Roberto Di Matteo

[Rds1983]

12 hours ago, dounavilla said:

He may have talent but he looked somewhat lightweight and lacked a little awareness. 

He is 17, both these things will hopefully improve in the next few years.

[Kingman]

As least he's got them in for extra training this morning 

 

Edited July 24, 2016 by Kingman

[TheStagMan]

^ Shit. Hopefully, we wont have to play against those guys, we would lose!

[markavfc40]

That performance yesterday was really disappointing but not unexpected. Aside from two outfield players and a goalkeeper that is the squad that gave us the worst season in our history. RDM may well prove to be a decent manager for us but he won't be a miracle worker and that is what we would need to turn this shambles into promotion contenders.

The squad needed a major overhaul when he joined and it still does. Whilst it almost certainly won't be achieved in one transfer window I would like to see a little more progress than what is being made in terms of ins and outs.

I cant believe we kick off in two weeks and whilst I am aware you have to be wary of being too judgemental based on pre season games from what I have seen we look as disjointed, lacking in attacking threat, unable to retain possession, with no drive or creativity from midfield and prone to errors at the back as we did last season. Overall we look poor. Big two weeks coming up for RDM if we are to be anything like ready for the Championship campaign.

 

 

Edited July 24, 2016 by markavfc40

[Mammoth10]

1 hour ago, Kingman said:

As least he's got them in for extra training this morning 

 

So like watching Guzan over the past 3 years.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

It's still preseason ffs, surely if everyone is willing to write off the team, they should also be willing to say Sherwood and Garde weren't so bad hey?

[Richard]

10 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

That performance yesterday was really disappointing but not unexpected. Aside from two outfield players and a goalkeeper that is the squad that gave us the worst season in our history. RDM may well prove to be a decent manager for us but he won't be a miracle worker and that is what we would need to turn this shambles into promotion contenders.

The squad needed a major overhaul when he joined and it still does. Whilst It almost certainly won't be achieved in one transfer window though I would like to see a little more progress than what is being made in terms of ins and outs.

I cant believe we kick off in two weeks and whilst I am aware you have to be wary of being too judgemental based on pre season games from what I have seen we look as disjointed, lacking in attacking threat, unable to retain possession, with no drive or creativity from midfield and prone to errors at the back as we did last season. Overall we look poor. Big two weeks coming up for RDM if we are to be anything like ready for the Championship campaign.

 

 

Issue is mark how many do we sign in the next two weeks? 1? 2 ? 3? . Say we sign 3 which is being very optimistic, that means those players will not have trained with us pre season, won't land running, we need to assess their match fitness levels and even if they are ok I wouldn't expect them all to start flirts game. So we go into the first game with a squad of 16 of which 10 are remnants from the season you have described. For me that is too many

[markavfc40]

11 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

It's still preseason ffs, surely if everyone is willing to write off the team, they should also be willing to say Sherwood and Garde weren't so bad hey?

I personally am mate. In terms of Garde I couldn't tell you if he was a good or crap manager. He inherited a mess, a squad of players with some ability but lacking in desire and work rate and a willingness to make up for what they did lack in ability by working their bollocks off. 

I don't for a second think last season we had a half decent squad poorly managed. I think we had a poor squad, when you combine ability with couldn't give a shit attitudes, that most managers would struggle to get anything out of.

I am not stupid enough to not take in to account that this season we should be better as obviously the standard of opposition won't be as good. There is no way unless we see a lot more ins and outs that we will compete at the top end of the table though with this mob.

RDM has a huge task here and he will need to be given the time, and the promised substantial backing, to turn us around so my acknowledgement of the fact I can't see us being in the mix for promotion is not a dig at him. Far from it.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 minute ago, markavfc40 said:

I personally am mate. In terms of Garde I couldn't tell you if he was a good or crap manager. He inherited a mess, a squad of players with some ability but lacking in desire and work rate and a willingness to make up for what they did lack in ability by working their bollocks off. 

I don't for a second think last season we had a half decent squad poorly managed. I think we had a poor squad, when you combine ability with couldn't give a shit attitudes, that most managers would struggle to get anything out of.

I am not stupid enough to not take in to account that this season we should be better as obviously the standard of opposition won't be as good. There is no way unless we see a lot more ins and outs that we will compete at the top end of the table though with this mob.

RDM has a huge task here and he will need to be given the time, and the promised substantial backing, to turn us around so my acknowledgement of the fact I can't see us being in the mix for promotion is not a dig at him. Far from it.

Have some faith mate, I always try to anyway, until the bitter end when every drop of it is sapped from me. lol. We will see some more come in I am sure, but I understand the concern as we have so much to do and so little time. I think by then RDM will have found the right "team" no matter what the additions. (Hoping anyway)

[osmark86]

3 hours ago, Kingman said:

As least he's got them in for extra training this morning 

 

This gave me a good laugh, thx Kingman ^^

Edited July 24, 2016 by osmark86

[VillaChris]

1 hour ago, Richard said:

Issue is mark how many do we sign in the next two weeks? 1? 2 ? 3? . Say we sign 3 which is being very optimistic, that means those players will not have trained with us pre season, won't land running, we need to assess their match fitness levels and even if they are ok I wouldn't expect them all to start flirts game. So we go into the first game with a squad of 16 of which 10 are remnants from the season you have described. For me that is too many

We certainly need 2-3 at least, our midfield is shocking so 2 new midfielders and a striker.

Still I also remember in the good old days the MON transfer windows which were very similar signing 3-4 signings in the last week of August after the season was already 3 weeks old yet we always started seasons great under him. Guess playing in europe in some of those seasons helped aswell.

Tbh I think we'll lose in Sheffield as they are a very decent team. What's more important is we win our two home games straight after as we need the crowd numbers and general positivity at VP for a promotion push so good home form is desperately needed this season.

Think we'll see a big signing week in build up to Rotherham game.

[meme]

3 hours ago, Kingman said:

As least he's got them in for extra training this morning 

 

The goalkeeper is definitely Guzan. No question about it.

[Richard]

5 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

We certainly need 2-3 at least, our midfield is shocking so 2 new midfielders and a striker.

Still I also remember in the good old days the MON transfer windows which were very similar signing 3-4 signings in the last week of August after the season was already 3 weeks old yet we always started seasons great under him. Guess playing in europe in some of those seasons helped aswell.

Tbh I think we'll lose in Sheffield as they are a very decent team. What's more important is we win our two home games straight after as we need the crowd numbers and general positivity at VP for a promotion push so good home form is desperately needed this season.

Think we'll see a big signing week in build up to Rotherham game.

Yes I've seen the mom references a few times and I accept we did late business, I just think the circumstances then and now are poles apart 

[VillaChris]

No that is very fair point.

I just hope people keep calm if we lose a game or two although much more difficult if the likes of Bacuna and Westwood are still featuring regularly.

It's the championship, it will happen. Even runaway leaders like Newcastle will lose games.

If we lost at Sheffield but beat Rotherham and Huddersfield I would sign up for that as at least we've shown we can beat the weaker teams at home and you can build a promotion challenge on that. I think the existing squad is capable of that but of course it needs more additions.

[Zatman]

It was a friendly but I thought midfield was absolute shocking yesterday, Gestede and Ayew especially were left very isolated at time. also narrowness and reliance on full backs for width is not the way forward

on a positive I thought Gollini looked assured enough though he wasnt really that tested and Elphick and Baker looked like had decent understanding

[HanoiVillan]

It's looking like Elphick and Baker will be the starting pairing, think they've started most of the friendlies together. 

[VillaChris]

2 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

It's looking like Elphick and Baker will be the starting pairing, think they've started most of the friendlies together. 

I would like to see Okore but can understand that for balance and also Baker's just had a year down there.

Centre half is the least of our worries I think. If it those two then we have Okore and Clark as back up, two internationals and two who have previously played well as a partnership at prem level for a decent spell.

Amazed at people demanding another CB in, there are far more pressing areas of the team that need to be improved.

[Michael118]

I’m not confident not because we haven’t got the players but because we are loaning our best ones out, buying players for positions we already have enough quality in and not buying players for positions we don’t. Di Matteo isn’t the manager we needed and he hasn’t done anything so far to make me think differently.

[a m ole]

11 minutes ago, Michael118 said:

I’m not confident not because we haven’t got the players but because we are loaning our best ones out, buying players for positions we already have enough quality in and not buying players for positions we don’t. Di Matteo isn’t the manager we needed and he hasn’t done anything so far to make me think differently.

 

Gil was our best player? We had quality at centre back, goalkeeper and central midfield?

haha.

[Michael118]

 

16 minutes ago, a m ole said:

Gil was our best player? We had quality at centre back, goalkeeper and central midfield?

haha.

Gil and Traore were our best players. 

Okore and Clark are quality CB's. Baker and Donacien would have been reasonable back ups.

I like what I've seen of Gollini so far but I think Guzan is a quality keeper when confident.

I haven't seen anything of Tshibola yet but we have 3 good defensive midfielders and no attacking miidfielders except Bacuna who has played mostly as a RB.

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2016 by Michael118