KangarooVillan

A season is always mixed - Liverpool dropped a tonne of points against teams like Brighton, Burnley, Newcastle and Fulham. Sometimes it happens - the PL is stiff competition these days. It’s a stretch to state this as evidence for an underlying issue. In terms of big, you’ve taken my words too literally... I said a big defensive presence - that’s what you’re after right? A defensive minded player? I never said they have to be literally big. The bit I’ve bolded though is the bit that’s incredibly frustrating. Nakamba is limited and might not be everything people want, but the idea he gets dispossessed too often is a myth. His dispossession stats are better than Bissouma and Doucoure who people are keen on to fill that role. I’m all for people putting forward players that will improve us based on a solid rationale, but often people just want a shiny new player based on some hollow qualitative analysis and want to fix an issue with another player who’s no better at that particular component of the game. Hence, I have no doubts that if we dropped £50 mil on Bisouma or £15 mil on Doucoure, the same people would be complaining they get dispossessed too often in 6 months time. Again, I’ll back Smith and co in with what’s best, worth mentioning again they literally have not let us down yet.

I think we’re talking about 2 different things here. My response was to a poster saying that we need to spend all the Grealish money ASAP - so I was talking about marquee signings. In regards to my thoughts on a new DM, I’ll back Smith and co’s judgement on that one. The things that I can’t really get around in my head as to how a DM would help are: - That midfield area has sparkled before and it was mostly the same personnel - Our defensive record was very good last year so we must be doing something okay - If people think a big defensive presence is what’s lacking, although Nakamba doesn’t have the passing range we’re after, he is very good defensively and it still didn’t help on the weekend - The goals scored on the weekend had very little to do with our defence in the middle of the park - the damage was mostly done in wide areas I agree with you about a need to control things in the middle of the park, although I can’t help but I think we may already have that if we play a 433 and can get a combination of Sanson, McGinn, Luiz and Nakamba on the park.

Having players who are too similar in a given position or part of the pitch is a different issue to whether or not we need to go spend all the Jack money now. I agree there’s a sameness through the middle of the park, arguably the only formation that seems to facilitate the players we have is a 433, but then that raises a whole host of questions in terms of where does Buendia, Ings and Watkins fit in - someone has to drop out. My concern is that some on here think money will fix the issue and we need 3-4 big new signings to be competitive - I can guarantee if we do that the squad will be all at sea until the second half the season. Player cohesion and culture in the dressing room is real and vital to success.

I literally said it - in practical terms, an established culture is the difference between Arsenal and Leicester. Look at the way Ferguson used to run his ManU teams. Investment is a given, but the investment in marquee player after marquee player isn’t the answer. All it does is give short-sighted fans a little hot of dopamine to get them through to next week, just so they can slag off said player by the halfway point of the season.

Mate, sometimes just spending more cash is not the answer. I don’t get it, people on here who are like ‘we need more players’ need to look no further than Arsenal. They have a team of players that cost more than our record signing, yet they finished 3 places above us. Why? Because they don’t know what they stand for. There’s no established culture and the players have NFI what they’re playing for or who they’re playing for. Compare that to Leicester. When you just throw money and marquee signings at the problem you don’t fix the problem, or, worse you risk losing the team dynamics and culture that got you to where you were in the first place. The only way to retain it is good leadership and to roll players in over time. I’m not saying there’ll be no more signings, but as it stands we have about 5 new players who will feature in the match day squad. That’s already ~25% of the squad who are new faces and who need to be integrated into the Villa dynamics and culture - no small task considering Ings, Bailey and Tuanzabe have been around for 2 weeks or less. Be patient, trust in the process, we literally haven’t been let down so far. UTV

He’s not really a DM but actually if I think about it he’s basically JWP regen but bigger and stronger.

People really don’t seem to understand the difference between an aspiration and an expectation. We may not be good enough this year to meet our aspirations (we will see), but stating the owners and the board expect it as some sort of KPI is a leap too far - you have nothing to assume that.

The flippancy

At least 2, maybe 3 if there’s a steady improvement.

Goals and aspirations are different to expectations.

I haven’t seen anything to suggest the owners expect Europe this season. I think the owners want Europe as soon as possible, but nothing to indicate that if we finish 9th or 10th Smith is in trouble. Especially considering the changes and preparation this off-season.

Based on??

Was Buendia playing under Deano for the bulk of his career?? Nope. Smith likes the inverted wingers - we had Traore on the right and Jack on the left. Norwich played a different system - Bailey will be on the right, and unless he’s central Buendia will spend most of his time on the left.

Buendia - right footer = LW in smiths system. Same as JPB. IDK why this is so difficult for people to understand.

Really hope this does not get done.

I think you’ve misunderstood the concept of replace...

That’s pretty hollow IMO - the standard in the Prem vs international is chalk and cheese - you can see players aren’t used to playing together regardless of talent. The only exception are maybe teams like Belgium where the squad has been around for a long long time with largely the same core group. Additionally, it doesn’t touch on culture - what is Villa’s DNA if half the match day squad has only been there for 3 months?? The culture changes, becomes transient and undoes a lot of the work from the past 2 years. I don’t think any of us want that.

Lol, my bad. - - - - - - - - - the joke me what the hell happened to gifs??

I just think that’s too many. We’re arguably already at 3-4 first 11-18 signings. Another 3 would take us to 7. That’s a turnover of almost half of your match day squad which is way too many to maintain culture and match day cohesion. We will be back where we were in 19/20, albeit with more talented players.

I I don’t think we want that do we? I’d rather have the success and do it through sustainable player development as opposed to paying £60 million for a player to sit on the bench within 2 seasons.

I’m glad it’s not just me... Your second point is a good one as well - I sense some seriously dodgy stats are going on behind the scenes. Could someone who has Twitter call this guy out??

The ‘prog’ column is the one you want to look at - only looks at carries forward greater than x distance (I think it’s 5 yards from memory)

Lol I would hope they’re doing a bit more than Venn diagrams too tbh

I actually think this venn is lying through its teeth. Can someone pls explain how Sarr is not in the >75th percentile for progression but Cheick is considering the below? Venn: https://mobile.twitter.com/GoalAnalysis/status/1424786702045007880/photo/2

Would prefer Pape Sarr tbh. We do have a habit of linking a similar player when we’re trying to shake another from the tree...