Mantis Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 14 minutes ago, M_Afro said: Ok. So why do we never dominate the middle of the park? I can never remember us bossing the game from the middle of the park. We are poor in possession and even worse out of it. Tactics/selection. And we do occasionally dominate in the middle of the park, just not nearly as often as we should be. Surely you can see there's a huge middle ground between "our midfield is very good" and "our midfield is literally the worst in the league"? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 3 hours ago, nepal_villan said: His love affair with McGinn, Coutinho, Young (on the bench instead of KKH or Sanson) is going to ultimately cost him. It already has. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Zhan_Zhuang Posted August 6, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted August 6, 2022 Our best midfielder on the bench (Luiz)... Our best defender on the bench (Mings)... Our better striker on the bench (Watkins)... Our best attacker on the bench (Buendia)... Personally think we should be starting all four... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketspuds Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 53 minutes ago, rodders0223 said: Do not give him another penny. That's not the answer. We are bringing in some very good players. I have no doubt that Gerrard is improving the squad, and we should continue to do this during this window. However, I am starting to have doubts about Gerrard's ability to coach them. Either way, the fact is we need a CM and a ST regardless of who the manager is. Based on our transfer business so far, I trust that any new additions will be very good. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 He was poor today, but Jacob Ramsey is our best midfielder and it's not even close, he was near enough our best player last season, this sudden idea that he's not very good, or that all he does is run with the ball is bizzare to me, he's one of our most dependable players on the ball, links up better with players around him than our other midfielders, overall he's been brilliant, people talk about our academy and how good it is and how we're going to produce players for the first team, but then don't rate Ramsey, wait a minute something doesn't add up, if you don't rate Ramsey, then good luck with rating any of our other youngsters that come through, because any of them will be doing well to be as good as him. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
est1874 Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 25 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said: Our best midfielder on the bench (Luiz)... Our best defender on the bench (Mings)... Our better striker on the bench (Watkins)... Our best attacker on the bench (Buendia)... Personally think we should be starting all four... Luiz is not our best midfielder. Mings is not our best defender. Watkins is not our best striker. You got 1 out of 4 right, the rest is revisionism. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a m ole Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 Just now, est1874 said: Luiz is not our best midfielder. Mings is not our best defender. Watkins is not our best striker. You got 1 out of 4 right, the rest is revisionism. Out of interest, who is our best defender? Carlos has played one game and it was not a good one, and it’s not Konsa. You think it’s Chambers or are you including full backs here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciggiesnbeer Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 As he says its on him. Its on him to fix it. I hope he can. Starting Konsa was madness unless Chambers & Mings were injured. No attacking style of play. STILL. Either the players or the coaches decided to lob in useless crosses continually. We have a bottom half club mentality. When man City were 2 goals down you know its game on and they will fight back. When we go 1 goal down its game over. I dont see how this team can morph from that dross to anywhere near europe this season. More likely a bloody relegation scrap. Love Gerrard off the pitch as I loved Deano. But this is too similar. We have become another mushy nothing team. Whats our attacking style of play? I still have no idea. Sorry but its down to coaching. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 5 minutes ago, useless said: He was poor today, but Jacob Ramsey is our best midfielder and it's not even close, he was near enough our best player last season, this sudden idea that he's not very good, or that all he does is run with the ball is bizzare to me, he's one of our most dependable players on the ball, links up better with players around him than our other midfielders, overall he's been brilliant, people talk about our academy and how good it is and how we're going to produce players for the first team, but then don't rate Ramsey, wait a minute something doesn't add up, if you don't rate Ramsey, then good luck with rating any of our other youngsters that come through, because any of them will be doing well to be as good as him. Jacob Ramsey will improve, but if you think he is gonna take us to the dizzy heights this season, your more than mistaken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
est1874 Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 2 minutes ago, a m ole said: Out of interest, who is our best defender? Carlos has played one game and it was not a good one, and it’s not Konsa. You think it’s Chambers or are you including full backs here? Diego Carlos is obviously streets ahead of our established CBs, he will prove his worth. He has pushed top 3 in La Liga, played European football consistently in Champions League and Europa League. It was an ignominious start in a game where every single player in the Villa starting XI looked shit. Out of interest do you think Luiz is our best midfielder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted August 6, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted August 6, 2022 Not working , Gerrard needs to change the tactics or vary them to suit our opponents. Bournemouth won everything in the air today. With hindsight Ming's should have started to combat this . I don't think the first goal would have happened if he was on the pitch, he would have cleared the first ball in. We have a good squad but it's not balanced, strong up front and in defence but weak or not balanced in the middle. Kamara looks good but needs help, could be Douglas but with his contract situation I can understand him being dropped, maybe Nakamba, Tim or another player yet to come in. Idrissa Gueye could solve alot of our problems and he's get able. He will make Everton a much better team. We could change our shape to combat this but Gerrard doesn't want to or can't do it . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 1 hour ago, useless said: He was poor today, but Jacob Ramsey is our best midfielder and it's not even close, he was near enough our best player last season, this sudden idea that he's not very good, or that all he does is run with the ball is bizzare to me, he's one of our most dependable players on the ball, links up better with players around him than our other midfielders, overall he's been brilliant, people talk about our academy and how good it is and how we're going to produce players for the first team, but then don't rate Ramsey, wait a minute something doesn't add up, if you don't rate Ramsey, then good luck with rating any of our other youngsters that come through, because any of them will be doing well to be as good as him. I couldn't disagree more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_avfc Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 1 hour ago, est1874 said: Diego Carlos is obviously streets ahead of our established CBs, he will prove his worth. He has pushed top 3 in La Liga, played European football consistently in Champions League and Europa League. It was an ignominious start in a game where every single player in the Villa starting XI looked shit. Out of interest do you think Luiz is our best midfielder? It wasn’t me originally but I think Kamara and Luiz is our best midfield two. Whether you play Mcginn, Ramsey or Buendia in front of them I’d be looking to have that midfield two of Kamara and Luiz every week with the current squad available. We could probably do with another midfielder to compete with them (or just start actually using Sanson a bit) but we can’t just chuck a load of attacking midfielders on the pitch as Gerrard did today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhan_Zhuang Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 2 hours ago, est1874 said: Luiz is not our best midfielder. Mings is not our best defender. Watkins is not our best striker. You got 1 out of 4 right, the rest is revisionism. I've held this belief for quite some time and been consistent with it...your point is therefore irrelevant. Excluding Kamara and Carlos as they are still new to the league... All about opinions though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May-Z Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 I've been interested to see if Gerrard's tree would ever show some signs of working, and I've been willing to give time to see if it embeds. It hasn't....and it won't imo. With the players we have, I can't see anything but a 4231 working. We have to get the middle of the pitch sorted and provide width to help make the space for that to happen. Martinez Cash Carlos Mings Digne Kamara Luiz Bailey Coutinho Buendia Ings/Watkins Coutinho and Buendia can flick between positions as-and-when. It's a shame that Ramsey would have to miss out, but he could potentially go into the more advanced 10 position with Bailey dropping out and Buendia/Coutinho going left and right of him. A 433 may work in terms of CMS, but I don't know if we have the attacking wide players to make it work so 4231 it is... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a m ole Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 What is our game plan with the starting formation? We play so slowly. We pass the ball with no pace. We wait on the ball until any passing options are gone almost to a man. We wait for the fullbacks to get out of defence and lose all element of surprise. It’s ponderous. Fitness isn’t a problem, they’ve made that point in preseason. I know I’m banging the drum, but the team it reminds me the most of us England under Southgate. When Gerrard came in, it wasn’t like that. There was a bit of fluidity, and even though there was defensive issues we played some exciting football. That seems to have been slowly drained out the side. What are we coaching them to do in possession? Gerrard has said he’s to blame for us not being able to create any chances, so his future relies on fixing that and fixing it quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazmonkey Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 4 hours ago, M_Afro said: Ok. So why do we never dominate the middle of the park? I can never remember us bossing the game from the middle of the park. We are poor in possession and even worse out of it. I have said it before its a numbers thing....we don't have the quality to play three in the middle. City and Liverpool can...why...they have the players. All the other teams play at least 4 or mostly 5. We have no balance across the pitch nor getting up it. Now whether it's a 2 - 3 or a 1 - 4....it needs to be sorted quick...we can't afford to have two strikers with lack of service nor a waste of a bod in the starting 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 Our squad is massive; Outside of the 20 involved today there is Hause, Nakamba, Sanson KKH, Traore, Davis, Tim, El Ghazi and Guilbert We need to move about 5 or 6 players on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattVillaPortsmouth Posted August 7, 2022 Share Posted August 7, 2022 Our best 11 (I know that’s down to opinion) doesn’t fit our formation, we have zero identity - I watched yesterday and had no idea how Stevie G wanted them to play. We seem to have a really awful trait of making our players look bad (a la Ramsay, couts, Digne yesterday) and making distinctly average opposition players look like world beaters - all this comes from the training ground. We don’t play to anyones strengths (McGinn asked to do stuff he is not good at, it’s no coincidence how he played in championship or for Scotland, full backs hardly getting past half way, bailey, Couts the list goes on). We leave the one DM exposed 9 times out of 10 We need balance, but equally players need to know their responsibilities (don’t know if this is Gerrard not getting it across or players not doing it). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted August 7, 2022 Share Posted August 7, 2022 He keeps going on about your style of play that he wants but does anyone have a clue what it is? Looks a total shambles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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