DJBOB
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Everything posted by DJBOB
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He was plenty frustrating even before his injury so he'll have his detractors post-injury still. That being said, sometimes I wish we had non top six Buendia in the side too. Would just solve a lot of the problems we have in the build up.
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He was handed a start at Ajax away and then came in instead of Chambers. Little doubt in my mind that it's going to be Tim's shirt to earn.
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It would be close to as bad of a collapse as you can get. Spurs were 8 points ahead last year and had to go onto 1 PPG collapse during the last 10 matches and we had to go 2 PPG to overtake them and we still needed a win on the last day. Obviously not impossible. Since the new year we have a 1.62 PPG over 8 matches. We don’t need to be particularly great the last 10 matches to get 70 points.
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Ah I was talking about Chambers in the DM spot. I think Luiz should stay as the box to box as the Tim is more athletic and can battle the ball. He rarely plays as the lone 6 and will typically have 3 CB’s covering.
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Porto showing how to attack this Arsenal team. Have to get at them down the flanks where they're weakest.
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Unfortunately everyone else in Europe is looking for the same thing. One of the hardest positions to upgrade on. Only so many people that can fit that profile.
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Funnily enough - we were in a much more dire situation after the international break in March last year. 11 matches left and we were 5 points behind 7th place Liverpool at the time. We still had to go 7-2-2, 2.09 PPG just to get 7th. Conversely, Spurs were in 5th and ahead by 8 points and complete collapsed. So I guess the moral of the story there is we need to be about average (1.5 PPG) to get over the 70 point line.
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Coefficient FC!
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Yeah it's a race unlike any of the others in most people's living memories. The last person to try to serve nonconsecutive terms was Teddy Roosevelt. And while the polling has been off - it starts getting into unlikely territory at +/- 5%...but not impossible! Florida 2020 was off by 5.8 points Ohio was off by 7.4 points Iowa was off by 8 points Michigan was off by 5 points Now - they were all off to the direction of Trump so that isn't promising. We can only hope that the selective responses mean the polling is all off towards Biden this year. It's going to be close.
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I mean it would just be going around in circles. We don't have the players to be "robust" defensively. We can trap, we can force uncomfortable situations and make them play a certain way. But we are about 4 elite defenders short of being 'robust' defenders.
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Nah I'm still a believer. Unai just needs to go back to trusting the team. 5th at worst - but I think 4th. 6th would require both a monumental collapse by us and an incredible run by United.
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That's always the argument on the 532 but it's hardly ever the case and requires exceptional wingbacks. That's why you'll only really see it in some Italian sides where the pace of the game isn't so outrageous. It's the same arguments when Lambert did the 532. When Deano did the 532. It never bears out in the prem. Tuchel and Conte both tried to go with a heavily wingback formation 352 and were run out of the prem because they do not have the elite wingbacks with absurd stamina to make it possible.
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I do think he is a tactical maestro but he's not invulnerable to making mistakes. It is a good point that he went with 5 because he didn't believe in a 4, but not for the first time this season - he has gone to tactical hijinx in order to try and solve the problem (defenders not good enough, midfielders not good enough, various injuries and suspensions). It is sometimes a failing for someone as tactically astute as Unai to try and outthink his way to solve our problems. When we have played the way we're supposed to play - we have, at the minimum - including the Sheffield home game, at least controlled the game. When he has deviated and tried something else (Chelsea cup fixtures, Newcastle home, Spurs away 1st half and home, any of the Cash RM formations) - it has been disastrous. To quote you - sometimes we would be better served if we just lined up and tried to outduel the opponents at hand. We might lose, but at least we'll give our players a fighting chance. Unai has sometimes been the architech of our own problems facing the press by tinkering around with the squad in an effort to "manage" the game. Chelsea at home and Newcastle at home - he played Tielemans and McGinn as the wide mids - which predictably resulted in us getting overrun Bournemouth away - played Tielemans in the double pivot and suffered greatly as a result Tottenham away - Cash at RM disaster Wolves away - Cash at RM disaster again Liverpool away - Cash at RM disaster again This isn't some giant misattribution of our players. It's Unai tinkering and fielding these suboptimal lineups. He should trust in certain players to perform a job. McGinn won't be as good as Kamara. Diaby might not be as good Bailey. Zaniolo might not be as good as JJ. But fielding this weird lineups and sacrificing the system in an effort to hide certain players has not served us well.
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Respectfully disagree. The 532 explicitly allows the opponent to outnumber us in the midfield - hence the sparse marking and rare pressing. There are almost 0 sides that use the 532 as an effective press.
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Don’t necessarily disagree but I found it impossible to ignore our shape when we set out. Literally eyes popping out of my head out of disbelief. Spurs, in much the same way, are terrible defenders when asked to do a lot of defending and yet we asked them to do nothing. I think if you took a poll of Villa fans, the last thing they would say about this season is that we are resolute defenders in our own half and yet that’s we set out to try and do.
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Does Unai go for it or are we going to try to manage it over the line? Not entirely sure what I expect to see but I would go… Cash - Lenglet - Pau - Digne Diaby - Tim - McGinn - Zaniolo Tielemans - Watkins Almost tempted to throw Kellyman on for Youri to get some athleticism up front.
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He played 30 minutes as DM vs Palace at home last year when Kamara went out injured while we were 1-0 up and acquitted himself okay. He also played DM Burnley away 3-1 under Gerrard. So in that sense, he's a serviceable DM against Championship sides which is fair enough. Unfortunately, only 3 of our last 10 matches are against bottom half sides
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There's a lot in that and I know Unai asked for a lot but as soon as we set out the way we did, I knew it was rather inevitable what would happen. It seeps into the players mentality to just "hang on" and try to get a point. For me - I'd have rather got smashed playing the way we know we play rather than get smashed playing something even the players didn't fully believe in. I get that they're tired and fatigued but the last thing I would want to do if I was exhausted is somehow play a completely different system and style (cautious, defensive) instead of the one I've played all year. So for as fatigued as we are, Unai didn't help the players out with his choices. And I can only hope that it was just a one time thing. Just thinking back - the reversion to the 532 has always ended in disaster. Lambert switching to the 532 was waving the white flag despite the one good performance (Liverpool away with the Weimann backheel). I don't remember in the championship years since Bruce doesn't care about tactics but the same thing then happened under Deano. Went with his 5 back to try and accommodate all his inform CB's (Mings, Hause, and Konsa at the time) and despite getting a win at United away - it all fell apart after that. Gerrard may not have switched to a 532 but he definitely defaulted to a "keep it tight, hit it long" strategy once Beale left and he forgoed playing it out the back. I don't agree with @Risso's conclusion but Spurs match pissed me off more than getting hammered by Newcastle and Liverpool to start the season, our kind of half-ass displays Sheffield at home and any number of cup games and even getting beat again by Newcastle and United at home. So I just sincerely hope it was a gamble by Unai and we're back to normal service despite all our injuries and suspensions.
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This is the kind of worrying part because it looks like it will be a close election +/- 1-2% either way. Hillary won the popular vote by 1.9% but lost the key states. Biden is determined not to make the same mistake with the blue firewall in the north but the polling there is bleaker than the general election results. Still plenty of time to turn it around and if it was within the margin of error - that would be one thing - but despite all of the polling misfires, a polling error of +/- 5% would be on the far unlikelier side. RCP rolling average in the swing states: Wisconsin +1 Trump Arizona +5.5 Trump Georgia +6.2 Trump Michigan +3.6 Trump Pennsylvania +0.8 Biden North Carolina +5.5 Trump Nevada +7.7 Trump He could still lose Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada and win with 273 with the slimmest of margins but he has to make up ground in Michigan where he's getting hurt by his pro-Israel stance (and the baffling conclusion that Trump would be the anti-war vote).
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Despite our form and injuries, it's just really hard for me not to see 15 points somewhere here. But to true Villa style, we will probably leave it late for Palace. Agree largely with this. And even that would be incredibly optimistic.
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Formation change to be more defensive. I think kind of goes back to a little bit of what we're talking about and we both kind of agree on. We're good at certain things, and not so good at others. So we should focus on doing the things we're good at (baiting the press, high line and offside trap, getting 1v1s for Watkins and Bailey) instead of the things we're not so good at (defending deep, trying to win duels with our undersized players, ceding possession). For whatever reason, Unai came up with a gameplan that was antithetical to what we had planned all year. Why? Only he will know. I'm hoping it was a risk that didn't pay off instead of a semi-permanent change. At :35 in the video, you can see McGinn pointing to Cash even though he's nowhere near the ball because he knows where the spare man will be. Against Spurs, the players were very hesitant because they were playing a system completely different than what they were used to. That's fine if you're in the middle of a managerial change, or if you're like an Ancelotti with high IQ players that can interchange positions. But you're still playing in largely the same structure. But playing almost 70 matches one way and then suddenly switching it for a high pressure game is probably one of the more baffling pieces of management I've seen under Unai so far.
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The answer is no. And Tim coming on for the Spurs game instead of Chambers should be a clear indication of the pecking order.
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Claims for Chambers at DM will go out the window quick the first time you see him trying to cover any player that can sprint faster than a light jog.
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Nah, the leg kick is what does it for me. John typically goes for the shoulder or arse barge, which never gets a red. But the leg sweep is old fashioned. I like it but to argue it’s not a red is through c and b glasses.
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MNF had a good tactico on the Spurs pressing structure. For me - I think teams are figuring out that they can easily roll Tielemans and that they are actively shaping the press AWAY from Pau and towards Konsa. The lack of Kamara in front of Konsa means that it becomes he and Cash's primary responsibility to build out from the back and they've been falling short of it. Consider the second goal for Spurs where they were quite content letting Konsa have the ball until he made a mistake.
