Cast your mind back a mere 12 weeks or so and Nyland is calling on the Gods of Norse Legend to sabotage the goal line technology as he tries to wrestle the ball around the goal post and into the net! Fortunately the gods of fortune smiled on us that day but not for Nyland. Rather than the draw at West Ham, it was probably that moment which saved our Premier League status.
Fast forward to today and its somewhat fitting that our opening fixture for the new season should be against Sheffield United.
Villa come into the game on the back of two successive wins at VP – a bit of a rarity in latter years – whilst United are on a run of four successive defeats although they haven’t lost to Villa in four games.
Chris Wilder is a good manager and, as always, his side will be well organised and difficult to break down. They attack and defend in numbers but, like last season, may well be short of goals.
With new signing Ollie Watkins leading the line, Smith will be hoping to see a sharper attack than in that game 12 weeks ago. There were signs against Burton that Grealish and Watkins are already starting to form a good understanding.
I expect to see Cash handed his full debut along with Martinez even though, by all accounts, Steer played well in the game against Manure and Smith is on record as saying that players have to earn the shirt.
The acquisition of Cash does raise a question mark over Guibert’s immediate future given that Elmo is also on the books.
The rest of the back four really pick themselves – Konsa and Mings in the centre with Targett at left back
I would also start with Hourihane – I know he’s a bit of a ‘marmite’ character and can go ‘missing’ in games but he creates chances, scores goals and, arguably, has the best dead ball delivery of anyone at the club.
McGinn who our head coach described last week as being ‘like a ‘new signing’ given his improved form and fitness over the summer and the brilliant Luis who, this week, earned another international call up will complete the midfield .
Up front looks nailed on to be Trezuguet on the right, Grealish on the left and Watkins through the middle.
Last season we lacked a clinical finisher to convert the chances created. I can see lots of chances being created by us and with Watkins speed and movement in the box and natural goal scoring ability we should score plenty this term.
And that brings me to Traore.
A right winger with Champions League experience with Ajax and Lyon but with a reported tendency for his form to fade after a good first season with a new club. It’s also said that he can play any position across the front three which, if so, gives Smith some real options. If Smith can get the best out of him on a consistent basis then at £17m it’s a good piece of business. Tonight is likely to be too early for him; maybe against Bristol City?
Big hopes for the season ahead; now we need to kick off with a win.
Comments
100 responses to “Sheffield United, a Ghost Goal and the New Traore”
Not going to be able to watch tonight’s game.
I have a feeling it will be a draw but going to be brave and say 2-1 Villa.
Hope I haven’t now jinxed it!
3-0 Villa.
I think your lineup is spot on, although I’d expect Traore to be on the bech,ready for a few minutes if we’re in a good position.
And then fully expect him to huff and puff like any player who hasn’t played in a long time.
I’m really not sure about his signing at all.
Tough one to call and as you say, a draw sound favourite, which I could live with.
I’m going to go 2-1 too though.
Just as long as we don’t lose, I’ll be ok.
Have you all forgotten we have a cup game 48 hour after tonights game, let’s go with our usual side and New boy’s can bench for this one, Watkins to start him we need, The squad Luis along with Hourhane, why? They are unsafe to stay in the club and have something to prove, this will be interesting game and I’m looking forwards to it.
EAM NEWS!
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett, Hourihane Douglas Luiz, McGinn, Trezeguet, Watkins, Grealish.
Subs: Taylor, Steer, Nakamba, El Ghazi, Elmohamady, Hause, Davis.
TEAM NEWS!
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett, Hourihane Douglas Luiz, McGinn, Trezeguet, Watkins, Grealish.
Subs: Taylor, Steer, Nakamba, El Ghazi, Elmohamady, Hause, Davis.
Well Martinez well worth the money , Hey Nath .. brilliant save.
you’re hired bill as new scout, top save. he has commanded his area well. i do not think that was a penalty myself, it was clumsy coming together very soft. we need to move the ball quicker but good signs i am contented with our first half. just quicken tempo things will open up
Targett is a liability
Martinez is the saviour
I’ve had to miss parts, but that was utter crap from what I did see.
Dull first half, apart from the red card and penalty. Villa – with no opportunity to counter-attack – do not seem as good at lock-picking 2 banks of four.
Still, they have learnt something and abandoned the bus-queue formation for the last two dead-ball deliveries in favour of a wide spread, which looked more dangerous.
Badger you should have worked overtime, its been frustratin to watch.
I’m bored.
And Mings is an utter donkey, I’m sorry.
And while I was writing that, I missed the bloody goal.
Sums up my weekend.
Last season we would have dropped points against 10 men
Very true, great result tonight.
Has Cash got a left foot……thought he could take people on…seems not…
Good result, but I thought we were too slow, could have gone forward more rather than the repetetive back- or sideways- passes.
As for McGinn – thought he was supposed to be back to his best? – Not on this showing.
JG was wasteful and slow in his decision making tonight. JCM was anonymous at best. Targett did ok but was a liability at times. Cash was impressive, as was Watkins at times too – he seems to have some attacking awareness we’ve missed for a while. Martinez was an absolute beast. Trez was awful and offered nothing. I don’t agree that Mings was a donkey – he makes occasional mistakes yes, but his commanding presence clearing up for the rest of the team buys him my forgiveness for those moments.
PORTUGAL 0 – CITEH 2….
Well done Villa. It looks like the new players have improved the quality of our team.
Watkins made a great start by having their player sent off. None of our forwards last year would have had the pace to put the opposition under that amount of pressure.
Martinez showed calmness at the back which spread to the defenders. And what a penalty save.
Cash put in a couple of
Good crosses and looks like he has a bit of pace.
I look forward to Traore being fit and adding pace which Trezeguet lacks.
I hope Smith talks to the team about better decision. With improved quality not every attack has to go through Grealish. Too often today he made the wrong choice.
I am so happy we have kept Luiz he is an absolute star. I loved some of his 60 yard pin point passes.
I am confident on a mid table (10th -14th) finish this season.
Badger, I would suggest Mings is better than average in the Premiership. I think in a couple of seasons Konsa will be out stand out defender. Since lock down lifted he has been immense.
Sid, if Mings is better than average, what a sorry state the game’s in.
He has the touch of a rapist, messes about far too much near our box and is a liability.
I personally think Konsa is head and shoulders better than him now.
Still, what do I know?
Everyone raves about Mings, but I could probably name a dozen Villa defenders off the top of my head where he wouldn’t have been fit to clean their boots.
Southgate would be one of them.
Think you’re being somewhat harsh.
Agree that Mings isn’t brilliant, and he does tend to ‘mess around’ too much trying to make ‘clever’ little passes in and around our box; although he does give 100% commitment to the cause.
But having “the touch of a rapist” is a bit extreme…
Opinions, Ardent.
I happily accept I’m in the minority 🙂
Agree on all fronts except Trez’s speed. I don’t know where we get the idea that he isn’t quick – he’s very quick. i think I read he was top 3 fastest in the EPL. The trouble is he has zero end product most of the time. Not for splitting hairs but I keep reading this about him and think it’s a mistaken assessment of him.
I’m happy with the win although the performance was nothing to shout about.
Martinez already looks the part. Never flustered, decisive with pass backs and crosses plus that excellent penalty save.
Targett for me is utter rubbish as a defender. Sheffield Utd looked at his vulnerability in positioning and his inability to prevent crosses as their best way forward.
Thankfully rash defending by them early on saw us playing against 10 men for most of the game. Carragher was angry about the red card, but for me it was the right decision. Watkins would have been through on goal if he hadn’t been hauled back.
A positive is last season we wouldn’t have capitalised on playing 10 men!
I hope Traore comes good because Trezeguet offered little and has no pace. Grealish didn’t help his England chances in front of the watching Southgate.
I thought Mings and Konsa were comfortable and Cash was steady without offering much up front.
Luiz still looks our best player and we need to hold onto him past this season. Watkins was lively early on but faded slightly and McGinn struggled to make an impact.
A chance to play other players in our squad on Thursday against Bristol City with maybe Traore getting a run out.
Glad you mentioned Luiz; I think he’s potentially world-class.
Ah Badger we have been spoilt we had Paul McGrath – it doesn’t get better than that.
Mings dominated in the air today. He is a good outlet in playing the all out from the back. The weak link at the back is Targett. He is constantly out of position. If we can buy 3 more players ( not being greedy am I?). New left back, striker and another winger.
Yep, Targett is a liability too and doesn’t do enough going forward to justify it either. I’d prefer Rico Henry in for LB and sack Taylor off, as he’s out of contract soon anyway.
It never fails to amaze me that many managers don’t mind having poor LB’s and we’ve had them for years.
New LB, left winger to replace El Ghazi and another central mid for me, as our backup is so poor.
In fact, I’m already dubious about us concentrating on the attack so much.
We saw last season that a couple of injuries and we’re struggling big time.
Would Targett be better as a left winger relieved of his defensive duties? He does seem better going forward and wasn’t it his cross that sparked the goal?
As I didn’t see the game it’s hard for me to comment on the actual play but ….
Habitually, we have struggled against teams going a man down so to win ugly (as it seems we did from comments) should be seen as a positive – not a negative. These are games we would have drawn or lost last season.
It’s early days – our first competitive EPL game – it’s not that surprising that we might be ring rusty.
Stats say we had 18 shots on goal (against 4 by United) so, it’s fair to say we created lots of chances but only 2 on target (against 1). We need to be more accurate / clinical in front of goal.
By all accounts, Martinez looks the real deal and might just turn out to be the real bargain this window.
A win’s a win and I’ll take that but it seems some additional quality in certain positions would be welcome. One or two more players needed?
Can’t understand why some comments are negative. We won that’s all that matters.if we win every game 1nil I’d be extremely happy remember the 1nil to the arsenal didn’t do them any harm.
At last we seen out a match 1nil
Goalkeeper gave the defence real confidence. I think mcginn was very poor otherwise all good a win is a win only 37more points needed now for safety 😂
Mings has extended his contract to 2024. Another good piece of business.
The Head coach Badger quoted said McGinn was like a new signing with improved form and fitness. Maybe in training or in friendlies but come last night’s match he was cautious and careless. Reminds me of Ray Graydon – a swashbuckling winger who incurred a serious injury. Physically he recovered from it, mentally he never did, and would not take on a defender again. Last night McGinn was a shadow of the player who started last season.
Targett gets panned as usual. He gave away a penalty, true, but he was tackling a player who was Mings to tackle in that position. Targett positions himself in a straight line between the winger, who hasn’t yet received the ball, and the centre of goal. It is the right line but he needs to be much closer to the winger to give himself a chance of intercepting the pass to him. Where he stands now – two yards at least off the winger – give the opposition a free pass.
OLL, you must be my sort of age!
Haven’t heard Ray Graydon mentioned anywhere in donkey’s years, but I know exactly what you mean; he was brilliant until his big injury, but nothing like the same when he came back. From what I remember, Sir Ron moved him on pretty quickly after that.
I guess so – I’m 72.
A little senior to me then (~10 years) but there aren’t that many left on here who were watching back in the late 60’s or early 70’s!
71 – first game at Villa Park 1960 v Blackpool. Hitchens scored twice. Now you know the reason behind the monica. Hitchens was my first football hero.
Respect.
1959 my first Villa game
Charlie Aitken my all time favourite …..Nigel Sims and Pat McMahon my other favourites
McGinn was quite poor last night but I think he will get better with games. After lockdown I thought he was poor to begin with and improved each game and was nearly back to his best against west ham.
Don’t forget McGinn was linked with a £50m move to Utd at the beginning of the year…He’ll be back! It seems there were quite a few tired legs in C&B shirts towards the end of the game last night…