Aston Villa FC versus Wigan Athletic

Remember this result next time we bemoan our luck, Wigan were robbed big time today, but there’s no such thing as a bad win, Wigan, unlike ourselves had a style of play and went for it, I couldn’t figure out what our strategy was?
Nyland: very nervous & rooted to his line for every cross, poor debut
Tuanzebe, did ok but not a RB
Chester , did ok
Jedinak,

We had one defender playing in position (Ok, Hutton is also good at LB)? Bruce really is trying out stuff then, in the hope we find a lineup that works? What's wrong with either a) playing Elphick and letting him and Chester settle or b) playing Tuanzebe as CB where he belongs while we presumably c) work on bringing in a CB on loan. Jedi was rubbish in defence last season and yet again he's proved it. Green's shown he can play on the right wing, so why not do something crazy and play him there and Adomah on the left, and play either Elmo or Bree at RB while until De Laet can come in next match. At least Whelan wasn't playing but I'd still rather see Bjarnason play in front of the defence which will allow Grealish and McGinn free reign in attack. I would imagine Kodjia is desperate to get a goal and to start scoring regularly but whining and sulking is counter productive.

Did we play HOOF or did we pass the ball up the pitch and play to our strengths?

achilles wrote:One of your options was sort of right (although I think Grealish was supposed to support Kodjia but he didn't):

 .........................Nyland

......Tuanzebe....Chester....Jedi....Hutton

Elmo...Bjarnason...Grealish...McGinn...Green

.........................Kodjia

Thanks for this BTW. I thought Bjarnason was left-sided too, so that's four in midfield and one acceptable right-sided player in Elmo. There are some seriously big holes in our starting lineup. As I may mention every time if we're going to play five in midfield we need a DM so the other two central midfielders have the freedom to help in attack. Oh, I don't know. Should I be happy that Whelan didn't start or will Bruce see the defensive frailties as proof he needs to play?

I don't think we played as much HOOF as normal, we did try to pass it but again it is too slow and the centre midfield was too all over the place for my liking without any real structure. Bjarnason didn't play as the main defensive midfield player (hence why he scored I suppose) and so seemed a bit lost as to what his main role was. McGinn just seemed to find the spaces as a good player should. Grealish was too deep, especially first half and he must release the ball quicker instead of always having two or three touches all the time. In the first half Hutton was totally unmarked on the left hand side and Grealish ignored him and dribbled across to the right hand side. I just hope the hype isn't getting to him although he still causes panic to the opposition everytime he gets the ball and kicked to pieces (although he does invite this sort of attention)!

Sherwood almost had it right a couple of times when he played Gil and Grealish as floating number 10s behind Benteke. McGinn and Grealish are both left-sided but it could be worth trying Grealish on the right side. Ahead of Bjarnasson they'd be superb.

Did Tuanzebe start off as CB or DM, and were ManU looking at playing him at DM? Does my memory serve me correctly? Sure, we need a CB but if he's a natural DM he could be superb.

I have a lot of time for Tuanzebe, he could be a really big player for us, sadly in the same way Onomah wasn't (although he was a DM and played there for about 30 minutes last season so maybe that's unfair on him).

Tuanzebe played right back but I would like to try him at centre half with Chester especially with De Laet back now.
Playing people in their proper positions how novel!