Aston Villa v Leeds United Friday 23rd 8pm Match Thread | Page 40 | Vital Football

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

Bonker said:
Martinez - £10m
Cash - £6m
Konsa - £12m
Mings - £10m
Targett - £4m
McGinn - £12m
Luiz - £8m
Barkley - £15m
Grealish - £70m
Trezeguet - £8m
Watkins - £15m

I'd suggest those numbers are likely closer to the reality - just above PL average per player but only because of Jack of course.
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Mings is way better than the £80m greek tragedy and his mates
 
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.
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Before the match I posted we should go toe to toe with Leeds. 10-15 minutes into the game when Leeds has the better start, and after about 25 when they had 2-3 good chances with balls flying into an empty Holte End everyone except Stevie Wonder could see we had to change shape as soon as possible.

I think CDX posted, Smith has this pride in him he has to go toe to toe. We’ve seen it last season where we played well against good sides - Spurs A, Liverpool H, Man City A - yet still lost. Then we were dropping down the gears and not performing in some games we should’ve.

It would’ve been a very smart move to have pulled us into a 4-4-1-1 last night, even if to see out the first half. I know the first half was 0-0 but we could’ve really slowed the game down and take the sting out of it, and we were possibly a bit lucky we didn’t go in 1 down with Rodrigos chance.

Man for man, what Leeds do is incredible for a squad of players where half of them I’ve barely heard of. But pound for pound, we have better players and what we needed was our quality players on the ball, dictating the pace of the game and building it up slower than what we were doing, not also trying to counter attack to an isolated striker.

I don’t recall a time in the game where our back 4 had the ball and knocked it across the back line (not talking about in our penalty area), or where a midfielder started again via one full back and then we work it to the other. Leeds tactics don’t allow this easily, but I would expect Mings, Konsa and the others to be good enough to do this.
 
danvilla2 said:
Before the match I posted we should go toe to toe with Leeds. 10-15 minutes into the game when Leeds has the better start, and after about 25 when they had 2-3 good chances with balls flying into an empty Holte End everyone except Stevie Wonder could see we had to change shape as soon as possible.

I think CDX posted, Smith has this pride in him he has to go toe to toe. We’ve seen it last season where we played well against good sides - Spurs A, Liverpool H, Man City A - yet still lost. Then we were dropping down the gears and not performing in some games we should’ve.

It would’ve been a very smart move to have pulled us into a 4-4-1-1 last night, even if to see out the first half. I know the first half was 0-0 but we could’ve really slowed the game down and take the sting out of it, and we were possibly a bit lucky we didn’t go in 1 down with Rodrigos chance.

Man for man, what Leeds do is incredible for a squad of players where half of them I’ve barely heard of. But pound for pound, we have better players and what we needed was our quality players on the ball, dictating the pace of the game and building it up slower than what we were doing, not also trying to counter attack to an isolated striker.

I don’t recall a time in the game where our back 4 had the ball and knocked it across the back line (not talking about in our penalty area), or where a midfielder started again via one full back and then we work it to the other. Leeds tactics don’t allow this easily, but I would expect Mings, Konsa and the others to be good enough to do this.
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It was men against boys last night. Just imagine the football Bielsa would get us playing.
 
I am still pissed about yesterday's defeat. It is indeed praise-worthy what Bielsa has done to Leeds. No surprise why the media love him so much. I would love for us to someday play football like they did yesterday. Getting a win away from home against a side like ours with the amazing start to the season we have had is fantastic, and what makes it even better and incredible is doing so with a 20 year goalkeeper on debut and missing their best player. I am not sure how many more first team players were missing for them and how many more were on debut or just played one or two games that started yesterday. If so, then that only adds to the incredulity of the win and increases the praise Bielsa deserves.
 
All game we had players not tracking back and players walking when losing the ball. The defence had no chance against a team that pass and move like Leeds.
Don’t know if that was the plan to turn the ball over with our players still forward but it was a massive risk that backfired.
Barkley didn’t look his energetic self either but who could you bring on instead? On to the next
 
Melon Donkey said:
It was a typical we believe our own hype and just have to turn up performance.

If they needed a kick up the arse they have had one.
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Hope you’re right, that was a no show from everyone, players and staff. Let’s hope that has brought them back to reality.

The contrast between the two sides was seismic. Leeds were energetic, intense, organised and relentless. Bielsas change after 20 mins summed it up - he knew what needed to happen to get the win and was decisive and changed it without delay.

Villa were slow, lacking effort, lacking cohesion and the right shape, and didnt change when it was perfectly obvious that it was needed, and urgently. The lack of basic tracking etc was just appalling.

I hope players and staff watch that game back today and take a good look at themselves, they were all lacking.

I want to see a response not a repeat.
 
crimsondonkey said:
Hope you’re right, that was a no show from everyone, players and staff. Let’s hope that has brought them back to reality.

The contrast between the two sides was seismic. Leeds were energetic, intense, organised and relentless. Bielsas change after 20 mins summed it up - he knew what needed to happen to get the win and was decisive and changed it without delay.

Villa were slow, lacking effort, lacking cohesion and the right shape, and didnt change when it was perfectly obvious that it was needed, and urgently. The lack of basic tracking etc was just appalling.

I hope players and staff watch that game back today and take a good look at themselves, they were all lacking.

I want to see a response not a repeat.
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Totally agree.

Although depends what you mean by change . Tactics yes. But players . No. I will be like a stuck record this season but apart from Traore not one of those benched players would have changed things yesterday. They are simply not good enough in that respect. Been saying it since game 1. So have most. I do hope we are not going down the players all of sudden being better when they are not playing route after one loss.
 
Interesting to hear Bielsa in after match comments talk about the importance of the squad being together for the best part of 2.5 years and that for me is a key ingredient. If we can keep the core of this current crop for another couple of years, adding more quality here and there in the transfer windows I think we’ll have plenty to look forward to. The rebuild will take time, patience needed but the club is moving forwards at last.
 
Langoe66 said:
Interesting to hear Bielsa in after match comments talk about the importance of the squad being together for the best part of 2.5 years and that for me is a key ingredient. If we can keep the core of this current crop for another couple of years, adding more quality here and there in the transfer windows I think we’ll have plenty to look forward to. The rebuild will take time, patience needed but the club is moving forwards at last.
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This is true. But also when you look at the fact that they've just been promoted it does emphasise the other key factor and that's coaching and managerial ability.

Bielsa is a quality manager and that makes a big difference to them as well. Let Sam Allardyce have those players for 2-3 years and you wouldn't get anywhere near the same results and football.

I'm not trying to make a veiled jab at Smith here as such, he has done wonderfully well here but everyone has their limits in terms of how far they can take things.
 
I think it’s worth keeping a bit of perspective here, given the start we’ve had overall.

Agree that Bielsa won the tactics so won’t repeat what others have said on that score, other than to say my Leeds mate rightly (I think) pointed out the first goal was always key in that game. We could have had it, but didn’t. They were more aggressive and deserved it.

Leeds are a bit unique and we aren’t/won’t be the first side they do that to this season.
There are going to be ups and downs.
That was a reality check. If players were indeed starting to believe their own hype, this will ground them again.

The real test for me is how we react and fare in the next game. We can’t drop heads after one loss and go on a run like we did last season.
 
robbali said:
Trouble was who does he bring on? Nothing much on the bench.
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There was nothing much in midfield for the last 25-30 minutes! Following your logic maybe we shouldn't even bother with a bench. Of course there were players who could have come on and made a difference. Certainly so with a re-shuffle of tactics or player positions. Bielsa proved that in the first half withdrawing their booked player. To discount a whole bench of talent and not use them when we're clearly struggling will only serve to de-motivate them in upcoming games. Barclay deserved to be subbed; he was having a shocker. The fact that he wasn't (in only his 3rd game in) sends the wrong message that he's untouchable.
 
My stream went down just before the 2nd goal, but I have to admit it up until then I thought we played quite well.

Jack had one cleared off the line, nearly scored a worldy, Konsa had one well saved just before their first... Compare that to last season and so many games where we failed to fashion out any chances of any note, then even after a 3-0 defeat that's an improvement.

I certainly don't think we were awful. And Leeds were very very good. Annoyingly so.

Still very positive for the season. Top 12 is on now and would be a fantastic achievement.
 
Could you honestly see Bielsa or any other top manager sending a team out onto the pitch with an attitude and lack of correct tactics like what we saw last night?.... And if it did happen then they would be the managers that they are by fixing the problem and not watching what's going on and doing absolutely nothing about it.

Players reflect a manager's attitude on the pitch and the Leeds players last night would have walked through a brick wall to please the manager while we looked ill-prepared and tactically inept.
 
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