The Fun Factory Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 (edited) We can score against anyone in the league which is a good point. We also concede virtually every game we play in which is a very bad point. The last clean sheet was in the heady days of November 2019 versus Steve-put 10 men behind the ball-Bruce. If we can have a vaguely functional defence for the rest of the season then I am fairly confident we could win 4 games and pick up a couple of draws which could keep us up. If not then we will continue to make playing well and lose into a art form, and get relegated with plaudits ringing in our ears with clubs running to cherry pick our star players. Deano its up to you. Edited March 2, 2020 by The Fun Factory 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 4 hours ago, sharkyvilla said: Gary Neville was saying how difficult a task the full backs had yesterday. The idea that Taylor would have made a difference in this game or any other is pretty laughable. I watched on german tv in a bar and was admittedly very very drunk...but they did great picture analysis of citys full backs, zinchenko in particular had so much freedom to roam, he was coming in to the middle away from guilbert and elmo, getting on the ball, then 3 passes later he's completely unmarked in acres of space down their left wing, tracking that kind of movement is nigh on impossible, more or less every city player is capable of taking players away and generating space for their team mates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digavilla Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 That’s exactly what I observed as well . Zinchenko is only an above average player , it’s the whole team playing as unit/ drawing defenders away to create space for teammates. It’s a sign of a well coach team by Pep , not only about ability but more importantly the selfless attitude, by working tirelessly without the ball. I remember watching Pep’s old interview when he said “to be a better player , you have to be a better person first “ . How true ! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 4 hours ago, Delphinho123 said: This will be unpopular, but my team for next game. 4-2-3-1. Reina, Taylor Stopped reading. Silly team. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
screwdriver Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 19 hours ago, StefanAVFC said: This huddle is soooooooooo for the camera's! It reminds me of Phil Brown when he did the same routine at half time once for hull. Why not say that stuff in the dressing room? I'm not buying it. We show flashes of what we're capable of yesturday. Anwar El Gazi incredible wing play....in drips though! he can beat his man and deliver and win headers . So why do we only see once or twice a game? he is the key to staying up. We all know Grealish will sweat blood for the jersey but the other players need to step up. especially Gazi we all know he's capable of these moments. The other thing when we started getting phsical with them they didn't like it. I cheered louder for Nkamba's "munch" on Silva I think it was than for the goal. but it must have been 70mins in. An aggressive start to the game would have had the city players thinking about self preservation ahead of the madrid game. We were close to taking it to pens. a post away. Which is the only way we could win. A decent effort. but not a great effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 Looks like the 5 at the back plan has been abandoned and he's going back to a flat back 4. Seems like he's just trying things rather than having any conviction in what he's doing, not a great sign but at least the 4 at the back suits us better IMO. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 22 minutes ago, screwdriver said: This huddle is soooooooooo for the camera's! It reminds me of Phil Brown when he did the same routine at half time once for hull. Why not say that stuff in the dressing room? I'm not buying it. We show flashes of what we're capable of yesturday. Anwar El Gazi incredible wing play....in drips though! he can beat his man and deliver and win headers . So why do we only see once or twice a game? he is the key to staying up. We all know Grealish will sweat blood for the jersey but the other players need to step up. especially Gazi we all know he's capable of these moments. The other thing when we started getting phsical with them they didn't like it. I cheered louder for Nkamba's "munch" on Silva I think it was than for the goal. but it must have been 70mins in. An aggressive start to the game would have had the city players thinking about self preservation ahead of the madrid game. We were close to taking it to pens. a post away. Which is the only way we could win. A decent effort. but not a great effort. I know you're kind of trolling with this post. But it's odd. Where has this togetherness been weeks ago? Why aren't we turning up most weeks? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vreitti Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 1 minute ago, villa89 said: Looks like the 5 at the back plan has been abandoned and he's going back to a flat back 4. Seems like he's just trying things rather than having any conviction in what he's doing, not a great sign but at least the 4 at the back suits us better IMO. My guess is he actually knows 4 at the back is defensively more solid, based on the what we all saw in the beginning of the season. However it leads to a more direct and predictable playing style, a style Smith doesn't seem to prefer, which is why I believe he's been tinkering with the formations. I just hope he's learnt his lesson. The constant chopping and changing need to stop. Results is all the matters now. We simply aren't good enough to play the way Smith would like. It's time to get pragmatic or start to preparing for the championship. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blasterpocket68 Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 19 minutes ago, villa89 said: Looks like the 5 at the back plan has been abandoned and he's going back to a flat back 4. Seems like he's just trying things rather than having any conviction in what he's doing, not a great sign but at least the 4 at the back suits us better IMO. TBF he is running out of formations he must have tried them all this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sne Posted March 2, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted March 2, 2020 Just now, Blasterpocket68 said: TBF he is running out of formations he must have tried them all this season. Which is kinda funny as he's been slated on here for being to stubborn and never changing from his "beloved" 4-3-3 no matter what 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 3 minutes ago, sne said: Which is kinda funny as he's been slated on here for being to stubborn and never changing from his "beloved" 4-3-3 no matter what I were one of the few who said i'd prefer sticking by the 4-3-3 I never saw the formation as the issue. But the effort levels and application. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 I'm pretty sure our best form this season has actually come when we've played five at the back and for a while whilst playing like that we also stopped conceding two goals every single game, and were also playing five at the back on the only occasion that we managed to beat a top six side this season. Things went wrong the last three league games, but on another day we could have drawn two of those, you could even argue that we could have drawn all three given Southampton didn't score their second until injury time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyAnty Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 1 hour ago, villa4europe said: I watched on german tv in a bar and was admittedly very very drunk...but they did great picture analysis of citys full backs, zinchenko in particular had so much freedom to roam, he was coming in to the middle away from guilbert and elmo, getting on the ball, then 3 passes later he's completely unmarked in acres of space down their left wing, tracking that kind of movement is nigh on impossible, more or less every city player is capable of taking players away and generating space for their team mates It was the way Villa back 4 were set up. Guilbert and Targett were instructed to play tight to the CB's and when city got the ball out the wing were to push out slightly. You could say that it worked to an extent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post StefanAVFC Posted March 2, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted March 2, 2020 15 minutes ago, villalad21 said: I were one of the few who said i'd prefer sticking by the 4-3-3 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest av1 Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 I came away from Wembley yesterday obviously disappointed we lost but my overiding feeling was pride to be honest. Sometimes the coach and players can get everything right and simply come up against a (much) better team. Reverting the system for a big game also showed the balls that some doubted he had. Well played all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughable Chimp Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 4 hours ago, useless said: I'm pretty sure our best form this season has actually come when we've played five at the back and for a while whilst playing like that we also stopped conceding two goals every single game, and were also playing five at the back on the only occasion that we managed to beat a top six side this season. Things went wrong the last three league games, but on another day we could have drawn two of those, you could even argue that we could have drawn all three given Southampton didn't score their second until injury time. We've only ever played 5 at the back for 107 minutes in the league and in that time we've scored 0 goals and conceded 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 10 hours ago, sharkyvilla said: Gary Neville was saying how difficult a task the full backs had yesterday. The idea that Taylor would have made a difference in this game or any other is pretty laughable. Any full back with el ghazi ahead of him is in trouble as el ghazi far too often fails to track back leaving our full back exposed - neither el ghazi or trez should be starters - the midfield needs bolstering with the extra man - wingers are fine if effective but ours are too inconsistent 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest av1 Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 20 minutes ago, Eastie said: Any full back with el ghazi ahead of him is in trouble as el ghazi far too often fails to track back leaving our full back exposed - neither el ghazi or trez should be starters - the midfield needs bolstering with the extra man - wingers are fine if effective but ours are too inconsistent Agreed. If they provide nothing then there is no point playing with them. And extra midfielder or Davis would offer more imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkyvilla Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 30 minutes ago, Eastie said: Any full back with el ghazi ahead of him is in trouble as el ghazi far too often fails to track back leaving our full back exposed - neither el ghazi or trez should be starters - the midfield needs bolstering with the extra man - wingers are fine if effective but ours are too inconsistent The only problem I find with taking player x away from here to put player y elsewhere is that we just lose something else. For example yesterday we went to a back 4 and dropped Hause who is probably our best header of the ball at the back and we go and concede another soft header from a corner, which was a massive problem for us before we went 3 at the back. If we take wingers out then we will lose variety to our attack (I know our wingers aren't that great, but even so they do provide fairly regular goals and assists). Ultimately I think we have had good and bad performances with all the formations against good and bad sides, I just think Dean needs to mix it up more often so that the opposition don't watch us over several matches and find ways to negate us and specifically Jack. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 3 hours ago, Laughable Chimp said: We've only ever played 5 at the back for 107 minutes in the league and in that time we've scored 0 goals and conceded 6. Didn't we play that v Burnley and win? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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