"Merd"
Vital Football Hero
The quality in the final third just wasn't there, was it - especially for the first hour or so. Created loads of space for Cash and Target to put good balls into the areas that Ings and Watkins should be poaching and nothing happening.The main worry for me about Saturday evening was that we basically created nothing for the strikers. The 3 at the back basically means we have no truly creative players in the side.
Ings or Watkins would score plenty in a 4-3-3 with Bailey, Buendia playing around them I believe. Plus we've the option of putting Watkins wide if we want or going 4-2-3-1 with Traore/El Ghazi wide and moving Buendia behind the striker. Feels almost strange to have options and flexibility with the team.
The goals we did score were created extremely well, the ball from Ings was sublime but I think it's going to take a bit of time to set the team up correctly, get the partnerships right and start "putting them on a plate" for the front two. For me, Danny Ings had to go searching for the ball, he came very deep at times (credit to him - I'm not moaning) but he's the kind of player we want poaching in and around the box, playing off the last shoulder etc.
It's very clear to me that we haven't quite got the balance right yet, mostly due to international breaks, injuries and general fitness. Not sure which players will create the "balance", nor the formation - some of them haven't even had minutes on the pitch yet. It'll be very interesting how this team evolves over the season. Still positive and I really don't think we've seen the best Villa line-up by a long shot. Hopefully all the players stay engaged and want to be part of the revolution - no player should be an automatic selection for me.