Jump to content

Premier League 2019-2020 Thread


Enda

Recommended Posts

Taken a bit of a break from villatalk for awhile but I will give my initial thoughts over not last night but the season so far.

I think defensively we look very good - great in fact. Engels gilbert and mings have been mostly excellent so far. (Makes me wonder why we never brought Gilbert in championship he would have torn that league apart)

Taylor has been Taylor not bad not great but going forward non existent and pretty poor.

Moving on to midfield grealish has been good but his passing has become really sloppy at times. He is getting better.  Mcginn I think has been excellent and luiz looks like a player to me. 

Moving on to the wings this is where the first problems I can see. We have some major problems here. El ghazi looks very inconsistent and lost esp when he starts for us. Yesterday he struggled bad. I dont think he is good enough at this level. Jota looks decent at times but a lot of his movement is predictable and he runs into a lot of dead ends. Needs to work on becoming less predictable. Trezuget looks average so far. Haven't been overly impressed I admit. Goes missing at times and isnt creating opportunities for others like I feel the reason I feel he was signed for. His finoshing alsp looks really poor. Has a very weak finish from egat i ahve seen so far.

Moving up front to Wesley. I'm sorry to say but he looks shit. For a big man he looks weak as hell. Falls over constantly and struggling bad. Ok he hasn't had much service I agree but when he does get the ball he does very little with it. I'm curious to see how many shots he has actually had.

I think we are in trouble because I don't think he will get any more than 10 goals tops. It's not his fault sorely for that as he doesn't look like someone that can hold the line on his own. Shows how crazy it was not getting another striker in and that may cost us dearly. I appreciate haller was double the fee but he didn't have much service but he was a handful.

There is no doubt in my mind we have to make a striker a priority come January a proven one in PL.

As for Smith what I am finding strange is he is talking bout an attacking game but we seem to be playing quite negatively at times. I do wonder why this is. Are players ignoring what's been to do of them?

Overall not been a great start but not  a totally awful one either. Realistically we should have 5 points now which wouldn't have been a awful start but could have been  better. I'm hoping we improve but I have to say we look like a team that could be in relegation zone if we don't get much better. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 14/09/2019 at 11:37, useless said:

This is why it's annoying when people talk as if we shouldn't hope to beat the likes of Everton or West Ham because they've got some good players....

Literally no one thinks we shouldn’t hope to beat any team - There’s a difference between hoping to win and expecting to win. We are new to the division, after being promoted via the playoffs and trying to bed in a dozen new players - any point(s) won in the PL will be very hard gained

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Plenty of people were writing off our chances before both the Everton and West Ham game. People keep talking us down, and talking the opposition up, it's almost Bruce-esque, to hear some you'd think West Ham were top four challangers, rather than a mid-table side, yes they're a better side than us currently but if we're to have any chance of staying up at some point we're going to have to win games against teams that are better than, an home game against them is one in which we should be targetting three points.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it is essential Hourihane is on the pitch. At the moment we aren't really creating enough from open play, so having a set piece specialist will at give us a better chance of scoring from dead ball situations.

It might mean moving Grealish out wide, but let's be honest, he has hardly set the league alight from the centre and our wingers have been poor. Nothing to lose by making the change. It might actually help jack adjust as there is more space out wide. 

Edited by Made In Aston
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Made In Aston said:

I think it is essential Hourihane is on the pitch. At the moment we aren't really creating enough from open play, so having a set piece specialist will at give us a better chance of scoring from dead ball situations.

It might mean moving Grealish out wide, but let's be honest, he has hardly set the league alight from the centre and our wingers have been poor. Nothing to lose by making the change. It might actually help jack adjust as there is more space out wide. 

But at present by not creating and thus not getting many set pieces, so it could be that we’d just be carrying Conor 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thinking about it, once we’ve played Arsenal Sunday 4 of our 6 games would have been against teams tipped for the top 8 this season. Everton and West Ham have been highly fancied. 

We’ve more than held our own and not been outclassed really. With a bit more luck we’d have more points on board. 

If we carry playing how we have been, and continue to improve we have more than enough to stay in this league. 

Arsenal look like a team we could pinch a point from. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, useless said:

Plenty of people were writing off our chances before both the Everton and West Ham game. People keep talking us down, and talking the opposition up, it's almost Bruce-esque, to hear some you'd think West Ham were top four challangers, rather than a mid-table side, yes they're a better side than us currently but if we're to have any chance of staying up at some point we're going to have to win games against teams that are better than, an home game against them is one in which we should be targetting three points.

Well I said pre match I'd be happy with a point. The red card complicated that as we failed to mount any sort of decent pressure until right at the end but overall for first hour I was happy with performance and so wouldn't have been disappointed if the final whistle had gone then.

Many many teams in history of top flight football have stayed up comfortably after drawing a home game with West Ham. We drew twice with them at VP in the MON 6th place seasons after all.

After Arsenal that's a crunch period right there imo and I will be expecting us to step up and win two of Brighton, Burnley and Norwich. Will be tough but need 6-7 points from those three otherwise we will get stuck in the bottom three given who we then play up to middle of December.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The table hasn't settled down yet. I still see teams like Norwich and Palace as realistic relegation candidates, despite some good early results.

In fact, there are so many realistic relegation candidates (Bournemouth, Southampton, Palace, Norwich, Burnley, Sheff Utd, Brighton, Newcastle, Watford... maybe even Wolves?) that it's going to take ages for it to become apparent who's in the mix, and who's surfing above it.

I think a lot of people are panicking because teams like Norwich and Sheffield United have outperformed expectations, and teams like Palace and Bournemouth have had a ludicrous amount of good luck. In the end, the luck evens out, and squad investment starts to tell. We'll be okay. Our defence will keep us up.

 

Edited by KentVillan
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, villan-scott said:

Thinking about it, once we’ve played Arsenal Sunday 4 of our 6 games would have been against teams tipped for the top 8 this season. Everton and West Ham have been highly fancied. 

We’ve more than held our own and not been outclassed really. With a bit more luck we’d have more points on board. 

If we carry playing how we have been, and continue to improve we have more than enough to stay in this league. 

Arsenal look like a team we could pinch a point from. 

That would be a more reassuring statistic if we hadn't lost the other 2 matches. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 17/09/2019 at 19:23, Made In Aston said:

I think it is essential Hourihane is on the pitch. At the moment we aren't really creating enough from open play, so having a set piece specialist will at give us a better chance of scoring from dead ball situations.

It might mean moving Grealish out wide, but let's be honest, he has hardly set the league alight from the centre and our wingers have been poor. Nothing to lose by making the change. It might actually help jack adjust as there is more space out wide. 

I don’t think we get enough Refereeing decisions for that tactic to be effective 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 17/09/2019 at 13:34, HanoiVillan said:

For some of the teams, part of the reason they're in the top half of the table is because they *beat us*. It's just not a very good measure. 

I guess Bournemouth are essentially shit and only third because they beat us too. 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Time to grow a heart and aim for better than just surviving. If we finish the season and just surviving is what we end up doing, we can look back and be philosophical about it and say 'that will do for our first season back', but in the meantime we can be more ambitious as I'm sure Smith will agree.

Edited by useless
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, useless said:

Time to grow a heart and aim for better than just surviving. If we finish the season and just surviving is what we end up doing, we can look back and be philosophical about it and say 'that will do for our first season back', but in the meantime we can be more ambitious as I'm sure Smith will agree.

If we get a win at Arsenal, I guess we’d be looking for what you say as we’ll have less pressure. But as long as its the way it is I guess we’ll be as we are, fearing relegation. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bournemouth seem jammy as f.

They stole the points against us and at least looking at the stats from yesterday against Southampton the did it again.

35% possession, 6 shots against 25, all 3 shots on target results in goals, much worse passing % and beaten in every other category except goals scored.

Will it last or will they run out of luck?

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Just saw the stats for the Soton v Bournemouth game. Man, Bournemouth are really good at getting wins in games they get battered.

They were miles better in the first half. Yeah second half Southampton had lots of terrority and possession and all that but Bournemouth keeper didn't have that much to save.

Bournemouth might sneak into top 10, Southampton is a side who we really should be looking to finish above I think in that bottom six group.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, sne said:

Bournemouth seem jammy as f.

They stole the points against us and at least looking at the stats from yesterday against Southampton the did it again.

35% possession, 6 shots against 25, all 3 shots on target results in goals, much worse passing % and beaten in every other category except goals scored.

Will it last or will they run out of luck?

 

#fakenews!:lol:

Quote

Eddie Howe's side produced a superb first-half display to establish a two-goal lead as Nathan Ake headed in Diego Rico's corner in the 10th minute and Harry Wilson's sweeping finish from Phillip Billing's pass crowned a superb move.

The Cherries also had a goal from Joshua King ruled out for offside by the video assistant referee as they were in complete control for the first 45 minutes.

Southampton gamely battled their way into contention in the second half and occasionally threatened to grab what would have been an undeserved draw but they paid the price for a mess of a first 45 minutes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49684490

Edited by VillaChris
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...
Â