Skills

Just now, foreveryoung said:

That skill, What a baller Whelan is 

how about the pass from Hause lol   it came from his heel hahaha

maybe we needed this...   at least we can now focus on next season instead of topping up on loans....  oh wait 

all good, we're not losing ground on Norwich as they're losing too....

2 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

I agree with that! When the answer is Alan Hutton, I’m not sure what the question is. And I’m generally quite supportive of The Scottish Cafu. 

probably should have stated CB...  we do need better full backs

5 minutes ago, romavillan said:

Tuanzebe missing is enormous, he used to bring it out and play it to feet, no drama even in tight situations. Without that we really struggle to play how Smith wants as the rest of them panic and haven't got the technique.

so we need to a defender to look fluid going forward?   cmon mate

2 minutes ago, kiltorken said:

It was a good enough squad to hammer Boro and Derby and outplay West brom not so long ago though. 

its way too inconsistent... i get not getting results ala west brom, but the passing, possession and chances created have just turned to shite recently 

are we still in out tough run of games??  cant wait till we start playing the lower ranked teams

1 minute ago, DaveAV1 said:

You take two of the best players out of most teams they will struggle. When the team has so many deficiencies then the good players tend to carry the team, without them the problems become very exposed. We shouldn’t be in this position, but we are and it’s goimg to take time and patience to fix it, which seems to be in short supply in here. 

disagree mate, two payers is a slight blip...  the system should be good enough to cover two injuries from what we have seen from the team.   Under Bruce, 2 injuries was a disaster as we needed one off pieces of brilliance to get us a result.   Not much has changed if this is the case

1 minute ago, DaveAV1 said:

Same squad minus Jack and Tuanzebe 

so we're not meant to have any injuries at all?     i get having a slight drop off but we  have looked unbeatable compared to recent performances    

sponsored content is the winner so far 

2 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

For now. Not surprised given that the squad hasn't changed other than Kalinic.

yeh but first few games DS took over. we were controlling games a lot better than this with the same squad

clearly looks like the honeymoon period is over. This is reality 

10 hours ago, Daniel said:

Suck on that!

 

 

you doing a Barca save??  

is there anyone in the squad that could cover for Jack?  cant be playing a midfield trio of whelan, hourihane and mcginn again

On 08/12/2018 at 08:55, KenjiOgiwara said:

Deserved a win here. El Ghazi was superb. Hutton immense. How a player can switch position and make it his own just impresses me endlessly. **** shite refereeing on that handball. Should not be possible. 

Sorry but i disagree, although Hutton played well overall, in the end he was at fault for both goals, was out of position for the long ball for the first, then should have stayed on his feet instead of going down.   For the second he was again caught out of position which allowed their winger to stroll into our box with no other player in sight. And agree with others, keeper is shite and its about damage control till Jan

I've seen enough, we're going up!

2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

There's just too much. 

In the opening three minutes of the second half, we had three corners, there was a desperate clearance from under his crossbar from a Forest defender, we had two penalty shouts and shots from Grealish and McGinn blocked. That was three minutes.

It's frustrating, with the chances we had we should have scored more goals. We scored five goals. Those two sentences shouldn't belong together but they do. I'm not sure what the last one was disallowed for, I think we should have had at least one penalty for handball and I think Tammy should have buried the header just before halftime. On top of that, we had enough efforts on goal to win three games. It's frustrating, I'm frustrated, but I was grinning all the way home.

The two centre backs might take a lot of criticism tonight, individually I think Tuanzebe backed away from the ball for the second or third one and was responsible, but I don't actually think either of them defended all that badly, it's just that they were the only players that were interested in defending.

All of their goals seemed to come from players running through the middle of the park with no interference from our midfield - Grealish, McGinn and Hourihane aren't going with runners - there's not a naturally defensive bone in any of em. I think Hourihane dropped off a forward for the fourth when he should have been putting a challenge in, I think that's the only other one I'd put down to an individual. If we want this midfield, we need to put up with conceding goals. I want this midfield.

The keeper just isn't up to it and collectively we are just wide open at the back, but even with all that said, Forest scored with every single shot on target they had - they'll be as pleased with their five goals as we are disappointed with ours. There will be plenty of people who will be worrying about us tightening up at the back, who'll be concerned that you can't win games if you concede - it's true I guess, but it's not our defending that most concerns me.

What's very clear is that if you want to come to Villa Park and win, you need to bring ALL of the goals, all the goals you have, all the goals you've been saving up, all the flukey goals you've got and all the wonder strikes you have in you, because, we are going to score hatfuls this season. I'd back us to beat any team that don't score more than twice against us in the league. 

 

The front line of Abraham, Bolasie, Kodjia, Grealish and McGinn are a class apart from anything else in this league - they shouldn't be here. We will score five goals again this season. I can see us regularly scoring four. We're massively impressive going forward. I don't worry about us conceding, I worry about us switching off. Against sha on Sunday at 3-1 we took our foot off it and had a rest and they scored, tonight we did the same at 5-4 - Abraham dropped into midfield and everyone wanted a breather - we stopped and they didn't. It was made more obvious when we started up again after the final equaliser, put the ball in the net twice and created another seven hundred chances. That's the thing for me that we need to cut out of our game - if we play for 90 minutes we'll outscore anyone in this league. 

For their part, I thought Forest were lively - they're not bad at the back, they came into tonight's game on the back of three clean sheets, I thought Grabban was superb, Lolley played well and their number 10 was a handful - they played a part in a truly wonderful spectacle. While we're at it, I think their fans were the loudest I've heard at Villa Park this season. Fair play to em. We still should have won though.

As it was tonight, I think 7-5 would have been a fairer reflection of things. Which is a ridiculous thing to write. It was a ridiculous game. Following Sunday we're accidentally stuck in "epic" mode - we're the best watch in football, the most entertaining team in the all four divisions right now and we will score for fun. It's a little disappointing not to have won, but if you don't take some sort of joy out of nights like tonight I worry about you. 

Forest were a little lucky, we were a little unlucky, 32,000 fans were very lucky indeed. I'm not sure where we'll finish this season, although I'm increasingly convinced it'll be in the interesting part of the table, what I am sure about is that we'll get there in a massive storm of goals and excitement, and I for one can't wait.

 

 

 

100% this!

it was we climbed everest when we went ahead then admired the view for too long.   Need to instill a killer mentality into the team and not take the foot off the gas particularly at home against 10 men.  On field leadership issue? 

2 hours ago, srsmithusa said:

i don't like "no hamstrings left" Whelan, so I can sort of agree.  But I understood in this case.  Nyland showed his worst.  But the second biggest problem was that Hourihane is not at his best at DM.  We let several goals be passed into the net by midfielders running right past him.  in theory at least, and in practice, Whelan did prevent that from happening again.

TBF (or generous) to Whelan, I have never had a complaint with his effort.  He just doesn't have the legs any more, sadly.

i have a different take on this, although i agree Hourihane is not at his best as a DM, i thought Mcginn pushed out of the middle too much today.

Saw a few times Hutton and Axel yelling at him to come collect the ball but wasnt really making himself available as he normally does.  Can only think he wasnt 100% right today as he's been playing that box to box role and hiding Hourihanes weaknesses really well so far

Chester's form over the past two games is a worry. Not going to have a pop at Nyland, he just needs to get us to Jan with as minimal damage as possible

winning ugly was almost the only way we would win under the previous regime, and although i wouldnt call this as an ugly win as we did boss the majority of the game, but winning ugly has so much more meaning to us now!

Chester had a game to forget hopefully it was down to him not being 100% ready due to injury and i thought Whelan was vacating the middle too much.  Not sure why he was "marking" the big fella who scored from their corner, we need to get better organised at defending set pieces

Kodija was my motm, was the only one showing any threat in the first half hour and grew in confidence after the goal.  Have this inkling that he's really going to kick on now

Hope Adomah's injury isnt too bad but we do have a ready made replacement ready to be unleashed!

impressed by the way we get numbers into the box.  Stats showed that we're big on the numbers of crosses we get into the box... but god how much of a difference it is to have minimum 3 players to aim for!

On 07/11/2018 at 02:08, Unused Sub said:

I expect changes for this one.

I can't see Hourihane holding the middle of the park like the previous Bolton game. I wouldn't be surprised if Jack is shovelled out to the wing for this one with Kodja's lack of defensive work rate/awareness.

prime example of having Bruce in charge for too long...   personally i cant see Smith moving Jack anywhere but as the most attacking of a 3 man midfield

On 03/11/2018 at 19:23, wilko154 said:

Surprised by some of the comments on here regarding last night's game.

I thought at time we were brilliant, at other points we coasted along and let Bolton in. Overall though it was a comfortable win and we controlled the game very well, you can see the improvement already, the possession football we were struggling with in the last two games is now becoming easier to play. At time we struggle when the opposition press us back, we need to start learning when to play a long ball instead of messing around with it at the back for too long.

Nyland - 6 - Still a worry, he is a great shot stopper, but a liability for crosses. He also keeps trying to save shots that are off target which is slightly strange. Hopefully we will see an improvement under Cutler.

Hutton - 7 - A slow start but was great in the second half, some great challenges and got forward well. Would like to see him back on the left with Bree given a chance at RB.

Taylor - 5 - Average at best, defended well but some of his passing was strange. Passing to players who are a couple of yards away and clearly being marked turned over the possesion numerous time.

Tuanzebe - 8 - Immense again, really starting to show why the United fans raved about him. Mops up a lot at the back with his pace.

Chester - 8 - Back to his best and looked a lot more comfortable tonight. Great clearance and did well for the goal. The partnership is slowly forming.

Adomah - 6 - Slowly improving again, a constant threat on either wing but his final delivery lets us down at times. Better than anything else we have (bar an fit Bolasie)

Kodjia - 7 - Brilliant tonight, not quite sure how people are saying he was awful. Finally passing the ball and played a few balls across the box where a year ago he would have taken on the shot. Some of the movement out wide to beat a man was a pleasure to watch. Tracked back very well at the end to end a rare Bolton attack.

Hourihane - 6 - Started slowly but second half dropped into the anchor man role and ran the game for us. His passing range is a lot better from deep and it is something that we need to see going forward (at home at least). Proves that the Hourihane, McGinn, Grealish midfield can work.

McGinn - 6 - Fairly subdued performance from him but didn't do much wrong. A couple of battling runs forward as we have been accustomed to.

Grealish - 8 - Back to his best and clearly been told to get himself in and around the box, some of the link up play was excellent. Needs to push on now and bag a few more goals and assists.

Abraham - 6 - Tough night for him against some monster CBs, dealt with it well bringing the ball down at times but his second touch let him down. Great ball through to Grealish for the goal. One of those nights for him and will be back to his best on Saturday I'm sure.

 

Bolasie - 7 - Finally showed what he can do, a constant threat when he came on. Some of the stuff he was pulling out was ridiculous. When we can get him firing he will be frightening in this league.

Hogan - Ran his socks off for 10 minutes but didn't see much of the ball bar a decent cross in. Personally would have liked to see him come on for Abraham at the 65/70 minute mark to get a bit longer. If we continue playing this style of football against teams I am sure he will come good.

you gave McGinn the same rating as Nyland?? 

5 hours ago, hippo said:

I just gave up when he brought Hogan on ...to make it worse kjodia was an option.  and then for 20 minutes of the 2nd half we were walking with the ball ?  - Very worried after tonight.

hogan was the right sub to make at 1 - 0 up...   however Hogan's performance was utter tripe

thought El Ghazi coming on for Adomah was the right choice as well after Bolasie effort on Saturday... but he was just as bad as Hogan

hindsight is a wonderful thing

13 hours ago, Chindie said:

It's sad looking back at this thread and seeing how great New Star Soccer was.

And then overnight it became a horror show of microtransactions and gameplay balanced to hoover cash out of your pocket.

was just about to give it a go until i read the last comment on this thread  

7 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

i think whoever it is has a hell of a task between now and January. We're desperately short at the back. 

I think the first six signings any manager should make would be a goalkeeper, three centrebacks and two left backs. I don't think there's another team in football so unbalanced. I know I've never seen a Villa squad so strong at one end of the pitch and so weak at the other. I think our forward line would be in the argument for the best in the division. I think our back line would be in the argument for the worst in the division.

A new manager coming in will need to make that point long and loud. Pep, Jose and a 40 year old Ron Saunders would struggle to get wins out of this squad right now - and I think if we expect a new manager to come in and suddenly turn us around we're in for a rude awakening and he's in for a really hard time of it. 

The new man whoever it may be will need to make a lot of noise about the weakness of our defence if he's to allow himself a honeymoon that lasts until January, when hopefully there's scope under FFP for us to sort it out.

 

i think whoever comes in gets a bit of a free kick this season particularly for the things you've stated about the squad, similar to Bruce when he took over from RDM.  Not much was expected (and not much achieved) but we kept him for another season and a bit.  This is why im more open to Henry coming in compared to how i felt at the start of the season, whether he can take us forward or not is another question