Aston Villa v Chelsea - Boxing Day 17.30 hrs K.O | Page 24 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Chelsea - Boxing Day 17.30 hrs K.O

McParlandTheGreat said:
Don't buy the "Buendia is a genius but he's surrounded by crap" line. He may come good, there are signs, but the main problem at the moment is that under SG we have a work in progress. None of our players is that bad, but certain things aren't working.

Me, I'd stop playing Ings and shove Ollie right up top within striking distance of goal. With the right pass, which Buendia can provide, he's dangerous. He's no good out on the left where if he beats a player he's still a good way from goal.

And we need to play a higher line and press more. Which I'm sure SG will aim for.
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I don't think I'm quite saying that tbh but Buendia gets a lot of stick, presumably because of the transfer fee which isn't his fault, yet the performances of both Watkins and Ings has been diabolical all season.

I'm thinking that if we had at least one player up front that could do, y'know, anything then maybe he'd start looking better himself. Likewise if we had other people that were capable of finding him with the ball on one of the half a dozen runs he makes into space per game but the ball never arrives.

We're too dysfunctional to play Ings and constantly turning over the ball when it's fed to Watkins so, being brutally frank, I'd not play either of them if I had a choice but maybe we don't have that choice - yet.

It'll be interesting to see what SG eventually does although after yesterday he's maybe thinking we still have bigger problems in defence.
 
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Bonker said:
I don't think I'm quite saying that tbh but Buendia gets a lot of stick, presumably because of the transfer fee which isn't his fault, yet the performances of both Watkins and Ings has been diabolical all season.

I'm thinking that if we had at least one player up front that could do, y'know, anything then maybe he'd start looking better himself. Likewise if we had other people that were capable of finding him with the ball on one of the half a dozen runs he makes ibto space per game but the ball never arrives.

We're too dysfunctional to play Ings and constantly turning over the ball when it's fed to Watkins so, being brutally frank, I'd not play either of them if I had a choice but maybe we don't have that choice - yet.

It'll be interesting to see what SG eventually does although after yesterday he's maybe thinking we still have bigger problems in defence.
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Is the defence a problem ? Against Man City , Liverpool and Chelsea we have conceded 3 goals from open play.
 
Bonker said:
A great credit to us but I think if we're honest with ourselves I think we know that only Konsa is likely to not fook something up every 3rd game and our "wingbacks" are bang average going forward.
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Konsa was at fault for the third goal. When Lukaku shrugged off Targett he actually slowed down and was then playing catch up. And when he did get to Lukaku, Lukaku was losing balance and it would have been better to give Emi a chance of stopping it rather than go for a certain penalty.

Our backline didn't do too well yesterday. But give Chelsea credit; their defence sweated their guts out and didn't give us much chance, while when the forwards had chances they took them.

Re the players, think we have to be realistic. This squad is almost certainly good enough for the PL top half. To get established higher than that then we need something extra. What the extra is I'll leave to Stevie G.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
Re the players, think we have to be realistic. This squad is almost certainly good enough for the PL top half. To get established higher than that then we need something extra. What the extra is I'll leave to Stevie G.
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Yes and no, yes in the sense that 6th to 16th are bang average with very little between us all. No in that like most teams a couple injuries could devastate us. That’s why I think small continuous incremental improvements is a very good strategy.

It’s also why I’m of the opinion we may not even sign anyone in January. We might be writing this season off to a degree and assessing the squad as well as our young talent. Maybe it’s the rose tinted glasses but I definitely think we’re the team that is most primed to seize a top 6 place and make a go at the top 4 in the next 3 seasons.

Everton are waning, Spurs are clinging on for dear life, Arsenal are rebuilding but is the ambition there? Leicester are at risk of faltering. Can they replace Vardy, will Rodgers stay, can they keep Tielemans, Evans and Kasper are past it. They’ve not been mismanaged but they are losing momentum.

Even United have a monumental task to keep up. They run the risk of going the way of Arsenal and spending some years outside the top 4.
 
sirdennis said:
Is the defence a problem ? Against Man City , Liverpool and Chelsea we have conceded 3 goals from open play.
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Depending on what you mean by a problem, there is always room for improvement in every team. Targett is a left-back, not an attacking one really, Mings has a fragile mental state, Konso is very good and so is Cash but even he has rushes of blood at both ends of the field.
Alway room for better players
 
They are a cut above, we all know that, money talks and they have spent massive sums over the years (part of the problem with this PL in my humble)

But first half, we were the better side, that has to be a positive, surely? And that was the better side even though some players are definitely not in form - Buendia is a worry, I was very excited by the signing, but he has soooo much improvement to make. Ings is a class striker, so is Watkins, neither are looking sharp though AND to be fair, the service to them at the moment is negligible. There is a pattern with Villa and strikers over the years (and fans then saying the strikers are shit instead of seeing we don't play to their strengths/get them the service)

The pen Cash gave was soft, but then if he hadn't tackled and they'd scored, I guess we'd have been just as peed off? I thought the goal from Lakaku was all too easy, he bossed our defence, no doubt. Mings was the wrong side of him, tried a little nudge, when he should have been (as they said on MOTD highlights) attacking the ball. Their third goal, much like the one Man City goal, was scored when we were quite rightly pushing forward trying to get a draw, unfortunately you can't give world class players space and not many teams have figured out how to contain that, other than putting 10 men behind the ball and still losing!

Would have loved a draw, we didn't get it, they are a top side, we aren't yet, but at least we played with endeavour and you can see what we are trying to do now. The key is that we have beaten the teams we 'need' to beat and haven't been humiliated at all by any of the top clubs. The fact the new coaching people have only been here 5 seconds, that has to be a good sign for the future.
 
Villan57 said:
Depending on what you mean by a problem, there is always room for improvement in every team. Targett is a left-back, not an attacking one really, Mings has a fragile mental state, Konso is very good and so is Cash but even he has rushes of blood at both ends of the field.
Alway room for better players
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We’re going to have to be ruthless if we want to break into the top 6. I suspect the two best players of our back 5 will be at some point be targets for champions leagues sides, and the two weakest or least potential we will have to ruthlessly look to improve on.

It might be that you think you are buying a better player, but it kicks on the player currently in that position. I genuinely believe if Cash works on his delivery and sorts out his rushes of blood, he could be a top 6 right back. It might be a bit of competition kicks him onto the next level.
 
We lost to the European champions, move on. It's all about how we respond now vs Brentford which will be a big test. Hopefully Gerrard and McGinn will be back. Don't want to see Ings and Watkins both in the same team again .
(I think Mings is suspended so I'd get Hause in rather than tuanzebe)
 
I am quite pleased with this, @DeanoVilla had made me drink all day, so did the video and sent to Liam and asked him only to use it if it was ok... hiccup !

Ghost of Christmas past?

 
The Fear said:
They are a cut above, we all know that, money talks and they have spent massive sums over the years (part of the problem with this PL in my humble)

But first half, we were the better side, that has to be a positive, surely? And that was the better side even though some players are definitely not in form - Buendia is a worry, I was very excited by the signing, but he has soooo much improvement to make. Ings is a class striker, so is Watkins, neither are looking sharp though AND to be fair, the service to them at the moment is negligible. There is a pattern with Villa and strikers over the years (and fans then saying the strikers are shit instead of seeing we don't play to their strengths/get them the service)

The pen Cash gave was soft, but then if he hadn't tackled and they'd scored, I guess we'd have been just as peed off? I thought the goal from Lakaku was all too easy, he bossed our defence, no doubt. Mings was the wrong side of him, tried a little nudge, when he should have been (as they said on MOTD highlights) attacking the ball. Their third goal, much like the one Man City goal, was scored when we were quite rightly pushing forward trying to get a draw, unfortunately you can't give world class players space and not many teams have figured out how to contain that, other than putting 10 men behind the ball and still losing!

Would have loved a draw, we didn't get it, they are a top side, we aren't yet, but at least we played with endeavour and you can see what we are trying to do now. The key is that we have beaten the teams we 'need' to beat and haven't been humiliated at all by any of the top clubs. The fact the new coaching people have only been here 5 seconds, that has to be a good sign for the future.
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I think this is good perspective.

We're doing well to be practically mid table, we lost our best player and none of our big money signings have really got going at all. We are a million miles off the likes of Chelsea.
 
Pangloss said:
I think this is good perspective.

We're doing well to be practically mid table, we lost our best player and none of our big money signings have really got going at all. We are a million miles off the likes of Chelsea.
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And we lost 5 games in a row!
 
sirdennis said:
He is out for Sunday I think. They reset on 1st Jan so McGinn is safe now.
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Now or never for Hause, he’s had zero chance to impress Gerrard and I doubt he’ll get another chance all season. He needs an assured, commanding performance and probably a clean sheet with some leadership on display at the back too.

After that horror show from Mings against Lukaku I think it’ll be time to sell Mings in the summer. I don’t think he can be trusted to not play against himself every game. I’d rather we were spending the summer looking for Mings replacement rather than trying to find a backup like Hause. I’d hate for us to lose Hause for nothing this summer and then have Mings drop to the bench and his value also decline.
 
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