hippo Posted July 21, 2022 Share Posted July 21, 2022 32 minutes ago, nick76 said: I have no issue with that, I just worry that our attacking play seems like we haven’t worked together, we aren’t clicking, continuing from last season. I look at our talent and see creativity and forgetting hammer and tong, I would just like to see good play between the players, creating space, creating better/clear cut chances. I’m seeing similar things to last season attacking wise where there doesn’t seem to be a plan attacking wise apart from the basic. I hope I see better over the coming games. Agree. I can't shift this idea from my head that relying on the full backs for width isn't going to work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steero113 Posted July 21, 2022 Share Posted July 21, 2022 2 hours ago, nick76 said: I have no issue with that, I just worry that our attacking play seems like we haven’t worked together, we aren’t clicking, continuing from last season. I look at our talent and see creativity and forgetting hammer and tong, I would just like to see good play between the players, creating space, creating better/clear cut chances. I’m seeing similar things to last season attacking wise where there doesn’t seem to be a plan attacking wise apart from the basic. I hope I see better over the coming games. I’ve seen some pretty tasty attacking interplay between the likes of JJ, coutinho, KKH and Buendia in the games so far. There was a tweet with an incredible piece of build up the other day also. Mainly just been watching our strikers butcher chances imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomsky_11 Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 (edited) 12 hours ago, nick76 said: Yeah they’d already talked about that during the game. It’s preseason training they overload players to improve fitness, they do it all the time in preseason, every year, every club, the tops clubs do. Preseason is predominantly getting fitness to a high level while also bonding and players ideas, tactics and goals into the players. This isn’t anything new! Even at my substandard level of football when I used to play, in preseason we just ran and ran until we couldn’t run anymore, then we’d do sprint training drills and then more running, and then play a friendly games to get match fitness. The attacking issues wasnt just down to fitness. I keep going back to the word cohesion, something we lack as an attacking force. On top of that we were playing Brisbane Roar, not exactly the world class team of defenders. Missed it being mentioned during the game. Fair enough. Edited July 22, 2022 by tomsky_11 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 (edited) I’d like to think we will do well next season. The biggest problem will be we have to play an opposition every week that also want to win. Sometimes they will be better than us, sometimes they will play better than us. Other times we will play better than them but still lose. That’s football. So I expect there will be many complaints and some wont be happy with Gerrard. But I think we’ll win enough to finish 7th. Edited July 22, 2022 by Vive_La_Villa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 (edited) From minute 8 on. Basically says he thinks we will do well to finish near top 8. Was initially unconvinced by Gerrard in Scotland but likes him the more he sees him. Also says if we go into this season how we finished last season in patches, the SG project won't be a very long one as he'll be sacked etc. Thinks we will finish 9th. Pretty fair? @ Edited July 22, 2022 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Gerrard talking top 7, Martinez now talking about top 8. It seems the aims are very clear. Which they had to be after sacking Deano. I'm not convinced we've got the squad or manager to do it just yet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Just now, DCJonah said: Gerrard talking top 7, Martinez now talking about top 8. It seems the aims are very clear. Which they had to be after sacking Deano. I'm not convinced we've got the squad or manager to do it just yet. 8th is definitely achievable with this team and manager. We weren’t that far away in terms of points total last season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWARLEY2 Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Last season we had so many hot and cold players. Sometimes half to half The only chance we have of top 8 is if the mindset changes. I think that with the huge number of games lost in the last 3 seasons our players have got used to losing. This is why he is tending to bring in players with low loss rates. Thats the winning mentality. Not just trying to change their mindset. But bringing in players that are used to winning. That said we seem to be pretty good at transfer window football but it never translates to the pitch. Praying that changes or we will be having a new manager Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWARLEY2 Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Just wondering if anyone would accept a lower league position if it meant keeping the kids in the squad this season and bringing them through at Villa rather than loaning them out. Personally i would love to see Kesler and Archer etc etc get the games and see how true claret and blue fans get on. I mean 8th would only possibly get the lowest European football so other than money would it be better and more exciting to bring 4 of them through and say finish 12th? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishVilla10 Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 4 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said: Just wondering if anyone would accept a lower league position if it meant keeping the kids in the squad this season and bringing them through at Villa rather than loaning them out. Personally i would love to see Kesler and Archer etc etc get the games and see how true claret and blue fans get on. I mean 8th would only possibly get the lowest European football so other than money would it be better and more exciting to bring 4 of them through and say finish 12th? Not me, I want success either through the cup or getting into the conference at a minimum. The problem with the youth idea is everyone’s a villa fan till city or a top club come in. I want us to be in the position to stop that from happening 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MNVillan Posted July 23, 2022 Share Posted July 23, 2022 4 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said: Just wondering if anyone would accept a lower league position if it meant keeping the kids in the squad this season and bringing them through at Villa rather than loaning them out. Personally i would love to see Kesler and Archer etc etc get the games and see how true claret and blue fans get on. I mean 8th would only possibly get the lowest European football so other than money would it be better and more exciting to bring 4 of them through and say finish 12th? Give me European football. I don’t care if we’re playing TinyTown FC in Latvia on a Tuesday night. I want European football. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciggiesnbeer Posted July 23, 2022 Share Posted July 23, 2022 1 hour ago, MNVillan said: Give me European football. I don’t care if we’re playing TinyTown FC in Latvia on a Tuesday night. I want European football. Agree. To give UEFA credit the Europa Conference League has been very successful. I would be delighted if we qualified next season. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciggiesnbeer Posted July 23, 2022 Share Posted July 23, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said: Just wondering if anyone would accept a lower league position if it meant keeping the kids in the squad this season and bringing them through at Villa rather than loaning them out. Personally i would love to see Kesler and Archer etc etc get the games and see how true claret and blue fans get on. I mean 8th would only possibly get the lowest European football so other than money would it be better and more exciting to bring 4 of them through and say finish 12th? I think they may both go hand in hand. tbh. Its hard for me to imagine us bringing in a new striker who will be more of a threat than Archer. Forwards are just so expensive. Kesler brings something really special and I would far sooner see him fighting with Cash than Gilbert, who is a fine footballer but predictable. So imho I agree with you i would sooner keep them in the first team. Because I think they are our best squad options to getting into Europe. It could be a nice win/win. Edited July 23, 2022 by ciggiesnbeer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nepal_villan Posted July 23, 2022 Share Posted July 23, 2022 Squad is good enough to finish top 8. Left to be seen if the Manager is. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted July 23, 2022 Share Posted July 23, 2022 7 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said: Just wondering if anyone would accept a lower league position if it meant keeping the kids in the squad this season and bringing them through at Villa rather than loaning them out. Personally i would love to see Kesler and Archer etc etc get the games and see how true claret and blue fans get on. I mean 8th would only possibly get the lowest European football so other than money would it be better and more exciting to bring 4 of them through and say finish 12th? We could have done that with the last manager. There's no point in sacking Dean and bringing Gerrard in if we aren't aiming to finish much higher. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allani Posted July 23, 2022 Share Posted July 23, 2022 8 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said: Just wondering if anyone would accept a lower league position if it meant keeping the kids in the squad this season and bringing them through at Villa rather than loaning them out. Personally i would love to see Kesler and Archer etc etc get the games and see how true claret and blue fans get on. I mean 8th would only possibly get the lowest European football so other than money would it be better and more exciting to bring 4 of them through and say finish 12th? As I may have said a couple of times recently - I don't think that our current squad is good enough to expect a good top half finish yet anyway. I have major concerns about playing 38 leagues matches with two of McGinn, Luiz and JJ starting 38 matches. They all have their own skills and I would want them all to feature in most matches - but I don't see how they suddenly start consistently dominating or even just matching the opposition enough times to challenge the Sly 6, West Ham, Leicester or Newcastle. So on that basis a drop from say 10th to 12th isn't quite as bad. However, I remain confident that we will sign another midfielder to improve the balance that we require and give us more cover in case of suspensions or injuries. At which point I think not only will our midfield become more balanced but the entire first team also becomes more balanced. I actually think that were we to sign another midfielder then it makes the option of keeping the youngsters in the first team squad even higher. Put it this way - if Kamara gets injured for 3 months I would be nervous about Tim being our back-up DCM and / or reverting to Luiz / McGinn playing deeper. However, sign another Kamara level 6/8 and suddenly if either gets injured we already have decent options and so I could see that Tim would be a perfectly good option. In which case you would look around and start asking when Nakamba is likely to play. The same would apply to the other midfield role - Luiz, McGinn and JJ competing for the last midfield place means that somone like AJ would also be fine as the next option, getting the chance to get some minutes under his belt or even just being on the bench on match day. I think elsewhere Archer and Kesler have given people a decision to make already - Kesler I think becomes more of an option because we could also play either Konsa, Chambers or Young at RB if the match situation suggested that a bit more experience was required. But I could certainly see opportunities for minutes for him already to give Cash a breather every now and again. Strengthening the starting XI a little more means that more senior fringe players are less likely to get the minutes they want at which point giving those opportunities to the youngsters becomes more sensible anyway. Plus I would rather Kesler getting 10 minutes here or there in a team playing well and challenging the higher positions everyone is talking about then playing in a team like we've had more much of the last 18 months or so - stuttering for form, struggling to find a rhythm to our play and generally giving the ball away too cheaply. Similarly I'd rather be bringing Archer on when we are 2-0 up and playing well so that he can settle into the team and the PL rather than when we are 0-1 down to a team in the bottom 4 with 15 minutes to go, with the fans already agitated and expecting him to turn the match around single-handedly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 23, 2022 Author Share Posted July 23, 2022 8 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said: Just wondering if anyone would accept a lower league position if it meant keeping the kids in the squad this season and bringing them through at Villa rather than loaning them out. Personally i would love to see Kesler and Archer etc etc get the games and see how true claret and blue fans get on. I mean 8th would only possibly get the lowest European football so other than money would it be better and more exciting to bring 4 of them through and say finish 12th? Not me, they’ll come through when they are ready and arguably loaning some of the kids out will give them regular competitive football which is better than sitting on the bench for us. At the same time allowing the first team to strive for higher in the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted July 23, 2022 Share Posted July 23, 2022 8 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said: Just wondering if anyone would accept a lower league position if it meant keeping the kids in the squad this season and bringing them through at Villa rather than loaning them out. Personally i would love to see Kesler and Archer etc etc get the games and see how true claret and blue fans get on. I mean 8th would only possibly get the lowest European football so other than money would it be better and more exciting to bring 4 of them through and say finish 12th? I see where you’re coming from but Gerrard even said himself the minimum expected is top half. Whilst it’s great to give kids game time it can’t be at the expense of a higher position even if it means no Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allani Posted July 23, 2022 Share Posted July 23, 2022 3 minutes ago, nick76 said: Not me, they’ll come through when they are ready and arguably loaning some of the kids out will give them regular competitive football which is better than sitting on the bench for us. At the same time allowing the first team to strive for higher in the league. I'd rather Archer play 15 - 20 mins in the PL most weeks than 80 mins in the Championship. But only if (a) he continues the form of the last few months and (b) we are playing as a cohesive, organised team who look like we know what we are doing. He's got another month to stake his claim for that to happen but he's started the right way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 23, 2022 Author Share Posted July 23, 2022 1 minute ago, allani said: I'd rather Archer play 15 - 20 mins in the PL most weeks than 80 mins in the Championship. But only if (a) he continues the form of the last few months and (b) we are playing as a cohesive, organised team who look like we know what we are doing. He's got another month to stake his claim for that to happen but he's started the right way! Why? While it might be better for us short term, I think the development long term, another full competitive football season for him would be better than 15 minutes here and there for us. It depends how much game time he gets, if just 15 minutes here and there I think it’s better he goes out on loan until January at least, if more time then keep him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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