That was a massively disappointing performance which leaves me wondering how we can come back now?
I can handle defeat if we’ve played ok or have been unlucky, but I struggle when we’ve played poorly and make no mistake about it, we did today. I’ll bet Dean Smith is fuming and rightly so.
I’m not sure if we got it tactically wrong or not, as there were so many poor performances that it was hard to tell.
When you have so many poor passes, it’s hard to tell what the team’s trying to do, but it often seemed that the idea was for Mings to hoof it long to Jack Grealish, possibly because the players didn’t trust our (lack of) midfield.
There was a stat that flashed up and it said our passing was actually more accurate than Bounemouth’s. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw it and it certainly didn’t seem like it.
And then there’s the fact that we lack creativity if you leave Grealish out of it.
He was head and shoulders our best player today, but even he can’t be relied on to carry a team through a whole game, although he did his best too.
The lack of movement was incredibly poor too, but what annoys me the most is that Bournemouth just looked much more up for it and did the basics right in pressuring us and working massively hard.
The good thing is that Samatta got his first goal, which was the first headed goal we’ve scored this season. I’m sure that tells me something, but I don’t know exactly what that is.
The goal apart, it was just depressing to see a team play so dysfunctionally and basically watch Grealish having to keep driving us forward. Where we’d be without him, I shudder to think and we’re in deep trouble as it is.
I’m off to drown my sorrows, as having to keep thinking about how poor we were is putting me on a proper downer.
We have an international break now and then it’s at home to Spurs on the 16th. Oh dear.
We’d better start getting some practice in, as it doesn’t seem like they’re doing much at Bodymoor Heath, does it?
If we continue to keep playing like that and let’s face it, we have been poor even during our recent victories, I currently see little chance of survival.
I really hope McGinn recovers quickly.
yesterday game was really poor, first off it was a game of two halves and both had major faults. first half we simply thought we just had to turn up. we never matched Bournemouth work rate. they pressed our three defenders that high. this had a major barring on us misplacing lots off passes. we just couldn’t live with the ball pressure that they applied.
second half i doubt the cherries would have been able to continue to press, having a man sent off just put a end to that tactic, quicker than them running out of steam. villa now found themselves with lots of ball and no pressure as they defended much deeper. but we just moved the ball too damn slow, to play against ten men you need patience, but that doesn’t mean move the ball slowly and safely, you have to switch the ball from one side to the other to catch out the defenders you shuffled across. Bournemouth expended loads of energy first half and really should have not been able to last playing the second half with a man less. they did manage too but only because villa just plodded along same tempo SLOWLY. they failed to make the pitch wide as possible. we just had no answers to first half press, Alamo second half deep no space.
lastly i don’t like ripping into players, but nakamba really should be able to kick the ball at goal without converting the attempt out the ground. players that can not shoot straight end up in goal, his body shape was all wrong for both attempts. the players all need to take a long hard look at themselves and ask the question. do they really belong at the top level. if you fail to prepare you best prepare to fail. only player in villa colours who can say they have enough ability and work rates was grealish i also remove the new striker from this criticism being it was his first full game.
I quite agree Nath, our defence is poor to say the least, I would have kept Chester and got rid of Hoause, Targett poor , Guilbert poor, that’s where we giving goals away , I feel sorry for Grealish working his socks off and getting nowhere, Bournemouth had a plan , go at Villa and they will give ground, and they did. Every team in the premiership know that but unfortunately we have players that cannot read a game, Yes its down to coaching and I’m thinking the same as you all Terry is not the answer to our prays, we do need a understudy that’s a proven person and not someone their to learn his trade.
Hard I know but its costing us greatly, I don’t like to slang players off but please take a look at how our backs perform not to mention wing backs. Poor players…
i think yesterday shambles was player faults i really do. they are not up to premiership standards. manager setup/tactic has to be applied on the field.i just do not see enough real premiership quality in our team excluding grealish. they had the game plan, but could not execute it because Bournemouth wouldn’t allow them first half. well that is the name of the game. one team is always going to try to stop the other. our players do not like to be pressed. they crumbled when city did it and yesterday they were like a punch drunk prize fighter stumbling around on unsteady feet.
the manager doesn’t tell our defenders to hit the ball long to the guy in row z. this was result of the Bournemouth press and villa players lack of movement and quality on the ball. players are given a blueprint of the managers tactics, they are responsible to carrying them out on the field. sometimes they have to deviate from this if the opposition are preventing them from do what was instructed. its game management our players lack, collectively too young and together are mostly premiership virgins. its ok when things are going your way but when the shit hits the fan, we have nobody who can lead our players out of the trouble they are in.
yesterdays game was massive and i believe it will be the one that sinks us. but on a positive note like bum said the other results went our way. so we live again but not beating our cherries will come back to haunt us i believe
Without wanting a barrage of abuse, does anyone else on here think Grealish holds onto the ball too long too many times? Whether it’s down to lack of trust in his teammates or he hasn’t got the awareness to see a quick pass before he receives the ball. For the opposition it gives them time to reorganise. The coaching philosophy seems to be pass to Jack and hope he comes up with the goods, that’s pretty much how I see our attacking style anyway. As mentioned already, our attack is too slow and ponderous. El Ghazi, Guilbert and Targett have pace but it’s rarely used.
not sure jack wants to be hogging the ball,but team needs outweigh his own . the reality is he does have a lot of the ball .one reason being is lack of quality around him in the team. if he was in a better team, he would not need to do quite as much as he is doing now in villa team. but saying that teams always lean on their better players and the best teams try to spread around the responsibilities.
guilbert only had to roll the ball past the full back to grealish who pointed the way. but guilbert over hit the pass by miles. this is what will frustrate Jack, that and the nakamba shots he lay on the plate for him.only for him to blast it high and wide and was poorly struck poor Technic. i guess this will be the reason jack will push for a move this summer even if we fluke it and stay in premiership
Nath, if Grealish is called upon for the next England squad and gets to play, it will be interesting to see how he plays with quality players around him. Also training with better players than he is used to will help him too. Downside when Villa players do get called up means they are off to top six side sooner rather than later.
yes it will be good for him to finally play for england. if we are honest he is long overdue his chance. southgate has ignored him long enough. almost forcing him to leave villa to get in the international scene
Totally agree Holte66, I hope and pray he gets a shot at the England games, Yes it will help him to see as to why we are sloppy team. It’s not him but the ones around him, again he holds onto the ball looking for players to find spaces, our players are slow upstairs to create moves for themselves.
That’s the way it looks to me Bill. Apart from Targett occasionally, none of the others are on the same wavelength as him, so he is holding onto possession in the hope one of them finds space.
A really poor performance yesterday and l agree with what’s been previously said regarding the players who quite simply the majority are not good enough for the Premier League. For me you have shoulder some of the blame regarding the club’s management. Does Smith and Terry have any input on who comes in l think not!! Therefore the main blame for me is with the top management. We were crying out for established Premier League players to be bought in during the January window and look what we ended up with. These additions aren’t going to improve the team’s performance during the rest of the season and l really think we could end up bottom of the League which is hard to accept given the amount of money the club has spent. It’s a pity we couldn’t take a leaf out of Sheffield’s book who spend wisely and have a great coaching set up and you can see the players all contribute and cover each other. This is what l expected Villa to achieve this season and for me Smith lacks leadership and tactical experience which is good enough for the team to succeed. I agree we are gulfs apart with the Liverpool/ Man City’s of this world however we also seem miles apart from most of the other teams to which as Smith has stated the results will define our season. You can see we rely too much on Jack who in my opinion is the best attacking midfield player in the league however even he can’t do it week in week out. I believe in part our current position in the League would be better if Mc Ginn was fit as this would provide a coherent midfield. Our defence also lacks consistency and only Mings provides leadership. All in all a poor display yesterday and we have to drastically improve to stay in the League!!
I was annoyed with the signing of Drinkwater when we needed a physical presence in our midfield. Nakamba battles hard but clearly passing and shooting aren’t in his repertoire. Luiz is decent in possession and is capable of a goal but is non existent when we are under the cosh. McGinn is a massive miss for us and our survival could depend on when he returns. Also defensively we are weak despite 3 CB’s. Hause is beginning to annoy me with his distribution with Targett and Guilbert offering little when pressed. I would have kept Chester and played him in the middle with Mings to his left and Konsa or Engels to his right. This would offer better balance and leadership.
We are hoping for 3 teams to be worse than us now and I don’t think there is.
Agree Holte66. Think it is too late to have Mc Ginn back match fit for the rest of the season. So yes like you worried there maybe not 3 teams worse than us and we know how hard it will be to get promotion back out of the Championship!!
Yes agree Holte66. Not sure Mc Ginn will be back match fit before the end of the season. Currently can’t see there being 3 teams worse than us unfortunately!! It will be a tragic situation if we go down as we know how hard it will be to get promoted. I wouldn’t be surprised if a deal is also not done regarding Jack Grealish with Man U if we are relegated!!
Can’t argue with any comments here.
I think the comparison with Sheffield United is chalk and cheese. Wilder has been building this team for years from back when they were in League 1. At the end of the day football is a team game and our team is a collection of individuals who have only played a handful of games together – and it shows. Add to that players with no experience of the EPL and it demonstrates the task ahead.
Grealish – now there is no doubt he’s a talent. I saw a recent discussion where his discipline was questioned. Not behavioural but positional. They pointed out that he plays all over the field and isn’t disciplined in playing whatever role he’s given. Is this because he doesn’t trust the other players in the team and if he played for England can he do a disciplined role – good questions imho.
So, given his extraordinary talent wouldn’t he serve the team better by sticking to his role rather than roaming all over the pitch. There was one moment yesterday when Villa were counter attacking and JG was in the left back position!
Now here’s my controversial point – maybe we should sell him for £80m and reinvest that in the team – as long as we keep McGinn and Mings.
I know he’s Villa through and through and I’d hate to see him go but, as I said earlier, it’s a team game!
Very good debates on this site maybe the villa management should read them and learn something.
The problem I think is Smith is given these players and told to make into a team while at the same time increase their value for resale bit like the Brentford system.
The difference is trying to do this while trying to compete in the toughest league in the world. Why when everyone could see they needed premier League experience did they keep looking at untried players.also having a training coach in charge of defense not helping. Look at Brentford defence.
I read that debate too Hitch and I think the reply was that he’s doing too much and it means he isn’t doing his job to the max, in his own particular area?
I commented that he was at RB at one stage midweek and this simply can’t be right. He’s not where he’s most effective and Smith should be telling him so, imo.
I suspect he doesn’t trust the players around him.
He even came back to get the ball off the goalie, which is great, but what’s he supposed to do then, run the length of the pitch with it?
He should be told to not retreat any further than the halfway line, imo.
It has to be down to Smith allowing him to roam all over the pitch.
As for selling him for £80 mill, no way!
The replacement with say, 2 players at £40 million would not improve the team, without Grealish.
But I think it’ll probably happen anyway.
Grealish is worlds apart from any other player in the team, except maybe McGinn.
And he won’t be able to tolerate the crap he sees every game around him for very long. It must be soul-destroying.
Hence I think he’ll want out and who could blame him?
Which is a very worrying thought, as my god, we’re miles away from being a consistently good team and still need to bring loads of quality replacements in to really improve us.
The other point alluded to on several posts is that the team is continually looking to play through Grealish (almost obsessively so) which tends to (a) make us one dimensional and (b) to play the more difficult pass – both make us easy to defend against.
Now getting McGinn back may resolve some of these issues but ‘till then we’re really going to struggle.
My comments are, in no way, meant as a criticism of JG. If anything, your point is the telling one – what is the coaching staff doing about it?
Oh yes – and the fact that our defence has more holes than a colander.
That I agree with Hitch, so who supposed to be in charge of that? TERRY, untried coach looking for a managerial job, so far he’s failed. Back room needs to be looked at and quick.
And then Spurs beat City 2-0.
It’s definitely a funny old game.
And as I said previously, it isn’t over yet. I’d expect us to get a couple of unexpected results too.
Wishful thinking Badger, I don’t see us competing with teams that know how we play, I fear the worst. We need a revamping in our coaching imo.
It hasn’t taken you long to forget Leicester mid-week has it?
I don’t think many expected that, but we beat them.
I know what you mean though, law of averages etc.
Think you forgot how lucky we was Badger, the game was won only because their star man couldn’t hit a barn door. What’s the odds that we don’t win the cup. ?
Our problem is we just don’t do unexpected results. Every other team in the league has turned over one of the traditional top 6 yet we’ve bottled it on so many occasions. The reality is at least 2 of Spurs / Chelsea / Man Utd / Arsenal will need turning over at Villa Park, possibly more given our woeful away form. Can anyone see us doing that – even when we play well we we gift the opposition goals.
Saturday was ‘must win’; If we had won, we’d be closer to top 10 than drop zone – Only 3 points off top 10 to be exact. Top 2-3 aside, the PL seems to be getting more like the Championship! We’ve got to stay in it, make the necessary changes and additions to staff in the summer, and we can compete! The 4th spot in the CL places is wide open. United, Arsenal, and Spurs, all top 4 mainstays, are nowhere. We have to stay up and try to capitalise!
I’m in ‘dreamer’ mood. How about putting 30 mil down for Phil Foden in the summer? A midfield trio of McGinn, Foden, and Luiz (with a full PL season under his belt) would have all the ingredients of a title winning ‘engine room’: 3 ‘turbo’ engines, all capable of goals and shots from range, all capable of putting their foot in – just like the old-fashioned, ‘proper’ box-to-box midfielder.
Add a 50 mil striker who will guarantee 20+ league goals, and a CB who’s even better than Mings to play alongside him, and Robert is your mother’s brother…
I think Smith needs to seriously re-evaluate his obsession with wingers. Liverpool play with 3 ‘proper’ midfielders, as described in my last post. Look how they steamroller anything in front of them. Although, I wouldn’t dare playing 4,3,3 just yet. I’d go:
GK
3CBs (at least one upgrade in there)
2 wing-backs
3 ‘proper’ mids (one upgrade)
Jack (in the ‘hole’)
One world-class striker (upgrade)
In other words, reinforce the spine of the team (CB, CM, and CF) to top quality and we can complete!
P.s. Palace are in free-fall and can’t score for (insert proverbial). Woy’s going to need every minute of his vast experience. Could they keep falling all the way to the Championship and save our asses?
Mike Dean – what an absolute muppet.