Coincidence?

Remie Garde came in and selected the team almost every Villa wanted to see play against Man City....we rode our luck, played ok under the current circumstances and earnt a battling point.

Against Everton we saw the return of Westwood, Grealish and Richardson and we were completely humiliated!

Is this a coincidence?

I don't think we can afford to play Gil and Grealish in the same side, and for me it has to be Gil all day long that plays...Grealish offers absolutely nothing to the side. For the first 2 goals on Saturday he wasn't even in camera shot!....People slate Richardson, but he had no help at all from Grealish on Saturday.
I personally wouldn't play Gil wide, I would play him centrally and remove the need for him to track back...I don't see the point of forcing our only creative spark to work his balls off going the wrong way back down the pitch.

Westwood should never start a game in a villa shirt in my opinion, unless we have a serious injury crisis.
For a midfielder, he cannot tackle, cannot create, never wins a header and doesn't score goals....does anyone know what he adds to the side?

Not sure why Sanchez was left out? Was it down to the international break and travelling etc?

At least Garde has looked at these players now, I guess that is a positive. His team selection this weekend will tell us an awful lot about him.

I wonder if the Man Citeh line-up selection was down to defending for our lives whereas in the Everton game Remi thought he might have breathing space to look at a few players in the heat of battle.

Sanchez played for Colombia against the Argies on the Tuesday evening (meaning a 14 hour flight back on Wednesday/Thursday). I think he didn't start purely because of that, he's the perfect person to protect the back 4 (especially 1 with Richardson in!!!) while the rest of the midfield drive forwards. Westy just isn't strong enough and should be on the bench as backup to Gueye/Veretout IMO 

Grealish is only just good enough for the bench at the moment. Richardson was poor but was also poorly supported. Everton recognised this quickly and Delefou or however you spell it targeted him. 

Sanchez back in the squad for Watford with Grealish on the bench for Zog (based on his recent performances) or Sinclair

Totally agree Villa Dan...I am baffled as to why Sinclair was left out?
He may not have pulled many trees against Citeh...but he worked like a Trojan....he would be in my team every time!

I can only assume Grealish has put a bit of effort in during training so Garde was giving him his shot. Back on the bench is a must for Watford. 

A Villa team with Sanchez and Sinclair/Zog starting will pick up the 3 points IMO Watford are a good counter attacking team with Deeney and Igloo up top, Sanchez stops their threat

Grealish is currently a total passenger for us, unfortunately.

I really hope we get to the place where our team has synced and we work as one unit, when we can afford passenger, but right now we can't.

Wrong lineup for Grealish when we have him in front of Richardson and Gueye protecting the middle. Sinclair at least comes back to defend and can attack too.

Had we had proper protection on our left we'd have made it much tougher for Everton but Richardson really is hopeless (he's not a defender), and someone should have told Garde that Grealish cannot defend. I'm not sure he can even tackle.

More of an issue on Saturday was we had virtually no posession and were constantly under attack, every time we did get the ball it went long to Ayew, which was a pointless exercise, even if he did get the ball he had no support. Sure, if we go forward and try to attack we're more exposed against a strong opposition but at least we have a chance of scoring, and taking posession away from the opposition. After the Lambert years I'm pretty sure we're all agreed that we'd rather see our team try to score goals and go down valiant losers than watch them sit back, with only the occasional attack relying mostly on the opposition making a mistake, and see our defence eventually crumble and concede.

Let's not forget that Everton have some very good players and knew with Amavi injured our main weakness would be Richardson not being able to defend and being out of position most of the time, and drawing in Clark to cover. That leaves all manner of holes for a decent attacking team to exploit.

I was surprised to see Grealish in the team on Saturday, after Garde saying Grealish was not ready, must have put out in training, but like most of the comments he never protects the defence.
The first team Garde put out was what the fans wanted, Garde was caught out, let's see who he picks on Saturday , 12th man needs to get behind the team.

Have a look at their first goal again if you get chance....Look at the positions of Barkley/Westwood as Barkley flicks ball into Lukaku.....then watch Barkley as the game develops...and at the same time watch Westwood....it's ridiculous.
Have to say aswell, none too impressed with Gana's tracking back ability....this has cost us a few times now...and he is a culpable as Grealish in this instance.
Remember when he signed?...He stated he was bought to play on the right of a midfield 3....is he really a holding midfielder?

Edit: Have to say aswell...Guzan needs to be doing better with all three of their first half goals in my opinion....!

Guzan has lost his conferdence, he is like a rabbit in car headlights at times, the clean sheet against Man City was luck, but who do we put in his place?
Hope we get a win,which the team needs to get the confidence back, go for broke and put the best attacking team on the pitch.

It's no coincidence at all, apart from our actual defensive back 4 we have no effective players to stop teams smashing our front line and midfield. With Sanchez missing in that first half it was a duck shoot, Westwood simply doesn't have the qualities needed to be effective in the position he plays.

I'll also add that Grealish adds next to nothing thus far, certainly not enough to warrant a starting position in a relegation scrap. We need to judge players fairly without our rose tinted specs on.

Within 10mins of coming on Sanchez had stepped in and stopped Delefou (what IS his name???) cutting inside by simply standing strong and letting him bounce off him

Wish we had Melberg,McGrath,Larsen in the team, we might stand a chance, and spink in goal. But we have to play with what we have at our disposal. Garde will understand the importance of this next game, so will the team, it's up to them.good luck.

Garde's learning curve is near vertical, and we'll see just how good he is over the next few weeks. The results of the January window will tell us if the owner is willing to spend the money to keep us in the Premier League or if Baker, Donacien, Robinson, Calder and Steer don't have relegation clauses.

In light of his recent comments, I think Garde may have afforded Grealish an opportunity to step up (or not) to underline why he may not be guaranteed a starting role going forward. Doesn't feel like a great time to be point-proving but maybe better now than perpetuating Jack's sense of self-importance.

Jack has had too much praise too soon, I was lucky enough to witness Brian Littles first steps in the top flight and he was always on the go making things happen, "the exuberance of youth" you could call it but I call it sheer hard work. That's what makes the difference between players, you have to work at it, at the moment Jack just doesn't put it in, he has to realise if he doesn't get his finger out he will miss out, and that will be a waste.

Thing that always gets on my nerves are the fans that keep on referring to his age, and making excuses based on it....its bollox.
Compare to other players of his age, and younger....he just isn't all that!

You cant just blanket compare him to others his age - Ian Wright was 26 before he signed a professional contract. Players mature at different stages.

Jack's issue for me isn't a lack of ability because we've seen him in games really look a top draw talent (the semi final v Pool for example), and enough managers seem to rate him (there was a reason Ireland and England were fighting over him), his problem IMO is mentality and application. This has to improve, there's no excuse for it. We've had an abundance of players whoctry hard but haven't got the ability, Jack is at risk of going into the list of players who have ability but waste it.

You know what, I'm probably beating a dead horse here cause people will differ on this, but I've never seen Grealish do anything really fucking good despite all his hype. He must have been a different class in the youth leagues, cause the amount of hype this kid is getting without actually providing goals or assists or creating play is mind boggling.

I'm gonna take Gary Cahill as an example here as he's arguably the best youth product I've seen in my life time with Villa. When you saw him at 18 years old you thought he needed to bulk up a bit, but he was a natural athlete. His positioning, pace, tackles, maturity, it all just was amazingly all round for a 18 year old CB. I could easily see how he would develop further as the only gripe I had with him was concentration lapses and last ditch tackles.

With Grealish you basically don't see anything to make you think he will suddenly have the ability to run at defenders, score goals or anything, because he never tries. In fact he reminds me of Martin Ødegaard at Real Madrid. He also is hyped to shit, has a great touch like Grealish, takes too much time on the ball like Grealish and just like Grealish he dances around the 16 yard box without ever taking a shot. Then again Ødegaard is 16 years old, Grealish is 20.

Grealish is not quite as bad as Clarks generation through the academy, that generation thought they had made it and their work was done as soon as they got that contract, everyone of them represented everything I hate about modern football. They were all more concerned with their clothes, cars and fucking coffee machines than how they performed on the pitch, always out getting plastered and generally acting like knobs when away from the club and look where that got most of them, they never developed any further and got found out. Grealish hasn't got to that stage yet, but he is at that point where he could now go either way.

Let's see how Remi Garde deals with this.....hopefully decisively, unlike Sherwood!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-3330610/Jack-Grealish-filmed-enjoying-boozy-night-Aston-Villa-s-4-0-defeat-Everton-friends-appear-inhale-hippy-crack.html

I don't wanna see this prat in a villa shirt again, he doesn't deserved the unquestioned support he gets from a lot of fans!

When I was 20 I was out getting plastered whenever possible, give the kid a break.

Let's not write him off yet, he has a lot of potential but needs guidance. For now, the simplest way of putting it is Sinclair is currently playing better (and can at least tackle and try to defend) and takes his place in a 4-1-4-1. Even Gabby can run at players and has put in a couple of good assists this season. If Jack isn't being played he will find he needs to prove himself. One thing he cannot do though - or hasn't done so far - is tackle anyone. He works much better with a more defensive midfielder like Gueye or Sanchez sitting between him and the defence.

FoxyAV wrote:When I was 20 I was out getting plastered whenever possible, give the kid a break.

That's such a crock of shit!!!

It's the middle of the season, we had just been spanked and he played totally shite....for a start!

I apologise if you were a professional footballer at 20....but I'm guessing you weren't. With respect, it doesn't matter what you or any other 20 year kid does every night, nobody gives a fuck......but he CANNOT behave this way, I don't care what anyone says..... If Garde is the kind of coach we hope he is (and need him to be)...then I expect Grealish will be on his way soon.
Wenger had to weed out a similar culture at arsenal when he went in there, I don't expect Garde will tolerate this at all.

edit....oh and Gueye is not a defensive midfielder.

I didn't give a shit about him getting wankered in the summer. But midseason, as we are bottom, after getting a hiding at Everton? Go home, don't be photo'd having a laugh and a joke while getting pissed as if it doesn't matter. 

Twat.

He should of been at BMH on Sunday morning doing some extra work!

File him with Collymore, Hendrie, Moore etc etc etc.....waster!