Zatman Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 4 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said: Not so much the squad - more about the manager that's getting a tune out of that squad. Manager last season got more in the first 4 games including win at Spurs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post TRO Posted September 14, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted September 14, 2021 2 minutes ago, romavillan said: Clean sheet would be awesome but we like to push the fullbacks up and press high, they're set up to exploit that. We had 15 CS's last season, one of the main reasons for our improvement on the previous season. If we abandon that, we are leaving ourselves an awful lot to do.....Its not a league, where you can blow teams away, unless you are an Elite version. I am not proposing a park the bus style.....but anyone who failed to be impressed with Chelsea's defending are missing a trick. The transition between defence and attack and vice versa is challenging and ball control is one element that plays a huge role......keeping the ball is central to that....we have to find a way to make life difficult for opponents. gift them goals from playing too open and their confidence/belief rises....deny them and it diminishes. clean sheets are Paramount. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommo_b Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 52 minutes ago, pas5898 said: I follow a few high stakes betting groups (I don't have the finances to compete). Few are considering lumping quite a sizeable amount of money on DS to be next out the door. Next 6 games are tough. Everton, Ronaldo FC, Spurs, Wolves, Arsenal, West Ham. Let's say we only pick up 3 points from those 6 games (which is entirely plausible). 10 Games in with 7 points, probably be in or near the relegation zone. As much as I hate it, I could see it happening. Amazing how differently we as fans can see stuff, the only game I see us losing is Man United. Granted I am an optimist by nature. But I mean Everton, a bit meh, Spurs just got tonked by Crystal bloody Palace, wolves another meh team, Arsenal pretty below par only just beat Norwich and West Ham, no lingard so not so much to fear. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted September 14, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted September 14, 2021 5 minutes ago, TRO said: We had 15 CS's last season, one of the main reasons for our improvement on the previous season. If we abandon that, we are leaving ourselves an awful lot to do.....Its not a league, where you can blow teams away, unless you are an Elite version. I am not proposing a park the bus style.....but anyone who failed to be impressed with Chelsea's defending are missing a trick. The transition between defence and attack and vice versa is challenging and ball control is one element that plays a huge role......keeping the ball is central to that....we have to find a way to make life difficult for opponents. gift them goals from playing too open and their confidence/belief rises....deny them and it diminishes. clean sheets are Paramount. Completely agree, I'm just saying they are really good at scoring on the break and we like to press high. Ideally we'll get back into the clean sheet groove with a win obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaFaninLondon Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 53 minutes ago, TRO said: We had 15 CS's last season, one of the main reasons for our improvement on the previous season. If we abandon that, we are leaving ourselves an awful lot to do.....Its not a league, where you can blow teams away, unless you are an Elite version. I am not proposing a park the bus style.....but anyone who failed to be impressed with Chelsea's defending are missing a trick. The transition between defence and attack and vice versa is challenging and ball control is one element that plays a huge role......keeping the ball is central to that....we have to find a way to make life difficult for opponents. gift them goals from playing too open and their confidence/belief rises....deny them and it diminishes. clean sheets are Paramount. Agree TRO, Chelsea have stronger individuals in their defence than us but we don't help ourselves by gifting the opposition cheap goals. 7 goals conceded in 4 games is simply not good enough, extrapolated over a whole season we would concede 67 goals which is as bad as in our first season back in the Prem. Add to that we've had a relatively kind start too. So I not only hope for a win on Saturday but also a clean sheet. Our defending needs to be much better. Emi back will certainly help. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marka Ragnos Posted September 14, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted September 14, 2021 (edited) This match feels extremely consequential—more so than I wish, TBH. The Villa I keep hoping for, the one that challenge for Europe, that resumes its "big club" profile, is either going to show up, or we're in for a very ugly next four weeks or so. I feel like we're at a tipping point. I mean, every match is a tipping point. But this one feels tippier lol. Maybe it's not that way. I hope not. Maybe Everton takes these points, and then afterwards we finally hit our stride. Feeling lots of anticipation. Edited September 14, 2021 by Marka Ragnos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Thomas Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 2 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said: This match feels extremely consequential—more so than I wish, TBH. The Villa I keep hoping for, the one that challenge for Europe, that resumes its "big club" profile, is either going to show up, or we're in for a very ugly next four weeks or so. I feel like we're at a tipping point. I mean, every match is a tipping point. But this one feels tippier lol. Maybe it's not that way. I hope not. Maybe Everton takes these points, and then afterwards we finally hit our stride. Feeling lots of anticipation. Feel the same and also think the crowd will be bang up for this given its importance and the history of this fixture. Have a sneaky feeling we will win this convincingly and make a bit of a statement. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 5 hours ago, TRO said: We had 15 CS's last season, one of the main reasons for our improvement on the previous season. If we abandon that, we are leaving ourselves an awful lot to do.....Its not a league, where you can blow teams away, unless you are an Elite version. I am not proposing a park the bus style.....but anyone who failed to be impressed with Chelsea's defending are missing a trick. The transition between defence and attack and vice versa is challenging and ball control is one element that plays a huge role......keeping the ball is central to that....we have to find a way to make life difficult for opponents. gift them goals from playing too open and their confidence/belief rises....deny them and it diminishes. clean sheets are Paramount. You can have 20 cleen sheets and still concede 70 goals in a season. Shots faced and goals conceded I'm more concerned with. If you have bunch of cleen sheets to go along with few goals conceded over a season that's just a bonus for me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M_Afro Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 I think we will win this. A comfortable 3-0. Everton have been riding their luck so far and we have a decent record against them recently. A first Bailey goal too just as a cherry on top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 Do anyone know if DCL will be available for this game? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BleedClaretAndBlue Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 18 minutes ago, villalad21 said: Do anyone know if DCL will be available for this game? He’s out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferguson1 Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 I do think this is very much a winnable game. DCL is definitely out for them. Yes, they have a front three of (Townsend, Richarlison, Gray) that are dangerous but not unstoppable. Keane is usually awful for them, especially against us and Watkins in particular. I do also think that there opening fixtures have been kind. Back to 433 for this please and can see us winning 2-1 or 3-1, but be nice if we could keep a clean sheet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 1 hour ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said: He’s out That is a huge blow for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 I watched their game against Burnley - yes, they scored three, but I didn't see anything that worried me from that... I think this one is a Villa win to kick start the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BleedClaretAndBlue Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 When are the emigos flying back in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lichfield Dean Posted September 15, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted September 15, 2021 On 12/09/2021 at 14:59, villalad21 said: Rafa will set his team up to counter. Don't fall into the trap Dean. If both teams set up to counter, will the football remain untouched in the middle of the pitch for the entire game? I've often wondered this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 3 hours ago, villalad21 said: That is a huge blow for them. He is out for an unspecified time but it is said it will be a number of weeks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted September 15, 2021 Moderator Share Posted September 15, 2021 2 hours ago, Dale said: I watched their game against Burnley - yes, they scored three, but I didn't see anything that worried me from that... I think this one is a Villa win to kick start the season. Gray has 3 goals from 4 shots on target this season. You would hope that's unsustainable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WakefieldVillan Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 Should be a good game and hopefully we can put in a similar performance to the one at Stamford Bridge but obviously excluding the mistakes and being more clinical in front of goal. Love the fact that it's much harder to pick a starting eleven now (the upside of Jack leaving) and with Smith showing he's not worried about a formation change then this also makes it less predictable. I would go for - Martinez Cash Konsa Mings Targett Luiz Ramsey McGinn Traore Watkins Bailey With great options off the bench in the likes of Ings, Buendia, El Ghazi ETC if required. They were poor first half against Burnley and DCL is a big loss, I think (hope) we might nick it 2-1 or 3-2. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 Attacking is great and I don't want it curtailed in any way, but we also have to be better at soaking up pressure, when we haven't got the ball.....containment is key to staying in games. Staying in possession, is one help and pressing like the last game, is another.....but we have to look after the ball better further back too. The win is really crucial on saturday, to maintain momentum.....going gung ho, is not a way to do it. I still stand by the adage " you have to win the right to play football" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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