Aston Villa v QPR Match Thread - 1st Jan 2019, 3pm | Page 13 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v QPR Match Thread - 1st Jan 2019, 3pm

david-avfc said:
The ref still has to blow his whistle to restart the game which he hadn’t done. I don’t know what the rules or guidelines are about how quickly the ref should restart play, I imagine he could have allowed the kick off sooner but bottled it.

Agree about Kodjia - it looked naughty to me the keeper had already claimed the ball and I could clearly see Kodjia swung his foot towards the keeper on the floor as he ran past
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Just underlines how poor the ref was.

Kodjia was booked so the ref saw something. Well, if he saw something it was kodjia kicking their keeper in the head.
So surely a sending off?.
Abysmal referee performance.
 
holtelower said:
As for the missing Grealish thing. I am not saying we dont miss him, we clearly do. What I am saying is, our issues seem to stem from both the defence and midfield not defending as a unit - and that isnt Grealishs strength, of to be fair , his job - so even with him, I dont know if we would be any better , after all, he was in when we conceded 2 v Blues, 5 v Forest , 2 v albion etc...

It seems to me, its tactics, not personnel.
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Personnel 100% in my humble.
 
4 games in 10 days (or however many days) has taken it's toll on some players...mcginn runs marathons during games! The next match is a cup game, so does Smith give the youngsters and fringe players a go to try and impress? (Hogan, davis, henri, taylor, jedi) obvs depending who's fit. Since the defence has been tinkered with so often I'm not sure we have fringe /spare defenders left!

Steer,
Bree, Elphick, Revan, Taylor (or u23 defender)
Thor (Dm) el Ghazi, lansbury (or jdh/ohare if fit) , adomah, Kodija, Davis - half only recently back from injury, other half needing to prove themselves.

Can you see any teams coming in for our fringe players during the window?
 
david-avfc said:
Agree I thought bringing Whelan on made sense as we weren’t playing well, especially in midfield Bjarnasson was woeful and McGinn looked out of energy by the end, so I don’t think weakening the midfield further would have been a wise move especially considering some of the late goals we’ve given away recently so I will give Smith a pass on that particular substitution this time
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Definitely. Good tactical decision by Smith in my opinion.

Don't particularly like it but in the context of that game and the knife edge it was on it could have easily been a loss.

Definitely one a manager can't win. I imagine if we had brought on a forward and lost Smith would have been hit with the tactically naive stick .
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
As Langoe66 said above, 20 points from 11 games isn't bad going. Keep that up and we'd end up on around 74 points, probably short of the playoffs. But we're not too far off. I think we can still get there.
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sounds better than 23 pts from 15 games
or 7 pts from the last 18pts available for sure.

need to pick up the pace or playoffs will start getting tricky which is the bare minimum if DS isn't to be under serious pressure by the end of the season

ho hum
 
Its simple for me.

You look at Blues 25 man squad and say "how many of them would get into our 25". Answer , probably 3 - and one of them is ours !!!!!.

Adams, Gardner and Pederson (and he is by default that he is a LB !).

So why are they above us ?
 
holtelower said:
Its simple for me.

You look at Blues 25 man squad and say "how many of them would get into our 25". Answer , probably 3 - and one of them is ours !!!!!.

Adams, Gardner and Pederson (and he is by default that he is a LB !).

So why are they above us ?
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Mentality, desire, hunger, man management?
Don't think it's ability, maybe it is
 
I'm just hoping that DS hasn't lost his bottle already.

It's like our managers are more scared of losing than going out to win games.

We will find out when the players have had a rest.
 
Some of these comments seem pretty silly, do we all have amnesia? Not to mention an inability to put the result and performance in the context of our opponent and conditions.

We hemorrhage goals, we're thrilled to have recalled a center back from a team also sitting outside the playoff places thats how bad the situation is in defence.

There has been a clear and tangible improvement in performance not to mention against much stronger opposition. We're in a small injury crisis. A combination of poor performance and mismanagement from the previous regime is why we're lingering outside the top 6 not because of the previous 11 or 12 games. It's like United losing the title on the last day of the season to Man City. The title wasn't lost that day it was lost because they didnt perform during the season because they performed on the day.

A lot of things get taken out of context on this site especially recent form.
 
Leeds and Preston were missing loads against us so promoted teenagers to play in their correct positions.

I have said this many times before, if we do not have better than Hutton at left back in the whole of Bodymoor Heath then what’s the point of the u/23’s ?

Other clubs don’t seem to have a problem playing youth, I dare say it would help with a pressing game too / which we need to get back to and quick or forget promotion.

Poor again, where has that spark gone ?
 
holtelower said:
1st - If Kodjia had gone any wider, he would have been the other side of Aston Park !. He was told to hug the touchline, which totally nullified him, and our attacks.
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I wasn’t happy with Kodjia yesterday during the game however on reflection you’re probably right in that he’s been told to stay out wide which at times in the first half meant to he worked the ball with Hutton well into some good positions. We seemed to lack the ability in our midfield to be the third part of the triangle going forward at that point.

I watched him a couple of times quite closely yesterday, and as a winger you need to know when to move inside or when to get on your bike. Half a yard makes all the difference.

When their keeper got injured - if my memory is correct - we played a ball up towards Tammy who had drawn in two defenders, he flicked it on and it was just Kodjia versus the keeper - maybe the right back was drawn in to Tammy.

As soon as that ball was played up to Tammy I was thinking to myself he (Kodjia) needs to get on his bike - and it just felt like he wasn’t quite quick enough on his toes, which resulted in their keeper just getting there first and that big stoppage. If Kodjia had been that bit sharper, it was a golden chance for us. If you had Bolasie out there - he would probably have been on his toes, gone one-to-one with the keeper but the shot would’ve put the corner flag in immediate danger so it’s a difficult one in terms of who do you play.
 
Nah Dean Likes his wide players to drift inside and allow the fullbacks to provide width and overload the box, we reverted to type yesterday, whatever Bruce has instilled into some of them will remain for some time to come.
I think Koj is a sulker and having to play wide whilst Tammy gets the accolades isn't something he's used to. Koj like the glory and he's not getting it
 
Kodjia is also playing out of position.

Maybe if we get a midfield then occasionally we could play 2 up top.
 
holtelower said:
Its simple for me.

You look at Blues 25 man squad and say "how many of them would get into our 25". Answer , probably 3 - and one of them is ours !!!!!.

Adams, Gardner and Pederson (and he is by default that he is a LB !).

So why are they above us ?
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The Blues squad is basically full of shit footballers who work their bollocks off and can follow instructions. They sit deep,
Don't mess about, whack the ball up to the big man up top and kick the opposition. All very simple things but difficult to play against at this level so long as they remain disciplined and keep their shape.

Basically they're a shitter version of Cardiff last year. Kick, foul, sit back and hope the 2 up top can win it for you. The 2 strikers are having the best time of their careers, 22 between them where before they weren't getting near double figures.

When we played them we still had grealish plus Kodjia, Bolasie were on song that day so we had the quality to break them down. Most in this league don't so they resort to just aimless crossing and long balls that the 2 centre halves gobble up.

Thats my opinion based on what I've seen of them and heard from a couple of noses I work with. A couple of injuries, loss of form or just general squad tiredness and they'll drop like a stone, hopefully.
 
holtelower said:
Its simple for me.

You look at Blues 25 man squad and say "how many of them would get into our 25". Answer , probably 3 - and one of them is ours !!!!!.

Adams, Gardner and Pederson (and he is by default that he is a LB !).

So why are they above us ?
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Personally. I don't think looking over at any other teams squad serves any purpose. I'm not into hypothetical thinking over such things. Especially when it involves a team we spanked 4-2 a few weeks ago and happen to be a couple of points ahead halfway through the season.
Let's get our knickers in a twist about blues in May when the table serves it's actual purpose. I.e where teams finish .
 
Loved the fireworks then treated to an exciting game throughout. If only we could have found the winner it would have been an enjoyable and entertaining feast. Deano has shuffled the hand that was dealt him as well as he could have, many are much of a muchness, so brought in Albert and Kodiga and left out Ghazi and Bolassie yesterday. Barney in for Whelan a more attacking leaning.
I felt sorry for Hutton out of position but still committed as his wing was targeted by QPR and little cover was provided for his attacking forays.
No qualms about DS here though, just have no left back cover.
As for Whelan coming on, anything else would have been suicidal and we were never far away from getting that 3rd goal.
With regards to youth, we obviously have no fit ones that can cope with the massive leap in level of ability, strength and experience, they’d get eaten alive.
We’re set up better now to make decent transfers and two or three players that fit the Smith style will do us nicely
 
ASPINALL said:
Leeds and Preston were missing loads against us so promoted teenagers to play in their correct positions.

I have said this many times before, if we do not have better than Hutton at left back in the whole of Bodymoor Heath then what’s the point of the u/23’s ?

Other clubs don’t seem to have a problem playing youth, I dare say it would help with a pressing game too / which we need to get back to and quick or forget promotion.

Poor again, where has that spark gone ?
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No doubt that Grealish is a miss, but when did we last press the ball? We do not have the same level of energy as other teams in this division. Take Abraham out of this side and it would be bang average. A defence that leaks goals for fun and a midfield slow to react to turnovers, or too slow in general. TWO wingers who are inconsistent, and a goalkeeper who was scared of crosses. Sure, Bruce should have seen the signs earlier, but so far the leaks haven't been plugged by any tactical nous from smith( or terry).
 
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