AV82

A Villa team without Konsa, Douglas or McGinn loses all it's identity so I'm not too surprised we've taken our foot off the gas. It is what it is, more minutes for our second string.

Just now, Philosopher said:

Tim's just a bit nervous it is his prem debut I believe.

Can see he has bundles of talent though. That close control and those bursts forward will come in handy!

Watkins with the tap on the shoulder. Lovely. Unlucky Rogers!

Certainly feels like we've lost our presence in the middle. Shows how crucial Douglas, Tielemans and McGinn are.

Rogers + Iroebugnam with some nice pressing there.

Can tell we're missing Ezri already which is a worrying thought.

I'd hook him just for that. Rogers on for Tielemans.

Ramsey still looking rusty. Where's that silky touch and control?

Just now, lexicon said:

Not more than Lenglet and definitely not Torres standard. 

Fair! Could Lenglet's agility under pressure affect his passing ability/vision?

4 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

Unai likes a lefty at the LCB position so unless we go back to Konsa at RB, Carlos is left out. 
 
When we play with the 4 CM’s, Unai seems to like Cash as a wide option. When we play with Konsa at RB, I would expect to see Carlos again. 

You might be right but what use is Lenglet's left foot if he's unable to make the passes we need or too slow to make them at the right time? I might be oversimplifying things or being harsh on Lenglet but our performances at the moment beg the question I think.

7 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

 

These two are tied together. 
 
When we play with the 4 CM’s, there’s no one to support Watkins and Diaby getting in behind. Tielemans is never going to make ground, McGinn is often the one making the pass and Moreno and Cash, the two other pace outlets, have too deep of a starting position to catch up. 
 
So what ends up happening is slow, slow, ball goes to Watkins and Diaby and sticks but it’s just them two. 
 
On occasion we can put together a move where Moreno or Cash support and have runners but neither are elite. Cash is at his best as a late arrival, not the fulcrum of our attack and Moreno is woefully out of form. 
 
I do not like the 4 CM configuration either. It’s too predictable and not dynamic enough. 
 
Part of the reason we heavily targeted Rogers is to rectify some of this predictability. 

4 CM is fantastic at times and has worked beautifully in the past. Like you say, our issue at the moment is our inability to change it up since our dynamic players are either injured or low on confidence. Hopefully Rogers and a few boys returning/sharpening up will shake things up.

Am I'm misremembering or does Carlos have an eye for a pass? In Pau's absence is Carlos not an option to consider? He's prone to a clanger but so is Lenglet (inadvertently so) due his lack of agility/pace. Carlos might give us a bit more penetration from the back when we're trying to bypass the press and we should hopefully look more comfortable in our high line with his athleticism. What do we think?

Before I get too anxious my eyes are firmly on the bench. We had no-one other than Bailey who's fit, confident or settled enough to come on and change the game. Both in terms of quality or player profile. Credit to Newcastle, they did a brilliant job nullifying our play last night and I don't think we had any real way to change it. No adequate replacements for Moreno, Cash or Lenglet. No attacking, dynamic players (other than Bailey) to change our shape or our approach to the game.

Could we have played better? Sure, I guess, but I do not trust Lenglet at all, Moreno and Cash look shaky, I'm not sold on Tielemans in that position (at specific times against specific opponents), Diaby did more damage than good and other than Bailey we had no-one to confidently bring on to change our approach. At HT he could've changed things around and got Bailey on the pitch a bit sooner but would that really have changed the course of game? Even when Leon did come on Howe reacted and put Livramento on him and that was essentially all of the aces up our sleeve spent.

Of course I'd like to see a response after time on the training field but we've all been saying that for weeks now and unless our injured players come back soon (Pau, Buendia), others sharpen up (Ramsey, Moreno) and the guys like Zaniolo and Diaby suddenly settle in I can see our disjointed performances continuing. We have a game plan. A risky one. One that requires the right pool of players and our already exhausted group is now as depleted as it gets.

28 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Why is he the only full back who consistently does it? Are we saying Emery specifically tells him to play it safe? And if so, what does it say about Emery’s opinion of him? 

This is what I'm starting to find difficult about criticising player performance. When we don't have an insight into player instructions it can be unfair to go in on them for 'playing poorly'. It could be said that Cash isn't the reason we're playing poorly nor is he the reason he's playing poorly but on the other hand the player could also not be executing the manager's plan.. and Emery sure does cut a furious figure on the sideline at times which says a lot.

F*** knows.

A corner and a deflection. Let the meltdown commence.

It's a right shame that FFP encourages you to sell your youth products. Ramsey epitomises the profile of player we should be keeping so I hope we tell anyone and everyone to f*** right off.

While his build up play isn't particularly inspiring I'd be looking at the lads behind him before criticising his stats of late.

It's really hard to pin down why it isn't clicking at the moment. I thought McGinn was poor, when our backs are against the wall we really need his hustle. Safe to say we're sorely missing Pau's ability to break the lines and give our midfielders a chance to receive the ball, turn and run at the opponents which in turn is cutting off the supply to our forwards and might be why Diaby and Watkins seem off the pace.

Hopefully we can work this out quickly as being so reliant on one player is a risk.

Is there any evidence pointing toward him simply not settling well in England/Midlands? That could've been his banana skin.

1 minute ago, MWARLEY2 said:

This stinks of Emery being impressed with him when he played us 2 weeks ago. Got great defensive stats as well as well as the attacking ones. Out the blue and v underwhelmed , but if Unai wants then he should get him as he is great at finding the right profile player and then making him better. We needed a right footed left sided attacker so much as we only have JJ . 

Are we talking about the same ultra-focused, detail obsessed Unai Emery? There is not a chance on earth he'd sign a player on a whim imo.

4 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Have people always been this vile or has social media made them this way?

Both.

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Is he really getting abuse ?

Social media is a cesspit of vitriol. I'd be more surprised if he wasn't being abused on a daily basis.

It's ok to separate the ability from the mentality. His behaviour on the pitch can be concerning and unfortunately that type of attitude does trend towards players not making it. If anyone knows how to handle this situation it'll be Emery and we'll know more in about 2 weeks time.

If he was quicker he'd be back at Barcelona. What a player to have as backup.