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

villabromsgrove wrote:

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.

I couldn't see what Veretout was giving us, that say Gary Gardner couldn't have. I thought he looked slow and needed to much time which he isn't going to get. One time the ball deflected to him in time and space and to be fair he picked a cracking pass. Its early days - but personally I wouldn't start him next game.

Second game, of the season and we started both games the same way, very slow. Second half was better, looks like we need more time, which we are short off, for me gabby needs to be on the bench.
Tim needs to sort out his froward line, and quickly.UTV.

Kozak had a great pre-season but continues to be overlooked.
Gabby couldn't hit the proverbial cow's arse during pre-season or provide much in free play and continues to be played all the time
I am not a coach so what do I know?

I'm not normally ITK, but re Gabby, I worked with a guy who went to school with him in the same class, Gabby was a runner pure and simple he took to football late on, people have said for years that he is a one trick pony and now that that trick is drying up he is being seen for what he is, yes if its a spur of the moment decision he does it and could score BUT if he has time to THINK then that's when he comes unstuck. I agree with everyone we need a proven striker who knows what to do and we need one fast.

One thing we tend to forget is that our new foreign signings will take time to adjust. its not just getting up to speed with the premier league, its also things like getting used to a new country, getting a good sleep routine (how many of us get a good nights sleep when working abroad?), settling in takes time and in some cases like Helanius it just never happens. I'd give it till Christmas before I judge.

Saunders82 wrote:I'm not normally ITK, but re Gabby, I worked with a guy who went to school with him in the same class, Gabby was a runner pure and simple he took to football late on, people have said for years that he is a one trick pony and now that that trick is drying up he is being seen for what he is, yes if its a spur of the moment decision he does it and could score BUT if he has time to THINK then that's when he comes unstuck. I agree with everyone we need a proven striker who knows what to do and we need one fast.

One of my ex's father used to be Gabby's teacher and told me he's a fucking moron

Veretout: clearly he's a work in progress and might take ten games to really come to grips with this league or he might take a hundred. He might just need the right combination of players around him.

But so far, he's a poor version of Westwood.

Gabby: the only reason I see that he's getting a run at the moment is because he's been brilliant in training. And Sherwood did say he'd pick his team based on this....something I'm not 100% sure will work. For me he's no more than an impact sub to run at tired opposition legs.

Watched the game on TV with Arabic commentary (this is local to where I live atm) which is always an experience. Couldn't get Mr Keys and Gray as that channel would not work on BeIn.

To me it was a strange game a bit like a pre-season game at times. We have so many new players that it was always going to be a bit disjointed and the area where we lacked the most was linking the midfield to the attack. Gueye tried to fill this role and nearly played Ayew clean through but Smalling blocked it last seconds. We missed that Grealish, Gil or Traore player. They will soon be fit though and we will look better.

Gabby was by far the poorest player on the pitch and it hopefully shows Sherwood that we need a new striker. Who that is I am not sure but at least we have some time yet to sort it.

Good news is we didn't get battered or look out of the game we just didn't have that creative edge. Hopefully with the addition of a decent striker we can use our more creative players to provide the chances we however cannot rely on Gabby to be on the end of them.

The other aspect was when we did have them under pressure i the second half, we brought on Rudy then they brought on Schweinsteger and Herrera. That took the sting out of the game.