Dean Smith

[jim]

41 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

There really isn’t a “good chance” of that, what are you on about?

Watford, West Ham or Bournemouth win their games on Saturday puts us 4 points adrift when we play Sunday. 

I’d say that’s a good chance!

[KentVillan]

9 minutes ago, jim said:

Watford, West Ham or Bournemouth win their games on Saturday puts us 4 points adrift when we play Sunday. 

I’d say that’s a good chance!

They’d *all* have to get points for us to be 4 points adrift, as would Brighton (in 15th, currently 3 points ahead of us).

[commander]

This was a game for the taking. Draws won't keep us up. Wins will. Swapping Davis and Samatta at 0:0 isn't a good substitution. 

We need to play 2 up top for these types of games even if it's just for the last 20/30 mins. Ideally I'd like to see us go 352 or 4312 until the end of the season, let's face it our wing options aren't great.

I just can't see us playing 2 up until we're losing. I fear we're going to go down and look back on games like this, the West Ham at home vs 10 men not to mention the early games where we let good leads leads slip. Then, we'll all talk about how unlucky we were. Need to toughen up and be hard / nasty to play against. 

Edited June 17, 2020 by commander

[Kiwivillan]

A point we arguably didn't deserve with goal not given against team with 2nd best defensive record in the league

[KentVillan]

I thought the disallowed goal was cancelled out by the blatant penalty for the foul on AEG - baffled that commentators and VAR just glossed over that challenge.

xG has us 1.01 - 0.24 which is the first time we’ve beaten a team on xG in the league since Newcastle in November!!

Now obviously xG is a flawed stat that doesn’t win you any points, but it’s a small sign that Smith has turned things around defensively during the break, and that 0-0 was a fair score line.

Konsa at right back was a very smart move. If you’re struggling on set pieces, playing a mobile CB at full back is a good way of squeezing that extra defensive solidity into the team without changing the shape (MON used to do this a lot, and Terry will be very familiar with it from his Chelsea days, when Ivanovic made that hybrid role his own). I prefer this approach to bolstering our set piece defence to the 3-5-2 experiment.

[Dave-R]

Just been onto the Sheffield utd page for our match with them: https://www.s24su.com/forum/index.php?threads/aston-villa-v-sheffield-united-17th-june-2020.80061/

It is very hilarious some of the comments I must say. What is the most funniest and bet some of you could guess is how they think they were robbed of a win and a goal because of the none present VAR. One thing you do not see throughout there comments is the truth about the when situation and whether they should of been awarded a goal, we too also should of been awarded one penalty. As usual football fans can't see the whole picture, the most I'll give there fans is alot of them say they deserved to lose but still think they should of been awarded the goal.

Sheffield UTD have felt all season that they are not wanted in the league and shout conspiracy that they have been harshly done by VAR, that's a laugh on it's own, there VAR problems have been nothing on ours.

They hate Smith it seems, I didnt see it but apparently he was Vocal at there players and the officials at one point in regards to making a point to the officials about awarding a goal to them and if you do that you have to award our penalty, which is bang on. Smith must of thought that we was going to be harshly done so he leapt into action where ever he could, really it showed alot of courage to do that as it all could of made him look bad if the goal was awarded. I do not think the officials were going to award one and not the other, they clearly spoke about it and it would of spoilt the whole game and been a terrible injustice, bringing VAR online at half time and awarding one side there goal or penalty would of wrecked anything about football.

The utd fans think they were hammered, well the majority of them anyway think we were up for the game way more than what they were, which most likely leads to there conclusion of how they deserved to lose the game.

To there fans also that Grealish made a mockery of there player tactically, really?? I felt Grealish was very quiet all game not to mention we wouldn't of missed him of Ghazi if they had of been subbed.

It's always interesting reading opposition fan comments after games, you see a different view to the whole game from another point.

While I think that the goal should of been awarded and our penalty, I am also at the conclusion that we played a very good game and something can be taken away from that and should be built on. I do actually think if that was us last season we would of well and truly bottled it letting a few goals in as there were some times that it could of gone haywire, defensively we did enough. While that goal we need to look back on and say next time no, we need our players to take away what not to do which is move into the keepers direction in situations like that when hes got the ball.  Nyland mostly throughout played very well, made a mistake going backwards  maybe should of punches that one clear.

I'm still uncertain about our Wingers, Ghazi was clearly out of his depth, Jack we may as well of put him back in the midfield and added those two players to give us more to attack through the center with. I hate the way we are playing Wingers and it's not working one damn bit, Smith is likea child that gets in trouble over and over and over again, never learns his lessons and never find a better way of doing things. I noticed more more that our crosses were of the same variety of either going to short or to long over all the players, no one attacking near or far post (ridiculous). 

Midfield had held it all much better but still we found it difficult to move the ball on from midfield at times we just looked empty of ideas. Douglas Luiz had Impressed me the most today I think, his ball chasing and interceptions, I thought for a while we had signed Bolt himself because of how fast he was. McGinn was also giving it a good go and hopefully we will see something good soon out of him.

Hause had a couple of headers, in fact there were alot of headers won from corners by our defenders and not one of them could get the darn ball in the net.

It all leads the to this last bit, the finished article, making everything count or at least putting something away. Are we that empty of firepower that our guns have no ammo in them, that our swords are blunt, anyone would seriously look at us with the chances we got and seriously be asking us if we had our firing pins removed before the match started. It really did look like one of those action films at time where guns have had ammo removed, firing pins took out and no one gets bloody shot. We seriously had everything there apart from finishing, placement and forsight, the feel of a goal just wasn't there was it??

[Dave-R]

4 hours ago, commander said:

This was a game for the taking. Draws won't keep us up. Wins will. Swapping Davis and Samatta at 0:0 isn't a good substitution. 

We need to play 2 up top for these types of games even if it's just for the last 20/30 mins. Ideally I'd like to see us go 352 or 4312 until the end of the season, let's face it our wing options aren't great.

I just can't see us playing 2 up until we're losing. I fear we're going to go down and look back on games like this, the West Ham at home vs 10 men not to mention the early games where we let good leads leads slip. Then, we'll all talk about how unlucky we were. Need to toughen up and be hard / nasty to play against. 

I'd say lose the two Wingers myself and bring us more players centrally, we can always have players drift out wide to cross in. Bring Grealish back into the center.

Let's face it Ghazi, Trezeguet and Jota were our main wingers, they messed up consistently and we had to move Grealish out there, we need him back center because nothing is happening centrally.

I would rather us have a stronger midfield and over run the midfield with Grealish and McGinn  all when leaving Ghazi, Trez, Jota off the field, we would have more luck I believe in reinforcing what is now a very light midfield. Only way to make the midfield work is by adding numbers back there that we have without a doubt lost, not only that we lost our main quality to the Wings,. I would rather see us have the strongest midfield we can so that we can at least have it working as beat we can so that in turn we can at least give our defence more time off the ball.

I think you are right, come next season when were playing championship football somewhere along the line Smith will come out and say he'd wished he'd of ditched the Wingers. We are alright obsessed with ditching the Wingers and we will be talking about this season for ever because of how stubborn a Coach we have. No way we wont be reflecting on this season all wishing Smith will get his actor together.

I believe if we had of had Grealish midfield and another attacking midfielder in place rather than having two wingers, wed of seen a win today, that's what I firmly believe. As others have said this game was winnable and we seriously messed up, we messed up because of someone who doesn't want to drop the Wingers. 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Dave-R

[Keyblade]

We still have Tammy in our side, we win that game comfortably. Gambling on an inexperienced 22 year old who's not an out an out goalscorer to begin with was a huge mistake this summer. Davis is great but if we're relying on him to score our goals, we're down.

[TreeVillan]

1 hour ago, Keyblade said:

We still have Tammy in our side, we win that game comfortably. Gambling on an inexperienced 22 year old who's not an out an out goalscorer to begin with was a huge mistake this summer. Davis is great but if we're relying on him to score our goals, we're down.

I thought he did really well, probably our best player. Don't think it's a guarantee that Tammy would've scored either. 

[villalad21]

1 hour ago, Keyblade said:

We still have Tammy in our side, we win that game comfortably. Gambling on an inexperienced 22 year old who's not an out an out goalscorer to begin with was a huge mistake this summer. Davis is great but if we're relying on him to score our goals, we're down.

And what exactly did Samatta do? At least Keinan is making things happen.

[Delphinho123]

Why are people criticising Davis? Have I missed something? He was arguably our best player last night. 

If we’re picking on players, let’s question the performances of El Ghazi and McGinn. Both should be supporting the striker and both were garbage last night. 

[villalad21]

38 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Why are people criticising Davis? Have I missed something? He was arguably our best player last night. 

If we’re picking on players, let’s question the performances of El Ghazi and McGinn. Both should be supporting the striker and both were garbage last night. 

It's funny how people never say lack of service whenever Keinan plays.

Keinan always gets himself into goal scoring opportunities. Whether he plays 10 minutes. 15 minutes or is starting.

Wesley is garbage and Samatta was shocking yesterday. God help us if Keinan get's injured, best striker at the club.

[leemond2008]

4 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

It's funny how people never say lack of service whenever Keinan plays.

Keinan always gets himself into goal scoring opportunities. Whether he plays 10 minutes. 15 minutes or is starting.

Wesley is garbage and Samatta was shocking yesterday. God help us if Keinan get's injured, best striker at the club.

Going off past history I would say it is a case of when he gets injured, not if.

Agree though he did well yesterday

[tinker]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

And what exactly did Samatta do? At least Keinan is making things happen.

Nothing, Smith should have left them both on the pitch and gone for the win. Sheffield were there for the taking and we blew our lines.

One of the most frustrating things for me is our thrown ins, we turn over possession every single time . Why aren't the coaching staff  doing something about this?

Edited June 18, 2020 by tinker

[sne]

Aston Villa and throw ins is just baffling. We are just always terrible at it, always.

Can't remember a season where I didn't roll my eyes at us constantly giving the ball away at every single throw in. It's gotten to the point where I just laugh at it now.

Devil is in the details and thrown ins is a testament to that we've not managed to hire managers or coaches over the years that put that extra effort in.

It's basic stuff but it still has to be done.

[ozvillafan]

1 hour ago, sne said:

Aston Villa and throw ins is just baffling. We are just always terrible at it, always.

Can't remember a season where I didn't roll my eyes at us constantly giving the ball away at every single throw in. It's gotten to the point where I just laugh at it now.

Devil is in the details and thrown ins is a testament to that we've not managed to hire managers or coaches over the years that put that extra effort in.

It's basic stuff but it still has to be done.

It's not just me, then!

It's like 10-year-old throw ins: Everybody stands around static, nobody actually wants the ball, so you just throw it down the line and hope. It's beyond inept at this level to just chuck away possession like that. I can't believe we just let it go on year after year.

The other thing that gets me is our inability to claim possession after long periods without the ball. Case in point: After we go a good 5 minutes without possession late in the game, Sheffield United finally get lazy and just lob one forward straight to an isolated Hause. He smashes his uncontested header - with no opposition player even close to him - straight back to the lazy bugger that lobbed it to him in the first place.

Is it really that hard to take half a step backwards, pull it down off your chest, trap it and look to pass? Or at least attempt to head it in the general direction of a Villa shirt? This is the premier league, right?

[Khizzy]

To be honest, the only way Davis will ever remotely get close to scoring now is if he's playing Fifa....

[Bazmonkey]

 

11 hours ago, nick76 said:

Davis played well but still doesnt look like scoring.  I'm happy to play him but we need Samatta on as well because we need a scoring threat.  Dont get me wrong Davis was superb but for me never really looked like socring, even his really good effort was at Keeper's height and ready for him to push away.  Play Davis and Samatta and drop El Ghazi, then let Jack play the free role.  The rest, Dean got spot on tonight for me.

Before the lockdown, if we had played this game when it should have we would have all taken a point.  So its better than a loss.

However, yet again a missed opportunity to get the win, yes we rode our luck with the GK error but we didn’t capitalise on it.

This is my problem with Smith, he’s lack of ability to see what's happening and make a change.

I only watched the first and last 10 mins as I was out but from the radio and on here it looks like Davis was causing problems from the start.

Like Nick76 says, maybe not with Samatta, because he was on the bench for most of game, but why did he not instruct others on the pitch to get closer to Davis, you cant have a hold up player do both holding up and being on the end of things at the same time, he needed help.  Last 10 mins, he should have thrown the two of them on.

As a coach myself, if I saw this this I’d get Grealish in off the left to get round him, and have Mcginn and El Ghazi just flanking them both, not as wingers, but on either side.  If not him just someone who can receive it back.

The persistence of playing wingers and wide men does just not work, we don’t have a gigs or beckham getting crosses in to the box all game so why play them.  It’s a waste of a player, plus every winger we have is not good enough.

As someone said early, we need to play a tighter midfield and move across the pitch.

As Grealish is effective on the left but he is easily to crowd out outhere, where can he go, play him the middle, more space, more influential, he’s our best player, don’t alienate him, get him round Davis, let him bring in others round the box and final third.

It’s the story of our season, we huff and puff and get nothing, how many times do we say if only we did this better, tried this, games are running out for us, yes we got a point but we need wins.

Throw ins…don’t get me started

[sne]

5 minutes ago, Khizzy said:

To be honest, the only way Davis will ever remotely get close to scoring now is if he's playing Fifa....

Bit unfair, he very nearly scored for Sheffield by shoving Nyland into our goal

Edited June 18, 2020 by sne

[Tomaszk]

We're going down with a whimper if Grealish doesn't move from that wing. The rest of the team are too scared to get on the ball.