Team shape, tactics and personnel

[Monsieur Hazdazler]

43 minutes ago, TomC said:

I am not surprised to see Pau and Kamara at the top. Much more so Moreno and Zaniolo, but then, the sample size for them is small. They may just have been lucky to start the same games as more important players.

Also interesting see Cash up there.

The most important factor of all seems to be the Konsa/Pau pairing. At 2.5 PPG, that's 95 points over 38 matches. If they could have kept up that rate over a full season, we would have finished ahead of City and won the title.

It's going to be hard for Mings to break in with that success rate, but then, we have many matches to play and he will get his turn.

 

I think the Pau/Konsa/Carlos stats are probably impacted by the fact that in a lot of tough games where we needed more defensive solidity we played Konsa at right back and brought in Carlos alongside Pau

[Brum_Aus_Villan]

On 13/08/2024 at 10:30, tomsky_11 said:

Just looking at some stats on starting players in the 23-24 season, the positions they started in, and our team record when each player started:

Also some data on starting centre-back pairings:

And double pivot pairings:

 

This is great! Kamara has for me always been our most important player. A far bigger loss than Dougie I feel. 

I'm pretty sure his first game back from his injury during Gerrard was Emery's first match? Can't wait for him to return. If we can hover in the top 8 until he get's back (obviously feel we can be much higher), I think in the New Year we can really push on. Keen to see how we shape up!

Edited August 15 by Brum_Aus_Villan

[Jas10]

 

Looking forward to that Buendia and Watkins link up… Ollie finishing those through balls off with aplomb!

[The_Steve]

Very helpful visualisation of our problems conceding 61 league goals last season - too many individual errors and turnovers - especially in the middle that resulted in more shots and goals

Onana will give us more steel and with the experience of rotating Barkley who is good at winning duels, that will helpfully address part of the issue. The side of that coin is our vulnerability down one particular flank. 

https://theanalyst.com/eu/2024/08/aston-villa-2024-25-preview-five-key-questions/
 

[cheltenham_villa]

2 hours ago, The_Steve said:

Very helpful visualisation of our problems conceding 61 league goals last season - too many individual errors and turnovers - especially in the middle that resulted in more shots and goals

Onana will give us more steel and with the experience of rotating Barkley who is good at winning duels, that will helpfully address part of the issue. The side of that coin is our vulnerability down one particular flank. 

https://theanalyst.com/eu/2024/08/aston-villa-2024-25-preview-five-key-questions/
 

Wouldnt you argue that turnover isnt a problem. Only 2% of the turnovers in our half resulted in goals. That was only 13% of the goals we conceded.

For me this reinforces the approach of playing out from the back and taking risk. 

[CVByrne]

2 hours ago, The_Steve said:

Very helpful visualisation of our problems conceding 61 league goals last season - too many individual errors and turnovers - especially in the middle that resulted in more shots and goals

Onana will give us more steel and with the experience of rotating Barkley who is good at winning duels, that will helpfully address part of the issue. The side of that coin is our vulnerability down one particular flank. 

https://theanalyst.com/eu/2024/08/aston-villa-2024-25-preview-five-key-questions/
 

That's a really good record, only 8 goals from turnovers when we are a team who play out from the back and try beat the press with killer pass. 

I'd like to see how many goals we conceded from set piece and crosses into the box. That was our big issue last season

[VillaParkAvenue]

1 hour ago, CVByrne said:

That's a really good record, only 8 goals from turnovers when we are a team who play out from the back and try beat the press with killer pass. 

I'd like to see how many goals we conceded from set piece and crosses into the box. That was our big issue last season

Crosses into the box are likely to kill us again. We don’t seem interested in signing defenders who are good in the air, only full-backs who can moonlight as CBs.

[Keyblade]

I just realised we don't really have adequate cover for Bailey on the right. If Ramsey on the left is injured, Rogers can come in, or Philogene, Buendia, even Tielemans did an admirable job there last season. If Bailey is out, last year at least we had Diaby. Now it's just McGinn or Philogene who are both gimped out there. That worries me.

[PieFacE]

11 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

I just realised we don't really have adequate cover for Bailey on the right. If Ramsey on the left is injured, Rogers can come in, or Philogene, Buendia, even Tielemans did an admirable job there last season. If Bailey is out, last year at least we had Diaby. Now it's just McGinn or Philogene who are both gimped out there. That worries me.

I always thought McGinn looked at his best when played on the right when Emery first joined. 

[Rich192]

4 hours ago, Keyblade said:

I just realised we don't really have adequate cover for Bailey on the right. If Ramsey on the left is injured, Rogers can come in, or Philogene, Buendia, even Tielemans did an admirable job there last season. If Bailey is out, last year at least we had Diaby. Now it's just McGinn or Philogene who are both gimped out there. That worries me.

Buendia's best position is on the right, as is McGinn's. We've more than enough cover there.

[Keyblade]

27 minutes ago, Rich192 said:

Buendia's best position is on the right, as is McGinn's. We've more than enough cover there.

I don't think Emery's ever played him there. Preseason last season he saw him more on the left.

I guess McGinn is fine there, but it's a huge drop off from Bailey. He's our main creative outlet in the front 3, and if he's out we become far more predictable and I think the opposition can play more risky with their fullbacks. What is McGinn going to do, run in behind?

[Jas10]

 

[Jas10]

Great to see Ty and Bouba in our new kits

[Hobsons Choice]

I can imagine the roar from the Holte End when Ty comes back for the first time being measured on the Richter Scale. 

[CarryOnVilla]

Our staring 11 today will not be the starting 11 on the last game of the season.

the depth of talent we have is incredible.

[Pongo Waring]

We have some exciting young players around the first team right now: Duran, Ramsey, Onana, Rogers, Philogene, Maatsen, Nedeljkovic, lling jr, Barrenechea.
 

[Pongo Waring]

"We miss Luiz" says no one. 

[CarryOnVilla]

I think with our depth, we are going to have a decent cup run.

 

[DeepDish]

Said before that I'm hoping for a top 6 finish. And I have been a bit worried before this season, but I think we have better squad this season than last season.

And can you believe how young our squad is? We are really building something for the future:

Duran 20

Rogers 22

Maatsen 22

Onana 22

Ramsey 23

Kamara 24

Kosta 18

Philogene 22

Enzo 23

Iling jr 20

Konsa 26

Torres 27

Buendia 27

Bailey 27

Watkins 28

Edited August 18 by DeepDish

[eholm]

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere but we definitely appeared to be defending a bit deeper today. The high line was not as evident. Maybe with Onana in CM, Unai doesn’t see as much requirement on condensing the distances as he did last year?