Aston Villa v Manchester United .... Friday 14th August 7:45pm kick off.

Cha Ching wrote:Having criticised Richards on the Defence thread, I have to say he looks one of the few that looks up to the mark.
Richards was immense.
Amavi looks to the manner born.
Sanchez looked up to speed and should be in contention to start.
Bacuna played well.
Veretout and Ayew not ready yet.
Gestede might be a one trick pony.
I fucking hate Utd. and Sky

spot on

South London Villan wrote:The sky camera work is appalling. I lost count of tbe amount of times they focused on a player, normally his back, whilst the ball and game was in play. It normally coincided with Neville eulogising about his beloved Utd.
After match punditry was Man Ure heavy aswell. Souness even raised it after 10 minutes of Man U tv, and then they cut to the adverts, tossed off Van Gaal for 5 minutes, talked more Man Ure, went to Tim for 1 minute, 3 questions, then back to The studio for more bollocks and bias for 2 minutes. Job done

Never been so annoyed by S£y as this evening. All they were missing was a pat on the head for Sherwood for Villa showing up so that Utd. could legitimately claim their rightful 3 points.

brummieboy wrote:

VTID85 wrote:Some crazy and interesting comments coming out here! This is the second game and I thought we looked a considerably better side than we ever did last season. We lost due to a lucky deflection - a shit shot that would've otherwise gone straight to Guzan and they had nothing else to throw at us for 90mins. They might've had a bit more energy at the end but fuck me we've just made a really difficult game for one of the best clubs there is. We were denied a clear penalty but it's a bigger issue with the game for decisions like that. I said to the wife at half time that we are actually playing some attractive football at last - maybe not for the full course of the game, but its certainly better to watch than this time last year.

And how many times did we test their goalkeeper?

The attacking threat will come, Gil, Grealish, Traore will add that.  Guested is a bit too predictable when we put him on, I would rather Kozak but I think Guested will improve given an opportunity.

Man Ure are widely tipped to finish in the top 4 and Rooney and Memphis were kept quiet  and their best chance was the one Memphis put in Row Z of North Stand.

Encouraged by what I have seen, lets judge after 2 more games.

South London Villan wrote:

brummieboy wrote:

VTID85 wrote:Some crazy and interesting comments coming out here! This is the second game and I thought we looked a considerably better side than we ever did last season. We lost due to a lucky deflection - a shit shot that would've otherwise gone straight to Guzan and they had nothing else to throw at us for 90mins. They might've had a bit more energy at the end but fuck me we've just made a really difficult game for one of the best clubs there is. We were denied a clear penalty but it's a bigger issue with the game for decisions like that. I said to the wife at half time that we are actually playing some attractive football at last - maybe not for the full course of the game, but its certainly better to watch than this time last year.

And how many times did we test their goalkeeper?

The attacking threat will come, Gil, Grealish, Traore will add that.  Guested is a bit too predictable when we put him on, I would rather Kozak but I think Guested will improve given an opportunity.

Man Ure are widely tipped to finish in the top 4 and Rooney and Memphis were kept quiet  and their best chance was the one Memphis put in Row Z of North Stand.

Encouraged by what I have seen, lets judge after 2 more games.

Don't get me wrong plenty of positives, going to take a while for a lot of these signings to settle.
We were completely toothless up front though.
Could be worse we could have got thrashed 4-0 like Barcelona tonight

I wouldn't be surprised if long term we have Amavi as our left winger. Traore on the right and Rudy in the middle for the endless supply of crosses. For now though it's a million times better than last year and we are well and truly on the up

An impartial ref may have changed the result .... but I guess we're used to deliberate bias by now.

Can't see where our goals are coming from

Some positives we can take but final 3rd strategy is off for me against Man u, think TS got it bit wrong. Starting formation vs them was wrong and a Couple changes to line up were needed. However, they're still getting used to each other. Sinclair sub not good, would have took gabby off.

Gana and Amavi were immense. Richards and Westwood pretty good, Veretout and Ayew need bit of work. The rest ok ish.

Darmian dirty cheat, Mike Dean wanker. Blatant penalty.

Palace next, come on boys.

Still think we lack a quality striker... Marquee signing please.

Just home 2 1/2 hours to get there, 50 minutes to get home. Thought we played ok. Have to agree with most of the posts, Gana and Amavi, outstanding, Richards really good.thought defence and midfield ( not Vertout) we're good. Thought the forwards were really poor, little running into channels and little movement generally. How gabby starts is beyond me. We desperately need another centre forward.

Oh and why wasn't the manure bloke done for foul throws every time.

Just got back from the game too,
For me it will take a good 12 games for the side to begin to gel properly especially enough to be a threat to the Sky 4 teams. There were good patches of play from us 99% of which were spoiled by lack of cohesion, a poor pass or daft decision.

I was disappointed in Ayew i think he'll struggle to make the grade personally and Gabby was his usual ineffective self doing pretty much nothing apart from lots of huffing & puffing, crap passes poor decision making or being a yard short.

I thought Richards was great, Amavi very promising though both were occasionally error prone.

No real highlights though and you could tell our creative players in Gil, Grealish and of course Traore now too, were absent.

All in all lots of promise, need to seriously cut out the schoolboy errors though and i don't think we will know anything for another dozen games really.

Just to add too that i agree we are very lightweight up front and badly need another striker in my opinion.

Ayew was disappointing but I think if we can get him playing just off a target man he'll flourish

brummieboy wrote:

VTID85 wrote:Some crazy and interesting comments coming out here! This is the second game and I thought we looked a considerably better side than we ever did last season. We lost due to a lucky deflection - a shit shot that would've otherwise gone straight to Guzan and they had nothing else to throw at us for 90mins. They might've had a bit more energy at the end but fuck me we've just made a really difficult game for one of the best clubs there is. We were denied a clear penalty but it's a bigger issue with the game for decisions like that. I said to the wife at half time that we are actually playing some attractive football at last - maybe not for the full course of the game, but its certainly better to watch than this time last year.

And how many times did we test their goalkeeper?

Based on shots on target, once. Compared with United who had two.

Watched on TV as currently abroad.

Not much to choose between the sides. Manure had better overall control. We were a bit tentative for the home side and clearly the new players will take some time to gel.Revolution is harder to manage than evolution!

Unlucky for the goal. The shot was going straight at Guzan until it took a nick. Typical Manure!

We need better striker options. Gabby was poor and I thought Gueye was less than impressive on this occasion.

Overall good progress on ball retention but need to work on the attacking threat. Gil or Jack to link up would have made a big difference, I think.

A nil - nil would not have been unfair whilst acknowledging that Manure had slightly the better of it.

smetro wrote:Can't see where our goals are coming from

This is something I thought about this morning. Gestede is a nice option to have when we need to hoof ball for some reason. But we still need that complete forward to play week in and week out to get us goals.

I always hate to see Villa lose so after the game not the greatest time for me to write a concise statement, last night had plenty of positives - Sherwood now has to change the formation or Gestede has to start with a striker, a front free of Ayew Gabby Sinclair might work vs lesser teams but not against teams that hold possession as spells we just couldnt keep the ball. Ayew will be better with a striker that has different attributes he reminds me of Gabby he can't play in different positions they are both strikers playing off a target man end of.

Thinking more about this based on two matches so far, a 4-3-3 blending into a 4-4-2 or probably more of a 4-4-1 could look like this:

Guzan
Hutton/Crespo/Bacuna - Richards - Clark - Amavi
Veretout - Westwood/Sanchez - Gueye
Traore/Gil - Gestede/Ayew/new S - Grealish/Sinclair

So we have three solid defenders with Okore and Baker in reserve and competition for RB from Hutton, Bacuna and Crespo.

Midfield seems to sort itself out with three starters and a choice of Westwood or Sanchez to start. I'm assuming Veretout will improve.

Where it gets interesting though is the front line, with decent competition for all places. Gil and Grealish can start on either side or in behind the striker in a 4-4-1-1. Traore looks a beast and would work in a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2. Sinclair I still like and think he, Amavi, Gueye, Grealish or Gil and an in-form striker can cause havoc and then we have the fun of who to take pot shots at goal. I like Kozak but he seems to be the reserve. Gabby is an impact sub, coming on after 70 minutes. Gestede looks good but is the big target man. So Ayew needs to step up but it does underline our need for a new striker with proven goalscoring record.

I can't wait to see Grealish, Gil and Traore playing. We need to hope that if Gabby and Ayew aren't scoring (and getting shots on goal) Sherwood reacts and makes it crystal clear that places are earned and not guaranteed.

I think we should continue with 4-3-3. We didn't have a bad game yesterday. We just met a partial referee and a CL outfit with basically a new squad. They need fitness and time to gel. If we can move Gabby to the bench, get a proper striker in and get Grealish into the left side, it's gonna look so much better.

It's important that Sanchez looked alright yesterday as well, cause with 3 dynamic CM's like we got now, we need to rotate a bit or they will be so knackered by the end of January.

I watched the game on the TV due to not living in the UK! and from what I saw the team as expected, is some way from being a settled unit.

Our forwards for the game are all too similar in their approach and style and this was very limiting as an attacking outlet - what's equally disappointing is Sherwood/wilkins couldn't see this going into this game and particularly after watching how ineffective the same 3 players were against Bournemouth.

In my opinion these days Gabby is a waste of a player on the pitch and is showing all the signs of a shot player who technically is out of his depth and shouldn't even be on the bench yet alone give him a 4 year contract!?

Plenty of positives to build on and I'm sure we will be fine once the new guys bed in to the requirements of the English game.

Finally, the usual bias from the referee right into the commentary box with Dwight Yorke making some ridiculous comments and "we " this and "we" that on United - The guy is a media clown whose opinion on anything is worthless

Up The Villa

I saw plenty to make me think that we've got some good players who just need to gel into a good team, and with Adama, Gil and Grealish to come in it could be that we'll be watching some cracking football. You can see that we're in heavy training with double shifts, they looked heavy legged last night because of the hard graft, but it will pay dividends.

We need another striker to replace an increasingly creaky Gabby and I'm sure Sherwood's on to that right now.

Amavi whipped a beautiful cross in last night, Ayew saw it coming and made a run to the near post ending up just half a meter short. Where was Gabby? Was he attacking the back post? No .... he was making exactly the same run as Ayew to the near post about a metre behind Jordan. That was the moment when I mentally consigned him to the reserves!

We are obviously work in progress , we are going to take time to gel , we were neat & tidy without looking penetrative , the tempo was definitely better.

my first impressions of the new faces

Richards; very positive & robust , I thought he did very well
Amavi; we should enjoy watching him this year, one of the top 5 will take him
Gana; very neat & tidy , all action energetic display, promising
Veretoot; the most disappointing performance for me, doesn't look fit yet
Ayew, surprised me in the air, didn't know what else to make of him
Gestede ; Smalling actually beat him the air on numerous occasions,he is obviously not match fit yet as I would think he would be a starter

For me lacked penetration especially on the right hand side, this should be put right by the introduction of Mr Traore

Overall I would give us 6/10 , there will be plenty to be positive about , even Sanchez only gave it away every other pass & not every time !    UTV

I am interested in people seeing the positives from the 90 minutes last night. Really apart from Amavi and maybe Richards I didn't see much.

I know we are only 2 games in, and yes there is scope for these players to improve individually and collectively - but positives from the actual performance last night were thin on the ground IMO.

most worrying was apart from Amavi and his surging runs, there was no pattern, or system of play - there seemed no game plan or system.

Decent striker is a must IMO - whilst we currently have lots of options, none of the strikers on the books look like getting more than around 10-12 goals ......and that being optimistic.

smetro wrote:I am interested in people seeing the positives from the 90 minutes last night. Really apart from Amavi and maybe Richards I didn't see much.

I know we are only 2 games in, and yes there is scope for these players to improve individually and collectively - but positives from the actual performance last night were thin on the ground IMO.

most worrying was apart from Amavi and his surging runs, there was no pattern, or system of play - there seemed no game plan or system.  

Decent striker is a must IMO - whilst we currently have lots of options, none of the strikers on the books look like getting more than around 10-12 goals ......and that being optimistic.  

I liked some of the things that all of our new signings did. None of them except Amavi and perhaps Richards played consistently well for any length of time, but Veretout for example showed that he holds the ball well and is difficult to dispossess, he also picks a pass. I wasn't impressed with his one moment of play acting and the sly kick, but hopefully TS will tell him to cut it out.

I saw enough good things in patches with all but a couple of our players to give me hope.