Pre-season matches

He isn't very good.

We lost 3-1??

Could have done with this game happening 2 months ago. The previous friendlies would have built up a bit of false optimism so I suppose it's better that the manager has at least seen for himself the reason we got relegated. A little too late to fix it now though and any agent that gets approached for a player at this stage and after that result is going to be rubbing his hands together.

I've been flip-flopping between having extremely high hopes and thinking it might be a season of struggle. This performance makes me firmly believe it's going to be a long, frustrating 6 months until the next window opens.

Not able to find any highlights yet as not a member of AVTV etc
However, going from people's reviews and reactions I suspect it was sadly more of the same from last season with careless mistakes leading to all 3 of their goals and us playing two different halves - could have easily been 3-0 up at half time. Why does that sound familiar? I don't agree with the "pressure" of playing in from of our fans. It's still only a friendly so not much pressure on the players. I hear the fans were great though which is exactly what we need!

It does show we need a striker to bury the chances we create though and Xia and RDM seem to agree with Xia posting that we are in the market for an AM and a striker but may take weeks.

I, for one, hope we can get a striker in before next week and that we kick off with a half decent win to keep the positive atmosphere around. Like, I think it was Trotters, said if we lose one and then another it can quickly become very doom and gloom. However, if we get two decent performances and 4/6 points then we could quickly become favourites for the division. That's how fragile we are right now.

Thanks Trotters! I'll give it a look later on!

You don't see it on that video but their 2nd goal was caused by a catastrophic clearance by Baker who then proceeded to try and amend for his error by running out to make the challenge and, as a result, left that gaping hole behind him.

I get that he's still young (but not that young) and learning but I'd have thought a decent season in the lower leagues plus a couple of months of new coaching would ensure that that sort of shit doesn't happen.

Perhaps it's a case that his eagerness to try and please his new manager by fixing his own mess overcame the level of professionalism that was required. Hopefully Clarke has put him right on that front!

But it's the same Villa as last year; same players (mostly), same fragile mentality, same leaking defence, same lack of ideas up front.

The good news is that Amavi had 3 or 4 minutes run at the end for Cissokho who, by all accounts, was utterly woeful.

A week to fix this :/

Wow. I didn't know they had signed Negredo. That could be a seriously good bit of business if he can rediscover his form he first had at Man City.

I actually saw their second goal on Twitter. The pass was awful and he was reckless to dive in and try and win it back. Would he do it in a real match? I hope not. I hope Okore partners Elohim rather than Baker. He has the strength and speed that Baker often lacks.

Keeper could have done better with their first goal I feel, could have knocked it out the way better or smothered it a bit more.

Glad Amavi got some time. Still too early though. I think Bennett should be the starter next week, bit more creative than Cissokho and quicker too.

Who knows. I'm starting to doubt more and more if we will win the next game. I heard Gardner had a solid game though??

I watched the whole thing on Facebook... I think it was from the official Villa site with Radio WM commentary. Sorry lads, should have said.

Unfortunately, that reminded me of pre-season and the early part of last season. Did ok early on, but couldn't keep it going and lost or drew. Not sure what I expected as we've still got too many in and around the first team from the past few disastrous seasons. For me, we need another centre half; Baker and Clark have let us down season after season while Lescott and Richards can just do one; another midfielder to compete with Gardner and Tshibola (Westwood can fuck right off); a number 10 with an end product... I thought Grealish might be that person but he looks great until he actually has to shoot or pass; and, a couple of strikers because Gestede... awful. He doesn't run, he's terrible with the ball at his feet, we don't cross enough and when we do his heading isn't the strongest.

Other than that... yeah, we're going straight back up

I'd be happy sorting our defence first. I haven't seen any pre-season friendlies yet but assume Elphick plays on the right, in Okore's position? Baker puts it all into his game but was always second best to Clark, who never really played well apart from with Okore. I bang on about this, but Okore for me is a cracking defender with a big future but if we're going to keep screwing around bringing in experienced players like Richards and Elphick (and maybe even Vlaar) and playing them ahead of him I hope he gets out ASAP and goes to play for a team that actually wants to play him. I'm not a fan of players playing out of position when we have someone whose main position they're taking, so I'm unsure about Okore playing on the left of Elphick. On the other hand, there's a very good chance Baker and Elphick will injure themselves early on in the season and Okore and Clark will have a good go. I'm not sure Clark is the answer but he's the best we currently have. From what we have, and assuming RDM insists on playing Elphick, hopefully we'll line up with Hutton, Elphick, Clark and Amavi. At least for the first time in years we'll have LB and RB good enough for the job, even if only one of them is any good going forward.

Do we know if Pantilimon or Gollini control the area properly, bearing in mind how poor Guzan was?

Another thing, someone mentioned Gollini always looked like he palmed the ball out all the time, one of those Middlesborough goals came from him saving the first ball and a striker being in the right place.

So what formation is RDM playing, with a single striker up front? Ayew can probably have a good go at it but it's not like Gestede, Kozak or Gabby are any good at it, are they?

I'm still hoping we'll see Gestede play not on his own but with Traore and Sinclair (or Green, or even Corey Blackett-Taylor, since I've been banging on about him all year) on the wings banging in balls for him, and Ayew to play off. The one strategy we didn't see last season, the only one Gestede seems to know how to play. I don't necessarily want to see it every week (unless it works consistently) but we have two wingers and a striker who only works with balls in from wingers, seems a shame to waste two* shirt numbers and not play to their strengths.

*I have hope for Traore even though he can't defend. Sinclair is a winger or nothing.

I won't pretend I'm a master tactician, but look at these two goals.





It's clear as day we still have the same issues when it comes to man marking. It's fucking mind boggling how professional footballers can't do basics right.

In the first picture it's easy to see how toothless our midfield is. Nobody actually challenges the ball. We are played over and our defence get under ridiculous pressure.

Second picture look at that marking. Are you fecking kidding me.

There's a post on twitter in the build up to their second goal where we only have 8 outfield players on the pitch. It isn't clear from the highlight reel. I'll see if I can find the photo. If it's true and it's due to subs or injury etc then we can't be super critical. Yes the ball was played where and when it shouldn't have and Baker got too carried away trying to win it back.

EDIT: here is the link

https://twitter.com/viewsvilla/status/759669019049881600

Can't see Cissokho so maybe he is just super wide and in that case his position is awful...or they're not on the field.

Anyone know??

Our midfield seemed to be the issue here. Baker fucked up with his clearance and then compounded the problem by getting himself way WAY out of position. But maybe he made a snap decision and figured he had to march forward seeing as our midfield was non-existent.

The goalkeeper made a mess of his save palming it out to one of their players who just happened to be Johnny on the spot but aren't at least one of our defenders doing basic schoolboy level defending by being goalside of Johnny? From the video I saw, two of our lot just stood and watched.

And that's more concerning than anything else; from November last year most of our team had given up. I'll be pretty annoyed at the manager and coach if this holiday-camp attitude is ongoing.

RDM and Clarke have a huge amount of thinking and even more work to do in the next 7 days.

I feel exactly the way about Baker as I do for Clarke - great lads who'd give their all for Villa but always have either a mistake per game, often born out of poor positioning, or lose concentration at vital times. I suppose being brutal, it translates to "just not quite good enough, and never will be". Baker playing - for me - always makes me feel like I did when we used to bring Craig Gardner on as sub - like we really didn't have any other choices or ideas left.

Clark just lacks ability. I love his effort, but he's pretty shit.

Baker deserves a chance. Feels like I haven't really seen him play because he either has been out on loan or gotten a head injury 5 minutes into the game

Baker needed a top quality defensive coach. He's got the skills and christ knows he has the tenacity. But he lacks the finesse and positional awareness that I believe can be taught. It just hasn't been. Either that or he's just thick and doesn't listen.

Clark HAS been exposed to some decent coaching but just seems destined to be a drop-a-bollock-a-game player.