jasoncb

For me us Bournemouth and Norwich look the most likely to go down. Newcastle will come good they have the players, Sunderland Big Sam safety net. If you take the 2 NE clubs out of the equation, beyond Bournemouth and Norwich, you can't really give a genuine argument for any other team to go down other than us.

I've not given up, but pragmatically this is how I see it.  

I just don't understand how we are meant to play, We have a big man upfront, but we have no wingers and no one that crosses the ball, we have two play makers on the pitch, but we have noone that will make runs. We play with attacking fullbacks, but we don't have anyone that will cover the fullbacks when they are up the pitch, everything seems so random. If we play with Gil and Grealish both on the pitch we HAVE to use some one that is more mobile than Gestede upfront. If we use Gestede we have to use two proper wingers, which Gil and Grealish are not. Gana (I like him) and Westwood do not seem to make any runs at all. Therefore there seem to never be any options upfront.

I am a fan of Gil, but he is no winger, he is to slow and to weak to play on the wings, plus we are playing with a right footer on the left and a left footer on the right, which means they will hardly ever cross the ball. But when they go infield they have no options anywhere as there is no one making any runs anywhere on the pitch. 

If we are gonna keep Gestede upfront, I would not hesitate in putting Amavi on the wings, as he is great going forward and crosses the ball decently. 

 

----------Ayew/Grealish---Gestede-----------------

Amavi--Gana---Westwood---Grealish/Adama

 

Could work, classic wingers that cross, to a big man + long balls for gestede to head on to ayew or a central attacking grealish. 

If the wingers continue to bomb forward like they are I feel we need Sanchez in midfield, so that he can slot into the back when the fullbacks are missing. 

So something like this. 

---------------------------------------ayew-------

Grealish(on the left coming inside) ------ ---------------------------------------Gil (on the the right coming inside)

---------Gana (bombing forward)---Westwood/Veretout(bombing forward)

-----------------------------Sanchez playing VERY deep

And the two fullbacks providing the width with sanchez covering for them. when they are in the attacks. (hutton though is the worst player in the league when he is in the final third of the pitch)

Sherwood does not seem to have a gameplan and just throws random players in random positions. Need to change something.... And I feel that when I can see more tactically than the manage, then he should NOT be our manager.

he tightened the defence up but the football is atrocious to watch and nothing going forward

they were a free scoring team until he turned up. 130 goals the 2 seasons previous and think they have has 32 in 30 games since he took over

sick of negative managers

im sure Moyes had a decent amount of money at Everton and a bit of a myth he didnt. He paid big money at the time for players like Fellaini, Johnson, Biliyaletidenov etc

The problem at the moment is that there just isn't the media pressure yet - they're all still talking about last season and conveniently ignoring everything that's happened this season.

you know why, because it s easier. I work as a freelance writer over here and used to be a full time journo (yes I know like every other VTer). Deadlines are shorter and the pay is crapper, but the demand for content, especially click bait opinion is huge. So what s the easier position? Look at the players we ve lost, the fact TS rode to the rescue last season and this season we have a completely new team, crashing and burning, and take the 'Tim's being shafted' position or look at the end of last season, tactics and formations and the calibre, reputation of players bought in and take the 'Tim's crap' stance. A layman pundit can give you 800 words on the former in around 2 hours, even as a Villa fan the latter is going to take a lot longer to write and would take a lot more work. I think that s why a lot of media opinion backs him - because it's easy.

 

And he seems to have lots of friends in the media. The facts are simple; we took a massive punt on a hugely inexperienced manager and its not worked out. We simply cannot afford to do this. OK we can blame the owner and the hierarchy within the club as much as we like but it does not change the basic competency and capability of the manager. All the empirical evidence points to a manager completely out of his depth and bereft of ideas as to how to reverse the situation. Personally I don't see that changing any time soon.

Why oh why would we do this after the shit we have gone through. We needed experience, it was blatently obvious. The Villa job killed off Lambert, who had experience. To think Sherwood could do better was next to unprofessional, an from a man like Tom Fox to make this decision, is worrying.

Today was all about a set of players who aren't up to the job. The only reason to change Tim would be because the team may need a new direction. 

Most Villa supporters understand that Tim's been put into an almost impossible position. 

Richardson was chosen on merit by the way. No knock or anything for Amavi.

I'm by no means a Sherwood fan but I can't see a lot he's done wrong here tbh, especially to deserve the stick he's getting. We've battled and matched them IMO, losing due to some bad luck and a horrendous individual(s) error.

I can see why Pedro's unhappy with that decision, they paid this ref good money to not give that sort of stuff.

I've always been convinced that one day it'll come out that teams in the PL have been paying off ref's for years.

A shoestring?! Did you see how much money we spent this summer? Lambert had sod all in comparison. 

Rubbish! Who gives a piss about what Lambert had? He failed. 

You're so dedicated to the Tim-Is-Root-Of-All-Wrong paradigm, you can't see the bigger picture. 

In the context of the league, Villa hasn't spent shite. We're #18 in rank -- and in net spending.

Not good enough for a team that has barely survived relegation year after year. 

According to sky, we were 15th in terms of net spend.

According to the guardian, we spent the 6th most of all teams.

Overall - the fact that we shelled out in excess of 50mil is the important factor here. Ten teams didn't even spend half of that, including all of the recently promoted ones. And I think we actually bought well too - lots of talented young players who are finding their feet in this league. 

It doesn't matter how you look at it - it's not a shoestring. That's such hyperbolic rubbish, I felt compelled to put that right. 

 

yeah but the difference is others spending 20 million to improve their squads. We had to spend 50 million to at best break even with the players we lost. Delph Cleverley Benteke Vlaar. Randy needed to pull his finger out and give us 20 milion on top and we should have aimed for a few more proven quality. A striker to replace Benteke worth 10-15 million. Not having to spread the 50 million to fill our squad as we let go 13 players.

I agree though.. the money we did have we did spent it well.. i think when a new manager comes in we will see the real players we bought. When they are actually given proper instructions to do rather than this tactical mess we are now experiencing.

I think Sherwood will get until the Everton game. If there's no sign that the team's improvements will lead to more goals and more wins, I think that's the end for him -- and rightly so. I still think it's an eency weency bit early. For me, the only big issue has been his subs and some of the starting lineups, yet of course those are huge.  I wouldn't look for "management firing fever" to have a role in the decision. 

What makes you think we're improving?

We won our first game and we've lost 6 out of 7 since then.

@Stefan, is there anything anyone could say to convince you of this? I sort of doubt it. As I've said, I think we're playing more fluidly, with sometimes great pace, and the our players are showing more situational awareness of one another. They're playing more like a team. It ain't perfect. I don't think the whole ship is ready to sail, and there are worrying leaks. I also think Tim's subs have messed things up often -- maddeningly so, at times. But I think the players are getting better as a group, and I'm certain Tim has something to do with that.

I have a sneaking suspicion you're going to think what I just wrote is total bollocks. 

 

 

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