So it’s well done Stevie G, in getting that very much needed win. You only had to look at how the manager celebrated the first goal to see that he wanted it just as much as us fans.
And rightly so, as it means we don’t immediately have a downer about us and can now concentrate on getting behind the team.
First the good.
Gerrard’s substitutions worked well, mostly. Bailey coming on for Ings introduced a bit of flair as well as just a bit more involvement and energy.
I wondered what the manager was thinking when he introduced Ashley Young in place of Buendia, but it proved to be a pretty inspired choice, as the old fella played a major part in starting the play for that Ollie Watkins goal.
And what a cracker it was, with him driving at the Brighton defence and then unleashing one with his right foot that left the goalie no chance.
El Ghazi came on for Ramsey and again that seemed to inject a bit more urgency with the Egyptian getting involved in the box almost straight away.
I think it’s safe to say that the substitutions changed the game. How much of a change does that make from what we’ve seen in this season up to now?
And what about the second goal that was scored by Tyrone Mings, who I’m happy to say had a very good game, I thought?
Talk about a striker’s finish, he hit it with so much panache I was actually laughing. It was truly a thing of beauty from a central defender.
The interesting thing here is I find myself asking what Dean Smith would have done different?
And I think the answer is “not a lot”.
And from that I deduce that the “new manager bounce” was very much in play today.
It also backs up my thoughts that things had just become seriously stale under Smith and further confirms my thoughts that he had to go.
It’s not about what was, though and it’s all about what’s now, but I do think it worthy of mention, because I wonder how much of our recent form was down to pure lack of belief?
Certainly the effort was massively improved today and even if a lot of things didn’t work the team can’t be knocked in that area.
And yes, I’m as euphoric as all of you at that much needed three points, that at least eases the pressure in the immediate term.
But we have to be realistic about the whole performance and I think we have major problems.
Let’s go through the starting team, one by one;
Martinez; Can’t be faulted and did excellent work in rushing out to save what was a clear shot.
Cash; I thought he had a very good game against a wily Cucurella. He got forward on occasions and contributed with some good crosses.
Targett; He had a pretty torrid time, but that’s no big surprise as Lamptey has a lot about him and is good enough to give any left back problems. I often think he gets hung out to dry because of a lack of cover, but I’d agree he’s not in top form. Misses a more potent left sided attacker to combine with, imo.
Konsa; What can you say? If a defender’s performance is defined by how much you notice him, he was just fine. As per usual. I think he’s a great defender, enough said.
Mings; Heh, I love to slate him. But I’m also happy to say he did well, if he did. He was great in his defensive heading, only made one or two howlers in his distribution, which didn’t cost us and scored a cracker. A superb performance.
McGinn; Wow. I thought he was superb and my man of the match. Supreme workrate, his usual stick your butt out to beat the other player and loads of great balls into the box. He was everything I expect from him today and looked a £50 million+ player again.
Nakamba; He’s a strange one, as I know he’s Marmite amongst the fans. I like him. He made one excellent tackle and then got booked for trying to make another one straight after. Okay, it was a foul but he was overstretched, that’s all. How he can be criticised for trying his best, I don’t understand. I thought he did okay today.
Ramsey; I’m sorry, I know I really ought to, because it’s almost compulsory to praise everything our kids do, but I just don’t see it with him. He is nowhere near being the sort of midfielder we need just yet. Give him minutes, by all means, as I can see little bits about him.
We need to look for better in the short term. Unfortunately I don’t think we have much better available.
Buendia; Quite simply, he’s hopeless isn’t he? Nothing works for him and I don’t know if it’s a lack of confidence or he just isn’t up to it. I suspect it’s the former and I think Gerrard thinks the same. There was an injury at one stage and the manager seemed to be telling McGinn to get Buendia more involved and to link up more. The Argentinian seemed to be playing in pretty much a free role and had plenty of the ball, so there was no excuse. He seemed to throw a bit of a tantrum when he sat in his seat, which was encouraging, as at least it shows he cares. I think Gerrard will give him games to see if he can start producing the goods: with a view to outing him if he doesn’t.
Ings; Here’s another one that I think might rub some fan’s backs up. I get it. He’s a brilliant goalscorer who has it all about him.
Yet let’s be honest here. He’s looked absolute garbage since he arrived. He was frankly invisible again and it just isn’t working. It’s quite shocking to think that the only plus about him is that he’s better backup than Davis.
Watkins; Okay, he got the much needed first goal. But he was another one who was frankly rubbish for the 80 odd minutes beforehand. He has the touch of a rapist and is so out of form, he’d be dropped if we had a realistic alternative. Hopefully that goal, which was a cracker, will help him mentally.
I predicted a draw and it seemed favourite, as Brighton are very organised, but have no real threat.
If you take the Claret and blue glasses off, you’ll realise that we offered very little either. I think we made their goalie make one decent save, but I think that was late on after we’d scored and had a massive burst of energy/desire.
I’m no tactician, but I think there was one thing I noticed about the game.
I might be wrong and I’d need to watch again to confirm it, but it seemed to me that we don’t get enough players backing up behind the strikers, which makes it all to easy for the opposition’s defenders.
We often go long to bypass the midfield and I think it’s that that causes a massive gap. The strikers get overwhelmed by too many defenders around them and that’s what makes them look so poor.
It all changed when we scored and Brighton sat back, allowing us to have at them, which was definitely noticable.
Whatever, I keep coming back to the fact that our midfield just isn’t good enough.
I would expect Gerrard will have seen this and will hopefully have somone in mind to help us out.
Bissouma looks just the sort of player we need, in my opinion and I’d bet we could persuade him to come too.
I hope Stevie G has the same kind of man management that Sir Ron did. I still smile when I think of the Tony Morley tales about his house burning down and didn’t get any sympathy or when he was told he was considering not playing him against Everton (his boyhood club) because his attitude might not be right and then he scored the goal of the season with a fist pump at Sir Ron. Sir Ron stated he knew which players needed an arm round the shoulder and which ones to kick up the arse 🙂
Holte, I absolutely loved that comment from Sir Ron when he said ‘If he (Tony Morley) doesn’t get a kick up the bum he thinks he’s done something wrong’.
What a man, what a manager.
Don’t get me wrong, I want them ALL to come good. The idea that we’ve wasted millions again, appalls me.
Gerrard will certainly be able to motivate at least some of the players because he seems the opposite sort of personality to Smith (outwardly anyway).
But I very much doubt he’ll be able to motivate them all.
Just seen this:
“Aston Villa had the fifth lowest press prior to Gerrard’s arrival whereas Brighton had the fifth highest
In Gerrard’s first game, Villa out-pressed Brighton (133 vs 123 pressures) and limited Albion to their second lowest xG of the season”
Fascinating.
When we scored the first, cameras show Gerrard on the touchline bellowing “press! press! press!!”.
It would seem this guy knows his stuff. Very impressed so far.
…also fascinating:
JT’s interview with old boys, messrs Keys and Gray on BeIn Sports. He talks about Smith and how a ‘soft side’ is needed with today’s players. As we’ve seen, Mourinho is now a dinosaur and today’s woke generation players don’t take kindly to being bullied, called out, or kicked up the arse. It simply doesn’t work anymore. ‘Sir Ron’ wouldn’t last one minute in today’s football world. JT states how much he learned from Smith with regards to man-management of this style – caring about the players and being aware of what’s going on in their lives, not just hammering them for not putting a shift in in training, as JT did to a Villa team-mate before Smith taught him that he needs to ask what’s going on in the player’s personal life before you ‘dig him out.’
We may not like it, but it’s how things are, and no doubt Gerrard knows it.
A really interesting post.
Whether it’s the “woke generation” or not (personally I do think there’s a lot to that analysis) today’s players are a lot ‘softer’ than their predecessors even half a generation ago. Too concerned with their social-media profiles and what their ‘followers’ think. But that’s another story…
Then again – we’ve been hearing about ‘soft players’ for as long as I can remember: lost count of how many times over the years I’ve heard that so-and-so “wouldn’t have stood a chance playing against the likes of Norman Hunter, or Nobby Stiles”…!
People talking about AEG’s reaction to Olli’es goal. Far more entertaining is the Brighton defence. Two laid out flat on the ground and one does a forward roll. LOL
Stevie G, McAllister and Beale at BMH last night to watch the U23’s beat Burnley 4-1 with all our most promising youngsters playing.
And the front 4 of Chuckwemeka brothers, Archer and Philogene-bidace must have impressed. Apart from Caleb, who is still settling in (but looks pretty decent already) the other 3 are too good for that level of football. The only option to improve them is to give them minutes now in the first team. I hope Gerrard does that like Smith did with Ramsey as hes getting lots of plaudits now. we could have some top top young players in a couple of years. Without the need to break the bank either and in the meantime focus on a proper DM enforcer and a fast left back and get rid of some not good enough like AEG and we’re cooking on gas!
Adam, maybe they are too good for the U23’s, but when I saw (say-) Archer in the first team games that DS put him into, for all the skill he did look incredibly ‘lightweight’ (literally).
A bit like Grealish before he went out on loan to play in the lower leagues and get used to getting hammered!
I think it’s also partly related to Big Fat Ron’s comments about ‘soft’ players (above) – many of these young players have been in a top academy like Villa’s since they were primary-school age; I suspect that’s a bit of a sheltered existance for these kids. I don’t think they’re ‘street-wise’ in footballing terms.
I gather that Jedinak is one of those in charge of loan deals for these youngsters – surely we should be sending them down the leagues to get them playing time & experience of coming-up against seasoned pro’s?
Pretty sure Archer was at Solihull Moors all last season and played regularly.
Louie Barry is currently out at Ipswich and getting virtually no game time – what’s the point of that?
Does anyone know why Barry isn’t getting games at Ipswich?
I would have thought that unless he’s injured, Villa should be sending him somewhere where he can actually play (assuming that he’s more than the 5-minute wonder who scored against L’pool).
As for Archer, I didn’t know how many games he played, but still think he needs to get beefed-up!!
I don’t but I’ll ask my Ipswich supporting mate whether he does.
Quite simply, Barry isn’t rated by the manager.
He was given at least one game and was apparently not very good. I think he might have got hooked, but not sure.
Regardless, there have been lots of shouts for us to recall him in January.
Don’t bring him back here though, send him straight back out, imo.
Foden and Sterling are very lightweight at Citeh but in today’s game it’s alright because they know they can’t be tackled. Archer is quick and mobile and definitely has an eye for goal. Big CD’s would rather come up against a Wesley type than someone like Archer.
That makes sense Holte.
I’m pretty slight and when I played, opponents would clatter me (mostly fairly) but they’d take me out and I’ve no doubt many tackles would have looked like fouls, purely because a large object hitting a smaller object will do that.
It’s why I had a lot of sympathy for Grealish. He doesn’t dive or look for it. It’s just down to his size.
The one good thing about being small is you tend to be naturally incredibly light and nimble on your feet. Even hitting the deck hard very rarely hurts.
I well remember playing a five a side at Birmingham Uni, by the Gun Barrels.
This lad hit me and I think he thought he’d broken my leg. He couldn’t apologise enough.
And then I got up, laughed and told him not to worry about it lol.
So yep, small attackers must be a nightmare for big units.
I remember Grealish coming on a sub a few times at VP when he was still a teenager. In those days he showed loads of skill, and his runs quickly got the crowd on their feet.
Unfortunately it almost always ended with him getting simply brushed-off the ball by physically-stronger defenders. They didn’t even have to particulalrly ‘foul’ him (unless a ref thought that a ‘gentle nudge’ was a foul) – that came a bit later.
Roll-forward a few years. Grealish simply put on some real muscle. And of course, that’s when he started drawing the real fouls.
When I see most of the U23’s playing, it just strikes me that they need to bulk-up a bit.
As for Louie Barry – agree that he should be playing somewhere, not bench-warming; hopefully he hasn’t been ‘found-out’ as a flash-in-the-pan.
Thing is Ardent, as far as I can see he’s not on the bench and not even playing for their U23’s.
If he’s injured he should be back at VP and if the manager doesn’t ‘fancy’ him then ditto.
Spoke to my Ipswich mate who thinks there are better players than Barry at the club and that he would be better off at a ‘smaller’ club like Burton or Cheltenham. It also seems most of their fans think Barry will return to Villa in January – clearly there’s no point in him staying at Ipswich.
Whether he then goes out on loan again is a matter of conjecture.
Here you go chaps;
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/louie-barry-aston-villa-ipswich-21573758
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/louie-barry-aston-villa-ipswich-21912623
Interestingly, one of the Ipswich fans says he’s too lightweight.
That sort of backs up what my Ipswich mate was saying.
Barry opted for Ipswich over Sunderland – it was his choice according to the piece he did with the BBC. He was not to know Cook would overload his position with older more experienced players. So Barry finds himself in exactly the same position as he would have been at VP.
Villa must recall him in January, although frankly they should try and get him back sooner if Cook doesn’t want him. If he’s going out on loan again then a period at BMH with our new coaching team ahead of that loan would be a positive.
And if he’s going to a L2 club then there should be some form of guaranteed playing time without which we should have a right to pull him back to VP.
Yes, he’s small and lightweight (and still young) but Ashley Young has never exactly been big?
The lightweight debate is an interesting one. I think it also depends on how we play the game. If we want to be a possession based team then I feel light, quick attacking players can be a good weapon. Look at Lamptey for example. Play the ball in to their feet and they can use their slenderness as an advantage. If we then decide to go long ball all the time then its pointless as we will be playing to the opposing defenders strengths.
Perhaps I used the wrong word in ‘lightweight’.
I wasn’t really trying to say that we need each of the youngsters to grow to 6’4″ and 16 stone of muscle before they play in the 1st team (although a few defenders of that sort might be useful).
What I was thinking about was that many of them look as if they need to build-up upper-body strength so that they can resist getting brushed-off the ball so easily when in posession.
While I was never a huge fan of Agbonlahor’s, he started-off as ‘lightweight’ – very fast, but in his early days easily shrugged-off by defenders; somewhere along the line he must have spent a lot of time in the weights-room (and started to look like the Michelin-man !) and then he added ‘power’ to his speed, making it much harder for defenders to just brush him off and send him flying.
(Unfortunately his technique & thinking didn’t develop quite as impressively, but that’s something else…(
Nothing wrong with lightweight players at all.
But it’s easy to have too many of them.
Isn’t that exactly what we’ve been complaining about for months?
Who’s our biggest bloke? Mings?
Probably and there’s nothing scary about him, is there?
You need that physicality in today’s game and I think we seriously lack it.
Hause isn’t exactly small and Martinez is definitely scary 🙂
I do get your point though.
There were a couple of games even last season (when we were still doing well, overall) – Leeds and WHam in particular – where I was struck most of all that we were physically being bullied (for want of a better expression) out of posession, by players who seemed ‘tougher’ and ‘fitter’ all around than most of our lot.
They seemed to run harder & faster than we did, but I thought was more about overall fitness and attitude more than just physical ‘muscle’…
Would it be fair to say that bigger blokes will generally run faster and harder than smaller ones?
I’d say very probably.
Bullied is probably the right word too, as even Mcginn has to rely on his trusty “stick your arse in their face” technique to fend players off.
Don’t get me wrong, he does it to great effect.
Nothing scary about Mings? Didn’t he once stamp on someone’s face, doing some serious damage?
Do you think he intended to do that?
Not a chance, imo.
Actually, he’s done it twice.
Which shows what a big clumsy get he is lol.
I have my doubts, Badger. Can anyone be that clumsy?
“Oh, was that your face, sorry I thought it was turf, that’s why I stamped. What? Turf doesn’t have has eyes, a nose and a mouth? Hey you guys lied to me, you said grass could talk…” Hmmmm
🙂
This is a interesting story
https://www.footballinsider247.com/aston-villa-traore-let-go-january/
Accepting that it’s Football Insider (I’m eating humble pie here Badger 🙂 ) I do think there’s truth in the unbalanced squad element of the story – particularly if Gerrard sees Watkins playing wide left – but is Traore the right guy to go?
I suspect quite a few would prefer to see AEG go before Traore.
£17 mill wasn’t it for Traore?
They won’t sell him just yet, it’d be too much of a loss, I’d have thought.
I could see a loan happening though.
I can see why Gerrard prefers to play narrower.
Wide players are expected to stay wide and then cut in.
It’s not like the halcyon days of before, where a winger got down to the touchline and flighted a beauty right on an old fashioned no 9’s forehead, is it?
I wish it was, players could do the basics like cross a bloody ball then. Or is that just an age thing on my part? 🙂
Playing too wide leads to a lack of manpower in the middle, which has shown itself massively lately in our case.
Come to think of it, I don’t even think I’m very keen on a 4-3-3 at all.
That said, it’s more often a variance of a 4-3-2-1 or 4-1-3-2 or whatever.
Sell Traore?? A brilliant player with plenty more to come. Selling him would be madness. Sorry, but players like Traore are the next rung down from players we can’t get – who won’t come. So when you get them, you keep them and coach the very best out of them. He’s worth at least what we paid for Buendia when fit and firing.
Keep seeing similar stories about a ‘January clear-out’ on the B’ham Live/Mail site, but I’d be surprised if most of them were true, simply because by that time teams are generally experiencing cumulative injuries and/or suspensions, and (-with any luck) we’d hope to still be in the FA Cup (one thing I’ve never seen us win!).
I can imagine a couple of people going out on loan – especially if DS calls them to Norwich, but unless Villa really do intend bringing half Rangers’ squad to B6 in January, I think the real clear-out will wait until next May.
Watched the first team training session on the OS and was sure I saw Trezeguet on the grass with the squad. Subsequently confirmed he’s back in training, although some way off making a return, but good news nonetheless.
Also Luiz and Sanson fit so just Trez and Traore still on the injured list.
Brum Live reporting that ‘training has gone through the roof’ since Gerrard’s team came in. Given the concerns over fitness levels etc. that can only be a positive.
Time will tell of course.
That’s frightening Hitch, how many get injuries in training in the past, now it’s saying intensive training going on . Oh well they know what their doing ?don’t they.
Well they’re not mutually exclusive Bill, so it’s possible that more training injuries could follow but I don’t think it’s inevitable.
You wouldn’t think they do know Bill, the way some of them get injured in the warmup. That’s laughable that that should ever happen, imo.
That worries me, the harder training.
Mind you, it all depends what type you’re on about.
I’d guess in our case, it’s more about stamina and lung capacity etc.
I think it’s the strength training that tends to cause the muscle injuries.
It is interesting though that Gerrard seems to think we’re nowhere near fit enough.
If that’s the case, why didn’t the previous incumbents see it?
Or was it a case of they were just too soft to enforce a tougher regime?
Or did they think it wasn’t a priority? (I can’t see that).
Hmm, more questions come to mind all the time.
Sorry for banging-on in the same vein again – but seriously in quite a few of the games I’ve watched over the last 12-18 months, our players didn’t look as fit as many of the opposition.
Already gone-on about the physical bit, but their concentration levels seemed to suffer as well; typical to see PL games now as (45+3) + (45+5) = 98 minutes or more. Not sure our players ever quite sustain it for that long!
I’ve been complaining about the training for ages, Ardent.
How can the training be classed as intense, yet they still seem below par, with some of them being miles off and suffer lots of injuries?
I really don’t get it.
I don’t think we have a fitness issue with the team. It’s notable that most of our goals are in the second half of matches. Our biggest concern is how we tend to start games. That’s not a fitness issue but more a mentality issue. Stevie G got the win with two late goals against Brighton and we looked much stronger at the end. That was despite chasing the game mostly with less possession. It will be great if we can get the first goal in the first half against Palace.
If you took just the second half of games and disregarded the first half goals, we would be on 19 points! That’s where the problem lies. We regularly give ourselves an uphill battle to get results. A new manager with an inspirational pre match team talk could make a difference.
Two of the current successful clubs Man Citeh and Pool who play a similar formation to ourselves have something we don’t. Citeh have a Rodrigo and Pool have a Henderson or Fabinho. We simply don’t have anyone like them and I hope Stevie G can get someone in during the January window. I’m sure NWSE have promised big bucks to get whoever is needed. My only worry is we go shopping for someone in the Scottish premier which isn’t comparable.
Buying in January is the equivalent of eating out of the bins at the back of a takeaway. History and painful experience has shown, again and again, that buying anything in January is a very, very bad idea. I would leave it if I was Gerrard and Purslow.
If in doubt, consider: Drinkwater, Samatta, Borga (try not to laugh), and not to mention Djemba-Djemba (try not to puke). I’m sure there are lots more, but they’re too shite to remember.
If people want to get stiffed with useless crap in the January ‘sales’, by all means, but elite football is not the place to be shopping for left-over bargains and rejects.
I like to be thorough, so I’ve done some research:
Jean Makoun, Enda Stevens, Yacouba Sylla, Carles Gil, Lansbury, Bree, Bjarnaron, Hogan, Kalinic, Guilbert, and of course, the enigmatic Mr Sanson.
Don’t buy in January.
Occasionally you get a good signing. Darren Bent possibly saved our season if my memory serves me correctly.
From your list it’s certain that we don’t go shopping in the french league again.
True. Only Bent and Hourihane came off in the last 10 years. But was Bent a success, other than saving that season?
Blimey, BFR, his goals stopped us going down, so he was probably worth double what he cost us.
Get me someone similar this winter and you won’t see me moaning.
Unless he’s crap next season, that is.
I didn’t think that Guilbert was particularly bad – Or bad at all?
Maybe Cash is better, but I don’t remember the Frenchman getting enough game time to show anything one way or the other?
Same applies to Sanson.
But I agree with your general point that only the desperate go shopping in the January sales.
I agree on Freddy; I hope he gets a chance under Gerrard. I saw him live and he was excellent: tenacious in the tackle and capable of excellent delivery into the opposition area.
But as it stands, he, and Sanson, are flops.
The other two I’d make an exception for would be Stevens and Bree – both promising young players that came for little money so were never expected to figure in the first team in the short term. Didn’t make it but they weren’t the worst.
Djemba- Dejemba – he was so bad they named him twice 🙂
Still have fond memories of Makoun’s jumpers though 🙂
Some of our buys are truly embarrassing.
Hmm, this article suggests Luiz wants out and has refused to sign a new contract.
That’s a new one on me;
http://sportwitness.co.uk/aston-villa-star-wants-leave-gerrards-side-set-not-negotiable-demand-january/
Not even “B’ham Live” are running that yet – and they’re usually 1st with any rumour, nonsense-or otherwise !!
Just read that Badger, looks like we won’t keep him as he’s not happy at Villa Park. Why I ask myself! Only 8 games because of injuries, some players are showing ignorance of how football into days time say you play to keep in a job, he thinks I don’t do that I’m Luiz. Mourinho has the upper hand knowing his agents are friends of his and Luiz wants out anyway. We don’t want players that acting like children do we.?… in Gerrard I trust!! Up till now anyways.
To be fair Bill, that article might be an absolute load of rubbish.
I don’t understand why he wouldn’t be happy, as he’s played pretty much all the games he’s been fit for.
Unless it goes back to us thinking that something may be seriously wrong behind the scenes.
Maybe his staying or going will be a very good indicator.