Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours/Champions League Thread 2024/25

remoteboy

Patser wrote: »

Well we won the 2nd half



So to counter all the negative reactions at ht. We lost to 2 great free kicks and a world class finish, meanwhile poor Trez could have a hattrick with some luck, Mings a 2nd, Grealish also close. So the team did show some heart and step up in the 2nd half

Yeah. Much happier with the second half. Good to see us pick ourselves up and show a bit of fight. I felt last year we were really unlucky at times with deflections and decisions. Seemed to flip 180 degrees at the start of the season. Hopefully we can find a bit of balance now. We know if we don’t give 100% we’ll be on the end of a hiding but if we do we have the players to make a difference. Deano needs to be a bit more flexible tactically too.

Corholio

If got that 2nd a good bit earlier, who knows.

But it just shows more that the team needs to be less fragile defensively in midfield, because there's goals in the team going the other way. Barkley and McGinn not up to scratch today defensively. Still no idea why McGinn was nearest to Vestergaard for the first one. The first goal in Villa games really seems to make a bigger difference than it should and that needs to be fixed.

Arsenal up next.

Brian201888

That was a completely different animal to the Leeds loss, we didn't actually let Southampton create much today. Can consider ourselves unlukcy I think

TheDenialTwist

sc86 wrote: »

Everytime grealish gets in box to shot he does exact same thing

He must have heard you

JPA

Brian201888 wrote: »

That was a completely different animal to the Leeds loss, we didn't actually let Southampton create much today. Can consider ourselves unlukcy I think

Unlucky to concede 4? C'mon now.

circadian

Comeback is a good thing to see, the need to recover from such a deficit is not good. Not good at all. This squad should be doing much better.

CSF

Esse85 wrote: »

Surely Nakamba has to be played as a DM instead of McGinn next game.

Play both him and Luis as DMs

Trez should start again.

That’s what should have happened today. Once I saw the lineup it was so predictable. The positive is that this is not a crisis at all.

But today was totally on Smith and he needs to figure out how to make us more hard to beat against decent times or we will revert to what we were for most of last year.

TheDenialTwist

Patser wrote: »

Well we won the 2nd half



So to counter all the negative reactions at ht. We lost to 2 great free kicks and a world class finish, meanwhile poor Trez could have a hattrick with some luck, Mings a 2nd, Grealish also close. So the team did show some heart and step up in the 2nd half

We definitely won the second half. Honestly, at half time I didn't think we'd score 3 in the second half!!

If only we'd woken up sooner eh

Anyway, away to Gunners Sunday night...

TheDenialTwist

remoteboy wrote: »

Yeah. Much happier with the second half. Good to see us pick ourselves up and show a bit of fight. I felt last year we were really unlucky at times with deflections and decisions. Seemed to flip 180 degrees at the start of the season. Hopefully we can find a bit of balance now. We know if we don’t give 100% we’ll be on the end of a hiding but if we do we have the players to make a difference. Deano needs to be a bit more flexible tactically too.

Yes, tactically Smith seems to be reactive rather than proactive and creative.

AVFC.Stephen

Soton sat back in the second half... if they were a german side they woulda kept on pressing. Watching mings getting a cross in I think was from grealish or Watkins baffles me... what formation are we playing? Where are these players meant to be? 4-3 imo isnt a fair result. Soton shoulda banged in more. Last season I felt like I did a work out each match we lost. This was similar

Corholio

McGinn and Luiz instructed to sit and Barkley at 10 was tweak at half time according to Smith. I always feel McGinn is better when he's in amongst it and having the ball to drive rather than being further up to receive and wait for it, so I think deeper should hopefully suit him.

JPA

Corholio wrote: »

McGinn and Luiz instructed to sit and Barkley at 10 was tweak at half time according to Smith. I always feel McGinn is better when he's in amongst it and having the ball to drive rather than being further up to receive and wait for it, so I think deeper should hopefully suit him.

Why TF weren't we doing that from the start?

AVFC.Stephen

JPA wrote: »

Why TF weren't we doing that from the start?

Because that would make sense

JPA

AVFC.Stephen wrote: »

Because that would make sense

What was our starting formation? 4231, 433 or 4141?

Going by Smith's comments it would suggest we started with a 4141.
The best teams in the league will always play 2 in the middle no matter the opponent.

Corholio

JPA wrote: »

Why TF weren't we doing that from the start?

Absolutely.

TheDenialTwist

AVFC.Stephen wrote: »

Soton sat back in the second half... if they were a german side they woulda kept on pressing. Watching mings getting a cross in I think was from grealish or Watkins baffles me... what formation are we playing? Where are these players meant to be? 4-3 imo isnt a fair result. Soton shoulda banged in more. Last season I felt like I did a work out each match we lost. This was similar

Today was difficult to watch. However, for me, personally, today didn't hurt as much as our defeat to Leeds, whereby we were totally outclassed and outplayed.

Today we got 3 goals, that is something, at least... Better than it being a 4-0 defeat to the Saints. They also beat the Toffees 2-0 last week. And now the Magpies have defeated the Toffees today.

Villa and Everton both went off to a great start, now defeated in last two matches.

However, it's early doors yet UTV

Bounty Hunter

Corholio wrote: »

McGinn and Luiz instructed to sit and Barkley at 10 was tweak at half time according to Smith. I always feel McGinn is better when he's in amongst it and having the ball to drive rather than being further up to receive and wait for it, so I think deeper should hopefully suit him.

If they are going to persist with this starting line-up, which is arguably our most talented 11, then this really has to be the role McGinn has the whole time. He can be great breaking forward but the side is far more balanced with 2 lads sitting deep which in turn then allows the likes of Barkley and Grealish far more freedom going forward.

TheDenialTwist

Our starting lineups against Leicester, Liverpool and Leeds were 4-3-3

Today our starting lineup was 4-2-3-1

AVFC.Stephen

JPA wrote: »

What was our starting formation? 4231, 433 or 4141?

Going by Smith's comments it would suggest we started with a 4141.
The best teams in the league will always play 2 in the middle no matter the opponent.

Well if mings was up front at one stage it was 3-3-4

Esse85

While Smith plays the best 11 players, his challenge is finding the best team, which doesn't always consist of the 11 best individual players. The best managers have a system and they find the best players to play in that system.

It shouldn't be too difficult for Smith as it's not as if there's a huge amount of players to choose from.

If that means dropping McGinn or Barkley then so be it.

The defence are not getting the cover they need and we're being over run in midfield, therefore I'd like to see Nakamba come in and play across from Luis. Have the 2 of them protect the back 4 and play it simple to our attackers when they get the ball.

Next game is the time to do it as I'd expect Arsenal to dominate possession.

Patser

The Arsenal game could suit Smiths set up more, we are very good at countering and need the speed of Barkley and McGinn to get forward more than Nakamba just holding

CSF

Patser wrote: »

The Arsenal game could suit Smiths set up more, we are very good at countering and need the speed of Barkley and McGinn to get forward more than Nakamba just holding

McGinn hasn’t even been good. No justification to unbalance the team with him in it.

Esse85

Pepe Reinas Lazio team won 4-3 today, he started.
I wasn't sure where he'd ended up.

CSF

The Arsenal game is on Premier Sport now on Sunday

JPA

CSF wrote: »

The Arsenal game is on Premier Sport now on Sunday

Is that an Irish only channel?

CSF

JPA wrote: »

Is that an Irish only channel?

Yeah game only available over here

Esse85

I'd expect Trez to start and that to be the only change.
My preference would be to tighten up in the middle of the pitch and start Nakamba ahead of Barkley to make us more compact and less open.

I don't see Smith agreeing with me.

He have played better against the better sides such as Leicester and Liverpool.

Focus just has to be about getting to half time without conceding.

CSF

Esse85 wrote: »

I'd expect Trez to start and that to be the only change.
My preference would be to tighten up in the middle of the pitch and start Nakamba ahead of Barkley to make us more compact and less open.

I don't see Smith agreeing with me.

He have played better against the better sides such as Leicester and Liverpool.

Focus just has to be about getting to half time without conceding.

I think if he keeps the same CM trio as last week we will lose and the criticism of Smith will ramp up a bit.

He has to go back to what he was good at with this team.

LeBash

Esse85 wrote: »

I'd expect Trez to start and that to be the only change.
My preference would be to tighten up in the middle of the pitch and start Nakamba ahead of Barkley to make us more compact and less open.

I don't see Smith agreeing with me.

He have played better against the better sides such as Leicester and Liverpool.

Focus just has to be about getting to half time without conceding.

That system has worked against teams willing to attack. Might work today. Didnt see the Southampton game but they scored from 3 set pieces. Its not like they made all the goals from open play.

JPA

CSF wrote: »

I think if he keeps the same CM trio as last week we will lose and the criticism of Smith will ramp up a bit.

He has to go back to what he was good at with this team.

He can pick the same 3 but they have to have very defined roles.
If he doesn't there's a problem, if they are not capable, that's a problem.

CSF

JPA wrote: »

He can pick the same 3 but they have to have very defined roles.
If he doesn't there's a problem, if they are not capable, that's a problem.

McGinn isn’t suited to sitting. We’d be playing him there because he’s better than Nakamba when he plays a completely different role.

All of this ignores that McGinn still hasn’t been anywhere near as good yet as he was before his injury.

matrim

Trez starts but otherwise same team. Hopefully we are setup better this week

CSF

Yeah, I don't love the lineup again at all. Trez being back is good but I really hope my feeling about this one is wrong.

Brian201888

This isn't a particularly strong arsenal team, I kind of fancy us to win comfortably

TheDenialTwist

Yep, lineup confirmed...

Wait and see how this goes

I'm very anxious

pavb2

After the losses to Leeds and Southampton and the nature of those performances I’d take a point tonight

JPA

Brian201888 wrote: »

This isn't a particularly strong arsenal team, I kind of fancy us to win comfortably

They are a strong defensively now and not scoring much, so we need to keep it tight.

TheDenialTwist

pavb2 wrote: »

After the losses to Leeds and Southampton and the nature of those performances I’d take a point tonight

Last two losses were tough, particularly last match.

We need to up the ante

AVFC.Stephen

3 at the back for arsenal ?

JPA

AVFC.Stephen wrote: »

3 at the back for arsenal ?

Yes, that is how they always play.

AVFC.Stephen

JPA wrote: »

Yes, that is how they always play.

Surely this will play in our favour considering grealish free roaming ?

JPA

AVFC.Stephen wrote: »

Surely this will play in our favour considering grealish free roaming ?

You'll still have Bellerin expected to mark him. And centre backs and midfielders to potentially double mark him. We'll see what happens.

TheDenialTwist

Here we go

Enjoy.... (I hope)

Everything crossed here, (still in my sick bed, unfortunately).

UTV
COYVB

Patser

Engels not on bench....no real CB there, so Elmo in if there's an injury. Also Guilbert missing again....


Bench is weak, only Conor has started a Prem league game this season there i think

Patser

THAT'LL DO FOR A START

TheDenialTwist

Woo-hoo

AVFC.Stephen

JPA wrote: »

You'll still have Bellerin expected to mark him. And centre backs and midfielders to potentially double mark him. We'll see what happens.

1-0 grealish assist lol

Patser

VAR check.... shag off

TheDenialTwist

Offside

VAR is a joke, especially in this decision

AVFC.Stephen

Ouch I spoke too soon