BG_Villa_Fan

I’m convinced it’s his narrow formation that is the main problem, or one of them anyway. He has the central midfielders covering for the wing backs all the time, which leaves the center of the field too open and allows teams to go through it effortlessly. Just watch a random game, say Totenham and Wolves, and observe how they cover the pitch so much better - no huge empty spaces anywhere, players always available for a pass, moving together, not just staying around while a few players who overload the side where the ball is like we do. We’re always a good long pass away from having opponents go1 on 1 or even 2 on 1 against our defence and non existing midfield.

This puts everyone in an uncomfortable position and makes them look worse than they are. Of course defenders would make more mistakes when the central midfield is so open in front of them. Of course the wing backs will be left vulnerable when a midfielder doesn’t track back and so on. The whole system puts everyone in a position to fail and they do, naturally. I suppose he tries to play in a similar way that the Mane-Salah-Firmino Liverpool did but that team had so much more tactical nous it’s like we’re watching different sports.

And all of the above only (slightly) covers the defensive issues. The offensive lack of creativity is not dissimilar - players not knowing where to be, not having enough space to take advantage, etc. 

Gerrard is trying to play a system that is quite difficult, that requires better players and most importantly - that is too tactically demanding for his abilities as a manager. It’s not inherently bad but it’s also inappropriate for our team in many ways and ultimately results in the team being worse than the sum of the parts. Our players are better than this but they’re constantly put in a position to fail.  Realistically, we don’t have the ability to attract the kind of players, who are tactically and positionally good enough to play this way as a team. Take each individual of our players and they could probably fit on a team playing this way, but you need all 11 to do so at the same time and we’re a long way from getting there.

1 hour ago, StewieGriffin said:

The Danish MON

Would have been if we were finishing 6th. As it is we’re nowhere near. 

1 minute ago, AshVilla said:

Why can't someone buy one of our crap players for 44 million.

 

Wait until Las Vegas Villans is created. 

It's weird Gerrard is so dead set on sending Bertie away. He's exactly the type of maverick player who could come up with a moment of brilliance and win points that the manager's 'system' wouldn't otherwise be able to. Bruce, for all of his faults, realized this and would give freedom to offensive players like him for that exact reason. 

Anyway, wish him luck, perhaps next manager will give him a chance when he's back from his loan. 

36 minutes ago, romavillan said:

especially seeing as Bournemouth let us have the ball where we couldn't be a threat. I'd say 99% of our possesion was the ball at Kamara's or the defenders feet or down the sides seeing as they'd worked out we could have hit a metric f**kton of crosses in and we'd never be a threat. 

The wonders of having a manager with a clear idea of how they want to play against the particular opposition and players understanding basic playing patterns like channeling everything down the flanks and easily defending the countless useless crosses. 

Parker wiped the floor with Gerrard and won them 3 points, probably their easiest game of the season as well. 

6 minutes ago, daft said:

You guys are really bringing me down even more than the result warrants.

Hearing you guys talk, it's obvious we will never be able to appoint the right man for the job.

We had the right man for where we are, but we thought we were better than him and sacked him. 

Smith had a couple more years at the Villa and should have been replaced only by a significant upgrade, say a Poch or similar. It's bad karma what they did to him. 

1 minute ago, CVByrne said:

Well, Liverpool operate the same tactic, full backs that are part of the attack and inside forwards and they had Mane as a CF. No big players really in their attack yet they scored so many goals. So the tactic clearly can work if executed by quality players and coaches

It's not a tactic - it's a formation, we're playing roughly similarly positioned players, only worse. Tactics are much more than this though - they're patterns of movement on and off the ball, players covering some space when another makes a run, players getting to a specific position when someone else gets somewhere, etc. etc. We do none of this, no one moves, everyone stands and waits expecting the ball to find them. Which has obviously resulted in a ton of useless crosses going nowhere. 

This isn't even the bare bones of a thought out tactical approach, it's simply the result of 11 players not knowing how to play together. This is why I don't think any changes in the first 11, formation or even bringing in more expensive players would change much. 

No tactical nous, no shape or identity, 11 players on the pitch not knowing what to do and waiting for a moment of magic from someone, throwing players under the bus, sulking when the going gets tough, snapping at the media.

Only fan criticism left to complete the Bruce bingo. 

3 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

Ok. So why do we never dominate the middle of the park? I can never remember us bossing the game from the middle of the park. We are poor in possession and even worse out of it.

Which is the last Villa team you remember that regularly dominated the middle? 

4 minutes ago, allani said:

It really is.  We've failed to control the middle of the pitch in the vast majority of matches for almost 3 seasons now.  Until we get another midfielder who can help us control the ball we will continue to struggle.  Luiz, McGinn and JJ don't provide that.  They each have other attributes but until we get balance in the middle of the park we will struggle.  Our midfield doesn't get the best out of our attacking players and don't provide enough cover for our defence.  We've got some decent players but there is just no balance.  Luiz was left exposed all of last season and Kamara will be left exposed this season.

I’ve been a Villa fan for more than 25 years. In that time I don’t remember a Villa team able to control the midfield. Been countless of players and managers. I don’t expect Gerrard of all would be able to achieve this. 

3 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

It must take an awful lot of self discipline in situations like this to stay quiet.

 

Survive the transfer deadline and he’ll outlast the manager who’s dropped him.

Is what I expect must be on his mind.

1 minute ago, rbcuk said:

We ain’t doing anything this season unless we get a top class striker and another central midfielder 

It’s not about the players and it’s not about the formation either.

Just now, holteend1982 said:

Dean Smith towards the end was some of the worst football ever witnessed

Not even close tbh.

Surely the game plan against Bournemouth is to get it out wide and keep crossing the ball. They’ve been doing it over and over again and it’s not like they’re under a ton of pressure so it must be deliberate. 

How they’ve looked at the players and consciously decided to do it is beyond me. They must have stolen the opposition game plan and tried to apply it.

Ehh I'll go against the grain on this one and predict this will have a positive effect on the performance of both Mings and McGinn.

I expect John to step up and have a great season. 

4 hours ago, VillaHatesMe said:

Verticals at the combine are standing.

They measure both standing and vertical leap. That said, there's long been conspiracies about players suspiciously measuring lower on standing reach ( no idea how that happens ) in order to stand out on the verticals. Keon Johnson, being one example but there have been others in literally every draft. 

I like the fixtures. Balanced, no horrible run of difficult games, always an appropriate game around the corner to end a bad streak, etc.

4 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Yep, the place that needs addressing is midfield 

Same as its been every summer since the 80s. 

I agree.

Just now, useless said:

I don't understand people saying it's Newcastle so they pay £30m, he's worth nearly that much anyway, if you wanna make it more expensive because it's Newcastle then the fee should be closer to £40m.

no he's not.

If they're paying 13 mil for Burn then Targett's worth 30. 

While I don't want to see any of the best players leave it's encouraging that Villa now receive proper offers for their players. Shows what a good job they've done building this team from the nearly empty shell that Dean managed to promote. 

If they can move players like Luiz and Cash for premium prices and replace them with players they think would fit better then fair enough, I trust them to make the right decisions. 

Not an exciting signing but a sensible one on a free. I'm surprised it's not a loan but a long term deal, Gerrard must rate him. 

Wouldn't be surprised if he's sold to a Burnley or a promoted team within a year and a half for a tidy profit. 

Even with a flicker of hope they'll still not spend a penny in the transfer window to help themselves? They need at least two players to have any chance of survival.