Dean Smith commented that he wasn’t concerned over our failure to convert 27 shots into a single goal on Thursday night and said ‘My concern is when you’re not getting chances’
I beg to differ – for a one off game OK – but the failure to hit a barn door over a number of games now has resulted in the loss of at least five if not more points.
The telling stat is that only 25% of our shots were on target whereas 67% of Burnley’s required a save from Martinez – in real numbers 7 to 4 on target. West Ham beat us because they converted the only two chances they had in the whole game!
A number of those misses came from so called big chances. El Ghazi (8 shots) seems to have inherited Trezeguet’s wild shooting of late, although he was unlucky with the free kick, brilliantly saved by Pope and Hause hit the post when perhaps he should have scored.
It’s the ability to clinically finish that matters not the number of pot shots taken, so did Smith miss a trick when he brought on Davis for Traore?
As has been pointed out, many of our big chances came down our left side where El Ghazi and Grealish linked well yet Smith chose to play Davis wide right. Watkins has played left side for Brentford on many occasions so why not take off El Ghazi move Watkins to the left and play Davis down the middle – and do it earlier?
Positives were the overall performance missing three players that would normally start in defensive positions. Elmo rarely lets us down and Hause was commanding in the air.
So onto the Baggies tomorrow night and the reappearance of ‘Big Sam’ – desperation or a smart move? He’s never yet relegated a team from the top division but this might just be his biggest challenge. Albion will be missing Periera who is suspended and they have a number of injuries, particularly up front but come away from a draw at Citeh and have an 8 game unbeaten home run against the Villa.
Cash and Luis will be back strengthening the side and there’s a chance that Barkley will be fit as well. Hopefully, Konsa will have recovered but if not Hause has demonstrated he’s a worthy replacement. I would like to see Davis start up front with Watkins playing on the left hand side with Grealish continuing in the number ten role but I can’t see Smith being so adventurous.
Albion, like Burnley, do not offer a big threat up front and so expect Allardyce to have them organised defensively and seek to nick a goal on the break.
I should go for a Villa win here (and really we should win) but its a local derby and with the potential of ‘new manager bounce’ I’m going for a draw.
Can we spoil ‘Big Sam’s’ party – I certainly hope so but, apart from that win in the Championship play offs we don’t have a great recent record against them.
New manager syndrome is always a concern. It really will be about who wants it the most. If we match Albion for work rate then we have the better players to shine.
I’m still having problems posting Hitch on my iPhone. Weirdly though I’m okay on iPad! I’m sure it’s something to do with latest iPhone update because it’s happened since then when I have to enter my details every time and keep getting posts put into moderation. Technology eh!
Correction, my iPad post didn’t need me to enter email and name but it’s still awaiting moderation.
Badger, I believe we are a work in progress. If you look at the top sides they have 3 good attacking players. We have Grealish in his pomp and Watkins who will become a very good player. Thereafter, the right side is weak. We will be inconsistent but win more than we loose. Roll on 2 years with our current rate of progress then we will be a very good side and would put away many of the chances created against Burnley.
Looking forward to Cash, Luiz, Barclay and Konza returning. Plus Ramsey having mire playing time.
Agreed, Davis as a starter. He’s probably one of the strongest players in the team and can hold the ball up well. If he can get past the confidence barrier and pin some balls into the net, he’ll be a contender.
Last weekend was a joke. I’d say every player on the pitch was guilty of poor decision making at the last moment. El Ghazi, bless his soul, has got great skill but rather than blast it every time he should get his head up and look for other players to slip it into. Jack’s as culpable as the rest but at least he has a better strike rate. I hope that Dean can get them to use more intelligence when they have the advantage and rather than pull the trigger early think about the delicate pass into an open area. That’s the way we pull if off.
i agree with smith on creating chances and missing them, is better than not being making it into the scoring positions. if we played burnley again we would give them a hammering. it was unfortunate we missed our chances but burnley deserved their point for the shear determination they displayed last ditch defending all game. as for us yes we need to show more calmness in front of goal and sharpen up their shots. i noticed is they all seemed to go with power over finesse. grealish late chance i would have bet my house on him converting but he also went for power and he lent back just as he struck it.
moving on to baggies, i think they are similar to us in our first season back if you take greaish out of our squad. they played good football under bilic, trouble was last third, they lacked a good striker who would score or lead. but other than putting the ball into the net they are not bad. why they are struggling mostly is confident and belief. big sam will address the lack of belief straight away. he is a good motivational speaker. but what he will struggle with is they do not a decent striker to lead. they have nice players and not the players sam usually has or gets the best from. i can not see big sam saving them unless they spend big in the window.
todays game we will win, but we have to match their work rate, cause they will try to impress their new manager and as always the players who wasnt in the team might see a chance to impress and get a start. sam teams usually press high and play percentage football. but like i said baggies dont seem to have this in their makeup. so we might see them continue to play like under bilic which would be a good match. entertaining and lots of chances
i reckon if we get past their inevitable onslaught, new manager syndrome, without conceding we will run out 2 nil winners.
some of the reported 27 shots where not actual shots. one for sure happened when davis came on and found himself in the wide right area. he looked up and he defiantly was looking in the box at crossing the ball, he was on his weaker foot and made a bit of a balls up of the cross, ended up looking like a shot as it was gloser to goal than cross. for the uneducated commentators or statisticians they put this as shot. so 27 was more like 19 20 at worst or best
the thing is our players got themselves in great positions and they tried to score, should we berate them for trying or support them to do better. you decided. all strikers miss chances but the better ones convert more. el ghazi missed the most of the reported 600 attempts but he was over trying. he wanted so bad to take the chances and went with too much power on most. hit a great free kick with lots of skill and all the chances bar one was hit with power and one was a nice curler but not enough bend. el ghazi has not played many and was linking up brilliantly with grealish. just lacked composure and self belief of taking the chances.
had he scored a couple he would be bursting with confidence that is key skill fans do not see or appreciate. he scored the penalty and hit a great freekick but he needs to add goals from open play and he will be a good player
Nath, I wasn’t criticising El Ghazi per se but making quite reasonable and valid points.
As it happens, and I’ve said this before, I quite like him and think there’s a good player in there somewhere but he also lacks consistency and I question whether he is robust enough for the Prem.
I agree with you that without investment in January, Allardyce will be struggling to keep Albion up. In that regard I think Bilic was treated very poorly – didn’t they even sell one of their best defenders without telling him?
i mentioned it cause mostly posts not on here. i would be worried more if we were not creating hitch. but we are and some days will be better than other days ion converting. we beat pool scoring 7 and that could have been double figures, but nobody is complaining about those missed chances, el ghazi like other forwards are reliant on confidence they live for goals and if they miss them or don’t get chances their fragile confidence is affected. watkins is not getting the clear chances and his confidence getting knocked, he had a great chance to square a ball against burnley but he opted to shoot from a acute angle cause he isnt getting chances. i am loving watchin us this season. i see many things that is pleasing and only a few gripes.
do you think sam will change things at wba straight away or slowly? i think bilic was treated unfairly too. wba are doing exactly what i thought they would. they just are too lightweight up top. but they can play nice football and they struggle once they fall behind caiuse they know they do not score and games lost, i will be interested to see if sam changes things straight away. will be easier game if he tampers
More Pullis that Bilic Nath?
Think he will concentrate on not getting beat rather than playing attractive football – something Smith realised during the lockdown. In fact, the only good thing to come out of Covid is that it probably stopped us being relegated 🙂
hmm wba played half decent footy if sam tries to implement his game. make um harder for us to play through. he will take their freedom to play, i can see us beating them easier.
pulis ? bilic was manager wasnt he. big sam will struggle trying to convince his players to play his way. they are footballers sam is like pulis anti football lmao. still interesting to watch this game to see us beat them and see how sam plays the game. if i were him i would not touch the tactics and watch them first hand, but like you i think he wont be able to stop himself tampering
i confess to have some stress on the horizon, we are due to play pool again and they are angry with that last game. they are dishing out 7 nil against palace. i reckon they are out for revenge and we better be on our game.
the season sofar has been very good and this will help our recruitment if we have money to spend. we will get a decent player and improve the squad further. exciting times merry christmas villa fans
Nath – I was referring to the style of play Allardyce favours – ‘more Pulis than Bilic’.
Football has moved on quite a bit and I wonder whether Allardyce is the right man to bring in? We’ll find out.
See Watford have sacked another manager – feel for the fans and realise how lucky we now are after a years of desperation ourselves.
yeah i saw watford changed their manager again. i would be more surprised if they kept faith with one manager longer than half a season. its such a crazy way to go about it. changing managers so often means you will never grow into anything. we know all about this as we go into a trend of swapping managers if not anything close to watford style.
pulis and sam both old school managers and both good managers but you have to question baggies, if they hire sam and do not splash the cash or at least get his type of players in next window. why bother sacking bilic cause they are bound to be relegated with sam and probably gone if bilic stayed.
but if bilic stayed you would fancied them to return back to premiership straight away. under sam they are gonna go backwards. plus they will probably waste money going backwards
Yep, a gamble or ‘a throw of the dyce’ 🙂
if they spend money this jan at wba, why wouldnt they give bilic the money to save um. or give him money at the start of season. giving him some tools to aid survival.
big sam will need a few of his styled types. like at bolton he recruited the older pros he knew well. wba lacked know how and a good striker. i doubt big sam would be able to transform them. but i doubt he would join them without reassurance of transfer kity
My worries are the tackles, WBA are known in the past to use the boot in derbies and Villa have had some players out of the game over the years. Football wise Villa should win this and put us in a very good position for over Christmas and new year games. So bring it on the booze is in and I’m ready.
refereeing is really poor and getting worse season by season. mee foul on grealish is one good example, he brought down a flying grealish with a reckless challenge. one that had no attempt to win the ball with sole intention to stopping grealish. referee gave the foul stop clapping him, he failed to show him a yellow or red. but another foul same game on nakamba went to var to see if it warranted a upgrade to red from yellow. that challenge was a genuine attempt to tackle and was just late. yet the referee instantly gave a yellow and var agreed. please explain why ben mee wasnt given a card on grelaish also he fouled constantly all game no card.
var needs to be scrapped it hasnt been successful at all. it was supposed to stop blatant mistakes yet every game has mistake that var fail to correct or over look the errors. var are just interfering with slightly offside by mm and hand balls which are hand ball one week and not next week. might as well get fooked over by a referee like the good old days. rant over
i got my beer stashed too bill and i got my red wine all ready for me christmas has been cancelled. cheers bill
I share Bill’s concern. We have played over half the teams in the league and Jack has been kicked by them all, but not badly enough to limp off or be carried off. Baggies are the team whom I fear most to be the first.
We should not forget Nick Pope, in that 0-0 whose display makes him the clear England #1 in my eyes. Like all good goalies he anticipates, and he knows what a striker’s limitations are. Not that anticipating Jack is that difficult: let me give you an example. Jack has the ball on the left just entering the penalty area, he cuts inside onto his right foot with a defender matching strides or half a pace behind. Jack shoots – Where will the ball go?
You probably have it in your mind’s eye already, towards the top right corner or wide of the right post (goalies left). So Pope had moved to his left every time in the sure knowledge Jack could not put it low to his right. To put the ball low to the keeper’s right Jack would need to shoot through the covering defender’s legs. He hasn’t yet tried that.
This is where Watkins lacks anticipation. Seeing Jack cutting inside – the keeper will cover the left side of his goal. Watkins should be running from the right in the opposite direction to Jack but further out. Jack can see him lay off or backheel the ball and Watkins has a big target to the keeper’s right. That is one area where we miss Barkley – he does make that run.
Your welcome Nath, hey been watching Bright and Sheffield utd, sorry lads not Villa but I have a Questionable problem and its bugging me , Lumstrum was sent off to me was a perfect tackle ref gave yellow card but our friend Oliver on VAR again asked the ref to look at the video. Now why do they do that as it’s as if they are talking to each other to change the first decision. He got the ball with determination but was deamed to be going through, how the bloody he’ll can you not stop yourself. It’s not right to me.
i am villa fan and then a football supporter. i am gonna watch the manure leeds game. i predict it will be very entertaining. hating both is my religion,i dont care who wins, but leeds style will be fun to watch manure get ripped to pieces. these two supporters hated each other through the 90’s or was it the 00’s mostly down to cantana leaving leeds to join sir time cheater fregie
i predict a 4 2 / 6 2 to leeds my only regret is it wont be villa who hammer this shit manure first. i thought manure have improved lately but only marginal against leeds we will see if they can run the extra mile. i doubt that their superstars are fully 100% committed
4-0 Manure after 39 mins – Leeds being blown away Nath.
Hope Villa blow away Albion. If we keep making the number of chances of late someone is going to get a hammering! Maybe tonight – one can dream.
yeah i didnt see that happening not by a long shot. but will manure keep this up. you know leeds will keep this up and leeds missed their chances and manure didnt
Ah – now where have I recently heard that! 🙂
chances faced . man utd defence played well commentary said gary nevielle said they faced 36 shots. thats more than we created and missed allegedly. been entertaining starter for the real game
No Barkley or Konsa!
was a entertaining appetiser for the main game villa wba. what can you say about leeds manure. defending was absent, players on both teams looked fooked at the end. leeds are gonna suffer burnout soon. i didnt see them beat newcastle but i watch them lose two before that and they were fooked at h/t
move over utds bring on villa game
oh 40 chances they said in that utds game.
Konsa and Barkley not fit; Luis and Cash come in and Hause continues in defence.
Martinez, Cash, Mings, Hause, Targett, Luis, McGinn, Grealish, Traore, El Ghazi, Watkins
What we’re you all saying about El Ghazi??? 😁
Liver more screaming at Grealish for diving… What everyone has seen as a terrible tackle. Typical.
Liver more sent off. Sorry Big Sam.
Stamp – red card
How good are we against 10 men?