Dean Smith

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

4 minutes ago, Brumstopdogs said:

 

 

Honest interview.

Says what alot of us were thinking.

Interesting that he moved Jack into 10 spot and that's when the pass assist and goal came.

 

[HanoiVillan]

4 minutes ago, nick76 said:

But what do we do? Our back up is poor, we don’t have the squad yet. We are more likely to win the game with our best XI under par than bringing in some of our back up who are less quality and not match fit because they’ve had very little pitch time.

We have to continue to seek a balance between picking a strong side, and getting some fresh legs onto the pitch. Again, I do need to stress that we have seen players come into the team successfully this season; Ramsey did it for a game, Nakamba did it for a game, Hause did it for a few games and so did El Ghazi, though he didn't tonight for sure.

After Arsenal the congestion drops a little bit and the opponents get easier, so at least that's one good thing.

[dudevillaisnice]

4 minutes ago, Brumstopdogs said:

 

 

At least he admits he got it wrong. Also states he isn’t happy with how easy we are to play against too which is right, we do look easier to get at these days which is a concern. 

[nick76]

Just now, Sulberto21 said:

Bring one two in for the best 11 and rotate like that. As has been mentioned you don't rotate the defenders. 

Back five plus Jack and Ollie are always starters, yes?

The others have been reasonably rotated between Ross, Traore, Trez and El Ghazi for two of the other spots or at least they’ve all had decent time this season. 

So that leaves Luiz, McGinn, Nakamba and Ramsey.  Maybe that needs more rotation and probably will now Sanson has joined but Luiz has been exceptional until the last two games and McGinn was until the Covid break.  Ramsey still learning so will only get a bit of time this season and while Nakamba did well in his game he isn’t as good as either Luiz or McGinn.  Hopefully that’s why Sanson was brought in to rotate more.

Not sure what else in rotation could be done with the squad we have.

[MotoMkali]

24 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Just did some digging and checked West Ham last 9 games

Cresswell Ogbonna Rice Soucek played max 810 mins 9 games

Coufal 720 8 games

Dawson 630 7 games

5 wins 2 draws 2 losses (Chelsea and Liverpool)

They seem successful with little rotation. Big difference no Covid outbreak

How long a period were those games in. Because we have had 5 games in 15 days. And west ham don't play as intense a press as we do those minutes wear less on the body. 

[Risso]

When we concede first we nearly always go on to concede at least two (more often three or more) and Dean's lack of use of the squad and tactical inflexibility is behind it. Just like he sorted the defence out last season, he needs to improve those if we're going to keep the improvement in what has been a good season, going.

[MotoMkali]

8 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Honest interview.

Says what alot of us were thinking.

Interesting that he moved Jack into 10 spot and that's when the pass assist and goal came.

 

What a surprise? We were better with Jack as a 10.

Shame it seems we are going to continue playing with Barkley. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by MotoMkali

[avfc1982am]

O think he's always honest. It's what he does though on sat. Imo he needs to set down a marker over the sloppiness tonight and freshen the midfield. I'd rest Barkley and Luiz sat. Bring Nakamba and Sanson into the middle for ultimate energy. Get McGinn back right side, Samson left, Marv Infront of the backline. Traore back on the right for ghazi and away we go.

[birdman]

I don't think there is too much value in picking on individuals tonight. The midfield were poor and that put pressure on our defence who for the most part were actually very good. Generally we were sluggish, hesitant with the passing and movement on and off the ball was just not right. West Ham were strong and organised and capitalised on our weakness. I'm sure Dean will look at it all and learn from it as will the players. Won't take much to improve against Arsenal that's for sure.

[Kiwivillan]

7 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

How long a period were those games in. Because we have had 5 games in 15 days. And west ham don't play as intense a press as we do those minutes wear less on the body. 

They've played 5 in last 17 days. 

[MotoMkali]

1 minute ago, Kiwivillan said:

They've played 5 in last 17 days. 

An extra day of rest for 2 games. Obviously not a lot. But their fitness will obviously be higher. And 2 days can add up when you have a game every 3 days. 

And no one was calling for rotation before we had covid. Smith should have done a better job managing the situation from the city game.

[VillaChris]

19 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

It was more that West Ham hardly rotate 6 of 10 outfield players and they were all flying so just going against the Smith needs to rotate line

West Ham actually didn't start tonight Bowen and Fornals tonight despite both being first choice this season. Fredericks came in to help out against Jack and he hasn't played much at all and Lingard barely played for Man. United but a combination of Moyes wanting to tweak his shape a bit, perhaps one of those two carrying a knock and generally needing some fresh legs.

Benrahama has also only started recently so a little similar to Traore.

It's a tweak here and there that gave them the impetus to put in one of their best displays of the season. I would have no issue with DS doing the same v Arsenal as I fear we're heading for another defeat anyway if we just go with our usual team bar Traore coming back in to start.

[Kiwivillan]

2 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Benrahama has also only started recently so a little similar to Traore.

485 mins of max 540 last 6 games

[VillaChris]

58 minutes ago, nick76 said:

That’s one player but what about the other 10.  We don’t have the squad for this mythical rotation people are on about....we have Elmo, Davis, El Ghazi, Engels...do we want to put them in against Arsenal and hope to win? No, we’d lose.

I think that's a bit OTT nick and your posts are usually good.

Think Trez has had enough sub appearances now to be confident you'd get 60 minutes out of him after his covid brush and he usually plays well v Arsenal and Sanson is due a start and looked neat and tidy in his brief cameo. Traore can come back in aswell so that's three changes to freshen it up. Not sure I'd go as far as to start Ramsey or Nakamba but they've done alright when called upon this season.

Also have to look at rest of the season, would go SJM and Barkley good to sit out a game and now their levels have to improve and they'd be better coming back in for Brighton.

Think last time we started McGinn on the bench in a league game was actually away to Small Heath in March 2009 after he was out for two matches suspended so it's been a while and little case to make for Barkley starting given how awful he was.

[Guest av1]

I like Ming's and think Konsa is going to have a great career, I also like Luiz so I can't pinpoint the problem but I'm never really comfortable with the defence. Looking at West Ham tonight few would have been overjoyed had we signed either of their CB's in January, yet there was an old school determination not to concede, they just dealt with almost everything that was thrown at them. 

Maybe the problem is having 2 guys that want to play out? I don't know, I'm never really comfortable though. 

[VillaChris]

6 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

485 mins of max 540 last 6 games

He didn't start a game for them up to December 11th. Came on as half time sub in the away game.

Interesting looking back to when we played down there end of Nov. They started Bowen, Fornals, Masuaku and Balbeuna and Antonio wasn't really fit and they had to sub him off at half time whereas we had 9 starting who did tonight and Barkley would've been a cert aswell if he'd been fit.

I don't think anyone is advocating making 5-6 changes every game as we simply don't have the squad for that yet but ultimately more flat performances like tonight will happen in run in as schedule is simply too much to be just making one change when we're playing good opposition every 3 days as we have been doing for most of the last 6 weeks.

At least from Saturday we'll go back to playing largely once a week up to end of April.

Edited February 3, 2021 by VillaChris

[VillaChris]

49 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Will be interesting to see how we play against Arsenal. If we continue in the same vein, I'm going to go with fatigue because it'll be our first time this season we've put back to back poor performances together.

Going to be tough as we had longer to prepare for tonight and Weds evening to Sat lunchtime is quick turnaround and Arsenal also had extra 24 hours and will have to make changes anyway due to the red cards and Aubameyang will also come back in.

[the_eristic]

3rd straight games begging for Marv to come in and close off space in midfield, especially over the final 30 minutes. Can't keep carrying a Barkley basically playing striker when McGinn and to a lesser extent Doug aren't up to speed.

[Vive_La_Villa]

38 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Honest interview.

Says what alot of us were thinking.

Interesting that he moved Jack into 10 spot and that's when the pass assist and goal came.

 

He moved him way to late. It was clear he wasn’t going to get any joy on the left.  We probably should have tightened the midfield up at half time too when it was clear they were winning the midfield battle. Bad night for the managers and players. I think we’ll get a reaction on Saturday. 

[VillaChris]

1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

Far from rotation being *impossible*, it largely hasn't been tried. When it has been, it hasn't always been unsuccessful; Ramsey played one match in central midfield, we won and kept a clean sheet, and then he's had a few minutes from the bench. Nakamba played one match, we won and kept a clean sheet, and then he returned to the bench too.

The idea that all of our bench players are an automatic defeat is absurd. I don't think anybody is suggesting rotating 9 or 10 players at a time.

We are visibly very tired, both in the legs and in ideas on the pitch. We're more likely to lose against Arsenal by picking the same tired XI than we are by freshening it up a bit.

Hause was the big success if we're looking at largely mocked player who came in and did outstanding job for short period of time.

4 starts, 3 clean sheets, 1 goal and 8 points.

I wouldn't change the defence but we can certainly can make changes in the other four outfield positons.

It is a weird viewpoint and one stuck in 19/20 thinking any fringe player coming in means an automatic defeat when we're had more disappointing games with our regular 11 so far this season.

Edit: I actually think the two week covid outbreak did Ollie the world of good as he was really struggling last 20 minutes v Man. United. Come back and started scoring again and zipping around the pitch so there's an example of automatic starter not playing for a bit and looking much better for it.

Edited February 4, 2021 by VillaChris