SuffolkVillan

1 hour ago, ccfcman said:

Shocked you left Jack out!

Jack who? 

1 hour ago, Olof82Mellberg4 said:

Be interesting to see what our plan is with him and Watkins.

Watkins to go out on the left?

I see it as 

                Luiz     McGinn

                    Buendia

Bailey          Ings       Watkins

a 4-3-3 like Liverpool with Ings doing the Firmino role

19 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Odds to stay at Aston Villa have now been suspended.

got on last night @ 7/4. Just checked Betfair still offering 7/4. to go to city is 1/3

1 minute ago, Dave-R said:

What is the reason the internet broke today?

Oh it's only because of Aston Villas recent signing of Alisha Lehmann that VT went absolute nutz.

Forget Arsenal being pissed, I bet Westham are at losing Alisha .

 

Incentive for Jack to sign his new contract

Should we be worried? The reliable Daily Express who know Jack so well, reporting Pep keen to secure Jack who, I quote "Grealish has mostly played in a central role at Villa but will likely fit into a left-wing position at City." 

1 hour ago, Delphinho123 said:

Young was a utility signing. I said I hoped for 3 starters at the beginning of the window - DCM, AMC, AMR - and we have signed one of them so far - Buendia. Two big signings to come I feel. 

Agreed, do you think Arsenal would mind if we approached Maddison? 

4 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

For me, this is the strongest area in our squad and yet peculiarly also our biggest problem at the moment.

Personnel wise, Barkley, Luiz, McGinn, Sanson, Nakamba and Ramsey have enough talent to be working well, add in Grealish and we're well stocked.

Shape for me is key, not all of those players can play more than one role.

I think there are three shapes that we can look at:

Here's the full picture including all of the permutations that I think we'd go with if we're going to play with wingers:

LW--------No 10-----------RW

------No 8--------No 8--------

------No 6-------No 6--------

That give us a number of permutations:

The current one:

Grealish-------Barkley-------Traore

-------------------------------------------------

----------McGinn------Luiz--------------

Now for me we should struggle in two areas with that shape - firstly because that line of three players doesn't feature anyone who works hard off the ball, we really should be struggling to close out and close down defences with all three of them in there - we don't because we have the hardest working striker in football, Watkins gives us cover for some of the work that those three won't do. 

What that shape should give us is masses of creativity, the reason you have Grealish, Barkley and Traore despite the reduced workload off the ball is that when they have the ball, all three of them are more than capable of doing great stuff with it. We're struggling to get great stuff done at the moment - for me, part of that is because of how isolated they are from the rest of midfield.

The second area we struggle in is that with no number 8's in that formation, there's a big gap in the middle of the park, that results in teams breaking out from the back and running at our midfield - it's easy to get behind Grealish, Barkley and Traore and find space in front of you before you get to McGinn and Luiz. That puts two different pressures on Luiz and McGinn - the first being the mental pressure not to get too far forward, which is leaving the front line unsupported - if those two get to where they want to be in support of attacks, the hole behind them is simply too big - and they know it. The second pressure is a physical one, there's a lot of space to cover there - that I think combined with the pressure not to push on leads to both of them wanting to sit a little too deeply and invites pressure onto them and our (excellent) back four.

If I think back to a few months ago, there was a period where when we had the ball in and around the opposition box, I knew where Luiz would be - he'd be central and 10 yards outside the penalty area - he was the recycler, when we couldn't find a way through it went back to him and we started again - now he and McGinn are fifteen yards deeper, covering for any breaks by the opposition recycling has become much more difficult.

The full backs help out and give us the potential for overloads down the wings, but at the moment teams are able to put extra men out there knowing that they have McGinn and Luiz pinned back into areas where they can't hurt them, so they can make sacrifices in the centre.

I don't think it's working.

Here are a couple of other options:

Grealish-----------------------------Traore

--------------McGinn---Sanson-----------

------------------------Luiz----------------------

That one for me gives us more flexibility and more space - all three of those midfielders can do a bit of everything and can interchange, we can push the fullbacks on but still maintain a threat in the middle and both McGinn and Sanson would keep the ability to get forward into the box. Luiz would have less support but would be better protected with players in front of him. This is the one I'd like to see us try - however, I've not seen that much of Sanson and it might be that this works better:

Grealish-----------------------------Traore

--------------------McGinn--------------------

---------Sanson-----------Luiz--------------

Which gives Luiz more support but still with some protection and allows McGinn a freedom to get forward and play in the more advanced role that we've seen him succeed in before. These two formations are pretty much interchangeable with those players all being able to play in both of those lines.

Again, if Sanson isn't ready, then this would work too:

Grealish-----------------------------Traore

--------------------McGinn--------------------

---------Nakamba-------Luiz--------------

With Luiz having the freedom to get forward and join McGinn and Nakamba covering.

What doesn't work for me is having an empty line in those formations - by playing Barkley as high up the pitch as we are, we're abandoning the middle of the park and exposing McGinn and Luiz to runners, that role isn't the best part of either of them's game.

In terms of personnel, I think McGinn, Luiz and Sanson can all play in the No. 6 or No. 8 line, whereas Nakamba I think can only play at No. 6 and Barkley can only play at No 10. Ramsey I'm not sure about.

I think the limitations on Barkley's ability to play as a No. 8 mean he should be sacrificed to preserve our shape - there's space for him at No. 10 if we were to drop the wingers and go with two up top, but given that one of those wingers might be out best ever player I think that would be an insanity.

For me, we have to look at the McGinn, Sanson, Luiz combination - I think it addresses the balance, helps us create overloads out wide going forward, allows us to recycle when attacks break down and gives us more control of games.

 

 

Nailed it. Excellent analysis. Barkley is playing so high up he is almost a shadow striker but not doing any closing or pressing. McGinn and Dougie then have to work harder to make up for being a man short. I also would prefer to see Sanson alongside McGinn as a double 8 with Dougie as the 6

1 hour ago, nick76 said:

I think we have also gone from the surprise package doing so well in the first half of the season to where teams have a good sample of our game time to analyse and form a game plan.  We don’t have a quality squad in depth to make many changes to counter that.

Excellent point. 

Echo everyone's thoughts that we have some really promising youngsters with Barry the most  likely to make it big but I'd like to give Walker a shout out, coming in last minute from Alvechurch with no football for 2 months and putting everything he had into the game for the full 90. Well done young man

On 23/09/2020 at 17:50, Villadevon said:

God I feel old, was at this game in the Holte End as a 14 year old.

I was 13. Great night.

usually quite reliable. here's hoping

Samatta scores for Fenerbache! 

31 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I think this puts an end to us signing raschica. 

I think the plan was sign 2 wingers and move Jack Central. Now I think we will keep jack wide left and barkley has come in to improve the middle. 

Looks that way for sure....but you never know with these new guys in charge. The fact Wesley was crocked early season will still be in their memory so hopefully another striker is being looked at and I wouldn't be surprised to see a more defensive LB either now or more likely in Jan. Moving a few out would help a lot. So far great window.

10 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

A few right wingers might though. 

Ouch!! but your not wrong.

8 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Sarr played entire season RW last season bar couple fill ins at CF. 

Totally agree I t can only remember him playing RW. 

14 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

Same here!!! 

Its almost half the site it used to be 

1 minute ago, MentalM said:

He takes the bait when we reach 300! Then we cod reel him in.

Surely you mean when we roach 

1 hour ago, Sulberto21 said:

If nassef sawiris has invested in SC Vitoria then I'd rather he goes out there and plays in a technical league where he can add something else to his game. 

Good call

41 minutes ago, gwi1890 said:

Most definitely 

We also had a player called Barry Hole who sadly died last year.

On 10/09/2020 at 11:09, OxfordVillan said:

I’d settle for this against Sheffield Utd 

Happy with that and looks achievable

If Jack doesn't even get on he should quit England and declare available for Republic of Ireland. 

33 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

I seem to remember that we didn't have a midfield last season. Do we now?

Not good enough. Still very light in my view. God forbid Dougie gets injured! I love SJM but I do worry about his fitness, carrying that arse of his around would be tiring; I know, I've got one.

Unless Nakamba has improved we need 2 more in. The best Viera type we can get and someone to rotate with SJM.

1 hour ago, MrBlack said:

Worrying about the rising to 33 point is irrelevant,  that will only happen if he performs well for us, in which case, he'll have been good value in the current day and age.

As for the players you mention they've either gone to Europa/champions league teams, are older and have no sell on value, or would cost an extortionate amount in wages.

Maybe there are a couple we could have tempted that wouldn't have cost the earth, but when you look at who they went to you know that's a pipe dream. 

We're shopping at the level we can arract, paying wages that are massively limited by ffp. You have to lower your expectations for this season and probably next or you'll be disappointed. 

Buying the best player in the championship, who is only 24, has ALL the attributes we are missing up front is not bad business. Paying maybe a few million over the odds due to the selling club not needing to sell, and the buying club needing to buy is what happens in a free market.

100%

5 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

This is a great signing. He’s the right age, has a good fitness record, is used to playing in a 4-3-3, and he adds much needed pace to the squad.

He’s slightly overpriced, but not by much - by my reckoning we’ve lost maybe £5m of value here, but given the huge striker-shaped hole we have in the squad, he’s worth that extra £5m to us.

I think the Championship (at the top end) is a much safer bet than a foreign league. He’s much more likely to hit the ground running and do bits for us.

Struggling to understand all the negativity around this one.

It might even help get our other targets in now aswell