Aston Villa v Man City Sunday 8th November 2015 1.30pm KO

Grealish has it but needs to start showing it for 90 minutes and not 9. Veretout has been doing the keep the ball moving and taking it forward job really well in the games I've seen him in. Wouldn't replace Grealish anyway but would do the job just as well as Sanchez or Westwood are

Veretout has the potential, IMO, to be out standout best midfielder

We don't need any more "Carrick" types who sit in the midfield, seemingly anonymous but keeping things ticking over. What we need is a proper box to box midfielders and I think him and Gana are the ticket.

Would certainly start Gil ahead of Grealish at the moment. Both lack consistency, but Grealish more so on current form.

Would also play two deep lying midfielders with wingers tucked in when not in possession to deny Citeh space between the lines. Gil just behind Ayew up front. Clearly this requires the ball to be passed to feet.

Jobs a good 'un...!

We need steel to survive this season IMO. We got loads of talented young players, but in January we need a few players that are willing to kick, push and tug opponents for 90 minutes. We most likely won't win against teams that spend billions on transfers, on playing pretty football with just Gil and Grealish. We need a few bastards that can get dirty.

I'm not saying it's impossible cause the team we had last year had none of those players and we won loads against the sky 4, but I think for our team it's smart to balance the pretty with the ugly.

Anyway, lets hope we finally get some application and luck!

Edit: I can see that the point of this post was a bit off in this thread, but what I'm trying to get at is that if we wanna win against the best teams in this league, then we gotta bring the football down on our terms. That means high pressure, high work rate. Dirty play when needed. They need to make sure these teams don't think it's gonna be a fun match. If we can do that while playing good football, then we're starting to go places. We've been too nice for too long.

Veretout is not a box to box midfielder, a bit like hoddle but nowhere near that standard ,I hope he gets up to pace then he might become a good player

I am excited today because we have a new manager and I hope that we see a more reasoned and sensible team selection than the perceived lunacy we have endured so far this season.

I am not expecting miracles and won't be surprised by a few disappointing choices. Is he the right man fo the job? I don't know. Should we have employed Pearson like Merson is saying on Sky? We will never know but we have a new manager and I will support him.

It was nice to see a calmness to the press conference.

Great lineup

Where the fuck is Ilori though

Joppe84 wrote:

Great lineup

BRAVO!!! BRAVO!!!

N'Zogbia & Richardson on the bench, though? Nevermind... He put out a great starting lineup.

Exactly the 3 man midfield I wanted as well. God think I've got a semi

I'm just curious to see if it's 4-3-3 or 4-1-2-1-2 with a diamond midfield.

Sherwood can't find his best team in 10 games. Garde finds it in a week

Well this is it for me, this is the acid test because this is pretty much the team that a lot of  people have waited to see.
OK is v Man C and in effect it''s a new line up so might still need bedding in but I am expecting no victory but a marked improvement.
Not sure about the international break coming up - if we have a stormer I'll be gutted there's no game next week.  If we have a disaster is 2 weeks to brood on it (although you could also argue 2 weeks to try and fix it).
Either way this for me is game zero , our season starts today.  UTV

Well said DK. Lets get this team to sync.

I'm absolutely outraged that he's seen fit to drop our club captain. Just who the fuck does this new manager think he is? 

No Traore which is interesting. Is he injured or did the manager see him run into a wall of defenders one too many times?

Like everyone else, I'm happy with that line up. I'll be really happy if we can string 6+ passes together too. I think that'd be a season record. 

I'm expecting to get beat at least 2-0 but I'm hoping to see a very big improvement in both our game and the attitude. 

Sadly, I'll be sleeping through it but will watch it over cornflakes before work tomorrow.  

COME ON VILLA!!!!!

NBC asked Garde a few questions:

- (asked if today was a proud moment for him) Garde said he was a little proud to be managing us in the EPL, but would be even more excited if we got something from this game.

- He said he didn't have a lot of time in training this week, but said they mostly worked on the team's shape

- Garde also said that last week he originally had an idea of which team he should play today, but that team changed when he saw the players train this week.

Interesting last comment!!!

Guzan is awful. He literally can't do basic 101 goalkeeping

Good stuff Clark

Well, I'm happy with this. This is, more or less, the team that I've been dying to see from the get go. I even picked Veretout for my fantasy football team, I had such high hopes.

UTV!

And it's just nice to have a feeling of being in safer hands, of having a manager that you feel can make smart, informed, tactical choices.

Dropping Gabby and benching Grealish also sends out exactly the right message. No one is bigger than the Villa.

I don't get why Sterling isn't carded for constant diving in the box

Hmmm. Grealish/N'Zogbia on for Sinclair at some point? Haven't even noticed Sinclair is on.

Masterclass tactics by Garde so far... City is targeting our left hand side with Amavi's brash tackling and marauding forward runs can leave us exposed, especially with Sinclair playing on the left in front of him. Garde noticed this, then had Sinclair and Gil swap positions to help give Amavi some help on the left. Bringing on Navas for Bony shows they're going to target Amavi even more this second half. We need to shore up that side. Maybe bring on Richardson for Sinclair later this game (yeah, I know...) to help see it out.

I don't remember the last time I saw a Villa player with anywhere near as much desire and hunger as Gil has been showing so far today. He is a like a man possessed and has been pulling all the strings.

Sanchez has been fantastic. 4-1-4-1 is his formation. He doesn't need to dottle on the ball and can just break play up and give it to someone else. Gana and Veretout are showing that they can form a great partnership in the center for us, as has Clark and Richards in the back.

We need to start putting balls into the box. We're never going to score if we don't create some chances. That said, I'm very impressed with how the team has played so far.