Indigo

Also worth noting that Tuanzebe was played out of position for the bulk of his time at Villa. Would be happy enough with him coming in to play next to Chester. Not sure about all this talk of Powell being imminent, I saw someone on one of the supporters pages on Facebook say their mate said they saw photos of him in a Villa kit today and from what I can tell that's the only update on the rumour, if you could even call it that.

Not much to go off that tweet really, on that basis it could be any of Gray/Ulloa/Abraham/Gayle/Bamford/Wells/Ings/Hugill, maybe more. Some more realistic and desirable than others but at this point I wouldn't really turn my nose up at any of them tbh.

Hahahaha Jed Steer, man. It would be Villa to prove the common cliche of "you can't read too much into pre-season" wrong, that was irrefutably awful. Cannot make sense of the system really, I started watching with about 5 minutes gone and at that point looked as though it was a 5 at the back with Hutton as the right sided centre back, then went 4-3-3 with him at RB and Elmo on the wing, then they swapped...what's going on.

I refuse to believe this is anything other than tongue in cheek. Not even these subsequent seasons could make me warm to Sherwood even slightly, he is and was awful.

He's definitely nothing special, but from what I've seen he's handily the best at actually keeping it on the ground and maintaining possession.

Going to a back four should improve things, if only by an insignificant amount. Although as much as I've not yet turned on Ayew I don't think he really works anywhere but down the middle in a 4-3-3, he wanders too much otherwise. If you're going with a back three I think Chester has to play in the middle simply because he's the most composed and capable of playing out from the back.

Finding the use of this formation confusing, still absolutely baffled as to what Bacuna has ever done to convince several managers that he's capable of playing in the middle. Adomah has been just about the only semi encouraging sign, and even then he's being completely stifled due to being deployed as a wing back, which is just - again - confusing.

Thought he was the best player on the pitch yesterday, aside from Martin beating him to a flick-on to put Ince half through he didn't put a foot wrong. Looks as dependable as Elphick whilst also being a bit more comfortable on the ball than him.

Gardner's definitely come into the game more after a bit of an uncertain first ten minutes or so. Good composure/technique, just wonder if him and Westwood are a bit too samey to be playing together.

Loved that he was also in the process of failing to name another good striker from the annals of time and had to be saved by an interruption from his co-commentator. "Your Linekars, Shearers, Fowlers, your, erm..."

Decent enough start, great ball from Cissokho, bit disappointing that Gestede was nowhere near considering that's meant to be his bread and butter. Still unsure about Gardner, looking like a far less tidy version of Westwood in the early stages here.

As a St. Pats supporter this would be an amazing move from a personal perspective, and I think he's more than capable of cutting it at Championship level, however it's not likely to happen particularly soon I don't think. They've just made him captain and given him a long term deal, no doubt so they can sell him on for more as that's how Peterborough tend to maneuver, but should more or less guarantee he'll be there for the start of the season.

Villa in microcosm - Ayew runs 50-odd yards by himself, holds it up, turns...and there's not a single teammate within 50-odd yards of him. 5 seconds later Sanchez finds himself 10 yards behind our defence whilst also having been played onside. And going a goal down already is pretty typical too. **** this.

Bacuna playing at centre back, every week we somehow manage to reach new levels of baffling. Thank christ this season is just about over.

Is Bacuna actually playing centre back here. Christ on a bike.

Sorry, if Westwood has always been capable of the type of quality he's been producing from set-pieces today, what's the story with the floaty garbage he's been subjecting everyone to over the years?

EASY WORK I can hear the Championship quaking in their collective boots from here.

We're not set up to give ourselves a chance at scoring at the best of times but today looks particularly bad. I despair every time a team that seems to be relying on Hutton and/or Bacuna as the main creator is put out.

I can't fathom how anyone can still credit him with showing that he cares more than anyone else or has "fight" (for want of a better term) after what he did today, it personified cowardice. Putting in a challenge like that, when already on a booking, entirely unnecessarily, just made it appear as though he was looking for a way out more than anyone. I can't wait for the day he leaves but unfortunately I can see him sticking around for the foreseeable.

Wasn't too shabby when he came on, great ball across for Westwood and had some nice ideas that didn't quite come off because of the odd heavy touch that's symptomatic of a player that hasn't played much recently. Still one of the very, very few players I'd like us to keep a hold of for next season, regardless of his previous transgressions.

Our midfield is just far too listless for me to even delude myself into thinking we can get anything from games. Sanchez and particularly Gana are capable in the roles they play but they offer nothing going forward, and it goes without saying that Westwood isn't the most impactful. Zero creativity. Unrelated but I'm already gutted that Hutton will probably be one of the few retained for next season. All the effort getting up and down the line doesn't make him any less abysmal. He'll more than struggle at Championship level.

Of the names that are apparently possibilities according to the bookies, Rodgers would be my preference. Can't see it happening at all though, his stock isn't that low yet and I can see him filling the next vacancy at whatever semi-decent Premier League proposition becomes available. Moyes is probably the next best option, and as much as it makes sense and we'd be lucky to have him in our current predicament, I'd be lying if I said his most recent endeavours haven't dampened any excitement I may have once had for the idea (not that he's the type to command excitement, but at this stage I'd be ecstatic at the mere idea of solidity so...). Ultimately I'm already resigned to it being Pearson though, who is such an odious character that I'm more than likely going to struggle to separate the man from the job. Same was the case with Sherwood but fortunately enough he's shit regardless so you couldn't distinguish.

This is already looking like it could get ugly. Spurs are starting to settle in possession and look more and more dangerous. Gana and Westwood are being made to look really lightweight in the middle so far (goes without saying that the same is the case for Gil), hopefully if nothing else Rudy can start timing some of his leaps correctly...

Way late on this, but good post from DRAGONZ_RULE, though I do think it's slightly disingenuous to compare the passing stats of Gana and Kante simply due to the style of football their respective teams play. As bad as we are and as blunt as we are going forward, Garde (and to a lesser extent Sherwood) tries to implement a more possession-based type of play, which inevitably lends itself to having a greater number of passes than one would ordinarily have. Furthermore Gana's completion rate in particular would tend to be higher by the nature of him playing as the deepest midfielder and thus attempting more inventive or risky passes with less frequency. Compare to that to Leicester, who as spectacularly well as they're playing aren't exact subtle in their approach. They're very much a buccaneering (tangent here but that is a satisfying adjective) counter attacking side that are all about getting from back to front as quickly as possible, and don't put as much emphasis on playing it through midfield. I'm not one that really pays much mind to stats or has them to hand but I believe their average possession proves this as they're something obscene like 19th in the league for it. I don't mind Gana though, as has already been covered I'd expect him to be one of the first out the door in the summer, but he's also someone I could see doing a job for a few teams in the league so you can't blame him really.

Bacuna's one of those players that are symptomatic of what's been wrong with us in recent years, a lot of us fell into the trap of thinking that he was good enough to "do a job" when in reality he's just not up to standard. Even at right back, where he's less liable to make errors or have much of an impact, you'd be hard pressed to find another side in the league that would take him over who they already have there. He's a disaster in the middle, and seeing as he was originally signed as more or less a (I think) right-sided forward I'm not sure how the possibility of him being used there ever came to be outside of injuries. Against both West Ham and Liverpool he attempted a simple 5 yard layoff back to Okore that he somehow managed to put about 8 feet into the air. Used to have a lot more time for him but I'm at the stage where I think it's time to concede that it's that kind of acceptance of sub-par players that's contributed greatly to where we find ourselves.