ozvillafan Posted February 23, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted February 23, 2021 1 hour ago, Tomaszk said: Ross hasn't once played as badly as El Ghazi did that first half. He should absolutely be dropped for Leeds. El Ghazi should probably keep his place even though Leeds isn't really a game for him. Maybe. It's all opinions. I honestly thought El-Ghazi was the scapegoat as he barely received the ball all half. That points to problems elsewhere. In that particular game I would have swapped out all 3 midfielders. They were horrible. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam2003 Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 41 minutes ago, ozvillafan said: Maybe. It's all opinions. I honestly thought El-Ghazi was the scapegoat as he barely received the ball all half. That points to problems elsewhere. In that particular game I would have swapped out all 3 midfielders. They were horrible. Not saying this to disagree with you, purely that your comment made me wonder the answer to this - when was the last time a PL team playing with three midfielders subbed them all off? (I guess could have happened last season when there were extra subs which would be a boringly recent answer). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan_of_oz Posted February 23, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted February 23, 2021 4 hours ago, Keyblade said: I mean unless you're privy to the numbers he's referring to, you can't really accuse him of that can you? Clearly I'm not privy to the numbers, my accusation is that there can't possibly be any good numbers. Not ones that matter anyway. That's clearly been proved by his recent performances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 (edited) Then why is Barkley getting picked every week? Why did he get thrown straight into the eleven immidiately after his injury without having to earn his place back in? Edited February 23, 2021 by villalad21 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philosopher Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 We can beat Leeds but we need to play a team of hardworking fighters. Our defense is good, Watkins is a handful and our fullbacks even though I worry about Elmo defensively are fine crossers. We need to play the line up I suggested for Leicester only with Traore in behind Watkins, Trez right and Sanson left. Let match there workrate only with better defensive discipline and we can at least get a point. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 (edited) 8 hours ago, TRO said: How many have we got at the moment that Leeds is a game for them? probably half of them. From the first XI? All of them. Maybe Barkley doesn't suit the pace, but he doesn't look fit right now. As we've known all season we have no depth and are significantly weakened by any change we have to make. Edited February 23, 2021 by Tomaszk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 19 minutes ago, villalad21 said: Then why is Barkley getting picked every week? Why did he get thrown straight into the eleven immidiately after his injury without having to earn his place back in? Whilst I get your point I think he is actually talking about earning the right to play by competing with the opposition. Not earning the right to get in to the team. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GENTLEMAN Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 17 minutes ago, Tomaszk said: From the first XI? All of them. Maybe Barkley doesn't suit the pace, but he doesn't look fit right now. As we've known all season we have no depth and are significantly weakened by any change we have to make. I would argue that we have some depth in the centre of the pitch. Which I think where our major problems currently lie. I do not agree that Ramsey replacing an ‘unifit/out of form’ Barkley significantly weakens us, for instance. The balance between Barkley, Luiz and McGinn is not working. We have options here, Nakamba, Sanson and Ramsey. I think we need more combat and industry in the middle. I would be tempted to push Barkley to the left to carry out a similar role to Grealish. Then introduce Nakamba into the middle. Regardless, I’m not buying ‘we have no depth at all’ line. Hell, we signed Sanson in January to compete for first 11 spot. Both Nakamba and Ramsey have provided good cameos. We have options but choosing not to utilise them in the hope that the first 11 have been under performing and will play themselves into form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OxfordVillan Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 9 hours ago, TRO said: How many have we got at the moment that Leeds is a game for them? probably half of them. I’d honestly be considering playing McGinn out wide in a midfield 4 for the Leeds game. You need tenacity and running power against Leeds wide men. I’d be looking at 4-1-4-1 formation as we really don’t have the personnel to go 3 at the back at this moment in time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 23 minutes ago, GENTLEMAN said: I would argue that we have some depth in the centre of the pitch. Which I think where our major problems currently lie. I do not agree that Ramsey replacing an ‘unifit/out of form’ Barkley significantly weakens us, for instance. The balance between Barkley, Luiz and McGinn is not working. We have options here, Nakamba, Sanson and Ramsey. I think we need more combat and industry in the middle. I would be tempted to push Barkley to the left to carry out a similar role to Grealish. Then introduce Nakamba into the middle. Regardless, I’m not buying ‘we have no depth at all’ line. Hell, we signed Sanson in January to compete for first 11 spot. Both Nakamba and Ramsey have provided good cameos. We have options but choosing not to utilise them in the hope that the first 11 have been under performing and will play themselves into form. From the bench you've probably got Sanson and to an extent Nakamba and Ramsey who wouldn't significantly weaken us. Everyone else does. Every other position. Just the reality of how far we've come so quickly. From bottom half of Championship to top half of PL in two seasons. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post GENTLEMAN Posted February 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2021 1 hour ago, Tomaszk said: From the bench you've probably got Sanson and to an extent Nakamba and Ramsey who wouldn't significantly weaken us. Everyone else does. Every other position. Just the reality of how far we've come so quickly. From bottom half of Championship to top half of PL in two seasons. We can agree that the squad will need at least 2 more transfer windows until it’s completely functional. But, we have 3 options you’ve mentioned there. In an area of the pitch that (over the past 5/6 games) we appear to be losing week after week. The balance in the centre of midfield doesn’t seem right. I just think more can be done with the current squad. As evidenced by the improved performance after substitutions have been made. At the moment, it feels like we’re shoehorning the best 11 individuals into a first 11. Regardless of form, balance and partnerships. This is the puzzle Smith needs to solve. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 6 hours ago, OxfordVillan said: I’d honestly be considering playing McGinn out wide in a midfield 4 for the Leeds game. You need tenacity and running power against Leeds wide men. I’d be looking at 4-1-4-1 formation as we really don’t have the personnel to go 3 at the back at this moment in time. spot on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 7 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Whilst I get your point I think he is actually talking about earning the right to play by competing with the opposition. Not earning the right to get in to the team. He does mean that. so what do you glean from that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 (edited) 7 hours ago, Tomaszk said: From the first XI? All of them. Maybe Barkley doesn't suit the pace, but he doesn't look fit right now. As we've known all season we have no depth and are significantly weakened by any change we have to make. We are beginning to look weak in certain areas, with the first eleven....showing signs now, of last Season. Edited February 23, 2021 by TRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 41 minutes ago, TRO said: He does mean that. so what do you glean from that? That the whole team needs to do more. Not just the midfield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 11 hours ago, Tomaszk said: From the first XI? All of them. Maybe Barkley doesn't suit the pace, but he doesn't look fit right now. As we've known all season we have no depth and are significantly weakened by any change we have to make. Tom I generally agree with most of your posts but I'm a bit bemused why you think our squad players are consistantly the root of all evil. This isn't 19/20 anymore. Hause came in and was surprisingly outstanding. El Ghazi reverted to type but he did win us points in December just when we needed it as we were on run of 4 defeats out of 5 at some point and Nakamba did well in the recent Arsenal win. AEM past it now I'd accept given how poor he was on Sunday and Leeds will expose him as weak link If we're demanding the squad players go toe to toe with the Manchester clubs then of course that's beyond them but they've generally done well when they've come in v bottom half teams unless I'm missing some obvious performances. Think now we've got to look a bit more long term and start giving Sanson and Jacob Ramsey serious minutes. Again Ramsey was another who came in at Wolves when our season could've gone bottom half with a loss and didn't let us down and Sanson is hardly some YTS kid so he's well overdue a start and has profile we need to counter Leeds strengths. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 10 hours ago, Tomaszk said: From the bench you've probably got Sanson and to an extent Nakamba and Ramsey who wouldn't significantly weaken us. Everyone else does. Every other position. Just the reality of how far we've come so quickly. From bottom half of Championship to top half of PL in two seasons. Hause didn't weaken us at all when he had that run of games over xmas. Yes I was amazed aswell. 4 games, 3 clean sheets and one goal so pretty good and he was unlucky to lose his place to Mings again so that's example of much criticised player who just slotted in with ease. Given how well we've played for most of this season and our organisation being a different league to what we were doing this time last year it's generally much easier for any squad player to come in and not look out of place compared to the situation for most of last season when there was lack of belief in what we were trying to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tayls Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 (edited) What’s going on then do we reckon? We’ve definitely regressed since the turn of the year both in terms of team performance and (I think) points return. I’m expecting us to get beat on Saturday too, as Leeds are just playing better football than us, plain and simple. Really think we need to get to 40pts as soon as possible else we could easily be caught with an extended run of defeats. Edited February 23, 2021 by Tayls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 2 minutes ago, Tayls said: What’s going on then do we reckon? We’ve definitely regressed since the turn of the year both in terms of team performance and (I think) points return. I’m expecting us to get beat on Saturday too, as Leeds are just playing better football than us, plain and simple. Really think we need to get to 40pts as soon as possible else we could easily be caught with an extended run of defeats. Sheffield united and Newcastle in next four so holding off crisis talk unless we don't defeat either of them as that would be hugely disappointing and be real downgrade on the results we've had so far. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 2 minutes ago, Tayls said: What’s going on then do we reckon? We’ve definitely regressed since the turn of the year both in terms of team performance and I think points return. I’m expecting us to get best on Saturday too, as Leeds are just playing better football than us, plain and simple. Really think we need to get to 40pts as soon as possible else we could easily be caught with an extended run of defeats. I think the effects of Covid have slowly but surely manifested. The City game got my hopes up, but we've faded bad since then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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