Premier League 2019-2020 Thread

[Vive_La_Villa]

I must have watched a different game. I thought we had some really good chances.  We really need to keep optimistic.

[hippo]

2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I must have watched a different game. I thought we had some really good chances.  We really need to keep optimistic.

I think the only time we carved Bournemouth open was the Mcginn shot - we have some long range efforts - and our hustle and bustle created a few half chances. 

[villalad21]

4 minutes ago, hippo said:

I think the only time we carved Bournemouth open was the Mcginn shot - we have some long range efforts - and our hustle and bustle created a few half chances. 

Trez had a great chance in 1st half injury time.

Grealish also had a free header. 

22-12 in shots. We played a good game. Heaton just killed us i feel.

Edited August 18, 2019 by villalad21

[Vive_La_Villa]

7 minutes ago, hippo said:

I think the only time we carved Bournemouth open was the Mcginn shot - we have some long range efforts - and our hustle and bustle created a few half chances. 

Grealish header was a sitter. Taylor had a great chance too. We had chances to score. 

[kieranavfc]

Taylor had 2 sitters didn't he? other one being a header

[Vive_La_Villa]

1 minute ago, kieranavfc said:

Taylor had 2 sitters didn't he? other one being a header

Can’t remember the header. 

[Don_Simon]

I've been to both games this season, and if there isn't serious progress within the team, we are going to struggle. The gaps between defence and midfield and then midfield and forwards seem massive. We are making unbelievably naive mistakes and our new signings, bar Engels, haven't hit the ground running, which although a shame, is not a surprise. 

All that being said, I see lots of potential so think we will see the required progress and stay up. Shouts of Top 10 may be a little optimistic however.  

[PieFacE]

We're 2 games into the season and we're already talking about relegation and the owners losing interest?

Bonkers.

[kieranavfc]

2 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Can’t remember the header. 

Maybe I imagined it but I'm sure there was a cross from the right and headed it nowhere near the goal, in fact I think it stayed in play.

[abdulaziz1]

Any 2-0 game would be hard. Especially for a team like ours who have an unsettled forward.

I've seen much worse than this last season, under Smith himself. Yet everything was changed.

We still haven't used all of our weapons. Kodjia was only tried against Spurs, Guilbert and Targett yet to play. 

Our wingers seems an issues thats why we were calling for Benrahma. But still in any other circumstances, El Ghazi would have much space to show us what he could do. Trez already showing some potential.

Wesley is still settling, hopefully a goal would give him a boost, you could see some potential there.

We just need to keep faith, last season and even the season before we had some bad spells.

Get your memories back to the games beginning with Swansea on the cup. 

Wigan game was one of the worst games you'd watch, Hull was somehow like last game (apart from that Bournemouth goals were a proper gift). Then Reading were we barely shot, To Sheffield Utd who battered us at home, while just momentum got us back. Then the mighty Brentford showing us how to play, surrendering to Tesco Bags, and finally finding a way back to draw at Stoke. 

After that run (which only had us winning at home against Ipswich), we turned it around.

We had a full team who should have been settled early on (apart from Mings who came but we still kept the non winning run), we waited for Jack to do miracles. Now we're waiting for a full team to gel. We're playing an established PL teams, (unlike that run were we playing championship midtable to relegation fight teams).

It's not as worse as people are mentioning. However there are a few concerns which can't be denied.

[trom_borg]

13 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I must have watched a different game. I thought we had some really good chances.  We really need to keep optimistic.

Our "expected goals for" stat (https://understat.com/match/11654) was 1.66 to Bournemouths 1.63. If you remove the penalty they would have 0.86. Our score of 1.66 was only beaten by Brighton, Southampton, Man City and Sheffield Utd over the weekend. 

This stat ofc dosent tell the whole picture, far from. But it does show that we indeed did create enough to have gotten something from this game on a different day. Theres obviously plenty of improvements to be made and we really need to get those major errors out of our game. But we're only two games in and we've shown enough to still warrant believe and optimism imho. Agree the fans really need to stay behind the team rather than focusing on all the negatives so early into the season...

[AVTuco]

14 hours ago, kieranavfc said:

Taylor had 2 sitters didn't he? other one being a header

These really shouldn't be counted.

[OxfordVillan]

The mistakes have to be cut out first, that much is obvious. I hoped all the players might hit the ground running, but like many I had it in my mind that it could be a couple months before the group of new players started to look like a team. What we can’t afford to do is lose too many in that period of time that knocks the confidence, it’s a tough balance to find and nobody will do us any favours. Every fixture is a tough fixture in the top flight, and we should approach every fixture in a pragmatic way, for me. Flexibility and respect to all opponents might help us garner the points we need in this early period of the season. Everton will be better than Bournemouth, I’d snap your arm off for a draw now after our opening 2 losses. Whether we, as fans, like it or not there are fixtures where I think we need to be solid, and if that means a 4-5-1, 5-4-1 then so be it. And I’m not necessarily talking about just the fixtures such as ManCity & Liverpool etc. I think there are teams, for now, such as Everton, where we have to be pragmatic and understand that the likelihood of out scoring them is unlikely, and so set out to stop them scoring and frustrate them. We’re the new boys in this league and Everton will expect to beat us, as will most pundits. Use that underdog status to let other teams feel the pressure of expecting to score and win, even at Villa Park against teams we might think  we should be beating. Yes we can go after some teams at Villa Park, the like of a Norwich or a Newcastle for example, but I don’t see many others at all, at this time, that we can afford to approach thinking that we should be on the front foot pressing them for wins. Let’s not destroy our confidence by being overconfident. 

Edited August 19, 2019 by OxfordVillan

[villalad21]

What really disappoints me is the goals we are conceding are coming from our own mistakes.

It's early signs of a relegation team. We need to stop dilly dallying with the ball in our own half.

[Zatman]

9 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

What really disappoints me is the goals we are conceding are coming from our own mistakes.

It's early signs of a relegation team. We need to stop dilly dallying with the ball in our own half.

Grealish and Heaton only real mistakes. dont blame Luiz he obviously heard a call from somebody

[danceoftheshamen]

The two early gifts is definitely what did us on Saturday. Prior to KO the crowd was noisy & loud, the atmosphere bubbling and Bournemouth must've been thinking "We're in for a tough gig today" or something along those lines.

Then the game kicked off and within 30 seconds that crazy challenge from Heaton with the ball already going out for a goal kick changed everything. Within a minute the atmosphere disappeared as everyone myself included tried to fathom what they had just seen. Then just as we were coming round to it another poor series of mistakes starting with Elmo getting caught out and playing it across instead of forward which then was compounded by Luiz inexplicably letting it run straight to the scouser who got lucky with his deflected hit & hope shot... It was a crushing blow which took us ages to recover from unsurprisingly. This is the Premier League and you simply cannot give any team a 2 - 0 lead.

Self inflicted defeat in my eyes which was compounded again by the poor forward play when trying to turn it around. I lost count off the poor crosses from out wide from Trez, & particularly Elghazi. One or two did get though though despite this but were either not reached or had a shockingly poor finish at the end of them.

I am not all doom & gloom however i do think we can turn this around but those gifts (Grealish again at Spurs) simply have to stop as we ain't good enough to recover from that at present. Hardly any team would be... I liken it to Spurs v Liverpool in the final of that glorified cup competition (which used to be reserved for just champions but now you can win without actually playing a single champion) Similarrly  Spurs gave away a daft penalty in almost identical circumstances in the first move of the game... Huffed & puffed but never recovered! We did that but then gave Bournemouth another for good measure....

 

So onto Everton, Come on lads time to make an impact!!!

 

[OxfordVillan]

I think this lineup could be solid whilst still allowing our current biggest threats to thrive. Any width would obviously have to come from the FBs, but it might serve us well in the shorter term. 

[Pimlico_Villa]

20 hours ago, A'Villan said:

I've made pretty clear in the Luiz and Heaton thread that our efforts that are worthy of a victory have been eclipsed by our errors that led to defeats.

You've misconstrued my post a little bit, when I said "two howlers have cost us, and otherwise we'd more than likely be celebrating".. the 'otherwise' is key.

'Othewise' means in the event they did not occur. They did, and we have 0 points from our first two games, the worst possible outcome in regards to points.

We've made some poor decisions that did indeed end up as unforced errors. That HAS to improve. I guess our opinions differ in that I believe they will, you perhaps not?

You tell me on that one, I don't want to assume your stance on this squad in regards to capability. I actually think we're pretty sh*t hot for a team freshly promoted.

You make a case that must be considered in regards to possession, and I would guess that the truth be in between that and the suggestion we outplayed them.

I actually disagree with that. Going down two nil so early against Bournemouth completely changed the dynamic of the game: they had a lead to protect and were happy to allow us possession and chase the game whilst they mainly looked to attack on the counter. Point being, is that I'm not convinced that we would have generated the same possession and chance creation statistics if it had been nil nil for a longer duration: perversely, it was actually the making of those mistakes that allowed us to play well for the rest of the game.

Put more simply, us playing well for the remainder effectively flattered to deceive as it was only because Bournemouth were comfortable with us having the onus. I appreciate that is a pessimistic view, though, and others might see it differently. 

On your latter point, I am indeed dubious that we will struggle to stop the mistakes, mainly because of an inability - or, I suspect more likely, a tactical reluctance from Smith - to play the game at tempo. Maybe that will come as we adapt to the League, but if we continue to pass the ball a) so slowly; and b) so predictably square, then we are very easy to read and therefore vulnerable to losing the ball from a high press. This isn't a question of squad capability, as you reference, but more the tactical direction from Smith. This is not a League for slow motion football and we need more movement, more zip and to utilise angles better. 

More broadly, I just cannot see us getting the goals we need. The way we play inherently places pressure on goals from midfield, yet non of our midfielders are prolific goal scorers. Yes, they do score goals, but historically not at the rate that would be needed for this system to work. I would be doing as much coaching of Davis as is humanly possible - especially around his finishing - so that we at least have an alternative system to play. If Wes does not come good this month, then Davis needs to be ready to come in and hit ground running. 

[bannedfromHandV]

We had loads of chances/opportunities.

McGinn had 3 alone, Grealish missed a great chance with a header, Trezeguet should have scored just before half time (all he had to do was lift it and it would have gone in), Wesley was unlucky with a deflected effort in the first half too.........Engels at the end.

Sure Bournemouth had chances too but I'm happy that if we play like we did after the first 20 mins or so we'll be fine this season.

[OxfordVillan]

13 minutes ago, Pimlico_Villa said:

I actually disagree with that. Going down two nil so early against Bournemouth completely changed the dynamic of the game: they had a lead to protect and were happy to allow us possession and chase the game whilst they mainly looked to attack on the counter. Point being, is that I'm not convinced that we would have generated the same possession and chance creation statistics if it had been nil nil for a longer duration: perversely, it was actually the making of those mistakes that allowed us to play well for the rest of the game.

Put more simply, us playing well for the remainder effectively flattered to deceive as it was only because Bournemouth were comfortable with us having the onus. I appreciate that is a pessimistic view, though, and others might see it differently. 

On your latter point, I am indeed dubious that we will struggle to stop the mistakes, mainly because of an inability - or, I suspect more likely, a tactical reluctance from Smith - to play the game at tempo. Maybe that will come as we adapt to the League, but if we continue to pass the ball a) so slowly; and b) so predictably square, then we are very easy to read and therefore vulnerable to losing the ball from a high press. This isn't a question of squad capability, as you reference, but more the tactical direction from Smith. This is not a League for slow motion football and we need more movement, more zip and to utilise angles better. 

More broadly, I just cannot see us getting the goals we need. The way we play inherently places pressure on goals from midfield, yet non of our midfielders are prolific goal scorers. Yes, they do score goals, but historically not at the rate that would be needed for this system to work. I would be doing as much coaching of Davis as is humanly possible - especially around his finishing - so that we at least have an alternative system to play. If Wes does not come good this month, then Davis needs to be ready to come in and hit ground running. 

I’d agree with this. Handing Bournemouth a goal headstart would have resulted in them sitting deeper and playing on the counter, content to give up some possession to achieve that tactic. It’s just opinions, but goals change games. To give them a 2 goal lead was dreamland for them. I mentioned elsewhere how Bournemouth were one of the best counter attack teams last season. The dynamic of every game is different based on the opposition and expectations, both home & away. Bottom line is that a home tie with Bournemouth would have been in our top 4-6 targets of games to win. Individual errors meant we lost. In my mind we’re -3pts where I thought we would be after 2 games. We have to learn quickly, I’m fairly confident we can do so.