to realize that Morena will be used farther forward as much as possible, leaving a back 4.  Wolves then lined up with Ait-Nouri, a very attack minded and skilled left back and shifted to play him in the left side of a back three.  The also rotated their left and right midlfielders to take turns attacking down their right.  Their clear intent was to attack down our left pinning Moreno back and wearing him out, it worked for a while.  Early on, thet pinned him back more than we wanted, and when he did attack, either feeling rushed or pressured or tiring, his crossed were pretty abysmal by his usual standards.

Rogers was not as strong a defensive cover as was Zaniolo, his redeeming factor was how he carried the ball through traffic who were more handsy and grabby that I was when I first started driving my own dates out for an evening.  (In fact, I voted Luiz MOTM  mostly because he endured the entire match with hands pushing, pressuring and pulling on him so frequently it made me feel sorry for the ladies who suffered under my over-exuberance.)

Even Emi's incredible save from Ait-Nouri resulted from the repeatedly attacking our left which drew us left and pretty much the whole match was being played down or left.  Konsa was drawn toward the left which left Nouri unmarked behind him.

Things changed when we started attacking more on the right, mostly Diaby and Bailey, with good support from Konsa.  Their right side had to stay back to protect against crosses going to their right side.  IMO that's why the momentum shifted well before halftime and well before Digne and Zaniolo came on.  They were excellent but to say that Moreno and Rogers were awful was to completely miss what was happing in the strategies of the match.

49 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

Its an interesting philosophy because you have positional coach philosophies like Pep, Arteta, Unai, RDZ and then you have more flexible and player led philosophies like Ancelotti, Zidane, and Scaloni. 
 
Most club managers are positional and system coaches so I doubt we will deploy a much different system even with our injuries. We’ve adjusted our tactics - for example, we go long much more frequently without Kamara’s ball retention and press evasion. But I doubt the system will change much. 
 
National managers tend to have a more player led philosophy since they can’t train the patterns with their limited time. 

Good observation, but I think the managers that do well with positional philosophies tend to be those with significant resources to recruit and sign the player skills that suit the role.   IMO, thinking positional in your recruiting is ideal, but thinking in a player capabilities mode is essential to succeed when you have multiple injuries and availability issues.   I think the best managers are able to do both and switch based on the resources available.   

Team shape is always interesting but it's entirely abstract.  It depends entirely on the skills and capabilities of your roster.  If you don't have speed, you cannot play high pressure, or a high line, or a counter-attacking strategy.  Part of our problem this season is that Mings, Pau, Longlet are all most natural and comfortable at LB.  Similarly, for our double pivot,  Kamara and Luiz are great.  Kamara more comfortable and effective more defensive, Luiz more comfortable and effective more attacking.  But with Kamara out.  Tielmans, McGinn, Luiz are all  more attacking.  So, does someone play outside of comfort?  Both of double pivot play outside comfort?  or change to a different midfield scheme.  Even though Emory prefers the double pivot and we've had great success, we might be better to shift to a diamond midfield to push Luiz, McGinn, or Tielmans much farther forward.  But that might mean that a back 5 with attacking wingbacks might suit us better.  

Shape must follow player abilities, not vice versa.

So, does a free kick coach work on both the attacking and defending of free kicks?  I somehow thought McPhee only dealt with attacking.  And those have improved.   But are the defending free kicks part of his responsibility?

2 minutes ago, smg said:

About time we binned him off then ? Especially as Jamie has spoken. 
Or

this could be the biggest load of bollox written on here today.

That last line is quite the condemnation.  You must not have read any of my posts.  

Honestly think any of the three subs could easily deserve MOTM, but it's hard for me to give MOTM to someone who only plays 45 of it, after the opponent is tiring.  On that bias alone, I gave it to Torres.

1 minute ago, The_Steve said:

Really? He was entitled to go for the ball, showed great strength and is arguably fouled in the box. The ref takes the easy option in booking them both instead. It’s why he didn’t punish the dissent because Alvarez who was already on a yellow pulled his arm back cynically which is an obvious yellow. He was right to be mad. Ref didn’t give Nico any help. 

I'm going to disagree.  The more obvious first.  When he threw the ball away to delay a throw in, the WH were screaming for a caution and to be consistent, the ref should have given it, having just booked them for delaying our restart.

I agree with you that he was pulled back, but the ref did not call it.   The problem was, after the ball was away, he waited until the defender was stepping over him and then jumped up into the oppenents leg and then squared up like he had been offended.  It was stupid as it gave the referee the easy out of booking them both.  If he had just waited to stand up rather than trying to jump into the opponent, or even just acted like the whole thing was just a coming together it would be much more intelligent and controlled.

I think Zani has some great potential, but he gets and earns stupid cautions every single match.   Could have (perhaps should have) gotten a second stupid caution for a red today (throwing the ball away).   Having passion deos not mean that you can't also be too smart to risk stupid cards.

I voted handball the man of the match.

in off of Saucek's arm

the block was brilliant.  Celebrating it so emphatically was the icing.

4 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Love that Unai gives chances to Duran and Rogers, but we are fighting for fracking 4th, they were not the players to start in the team today!

Thank you for reminding me that VT can always find a way to moan.  Even when the manager tries something and makes the right subs when the roster is threadbare, and we've pulled back to a draw and showing some attacking menace,  use that exact time to complain about a decision the manager made 2 hours ago.  Find the cloud i every silver lining.