The Midfield Three

[Vive_La_Villa]

@useless I get you edited it but I don’t think referring to them as having at least 5 extra years progression is dumb at all. If we continue to spend each year the way they have   been spending and do that for the next 3 years . I’d be very disappointed if a promoted club became on the same level as us on their second year in the league. 

I’m not saying for a second we should emulate what they are doing in terms of how they play. I was just suggesting they should have a better squad than us considering how long they have been building it.  I also think it’s unfair on Smith to compare our squad with theirs. He’s had 2 summers to build a premier league squad whilst they have  been at it for years!

Anyway enough about West Ham.

Our midfield 3 needs Sanson in there next game. 

[useless]

I haven't edited anything, it's dumb because just because they've spent money it doesn't mean to say that they're ahead of us, they might think they should be but it doesn't work like that as evidenced by the fact that they're not doing much better than us this season, and were in a relegation battle with us last season, so they're not five years ahead of us in terms of progress. We ourselves in seasons gone by had spent a lot more money than other teams and we didn't find ourselves ahead of them progress wise.

For the most part West Ham's transfer policy has been very poor, it's only in the last few windows that they've improved

 

[Vive_La_Villa]

2 minutes ago, useless said:

I haven't edited anything, it's dumb because just because they've spent money it doesn't mean to say that they're ahead of us, they might think they should be but it doesn't work like that as evidenced by the fact that they're not doing much better than us this season, and were in a relegation battle with us last season, so they're not five years ahead of us in terms of progress. We ourselves in seasons gone by had spent a lot more money than other teams and we didn't find ourselves ahead of them progress wise.

For the most part West Ham's transfer policy has been very poor, it's only in the last few windows that they've improved

 

Oh yeh. I read the wrong post.   I personally think they have a stronger squad than us and also can spend more on overall wages due to 3 years in this league. So in that sense I think their progression is ahead of us. Maybe not 5 years but still ahead. I think we can easily catch up and exceed in a year or two though. 

[TRO]

15 hours ago, MaVilla said:

West Ham look very well balanced now, with Rice & Soucek in the middle, and players like Bowen, Fornals, Benrahma, Lanzini, Yarmolenko, Antonio as more attacking outlets etc.

honestly though, i think the only real difference between us and them is the no 6 position quality/solidity, although that "only" difference is huge tbh.

I am on the same page.

[TRO]

14 hours ago, Keyblade said:

You can count on 1 hand the amount of games we didn't "make a fist" in games we've lost. There were many games we lost that we didn't deserve to lose on the balance of the performances (where we were dominating the opposition) but I seem to remember the results being more concerning to you at the time. Now we've had a couple of shaky performances and suddenly we need to be more dominant in the games we lose. Methinks you're just nitpicking, because as you say if you look at the overall picture, there is no issue. We've taken 10 steps forward this season (technically 9 if you're counting).

I think you are more concerned with what i think, than whats happening on match day....I have made my comments more than clear, on a consistent basis over the season...sure we have managed to secure wins despite, them.....what do you want me to do, raise the points again, after a win.....now that would be gloomy.

I want to win and have good performances a s much as you.....but maybe I am more ready to talk openly, why we have poor performances, when we do and why opponents can get the better of us.

 

[Lerner's Driver]

The latest My Old Man Said podcast nails it. We are bottom of the table in terms of tackles won this season and sixteenth in terms of passes completed. We are pretty soft all the time, but just can't cope against aggressive teams that won't let us play. We get bullied.

Currently, we don't have too many options from the bench, so we need to be prepared to change our formation. If we change nothing, nothing will change and our season will unquestionably end disappointingly. Either 4-4-2, or 3 centre backs, whatever.

[Philosopher]

2 hours ago, Lerner's Driver said:

The latest My Old Man Said podcast nails it. We are bottom of the table in terms of tackles won this season and sixteenth in terms of passes completed. We are pretty soft all the time, but just can't cope against aggressive teams that won't let us play. We get bullied.

Currently, we don't have too many options from the bench, so we need to be prepared to change our formation. If we change nothing, nothing will change and our season will unquestionably end disappointingly. Either 4-4-2, or 3 centre backs, whatever.

Defending is also about interceptions and blocks. Also we have played 2 less prem games and got knocked out of the cups early so that would also make the stats look worse than they are.

BTW we are second from bottom in tackles won (Burnley are bottom). We have played at least 1 game less than all the rest with only 2 teams on 22 with us on 21. We have the 6th highest tackle success vs dribbles.

Let's be clear we tend not to press that high, compared to Leeds, Southampton and Leicester at least. Our counter is the biggest threat, to maximise its effectiveness we tend to draw teams out of their own third and into our own half to create the space in behind to play into.

The misplaced passes are an issue for me. This is down in part to how aggressive we are on the counter always looking to the quickest route forward. The other part is down to being poor at playing out from the back. The ball is moved too slowly often passed back to Martinez to hit long. Not having a defensive mid adept at long passes doesn't help either. This is why when teams press us high we struggle. 

For all the lauding our defense gets the transition between defense and midfield is too rushed to get forward quickly and too slow going from side to side. We relied on Barkley to come deep and bring the ball out of our own half and this has been pounced upon by our opponents getting tight to him.

The laboured side to side play is also meant to draw teams onto us to make it easier to play through them quickly, but teams know what we are upto now so it's harder for us. 

Unfortunately Mcginn and Barkley have been extremely wasteful of late. But at least McGinn offer defensive graft and tenacity. I think Sanson deserves a start.

 

 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

9 hours ago, Lerner's Driver said:

sixteenth in terms of passes completed.

This doesn't surprise me at all.

I've watched us lose ourselves certain games, simply by constantly turning over to the opposition.

[danceoftheshamen]

3 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

This doesn't surprise me at all.

I've watched us lose ourselves certain games, simply by constantly turning over to the opposition.

Really does my head in how we do that grrrrr

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

Sanson, Nakamba, Barkley, Trezeguet - Predicted Aston Villa starting XI for Leicester City - Birmingham Live (birminghammail.co.uk)

Ashley Preece lineup for Sunday.

Think i'd be ok with that, thoughts?

[KentVillan]

Think that's what I'd go with @JAMAICAN-VILLAN - Elmo in for Cash, Trez to provide extra support at RB, Sanson in to help win the midfield battle, and otherwise unchanged. The risk is that we don't create a lot, but we should be able to go toe to toe with a very good Leicester side if we set up like this.

[Laughable Chimp]

54 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Sanson, Nakamba, Barkley, Trezeguet - Predicted Aston Villa starting XI for Leicester City - Birmingham Live (birminghammail.co.uk)

Ashley Preece lineup for Sunday.

Think i'd be ok with that, thoughts?

Kind of want to get El Ghazi in there somehow, but I suppose its time we start Sanson.

[TRO]

On 17/02/2021 at 11:55, Lerner's Driver said:

The latest My Old Man Said podcast nails it. We are bottom of the table in terms of tackles won this season and sixteenth in terms of passes completed. We are pretty soft all the time, but just can't cope against aggressive teams that won't let us play. We get bullied.

Currently, we don't have too many options from the bench, so we need to be prepared to change our formation. If we change nothing, nothing will change and our season will unquestionably end disappointingly. Either 4-4-2, or 3 centre backs, whatever.

precisely.....and a brave post, may I add.

I do get, its all about opinions....yours sir, I share.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Sanson, Nakamba, Barkley, Trezeguet - Predicted Aston Villa starting XI for Leicester City - Birmingham Live (birminghammail.co.uk)

Ashley Preece lineup for Sunday.

Think i'd be ok with that, thoughts?

That is not a bad shout...I concur.

[Dave-R]

Were starting to run into some injury problems as if late here and there, I'm not sure we can have europe with the team we have, depth will certainly have to be improved if europe is to be.

I personally feel we didnt have the depth in january and still dont. One signing should of been more like 3 or 4 to help maintain what the squad have already done a fine job achieving and to help out with stacking injury that I hope we dont start getting. We needed more new players and the only thing we can do now till summer if players go down is manage it best we can. It wouldn't be tough for other teams to make us a side incapable of playing a decent game and winning them. The right takedowns and boom player injured, let's face it some players do go out there to take some teams best players out and they try it with Grealish were just fortunate hes more like a machine than a human.

Let's hope the injurys just dont start stacking.

As for our midfield- At the start of the season they were cutting most balls out, recently I've seen to much backing off from them and many other of our players, this can't continue. We really did start finely at interceptions but we have massively dropped off that path lately. Its leading opposition to gain loads of yards on the pitch which in turn is causing us to be so backed up in our defence and in turn having to defend all game again or most of it. Now with all that adding to our game, lack of interceptions, less possession, pass accuracy getting worse, opponents dominating us for large sections of the game it's all like remnants of last season. Bad things we had got rid of are returning and I fear for the worse in terms of we could start leaking goals again. We need to take it to the opponents and shut them down like we were up till covid hit us, we have been controlling most games up till then and we come back and theres a shift in it all. It's simple the balls not in our possession, go get it back, we can not keep letting the other side taking the ball from us and driving it from there box to ours, it just cant happen and our players must stamp down on it because its causing us so much grief on the pitch.

We are also becoming slow at passing the ball around. An example of that is where you can see us playing it around near our box and they have there players start surrounding us to the point we have no choice but to boot it down field to them (it's an instant giveaway). We should be moving it into positions where our players have space and not putting ourselves in positions we have no where to go but backwards. I've seen it alot recently where we just send it back to our defence or keeper when there are still options up front or midfield available to pass to.

We just have to Intercept, Retain and pass better again but something seems to of upset all of that, what I do not know but we must keep possession longer and if we lose it must get the ball back.

[TRO]

22 hours ago, Dave-R said:

Were starting to run into some injury problems as if late here and there, I'm not sure we can have europe with the team we have, depth will certainly have to be improved if europe is to be.

I personally feel we didnt have the depth in january and still dont. One signing should of been more like 3 or 4 to help maintain what the squad have already done a fine job achieving and to help out with stacking injury that I hope we dont start getting. We needed more new players and the only thing we can do now till summer if players go down is manage it best we can. It wouldn't be tough for other teams to make us a side incapable of playing a decent game and winning them. The right takedowns and boom player injured, let's face it some players do go out there to take some teams best players out and they try it with Grealish were just fortunate hes more like a machine than a human.

Let's hope the injurys just dont start stacking.

As for our midfield- At the start of the season they were cutting most balls out, recently I've seen to much backing off from them and many other of our players, this can't continue. We really did start finely at interceptions but we have massively dropped off that path lately. Its leading opposition to gain loads of yards on the pitch which in turn is causing us to be so backed up in our defence and in turn having to defend all game again or most of it. Now with all that adding to our game, lack of interceptions, less possession, pass accuracy getting worse, opponents dominating us for large sections of the game it's all like remnants of last season. Bad things we had got rid of are returning and I fear for the worse in terms of we could start leaking goals again. We need to take it to the opponents and shut them down like we were up till covid hit us, we have been controlling most games up till then and we come back and theres a shift in it all. It's simple the balls not in our possession, go get it back, we can not keep letting the other side taking the ball from us and driving it from there box to ours, it just cant happen and our players must stamp down on it because its causing us so much grief on the pitch.

We are also becoming slow at passing the ball around. An example of that is where you can see us playing it around near our box and they have there players start surrounding us to the point we have no choice but to boot it down field to them (it's an instant giveaway). We should be moving it into positions where our players have space and not putting ourselves in positions we have no where to go but backwards. I've seen it alot recently where we just send it back to our defence or keeper when there are still options up front or midfield available to pass to.

We just have to Intercept, Retain and pass better again but something seems to of upset all of that, what I do not know but we must keep possession longer and if we lose it must get the ball back.

You are spot on Dave.

What I find disappointing is how few, folk can see what you do....or may I say, they are reluctant to talk about it.

I don't know, what has caused this issue in the team, but what I do know IMO is that you are right.

Edited February 19, 2021 by TRO

[villalad21]

3 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Sanson, Nakamba, Barkley, Trezeguet - Predicted Aston Villa starting XI for Leicester City - Birmingham Live (birminghammail.co.uk)

Ashley Preece lineup for Sunday.

Think i'd be ok with that, thoughts?

I'm ok with it but i actually think Nakamba deserve to start ahead of Luiz

That's not to say i think Luiz has been poor, just that Nakamba has really impressed me this season.

[Vive_La_Villa]

4 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Sanson, Nakamba, Barkley, Trezeguet - Predicted Aston Villa starting XI for Leicester City - Birmingham Live (birminghammail.co.uk)

Ashley Preece lineup for Sunday.

Think i'd be ok with that, thoughts?

The same team I’d like to see.  He’s basically picked the best lineup possible based on on what we’ve seen in recent games. However we don’t know how they trained all week so it’s a difficult one to call.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Vive_La_Villa

[Bazmonkey]

15 hours ago, Dave-R said:

Were starting to run into some injury problems as if late here and there, I'm not sure we can have europe with the team we have, depth will certainly have to be improved if europe is to be.

I personally feel we didnt have the depth in january and still dont. One signing should of been more like 3 or 4 to help maintain what the squad have already done a fine job achieving and to help out with stacking injury that I hope we dont start getting. We needed more new players and the only thing we can do now till summer if players go down is manage it best we can. It wouldn't be tough for other teams to make us a side incapable of playing a decent game and winning them. The right takedowns and boom player injured, let's face it some players do go out there to take some teams best players out and they try it with Grealish were just fortunate hes more like a machine than a human.

Let's hope the injurys just dont start stacking.

As for our midfield- At the start of the season they were cutting most balls out, recently I've seen to much backing off from them and many other of our players, this can't continue. We really did start finely at interceptions but we have massively dropped off that path lately. Its leading opposition to gain loads of yards on the pitch which in turn is causing us to be so backed up in our defence and in turn having to defend all game again or most of it. Now with all that adding to our game, lack of interceptions, less possession, pass accuracy getting worse, opponents dominating us for large sections of the game it's all like remnants of last season. Bad things we had got rid of are returning and I fear for the worse in terms of we could start leaking goals again. We need to take it to the opponents and shut them down like we were up till covid hit us, we have been controlling most games up till then and we come back and theres a shift in it all. It's simple the balls not in our possession, go get it back, we can not keep letting the other side taking the ball from us and driving it from there box to ours, it just cant happen and our players must stamp down on it because its causing us so much grief on the pitch.

We are also becoming slow at passing the ball around. An example of that is where you can see us playing it around near our box and they have there players start surrounding us to the point we have no choice but to boot it down field to them (it's an instant giveaway). We should be moving it into positions where our players have space and not putting ourselves in positions we have no where to go but backwards. I've seen it alot recently where we just send it back to our defence or keeper when there are still options up front or midfield available to pass to.

We just have to Intercept, Retain and pass better again but something seems to of upset all of that, what I do not know but we must keep possession longer and if we lose it must get the ball back.

Absolutely spot on Dave.

This has also made us go from letting the opposition have 6....7 shots to over 20 in recent games.

We are also very predicable in our passing...this is down to speed because the opposition just get set and let us have it wide...pretty much every decent attack comes from crosses out wide  or from wide positions...great...but I would love to see Barkeley...Gealish....even THE wingers play through the middle a bit more...get the opposition thinking a bit.

[TRO]

On 16/02/2021 at 21:49, useless said:

I haven't edited anything, it's dumb because just because they've spent money it doesn't mean to say that they're ahead of us, they might think they should be but it doesn't work like that as evidenced by the fact that they're not doing much better than us this season, and were in a relegation battle with us last season, so they're not five years ahead of us in terms of progress. We ourselves in seasons gone by had spent a lot more money than other teams and we didn't find ourselves ahead of them progress wise.

For the most part West Ham's transfer policy has been very poor, it's only in the last few windows that they've improved

 

Yeah, but you only have to get a few things right to make a marked difference.....We know only so well, getting our buying right after so many years of getting it wrong, has helped us no end....all the other things like the academy and the training ground development, also helps obviously.

A few successful windows can launch a team.

We need to look at the jobs that need doing first and fit the faces to match,those jobs, not the other way around.