Team shape, tactics and personnel

[Derryvillan]

1 hour ago, barry'sboots said:

I seem to remember Leeds playing an academy kid in at "6" (or "4" depending what era you come from) against us at VP last season and he did okay in a 3-0 win?

 

He came on after about 30 minutes as Bielsa subbed their DM who'd  clattered Jack about 3 times and got booked.Was seen as a brave move to sub someone so early.Actually changed the game to be fair.

[OutByEaster?]

21 hours ago, Loxstock92 said:

For anyone interested.

 

 

It really is excellent that. Well worth a read through.

[Zatman]

20 hours ago, nick76 said:

I honestly don’t get why so many of our players under two managers have been so poor all season.  Gerrard hasn’t had long at the club I give him that but most of these players are underperforming all season and i don’t get it.

We had a terrible pre season with Covid. Think had 2 friendly called off, Smith was out too

[Delphinho123]

If we bring in a new centre half and a quality player to sit in front of the defence, I think the majority of our defensive issues will go away. Even just a proper defensive midfielder would help.

I think we’ll buy both in the Summer and Konsa and Mings will be left to slug it out for the other spot. 

[nepal_villan]

When you see a team like Southampton beating Spurs and drawing United (had several chance to win at the end) you realize the importance of tactics and coaching. Can't tell me they have better players than us.

[MaVilla]

1 minute ago, nepal_villan said:

When you see a team like Southampton beating Spurs and drawing United (had several chance to win at the end) you realize the importance of tactics and coaching. Can't tell me they have better players than us.

while your point is valid, i also think we overrate quite a few of our players (as many clubs probably do).

Some of our players are mid table, lower half PL players, we arent going to be top 6/8 with that setup.

[Rightdm00]

1 hour ago, nepal_villan said:

When you see a team like Southampton beating Spurs and drawing United (had several chance to win at the end) you realize the importance of tactics and coaching. Can't tell me they have better players than us.

Definitely agree but certain matchups benefit different setups. With Villa we aren't the most physical/athletic side so we struggle against all action teams like Southampton and Leeds. Same reason we struggled second half versus Everton. 

[TRO]

1 minute ago, hippo said:

Sure.

My personal feeling is that we have decent players already.  But we are all in on Stevie G having a clear out and bringing his own guys in.

I don't think that is right, but I do think we need to get some balance in the squad by bringing in some defensive minded players that will help.....that is not a clear out.

[hippo]

5 minutes ago, TRO said:

I don't think that is right, but I do think we need to get some balance in the squad by bringing in some defensive minded players that will help.....that is not a clear out.

Ok.

Whose likely to be replaced in the starting 11 then ?

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, hippo said:

Ok.

Whose likely to be replaced in the starting 11 then ?

Its a squad of 25 players....We have 1 dedicated Central Defensive Midfield player, who is out with a long term injury.....and only recently showed enough form, for us to be concerned by his absence.

I think its a reasonable shout, to say we have some fine football players, but we need a few who can get after opponents, defend the back line and start offensive passages of play, like Gareth Barry did.

We are short of those type of Players.....sure we have Bissouma under the spotlight, and I think he will make a significant addition, but failing that, we need to find that level of player.

That is the third time we have conceded 3 goals at home to Leeds....if you can't see we have defensive issues, I can't help you.

Everton, showed us how to do it today..

[hippo]

Just now, TRO said:

Its a squad of 25 players....We have 1 dedicated Central Defensive Midfield player, who is out with a long term injury.....and only recently showed enough form, for us to be concerned by his absence.

I think its a reasonable shout, to say we have some fine football players, but we need a few who can get after opponents, defend the back line and start offensive passages of play, like Gareth Barry did.

We are short of those type of Players.....sure we have Bissouma under the spotlight, and I think he will make a significant addition, but failing that, we need to find that level of player.

That is the third time we have conceded 3 goals at home to Leeds....if you can't see we have defensive issues, I can't help you.

Everton, showed us how to do it today..

Ok -just for clarity - who gets replaced in the starting 11?

[Mantis]

19 minutes ago, useless said:

This is typical of Leeds, they're up and down, before us they lost to Newcastle, and before that they beat West Ham.

Yes. It's pretty much impossible to gleam anything retrospectively from our game on Wednesday night by looking at Everton's game against Leeds today.

[TRO]

10 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Everton were really up for this but Leeds hit the bar twice first half so were a bit unlucky too.

Every game is different. Leeds beat West Ham away not long ago and they are battling for top 4.   

 

10 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Everton were really up for this but Leeds hit the bar twice first half so were a bit unlucky too.

Every game is different. Leeds beat West Ham away not long ago and they are battling for top 4.   

Everton approached the game entirely different to us, today....and I am not saying Everton are better team per se than us, far from it.

And you are right ever game is different, and the reason today was, because Everton didn't ALLOW them to get in to their stride.....they rattled them from the off.

It doesn't matter what form you are in....in this league, there are no room for passengers, slouches, or passive players......its full on.

Workrate, urgency, intensity, desire.....seems like dirty words, in some quarters.....but they are imperative to align with talent.

[hippo]

2 minutes ago, TRO said:

 

Everton approached the game entirely different to us, today....and I am not saying Everton are better team per se than us, far from it.

And you are right ever game is different, and the reason today was, because Everton didn't ALLOW them to get in to their stride.....they rattled them from the off.

It doesn't matter what form you are in....in this league, there are no room for passengers, slouches, or passive players......its full on.

Workrate, urgency, intensity, desire.....seems like dirty words, in some quarters.....but they are imperative to align with talent.

Organisation helps as well.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

22 minutes ago, TRO said:

Its a squad of 25 players....We have 1 dedicated Central Defensive Midfield player, who is out with a long term injury.....and only recently showed enough form, for us to be concerned by his absence.

I think its a reasonable shout, to say we have some fine football players, but we need a few who can get after opponents, defend the back line and start offensive passages of play, like Gareth Barry did.

We are short of those type of Players.....sure we have Bissouma under the spotlight, and I think he will make a significant addition, but failing that, we need to find that level of player.

That is the third time we have conceded 3 goals at home to Leeds....if you can't see we have defensive issues, I can't help you.

Everton, showed us how to do it today..

You do make a lot of sense, sir.

One wonders how many transfer windows will it take before we address this glaring issue?

Mings and Konsa are constantly exposed from the lack of support and/or defence from this infront of them.

[Tom13]

This tweet came up on my feed as an account I follow (Ghana Lions) had liked it. Thought the printouts of Leeds players was quite interesting:

Gives their position, height, 1st contact percentage (whatever that means), and SP goals (whatever that means).

Also a few bullet points about what I'm going to assume is the player's preferred moves. Just thought it was an interesting bit of insight.

[WallisFrizz]

49 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

This tweet came up on my feed as an account I follow (Ghana Lions) had liked it. Thought the printouts of Leeds players was quite interesting:

Gives their position, height, 1st contact percentage (whatever that means), and SP goals (whatever that means).

Also a few bullet points about what I'm going to assume is the player's preferred moves. Just thought it was an interesting bit of insight.

That photo came up on my timeline and I scrolled straight past it. Never even noticed the printout outs. 
 

SP- Shot percentage?

[MessiWillSignForVilla]

2 hours ago, Tom13 said:

This tweet came up on my feed as an account I follow (Ghana Lions) had liked it. Thought the printouts of Leeds players was quite interesting:

Gives their position, height, 1st contact percentage (whatever that means), and SP goals (whatever that means).

Also a few bullet points about what I'm going to assume is the player's preferred moves. Just thought it was an interesting bit of insight.

SP would be set piece goals, which makes me assume 1st contact percentage would mean how often he's targeted at set peices, possibly?

Which would indicate these are set peice instructions hence why Coutinho would have Harrison, as he wouldn't mark him in game (Similarly Ings has Rodrigo), so I think that may be more of a McPhee thing than a Gerrard one.

 

The most interesting thing for me is why the hell is there still an El Ghazi shirt there? I know he's still our player, but you'd imagine they wouldn't put it up every game, so has it been just hanging there since he went to Everton like some strange memorial?

Edited February 13, 2022 by MessiWillSignForVilla

[nick76]

28 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I'm not too fussed about this season, but failing to beat Leeds and Newcastle in back to back games would be pretty poor. 

I'm hoping for a response today. 

I am fussed about this season because where we land in the league could impact who we can attract.  Obviously league isn’t the end of the world but if we are 12th or 13th competing with Arsenal and Spurs in 6th and 7th it’s already going to be hard on the back of the European place and London thing to compete for players.  

If we are 8th or 9th, while those two factors are massive then our other positives can be pushed, the Gerrard factor, the continuous ambition and growth, players like Coutinho being here blah blah.  

The lower the league position could impact us…would Bissouma join us if we ended up 12th or 13th when Brighton end up 9th.  Even with all our positives it’s not as inviting when he seems to want European football in the near future.

At the start of the Leeds game I thought a draw wouldn’t be too bad but I wanted the win.  Our form against has been erratic mainly because of them but I was highly disappointed after the game and reflecting back that we didn’t win and in my mind it was all our own doing.  Newcastle I think will be a tough game for many reasons despite their league position but I think momentum wise we need a win, we need to start winning.

[lexicon]

1 hour ago, DCJonah said:

I'm not too fussed about this season, but failing to beat Leeds and Newcastle in back to back games would be pretty poor. 

I'm hoping for a response today. 

I'm not sure where I stand on it tbf. On the one hand there's a real chance of getting a European place if we get our act together and start winning games regularly, plus our run-in isn't that bad either, but on the other hand it is a little early to expect us to finish pretty high up the table. 

I think that in any case, we should be going for it and targeting a top 8 finish or so, but if we fall a little short it won't be the end of the world.