Match Thread: Villa v West Ham under the Monday Night Lights | Vital Football

Match Thread: Villa v West Ham under the Monday Night Lights

L

ldgavfc

Vital Squad Member
Right folks, we need to get some points on the board and get out of the relegation zone and if this isn't a brilliant opportunity I don't know what is.

West Ham, decent attack, okish midfield and shoddy defence. We need a game without mistakes at the back and a midfield to push up the pitch bravely to create some opportunities and score a few goals if we want to get the three points.

Our defence looks reliable, good to see Heaton and Mings involved with the England set up, definitiely deserved, especially in the case of Mings. The problems in my opinion so far have been out wide.

Starting on the left; Certain groups of fans seem to be pulling U Turns in terms of their opinions of Taylor, my opinion hasn't changed. We need to drop him and either play Targett or Hause/Mings. Taylor offers absolutely nothing. El Ghazi is best placed as a super sub with his pace and "trickery", he doesn't impress me when he plays 90 minutes. Trezeguet looks like he has a lot of potential, I think he needs a goal or two to get his confidence up, but he is suspended against West Ham.

On the right; Guilbert looked great against Everton and Crewe, Jota looks like a creative genius and bleeds assists.

My preferred XI for the game would be

Heaton
Guilbert Engels Mings Targett
Douglas Hourihane
Jota McGinn Grealish
Wesley

Steer, Hause, Elmo, Nakamba, Lansbury, El Ghazi, Davis
 
In terms of team I think we'll see much the same. Dean's not going to alter his favoured 4-3-3 against Hammers, and neither should he; the secret is to get it to work better, not bin it. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with it; the players just need to get up to speed and be more consistent.

Can't see him altering the defence; we've conceeded 6 goals so far, of which two were the outright howlers against Bournemouth, which were exceptional. Only 3 teams in the bottom 12 have conceded less, namely 5. Taylor will play because he's the best we've got in that position.

Further forwards, Trezeguet is out so El Ghazi will get another chance. Otherwise no change; DS will have been going through the weaknesses of the Palace performance and looking for something better.

West Ham are a good team who've recovered from a poor start, but they are beatable. It's unpredictable; however DS will be looking for a win and I think we may get it, mainly because DS and the players will learn from Palace.
 
I haven't paid any attention to West Aaaahm so far. Their players aren't doing much on FF so I assume they aren't great.

Their good attack will get cancelled out by our good defence. Whether their bad defence can cancel out our bad attack will decided the result.
 
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Not time for panic just yet at least another 2 games before that will happen and the media will start with doing a Fulham stuff again.

Heaton Engels Mings SJM and Jack have sort of becoming the core, the wide players are not doing it for me, so Smith needs to sort them plus the DM and Striker.
Tough task when he already thinks he's playing his best side.

We don't really have any players to come in, do we?

Personally I'd bring Hause in for Talyor to give us some extra physicality.
Perhaps Marv is ready to add even more but we don't really have many options unless Konsa can play DM or right back.
We need a bit of Muscle out there I feel.
 
Can I just say for the record that I can't stand West Ham (Because of 1979 and onwards) at any level and come the game will be a complete wreck.
 
Villan57 said:
Not time for panic just yet at least another 2 games before that will happen and the media will start with doing a Fulham stuff again.

Heaton Engels Mings SJM and Jack have sort of becoming the core, the wide players are not doing it for me, so Smith needs to sort them plus the DM and Striker.
Tough task when he already thinks he's playing his best side.

We don't really have any players to come in, do we?

Personally I'd bring Hause in for Talyor to give us some extra physicality.
Perhaps Marv is ready to add even more but we don't really have many options unless Konsa can play DM or right back.
We need a bit of Muscle out there I feel.
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Hourihane played well when he came on against Palace.
 
Well. One of our esteemed fellow forum members has deemed *West Ham being a cut above palace .
So we are clearly screwed.

*Palace finished a whole 3 points behind West ham last season and currently sit above them in the table.
 
Before I clicked on this thread I knew what the main topic would be.... Replace Taylor. Call me Nostradamus.
So, we should replace Taylor with either Target (not yet showing good form and couldn't complete 90 minutes in his last outing due to a dodgy hamstring), or Hause (a centre-back, who has played about four games in that position for us as an emergency option in the championship, when both Taylor and Hutton were injured). If Dean Smith had any inclination that Hause was anything other than a centre-back in this squad, we'd have seen him there in pre-season. He wants two for every position. Hause is the direct competition for Mings as the left-sided centre-back.
And now to my main point/argument... Why replace Taylor exactly? Because he's playing badly? Because we have better options? Because we're conceding goals down our left? Nobody disputes the fact that Taylor was poor, from the moment he broke Coleman's leg until about six-weeks into Dean Smith's tenure, when he/Terry convinced him to start being more aggressive. His confidence started returning and since about March, he has been good. Not outstanding, but most-definitely good, and our best option. He's not going to score, and isn't a creative threat in the final third, but at least he busts a gut to get up there and support the team. Take another look at the "goal of the season" from last year, and see who it is that gets ahead of the ball to exchange passes with Grealish, eliminating three defenders in the process. He is also defending well, often in 1v2 situations while he is covering wingers who aren't exactly Snodgrass-esque in terms of tracking back. Target will probably, eventually, come good, but he's young and needs time. I couldn't care less how much he cost. Taylor is better right now. Unless we have the money to go out and buy the next Roberto Carlos, Neil Taylor has the shirt, and deserves the shirt. If he f***s up a few times then Target will hopefully be ready.....
By the way, really good left-backs are hard to find and very expensive. Man Citeh's back-up the past two seasons was Fabian Sick-note Delph.

Rant Over....
 
gmvillan said:
Before I clicked on this thread I knew what the main topic would be.... Replace Taylor. Call me Nostradamus.
So, we should replace Taylor with either Target (not yet showing good form and couldn't complete 90 minutes in his last outing due to a dodgy hamstring), or Hause (a centre-back, who has played about four games in that position for us as an emergency option in the championship, when both Taylor and Hutton were injured). If Dean Smith had any inclination that Hause was anything other than a centre-back in this squad, we'd have seen him there in pre-season. He wants two for every position. Hause is the direct competition for Mings as the left-sided centre-back.
And now to my main point/argument... Why replace Taylor exactly? Because he's playing badly? Because we have better options? Because we're conceding goals down our left? Nobody disputes the fact that Taylor was poor, from the moment he broke Coleman's leg until about six-weeks into Dean Smith's tenure, when he/Terry convinced him to start being more aggressive. His confidence started returning and since about March, he has been good. Not outstanding, but most-definitely good, and our best option. He's not going to score, and isn't a creative threat in the final third, but at least he busts a gut to get up there and support the team. Take another look at the "goal of the season" from last year, and see who it is that gets ahead of the ball to exchange passes with Grealish, eliminating three defenders in the process. He is also defending well, often in 1v2 situations while he is covering wingers who aren't exactly Snodgrass-esque in terms of tracking back. Target will probably, eventually, come good, but he's young and needs time. I couldn't care less how much he cost. Taylor is better right now. Unless we have the money to go out and buy the next Roberto Carlos, Neil Taylor has the shirt, and deserves the shirt. If he f***s up a few times then Target will hopefully be ready.....
By the way, really good left-backs are hard to find and very expensive. Man Citeh's back-up the past two seasons was Fabian Sick-note Delph.

Rant Over....
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I'll never have a go at a Villa fan for supporting one of our players but come on... You said it yourself halfway through that he offers nothing creatively or in front of goal. Matt Targett has a creative threat, he's got a great eye for a pass or a cross and he can defend. Neil Taylor can defend and he seems like a good lad so it's nice to have him in the squad, but he is not a premier league starting left back. He's actually the worst left back starting in the league that i can think of right now.
 
I didn't know this was on Monday night, thought it was a Saturday 3pmmmer.

El Ghazi needs to put in a big performance now that he has his chance with Trezeguet out.
 
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