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mallett

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Everything posted by mallett

  1. Watkins needs Toney to have a poor game tonight. This guardian article says that Southgate has been talking up how big an opportunity it is for Toney this evening. I agree with the basic premise of the article that Watkins and Toney are competing for the same position in the squad as cover for Kane. And in that context it makes sense for Southgate to look at Toney in this game. I am a bit worried on behalf of Ollie that I don’t remember Southgate ever bigging him up in the way it suggests he has been Toney. My preference would be for Watkins obviously - as a Villa fan. I think he offers England the chance to switch how they play. Kane has been pretty immobile as a forward since his succession of ankle injuries. Earlier on in his career, Kane was well known for his pressing and work rate but physically he couldn’t play like that anymore and he showed his quality by adapting his game to drop into midfield and pick a pass whilst continuing to score. That means that on paper Toney is probably a better fit if you want the replacement for Kane to literally just be a poorer version of Kane. Someone who slots into the system so that England can play the same way. My worry would be is that this is Southgate’s preference. Whereas I would like England to switch systems entirely when Watkins is in the team, by playing with a far more fluid and mobile attacking style that makes more use of the attributes of Saka, Foden, and Bellingham. However Southgate hasn’t tried this so it’s not going to happen. Kane has never won a trophy, is that because his goals come at the expense of the overall performance of the team? Before they were scuppered by injuries Spurs looked a much better team without Kane than with him.. He joins Bayern and for the first time in goodness knows how long they are not going to win the league. For England, Kane is arguably a flat track bully perhaps he’s the reason England keep failing to make that final step up? Realistically Kane is always going to be plan A. But in my opinion Ollie should be plan B but a very different plan B. Here Southgate’s incredible Villa prejudice is an issue. He left Villa for the ‘bigger’ opportunities at Middlesbrough as a player which was weird at the time and frankly baffling with hindsight. The treatment of Grealish when he was a Villa player compared to when he was a city. Despite the media hype Pep didn’t make Grealish a better player he just taught him how to play in a different system. But Grealish was picked when he was crap for City and ignored when he was brilliant for Villa. Jack felt he would get more England opportunities playing for City rather than Villa and he was right. For these reasons Watkins needs Toney to have a stinker or be completely anonymous tonight or else I think his place in the Euro squad is in danger. I don’t want Watkins to have his confidence knocked or head turned so here’s hoping for a terrible evening for Toney.
  2. Rogers also gave away three fouls which was probably against the game plan. I think he will come good. The improvement we have seen in the defensive side of Bailey’s game shows that this management team can coach that in a player. And I think that naturally Rogers is much better defensively than Bailey, for a start he’s a real unit. This season in particular our defence has relied heavily on a brilliant off side trap and that can’t be easy for a player such as Rogers to pick up quickly. For Middlesbrough he was playing in a 10 position this season which is very different defensively compared to where he played yesterday. It should be a good learning experience for him even if it’s not been enjoyable being subbed. Unai gave him much longer on the pitch than he could have been expecting and when he substituted him it was part of a quadruple substitution that meant Rogers wasn’t the focus. Once again great management.
  3. I was only listening to the match on 5 live but the co-commentator was Mark Warburton and he was talking about Rogers being a weakness targeted by Luton for a long time before he was taken off in the second half. It was interesting to hear a professional coach / manager’s opinion. That’s not to say that he didn’t do well on the ball but the fcommentary really highlighted how often he was out of position off the ball or beaten too easily etc. And then Unai hooked him so it seemed he was thinking the same thing.
  4. According to Transfermarkt he got a cruciate ligament injury 24 August 2022. Has hardly played for us since we signed him.
  5. mallett

    Jhon Durán

    Jhon Duran has played just over 7 x 90 minutes spread over 22 matches this season. He has 4 goals, 1 assist and 5 yellow cards in all competitions this season according to transfermarkt. Ollie Watkins has just over 24 x 90 minutes spread over 28 matches. 14 goals, 10 assists and 4 yellow cards (same source.) He is getting limited game time but at a high level. For a young player he has already played a lot of matches before joining Villa so quality could be more important than quantity. He hasn’t always been available to play so his appearances could have been higher. He is getting too many yellow cards. His market value has gone up (very slightly) over his time at Villa according to transfermarkt but if he played more minutes for us in his current form it would go up more. According to transfermarkt he is the 3rd most valuable player from Colombia and 25th in the World for players born in 2003. Conclusion: He is a good back up striker to Watkins and valuable investment for the club.
  6. mallett

    Jhon Durán

    On the 5 live commentary of the Burnley match, Dean Smith said that staff at Villa had told him that Duran was an incredible talent (or words to that effect). Unai has also talked about him being a top talent. He’s on a totally different level than Davis or Delfounso - he’s already a full international. But the team is also on a much higher level which makes it harder to break into. At this stage of his career a manager is looking for him to really be growing as a professional. Putting in place the good habits that he will need as a foundation of his career.
  7. I think to some degree this is a vote on how optimistic people feel about the current Villa project. I think that a vote for the champions league shows that you believe that we are building towards becoming part of the sky 6 (7) (8?). To break into the next level of club we need regular cl qualification. This could be our breakthrough season. A vote for a cup shows you don’t quite believe in the longevity of our current success and want something in the bank to quantify it. As an old Villa fan I have seen our good teams be short lived. I voted for a cup. But this team does feel more long term than under Gregory, Taylor, Little Atkinson etc.Could entry to the cl lift us to another level like it did Spurs or do nothing as it did for Everton or Leicester?
  8. No Villa players in the England U17 World Cup squad. Chelsea and Man City have a combined total of 10. How well is our academy strategy under Mark Harrison working? The FA Youth Cup winning team, which helped give a very positive impression of the academy to us fans, was mostly recruited before our current strategy was in place. Ultimately U17 squads are not the measure, its youth players sold for a profit and players into the first team. But what sort of return are we getting on the youngsters we have recruited in the current cycle? Shakpoke didn’t work out. Kyle Pierre hasn’t been setting the world on fire, Louis Barry had turned a corner before his injury but it is by no means certain we’ll get a return on our investment, Lamare Bogarde jury’s out. Kellyman looks the most promising at this juncture. Perhaps like the first team we are looking for young prospects below the radar of the sky 6 clubs (particularly Chelsea and Citeh). Any thoughts?
  9. Highlights from Man City game on their website here: Link
  10. Just a thought but in terms of the academy do we want Chukwuemeka to be a success at Chelsea or not? If he is successful then does that encourage our next great prospect to force a move to another of the sky 6 or does it encourage more prospects to sign for us as we can offer more than one pathway to success? Conversely if he fails does that tell our best prospects stick with Villa (although Crowley’s failure at Arsenal didn’t seem to put off Carney) or does success on the pitch not really matter? Is the £20m transfer and associated financial benefits the goal that youngsters are aiming for?
  11. According to transfermarkt their record transfer fee is €200k. I don’t think they are going to be stumping up the sort of money we need them to for a permanent deal.
  12. Boro fans think that Archer has transformed their attack by creating more space for others. They think that his pace and running is scaring the opposition defence.
  13. Enjoyed the game on Villa TV. A few observations: I thought Raikhy showed some really nice touches playing cute passes and beating his man. He used to play more of a holding role in the FA Youth cup team but today was far more progressive. That may well be something he’s been doing for ages I haven’t seen him much. In my opinion he needs to impose himself on the game more to make it at the Elite level but it would be good to see him get another loan spell next season. we looked shaky at first but then our midfield controlled the game for a spell before Leeds built up a head of steam and scored the opener before halftime. After halftime we looked more dynamic on the transition with Kellyman linking play well on the left. It was a well worked goal. I thought Afoka carried very little goal threat and was often let down by a very poor first touch but occasionally held the ball up well and used his body to hold up the ball. Some good defending at times. Leeds probably deserved it but I think we would have seen a different result if we had some different strikers. Young showed glimpses of his talent but drifted out of the game too often and didn’t always have good end product. A bit like the first team we kept giving the ball away trying to play it out from the back or trying a clearance which was also a pass. Otherwise lots of good things from many of the team.
  14. mallett

    Unai Emery

    There are some long standing issues with the squad that Unai needs to look into. The ‘profiles’ of too many of our players are too similar. There’s not enough pace and height in the team. Emery is obviously aware of it as he bought two players with pace in the transfer window (although Moreno doesn’t help with the height issue). The height issue gives us some real problems at set pieces. I rate Macphee but when you look at the match ups we have to have you can see why we have such issues. We’re always having to try and be clever to make up for a basic mismatch. It’s poor squad building to allow such an imbalance which is really on Lange.
  15. Are his stats similar to Grealish at the same age? I remember explaining to an Italian friend how Grealish didn’t score many or get many assists or have much pace but that he was by far our best player
  16. If you're Emery it might make more sense to do well on Sunday against Brighton in the prem than tonight in the cup. Being mid table in the league will be more helpful in attracting players come January than still being in the cup.
  17. Team shape and tactics - Gerrard is right down there with some of the worst of our managers in terms of consistently getting the team shape and tactics wrong. It's all a long way from when he first came in and he immediately talked about changing the distances between the lines. There was a clear and immediate improvement in the team shape compared to the end of the Smith regime and the results came with it. He also recognised the need for a ball winning midfielder and utilised the previously ignored Nakamba finding a system in which the effect of his limited skills in possession were minimised. However, it was not Gerrard ball - it was not how he wanted his team to play. At Rangers his team had player with two 10s, dominated possession and had overlapping full backs providing the width. Once we got to the mid season break and the winter transfer window he set about changing the personnel (swapping Digne for Targett and bringing in Courtinho) and coaching the team into how he wanted them to play. For Villa this never worked, never good enough in possession to cause premier league clubs real problems by dominating the ball, the high pushing full backs left us open at the back to be punished time after time. The loss of Nakamba to injury meant the midfield was constantly overrun. The double ten front line meant the team had no real pace going forward allowing teams to play a higher line and more easily dominate midfield. Gradually as these tactics failed, Buendia was dropped, Courtinho and the rest of the forwards lost their confidence. But the result was a loss of identity. Then at the start of this season, the defence suddenly appeared to be completely confused as to what their roles were. This has improved in recent matches but while the defence is now more organised there is still no overall identity and the team carries virtually no attacking threat which seriously troubles a premier league team. This team has very poor running statistics and I don't think it is because they have down tools so much as nobody knows exactly what they should be doing (or else if they do know what the plan is they don't believe in it as a tactic).Today we Villa fans don't really understand what the game plan is, what sort of team we are. Damningly, the players didn't seem to know how Villa were trying to play either. Midfield - Nakamba's injury and subsequent return to the wilderness meant the bite in midfield disappeared. Gerrard identified the lack of presence as we were frequently bullied in the middle of the park (and elsewhere). Gerrard appeared to believe that McGinn could provide this muscularity (not effectively) and we then brought in Kamara (whose injury hasn't helped) but the balance of the midfield hasn't looked right all of this season. The players don't work in the combination and positions Gerrard has been playing them in. Increasing the age profile of the team - we haven't bought a load of old pros looking for their last pay day. But the gamble to buy expensive short term assets whose value can only go down (e.g. Digne, Courtinho and Carlos) in return for on field success has not paid off in anyway whatsoever. Now the three players I have just mentioned have the ring of quality to them which meant we as fans could go along with it but Bednerak and Dendonker just smell mediocre. 'Young and hungry' might have been Lambert's phrase but under Smith we looked bring in and develop players. Smith believed he could coach players and make them better and as fans you often could see that on the pitch. For Gerrard, who wanted success now, he didn't see the benefits for him in this long term progress and right now the club is going to be poorer in many different ways as as result. I would also argue that we as fans connected to the team better when they were a group of relatively young players getting better rather than the current group of players some of whom are clearly past their peak. It doesn't look like continual progress. Favourites in selection - Time and again Gerrard picked his favourites e.g. Courtinho and McGinn when their performances meant they should have been dropped. Buendia kept coming on as sub and outperforming Courtnho only to start on the bench again. It undermines players' confidence and motivation. It winds up the fans. It makes he team weaker. Giving the captaincy to McGinn, given his form was poor judgement. Loss of Beale I can't see that the team looked amazingly well coached last season before Beale left so it is not that I think he was irreplaceable. However, Beale leaving and Critchley not being able to go on the Preseason tour was an issue. I think it is the reason the team looked so unorganised defensively at the start of the season. That missing passport has probably contributed to Villa's issues. Gerrard has probably been a bit too frank with the media about his reliance on his coaching staff. At Man Utd, Ferguson survived for so long because he was very reliant on coaching staff to do the day to day coaching for him. But nobody thought of it as an issue to use against him. He needs to portray this better in his next job. Where else did Gerrard go wrong?
  18. I like Cash and think he is better defensively than KKH. But KKH has pace and our side really needs some if we’re not going to fall back into some of last season’s ruts. Plus if we are using the full backs to provide the width and overloads for the attack KKH is made for it in a way that Cash never will be. In midfield if the fullbacks are pushing up we need some midfielders who can cover. If we want to keep the ball then they also need to be able to pass the ball. Kamara doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to cover all of the defensive holes on his own. Which is why I plumped for Tim. He passes the ball better than Nakamba but is better at cover than Luiz. I don’t think that Gerrard will ever pick my team but it’s quite hard with our current players to pick an eleven which works well together.
  19. What about 4 2 3 1 with the following: Martinez KKH Chambers Carlos Digne Kamara Iroegbunam Bailey Buendia Coutinho Watkins I don’t think Gerrard would ever pick it but I was trying to pick a side with good balance. It’s got pace, goals link up from front to back, defensive cover, playing out from the back and a mixture of youth and experience.
  20. Who are the kids with Carney and Guilbert?
  21. The Leeds game was pretty ‘competitive’ neither team was quite up to the speed they would be mid season but there was plenty of pressing, professional fouls, blatant fouls and a little bit of the dark arts from both teams. Bouba showed a lot of quality. It seemed to me that he likes to throw a shape before receiving the ball and then takes the ball in the other direction deceiving the pressing player and helping him to receive the ball under pressure. His long passes were well weighted and he played some incisive angles. At times he seemed to invite the press before playing a simple pass. He knows when to play for a foul as well so isn’t totally naive in the dark arts. I think the speed and intensity of the premier league will take him some adjusting too. Teams might try to set traps for his habit of inviting pressure.Against Leeds he easily played out of it but a couple of mistakes in the first part of the season and his confidence will be affected and some of the more fickle of our fan base will be on his back. He doesn’t have lots of pace so needs to be well positioned so he needs to know what his role is in the team is and the team need to be well coached. But overall he looked a really top quality player. Bit of a shame Critchley isn’t out there as one of the things he was praised for when his Blackpool team won promotion was their defensive record despite an injury crisis which resulted in a huge number of players being used in defence. Seems everyone knew their role and what the system was. That sort of defensive clarity would help both Bouba and Carlos be successful this season.
  22. That was a good England squad to miss out on.
  23. A lot of emotions on this thread which seems to have blinded people to some important issues. Firstly it’s important that Carney signs because otherwise the long term strategy of the club is in tatters regardless of whether he goes on to make it or not. He was the best prospect from the FA Youth Cup win last season. If the club can’t keep hold of him when they want to then it calls into question the whole long term strategy of looking to compete with the big boys through developing our own superstars. This is the long term plan for sustainability. That plan only works if top youth talent is going to stay on with us.The owners can’t continue with the current levels of investment in the first team in the long term as there’s no return and we will have problems with FFP. So we need this to work. Secondly perhaps because there is so much emotion but we don’t seem to be viewing his performances objectively. Nobody seems to have mentioned his role in Buendia’s goal against Burnley but he made a little dart which took the central defender out of the way so that Buendia was free to score. He isn’t a natural presser of the ball but over the course of the season has improved and is clearly putting the effort in. Currently his positioning isn’t always right for the collective press. However He is making progress off the ball which is necessary if he’s to make it. He hasn’t yet started to express himself and show what he can really do in possession. At youth level he is incredible driving with the ball with a nice weight of pass and an eye for a goal. In youth games, he’s got a great physicality coupled with a superb technique which elevates him above his peers. He has clearly been working in the gym to try to make the jump necessary to be physically imposing at first team level. That’s going to take a while but if he continues he should be in a place to start showing us what he can do on the ball. And if he begins doing that we will have an incredible player on our hands. So far he hasn’t done it and some great prospects never do but he is still very young. We should also remember how long it took Jacob Ramsey to start to show what he could do. He played a fair bit last season but didn’t really bring much to the team beyond energy and the pressures which go with it plus tidy but not incisive passing. This season he has really kicked on. We should be hoping for the same from Carney. Finally (and this is pure speculation) I think that he has already signed and that is why we’ve seen him back in the first team.
  24. One thing which I think is missing in this conversation is that we haven’t discussed the fact that Carney hasn’t really kicked on this season in the way he looked like he was going to last season. He was the standout player in the FA Youth cup win. In the first team however he hasn’t actually really shown us what he has got. At his best at youth level he destroys teams with his attacking play. At senior level that side of his game hasn’t really featured. More worryingly his defensive game looks lackadaisical and ineffective when in flashes he shows that he has the physical attributes to do much better. There was only that one substitute appearance when he put his foot in and helped change the game. So I guess my point is that from Carney’s side he needs to feel that he is going to kick on as a player at Villa to sign a new contract and at the moment that isn’t really happening to the degree it should be.
  25. Trezeguet has only been at the club while we have been in the premier league so he can’t take any credit for promotion! He was vital in keeping us in the premier league in the first season back up. He had a terrible season last season as he had nasty head cut, Covid and then did his ACL which meant through no fault of his own he hardly played.
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