OxfordVillan

It’s key to not get carried away with a decent opening, dont over commit. That’s what wolves are looking for.

4-5-1 and don’t over commit going forward. 2 DMs, Luiz & Nakamba. Grealish, ElGhazi, and McGinn the other Midfield 3. ElGhazi and Grealish the wider of the midfielders, swapping positions. Davis up top. McGinn to try and get closer to Davis when we have the ball. Same back 4 & GK as per previous games. This is a game that the realistic amongst us don’t expect anything from. Don’t allow space behind, 2 nice lines of 4 when defending but instruct Davis to remain in their CBs for the outball, McGinn to be watching Davis and ready to receive from Davis. Wolves are good, mostly dangerous on the counter, but effective when on the ball lots too. Hause will need to play a faultless game against Jimenez.

He has a Brazil cap from November 2019.

Lol, I don’t imagine there’s many players that wouldn’t want to join ManCity, especially when currently at a relegation placed team. Pep didn’t want him to leave, hence the buy-back option.

We’ve solved the work permit issues that ManCity had by playing him in lots of games, and his standing in the game is currently rising fast due to his displays since the restart. So a work permit will not be an issue for any purchasing club now. The only Premier League club I see him going to is ManCity, they have the buy-back option and there’s no way they’ll let him go anywhere else. We don’t know the details of the buy-back option but we can probably guess it’ll be favourable to City, I can’t imagine we’d get much more than our money back.

I think you’re under cooking it at £120m. Grealish has to be a minimum £80m, Mings (having paid circa £25m, having won England caps, profile now) must be a minimum £35m, and McGinn was rumoured earlier in the season to be wanted at £50m. We should expect a minimum of around £140-150m for those three alone, depending on the purchasing clubs. Then you’ve got others who just haven’t worked out such as ElGhazi & Trezeguet, we can hopefully recoup around £15m for the pair of them. We’d undoubtedly lose Douglas Luiz if relegated, I’d be amazed if Pep didn’t now take him back with the deal they have with us, and I’d assume that deal guarantees us at least our money back (£15m)? All that said, we don’t want the fees; we need to remain a Premier League club and retain the aforementioned players (minus ElGhazi & Trezeguet).

I agree that it’s looking increasingly likely that goal difference could be vital, however I think it’s keeping them out that’ll prove more fruitful. Teams at the bottom tend not to score many, so conceding less becomes vital. I guess we’ve shown we’re tighter at conceding both chances and goals since the return, so that’s a positive. We’ve got to find a surprise win from somewhere now, because pretty soon someone in the bottom 5 is going put points on the board. We have to make it us.

I could argue with the games you mention, but I’ll let it slide........so, 2 games you can think of where you think ElGhazi has “peaked”? Just leaves 29 troughs to contemplate.

Peaks and troughs, you say? Can you point me in the direction of this seasons peaks, I’m struggling to find any.

I agree. I’d personally take McGinn out of the starting 11 for the next 3 fixtures. If he’s in a better place for the final 3-4 games then that’ll be better for us. He might gain a bit of confidence from coming on later in games and being more effective against tiring opponents.

And yet when we put Davis on to effectively go two up front we bossed the game. We take off two hugely underwhelming players in ElGhazi & Trezeguet and we look better. Tweaks to formation and good tactical nous can sometimes compensate for underwhelming individual abilities.

Dreadful player, honestly think we’d be better if we played with 10 men rather than having him in the 11.

Another no-show. He’s had the opportunity and so now he must be taken out of the starting 11. He shouldn’t get his place back now unless we’re desperate. He clearly just does not have the drive to be a success here.

I think I’ve had enough of us this season, utterly useless. We’ll be starting again in the championship minus Grealish, Mings, McGinn. It’s back to square one.

We’re done. WTF was Konsa doing

Get Trezeguet off, total waste of a shirt. We need Davis to come on and rattle their backline for 20mins.

I think that a pair of much ostracised players could prove pivotal in this game, ElGhazi and Douglas Luiz. Technically they are both good, and Douglas Luiz has had good form from the opening two games. As long as we aren’t physically done in and we don’t sit as per the Chelsea game, then this game can be won with the more technical players. Steve Bruce will get out thought, no question. Newcastle have Saint-Maximin as their only real weapon and we should have plans for him, he’s their Adama Traore. I don’t think we’ll come under anything like the sustained pressure (brought on by ourselves) that we saw against Chelsea, I’m sure that ElGhazi will find more time and space to work in, as will Douglas Luiz. With Luiz at the base of midfield I feel he could dictate this game, and he’ll hopefully be able to find the likes of ElGhazi and Davis with more space to operate in, as I’m certain we’ll see Grealish singled out for special treatment by a couple of Newcastle players every time he gets the ball. To be honest, Jack probably needs to be instructed to release the ball earlier when he’s in the attacking half, more one and two touch stuff that draws the players in but the balls gone before they foul him. It would help our other attacking players as well, encouraging them to play more of a part. I think opposition teams have gotten used to Grealish holding the ball, and they have plenty of time to foul him. I just think our play could be a bit more snappy if Grealish pops the ball off one/two touch more often. There’d be pockets of space to exploit behind opposition players with Grealish drawing in a couple of defenders every time he gets the ball, just don’t keep settling for the inevitable foul that breaks up play. Don’t know who’s fresh and the likely starting lineup, but I’ll go 2-1 to Villa.

It’s correct to say we’ve been tighter, definitely. My big concern is the lack of ability to adapt and change during a game, to switch things according to how the game is panning out.

On the evidence of today we can absolutely write off the games against Man Utd & Liverpool, they’ll be damage limitation games. And if we refuse to alter our set up against the like of Arsenal and Wolves then we can write those off as well. We have to start adapting to the opposition, before and during games. Newcastle to me look a one man team, Saint-Maximin. Should be straightforward to counter.

One thing is for sure, and that’s that neither ElGgazi or Trezeguet is going to supply the bullets to keep us up. They have failed time after time in the Premier League this season, they aren’t the answer in a 4-3-3. ElGhazi has started both games in this restart and offered next to nothing. Different set ups for differing teams should be the plan, but we hardly ever see that. Dean doesn’t seem able to adapt to different situations.

Forget the signings for the moment, let’s look at the tactics today. Did we change shape, to try to counter the obvious advantage Chelsea have in quality? No. It’s all so obvious, like for like changes. Alonso had acres of space on the left all game, no tactical change to try and stop that. We had a lucky 1-0 halftime lead, did we change things to try and stop Chelsea playing the entire game in our half? No. We go 2-1 down, so we HAVE to change the dynamic of the game. We do nothing. Like for like changes in a system that ain’t working. We’ve basically tasked Davis to take on at least 2 Chelsea defenders all game, win the ball, hold it until someone from midfield (about 30yds away) might show for a pass. When it’s obvious that has failed miserably, we essentially blame Davis by subbing him and bring on Samatta.......to try and do exactly the same thing! It’s **** ridiculous.

Awful today, tactically atrocious. Not good enough. This one is squarely on the manager, repeating mistakes that I’d hoped he’d have learned from during a 3 month lockdown. I can accept losing to Chelsea, but not in the way we did today. You HAVE to change it at halftime when you’ve just got a lucky 1-0 lead. We just went out and repeated the 1st half and inevitably conceded, as I knew would happen. I said it would happen. I think the manager may have lost me today.

Best player again, no chance he’ll be here if we go down.

I’ve been fully behind him, but I’ll say now that Dean Smith is putting his head in a noose. That was effing pathetic today, conceding every area of the pitch and refusing to change the shape at all. It’s halftime, we’re very luckily 1-0 ahead. That’s the time to change your shape and put players on to get close to Chelsea players in midfield, higher up the pitch. Specific instructions to tell Villa players to take certain Chelsea players out of the game. Alonso was allowed the freedom of Villa Park for the entire game, Cross after cross. Nobody went with Mount. We kept allowing Christenson to ping a long ball from inside his own half to Alonso on the left, time after time. An easy ball to stop happening if you choose to. I had some concerns earlier in the season but ended up getting fully behind the manager. But what I’ve seen today is unforgivable, given he’s had 3 months to analyse the mistakes of the previous 7 months. Enough is enough. Get rid of Terry, even if just for his embarrassing attempt at celebrating a goal against his beloved Chelsea. As for the manager, he’s repeated mistakes I didn’t think he would. I think he’s lost me today.

It appears we’ve learned nothing during the lockdown. Extremely disappointing. Sitting back and conceding the entirety of midfield and simply letting cross after cross come in, completely unchallenged. Absolutely galling that we haven’t competed at all, at least not in the right areas.