May-Z

Rodri was doing the classic Man City sh*thouse tactic of stopping the early break whilst he's out of position. Same as all the little tug backs, trips in midfield they always do. Luckily for him there was an equally big sh*thouse refereeing who let him get away with it. It's a disgraceful decision. He gained the biggest possible advantage that he could becuase thunderc*nt Moss doesn't have a clue....then they make up a wiffy interpretation of the law to make it seem OK.

If you look closely you can see the old layout of the six yard box which was a 6 yard arc around each post. There's also a line that stretches across the whole width of the pitch, 12 yards away from the goal. That was the penalty line and you could take a penalty from anywhere along it.

The lack of a runner on the half way winds me up so much. The amount of times that Heaton looks for a quick break and can't is really affects us. It means the opposition can chuck everyone into our box knowing that they're under no threat of a break. It also means if we clear the first ball it comes straight back at us with no regrouping time. I really do wonder why that is our set up when it seems so detrimental.

My comment about our CBs was in reference to how poor we are at defending crosses as well. We seem to get done by a cross in every match I think the wings is a problem area for us in attack and defence in terms of crosses. All too easy for the opposition.

I'd probably go for an issue with the wingers. Mings, Engels and Hause are all strong in the air. I think Mings and Hause are high up in the clearances and blocks charts too. Our wingers have been poor going forward but also kill our full backs with a lack of support. That should have be resolved with work on the training ground by now...or at least a change in formation to counteract it.

Our crossing has been poor recently but haven't we scored a lot of our goals from crosses this year? They're not all headers and are put along the floor sometimes but I can think of: McGinn v Arsenal Wes v Norwich Trez v Wolves, Liverpool & Chelsea El Ghazi v Newcastle Mings v Man U Grealish v Brighton McGinn and El Ghazi v Burnley Personally, I can tell when Villa have played well this season from whether we play triangles on the corner of the opposition box. Normally this is best between Grealish, Hourihane, and Targett. The balls into he box are a lot more precise when this happens. It seems during our poor run we don't do that anymore and rarely work the ball up the pitch...we just punt it instead or rush a cross in and give the ball back. A bigger problem is how many we concede from crosses. We don't stop the ball in well enough.

Stinks of a Christmas tree to me I've been waiting for one of those formations since Euro 96. Jack and Jota behind Wes with Lansbury and Hourihane either side if Luiz. They will push wide to cover the full backs if Watford break. Could be an interesting move after our wide players have been poor for so long. It's coming home lads!

As a rough guess, he's played less than 50 games at CB, very few of those in the PL. When you consider that you can see how he is still learning and adapting to the role. Less than 50 games and he is already this good. He may make mistakes but I don't think I've seen him make the same mistake twice.

Having a full back that offers for a pass and can also play one himself creates so many more problems to think about for a defending team. With Taylor they know he will sit back and won't provide an option. With Targett (and Guilbert) the defender has a lot more to process and it creates openings for Grealish/El Ghazi to work in. Beautiful.

I think Mings has been put in a difficult spot by McGinn. Obviously it's an error from Mings but McGinn has taken a quick free kick across the pitch at waist height to a CB who is being closed down...with three minutes of the game left. Then Mings balls up, then Heaton is slow. This is the 'game management' we lack.

Jack is a bell. Speaks nice slowly to help but then uses a question thats three sentences long, covers multiple aspects and he even throws in unnecessary words and idioms. Nice one.

The Norwich defender volleying Azpilicueta in the knee is baffling. As clear as you can get.

Mine are 3 and 5 and I'm dying to get them to a game. I want their first taste to be a good memory so my first thought was a preseason friendly in the Sun - bit warmer, cheaper and less boisterous. I However, I'm going to take them to the women's match at VP on Sunday 8th Sept. There's some inflatables, coaching, and facepaints before the game and tickets are £5/£2 so not a lot to lose if they don't fancy it.

I think, squad development-wise, that's a great draw. A step up in standard from Crewe and a great chance for the changed line up to show what they can do against a Prem team. Good chance to progress as well as I'd imagine Brighton will go weak. Obviously would've liked a lower league team at VP but I'll take that.

Crewe player chugging a Frijj milkshake when he went off

Lansbury hoping that Hourihane shares his goal bonus with him after that...

This is why it is useful to use cup games to get minutes into fringe players. Look how slow and sloppy things are. At least the match sharpness is coming agaisnt a L2 team instead of being dumped into a Prem match after an injury.

We used last year's 3rd for the first time in the cup match at Yeovil I think. Maybe in for a treat against Crewe. I'd have thought we would need it against Palace due to a kit clash too.

Great movement and finish imo. Got a bit of a soft spot for Green...just don't think he has the minerals to back himself and restricts his game because of it.

Painful prices. RE: kids kits, I dont know why they don't sell them for £10-15 and get every kid in the area hooked in and wearing them. Im sure I heard that Derby would give shirts to local primary schools as their chairman wanted all kids in the city in a Derby shirt.

Nothing major from what I saw. Little wrap around by McGregor saying 'Home since 1897' or something, some freshly painted gates and new block signs. No big overhaul of the cladding on the Trinity though.

Yeah, everything is still there. Had some of this wrap-around on the roof of the ticbjet office. Pictures of cup winners, God etc. Store had been rebranded for Kappa. There were about 50-100 people working all around the ground when I was there.

Visited the shop to check out the wears today. Home, away and all keeper tops are all very smart shirts. Nice selection of training wear too. However, the away seems to be made of a material that gives the appearance of pulls and bobbles which put me off. Maybe that was just on the kids version. Also, the prices of the kids kits (starting aged 6) were a joke.

Went to the ground today. The extra touches that are being carried out improve the look consoderably. I don't know how they've done it using banners because you can't tell at all. Witchcraft. Looks very smart though.