dn1982 Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 At the minute we have one senior defender in our back 4. Bacuna and Richardson aren't natural full backs and Okore is still learning about the Premier. If we get Hutton and Cissokho back we will be more solid but I'm happy with what im seeing. The football is the best in years. We have just had more possession than Man City which is the first time in 6 1/2 years that's happened and it wasn't the boring keep ball we saw under Lambert. I think the only stat we lost out on was the important one. Saying we have a problem with the defence isn't strictly true either as Guzans mistake and the wall capitulating is school boy stuff which I guarantee won't happen again. Saturday is a big day not just for points but also because at home our tactics haven't been as good as away and thats something we need to work on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smetrov Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 At the minute we have one senior defender in our back 4. Bacuna and Richardson aren't natural full backs and Okore is still learning about the Premier. If we get Hutton and Cissokho back we will be more solid but I'm happy with what im seeing. The football is the best in years. We have just had more possession than Man City which is the first time in 6 1/2 years that's happened and it wasn't the boring keep ball we saw under Lambert. I think the only stat we lost out on was the important one. Saying we have a problem with the defence isn't strictly true either as Guzans mistake and the wall capitulating is school boy stuff which I guarantee won't happen again. Saturday is a big day not just for points but also because at home our tactics haven't been as good as away and thats something we need to work on. Common myth - yes the football is better than Lambert - but the 'football in the best in years' - home defeats to stoke and swansea, a scrambled draw with QPR - none of which we played particularly well. Granted Spurs , Liverpool were good performances - but suggesting were in a rich vein of form is premature IMO. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrytini Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 (edited) At the minute we have one senior defender in our back 4. Bacuna and Richardson aren't natural full backs and Okore is still learning about the Premier. If we get Hutton and Cissokho back we will be more solid but I'm happy with what im seeing. The football is the best in years. We have just had more possession than Man City which is the first time in 6 1/2 years that's happened and it wasn't the boring keep ball we saw under Lambert. I think the only stat we lost out on was the important one. Saying we have a problem with the defence isn't strictly true either as Guzans mistake and the wall capitulating is school boy stuff which I guarantee won't happen again. Saturday is a big day not just for points but also because at home our tactics haven't been as good as away and thats something we need to work on. Common myth - yes the football is better than Lambert - but the 'football in the best in years' - home defeats to stoke and swansea, a scrambled draw with QPR - none of which we played particularly well. Granted Spurs , Liverpool were good performances - but suggesting were in a rich vein of form is premature IMO.] Seem to have removed the quotes !! Sorry ! Here's my bit .... You are right that we are not in a 'rich vein of form'. But I - and friends who are villa fans - struggle to remember when we played as well and as entertainingly overall. Certainly not under lambo, McLeish, houllier, or at least the last season under Mon and maybe earlier. So it isn't really a myth to say its the best in years, just a reasonable assessment. Edited April 28, 2015 by terrytini Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smetrov Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 At the minute we have one senior defender in our back 4. Bacuna and Richardson aren't natural full backs and Okore is still learning about the Premier. If we get Hutton and Cissokho back we will be more solid but I'm happy with what im seeing. The football is the best in years. We have just had more possession than Man City which is the first time in 6 1/2 years that's happened and it wasn't the boring keep ball we saw under Lambert. I think the only stat we lost out on was the important one. Saying we have a problem with the defence isn't strictly true either as Guzans mistake and the wall capitulating is school boy stuff which I guarantee won't happen again. Saturday is a big day not just for points but also because at home our tactics haven't been as good as away and thats something we need to work on. Common myth - yes the football is better than Lambert - but the 'football in the best in years' - home defeats to stoke and swansea, a scrambled draw with QPR - none of which we played particularly well. Granted Spurs , Liverpool were good performances - but suggesting were in a rich vein of form is premature IMO.] Seem to have removed the quotes !! Sorry ! Here's my bit .... You are right that we are not in a 'rich vein of form'. But I - and friends who are villa fans - struggle to remember when we played as well and as entertainingly overall. Certainly not under lambo, McLeish, houllier, or at least the last season under Mon and maybe earlier. So it isn't really a myth to say its the best in years, just a reasonable assessment. What about the back end of Lamberts first season ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloydxmas Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Agree with that, people forgot how good we were for those last 8 odd games of his first season. All down to benteke's goals, without them we were gone. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 yeah those 3-1 wins at emirates and at anfield were great footballing performances. to be fair to lambert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrytini Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 I agree that was a good period, very enjoyable and I for one thought we'd cracked it.....so I have no problem people being cautious this time ! But I still don't think our football was of a similar quality to some of what we've seen recently, and our team character seems more solid too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smetrov Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I really hope Sherwoods big idea for next season is a bit more than promoting our reserves and gung ho football - whilst both sound fine in theory - in practice it would be a recipe for disaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sexbelowsound Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Promoting the reserves might be our only option if big spender Randolph is still in charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Sherwood's teams don't go 'gung ho' though, in my opinion. The plan definitely seems to be to prioritise attacking over anything else, but you still see him demanding calmness, you still see the senior players indicating to tighten up after a goal and Sherwood has made substitutions to try to solidify what we have (he brought on Lowton when we got the Man City equaliser IIRC). I'd rather have a manager who wants and encourages his team to attack, over a manager who wants his team to always be careful and takes fewer risks. Had Sherwood been our manager all season, and he continued having us play the way we have so far under him, I'm confident we'd have been safe a while ago. Even the best and biggest teams occasionally leak goals. That's football. It shouldn't be used as a reason to assume the worst can and will always happen. Man Utd lost 3-0 to Everton, Liverpool lost to us and HULL! Shit happens. It doesn't mean those teams' managers' philosophies are completely flawed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted April 30, 2015 VT Supporter Share Posted April 30, 2015 Had Sherwood been our manager all season, and he continued having us play the way we have so far under him, I'm confident we'd have been safe a while ago. Maybe, maybe not. Certainly if we'd played like we currently are playing for a whole season then we'd be mid table at worst, imo. However, I think it remains to be seen if Sherwood can get that level of performance out of his teams for a whole season. He's never been tested for that period of time. I think Sherwood has done excellent with us, but his success seems to be based primarily on getting individuals performing better and raising the confidence of the team. Not to say he's tactically inept, he's not, but I think his main weapon is motivation. Which is fantastic given our position now. But keeping players motivated to that level over a long period of time is hard. In a way it's how MON used to do it and we are well used to the March slump that came with that approach. I'm hopeful under Sherwood, but I do think that's his main barrier to success here. Maintaining that motivation amongst his team over a long period of time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folski Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Had Sherwood been our manager all season, and he continued having us play the way we have so far under him, I'm confident we'd have been safe a while ago. Maybe, maybe not. Certainly if we'd played like we currently are playing for a whole season then we'd be mid table at worst, imo. However, I think it remains to be seen if Sherwood can get that level of performance out of his teams for a whole season. He's never been tested for that period of time. I think Sherwood has done excellent with us, but his success seems to be based primarily on getting individuals performing better and raising the confidence of the team. Not to say he's tactically inept, he's not, but I think his main weapon is motivation. Which is fantastic given our position now. But keeping players motivated to that level over a long period of time is hard. In a way it's how MON used to do it and we are well used to the March slump that came with that approach. I'm hopeful under Sherwood, but I do think that's his main barrier to success here. Maintaining that motivation amongst his team over a long period of time. I think motivation is a big part of it, I think every team tends to go through a blip at some stage of the season, the thing with Sherwood is, I think your in the team on the back of training or your last performance. I'd argue since O'Neill that too many players were almost guaranteed a spot in the team. The quote I remember most is when he said Graham Taylor told some player at Watford that Tim was only throwing in all those hard tackles in training on him as he wanted the shirt he was wearing on Saturday. He said himself if your not in the team, there is a reason. I genuinely believe that he doesn't have favourites, he talks a lot about being honest with the players. Personally I think from just looking at what the man has done to Cleverley alone he's incredible. The missus asked me Saturday was I disappointed that we lost, the answer was no, because we played well, gave it as good as if not better than we got it and that's all I ever ask from the side, if we get 3 points in the process fantastic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Had Sherwood been our manager all season, and he continued having us play the way we have so far under him, I'm confident we'd have been safe a while ago. Maybe, maybe not. Certainly if we'd played like we currently are playing for a whole season then we'd be mid table at worst, imo. However, I think it remains to be seen if Sherwood can get that level of performance out of his teams for a whole season. He's never been tested for that period of time. I think Sherwood has done excellent with us, but his success seems to be based primarily on getting individuals performing better and raising the confidence of the team. Not to say he's tactically inept, he's not, but I think his main weapon is motivation. Which is fantastic given our position now. But keeping players motivated to that level over a long period of time is hard. In a way it's how MON used to do it and we are well used to the March slump that came with that approach. I'm hopeful under Sherwood, but I do think that's his main barrier to success here. Maintaining that motivation amongst his team over a long period of time. good post. You could also say his approach is suited to a good cup team, lets hope so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dn1982 Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 At the minute we have one senior defender in our back 4. Bacuna and Richardson aren't natural full backs and Okore is still learning about the Premier. If we get Hutton and Cissokho back we will be more solid but I'm happy with what im seeing. The football is the best in years. We have just had more possession than Man City which is the first time in 6 1/2 years that's happened and it wasn't the boring keep ball we saw under Lambert. I think the only stat we lost out on was the important one. Saying we have a problem with the defence isn't strictly true either as Guzans mistake and the wall capitulating is school boy stuff which I guarantee won't happen again. Saturday is a big day not just for points but also because at home our tactics haven't been as good as away and thats something we need to work on. Common myth - yes the football is better than Lambert - but the 'football in the best in years' - home defeats to stoke and swansea, a scrambled draw with QPR - none of which we played particularly well. Granted Spurs , Liverpool were good performances - but suggesting were in a rich vein of form is premature IMO. Common myth?? The football is better than we have seen in years. The last time I can remember us playing football the way we are now was under Houlier and that was for a brief period. We have just been to Man City and had more possession and were the better team but lost. That doesn't change how good the football was. At the end of Lamberts first season we played exciting counter attacking football but we never bossed games. Now we actually play a very nice brand of football. Yes it is early days but it's 4 years since Houlier. Even under MON we never played possession football like this. So for me it is the best football in years and hopefully in time you'll agree with me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 We absolutely smashed QPR for 70 of the 90. Should have been 4-1 up by half time. It was a good team performance blighted again by one terrible individual performance. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaglint Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 OK Richard - (from Liverpool thread) What has Sherwood done since he's been with us that you don't like? Genuine question not digging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YGabbana Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 OK Richard - (from Liverpool thread) What has Sherwood done since he's been with us that you don't like? Genuine question not digging. Inb4Gil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 OK Richard - (from Liverpool thread) What has Sherwood done since he's been with us that you don't like? Genuine question not digging. Not much to be honest. I think I'm in the Stevo camp on this one. He didnt really impress me that much before he was with us, I'm not sure long term he is the one for us and some of his behaviour is a bit OTT, but hey I said Lambert was the best in 30 years so take my manager opinions with a pinch of salt (had to say that before someone else did). If Sherwood wins us a cup I'll be forever grateful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaglint Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Yeah I'd be in a similar boat if maybe giving him a bit more credit for his work with us so far. I thought he was bloody mental before he joined us but he seems to have toned that down quite a bit. For me he has been very good so far but yes a long way to go still this season and an entirely new challenge for him and us again next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Not to say he's tactically inept, he's not, but I think his main weapon is motivation. I disagree. I think the way he sets us up, the players he picks and the way we play have all been important to us. Much more than just players willing to put the effort in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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