Aston Villa v Leeds United Friday 23rd 8pm Match Thread | Page 43 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Leeds United Friday 23rd 8pm Match Thread

I’m happy with the Bielsa love in, after all it’s a lot of pressure for him and his team to carry around every week and I have no wish whatsoever that he was our manager. I quite like having a few players around who might be imperfect yes, but capable of exciting individual moments. There are more ways than one to skin a cat.
After two years he still can’t carry out an interview in English so as a fan I would question just how long he was going to stay.
 
jcm19760 said:
So dean smith in his interview with AVTV said that leeds doubled up on cash and smith did nothing to help him even the commentators could see matty needed help. I have to say this concerns me. Why did smith not change the formation to help cash and what’s stopping other teams exploiting it in the way that Leeds have.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the Stoke game dunt it?
 
crimsondonkey said:
Well raising your own game helps!

Luck might have also changed things, if one of Grealish efforts went in then the whole dynamic changes.

But not getting a grip in the middle and leaving Cash exposed all the time are things that could have and should have been changed.

There is no reason to persist with a game plan that clearly isn’t working.
Click to expand...

How many times are we going to rely on luck. In spite of being 3 nil up they were playing with the kind of intensity and determination of a team that was behind. I feel they would have gone into another higher gear even if those chances we failed to take were actually taken. I am jealous seeing how Brentford and Leeds are able to maintain their stye of play regardless of who is playing for them on the pitch. That should be our aim.
 
Langoe66 said:
McGinn was disappointing last night as were most of them but think there’s been enough to show he’s been getting back to some kind of form at the start of this season. I really don’t get the venom aimed at some players based on one performance after we’ve won four on the spin when much of what we’ve seen thus far has been pretty decent. Suppose you would drop McGinn next week then based on 1 out of 10?
Click to expand...
No, and it’s not venom, it’s almost sheer disbelief really, that 90% of the squad don’t perform for one reason or another, but I would expect better from him (saying that maybe he just isn’t premier league quality) if that didn’t happen then I’d drop him, and I’m basing my 1/10 on last nights performance. Not his last 3.

And just to reiterate, he wasn’t on his own, team performance 1/10
 
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
Win some ,you lose some.
Beating Liverpool 7-2 didnt make us champions, and equally losing last night to a good Leeds side doesnt mean the end of our season.
It just means work to be done.
But then again we knew that didnt we?
 
eltoro said:
No, and it’s not venom, it’s almost sheer disbelief really, that 90% of the squad don’t perform for one reason or another, but I would expect better from him (saying that maybe he just isn’t premier league quality) if that didn’t happen then I’d drop him, and I’m basing my 1/10 on last nights performance. Not his last 3.

And just to reiterate, he wasn’t on his own, team performance 1/10
Click to expand...

Besides not having an effective style of play, our second biggest problem is having a useless bunch of substitutes. McGinn has been improving since his return from injury but if his form starts regressing then who do you sub him with? If any player knows that no matter how bad he plays, he is still better than anyone else on the bench and that is why the manager won’t replace him, then he has no motivation to do better.
 
Divine_islet said:
Besides not having an effective style of play, our second biggest problem is having a useless bunch of substitutes. McGinn has been improving since his return from injury but if his form starts regressing then who do you sub him with? If any player knows that no matter how bad he plays, he is still better than anyone else on the bench and that is why the manager won’t replace him, then he has no motivation to do better.
Click to expand...
Spot on
 
eltoro said:
I think teams are becoming aware of McGinns move, i.e stick your arse out and back into the player and hope the ball runs through, if it doesn’t, and more times than not last night it didn’t, he’s left on his arse or with his back to the action and then we’re one short in defence. 1/10 piss poor.
And don’t forget to rate Dean Smith, 1/10 also, no idea how to change the squad to cope with a 90 min Onslaught down our right side.
Click to expand...

To be fair to McGinn I think he has more to his game than just sticking his arse out to block:grinning:

Sure he lost form but he was gently getting back from a bad injury and long layoff however his form of late for us and Scotland has been good with some nice link-up play and he is always a threat in front of goal.

Unfortunately and like too many others, he was tactically nullified last night.

The Saints game has now become massive for the players and coaching staff and let's hope the Villa boys come out fighting to right a wrong.

It's over to you lads?
 
Last edited:
Last night was the first time in a long time that we even went behind in a game, and last seasons mentality came back....we looked beat when that went in, like the belief was gone. Credit to leeds, they played well....

if Jack's shot wasnt cleared off the line and Konsa volley from the corner went in, reckon we could have seen the Showtime Villa again. Im still 50/50 about Jack's solo run and shot, think he COULD have passed to ollie or even trez instead of shooting, but after running the length of the pitch, I wouldn't have passed either!

But during our promotion season, in thought Bamford was a little weasel.... my opinion has not changed in fact, I'm more convinced of it.
 
Now I'm not saying Bielsa is not a good manager but this creaming over a supposed tactical master stroke of making a substitution because a player got booked is horse shit. The world and his wife were saying that player needed hooking. It wasn't tactical other than preventing his team going down to 10 men 20 mins in.

It was not a tactical master stroke it was a preventative measure any manager worth his salt might do.
 
The players are all good enough - even if they aren't then tough - they need to learn. The last 2 games we have reverted to bypassing the midfield. 2nd half you could have taken them all off and it would made no difference. Jack, Roscoe even John can pass a ball. Make them.

Our "tactic" yesterday was....Emi gets the ball with time. Passes to a defender - Leeds advance. He passes it back to Emi. Who now has no time - so his rushed long ball goes to a Leeds player.

GK to Defence to Midfield to wing to CF (or midfield to CF).
Otherwise why are we paying any of them if we don't plan to use them.
 
Thomas Holte said:
To be fair to McGinn I think he has more to his game than just sticking his arse out to block:grinning:

Sure he lost form however his form of late for us and Scotland has been good with some nice link-up play and he is always a threat in front of goal.

Unfortunately and like too many others, he was tactically nullified last night.

The Saints game has now become massive for the players and coaching staff and let's hope the Villa boys come out fighting to right a wrong.

It's over to you lads?
Click to expand...

Link-up play..................I remember that.
Nope not last night.
We didn't even play hoofball - take Ollie off and just don't play a CF.
 
The lack of tactical nouse shown by Smith is a worry.
He has never shown how to change the play to get the team back into a game, subs during a game when we are winning often cause us problems but making subs with no impact on the game play seem to be all he makes.
 
I need to move on from this thread, but listening to Ollie Watkins’ interview where he said we were unlucky as we lost a few in quick succession struck me.

Another similarity to last season, is the lack of leadership. Jack is the captain but he is a leader by example, he’s also a captain who acts petulant it’s just in his nature. He was probably f-ing and blinding under his breath because that’s just who he is.

The likes of Mings (especially), Luiz, SJM and Barkley for me needed to show leadership when we go behind. I don’t mean necessarily almost take over being captain for a few minutes, though that is useful for someone to do that as I think jack needs that help. But those players needed to wise up, get players to sit tight and settle on the ball in possession.

I’ve played a lot of football in my time, and it doesn’t matter what level you are playing at because everything is relative, you need leadership and organisation on the pitch especially when you go behind.
 
Melon Donkey said:
Now I'm not saying Bielsa is not a good manager but this creaming over a supposed tactical master stroke of making a substitution because a player got booked is horse shit. The world and his wife were saying that player needed hooking. It wasn't tactical other than preventing his team going down to 10 men 20 mins in.

It was not a tactical master stroke it was a preventative measure any manager worth his salt might do.
Click to expand...

As much as I love Bielsa, I agree completely.
 
danvilla2 said:
I need to move on from this thread, but listening to Ollie Watkins’ interview where he said we were unlucky as we lost a few in quick succession struck me.

Another similarity to last season, is the lack of leadership. Jack is the captain but he is a leader by example, he’s also a captain who acts petulant it’s just in his nature. He was probably f-ing and blinding under his breath because that’s just who he is.

The likes of Mings (especially), Luiz, SJM and Barkley for me needed to show leadership when we go behind. I don’t mean necessarily almost take over being captain for a few minutes, though that is useful for someone to do that as I think jack needs that help. But those players needed to wise up, get players to sit tight and settle on the ball in possession.

I’ve played a lot of football in my time, and it doesn’t matter what level you are playing at because everything is relative, you need leadership and organisation on the pitch especially when you go behind.
Click to expand...
Not sure if that’s good for the team that they thought they were unlucky or bad for them that they’re deluded, if it helps them, I thought it was very tight game with not many chances and a 0-0 was about right, ahh feel better already.
 
Melon Donkey said:
Now I'm not saying Bielsa is not a good manager but this creaming over a supposed tactical master stroke of making a substitution because a player got booked is horse shit. The world and his wife were saying that player needed hooking. It wasn't tactical other than preventing his team going down to 10 men 20 mins in.

It was not a tactical master stroke it was a preventative measure any manager worth his salt might do.
Click to expand...
Smith wouldn’t :sorry:
 
I'm just worried we will slip back now. That was a shocking team effort - worthy of last season. Next match is SO SO SO important. I think the players caught themselves in the mirror last night and fell back to their default play i.e. crap. Maybe didn't believe the start they've had.

Next game is the proof of whether they can stay at this season's level or not.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.