pacbuddies

4 hours ago, Wainy316 said:

Regarding the game, could Southampton get two Villa managers sacked in consecutive seasons?

I assume that there will be no 2 minutes silence or singing of the national anthem at this weekends fixtures as the reason they called off last weekend was because they were worried that the moronic elements amongst football fans would have booed and jeered throughout thus embarrassing the football authorities!

20 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

This wont go ahead surely if funeral is 19th

Why?

3 minutes ago, Zero7 said:

Am I being a bit thick here, if our next two matches are postponed, does it mean we still play Leicester and Southampton next and reschedule all the other remaining games or will we play Leeds followed by Forrest and try and fit the two missed games in somewhere. 

The Premier League will schedule them for a time that is inconvenient to all teams and fans. They don't care as long as they make money.

7 minutes ago, Lord Willard said:

Its not just a normal weekend? They'll be hundreds of thousands of people traveling to London....

They'll be draft extra police from all over the country 

Lame excuse.

Absolutely disgraceful decision. No thought for fans up and down the country that have purchased train tickets, coach tickets, accomodation & booked time off work. 

29 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Are Prem games canceled then?

No.

The government have released fresh guidance to the Premier League regarding their decision to either postpone or allow fixtures to be fulfilled, which will be made this morning.

1 minute ago, MaVilla said:

Now Potter is possibly going to Chelsea, at least we can all now calm down and get behind our manager, and give Gerrard the next 10 months or so to show us he is the man for the job, a tactical genius, a sublime man manager and allow him to show that he totes knows what the heck he is doing.

 

 

I want whatever you're sniffing!

9 minutes ago, messi11 said:

If he loses the Leicester game surely hes gone?

Hopefully.

26 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

Imagine we did win 5/6 games in a row… I wonder how much affect that would have on some of us fan’s opinion’s. 

When was the last time we won 5/6 games in a row in the PL?

Just now, Pissflaps said:

Chelsea fired Tuchel so there's more competition for managers should we ever decide to fire Gerrard 

Tuchel to Villa.

32 minutes ago, PussEKatt said:

After tonight we will have lost 5 out of 6 and be bottom of the table.Bearing in mind that Gerrards remit was a top half finish,it will be madness to keep him on any longer.In fact  after this disasterous start,its madness that he is still here. 

We can't be bottom of the table tonight as Leicester only have 1 point and don't play until tomorrow!

33 minutes ago, tomsky_11 said:

Not convinced a point is enough in those games.

I'd say I've been one of the more keen to hold off on getting rid as think could still be turned around, but that wouldn't be enough for me from those games.

I think pre-West Ham I said 7 points from next 6 and he's still ok for me. That's now 7 from next 4, so basically Leicester must win if we get nothing tomorrow and then he's pretty much game by game until has a decent run under his belt.

If he does this, the next target by the winter break is around 20/21 from first 16 games. That's getting us back on course for a 50 point season, which is my minimum expectation.

To improve on Smith (which is what he was brought in to do and he failed last season) we will need to finish at least 10th otherwise he has failed again.

5 minutes ago, KMitch said:

Didn't happen that way for Smith...  We fooked about for two weeks doing interviews with gems like Fat Frank and Roberto Martinez for the entirety of an international break before mumblemouth Steve was announced.  

Our numpty owners are probably sounding out Dyche & Parker as we speak.

Very Poosr.

3 minutes ago, Dale said:

Incredible damage done to this club in such a short time. Absolutely toxic presence. 

And NSWE have stood by and watched it all unfold before their very eyes. Talk about incompetence of the highest order.

6 minutes ago, KevinRichardsonsMoustache said:

I know this is probably an odd thing to write here, but I really hope he doesn't get cabbaged. It makes us look so stupid. 

How about avocado, would that make us look classy? Asking for a friend.

NSWE have a lot to answer for in this whole mess. They employed Gerrard and are now delaying sacking him while things get worse. They have hardly invested in this transfer window yet expect European qualification. All they have done since taking us over is got us promoted via the play offs (something that Xia almost achieved) and produce some fancy drawings of what VP could look like if it were to be improved. We are no better off than we were 4 seasons ago when we first came up in terms of performances, results and league position!

Well that's another winning bet for me

Two Martinez **** ups!

15 minutes ago, AshVilla said:

Why does he change the team every game?

Because he doesn't have a scooby what he's doing!

Bloody hell, McGinn & Ramsey starting again and Luiz on the bench!!

£10 on Arsenal to win. Shit odds but hey ho!

4 minutes ago, MessiWillSignForVilla said:

I'll preface this by saying I want Gerrard out, but to be fair, I can see what is supposed to be happening with those tactical choices, I just think it's down to poor coaching for why it's not coming off.

Essentially the full backs are required to provide the width as the tactic is initially based off the idea of the 2 10s Gerrard used at Rangers - wide players that cut inside and operate more centrally than where they line up. So the full backs push high up the pitch to provide options on the wing when a team can't be broken down centrally, something that refocuses the attack and presents opportunities to stretch and open up stubborn defences. This leads to the team being vunerable on the counter with just 2 CBs back, so the CMs will fill these gaps whilst the ball is on their side so that they can be both an option to recycle the ball and to drop back if the ball is lost. The other CM would be more central when the ball is on the other side of the pitch to help with possession. Usually teams with high attacking full backs make up for this with either 3 CBs or a DM that drops between the defence, and I actually think if done properly, the intended style is a good innovation to try to maintain defensive stability on the counter whilst keeping numbers in midfield.

 

However, this clearly also requires two further things, the aforementioned 2 10s operating centrally and occupying the attacking roles CMs would often take up, and a DM sat centrally to offer an option to recycle the ball whilst being able to break up any midfield counters, and this is where the way we currently do it breaks down, especially when you add in the CMs staying wide instead of moving inside when they are needed. By going with 2 STs and an AM, we sacrifice a player that is dropping into the midfield area to provide possession options. We then have a DM that seems to be instructed to drop between the defenders, which gives us the worst of both worlds as when we gain possession it's as if our midfield 3 run away from each as fast as possible, when they should be working in tandem. This results in our midfield being completely abandoned and resembling a donut more than a structured attacking set up. It also results in our AM being required to drop far deeper than he should just to collect the ball, and when he does, he doesn't have options.

Below are 3 visualisations of how I think we should look approaching the final third, but the system has been implemented awfully which results in what we actually see.

Notice how the ball holder in the three examples always has 6 short passing options, with options forward, left, right and back? Obviously I have just chosen where to put the players to facilitate that and a game scenario would change things, but I think by judging Gerrard's Rangers team and the tactical decisions we do see, those shapes are the intended outcome of the tactics.

The problem is we don't see it due to a combination of poor coaching, shoe-horning in players, muddled instructions and not adapting the style to the personnel changes to the line up.

I think it is right to criticise Gerrard for those tactical choices, especially when they are poorly implemented, but I can see the intent there and how a competent manager might get it to work.

 

As I finish this I realise this should probably be in the team shape thread, so apologies to the mods if you want to move it.

You could have saved loads of time typing all that up and had a beer instead simply by stating that Gerrard is shit!