Aston Villa vs Everton Saturday 18th September 17:30 | Page 32 | Vital Football

Aston Villa vs Everton Saturday 18th September 17:30

Platypus said:
Stats-wise, yes he's always been solid because he's been playing 5 yard passes and mostly to our own players, but I think some of his longer passing has been much improved, notably out to the wings from deep.

His class in protection and covering I don't think can be denied by anyone, and I really hope his passing keeps getting better as he's a defensive game-changer when we need to shore things up.
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Definitely a step ahead of Douglas in that department. I'm not sure we have the "complete" midfield player, all of them have good and not so good attributes. Still waiting to see what Sanson can do, but where does he fit in?? Only three spots and you can make a good case for all of them. We need to keep them all happy and involved.
 
Pangloss said:
MacPhee is a revelation. People are knocking Smith for the 'exodus' of coaching staff this summer but he almost surely would have been behind MacPhee's recruitment.

For as long as I can remember we've been largely shite at set pieces at this level. This changed under MON somewhat but thus far our corners have never looked so good and we can actually utilise throw-ins properly, something I've never seen in my lifetime supporting the club.
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I remember an interview with Gareth Barry during the MON years and surprisingly he said they never practiced set pieces in training. I was amazed by it as we always looked a real threat on corners and its clearly one of the best opportunities you will get to score during the game
 
garygaryshaw said:
I remember an interview with Gareth Barry during the MON years and surprisingly he said they never practiced set pieces in training. I was amazed by it as we always looked a real threat on corners and its clearly one of the best opportunities you will get to score during the game
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O'Neill was on record as saying it was all about the quality of delivery. He was about 70% correct in my opinion. And in those days we had the likes of Young, Barry, Petrov, Milner, Downing who could all deliver the ball accurately and at pace. If the delivery is not good, then it really doesn't matter about runs, movement, positioning etc. Having said that, when the delivery is of sufficient quality, players better know where to be, where to go, timing of the movement etc. The addition of this set-piece coach has emphasized the quality of delivery, but also has added that extra 30% to ensure players know what to do once the first ball comes in.....
If you look at the Bailey corner from Saturday, Digne panics and feels like he needs to get his head onto the ball as there is a Villa player (Dougie I believe) steaming into the space just behind him. If that run wasn't happening he could very well have left it for the keeper.
 
gmvillan said:
O'Neill was on record as saying it was all about the quality of delivery. He was about 70% correct in my opinion. And in those days we had the likes of Young, Barry, Petrov, Milner, Downing who could all deliver the ball accurately and at pace. If the delivery is not good, then it really doesn't matter about runs, movement, positioning etc. Having said that, when the delivery is of sufficient quality, players better know where to be, where to go, timing of the movement etc. The addition of this set-piece coach has emphasized the quality of delivery, but also has added that extra 30% to ensure players know what to do once the first ball comes in.....
If you look at the Bailey corner from Saturday, Digne panics and feels like he needs to get his head onto the ball as there is a Villa player (Dougie I believe) steaming into the space just behind him. If that run wasn't happening he could very well have left it for the keeper.
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I agree. It’s very noticeable to me how we are able to manufacture scenarios where Mings or Konsa are one v one against a weaker player in attacking positions, and we had it across goal quite a calculated distance where a smart player like Ings (eg Newcastle) can benefit from. In open play, our throw ins too are better this season.

We seem to be creating based on my subjective observations around 2 good chances per game from set pieces, I would say last year was one every two games.

The challenge with this advantage is that other teams will catch us up attacking wise and stifle us defensively. But I do believe football has a long way to go when compared to the strategies of other sports, notably the American ones, so it’s a case of evolving and improving each season.
 
I may have missed this but could he also be helping with the defensive side of free kicks? As I've not seen any giants marked by midgets so far this season
 
"Merd" said:
Definitely a step ahead of Douglas in that department. I'm not sure we have the "complete" midfield player, all of them have good and not so good attributes. Still waiting to see what Sanson can do, but where does he fit in?? Only three spots and you can make a good case for all of them. We need to keep them all happy and involved.
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Everyone needs to shit or get off the pot, solid competition is absolutely necessary and you want the lads to be a little upset they're not playing.
 
Quite apart from his goals, one thing impressed me about Bailey was his first kick of the game. Coming on for his first VP start, and he takes the free kick. And it was a quality free kick, dropping in a dangerous place. Quality player, cool customer.
 
ironside said:
The great thing about Saturday was looking at the bench and realising that we could bring on Buendia, Bailey, Traore and AEG . All nailed on starters for most teams in this league.
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And the bloke who scored 10 premier league goals from out wide last season was probably the last choice of those players. Is this what having a squad feels like?
 
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