Team shape, tactics and personnel

[duke313]

6 minutes ago, sne said:

Interesting observation from Iraola

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/24270029.andoni-iraola-aston-villas-style-play/

I've said this before, we don't play with the same intensity that some other teams do, and we conserve our energy.  Probably also a reason why we don't have players dropping with injury.  Our injuries have nothing to do with our style of play, 3 ACL injuries is just bad luck, and JJ injured with England U21.

[Vive_La_Villa]

2 minutes ago, The Other Mat said:

https://www.skysports.com/amp/football/news/12037/13120909/aston-villa-s-style-of-play-under-unai-emery-led-by-emi-martinez-helps-beat-fatigue-by-resting-in-possession

Interesting. Quite a few fans said similar about our style helping with fatigue. We play in bursts.

[MWARLEY2]

2 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Very interesting stats there. We do seem to play specific game plans to conserve energy especially when we are in control of the game. 

You could see it back in the autumn. When we beat the likes of Luton with barely getting a sweat on.  Slowly playing when we could have gone to town . 

This is what happens when u have 16 seasons in Europe consecutively. You learn about how to avoid loading the players too much.  Look at Howe at Newcastle. He played the Chumps league like the Prem. All out running . And i am convinced thats what killed all their players and contributed to the injuries. 

 

All of this experience leads to us winning 7 and drawing 3 of the 12 games following Euro competition. He knows. He just knows..

 

[TomC]

We have only three senior midfielders healthy: McGinn, Doug, Rogers. We're missing Buendia, JJ, Kamara, Tielemans, Zaniolo. The first three are definitely gone for the season. We don't know how long the latter two are out. Assuming none of the 5 are ready for the next few matches, what do you do?

Play both Bailey and Diaby? That got us overrun in midfield against Chelsea. Yes, I know, Unai has played Bailey in midfield in the 4-4-2 many times this season, but almost always with McGinn or Tielemans as the second "forward," so you still had a 4th midfielder on the pitch who could move back if needed.

Start Tim? High stakes point in the season to rely on a youngster.

I suppose you have to play both Bailey and Diaby and somehow adjust tactically...

 

[Jenko#4]

5 minutes ago, TomC said:

We have only three senior midfielders healthy: McGinn, Doug, Rogers. We're missing Buendia, JJ, Kamara, Tielemans, Zaniolo. The first three are definitely gone for the season. We don't know how long the latter two are out. Assuming none of the 5 are ready for the next few matches, what do you do?

Play both Bailey and Diaby? That got us overrun in midfield against Chelsea. Yes, I know, Unai has played Bailey in midfield in the 4-4-2 many times this season, but almost always with McGinn or Tielemans as the second "forward," so you still had a 4th midfielder on the pitch who could move back if needed.

Start Tim? High stakes point in the season to rely on a youngster.

I suppose you have to play both Bailey and Diaby and somehow adjust tactically...

 

Could we see the midfield three you mentioned, with Watkins left, Bailey right, and Duran through the middle at some point?  It gives us the long ball target man option from the off to take the pressure off Olsen. From what I remember we’ve ended the last few games with Watkins moving out left.

[MaVilla]

i dont think it will be long before we see Doris the Tea Lady in central midfield.

I heard she's good with cups, so might help us in the semi's.

[Jas10]

THE MCGINN - LUIZ  

DOUBLE…

[sidcow]

5 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

It also make the decision to let Dendonker go out on loan very poor considering the lack of faith with Tim getting minutes when we need another body in the centre. Piss poor tbh.

I don't know. Easy with hindsight. Our injuries have been so ridiculous. 

I know all teams get and have had injuries, but the number of long term whole season injuries to key players has been just unbelievable. 

[DakotaVilla]

4 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

The decision to move Philogene, Ramsey and Archer out does not seem so smart now.

I didn’t realise any of them could play as a 6…..

[The_Steve]

8 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

The decision to move Philogene, Ramsey and Archer out does not seem so smart now.

C'mon. None of them were going to get game time.

[avfc1982am]

3 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I don't know. Easy with hindsight. Our injuries have been so ridiculous. 

I know all teams get and have had injuries, but the number of long term whole season injuries to key players has been just unbelievable. 

I agree but if you aren't willing to give the only other DM in Tim minutes when we really need some help in midfield then the decision doesn't look great. The injuries are ridiculous but you keep the players that you've faith in to play if needs must. 

[sidcow]

Just now, avfc1982am said:

I agree but if you aren't willing to give the only other DM in Tim minutes when we really need some help in midfield then the decision doesn't look great. The injuries are ridiculous but you keep the players that you've faith in to play if needs must. 

6es,fair comment. The lack of time for Tim in our predicament is ridiculous. 

[skarroki]

3 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

The decision to move Philogene, Ramsey and Archer out does not seem so smart now.

Yes, it would have been much better to have been hit with a points deduction for breaking FFP rules and keeping 3 championship quality players we got £40+ mil for sat in reserves until throwing them into these massive end of season games and hoping for miracles. 

Also from another commenter, poor to let Dendonker go, the guy was as much a liability as Tim but on 5x the wages and didn't want to be here. 

People acting like an injury ravaged squad limping into the champions league and at least a cup semi final is beginning to look like a poor performance by the manager because he hasn't used hindsight enough to make us still look like world beaters 50+ games into the season. 

This used to be us every week for 15 years, maybe just take a couple poor performances  on the chin and get behind the team for a hopeful miracle Thursday. 

Also Konsa bad at right back? It's a bad performance not a fundamental error. He was acceptable at RB when we put in the best performance against Pep anyone's ever seen on our 14th home win in a row 

[theboyangel]

13 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

The decision to move Philogene, Ramsey and Archer out does not seem so smart now.

that was needed to raise funds to bring other more experienced players in.

Neither Ramsey or Archer would’ve contributed anywhere near than the squad we have. 

Philogene possibly could’ve been useful but he made the decision to move to play every game in the Championship. 

 

[Marka Ragnos]

I wasn't able to watch the game today.

Can someone please be so kind and tell me what the hell is going on with our squad?

Why did we only have two shots on goal today, the lowest number of shots on goals since a match in 2016?

 

[tinker]

1 minute ago, Marka Ragnos said:

I wasn't able to watch the game today.

Can someone please be so kind and tell me what the hell is going on with our squad?

Why did we only have two shots on goal today, the lowest number of shots on goals since a match in 2016?

 

Too many games with a small squad, we was absolutely dead on our feet.

[DJBOB]

There’s not much left to say with tactics and personnel. 

When Morgan went down, it might be the first time in his Villa tenure that Unai had no idea what to do. He took a look down the bench and uncharacteristically looked sick.
 
Bailey was at LM then second striker then back to LM. Cash at RM ahead of Konsa returned. 
 
Even Watkins with his terminator like endurance looked a shell of himself. Pau noticeably could not get moving even with his pace. 
 
The squad is spent and should be cheered loud and hard home and away for the remainder of this incredible season. 

[VillaChris]

We've spent large portions of this season playing 4 CMs across the pitch.

Now we seem to be actively refusing to play anything but a 4-2-3-1.

I get injuries and fatigue but as we've seen in the last week that is really really hampering us now as Luiz and McGinn have too much ground to cover and both aren't in great form either.

We simply have to go 4-3-3 v Liverpool otherwise that will be a pointless 90 minutes as they'll just play constantly through us.

[DJBOB]

1 minute ago, VillaChris said:

We've spent large portions of this season playing 4 CMs across the pitch.

Now we seem to be actively refusing to play anything but a 4-2-3-1.

I get injuries and fatigue but as we've seen in the last week that is really really hampering us now as Luiz and McGinn have too much ground to cover and both aren't in great form either.

We simply have to go 4-3-3 v Liverpool otherwise that will be a pointless 90 minutes as they'll just play constantly through us.

There’s not many other formations we can play. Everyone says Tim but he has lacked confidence, to say the least, when he has played. Chambers is awful. Until Tielemans comes back, the lineup picks itself. 
 
Unai is not going to switch to a 433 as it ruins the rest of out of possession and in possession ideas. 

[VillaChris]

Just now, DJBOB said:

There’s not many other formations we can play. Everyone says Tim but he has lacked confidence, to say the least, when he has played. Chambers is awful. Until Tielemans comes back, the lineup picks itself. 
 
Unai is not going to switch to a 433 as it ruins the rest of out of possession and in possession ideas. 

4-2-3-1 is really hurting us though. We were basically sleep walking to a 1-0 defeat today with Brighton getting a lot of players in the central position and overloading. Chelsea also wised up to it second half.

Not a good idea to just play it v Liverpool and Palace will also cause us major issues with Olise and Eze coming inside once in possession. 

Tim might not be good enough currently but he's still an extra body and that will give McGinn and Luiz less ground to cover and ability to get more on the ball past the halfway line.

Bailey is half fit and Diaby is floating around the pitch doing very little so we're effectively three players down in the final third currently and that's why Ollie is feeding on scraps.