Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Southampton

[briny_ear]

So, have only seen the Sky app + MOTD  highlights but wonder if I need to see more.

1. Defence’s lack of pace. Beaten for speed over and over. Engels looked like a total carthorse today and Targett wasn’t far behind.

2. Marking - or rather lack of it. Get yourself between ball and man, don’t stand behind man and flap your arms about like a demented chicken. (See second goal.)

3. Commitment - too often lacking. Most blatant example was Nakamba for the third goal.Gifts  the ball to the opposition in a goal scoring position. So does he totally bust a gut to try to rectify his error? No. Stands off watching simple tap in that he has facilitated.. Sorry , Marvelous, not targeting you - yours was just the most blatant of many examples.

4. Manager. Thought he looked lost today. Bereft of ideas about how to put right this alarming decline in form.

All of these issues need to be addressed urgently if we are to survive our premier league return.

Edited December 22, 2019 by briny_ear

[danceoftheshamen]

 

2 hours ago, briny_ear said:

So, have only seen the Sky app + MOTD  highlights but wonder if I need to see more.

1. Defence’s lack of pace. Beaten for speed over and over. Engels looked like a total carthorse today and Targett wasn’t far behind.

2. Marking - or rather lack of it. Get yourself between ball and man, don’t stand behind man and flap your arms about like a demented chicken. (See second goal.)

3. Commitment - too often lacking. Most blatant example was Nakamba for the third goal.Gifts  the ball to the opposition in a goal scoring position. So does he totally bust a gut to try to rectify his error? No. Stands off watching simple tap in that he has facilitated.. Sorry , Marvelous, not targeting you - yours was just the most blatant of many examples.

4. Manager. Thought he looked lost today. Bereft of ideas about how to put right this alarming decline in form.

All of these issues need to be addressed urgently if we are to survive our premier league return.

He has actually done that several times this season.

[zab6359]

11 hours ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Let the overreactions commence. 

Over reacting to what? Being in the bottom 3?

[villalad21]

It still is beyond belief the fact we were 3-0 down at home to Southampton.

I don't see a way out other than sacking Smith and getting lucky with a new manager bounce.

We'll be a Championship team next season if we stick with Smith.

Edited December 22, 2019 by villalad21

[AVTuco]

11 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Smith looks like he has lost the dressing room, continues to stick to the same failed system, and is running out of time. We can still stay up, but not with Smith because he is too stubborn and stuck in his ways to change anything, plus isn't clever enough to tactically outmanoeuvre other teams. I've never been totally convinced he could make the step up to PL manager and that looks like being true. OK, he got us up last season thanks to having some very good individual players and allowing them to play, but his lack of tactical nous was proven when we won 2 in 13 games in a much poorer standard of league. He simply relies far too much on individual players rather than implementing a cohesive system that gets consistent results. 

 

Ambitious teams sack managers when things aren't working regardless of what they have done in the past. Southampton sacked Adkins in 2012/13 and weren't even in the bottom 3; Fulham did the same with Jokanovic last season. 

 

Realistic managers we could get are Benitez and Fat Sam, both would improve our porous defence and could grind out some 1-0 wins. We'd have a much better chance of staying up with them than sticking with Smith who continues to let us down with the same mistakes. I'd love Poch but considering we signed no marquee names in the summer I doubt we'd attract a marquee manager like that.

I'm not sure about your conclusion that he needs to go (yet), unless there's a very good replacement in place, but the above is in short our problem. It's pretty obvious, considering we rely so heavily on individuals, mainly Jack and now seemingly also Mings. Thanks for wording it well for me.

 

[Sulberto21]

https://www.givemesport.com/1529716-the-fastest-players-in-the-premier-league-so-far-this-season-have-been-revealed

 

Quote

The six fastest players in the Premier League so far this season have been revealed - and there's a surprising name in first place. 

Leicester City defender Caglar Soyuncu has clocked a sprint at 23.3mph (37.49kph), which is quicker than anyone else in the top flight. 

look at number four ... how is that possible???? 

[Graham t]

10 hours ago, smg said:

Smith out ! We don’t need to go expensive get the owners to follow Villatalk there are numerous posters on here that could do the job no problem.

You may be 'joking' but I think you are not far wrong. How could we be worse?

[imavillan]

17 hours ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Let the overreactions commence. 

i've read every post is this thread and i dont think any single one of them is an over reaction.

Just lots of (quite rightly) very concerned fans.

[Horan86]

Our biggest problem and we have a few ,isnt Wesley it's our full backs there poor awful defenders its where all the goals we concede are coming from, Targett has been roasted every game with the last month hes very poor 1v1 lacks pace, poor postionally isnt very fragile easily pushed off the ball I have yet to see him win a 50/50 challenge he bombs on all the time  but how many assists has he had this year?goal against Brighton is the only thing he has done, Guilbert gets caught up the field all the time and isnt able to get back, hes postionally awful gets too close to the CB and is open for a switch from the opposite wing which happened with the 3rd goal ,the full backs caught out of position has a knock on effect on our CBs ,how many times yesterday were Hause and Engels dragged wide by Ings and Long there was acres there an they dont want to be out there defending as they lack pace I know our full backs get left exposed at times but still there defending is poor and going forward there is no end product and teams now ate just sitting team so there is no space to run into for me Targett and Guilbert are our biggest weaknesses and teams are targeting them very game .

[PieFacE]

17 hours ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Let the overreactions commence. 

That's **** rich coming from you and the way you speak about Wesley hahaha. Jesus. 

[PieFacE]

17 hours ago, Xela said:

First time I've felt we are completely out of our depth at this level.

 

Same. I've largely thought we were going to be pretty safe but that performance was hugely worrying. Wouldn't sack Smith though, I almost feel like we got promoted too early.

[KenjiOgiwara]

4 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

That's **** rich coming from you and the way you speak about Wesley hahaha. Jesus. 

I wasn't really going to adress that, but since you're the second person mentioning that, I will.

Not really comperable. Deano has shown that he's capable. He took us from a lower league position with cloggers and Bruceball and got us on a record winning run earning promotion, while playing some of the best free flowing football we've seen since early 90s. 

Then he's taken on himself a brand new team in the PL with all the difficulties that involves and we might actually stay up. We have shown we can compete and beat the very best.

Wesley has not once in his Villa career shown he's a good striker. He's not once shown he's capable of the demands in the PL. If anything this is my only complaint that's valid when it comes to Deano's Villa. 

So you are comparing apples to bowling balls here. Not even remotely close to being comperable. 

Enjoy your holidays.

[Hanky]

We were completely torn apart down the wings in the first half. Out 4-3-3 has been figured out now. It was by Leicester and now Southampton. Their two full backs had a field day down our sides. El Ghazi and Grealish pressing their centre halves doesn't work as our midfield is two pedestrian to get out to the full backs. The amount of times yesterday that there was a two on one situation against the full backs down the wings and it has happened a lot this season.

The problem is, we don't appear to have a plan B  formation. When we went two up top the midfield was still a complete mess, and I'm not really sure where anybody was playing. I doubt they work on it in training hence the players still don't know their roles. I like Smith and want him to do well, but the last two home games have been worse than some or a lot of the games in the season that went down. Devoid of confidence and ideas. I agree with what someone said earlier in the thread. At the moment it looks like Grealish and Heaton are the only two players that look Premier League quality.

I have serious concerns about the midfield. Looks piss weak to me. The amount of times that teams can make one or two passes and slice us open. Happened against Chelsea, Sheff Utd, Leicester and yesterday. I really don't know what the answer is there as some of those players just do not look good enough at the moment. It looked like Grealish had gone in there a bit more in the second half but that lead to nobody being out wide left. I'd rather bring Trezeguet on at half time and gone 4-4-1-1 with Grealish behind Wesley or Kodjia.

Massive work to do. Both tactically and possibly in the January transfer window if we want to stay up.

[Stockport_Villain]

That was pretty painful to watch. The worry for me is that there is no fight when we go behind. Dark times approach.

[rjw63]

17 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Our awful Xmas form has been one of the features of this decade.

No mate, it's been a lot longer than that.

I remember seeing Dennis Mortimer's debut (I think) it was Boxing day against Wet Spam and we won 4-0. Since then if you check back you'll find most Christmases have been **** shit if you're a Villa fan.

[nick76]

13 hours ago, VillaCas said:

Seriously, pound for pound he must be the worst bit of business we’ve ever done - if you disagree, who would you say was worse?

1)I don’t think he’s a bad buy.  He’s been here barely half a season, is young, come from a lower league, inexperienced and has been thrown into a brand new team, who were equivalent to the third placed team to get promoted, in a team that has just gone through a tough group of fixtures and had next to no service.  He’s scored 5 in 19 games.

Yes he’s struggling at the moment, probably could do with a bit of support upfront or at least a breather from the first team.  I still feel not having brought another striker was a mistake and has put more pressure on Wesley than should’ve been and that is management fault.

2) Following what I assume is your logic on thinking he’s a bad buy then I would throw in Hogan, McCormack and Adama Traore.  All who did nothing for us in a lower league with two of the strikers costing anywhere between 10-14m depending on reports and Traore was just under 10m. At least Wes has done something for us at a higher level.

[VillaCas]

1 hour ago, nick76 said:

1)I don’t think he’s a bad buy.  He’s been here barely half a season, is young, come from a lower league, inexperienced and has been thrown into a brand new team, who were equivalent to the third placed team to get promoted, in a team that has just gone through a tough group of fixtures and had next to no service.  He’s scored 5 in 19 games.

Yes he’s struggling at the moment, probably could do with a bit of support upfront or at least a breather from the first team.  I still feel not having brought another striker was a mistake and has put more pressure on Wesley than should’ve been and that is management fault.

2) Following what I assume is your logic on thinking he’s a bad buy then I would throw in Hogan, McCormack and Adama Traore.  All who did nothing for us in a lower league with two of the strikers costing anywhere between 10-14m depending on reports and Traore was just under 10m. At least Wes has done something for us at a higher level.

Hogan, McCormack and Traore were all poor buys but as Wesley cost as much as any two put together he takes the award

The Brazilian Jordan Bowery

[Five Ken McNaughts]

6 hours ago, Sulberto21 said:

https://www.givemesport.com/1529716-the-fastest-players-in-the-premier-league-so-far-this-season-have-been-revealed

 

look at number four ... how is that possible???? 

Bjorn Engels? Fourth fastest player in the league? I've heard it all now.

[nick76]

2 hours ago, VillaCas said:

Hogan, McCormack and Traore were all poor buys but as Wesley cost as much as any two put together he takes the award

The Brazilian Jordan Bowery

Well obviously you are wrong so there is that!

[The Fun Factory]

17 hours ago, flashingqwerty said:

Smith this, and that?  Who do you think signed the players that "'aren't ready for this division"?

This does all rest on DS, as these are his players.  I'm also not convinced the players are necessarily the issue, as much as DS's insistance in his rigid and unchanging dogma which just hasnt translated from the championship to the PL.

I've no doubt he is a good coach, i'm just not convinced he is technically and tactically gifted enough to make it at this level.

Well it is Pitarch and Purslow isn't it?  Smith is the head coach, not manager. Purslow made a big point of buying young players  in the summer who will have resell value but I think we do need some experience as well.