Nigel Posted February 24, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted February 24, 2021 (edited) Harrison and klich both out according to reports. Cant sit deep against these as they will massacre you. Their whole game is high quick turnovers. Need 2 things to beat their man to man press. Midfielders comfortable to receive the ball on the half turn and play quick passes into space behind, and brave, direct runners. The midfield will be fine, but I'd play Sanson over Barkley as the later has a tendency to want to hold the ball and carry it, I'm not sure it will work against leeds who will quickly get back to cover. This is not a game for traore either, tres and el ghazi are both better suited to sprints into space, and better work rate to recover. Tbh it sounds daft but of all the games this will be the game we miss jack least. I'd still rather he be on the pitch obviously but we have the players to beat these without him. Cash will be a massive lost though. Edited February 24, 2021 by Nigel 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BleedClaretAndBlue Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 4 hours ago, WallisFrizz said: God I hope the team go into this game with a bit more positivity than the fans. Let us mourn 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhan_Zhuang Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Villa are out of form so I can only see a defeat here. Of course it doesn't help when we are carrying a couple of midfield passengers. The Covid break really stopped our great momentum and we are struggling now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted February 24, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted February 24, 2021 2 hours ago, Zhan_Zhuang said: Villa are out of form so I can only see a defeat here. Of course it doesn't help when we are carrying a couple of midfield passengers. The Covid break really stopped our great momentum and we are struggling now. Tragedy, You have to pinch yourself just to remember how good we were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bose Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 After Smith's comments it looks like Barkley will play, yet again. Given his (non-existant) defensive input it's like defending with 10 men which is tough against most teams, double so against that lot. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 On 21/02/2021 at 16:40, Rino8 said: We beat Leicester a few weeks back so unsure where fading comes from. Narrative that we were at our best at the start of the season is baseless and factually incorrect, we were at our best a few weeks back but now we've had too many injuries to continue to play the way we do. Koch, Rodrigo and Phillips all out while Llorente is just coming back from a season long injury. It's meant our midfield and defence have been reshuffled so many times that sometimes were all over the place and it'll probably be the same for this. Weve won one game in seven without Phillips, funnily enough the reverse fixture of this. Thats interesting, how a defensive midfielder, can have so much influence on results.....doesn't surprise me, its the engine room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 (edited) 20 hours ago, smg said: We are top 10 and some of our supporters are losing optimism, what the f*** do they want? We were one point from being in the championship a few months ago. To win games and give performances. In the form guide...leeds are 7th villa are 12th? Edited February 24, 2021 by TRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 On 23/02/2021 at 07:34, Quofan said: Let's just hope the ref doesn't notice we've got an extra player! I'd drop the goal keeper, he does ****all anyway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 On 22/02/2021 at 10:47, OxfordVillan said: ..........................Martinez........................ Elmo.........Konsa........Mings.........Targett .........................Nakamba .......................... Trez.........Luiz............Ramsey.......McGinn ...........................Watkins............................ I think we need to tweak our set up for Leeds. We need desire and work rate in the team, players to match the running of Harrison and Rafinha and shut them down. I feel that if we do that for an hour or so then we would have that bit of quality on the bench ready to come on and find a little bit of space later in the game against tiring legs. Nakamba needs to shadow Bamford, annoy him and get under his skin as often as possible. Much of Leeds better stuff goes via Bamford. good shout Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smg Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 6 minutes ago, TRO said: To win games and give performances. In the form guide...leeds are 7th villa are 12th? We all want that, but there has to be a level of what is realistic this season. Even a 12th place finish would be a solid improvement on last seaso. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 I just hope Smith sets us up differently, spring a surprise and all that. If we go in with the same shape and same personnel I can’t see anything other than a defeat. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louis Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 I am not too sure about this one, Leeds thumped Southampton 3-0 the other day and were playing well. We didn’t do that great 1st half against Leicester on Sunday having went 0-2 down at HT. We looked all over the place and this is what I was expecting without Grealish. If he’s out again against Leeds I’m afraid we could do badly again but I could be wrong. The thing is with us, I think we rely too much on Grealish and I probably do think we need to get some more really good players to strengthen the side. However, we’ve had such a good start to the season maybe could finish in a Europa spot but who knows.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
est1874 Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 8 hours ago, Nigel said: Harrison and klich both out according to reports. Cant sit deep against these as they will massacre you. Their whole game is high quick turnovers. Need 2 things to beat their man to man press. Midfielders comfortable to receive the ball on the half turn and play quick passes into space behind, and brave, direct runners. The midfield will be fine, but I'd play Sanson over Barkley as the later has a tendency to want to hold the ball and carry it, I'm not sure it will work against leeds who will quickly get back to cover. This is not a game for traore either, tres and el ghazi are both better suited to sprints into space, and better work rate to recover. Tbh it sounds daft but of all the games this will be the game we miss jack least. I'd still rather he be on the pitch obviously but we have the players to beat these without him. Cash will be a massive lost though. This is spot on. Way over the heads of many on here 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
est1874 Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 1 hour ago, bannedfromHandV said: I just hope Smith sets us up differently, spring a surprise and all that. If we go in with the same shape and same personnel I can’t see anything other than a defeat. Dean has 2 formations and has made the least changes of any manager in the league. Unless he woke up a new man on Monday morning, I'd say the chances of us springing a surprise are basically nil. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 3 hours ago, Louis said: I am not too sure about this one, Leeds thumped Southampton 3-0 the other day and were playing well. We didn’t do that great 1st half against Leicester on Sunday having went 0-2 down at HT. We looked all over the place and this is what I was expecting without Grealish. If he’s out again against Leeds I’m afraid we could do badly again but I could be wrong. The thing is with us, I think we rely too much on Grealish and I probably do think we need to get some more really good players to strengthen the side. However, we’ve had such a good start to the season maybe could finish in a Europa spot but who knows.......... Leeds win one loose one so our turn to beat them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingman Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 (edited) We're currently firing at around 60%, With Cashy and Jack out. McGinn running with the choke out and Barkley walking around with the handbrake on. Won't be long till we start chugging along kicking out black smoke Edited February 25, 2021 by Kingman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam2003 Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 12 hours ago, Zhan_Zhuang said: The Covid break really stopped our great momentum and we are struggling now. I wonder if we are being too harsh on this team. We wonder why their form is down - maybe for a group of them it’s the aftermath of covid. Newcastle (while they are rubbish anyway) also had their form fall off a cliff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvfcRigo82 Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 1 hour ago, Kingman said: We're currently firing at around 60%, With Cashy and Jack out. McGinn running with the choke out and Barkley walking around with the handbrake on. Won't be long till we start chugging along kicking out black smoke Yet we were told by some on here that it will be fine and sure to pass the next MOT. Why strengthen those weak suspension arms or fill that hole in the exhaust that's blowing. We wouldn't get any breakdowns, We will manage the whole duration without any quality or further strengthening repairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louis Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 8 hours ago, PaulC said: Leeds win one loose one so our turn to beat them. Exactly, hope that happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomav84 Posted February 25, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted February 25, 2021 18 hours ago, est1874 said: Dean has 2 formations and has made the least changes of any manager in the league. Unless he woke up a new man on Monday morning, I'd say the chances of us springing a surprise are basically nil. i love deano. i love where he's taken us so far, and i love where i think he'll take us in the future over time. but his predictability is becoming **** tedious. i hope i eat humble pie saturday, but i would honestly bet a decent chunk of money on the line up not changing saturday, with the possible exception of traore. he doesn't seem to mind dropping him quite as much. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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