KangarooVillan

2 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

Depressingly, he will be… likely much longer…

We’re stuck with this shit.

I’d be pleasantly surprised and shocked for us to get rid and actually get a proper manager in that does more than just delegate and talk shit.

Surely can’t be much longer - his form last season was no better than Smith’s and he got sacked. This season seems more of the same.

2 minutes ago, Philosopher said:

They have hardly had a look at the opposition third of the pitch. They have been waltzing through us. Kamara has also been missing his interceptions and being out hustled. Our midfield and fullbacks have been terrorised.

They haven’t had a look but they’ve been asked to be there because Gerrard wants them to. You watch any of the long balls - fullbacks are in Crystal Palace’s half cause that’s what Gerrard wants and as a result their in and away.

Just now, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Well i've been one of them haven't I?

But there is only so much patience one can have.

It's not even the result at this point ffs.

It's everything else.

I've gone from cautiously optimistic to shit scared.

No need to be scared as long as decisive action is taken 

2 minutes ago, Philosopher said:

Cash and McGinn have been absolutely destroyed. Our right hand side has been murdered!

It’s because they’re asked to play in the oppositions box

Players ain’t the problem.

The amount of 2-5m pointless passes shows that whatever the players are being coached to do - it’s not spreading the field enough which makes us very easy to defend and hence when the ball is turned over there’s space for them everywhere. This is why it seems so easy to play through our midfield.

When was the last time you saw us switch the ball into space? 

Additionally Gerrard wants to play a possession game but because the spread is so bad we have no choice but to play it in our own half. You watch any of the decent possession teams and they play possession ball primarily in the opponents half but cause we can’t spread the pitch we don’t have this option. 

Bailey not being utilised to his strengths, Cash being asked to play a superhuman impossible role in defending back but also being the primary attacking width on the right.

Mings has been good bar the drag he did in our box. Buendia been decent.

Konsa has been garbage and does Ollie even press anymore? What happened to that?

I still don’t understand why people blame the players - Gerrard is not a tactician - this was something we knew when he signed and it shows.

On 19/08/2022 at 22:22, duke313 said:

Who's are these stats for?

Duje Ćaleta-Car

4 hours ago, villaglint said:

Chalobah is a no from me. He's one of the only players to make Watkins look decent last year. Got subbed at half time if I remember. 

 

Wasn’t that his first or second game in the prem? Got better after that IIRC

16 hours ago, Aston_Villan4 said:

Statistically he’s fairly mediocre at defending but we all know stats are meaningless…

Lol mediocre is an understatement 

18 hours ago, nick76 said:

I agree and unfortunately with the injury to Carlos we are now only one quality player better in Kamara in the first XI than we were in the second half of last season when we were poor.

Said it before, if our only improvement this year is coming from Carlos and Kamara we’re already up sh** creek.

Need the gameplan to have improved, the players to be better at playing it, and improvement out of the players we already had last season to stand a chance.

BuY mOrE pLaYeRs just ain’t the solution here.

2 hours ago, villan501 said:

Spot on that midfielder who can keep the ball and pass is vital for villa this year. Kamara looks quality but with mcginn and Ramsey giving the ball away we Will crumble.

 

Mcginn is petrified of the ball he gets it and panics.

Didn’t he have like an 87% pass rate from the w/e?????

2 hours ago, VillaAlex said:

We need pace imo, would really have loved Sarr but doesn't suit our system. 

We have pace and it didn’t start on the weekend

3 minutes ago, AshVilla said:

A sackable offence?

Head shaveable offence

Looked decent last season with Mings.

Really think he can make RCB his own now.

37 minutes ago, TRO said:

I agree with the frustration, I share it.

But I can rarely think of a time, going to VP where I agreed with every selection, under umpteen managers......I can count on one hand the managers who picked  the players, I fancied, in total.

He obviously see's something in Phil, like we all have.....but right now his form has deserted him.....Emi is wrestling with a niggle, and on Saturdays display, he has to play, his industry and pugnaciousness, is crucial to the team.

Managers have a much wider, set of criteria to manage, we have to trust them to do their job.

I think Emi has played himself back in.....but 90 odd minutes, is what he must find to convince the manager......I know Phil must too.

Thoughts if Buendia doesn’t start this week?

16 hours ago, pacbuddies said:

I'm not prepared to give Slippy G a free pass for the rest of the season just because Diego Carlos is injured. Quality teams just carry on regardless. Anything lower than European qualification is total failure in my opinion.

Agreed, was Craig Dawson the only CB that wasn’t out for a long period at West Ham last year?

Would love to see him come off the left of a 3 in a 4-2-3-1. 

Gallagher came on for Chelsea - is he even gettable now? Seems to keen to fight for his spot at this stage anyway, and I doubt minutes would make the desire any weaker.

8 minutes ago, TRO said:

so he's limited, then?

As I said in my OP, it seems like he’s playing too far in his head and not playing on instincts - we’ve seen him be very good at this 2 seasons ago - might just be desperately out of form, might be a managerial issue in terms of clarity or maybe his year 2 seasons ago was the exception as opposed to the norm.

Ultimately if he doesn’t fix this he’s limited, yes.

No wonder Luiz wants out - were a graveyard of Brazilian careers due to serious injuries

Just now, TRO said:

your second line seems to challenge, your first line.

If a striker is running at Ezri 1v1 I still think he’s the best defender.

When it comes to positioning as part of a team defence his game awareness and by extension positioning gets him caught out a lot.

19 hours ago, duke313 said:

We simply have too. With Carlos potentially out, we will likely start the Palace game with only one new player in the starting XI. That is unacceptable.

If our only improvement this year is coming from Carlos and Kamara were already up sh** creek.

Need the gameplan to have improved, the players to be better at playing it, and improvement out the players we already had last season to stand a chance.

21 hours ago, Follyfoot said:

I wish we had been in for that new Everton number 8 who came on. He looks some player and would’ve been perfect for us

The one who got pickpocketed and handed us the second goal??

3 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I think the formation is too narrow to work.  I think Rangnick tried something similar last season at Man Utd and was awful.  Our midfield is too weak already and get overran a lot.  Not saying this is less midfielders but not sure tactically it gives us strength in the midfield area which is already our weak point.  I also think we are already struggling with width so having even less width would not be a great idea. 

Fair enough - sometimes I look at our squad and everything seems to point to a desire to play with 2 holding midfielders with 4 attacking players in front of the e.g. 4-2-3-1.

All of Ramsey, McGinn, Bailey, Buendia, Coutinho, Watkins, Ings have better attacking qualities than they do defensive.

I would love to see Big Tim step up next to Kamara in the 2 in holding midfield - he has all the qualities.

Unfortunately as well, until he does probably no point signing someone for that role as will block his development.

3 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Wouldn’t work they would naturally end up too narrow playing 4-2-2-2 and we’d be destroyed down the wings plus McGinn isn’t going to be dropped now he’s captain.

One of the CAM roles would actually suits McGinn to a tee - just wasn’t sure who he would start over out of Ramsey and Buendia.

What would everyone think of a 4-2-2-2?

Ings                                      Watkins/Bailey

          Ramsey              Buendia

Kamara                            Luiz/Ireogbunum

Digne       Mings.        Chambers.       Cash

                         Martinez