OxfordVillan

What’s the solution for beating the relentless Liverpool press? For starters we can’t afford a solitary mistake at the back, that’s a given. We will need to be flawless out from the back where Mings & Engels will have less time on the ball than they’ve been used to. I think we play a style that could cause Liverpool more problems than they’re used to, we have got the ability to move the ball around them and create. My concern is taking the opportunities up front, if we don’t cause their back 4 enough problems then they’ll be on us all game. They go under the radar a bit but two players we must watch are Henderson & Wijnaldum, I think Henderson makes them tick more than he’s given credit for. Firmino in particular is relentless as a front man and he creates an awful lot for them with his pressing and hassling of defenders all game long. They’re the European champions and current undefeated league leaders, so we’re up against it even if we are flawless. Grealish has to play in this game for us to have a chance, IMO. If he doesn’t I think it’s damage limitation.

We have to balance those stats against the fact we know he was in a very poor team. The Villa team thus far has been, for me, a team that looks comfortably mid table except for the lack of edge up front.

It’s my opinion that Mitrovic would go a long way to helping us secure a league finish somewhere between 9-12th, and I think we’d be safe from the relegation dogfight. As things currently stand with Wesley I think we’ll remain in the relegation mix all season as we drop too many points from games where everyone else’s performances should result with us earning points. We are 25% into the season and we can see that Wesley is not going to have the first season impact that Benteke had, he’s struggling. If we don’t purchase somebody such as a Mitrovic in January then we’d be gambling on staying up IMO. Plenty of time for Wesley to come good thereafter but we must cover ourselves in the meantime.

Sorry, but Davis has to get a start if that is the level Wesley thinks he can operate at. He did **** all the entire match except wave his hands around. Just not acceptable. That said, we’ve been **** over by the officials again. At least 1 penalty we should have had (Stones handball) and the 2nd City goal Sterling is **** stood offside when the ball is put in and he’s obstructing Heatons view. I **** despair with the officiating in the Premier League

For me the main problem to us is that (1) we’re playing the best league champions we’ve probably ever seen, and (2) they know they can’t afford to drop more points. They’ve had two shock defeats already and as we saw from them last season that tends to focus their concentration to very high levels. I won’t be surprised if Pep starts with the same 11 as started last night, I think he’ll look to have this game won by halftime/60mins and then rest players. There’s not really much we can do as a team to change it up to counter them, we just have to have work rate and discipline. If City do have a vulnerability this season then it is at CB. I’m not expecting points from this game but a decent showing really would help with Liverpool next up at Villa Park, we need to be able to take something from positive the game even if its not points. I probably would play Luiz over Hourihane for this game.

I think England are in danger of over hyping some of the youth, and to some degree I think Southgate is using youth as a bit of a shield. Mistakes are being made and that defeat has been coming. Obviously it’s not panic stations or crisis time but there are some odd decisions and explanations coming from Southgate. You’ll never convince me that Michael Keane is better than Tyrone Mings, or that Mason Mount or Ross Barkley are better than Jack Grealish. You’ll also never convince me as to why Trippier & Rose were selected ahead of AlexanderArnold and Chilwell. There were a number of starting England players that are out of form at clubs who are currently struggling when compared to their normal showings. Rose, Keane, Rashford for starters. Rice not exactly pulling up trees. The formation and selection was crap, the performance was crap. Defence hasn’t been solid for a while. Plenty of work to do.

For me it’ll be Watford, Norwich, & Newcastle to go down. I think Villa could, perhaps should, have had a further 5pts on their current tally of 8pts. Whereas I think Newcastle’s 8pts flatters them, unexpected wins against Spurs & ManUtd padding out what is otherwise a very poor start (and as it turns out that is probably the worst ManUtd team seen in decades). The good thing about those wins against Spurs & ManUtd is that it’ll likely buy Bruce more time in the job, he’ll constantly point to those games in the weeks ahead as evidence of the genius within. Norwich simply won’t spend the money, they’ll maybe dip into the January market for a top championship player, but that’ll be with one eye on a 2020/21 Championship campaign. Watford definitely seem to have a big hangover from that Cup final drubbing, I don’t think they have the players to dig them out from a bad start like Palace last season. One or two of their players might even look for the exit door in January if the struggle continues. I won’t get carried away with our away win at Norwich, fantastic performance on the day but let’s stay grounded. If ElGhazi can produce that type of display again and again, then fantastic. Ditto Nakamba. Ditto Wesley. In the championship you can do well with players earning 8/10 performances, in the Premier League you need a player earning a 9/10 or 10/10 to win points. I’m confident we’ll improve every month, and if we can steer clear of injuries to key personnel then we can hopefully go into January with no pressure to buy a stop gap, instead buying a bit more frosting to go on top of the cake. The top 6 or 7 clubs aside, I’ve not seen much to convince me we’re too far behind anyone else.

Whilst I think we could have had better use of subs in one or two games this season, we mustn’t lose sight of the very clear fact that as a team we have had points stolen from us by blatantly wrong and direct game changing decisions. It’s arguable but I count 5 clear decisions against us in 6 games this season that have altered the outcome of games. That’s FIVE in SIX fixtures. (1) We started with McGinn getting bundled over in the box against Spurs and nothing given, that would have potentially put us 2-0 ahead. (2) Phillip Billing not being sent off in the 1st half in the Bournemouth game, subsequently subbed 5mins later at halftime allowing Bournemouth to continue with 11. (3) Lansburys disallowed goal in the last minute against Crystal Palace. (4) David Luiz jumped & dived for a penalty awarded against us at Arsenal, allowing Arsenal to equalise. (5) A blatant penalty not given to us for handball at Arsenal. We should have had 3pts from the Arsenal game, we should have had 1pt from the palace game. It’s arguable but we would likely have got a point, possibly a win, at home to Bournemouth had they have gone down to 10men for an entire half. We’d currently be sitting around 7th were it not for wrong decisions against us. People say these things even themselves out over a season, but can anyone point to a single decision so far this season that has benefitted us in the same way it has benefitted others against us? I can’t. And that’s important when judging our performances this season. For me there has only been one game where we looked like getting nothing and that was the Palace game where we were absolutely robbed of 1point.

Until teams are allowed to challenge decisions I will not believe that VAR is anything other than an instrument to carry on the status quo whilst parading as open and transparent. Similar to cricket and tennis, football MUST allow teams to make their own challenges, maybe 2 per half and keep them if proven correct. Oh, and mic the refs so they have to talk through a decision on the big screen.

I’d agree with this. Handing Bournemouth a goal headstart would have resulted in them sitting deeper and playing on the counter, content to give up some possession to achieve that tactic. It’s just opinions, but goals change games. To give them a 2 goal lead was dreamland for them. I mentioned elsewhere how Bournemouth were one of the best counter attack teams last season. The dynamic of every game is different based on the opposition and expectations, both home & away. Bottom line is that a home tie with Bournemouth would have been in our top 4-6 targets of games to win. Individual errors meant we lost. In my mind we’re -3pts where I thought we would be after 2 games. We have to learn quickly, I’m fairly confident we can do so.

I think this lineup could be solid whilst still allowing our current biggest threats to thrive. Any width would obviously have to come from the FBs, but it might serve us well in the shorter term.

The mistakes have to be cut out first, that much is obvious. I hoped all the players might hit the ground running, but like many I had it in my mind that it could be a couple months before the group of new players started to look like a team. What we can’t afford to do is lose too many in that period of time that knocks the confidence, it’s a tough balance to find and nobody will do us any favours. Every fixture is a tough fixture in the top flight, and we should approach every fixture in a pragmatic way, for me. Flexibility and respect to all opponents might help us garner the points we need in this early period of the season. Everton will be better than Bournemouth, I’d snap your arm off for a draw now after our opening 2 losses. Whether we, as fans, like it or not there are fixtures where I think we need to be solid, and if that means a 4-5-1, 5-4-1 then so be it. And I’m not necessarily talking about just the fixtures such as ManCity & Liverpool etc. I think there are teams, for now, such as Everton, where we have to be pragmatic and understand that the likelihood of out scoring them is unlikely, and so set out to stop them scoring and frustrate them. We’re the new boys in this league and Everton will expect to beat us, as will most pundits. Use that underdog status to let other teams feel the pressure of expecting to score and win, even at Villa Park against teams we might think we should be beating. Yes we can go after some teams at Villa Park, the like of a Norwich or a Newcastle for example, but I don’t see many others at all, at this time, that we can afford to approach thinking that we should be on the front foot pressing them for wins. Let’s not destroy our confidence by being overconfident.

If the description of the potential McGinn penalty really was that, “McGinn pushes the ball too far forward and then barges into Rose”, then we really might as well scrap the VAR now. Because that’s not what the reality of replays show.

I think Sheffield Utd have more about them than Norwich, much more fight to drag a draw from the jaws of defeat, or a win from a draw. They’re better defensively, also. It’s those reasons why I think they have as good a chance of staying up as a few others.

There aren’t any obvious candidates for relegation this season IMO, other than Norwich. I honestly think you could look at 10 teams and not be sure that they could avoid a relegation fight. It’ll be tight, where 2 wins on the bounce might propel a team 5 or 6 places come January.

We will really see the true new Villa when all of our new players are up to speed and have had a couple of months under Dean Smith. They have to get used to both the speed and intensity of the league. What we saw on Saturday was encouraging, it showed we can and will score against the top teams. I’ve no doubt that had Nakamba and Douglas been fit and up to speed you’d have seen a different 2nd half on Saturday. That spurs midfield is extremely strong and athletic, and then they get to bring an Erikssen on! We’ll not be up against midfields like that too often. That said, we have to improve and will improve. As long as we can obtain enough points to stay in the mix over the next 2-3 months we’ll be fine IMO. We should keep improving with the squad we have.

First half we were ok, fortunate to come in at 1-0. 2nd half we we useless, let’s not try and dress it up. We have to use this fixture as a benchmark for what’s required moving forward.

I think one or two are merely pointing out some legitimate selection concerns. I hope I’m wildly wrong but I foresee a big potential problem with our FBs, both are ageing and both have been deemed as not good enough for Premier League a few years ago. Like I say, I hope I’m wrong.

I fear we will get over powered in midfield and not offer enough going forward from FB, so will be camped in our defensive third too much. As per Norwich last night I fear we might be too similar to the championship team of last season. Hope I’m wrong but I’m surprised at that starting 11, and not in a nice way!

Norwich didn’t spend a single penny on DM or defence on a team that conceded 57 goals in the championship. Villa have spent in the region of £80m on 6 or so players whose job is to stop goals against. Time will tell if it was money well spent.

Pukki looks to me like a rabbit in the headlights, he’s completely screwed the chances he had. I don’t know if Liverpool underestimated Norwich but they’ve offered up quite a few chances that quite a few Prem teams would have taken advantage of.

Norwich have made a huge mistake if they thought they might have enough with the team that got promoted. They cannot defend and they will struggle to score, pukki had a one off in the championship last season and will do well to bag 8 Premier League goals from what I’ve seen tonight. That aside, they’ve looked good going forward and will get relegated with pretty much the entire pot of money and parachute payments. I have to assume that’s what they’ve planned for.

1st Man City 2nd Liverpool 3rd Spurs 10th Villa Relegated; Norwich, Palace, Sheffield Utd

Spurs will likely have Sissoko, Ndombele, and Winks as their midfield 3 tomorrow, which is a really strong and athletic trio. We’ll need some real athleticism in there, and that’s why I’d go with Douglas over Hourihane to start, I’ve no concern over fitness of a 21yr old. If he gives us an all action 45mins then great, we can then rotate him with either Hourihane or Marvelous if required. Ndombele and Sissoko bring a lot of power that’ll need to be countered. Not the game for Hourihane IMO.

Subs; Steer, Hourihane, ElGhazi, Kodjia, Konsa, Marvelous, Elmo.