The Aston Villa high line thread

[DJBOB]

3 minutes ago, TRO said:

When we won the League in 1980/81.....I never heard anyone talk about the system we employed...and I don't remember the fans of the day discussing it.

is it over analyzation?

Sure times have changed....just saying

Just times and analytics have changed. The advent of technology and video review has brought about all sorts of tactical speak.

Unai was a big proponent and talked about how he had to splice together DVD's in order to show it to his players.

Teams have to use every advantage they can and it's no longer enough to just line them up and tell them to get out there.

[Follyfoot]

57 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

Just times and analytics have changed. The advent of technology and video review has brought about all sorts of tactical speak.

Unai was a big proponent and talked about how he had to splice together DVD's in order to show it to his players.

Teams have to use every advantage they can and it's no longer enough to just line them up and tell them to get out there.

A long way from young boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts, organge's at half time and 'get in the bath you scamp and get those knee's scrubbed'  'Yes Mum'

isn't it 

[TRO]

1 hour ago, DJBOB said:

Just times and analytics have changed. The advent of technology and video review has brought about all sorts of tactical speak.

Unai was a big proponent and talked about how he had to splice together DVD's in order to show it to his players.

Teams have to use every advantage they can and it's no longer enough to just line them up and tell them to get out there.

It might have worked on sunday, if we had of had a line in front of Emi for their first goal

just kidding.

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

When we won the League in 1980/81.....I never heard anyone talk about the system we employed...and I don't remember the fans of the day discussing it.

is it over analyzation?

No. It's 2023. You don't win football matches by pulling your socks up and putting loads of effort in anymore

[DCJonah]

33 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

No. It's 2023. You don't win football matches by pulling your socks up and putting loads of effort in anymore

Hence Steve Bruce is unemployed. 

[TRO]

It is of little interest to me HOW, we defend.....I am more interested in, that we do, and do it well.

There are so many facets to a successful team, but good defending is a significant one.

Away from home we have much room, for improvement....only 3 teams have conceded more goals, and we are sitting in 5th place overall.

Sure the tough away days at Liverpool and Newcastle haven't helped the picture and the sample is small...but we need to improve, because the offence can't keep bailing us out.

Our Home form is miserly, we have conceded 4 goals, thats great....so something is clearly out of Kilter.

The Highline is being rolled out as the " fly in the ointment" I am not convinced it is, and I am well aware of the benefits, but we must be aware of the downsides and factor them in too, to our organisational strategy.

2 goals a game ( away) conceded, must stop, for us to have any notion of challenging the top flight.....so many aspects of our game are to be praised, we need to address the flaws....I am sure they are.

[MaVilla]

i dont get the issue.

Emery has averaged 2 points per game in the PL since he took over, the high line is a critical part of his tactics most of the time.

asking Emery to not play how he wants to play, is doing exactly what we have accused many historic managers of doing, ie: their tactic, or tactics dont work perfectly at some point, and they throw the baby out with the bath water, and we then say that they failed to stick to their tactical values and it all fell to pieces, and the on pitch style became c*ap.

tbh, i quite like the way he has stuck to his guns, with a mantra of, adapt to my tactics or you wont be playing for Villa, its exactly what we needed, a manager with a strong tactical belief, who was willing to take the rough with the smooth to make sure he managed to implement it.

Also, it will make our recruitment easier, as Emery has a nailed down tactical base, and the recruitment team and Emery will buy with a view to implementing those tactics, in theory, as time goes on we "should" get better, as we buy better, more intelligent, more technical players who are entirely capable of playing Emery's system.

Asking Emery to not play how he wants to play, is like asking Pep to play long ball the Millwall/Wimbledon way, it just doesnt make sense, in fact, to some degree Emery has been accused historically of trying too hard to adapt his tactics to what the opposition bring, rather than impose his exact tactical ideas on the opposition team (like Pep does).

Its a personal thing ofc, but i for one am very happy that we have a manager who wants to instil a culture in terms of style of play, and has the philosophy that you will learn to play it or you wont be here, im all for it, personally i love the fact that i can understand what we are trying to do, and why, even if it doesnt always work 100%, either way, it has clearly worked a lot more than it hasnt, and he isnt even a full season in as manager.

You never know what will happen ofc, but i havent been happier with a manager in the last 20+ years, than i am with Emery, the man is the real deal, and i feel lucky to have him here tbh.

[TRO]

On 06/11/2023 at 17:27, OutByEaster? said:

I thought the high line worked very well against Forest - neither of their goals were a result of them breaking the offside trap and we kept them to very few chances otherwise.

Dumb pundits seem to often go off their emotion on a game and get very excited about chances that were created from offside positions - constantly telling us about danger and sooner or later and risks after we've calmly and successfully played someone offside again. I've noticed in games they'll sometimes talk about chances that the opposition had earlier in the game and conveniently forget that those chances were flagged as offside - we can sometimes look like we give teams half a dozen chances a game - they're almost all offside.

I also think we need to take into account the offensive side to the high line - it's designed so that we can overwhelm teams with our centrebacks playing in positions where they're almost midfielders - it allows Torres and Konsa to play passes directly into strikers and to begin attacks and it allows the full backs to get forward to let Mcginn and co. come inside.

Dublin is wrong - we're not in trouble more often than not, we're safe as houses more often than not.

At Home we are, away, not so much...There is a case for constructive analysis away from home.

[TRO]

9 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

i dont get the issue.

Emery has averaged 2 points per game in the PL since he took over, the high line is a critical part of his tactics most of the time.

asking Emery to not play how he wants to play, is doing exactly what we have accused many historic managers of doing, ie: their tactic, or tactics dont work perfectly at some point, and they throw the baby out with the bath water, and we then say that they failed to stick to their tactical values and it all fell to pieces, and the on pitch style became c*ap.

tbh, i quite like the way he has stuck to his guns, with a mantra of, adapt to my tactics or you wont be playing for Villa, its exactly what we needed, a manager with a strong tactical belief, who was willing to take the rough with the smooth to make sure he managed to implement it.

Also, it will make our recruitment easier, as Emery has a nailed down tactical base, and the recruitment team and Emery will buy with a view to implementing those tactics, in theory, as time goes on we "should" get better, as we buy better, more intelligent, more technical players who are entirely capable of playing Emery's system.

Asking Emery to not play how he wants to play, is like asking Pep to play long ball the Millwall/Wimbledon way, it just doesnt make sense, in fact, to some degree Emery has been accused historically of trying too hard to adapt his tactics to what the opposition bring, rather than impose his exact tactical ideas on the opposition team (like Pep does).

Its a personal thing ofc, but i for one am very happy that we have a manager who wants to instil a culture in terms of style of play, and has the philosophy that you will learn to play it or you wont be here, im all for it, personally i love the fact that i can understand what we are trying to do, and why, even if it doesnt always work 100%, either way, it has clearly worked a lot more than it hasnt, and he isnt even a full season in as manager.

You never know what will happen ofc, but i havent been happier with a manager in the last 20+ years, than i am with Emery, the man is the real deal, and i feel lucky to have him here tbh.

I endorse all that, but I not going to defend the manager, because IMV there is no case to defend.

But to quote his record to date, is side stepping the issues in the game....of course his record to date is phenomenal, He has the best win% of all time,( 130 years) that is some claim and I haven't heard any discerning Villa fan suggest otherwise.

but, lets get real here...We have all watched that game, and we will have our own views on it, and there will be many, that have a sensible comment to make as to why we lost, in such good form....and yes, we can't win every game.

but if anyone is suggesting that UE will go to BMH and address the players with, anything but plans to improve on what we did.....they are delusional.....they won't be wallowing in praise, for all the good games we have had, they will be working on the errors, to improve.

UE hasn't come here to see us do that on Sunday.....He will be constructively working on the squad to ensure that elements in that game, have a limited chance of happening again.

If he can do that, with impunity.....so should we be able to.

Constructive criticism/ observation is healthy for progress.....we don't have to keep paying homage to his undoubted talent we all love him, and he knows it.

He said he didn't want a Birthday Present, he just wanted a win.....I can empathise with that, I didn't care about last weeks game, I only cared about this one, and future ones.

We all know we are doing great overall....but we should be able to have a grown up conversation of why we didn't win, without inferring, we are ungrateful for what he has delivered so far.....which has been outrageously good.

Our Home record is Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.....I would not believe a soul, if they said, he is not working on the away form....UE does not rest on his Laurels.