Dean Smith

[Greenfly]

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

He doesn't trust his subs.

That would be my guess.

You're probably right. I don't see any impact players on that bench at the moment. Our starting 11 is always pretty easy to guess too.

[Greenfly]

1 hour ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Personally I would get a strong striker on early. I'd increase the tempo a lot. Playing wide is fine, but pinging crosses into the box isn't the way to go when they are clearly better in the air. You need to up the tempo and be patient. Get them tired. 

Letting them getting breaks by clearing or taking down crosses just gives them the advantage of pushing their team out, catching breaks, running down time, reorganising and so much more. 

I'm baffled anyone can be happy with how we perform against 10 men. My mate tends to be rather objective about Villa with no interests one way or another and he said we looked 'clueless with advantage'. Sums it up. We don't look drilled in how to handle an advantage at all. 

This is the problem though. They weren't going to move; they all know their role when it comes to defence, and they were more than happy to let us come forward.

Howwere we meant to break them down? They had enough height and bodies in the box to be first to any cross and they left no space between their lines for us to move the ball through. All we could feasibly do was shoot from range, which is likely exactly what they wanted us to do.

Also, I doubt anyone is happy with the performance per se, but we won despite not playing a great game. That's all that matters in the end.

[KenjiOgiwara]

Double post. 

Edited September 23, 2020 by KenjiOgiwara

[KenjiOgiwara]

10 hours ago, Rossi said:

First game of the season against a team know for parking the bus, we did OK, in fact you can't get more than 3 points in a match

This is true. First match of the season with rustiness, new players and getting three points, all that's important. 

If anything I'm glad our new signings looked miles better than what we saw from our recruitment last year. Hopefully this means Deano has had more of a say of who we've brought in. 

[Bazmonkey]

12 hours ago, villa4europe said:

There's a real lack of credit for what Sheffield utd did

compacted the box, let us have it out wide knowing they could cope with crosses, let Hourihane and Luiz have it 40 yards from goal knowing they weren't picking anyone out from there, double up on grealish, let Watkins have it away from goal rather than in front of it, cash and target had a lot of the ball but no options on because everyone and every bit of space in the box was covered

And that's not a case of wilder out thinking Smith 

The only tweak I would have made would have been let target and cash swing it in earlier from deep and test the theory that they would have coped with crosses but who on the pitch could you throw in the box as a gamble? Get mcginn and grealish in there looking for headers?

The play it out wide draw them in deep lay it off to the edge tactics suited the midfield we have

 

12 hours ago, Greenfly said:

This is the problem though. They weren't going to move; they all know their role when it comes to defence, and they were more than happy to let us come forward.

Howwere we meant to break them down? They had enough height and bodies in the box to be first to any cross and they left no space between their lines for us to move the ball through. All we could feasibly do was shoot from range, which is likely exactly what they wanted us to do.

Also, I doubt anyone is happy with the performance per se, but we won despite not playing a great game. That's all that matters in the end.

This is correct, Sheff Utd did sit back and cramp the edge of the box.  Basically saying cross it in and we will deal with it, which is what they did.

Problem is we kept doing this all game and clearly from after the first couple it was never going to work.  Adding in Grealish and Mcginn would have been pointless against 6ft centre halves.

To expand on the bold bits, all of them are true.  However, as much as Sheff Utd did this and allowed us to do this, we also allowed Sheff Utd to do this because we moved the ball round to slow, giving them time to ready themselves.

Plus, if we are going to cross so much and then not win the cross we need to pick up the second ball, which we didnt't…..these little things can make the difference.  You could hear Wilder on the side shouting 'second ball' all game.

If a team is camped on the box then you need to get them moving, pull them out to create the lane or space behind, again we didn't do this we just sat next to them waiting for the cross.

We did do it a couple of times and it worked, Watkins nearly got on the end of a cross played in behind the back line, and other occasions players were able to get a shot off in the box...….why.....movement....we were to static on the edge of the box.

Hopefully Smith will see this, its the first game, 3 points, hopefully play better next time round.

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by Bazmonkey
spelling

[NIVillan]

Sheff United had the 4th best defense last season, it was never going to be easy.

My view of the game is that we did look a lot more solid and Watkins movement helped a lot.  Target looks a weak link, as does Trez.   Grealish didnt have one of his better games but still had chances to score 2 or 3 games.  He did slow some attacks down thinking he had to take the United Defense on himself.

Reminded me a lot of some old European games, especially under Gregory where we couldnt break through but stayed patient and finally nicked a goal.

I saw improvements to last season. 

We have by the looks of it a solid Goalkeeper and Centerback partnership.  Cash looked good if a bit out of sync, so the defense is coming on nicely. 

Luiz looked calm and controlled in defense and did his. job well, no bombing on leaving. holes behind.  At one point he recieved. the ball with 3 of. their. players around, some nice shuffling of his feet and he was free and laid the ball off nicely.

Mcginn though. not at his best had a couple of flashes of what he is about, hassling their midfield to get the ball and breaking through on an interception.   Hopefully not too long before back to the full mcGinn.

We passed the ball around quite nicely but we need to speed it up.  We need to be able to up a gear to catch out the opposition.  Watching bits of the Man City game against Wolves they were tearing them apart, not by spectacular play but by quick short simple passing.   The old Liverpool sides of the early 80s used to talk about passing in trangles to get around teams.  Man City do that a breakneck speed.

If Davis can start scoring some goals hin and Watkins up front would be dynamite in my opinion.  Davis batters the opposition defence and helps keep the ball to relieve our defense and provide an outlet to the midfield.

 

 

 

 

 

[NurembergVillan]

 

[villalad21]

33 minutes ago, NurembergVillan said:

 

Absolutely shocking from Chelsea that with the money they've spent

[Vive_La_Villa]

2 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Absolutely shocking from Chelsea that with the money they've spent

It’s 2 games with one being against the champions.  

[villalad21]

2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

It’s 2 games with one being against the champions.  

Yes it's 2 games and Covid-19 is rising again.

We just have to win our next game and we'll be in Europe when they inevitably end the season on PPG  

[MrBlack]

46 minutes ago, NurembergVillan said:

 

Nice to be top of the league when it comes to an offensive based stat. Wonder when we last achieved that....

What do you mean,  we've only played one game against 10 men? Shush.

[Vive_La_Villa]

6 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Yes it's 2 games and Covid-19 is rising again.

We just have to win our next game and we'll be in Europe when they inevitably end the season on PPG  

[sne]

And we hit the target twice and scored once 

[ciggiesnbeer]

Hopefully not as repost, anyway, one of the things I really like about Dean Smith is he is a committed professional football coach. Unlike several of our managers who were more of the "cheerleader/ blame giver"  variety
 

 

[Jas10]

5 minutes ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

Hopefully not as repost, anyway, one of the things I really like about Dean Smith is he is a committed professional football coach. Unlike several of our managers who were more of the "cheerleader/ blame giver"  variety
 

 

Aah... now I see why we went for Emi (what a keeper!) in particular, and why we loaned Reina (Heaton less so, Kalinic must’ve been a Suso signing).

Hopefully, should allow us to be more effective and play better football...

[bannedfromHandV]

23 hours ago, villa4europe said:

There's a real lack of credit for what Sheffield utd did

compacted the box, let us have it out wide knowing they could cope with crosses, let Hourihane and Luiz have it 40 yards from goal knowing they weren't picking anyone out from there, double up on grealish, let Watkins have it away from goal rather than in front of it, cash and target had a lot of the ball but no options on because everyone and every bit of space in the box was covered

And that's not a case of wilder out thinking Smith 

The only tweak I would have made would have been let target and cash swing it in earlier from deep and test the theory that they would have coped with crosses but who on the pitch could you throw in the box as a gamble? Get mcginn and grealish in there looking for headers?

The play it out wide draw them in deep lay it off to the edge tactics suited the midfield we have

Agree with all of that but we still lacked intelligent movement.

This is nothing new of course, we’ve lacked movement for as long as I can remember it seems.

[Dave-R]

On 22/09/2020 at 20:41, villa4europe said:

There's a real lack of credit for what Sheffield utd did

compacted the box, let us have it out wide knowing they could cope with crosses, let Hourihane and Luiz have it 40 yards from goal knowing they weren't picking anyone out from there, double up on grealish, let Watkins have it away from goal rather than in front of it, cash and target had a lot of the ball but no options on because everyone and every bit of space in the box was covered

And that's not a case of wilder out thinking Smith 

The only tweak I would have made would have been let target and cash swing it in earlier from deep and test the theory that they would have coped with crosses but who on the pitch could you throw in the box as a gamble? Get mcginn and grealish in there looking for headers?

The play it out wide draw them in deep lay it off to the edge tactics suited the midfield we have

Agree with this, we arrive to late for crosses to be swung in, our Wingers holding the ball to long so utd were back organised.

I do believe Watkins would score for fun but only if we can beat defenders re-positioning and waiting for crosses just to head or kick them away.

We have to be faster down those flanks and swinging in low crosses, fast ones at that and attackers running in before defenders setup the defensive line.

It's not rocket science, its just that we need Wingers to run the flanks faster than the opposition can get settle defensively. I do think Grealish should move back to middle for that reason alone but only if we can get a new winger for the left.

[TRO]

On 23/09/2020 at 09:34, Bazmonkey said:

 

This is correct, Sheff Utd did sit back and cramp the edge of the box.  Basically saying cross it in and we will deal with it, which is what they did.

Problem is we kept doing this all game and clearly from after the first couple it was never going to work.  Adding in Grealish and Mcginn would have been pointless against 6ft centre halves.

To expand on the bold bits, all of them are true.  However, as much as Sheff Utd did this and allowed us to do this, we also allowed Sheff Utd to do this because we moved the ball round to slow, giving them time to ready themselves.

Plus, if we are going to cross so much and then not win the cross we need to pick up the second ball, which we didnt't…..these little things can make the difference.  You could hear Wilder on the side shouting 'second ball' all game.

If a team is camped on the box then you need to get them moving, pull them out to create the lane or space behind, again we didn't do this we just sat next to them waiting for the cross.

We did do it a couple of times and it worked, Watkins nearly got on the end of a cross played in behind the back line, and other occasions players were able to get a shot off in the box...….why.....movement....we were to static on the edge of the box.

Hopefully Smith will see this, its the first game, 3 points, hopefully play better next time round.

 

Movement is key......and quick movement, even better.

but its quick thinking and where ball control comes in and we need better quality.....but we all know that.

under the circumstances 3 points was golden.

Edited September 24, 2020 by TRO

[TRO]

On 23/09/2020 at 10:41, NIVillan said:

Sheff United had the 4th best defense last season, it was never going to be easy.

My view of the game is that we did look a lot more solid and Watkins movement helped a lot.  Target looks a weak link, as does Trez.   Grealish didnt have one of his better games but still had chances to score 2 or 3 games.  He did slow some attacks down thinking he had to take the United Defense on himself.

Reminded me a lot of some old European games, especially under Gregory where we couldnt break through but stayed patient and finally nicked a goal.

I saw improvements to last season. 

We have by the looks of it a solid Goalkeeper and Centerback partnership.  Cash looked good if a bit out of sync, so the defense is coming on nicely. 

Luiz looked calm and controlled in defense and did his. job well, no bombing on leaving. holes behind.  At one point he recieved. the ball with 3 of. their. players around, some nice shuffling of his feet and he was free and laid the ball off nicely.

Mcginn though. not at his best had a couple of flashes of what he is about, hassling their midfield to get the ball and breaking through on an interception.   Hopefully not too long before back to the full mcGinn.

We passed the ball around quite nicely but we need to speed it up.  We need to be able to up a gear to catch out the opposition.  Watching bits of the Man City game against Wolves they were tearing them apart, not by spectacular play but by quick short simple passing.   The old Liverpool sides of the early 80s used to talk about passing in trangles to get around teams.  Man City do that a breakneck speed.

If Davis can start scoring some goals hin and Watkins up front would be dynamite in my opinion.  Davis batters the opposition defence and helps keep the ball to relieve our defense and provide an outlet to the midfield.

 

 

 

 

 

Good post, good salient points.

Man city players have a great first touch and superb ball control.....we will get there eventually.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Played 7

Won 5

Drawn 2

Lost 0

Night Dean x