Team shape, tactics and personnel

[DJBOB]

3 minutes ago, TRO said:

Yeah, it just baffles me, that you and me can see that, layman fans....yet professional coaches can't, see it.

I accept, that tricky, complex, intricacies, are liable to be with the elite coaches, but we are talking basics here....stuff your average fan will pick up.

Have we been trusting too many, posing as coaches, or is it deeper than that....I am genuinely, perplexed.

As is anything requiring 11 players and a manger/staff - there are multiple failures. Specific instruction instead of "stay in this shape and beat your opposing player" as well as the infamous square peg, round hole of the Gerrard area, and yes - players do have blame to accept. A manager can not win individual duels. A manager can not pass, control, or dribble for them.

But managers are responsible for 1) setting teams up, 2) adjusting in game, and 3) getting 100% out of the players and while Dean was good at #3, he was okay in #1 and sorely lacked in #2. Gerrard had a new manager bounce and mystique to get #3 for a few months but that was spoiled mainly because of his inability to get #1 and #2 right. Unai has a proven history of 1, 2, and 3 so let us hope it changes it for VIlla as well. It is #3 I will be most worried about for Unai.

Edited October 31, 2022 by DJBOB

[TRO]

5 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

As is anything requiring 11 players and a manger/staff - there are multiple failures. Specific instruction instead of "stay in this shape and beat your opposing player" as well as the infamous square peg, round hole of the Gerrard area, and yes - players do have blame to accept. A manager can not win individual duels. A manager can not pass, control, or dribble for them.

But managers are responsible for 1) setting teams up, 2) adjusting in game, and 3) getting 100% out of the players and while Dean was good at #3, he was okay in #1 and sorely lacked in #2. Gerrard had a new manager bounce and mystique to get #3 for a few months but that was spoiled mainly because of his inability to get #1 and #2 right. Unai has a proven history of 1, 2, and 3 so let us hope it changes it for VIlla as well. It is #3 I will be most worried about for Unai.

Me too.

but if he can't then he has to get players in, he can get 100% out of.

strangely, I don't think we have a problem that is of an expensive nature.....Maybe a striker, who can score.

but i see areas where not hugely expensive players would be better, than what we have.

[smokingzen]

On 30/10/2022 at 16:47, Herman22 said:

I think we have a decent team but we struggle to get the best 11 on the pitch in a formation that works! 

I think we have decent players but we struggle to make a decent team on the pitch out of them.

The question is can any manager make a good team out of the players we have? When I say a good team, I mean a comfortable "top 10" team and challenging top 6.

Personally I don't think we have the right balance of squad dynamics and mental and physical attributes with the players we have. I think a good manager will get us playing better, but we'd still lack consistency, play some terrible games and struggle to put runs together. A lot of teams are struggling with that at the moment, the Premier League is a tough league, but it's what distinguishes those teams at the top from the bottom.

I think a lot of our players have good attributes in many departments, but all seem to suffer a lack of key attributes in other areas which affects their consistency, ability or decision making. I think you can look all over the pitch of the villa squad and think, if only we could smash those 2 players together we could have a top player, Watkins and Ings for instance, would give us Wings in attack. Or even smashing Bailey, Buendia and Ings together... which would give us a Grealish apparently.

The latter example does ask questions of our recruitment strategy. Ultimately you can't replace 1 player's attributes with 3 players, as it's a downgrade of capacity on the pitch. What you want is players with as many attributes as you can on the pitch. That's obviously what all teams want and why such good rounded players usually cost a lot of money, unless you're developing them yourself.

So I think we're going to need to build slowly, and pay the money for the right quality players, adding a couple in each transfer window,  along with developing and integrating the young talent we have. That will then give good management and coaching a chance to turn us into a quality team.

That's why I can believe Emry has been promised a significant transfer kitty, because he'll need it to progress us on significantly, and he'll have identified that.

[Tom13]

Outside of our defence, do we lack physical power? Kamara returning will be a big help, but still.

[Zatman]

On 31/10/2022 at 13:32, VillanousOne said:

Cash on the wing, Chambers at right back?

McLeishball

[CVByrne]

1 hour ago, Tom13 said:

Outside of our defence, do we lack physical power? Kamara returning will be a big help, but still.

Ramsey is big now, we've Dendoncker and Kamara who are big enough too. I'd have three of those starting with a Bailey say as a modified 4 and Watkins/Ings up top

[Zatman]

7 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Ramsey is big now, we've Dendoncker and Kamara who are big enough too. I'd have three of those starting with a Bailey say as a modified 4 and Watkins/Ings up top

Are you Big Sam?

Edited November 1, 2022 by Zatman

[Pinebro]

11 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Ramsey is big now, we've Dendoncker and Kamara who are big enough too. I'd have three of those starting with a Bailey say as a modified 4 and Watkins/Ings up top

 

[KMitch]

3 hours ago, Zatman said:

McLeishball

Only if he plays Watkins at CM!  

[Tom13]

37 minutes ago, KMitch said:

Watkins at CM!  

[maqroll]

 

[CVByrne]

Yeah, I think he'll do that with a RB/CB type player, so Chambers maybe? With Bailey in front of him. Digne in left back and Ramsey or McGinn in front of him

[Zatman]

All the wild predictions didn't come through for his first selection

[DJBOB]

Tactics! Formation changes! Unai vs Ten Hag chess match!

Things I saw in the first half:

• Changing shape - Villa playing the 4222 in posession but the 532 once settled, content on giving the ball to United's fullbacks to cross
• The targeting of Ronaldo - showing the 4222 - Villa seem to be making a conscious decision to play the triangles around Ronaldo - knowing he won't press. Mings-Digne-Buendia-Luiz with a lot of time on the ball around United's right hand side
• Jacob Ramsay - utility man - much has been said about Ramsay not having a defined position but where others see weakness, Unai might see a strength - Ramsay is playing both RWB in defense but also as the forward runner in midfield. He will tire out in this position though as he has to cover a lot of ground
• Danger in transition! - Ten Hag has noticed the shape change and is doubling up Ganacho and Luke Shaw down the left once Villa lose possession as it takes some time for Ramsay to get back after moving forward. Unai will have to counter this so that Cash isn't doubled down on his side all game
• Casemiro - old man games - surprisingly Dendocker is the more forward CM pressing Casemiro when United have possession in their own half but the Brazilian is no idiot. He is dropping deeper and wider and creating the aforementioned overload on United's left by dragging Dendocker with him
• Danger outside the 18! - It is a conscious decision for Unai to allow the space between the "wingbacks" and the outside CM's and allowing United to keep pumping crosses on defence but for how long? Buendia, Dendocker, and Ramsay are having to cover a lot of ground in both areas and I hope Unai subs them both early in the 2H so those areas remain defended

Edited November 6, 2022 by DJBOB

[DJBOB]

Midway mark of the second half. 
 

• Unai counters - Dendocker was pressing up to Casemiro and Ramsay dropped to create a 5 back. Unai didn’t like it and switched to a traditional 442 and let Casemiro have the ball - nullifying the double down on the United’s left
• Ten Hag doubles down - subs all the left side United players and will likely continue attacking that side. Few options now that Villa command the lead
• Remaining? Can Watkins and Bailey take advantage of the nonstop 2v2 they will have for the rest of the game? When will Unai sub out tire legs?

Edited November 6, 2022 by DJBOB

[DJBOB]

Last change:

Unai switches to a 451 to see out the game. Bodies flooding the midfield now and forcing United around.

 

[AV82]

You know what? Straight up f**k you naysayers and haters. We have a great squad of players and our recruitment has been fantastic, even moreso if not for a terribly unlucky injury to Carlos. You might think I'm jumping the gun but that performance today was almost perfect and shows each and every one of our players, even Sanson(!), have quality if used properly. Even Ollie Watkins today was elevated by the manager's focus on improving confidence first and foremost. The sky is the limit and Gerrard has poisoned this fanbase into thinking our team and hierarchy are shit and it simply is not true.

[TomC]

1 hour ago, DJBOB said:

Tactics! Formation changes! Unai vs Ten Hag chess match!

Things I saw in the first half:

• Changing shape - Villa playing the 4222 in posession but the 532 once settled, content on giving the ball to United's fullbacks to cross

I thought it was sort of a 4-4-2 and sort of a 5-3-2 in defence. Very often the outside midfielders (Buendia and especially JJ) would drop into the backline to make it a 5, with the fullback being relatively narrow, but not always...mostly when the play was out wide. Also, sometimes if the fullback had to go wide early when we were in retreat, the outside midfielder would tuck into the back line inside of the fullback rather than outside. But if Man U played the ball back out near the centre line, it was back to a 4-4-2.

 

Quote

The targeting of Ronaldo - showing the 4222 - Villa seem to be making a conscious decision to play the triangles around Ronaldo - knowing he won't press. Mings-Digne-Buendia-Luiz with a lot of time on the ball around United's right hand side

Agreed. The first 10-15 minutes, I couldn't figure out why we were playing with the ball so much in our own last third when they were pressing hard, but Ronaldo was clearly the weak link in the press that negated everything else they did.

 

 

[Tom13]

Close the thread. Unai's got it!

[sne]

This is what we have been banging on all this time. What a difference it makes to have a team with lines and structure. And that's after 3 days of coaching.

Pretty much all of our players suddenly looks more competent, imagine that.