VillaParkAvenue

We all love Buendia and Coutinho, but does it work playing them as the 10s? Not one part of the team is working well right now.

I know we can’t attack. We’re shit. But I’m sure we’ll get a lucky win here or there, like Burnley did today.

I think Smith should have been sacked earlier, and ideally replaced with an experienced coach. Europe is full of managers and coaches.

Brighton got thrashed by Burnley today.

We’ll sign a DM, but from the Championship or Bundesliga 2.

Really horrible subs. Not that we would have won otherwise maybe but

I meant no need for my Illuminati talk. But I do think he’s being portrayed in the local press as someone who’s being unfairly treated.

Ok, no need for that. I think Sanson could be a decent player if he had a run of games to get up to speed, but Gerrard apparently doesn’t want to give him that time. Playing him as a single 6 today would have been really difficult IMO, maybe he could have played instead of McGinn.

Strongly disagree. Caused the free kick for their first goal when struggling to recover after being bypassed in a 1-2. Then, early second half, tried to clear and played the ball directly on Elanga, who was through on goal but Emi saved. Plus the back pass for their second. Looked rusty (which was understandable) and shaky.

Then again it would have been nice to have Sanson start five games straight. The way things are going now he’s being built up to be some kind of hidden superstar, who’s only being kept off the pitch because the Illuminati hates him.

Not my eye test. I think he’s been quite poor when he’s played. Decent against Chelsea but not against Man U.

I think Gerrard wanted to make changes in midfield but realized he couldn’t really. Options for Luiz were a kid who’s never played a minute with the first team, or moving Chambers to a position he hasn’t played in three years, or Sanson who also never played as a single 6 as far as I know. Making changes anyway would have only been to please angry fans.

I think they’ll finish mid table. Looking much better and that’s even before they got Bruno G going.

Still feels odd to start a young player who hasn’t even played a single minute off the bench yet.

Nakamba has played around 70 games for us and we’ve lost quite a few of them. He was good those four games before the injury, but why was that? Some like the Birmingham Mail claim he was ”transformed” by Gerrard. How? Magical powers? I saw a Nakamba in great physical shape, playing the same way he always does: patrolling an area outside the box and making tackles. It worked well because Villa in those games were set up to primarily defend. We played some difficult sides and more or less handed over possession (low 30s), defending in a tight and narrow block while the opposition passed the ball around us, sideways and out on the flanks. Do we want to go back to playing like that? Against difficult teams we probably should and Nakamba has traditionally done well against the best teams where Villa spend much of games under attack. But do we want to hand over possession and spend most of the game defending in a tight block against teams like Watford, Burnley or even Southampton? Gerrard says he wants us to become a more possession oriented side. We haven’t seen much of that yet. With Nakamba such a change could be even more difficult, even though he’s a great ball winner, since he’s not very comfortable is possession and definitely not when pressed (few of our players are actually). I also look forward to Nakamba returning but feel some have unrealistic expectations based on those four games. He will likely be the same Nakamba with strengths and weaknesses, not a player forever transformed after a few training sessions with Gerrard in November.

The manager already?

How is Gerrard’s system different from others so strikers must be quicker?

I’d say it’s a 100 percent chance he starts tomorrow. Almost more certain than Martinez starting.

That’s if you subtract not only the games where they played two up top, but also take away the games where Ings played central and Watkins out wide.

Lots of teams play with a double pivot. Kante usually plays with Jorginho, Rice and Phillips for England, Kimmich and Goretzka are maybe the best doing it at Bayern, and so on. Villa use a single pivot and our midfield three is rather weighted towards attack, if you compare to many other teams.

Quite common to play with two defensive mids and they often have different roles.

Yeah it’s either that he doesn’t believe our players can do it well enough, at least not yet. Or he doesn’t think high pressing fits our current system. Would be strange if it was the latter IMO, since we’ve more or less based the setup on Liverpool’s.

Ings hasn’t played as much as Watkins over the season, but not been benched that long. Watkins started the last three, before that Ings started four games in a row.

Man City work a lot harder than most teams. Pressing is hard work. But they’ve been given orders to play like that, and practice it in training. Gerrard apparently doesn’t want Villa to play with a high press, most teams don’t. If one Villa player decided to play Man City style, and ran off to press on his own, he’d risk leaving holes in the team and Gerrard might not be happy.

He’s not what Villa want or need in the 6 role. Will likely do well in another team with more possession, perhaps playing together with a dedicated ball winner.