Team for the Championship??

There was a story on the Birmingham Mail website that seems to have been pulled already, about Sky saying Traore claims Villa have made him feel worthless. If this is true we need someone in as soon as possible to apply damage limitation before all the good players leave and we're left trying to build a team round Richardson, Lescott, Gabby and co.

The trouble is we got now all the players and there agents will be coming out with excuses like Traore ''they made me feel worthless'' in other words any which way possible for the rats to leave that sinking ship and go onto pastures new and brand new pay cheques, we really need a takeover to stop the rot and inject some life into the club but if ever we am stuck with Lerner and pure cutbacks then holy moley McGrath help us!

To be fair, if you're Adama and being overlooked for Sinclair and Bacuna every week you've got a point!

mefromhere wrote:To be fair, if you're Adama and being overlooked for Sinclair and Bacuna every week you've got a point!

Yes if he is fit enough to play then i can understand what he means but as far as i am aware Traore has been injured quite a lot this season? And with a caretaker manager and turmoil i don't think Adama can blame the club as he has still been paid whilst being out injured most the season imo

I want to see the kids picked on matchdays but part of me says is it a good idea for Suliman Lyden Sellers Murphy Green etc to be in this horrible scenario? Probably not me thinks

mefromhere wrote:To be fair, if you're Adama and being overlooked for Sinclair and Bacuna every week you've got a point!

Absolutely spot on. Same as Okore. He's not getting a run when he watches Lescott go out there and be the single worst professional defender I've seen. He acts the cock off field and is getting booed to death on it.

Me with Adama. Yes he's a one-trick pony but that trick is good. Bacuna's trick is being a knob.
He gets people on their feet. Bacuna does that too but only so they can make sure he's hearing them sing "Champions League, you're having a laugh".

It's very difficult to come to grips with Much we've crumbled as a club. The one thing I wanted when it was obvious that there was no chance we'd survive, was to go down fighting and with a bit of dignity. I just cannot believe what's gone on. It's so shameful now that you kind of have to laugh and say "you know what, THAT isn't Villa. That's just some mess of a club imitating Villa".

Trotters wrote: He's not getting a run when he watches Lescott go out there and be the single worst professional defender I've seen.

Hey, steady on there! Have you forgotten Richards? 'Positioning' is obviously not a word in Micah's lexicon. Lescott is shit, but Micah... He's here, he's there, he's every fucking where... except where he should be!

I think Adama is pretty shit, but I guess I'm alone in that

Nope. Head down, run like fuck. He's not a real footballer yet. And certainly not worth £40k/week (and set to increase). But when he has the ball, there's a little excitement that we'll see a Villa player doing something other than being a complete numpty.

And that really sums our season up.

Oh dear me
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-shakespeare-wouldve-struggled-11233612#rlabs=2%20rt$category%20p$7

Based upon impending sale of club to Zillionaire's, my team for next year goes like this..............

Butland

Trippier..........Shawcross...........Cahill...........Amavi


Veretout.............Ox-Chamberlain.........Grealish


Ayew............Benteke...........Vardy

I've been realistic as I don't think we will attract mega stars to the championship, these guys could get us promoted and up the prem, then in come the big guns.

I here Burnley want Westwood can only hope

NARLA24 wrote:Oh dear me
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-shakespeare-wouldve-struggled-11233612#rlabs=2%20rt$category%20p$7

So, not yet bored with writing about our doom, the Birmingham Mail simply copies and pastes reports from other papers in order to publish a new one?

That is to journalism what our season has been to football.

Just imagine if we could for the last match of the season field:

Sarkic
Lyden - Toner - Clark - Suliman
Green - Veretout - Calder - Grealish
Ayew - Sellars

I think I'd consider flying over for that.

villajk wrote:I here Burnley want Westwood can only hope

Sold.............. NEXT!

To be fair, in a season of underachieving money grabbing dickheads, for his level, he has probably overachieved and atleast tried to earn his money.

I like that team joppe84

4BetLite wrote:

villajk wrote:I here Burnley want Westwood can only hope

Sold.............. NEXT!

To be fair, in a season of underachieving money grabbing dickheads, for his level, he has probably overachieved and atleast tried to earn his money.

agreed. At least he tries.

fastbackace wrote:

4BetLite wrote:

villajk wrote:I here Burnley want Westwood can only hope

Sold.............. NEXT!

To be fair, in a season of underachieving money grabbing dickheads, for his level, he has probably overachieved and atleast tried to earn his money.

agreed. At least he tries.

He's also one of the few players who looked genuinely bothered at the end of the United match. I'd happily keep Westwood if it meant shipping out the Lescotts, Bacunas, Gabbys

To the best of my knowledge, he's not acted the prick in public, threatened not to play or taken a pocket-pic of his car and tweeted it to Stan Collymore.

He's limited - especially in this team - but I think the experience he's gained in the premiership will see him be one of the better midfielders in the Championship.

I'd vote to keep him.

I think we should keep Westwood and I think he'll do well for us in the Championship. I've always banged on about him working well in the middle of the middle of a 4-3-3, he distributes the ball well and picks out runners, when we have any being bothered to run anywhere. Well, forward at least. Him, Gueye and Veretout. Get rid of Sanchez, he's a luxury we can't afford and a not very good one at that.

I've been wondering why Veretout hasn't been playing but Bacuna and/or Richardson have. Worrying to think what's going on in Black's head.

Remember that video that was going around about a year or so ago about how wide Villa Park is compared to other pitches and how much extra real estate a middle 3 has to cover?

Apparently Man Utd built up the sides of their pitch quite steeply to stop those players with massive throw ins getting any kind of decent run up. Yet we didn't bother redrawing the sidelines in a few yards to help our midfield out.

As much as I loathe him, MoN brought the home fans down behind the north stand goal to help the team so at least he was trying to think outside the box a little. Our managers since have been the most bland kind of efforts as is possible to imagine.

I would love to see us field a young hungry team that was direct, used proper wingers that hugged the chalk while had the ability to play the ball on the pitch.

This is essentially what made Rosenborg one of the best teams in Europe in the late 90's. After beating Milan at San Siro I think they were rated in top 4 or something.

I'm not saying we should copy others, as I think the most important thing will be to get back to AVFC football that we've traditionally been good at, but it's fact that moving the ball on the pitch with wide wingers and playing the ball on second or third movements with a lot of box-to-box movement is a ridiculously good way to play this game.

Watching Rosenborg beat Dortmund 3-0 in Germany or Milan 2-1 in Italia or Real Madrid 2-0 in Norway is the most absurd demonstration of how effective that football is.

Agree Joppe, I know u not a fan but me and FoxyAV been chirping on for months about playing 4-4-2 and utilising Gestede's strengths, especially dropping a league, will could well walk away with that division once the slackers have gone.

Whether to be a pessimist or an optimist?

Pessimists are rarely disappointed and sometimes pleasantly surprised! Optimists are seldom pleasantly surprised and often disappointed.

The pessimist in me says that the stories about a Moneybags takeover are a smoke screen, that Lerner will still be here in August, that the current squad will be largely intact and that they will go through the Championship and out of the back end like crap through a gooose!

The optimist say its Ellison, Pep Guadiola will break his new contract and build a new team around Messi, we will be guaranteed promotion by early Feb and finish with a record points total having thrashed the noses twice by an aggregate of 16 - 0.

I suspect we will get a consotium takeover of wealhy fans but not billionaires, an experienced Championship manager and it may take more than one season to get restored to the big money league. The squad will probably be a mixture of a small number of the current first team squad, a couple of the under 21's and some solid and experienced Championship journeymen.

A bit boring but steady progress..............


......... CHRIST, PLEASE LET IT BE ELLISON OR THE CHINESE!!

4BetLite wrote:Agree Joppe, I know u not a fan but me and FoxyAV been chirping on for months about playing 4-4-2 and utilising Gestede's strengths, especially dropping a league, will could well walk away with that division once the slackers have gone.

The reason I don't like hoofing the ball at players like Gestede is that it limits your play. This is why playing direct football ON THE PITCH, with all round strikers is a much better idea. Playing direct football with donkeys up front will never win you anything in the modern game.

Joppe84 wrote:

4BetLite wrote:Agree Joppe, I know u not a fan but me and FoxyAV been chirping on for months about playing 4-4-2 and utilising Gestede's strengths, especially dropping a league, will could well walk away with that division once the slackers have gone.

The reason I don't like hoofing the ball at players like Gestede is that it limits your play. This is why playing direct football ON THE PITCH, with all round strikers is a much better idea. Playing direct football with donkeys up front will never win you anything in the modern game.

I'm with you on this but not one of the managers this season has looked at the players available to them and played to their strengths rather than fit them into a formation they don't suit. Gestede and Ayew together in the middle with wingers is a pairing I want to see - one very good all round and one who's excellent in the air and muscles through the defence. Sinclair used to be a great winger - I was at Wembley for the Swansea-Reading playoff four or five years ago and he was superb - but not on the left of a 4-3-3 or behind the lone striker. Play him wide (and he can defend), with Traore opposite. Gueye and Veretout in the middle.

Or, play Ayew or Gestede at the front of some kind of 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1 or whatever formation and watch as they're completely isolated and lose the ball every time Guzan punts it in their general direction because the nearest player is 15 metres away. Stick Sinclair in the middle, or Richardson* on left wing, and the fan's favourite, Bacuna, on the right.

It's too late now for survival so why the hell is Black denying our best defender playing time? Has someone made the executive decision that he must go at the end of the season? I really believe he has a great future, but why is Black making that decision? What if he's gone before the new manager comes in? Even as back up (which we don't currently have - we only have one right-sided central defender, both Cissokho and Clark are left-sided, and Richards isn't even good enough to play RB) we need him. I think he and Clark will make an excellent Championship central defence.

The only player who fitted Garde's 4-1-4-1 was Sanchez, which is ironic because he doesn't work in any other formation. At best he's a 70th minute sub to replace tired legs and take out the opposition.

Week after week we see the same 4-3-3- variant, with players out of position (Ayew on the left? Gil on the right? Bacuna on the right of a 4-3-3?). Even playing Ayew up front on his own with Grealish and Gil free rein behind and around him would be something to watch.

I think it's the correct decision to let the U21s stay out of the senior squad and they're now in the U21s promotion playoff. That's going to give them confidence and we can bleed in a few of them to the first team next season.

We still have the players in the senior team to go out in the remaining matches and try to play some good football. That means listening to us and dropping Guzan for Bunn, bringing Okore back, pairing him with a fit Clark (or Lescott if needs be), sticking on our creative players around a creative striker like Ayew or going down the blunt route and pairing Ayew and Gestede together. So what if we lose if they're all sent out to try to play well.

*Richardson was much maligned at LB but it wasn't his position. Even when he arrived I assumed he'd be a left midfield 70th minute sub. Again, how he's been played has been down to a lack of LB (although I thought Clark was OK when he's had to do it) and our managers' lack of, well, anything. Who'd pay money to see Richardson play on the wing?