BleedClaretAndBlue Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 Didnt they have an injury crisis too? impressive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 2 hours ago, supermon said: The passing Norwich were doing was very pleasing on the eye, they showed no dear, didn't over respect Man City. We on the other hand will take a one nil lead and defend like there's 10 minutes to go When ten minutes have gone haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Made In Aston Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 I can't put my finger on it, but something is not quite right with our first XI. Maybe it is a lack of quality in certain areas or perhaps a distinct lack of pace in attacking positions? I have noticed that we aren't as good at keeping possession, which means counter attacking would be the best tactic. No pace means this isn't a viable option, so we end up underperforming. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 10 minutes ago, Made In Aston said: I can't put my finger on it, but something is not quite right with our first XI. Maybe it is a lack of quality in certain areas or perhaps a distinct lack of pace in attacking positions? I have noticed that we aren't as good at keeping possession, which means counter attacking would be the best tactic. No pace means this isn't a viable option, so we end up underperforming. We haven't looked powerful or athletic enough in midfield. Clear gulf in that in the Spurs and Palace games. Norwich for instance look a lot fitter and stronger as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 (edited) 19 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said: We haven't looked powerful or athletic enough in midfield. Clear gulf in that in the Spurs and Palace games. Norwich for instance look a lot fitter and stronger as well. we are playing three midfielders all of which seem to be attack minded, McGinn is encouraged to get forward, Grealish drops to deep when he should be further forward and Luiz doesn't seem physical enough to win many challenges or tall enough to win much in the air. The midfield just seems completely unbalanced. Luiz looks more mobile than Connor, but Connor seems to be the only player we have capable of good set pieces so without him we lose that threat. McGinn and Grealish are more than capable of going wide when needed, we don't need two out and out wide men, we need an extra man in midfield to protect the defence. Edited September 14, 2019 by VillanousOne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted September 15, 2019 Share Posted September 15, 2019 No for me it's the front three, El Ghazi really struggled with the step up so far which has surprised me given his form at end of last season and his experience with Ajax, Trez looked interesting first two games but has faded recently although I think long term there's a good player for this league, Jota looks the sort who'll be useful at home but will struggle to impact away and Kodjia looks like he's going to have another injury prone season. And that's it for wide options either side of the central striker for which we only have two of them. Looking at Tammy and Maupay scoring yesterday was frustrating, we are certainly at least one attacking player light in the squad, lacking options not just starting but game changing players off the bench and it simply costs you points in the premier league. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted September 15, 2019 Share Posted September 15, 2019 5 minutes ago, VillaChris said: No for me it's the front three, El Ghazi really struggled with the step up so far which has surprised me given his form at end of last season and his experience with Ajax, Trez looked interesting first two games but has faded recently although I think long term there's a good player for this league, Jota looks the sort who'll be useful at home but will struggle to impact away and Kodjia looks like he's going to have another injury prone season. And that's it for wide options either side of the central striker for which we only have two of them. Looking at Tammy and Maupay scoring yesterday was frustrating, we are certainly at least one attacking player light in the squad, lacking options not just starting but game changing players off the bench and it simply costs you points in the premier league. We dropped the ball on Maupay. Not only is he a talented player who can find the back of the net but he can also be deployed in a wider role if needed. He would have given us some much needed pace and aggression and would have been a good versatile option across the attacking line. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted September 15, 2019 Share Posted September 15, 2019 Everyone is beating everyone. It's terrible for us. There isn't any clear bottom 3 teams this season like the previous season. 35 pts won't be enough. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A'Villan Posted September 15, 2019 Share Posted September 15, 2019 (edited) One of the Norwich goals came from a City error similar to Grealish's against Spurs, had it not been made, we might've got a result, same as for City. It's called a competition for a reason people, not time to push panic buttons just yet. Many unknowns and variables yet to be played out. Credit Norwich for the win, no doubt, but they've still got 9 months of football left, as do we, and everyone else. I remember Wigan, looking destined for relegation quite early on, beat like every single team in European placing one year on a crazy run, tail end of the season. They survived. Think it might've been when Houllier was sick, or perhaps a year or two after. Point is momentum can swing. As I've said elsewhere, it wouldn't surprise me if this newly put together team of ours sees exponential growth in outcomes, like we saw in the Championship. Edited September 15, 2019 by A'Villan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted September 15, 2019 Share Posted September 15, 2019 2 hours ago, villalad21 said: Everyone is beating everyone. It's terrible for us. There isn't any clear bottom 3 teams this season like the previous season. 35 pts won't be enough. The bottom 3 after 5 games last season was Huddersfield, Newcastle and Burnley in that order. 5 games man! People need to relax. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted September 15, 2019 Share Posted September 15, 2019 2 hours ago, villalad21 said: Everyone is beating everyone. It's terrible for us. There isn't any clear bottom 3 teams this season like the previous season. 35 pts won't be enough. I agree. We need to start winning some football matches it’s a simple as that, or we are going to be in big trouble even at this early stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted September 15, 2019 Share Posted September 15, 2019 3 minutes ago, jim said: I agree. We need to start winning some football matches it’s a simple as that, or we are going to be in big trouble even at this early stage. We do and if we win tomorrow we will have done something 6 other teams haven’t yet managed to do. I get it’s going to be a difficult season but reading this thread sometimes feels like we are the whipping boys of the league. It’s started to feel like February again although not quite that bad yet. As I told you all back then. We’ll be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted September 15, 2019 Share Posted September 15, 2019 6 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: We do and if we win tomorrow we will have done something 6 other teams haven’t yet managed to do. I get it’s going to be a difficult season but reading this thread sometimes feels like we are the whipping boys of the league. It’s started to feel like February again although not quite that bad yet. As I told you all back then. We’ll be fine. I do feel like there are some overreactions. As I've said before, we're one of about 8 teams or so for whom survival will clearly be the goal this season, and there isn't much between any of us. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M_Afro Posted September 16, 2019 Share Posted September 16, 2019 On 14/09/2019 at 22:37, Dr_Pangloss said: We haven't looked powerful or athletic enough in midfield. Clear gulf in that in the Spurs and Palace games. Norwich for instance look a lot fitter and stronger as well. I totally agree with this. I have been amazed by how much this has changed during our time away. All the teams look bigger, faster and stronger than is in the centre of the pitch. We are going to have to be much better at keeping possession to compete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weedman Posted September 16, 2019 Share Posted September 16, 2019 2 hours ago, M_Afro said: I totally agree with this. I have been amazed by how much this has changed during our time away. All the teams look bigger, faster and stronger than is in the centre of the pitch. We are going to have to be much better at keeping possession to compete. I agree too, the main thing I'm noticing since being back is that most players, especially in midfield, seem to contribute to multiple phases of play due to their athleticism, the games we've played we're not up against a defensive midfielder, or an attacking midfielder, it's a 2 or 3 man midfield that attack and defend when they need to, strikers seem to be involved across the front line and interchange with wingers regularly. We haven't really had that but having seen Marvellous I actually think he could be the man that ties us together, he seems quite Kante esque with his mobility and strength on the ball (granted only that 1 game to go on) and I think with him + 2 from Grealish, McGinn, Luiz or Conor we could have a pretty dynamic midfield. If he's fit I'd like to see Marvellous, Grealish and McGinn all moving around that midfield because they're all athletic enough to attack and defend as needed and good enough to make things happen at either end as well. PL football is far more intense than other leagues (even the Championship) and players need to adjust to that, figure out how much time they have (or don't have) on the ball and get into positions sooner to support other players. I think it'll come, from what I've seen of the players the talent is there, and I think they have the physical attributes to succeed as well, they just need to get up to speed quickly and until they do I think we'll continue to see some disjointed performances. I'm hopeful it'll all start to come together by about game 10 (we've seen glimpses already), if we can keep the points total ticking over until then I'm hopeful we'll be ok, and possibly even start to look up the table in the 2nd half of the season rather than down 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry'sboots Posted September 16, 2019 Share Posted September 16, 2019 I think Taylor is a huge issue for us at the minute. As solid as he has been, he offers little when we are in possession and a modern team needs full backs that can also be both an outlet for the midfield - when you are trying to retain possession - and a partner for the winger in a front 3. He offers neither of these! As such, we are a man down when trying to retain possession and the left sided player in the midfield three is forced to come out wider and support the winger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilko154 Posted September 16, 2019 Share Posted September 16, 2019 Christ reading through this thread and anyone would have thought we got tonked 5-0 over the weekend. We haven't even played yet and the meltdown has begun. Give the lads a chance. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted September 16, 2019 Share Posted September 16, 2019 On 14/09/2019 at 14:27, supermon said: The passing Norwich were doing was very pleasing on the eye, they showed no dear, didn't over respect Man City. We on the other hand will take a one nil lead and defend like there's 10 minutes to go I mean, Norwich were defending on the edge of their box for practically the last 40 minutes. I've never seen us happy to sit on 1-0 leads under Smith. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mic09 Posted September 16, 2019 Share Posted September 16, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, wilko154 said: Christ reading through this thread and anyone would have thought we got tonked 5-0 over the weekend. We haven't even played yet and the meltdown has begun. Give the lads a chance. 100%. But, if we lost this one badly, many people will turn, especially with the tricky Arsenal away next. Win, and we have a nice mental cushion for now. Edited September 16, 2019 by Mic09 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted September 16, 2019 Share Posted September 16, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, Keyblade said: I mean, Norwich were defending on the edge of their box for practically the last 40 minutes. I've never seen us happy to sit on 1-0 leads under Smith. It was a pure smash and grab! It really does feel like people seem to just see what they want to see so they can have a good moan. Edited September 16, 2019 by Vive_La_Villa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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