DJBOB

For as poor as he's been in spells, Diaby is 3rd on the team in overall npxG+xAG. Still providing some end product. I think the build up part of his game is the weakest right now as he's a bit of a passenger (like Tielemans) when opponents try to press us high. But when we've got the ball, he's been pretty useful in the final third.

Wonder how long it will be until they can start seizing his assets.

To be fair, West Ham are very good on se pieces and have one of the best set piece takers in the country. But apart from the West Ham game, we have a pattern of being unable to clear the first ball (especially in the near post area - and this was the Mings speciality), and then being hampered at the back post with the mismatches others have talked about (Tielemans on Soucek, Kamara on Maguire, etc etc) as well as having too much space at the top of the box because we've committed 3/4 zonal players at the front post with everyone else man marking (Newcastle's goals at home). While there are some structural problems - we just did not have these problems last year with Mings. There were shades of this problem (Stevenage goal FA Cup, Arsenal winner) but a lot of that was cut out and it's not like we have a completely different set up than we had last year. But last year, we had Mings take care of all the problems at the front post and now we have Watkins who's half a foot shorter.

This some of the silliest things I've read. And there is a very direct line in Boeing's acquisition of McDonnell Douglas, the replacement of their board from engineers to business functions, and the prioritization of profits and share price over quality. There's a certain party that loves to tout reducing regulations and then acting Pikachu shocked when there's more accidents as a result of reduced regulations.

Great visualization and again - United would have to suddenly transform into a title winning form to overtake us. It is Villa - so anything is possible - but just so unlikely I can't even bother worrying about it.

Frimpong defends the same way Moreno does so I'm not entirely he would solve some of our defensive problems from the fullback position.

Scored more goals than Tonev. Can't be that bad!

I think it’s very dependent on the team we’re playing. Ajax and Forest didn’t trouble us at all. But other teams with better set pieces have been giving us problems. So credit to them but the advantage we had (Mings) last year means that we will lose set piece situations to better set piece teams.

As each game passes, it becomes increasingly unlikely that United will catch us. The results of the UCL/UEL/UECL quarter finals will really paint a clear picture going into the last 5 matches of how many points everyone will need for the various European places.

Per fbref - We've given up 8 goals from dead balls - tied for last with Luton, Forest, and Sheffield. And remember that Luton are equally prolific at attacking set pieces but pants at defending them as well so this idea that because we're good at attacking set pieces means we should be good at defending them doesn't really hold water. In counter-point, we are second in the league at scoring from set pieces with 7 - again tied with Luton, Tottenham, and you guess it - West Ham. Arsenal lead with a staggering 15.

We use a combination of zonal/man marking that leaves us vulnerable to mismatches and open space at the back post and top of the box.

It's not just height but it's a large part of it. It's height and a combination of the profile of our defenders.

Carlos is not much better and while I also thought he would be more physical, he seems to be closer to Konsa. Mings was our out and out defender first mentality and did it all in our own box. We did not have these problems last year and had to hold on to only a 1 goal lead several times with Mings the ever present in defending our box. Even though we eventually gave up the 1-1 equalizer to Liverpool away last year, Mings still won MOTM from just clearing every cross and corner and pass out of our box.

And maybe a case for Digne over Moreno - Digne: Moreno:

Lenglet: Konsa: Pau: Not exactly leading the league in aerials won from any of our defenders.

We work set pieces very well that allows us to open up certain pockets for players like Ollie to have a free jump. Ollie or whoever is scoring isn't exactly towering over their markers. We use a combination of picks and screens to free up Ollie at the front post or others at the back post. But when the ball comes into our box - they do a combination of crowding out Emi and then just bullying our players.

3 games we must win. Wolves, Brentford, Bournemouth. All at home and will go a long way to hold off United.

The thing is it’s hard to work to get into position. He’s going to work hard to get in behind or in front of his marker to feet 10x and maybe receive the ball once or twice. Right now, he’s young and gives up once he doesn’t get the ball a few times but that doesn’t stop the best strikers. Needs to work on his movement over and over again knowing he won’t get the ball most of the time.

Most strikers, even in Unai’s system, will have the least amount of touches on the team. The thunderblasts are amazing but the majority of the match for him is played off the ball and he’s got a long way to go to come close to matching Ollie.

Think he was much less hesitant and was getting away from players. Much more to come from Moussa and the right approach from Unai to keep backing him instead of coming down hard on him. This is just a confidence, position, and adaptation issue. There’s a baller in there; just have to get him rolling.

To be fair, think he’s hardly played RCB in his career. Got a useless right leg.

Cash-Konsa-Pau-Digne makes much more sense and looked much better. And I don’t think starting that back 4 is a big stretch - it’s all players in their natural positions. It just goes back to me thinking that he needs to just put some trust in certain players and keep them in their best positions instead of trying to jigsaw a certain XI in.

And to be clear, the change at HT was an indicator that he also didn’t like the lineup. That he recognized and made the right changes is what makes him elite over the buffoons we’ve had before. So this isn’t a Unai lost the plot, it’s just that I think he should trust players in their best positions instead of trying to force a certain XI on the pitch.

I don’t know. I think some basics are ignored in these lineups. And I don’t even mind the midfield choice given injuries. But this insistence on playing Lenglet at RCB with no right foot then Konsa at RB where he’s been subpar for weeks now continues to be a problem. The same thing when he tried Cash at RM for multiple matches. This was a criticism of his Arsenal days, that he would pick weird lineups and tinker instead of trusting players in their best positions. He’s done it a lot less at Villa but two league matches in a row, he’s tinkered instead of trusting his players.

It is making a mess of it but he’s good enough to recognize what was wrong. It’s just baffling for me that a manger of his quality is putting out lineups that are wrong on paper. Luckily he’s done so well to afford us some room to make mistakes like that but he will need to cut it out to keep us at 4th place.