mallett

I would much prefer Benrahma over Trezeguet. One of the issues for us at the moment is that unless Wesley turns out to be a lot more productive in front of goal than he has so far in his career where are the goals coming from? We need our wide men chipping in as Jack and McGinn are not prolific. In that respect Hourihane brings a better balance to the team than McGinn. I see Benrahma scoring more than Trezeguet.

I would love to see him come to Villa but Lampard starting at Chelsea and their transfer ban makes it feel very unlikely. The transfer window closing before the start of the season doesn't help. When players like Ampadu saw for themselves who the manager was picking for the team at the start of the season, they would suddenly see through all the 'you're an important part of my plans' and want to go out on loan like Tammy did last year.

Do people on here think we play 4 1 4 1 or 4 3 3? Either way we need a really good DCM. For 4 1 4 1 the DCM really is the pivot for the team. They need to be a player who really reads the game well and has the character and skill set to dictate play. This coaching website talks about the basics of the 4 1 4 1 formation Link. A lot of the qualities described for the striker are those we read about Wesley having. It’s exciting to see who we are going to sign. One of Smith’s obvious qualities which few remark on is he is very intelligent. I think we are going to be using some of the data metrics used by Brentford some of which are speculated about here The article looks at why Benrahma had stats which suggested he would be a good buy for Brentford and Stats which suggested Hogan would be a good sell. Hopefully we are doing this stuff for the players we’re buying now.

I am not sure about us signing Marvellous as he is left footed. With Jack preferring to play on the left and Hourihane and McGinn both being left footed I was hoping we would go for a right footed DCM

I thought I would do a little analysis of our playing staff while thinking about who we need over the summer. Today I have looked at the goalkeepers. I can't say that I have reached any conclusion different from any of the other fans on here have but here are my thoughts: Goalkeepers Overall – Although we don’t seem to have a really top quality keeper, we already seem overstocked in this department and I don’t expect us to invest again when there are so many other greater needs. The only way I could see us making a move for a better keeper was if we were able to move on some of our current keepers for a decent fee which seems unlikely this window. Mark Bunn (34) – contract (2019) – third rate keeper who has never looked good enough for the first team. Verdict: Expect him to leave on a free transfer. Matjia Sarkic (21) – contract (2020) – Youth team keeper. With Nyland expected to return to fitness in the summer, unless one of the three keepers ahead of him leaves he won’t even have the role of third keeper. Verdict: Sarkic might be best advised to go out on loan to get some experience. That way he could show Villa he is worth a new contract or other clubs that he can make it. Jed Steer (26) – contract (2020) – Is he a premier league keeper? Reads the game well and comes to the edge of his box quickly. Distribution is OK and has a long kick on him. Good handling. Has the occasional clanger in him but has not been punished for them this year. Good shot stopper but then we all expect that! Needs to dominate a crowded area better. Has built up a good rapport with the rest of the current defence. Verdict: Should be fighting for the No.1 spot. Villa should extend his contract so we can either keep him or get a fee when he moves on. Orjan Nyland (28) – contract (2021) – looked out of his depth after a few matches in the championship, was rooted to his line to such an extent that the admittedly feeble backline in front of him and the fans lost confidence in him. Was showing some improvement under Cutler’s coaching before his injury. Has the best distribution of any of our keepers but needs to have radically improved taking high balls, crosses and coming out of the 6 yard box to even be a consideration in the prem. Verdict Likely to be staying as his injury would make it hard to move him on over the summer. I would expect him to be unhappy with being no.3 keeper which is all I would see him as. Lovre Kalinic (28) – contract (2023) – Hasn’t really shown us what he can do. For someone of his height he didn’t show us a real dominance in the air but he did look slow getting down to some low shots. His distribution was noticeably not as good as Nyland’s when he arrived but he did look better in other departments. The defence as a whole did improve when he got injured and Steer came in. However, he hadn’t had time to settle and didn’t play enough games before his injury to really judge his ability. He does have the advantage of being a Smith signing so Smith may be more inclined to persevere with him to back his own judgement. Verdict Fighting for the no.1 spot. I'm still hoping he comes good.

Seeing as we seem to have something of a penchant for signing players scouted under previous regimes what about Diawara of Napoli for DM? We were reported to be looking at getting him in when DiMatteo was manager and he was at Bologna. He hasn't played that many games for Napoli this season and is currently out with muscular problems which might make him more affordable / gettable. He has good feet, pace and a good pass on him which might suit our style. Only a possibility if we were in the prem.

I would like to see us looking at a player like Dan Crowley as cover for Grealish. He is young with lots of potential. Need to make sure his attitude has changed but I think being in Holland has been good for his maturity. Not sure if he burnt all his bridges when he left for Arsenal. He needs to be playing regularly if he is to develop.

I thing the biggest problem with Nyland isn't just the obvious clangers, dropping the ball - giving away a corner unnecessarily etc. - i.e. the things he IS DOING wrong but also the things he is NOT DOING right. Most fundamental is the fact that he seems to be rooted to his line. Peter Shilton used to say that goalkeeping is primarily about positioning. With the right positioning you can stop a goal without making a save. Nyland should be coming off his line to collect certain through balls and crosses before they are even chances. Not doing so puts the defence under pressure. Smith wants to play a high line, to do that the defenders need to be confident that the keeper is alert and is covering some of the space behind them. Nyland isn't doing that which creates uncertainty in the defenders' minds. As Smith said he expects all goalkeepers to be good shot stoppers and Nyland does pull off some good saves but his basic positioning and movement is awful at the moment. It suggests a professional who is not at all confident in his own ability to play at this level. Hopefully a new goalkeeping coach can help but it isn't looking promising! The other two keepers Bunn and Moreira are also clearly not up to scratch - possibly worse. Steer isn't brilliant but he is better than the others. I have no idea why Bruce got rid of him and Elphick on loan before the start of the season.

An overload is just when you try to create a situation where you have more players in part of the pitch than the opposition. It is particularly important to do in the middle of the pitch. Playing a high line at the back helps to contribute to overloading midfield. Ron Saunders team would have done some overloading but not perhaps called it that name. For example in the clips I have seen Tony Morley plays with a lot of pace which immediately pushes the defensive line back making it easier to overload the midfield. Des Bremner would make runs from deep making it possible to have a man over against the defence (an overload). Gary Shaw would drop a little bit to help overload the midfield - (I am happy to be corrected on these points). The trick is doing it in a way which suits the players you have so that you are not exposed elsewhere on the pitch. These days people are more into the theory than they used to be back in the day. It’s the reason that 442 is no longer popular as teams altered their formation to overload the two central midfielders. It is also the reason that fullbacks have become so important as their running enables a team to overload different parts of the pitch. Interestingly the Brentford fans on some of the fan forums I have read don’t think Dean Smith is that good tactically while still rating him as a manager. But this seemed mainly to be based on his inability to change matches through substitutes etc. However I still think he will be light years ahead of Bruce.

I would like us to play a 4-2-3-1 formation. I would play hourihane and McGinn as the two in the middle. Then Bolassie and Kodjia on the left and right respectively of Grealish in the middle with Abraham up front. The big problem is the defence where we are really weak in the air both in central defence and with our goalkeeper. If I was a new manager coming in I would check whether Steer and Elphick could be recalled but let’s assume that they can’t. I would play Tuanzebe and Chester in central defence and play a high back line. I would drop Hutton because his positioning and Mobility is not good enough for a high back line. Probably play Taylor and Elmohamedy as the fullbacks. For some games I would swap Hourihane for Jedinak.

The article is from 2011 after Bruce's sacking at Sunderland. The full quote is below: The review of his time at Sunderland does include some interesting parallels to his time at Villa - high wages, some good and some not good buys, non-existent tactics, etc. Here is the link

Grealish looked good tonight. He needs someone to find the right position to play him in. He hasn't got pace, or a great nose for scoring goals but he goes past players and looks like he has added holding the ball up as well. I think it is hard to have him and Davies in the same team unless one or both of them start scoring more.

About Okore - the Birmingham Mail have a 'story' about how hard the players were working in training this morning which includes lots of pictures of Okore - presumably training at Bodymoor Heath earlier today. Which makes me think he isn't in Copenhagen about to sign for somebody else.

If only we could stick Gardner's shot on Grealish!

apart from when he has given away stupid goals I have really liked the look of Golini this season

I think I can see why Gestede is in the team ahead of Kozak.

I am not sure about de Laet - he has struggled to be the first choice RB at every club he has been at. I wonder if once the his main positive attribute of not being Hutton has grown old whether us fans will find his suspect defensive qualities means he is not much of an upgrade. Swapping rubbish fullbacks for more rubbish fullbacks while losing money on the transaction reminds me of Lambert era transfers.

Mulling over the Luton game again and after reading RDM's comments about the collapse of teamwork, I still think we could do with selling Ayew. I know that he is one of our more talented players but actually at championship level talent isn't the problem with the majority of our squad from last year. The issues are attitude, confidence and having other right mental attributes. These issues of character and mentality have poisoned the club though and we still need to get rid of more players if we are to change the direction of the club. I guess before the Luton game we were all hoping that the new management and new players might have been enough to turn it around. But we have now played and lost in a way reminiscent of last season in our 3 last games including Middlesbrough. We need more out (and more in). For me Ayew has issues with his character, he gets frustrated with his useless team mates too easily and starts trying to do everything all by himself. He doesn't have a lot of end product and the figures for his career suggest he never has done, I wonder if he ever will. As he is one of the few players from last year we could get a good fee for I think we should do it and get someone else in of similar talent but a better mentality. I'd also like to see us get rid of Westwood. I like Westwood, he has always worked hard for the team which can't be said of many others from last year. But frankly I think the club has destroyed his confidence and he needs a new start. Let's get some money for him and a replacement. I should also say that I take it for granted that we get rid of the deadwood such as Lescott, Gabby, Richards, bennett, Bacuna, Hutton, Cissokho & Kozak. Of course these players will be harder and perhaps even expensive to get rid of. Kozak I have some sympathy for - I am not sure if he was ever good enough - but he has had some terrible injuries. That there has been something fundamentally wrong behind the scenes for a long time is illustrated by the way that Kozak had a broken bone undiagnosed for months and was later forced to get his own personal trainer to get himself into shape after coming back from injury. Perhaps he just needs a new start. Is there still enough time to get enough people our (and in)?

At least we can concentrate on the league.

Amavi is looking very rusty!

I think we need a series of wins to get last season out of the players heads - a manager can only do so much to change the players mentalities. If we keep losing any work the management team have done on the mental side of the game will be undone. Hopefully we can do that starting with this game and then the two after.

I'd like to see Grealish taking more risks and looking to create more for others. Sometimes he doesn't give the ball away enough because he opens the opposition up and then plays the easy ball. There's been a couple of examples in the first half.

I was just thinking how much better Villa looked without the immobile Gestede.

I might get shot down for suggesting it but I would like to see us sell Ayew (caveat: if we use the money well). My logic goes something like this: Goals are something the team has struggled with for a longtime. To be realistic challengers we need to score a lot more goals than are currently in the team on paper and McCormack can't get them all. Ayew and Grealish both play either on the left or the number 10 role - neither bring a lot of goals to the table and so I don't think we are a realistic challenger with both in the team. You would expect both to be in the first team at present. I would prefer to keep Grealish and sell Ayew and use the money on (for example) Bamford (who cuts in from the right) and has a better strike rate at this level. Any thoughts?

I'd like us to sign Bamford because he is better at coming in off the right being left footed. If Amavi is fit we look pretty good down the left.