Villa post match

[Sly]

The front three were static and largely anonymous. 

 

You can’t blame the midfield for lack of creativity, when they’ve nothing to aim at. 
 

Nacho isn’t a loan striker. Perez adds little to nothing in these games. 
 

Last night we needed a striker to run the channels, allowing space for the midfield or an additional striker to get in. Alternately, the three forward players need to be closer together, so they can actually interlink. At times Barnes looks like he’s going it alone. Perez and Nacho added more when dropping deeper. 
 

We’ve looked poor when Vardy hasn’t been on it in these games. I think without Vardy, we need to change the system to 2 up top.

[WigstonWanderer]

Disappointing, tired performance, everyone off par other than the new lad Fofana who looks very promising and has a tremendous leap, and Castagne.

 

Can’t really blame the injuries other than Ricardo & Vardy maybe, but not enough desire to win for me. Not suggesting that Mendy is better than Ndidi, but on his day (this wasn’t it) he’s probably a slightly more attacking option.

 

Thought BR might have tried Albrighton with Slimani.

 

Villa deserved the win. At least we did better than the scousers.

Edited 19 October 2020 by WigstonWanderer

[WigstonWanderer]

7 hours ago, purpleronnie said:

so much so I put .25p at 13/1 on a villa win.

Really pushing the boat out there 

[WigstonWanderer]

How many different ways are there to spell Fofana. I think I’ve seen:

 

Fofona

Forfana

Fafona

Fofarna

 

and probably a few others.

[Ceirboy]

8 hours ago, StanSP said:

But we were flying after the first 3 games. Lots of momentum from day one against West Brom. What would there have been to 'see' at that point after the Man City game? It clearly wasn't 'luck' as you said to win 3 games convincingly like we did. That's not the definition of 'luck'. 

 

The last 2 have been horrible don't get me wrong, but I bet you were dead quiet after the first 3 games?

I’m always astonished to read these type of posts. The OP hasn’t burgled your house and kidnapped your family! 
No need for the defensive reply post, the OP has just put his thoughts down on a post about what he thinks about the games he has seen recently.
If you somehow think BR is some sort of wizard, then great stuff but no need to try and dismiss another’s view because of some freak result a few weeks back where the players had the balls to ignore Brendan and his stifling approach.

[Jazzy_Jeff]

If you were to take the 5 best players (in most peoples book) out of any other starting 11 they would struggle.

 

If you add that Praet wasn’t fit, Fofana making debut etc we really are struggling 

 

We had some decent moments but weren’t able to find a telling pass/cross. Didn’t think we deserved to lose but a lack of concentration at the death cost us.

 

Going to be a difficult period now with the players out. Hopefully Maddison and Under can come in to add some creativity and we won’t pick up any more injuries.

 

things will get better - keep the faith! 

[Tom's Pasta]

As soon as I see Perez's name on the team sheet now my heart just sinks. He's been at the club long enough now that he should be one of our most reliable assets but he's so obsolete on that right hand side. The only game I recall him having any significant impact was the 9-0 at Soton after they had a man sent off. The game was surely crying out for Under to add something to our attack. And if he isn't fit then why put him on the bench at all?? 

[Le Renard]

We miss Ndidi badly, but I don't think he would solve all the problems in the middle of the park.  We have some very good technical players, but I think the team lacks someone who can drive the game forward and run the with the ball into space or a nasty SOB who can kick ass.  I think a guy from Tifo football summed it up when he said something like  "Leicester have a soft centre and too many nice guys in the middle, Ndid's great but still he's a nice guy and they are too easy to bully".

[Pliskin]

15 minutes ago, Le Renard said:

We miss Ndidi badly, but I don't think he would solve all the problems in the middle of the park.  We have some very good technical players, but I think the team lacks someone who can drive the game forward and run the with the ball into space or a nasty SOB who can kick ass.  I think a guy from Tifo football summed it up when he said something like  "Leicester have a soft centre and too many nice guys in the middle, Ndid's great but still he's a nice guy and they are too easy to bully".

I think Dennis has that ability when fully fit. But I agree we miss Wilf. He stops a hell of a lot coming through the middle. And they certainly don't get that last shot away. 

[StanSP]

1 hour ago, Ceirboy said:

I’m always astonished to read these type of posts. The OP hasn’t burgled your house and kidnapped your family! 
No need for the defensive reply post, the OP has just put his thoughts down on a post about what he thinks about the games he has seen recently.
If you somehow think BR is some sort of wizard, then great stuff but no need to try and dismiss another’s view because of some freak result a few weeks back where the players had the balls to ignore Brendan and his stifling approach.

Thanks for your input but it bears no relevance to the actual conversation. 

[Danny Clender]

10 hours ago, Crashtoasted said:

What’s the excuse this week? Someone needs to step up soon

I agree with this sentiment, the excuses are running out. 

That team was more than capable of beating Villa. 

[Danny Clender]

Continuing on from above.

 

What are the excuses?

Injuries? ridiculous schedule? Covid? no fans? not really sure I need to list anymore, that's enough to get a clear picture of how the game is currently insane. 

Yesterday's game though, just doesn't add up. 

If we're keeping a bit back for Thursday's game and playing the long game, then I'm happy for that. 

 

I'm fairly sure I convinced myself, last season, that we need to look at the whole season before we begin to make rash accusations about Rodgers and his management, but after last nights game, big questions are on his desk.  

 

I'm a bit embarrassed to say, but Rodger's and his perennial "No Plan B' argument, was there to be seen.

He totally went Plan B, i.e Slimani, yet he didn't use it correctly. 

Even in its purest form "Lob ball on big blokes head" is understood by any footballer.

[ozleicester]

Could be worse, could be, Spurs, Chelsea, Man united, Arsenal etc etc

[Haywood_6]

We allowed Barkley acres of space to have that shot at the end. Hamza should be marking him not standing 50 yards Infront of him. Really disappointing. But what's more worrying is the fact going forward we've look crap for the past two home games. 

[turkish14]

10 hours ago, turkish14 said:

To be fair I predicted relegation too, and even

after the first three games I wasn’t convinced. 

To quote myself...

 

many very good squads have been relegated over the years, that many thought were too good to go down. (Leeds, Newcastle) 

Also there have been many examples of teams that ended a season badly (look at us 00-01) then continued that form into the following season and found themselves in a relegation scrap.

 

we cannot score, nor do we look like scoring over the last three games. 
 

im not worried re: relegation as I now think we will be okay, based on the first three games.  but I don’t expect us to be anywhere near the top 6. Hope I’m wrong.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Realistically this season is a dud. Even before we'd been decimated by injuries a month in we were looking pretty thin on the ground. There's no way we're no mounting any kind of challenge for anything significant in the league. 

 

We just need to somehow drag ourselves out of our EL group and hope we can get some semblance of a first choice XI going into the knockouts. If that happens I'd be totally fine with basically throwing league games to make sure we are as strong as possible in Europe. There's no way we're back there again next season so we may as well give it a proper go.

[FoxFossil]

All looked knackered. Overtraining issue? Do wonder if Rennie disagreed with BR about this, and was sacked. Hope we hear DR side sometime. Anyone ITK on this?

[foxinsocks]

The problem was not that we conceded a goal... the problem was that we hadn't scored 2.

In the second half u couldn't see us scoring.  Slimani  failed his audition... he still has the same problems as before 

[Rigga]

Was always worried going into the new season after last seasons capitulation.

we haven’t strengthened as much as I would have liked especially in attacking areas.

would currently be happy with a mid table finish and a decent EL run.

With all the injuries and the last couple of poor performances the season only seems to be going one way. We couldn’t arrest that slide last season. Hope we can this.

[StanSP]

6 minutes ago, FoxFossil said:

All looked knackered. Overtraining issue? Do wonder if Rennie disagreed with BR about this, and was sacked. Hope we hear DR side sometime. Anyone ITK on this?

The thought crossed my mind too. West Ham we looked tired from the start. Yesterday not so much from the start but halfway through 2nd half it was looking like grass had turned to treacle for us. 

 

There's clearly more than meets the eye regarding Rennie but unless someone actually 100% knows, anything we discuss is just speculative. 

[Ceirboy]

1 hour ago, StanSP said:

Thanks for your input but it bears no relevance to the actual conversation. 

It did though didn’t it? 🙄

And thanks for your thanks, I can at least be thankful of that.

[norwichfox]

Hmmmm...injuries, not good enough, opponents get all the luck and so on...

[Cake]

Think people have short memories. Either that or most people are very young on here. 

 

We are midtable, we are competitive in every single match and regularly take on and beat some of the best sides in the land. 

 

Sure not quite on it yet  this year but Villa have some really good players, they are a big club with owners with deep pockets. This is consistently (over the last 6 years)  the best City have performed in the top flight. Ever!!!!

 

Stop moaning and enjoy. We are right at the top of the English football pyramid. 

 

Not that long ago we were content with midtable in the second tier. 

 

 

Edited 19 October 2020 by Cake

[jmono84]

Shows 

9 hours ago, Foxxed said:

A midfield of Youri, Mendy, Barnes, Perez, Praet and then later Maddison really should be better than that. Our midfield was largely turgid.

 

Little Wes looked great.

Shows how much we miss Ndidi! Players walk through when he ain’t in the team

[daddylonglegs]

Think this is a particularly annoying loss as we've had to deal with a pointless international break between the last dreadful performance and this one. 

 

I think people's standards have been massively hindered by how bad we were from late December last year through til the start of this season. 

Not creating a chance (please don't call Maddison hitting a freekick from 20 yards into the wall or Tielemans' deflected shot from 25 yards 'chances') in 3 hours of football against defences that finished 16th and 17th respectively in the Premier League last year is evidence of bad management. 

 

What are they working on in the week? Surely they're working on ways of winning the game - but I haven't seen any evidence of a game plan since Manchester City (which was excellent). 

We seem to dick about with the ball at the back, they'll let Evans & Mendy have it, and then as soon as we get the ball to anyone with an ounce of creativity, they'll either be dispossessed, or find Barnes or Perez and then subsequently be dispossessed (Perez) or misplace a pass (Barnes). 

 

If we play like we have in the last 3 hours for the next 4 league games we'll get no more than a point.