Match Thread: Aston Villa v Bournemouth, Sat 17th August, 3pm | Page 27 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Aston Villa v Bournemouth, Sat 17th August, 3pm

DS had to rebuild Brentford a couple of times and got off to some dodgy starts before pulling it round. His interview was not that of a man who thinks the task is beyond him. He will see that Wesley is a little isolated and will correct this. Trez will switch wings for Friday, or maybe we will change formation a little. None of us know what is going on behind closed doors, the could be practicing different formations or anything.
 
Villan57 said:
A strange thing I heard RO'K say the other day is Jota is, not the normal sort of winger they'd go for?
So why was he the first player they bought?

The fullback situation is very worrying, I really thought we'd done our homework and brought in two replacements.
The only thing I can think is that it's a case of Smith trying not to upset all last seasons players and the famous team spirit, well team spirit comes when you're winning the bickering starts when you're losing.
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Not sure I see Deano as being the type to select players on sentiment tbh 57...think he's better than that, certainly hope he is, and if so, there's obviously something he and his coaching staff are seeing on the training pitch that makes them think Elmo and Taylor are better options at present....which in itself is concerning!
 
I was working so I couldn't go but from what I saw on the Sky highlights we were not disgraced and other than two stupid errors we took the play to them and showed some promise. They will all learn and be better as a result.
Two games and no points, but that does not really reflect what has happened. We matched Spuds for 70 minutes and we lost to Bournemouth with two basic errors. The striker situation will need to improve and having someone to support him is the answer - not El Ghazi at the moment though and perhaps Keinan playing alongside will be the answer. This would mean working with only one wide player but that is not a huge issue.
Bring on Everton.... and keep it tight for 10-15 minutes!!
 
Wesley will improve, but I see him creating more than he will score. Definitely not a natural goal scorer. I don't see him developing into a Benteke. Davies and Wesley in the same team as we saw at the end yesterday won't improve our goal chances either. The wingers need to contribute more than they did yesterday.
 
danvilla2 said:
Mixed feelings about stats on here, we had more shots than any other team that played today according to my maths.

Now there’s one stat that matters today. But for me, the fact we did have more of the ball and create something even if there were few long range efforts and soft headers, gives me confidence as I seem remember only 9 months ago us going to wigan and not having a shot on target all game.
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Agree - play those same two games again in the same manner/level of performance/effort and it wouldn't be ridiclulous to suggest that we could come away with four points.

The problem to my eye, and it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone at this level, is that top players have a habit of being "lucky" and getting the deflection that sees the ball in the back of the net or having that deflection land the ball at their feet with an open goal as they've gambled it may happen and put themselves in a position to benefit from that "luck".

That perspective is only good for 3-4 games, however, after that you've simply gotta hold your hands up and admit that you're simply not good enough.
 
Villan57 said:
Not to mention his header that nearly hit the corner flag, can't help thinking Targett would have put both away as he used to be a winger
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On the face of it so far, we need to play Taylor away from home/against stronger teams and Targett when we're at home/against weaker sides.

That on the assumption that Targett is better at going forward than Taylor and Taylor is a better defender than Targett - on evidence so far I can hardly believe that both those statements aren't true.
 
zaijianforth said:
Wesley will improve, but I see him creating more than he will score. Definitely not a natural goal scorer. I don't see him developing into a Benteke. Davies and Wesley in the same team as we saw at the end yesterday won't improve our goal chances either. The wingers need to contribute more than they did yesterday.
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From what I could see on Youtube, he's more of a link-play guy than an out and out striker for sure and allegedly had good movement that made space for other players so persumably he's up there on football intelligence and that's why we've got him.

His problem(s) to my eye, so far at least, are all physical - inability to consistently keep the ball when it's played to him, sometimes from a bad touch and other times by not being able to handle what is a fair shove in the back from behind from a centre half in the PL and, finally, he looks to be quite slow on the run with PL quality centre halves almost certainly being both stronger and quicker than he's used to.

If it helps any then IMO the football intelligence aspect is either very slow or impossible to improve but the physical side of things can be improved quite quickly so if he does have that intelligence then he'll already know himself what his relative weak points are in the PL and he'll address those, with help from the coaching staff/on the training ground, relatively quickly.

We know he's struggling right now but we're a long way off from knowing just how much potential he can fulfil and how quickly we'll see signs of that.

He seems to be linking up with Trez a fair bit already so perhaps that's an indication of two foreign players being able to read each other quicker than their English colleagues - all part of gelling a team together and I'm sure he/we will get noticably better over the coming weeks/months.

Luiz' almost instant levelling-up in-game with respect to being strong and comfortable on the ball yesterday was remarkable and shows what can be achieved although he's been training with Man City for a couple of years of course so you'd hope to see that level of ability anyway but perhaps he can help out his South American colleague in that area too.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
We have two big things in our favour. One is McGinn. I did wonder if he was PL material. He is. He's taken to it like a duck to water. He already looks better than last season.

The other is that the core of the team is the one which got us promoted, against the odds. They don't do give up. They are tough. If we do go on poor runs, they won't falter. They will keep things going.
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Agree about McGinn - head & shoulders mate and while I don't doubt he'll be playing like his bum's on fire for us all season anyway, he'll also know that this is a helluva shop window for him and if we go down again then he's likely off to a top six side for £50m+.

Our never-say-die spirit is very apparent in these first two games, we really are having a right bloody good go at it but if we insist on playing on adrenaline, rather than playing clever, all game, every game then we're often going to find ourselves running out of steam after an hour+, it's inevitable.

One other note - yes, the core of the team got us promoted, that's true but it's also true to say that they finished in 6th place in the Championship and I suspect therein lies the necessity for us to add real quality to that core, not just to rely on it as what we fall back on.

If you've caught any of Norwich's games so far this season then you'll see evidence of that difference between 1st and 6th place in the Championship - they are superb going forward and lovely to watch - if we finish within ten points of those guys this season I'll be pleased.
 
I wonder if there is an argument for switching Grealish to left wing?

I think everyone is in agreement that El Ghazi isn’t doing it and that Grealish has been a bit too sloppy in central midfield. Moving him out wide would provide better quality in the wide positions whilst Hourihane who played reasonably well against Spurs could come in to provide a more solid midfield
 
david-avfc said:
When you buy in 12 players in one window and only 1 of them has any significant experience in this league its always going to be a tough start.

I’d like to think the players and team can improve as the season progresses, but the danger is that whilst they are still adapting to the league we fall back too far and then it becomes very difficult to turn around.

Hope it doesn't get to that stage. I wonder if Smith will take the view that playing for a bore draw against Everton is the best approach just to get something on the board?
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Good question but you know what? I don't think he will or should think like that as Spurs was always almost certainly going to be a 2-3 goal loss and the only reason we didn't get 3pts yesterday was because of Heaton's first minute madness and a wickedly deflected shot that went in off the inside of the post FFS.

I'd say just go again and play the same way - give the boys a chance to level up, get the rub of the green a bit more and see how we do - there's no pattern here, other than bad luck, to be addressing I think.

That said, he has to at least drop El Ghazi I think but other than that, let's just go at Everton like we did Spurs and Bournemouth and see what happens ...
 
Melon Donkey said:
This.

But I keep being told that there is no difference between top EFL and middle/lower Prem.
There is.
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Huge difference and, again, not to rub salt into it but we just about made 6th place with a club record run of ten wins on the trot - it's not unfair IMO to suggest that we were never really a "top EFL" team in the first place ...
 
david-avfc said:
I wonder if there is an argument for switching Grealish to left wing?

I think everyone is in agreement that El Ghazi isn’t doing it and that Grealish has been a bit too sloppy in central midfield. Moving him out wide would provide better quality in the wide positions whilst Hourihane who played reasonably well against Spurs could come in to provide a more solid midfield
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Well to my memory, Jack became a different player and Villa a much better team when he was put in as a number 10 so to move him to a wing now could effect his confidence IMO.

Far better IMO to just tweak this now with Jota replacing El Ghazi - he can't do any worse than him so presumably the only possible effect on the team/results can be neutral/positive.
 
Bonker said:
From what I could see on Youtube, he's more of a link-play guy than an out and out striker for sure and allegedly had good movement that made space for other players so persumably he's up there on football intelligence and that's why we've got him.

His problem(s) to my eye, so far at least, are all physical - inability to consistently keep the ball when it's played to him, sometimes from a bad touch and other times by not being able to handle what is a fair shove in the back from behind from a centre half in the PL and, finally, he looks to be quite slow on the run with PL quality centre halves almost certainly being both stronger and quicker than he's used to.

If it helps any then IMO the football intelligence aspect is either very slow or impossible to improve but the physical side of things can be improved quite quickly so if he does have that intelligence then he'll already know himself what his relative weak points are in the PL and he'll address those, with help from the coaching staff/on the training ground, relatively quickly.

We know he's struggling right now but we're a long way off from knowing just how much potential he can fulfil and how quickly we'll see signs of that.

He seems to be linking up with Trez a fair bit already so perhaps that's an indication of two foreign players being able to read each other quicker than their English colleagues - all part of gelling a team together and I'm sure he/we will get noticably better over the coming weeks/months.

Luiz' almost instant levelling-up in-game with respect to being strong and comfortable on the ball yesterday was remarkable and shows what can be achieved although he's been training with Man City for a couple of years of course so you'd hope to see that level of ability anyway but perhaps he can help out his South American colleague in that area too.
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Angel was crap for best part of a season, I remember when George best said this on soccer Saturday. He got a couple of goals and the rest is history
 
Old Trinity Villan said:
I dont think DS will but i would seriously consider playing Kodija instead of Wesley on Friday. The big man might take a while to settle yet.
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He can't drop, or even sub Wesley for at least ten games IMO mate - a terrible signal to send to someone who is clearly a confidence player.

One goal/good assist from Wesley and he could suddenly become a completely different prospect right in front of our eyes.
 
david-avfc said:
I wonder if there is an argument for switching Grealish to left wing?

I think everyone is in agreement that El Ghazi isn’t doing it and that Grealish has been a bit too sloppy in central midfield. Moving him out wide would provide better quality in the wide positions whilst Hourihane who played reasonably well against Spurs could come in to provide a more solid midfield
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Was thinking about that last night, but during our winning run last season everything went through Jack in the middle. If he’s not at the races we struggle. Can’t see Deano changing the formation either, during that god awful run last season when we had 2 wins in 15 he stuck to his guns and waited for it to click
 
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