Pre Match Aston Villa v Leicester

[Payne74]

Gerrard has been playing 3 in midfield, if we play Ndidi and Soumare as a 2 we will get bummed with a big aubergine wrapped in kale

 

[popillius]

It's so simple. Albrighton in for Lookman, KDH in for Soumare. With those two duffers benched, we are about 50% better.

 

[TommyK]

Of all the players to call out I would not say Thomas has been appalling.

Any teams with Ndidi not in are crazy. He's been our best defensive midfielder for years. He's having a bit of bad patch after injury. But to leave him out if crazy.

 

[fox58]

Villa scored a nice goal from a corner against Man C

 

[homer]

Villa scored a nice goal from a corner against Man C

Yeah but wait til they come up against our innovative zonal marking/player marking/**** knows who or what we are marking combination set up

Boooom

 

[Miles Away]

Anyone reckon we will keep a clean sheet?
No?

 

[Brown Nose]

Anyone reckon we will keep a clean sheet?
No?

To be fair, no team outside the top four have a positive goal difference. That suggests that there are sixteen sides largely incapable of keeping clean sheets.

 

[glyn]

The fact that BR selected an unchanged line up suggests that he's trying to get some basics in place.

That makes good sense but it's impossible with such a crammed fixture list. Changes are necessary and inevitable. So will we just keep chopping and changing?

BR said as much post match. Said he was trying to get some stability in the line up, but the schedule and EL make that difficult.

 

[Blue Maniac]

Schmeichel

Amartey Evans Vestegaard

Castagne Soumare KDH Thomas

Maddison

Ihenacho Daka

Ndidi needs to be taken out of the team. And I’d like to see how Soumare plays when he’s the one defensive midfielder.

Christ on crack

 

[Robin127]

To be fair, no team outside the top four have a positive goal difference. That suggests that there are sixteen sides largely incapable of keeping clean sheets.

I wonder how much of that is down to every team trying to play out from the back and not being very good at it.

 

[Joe_Fox]

Schmeichel

Castagne / Evans / Soyuncu / Bertrand

Perez / Ndidi / Maddison / Barnes (in a diamond)

Iheanacho / Vardy

Playing Barnes in a diamond is a ludicrous suggestion. Firstly, if we had a diamond big enough to contain Barnes then we should sell it and become the richest club on the planet and use the funds to buy some better players. Secondly, being in a diamond would be very restrictive for a player. The sheer weight of it would render Barnes immobile, notwithstanding the added problem that he wouldn't be able to move his arms and legs very easily, if at all. Certainly no traction with the pitch could be achieved. Playing Barnes on the left is probably a more sensible suggestion.

 

[tedfoxxx]

Playing Barnes in a diamond is a ludicrous suggestion. Firstly, if we had a diamond big enough to contain Barnes then we should sell it and become the richest club on the planet and use the funds to buy some better players. Secondly, being in a diamond would be very restrictive for a player. The sheer weight of it would render Barnes immobile, notwithstanding the added problem that he wouldn't be able to move his arms and legs very easily, if at all. Certainly no traction with the pitch could be achieved. Playing Barnes on the left is probably a more sensible suggestion.

Not to mention the ethical issues with diamond mining.

 

[Lako42]

I wonder how much of that is down to every team trying to play out from the back and not being very good at it.

A lot

Also a reason the PL is complete boring shit

 

[Joe_Fox]

Not to mention the ethical issues with diamond mining.

A fair point well made.

 

[Graz]

I think I'd probably play Albrighton on the right for this one.

I'm not seeing any suggestions that look like a better option than sticking with 4-2-3-1 and just rotating personnel to try and find better performers.

But the fact that Albrighton might be our best option for the right wing in 2021 should be an embarrassment for our recruitment team.

 

[Fox Fan]

I think I'd probably play Albrighton on the right for this one.

I'm not seeing any suggestions that look like a better option than sticking with 4-2-3-1 and just rotating personnel to try and find better performers.

But the fact that Albrighton might be our best option for the right wing in 2021 should be an embarrassment for our recruitment team.

I agree with this.

I also think that when we have Daka on the pitch late in the game, it would also be sensible to introduce Albrighton. His ability to play a ball in behind the defence is still impressive.

 

[bocadillo]

the PL is complete boring shit

Another fair point, well made.

 

[Brown Nose]

A lot

Also a reason the PL is complete boring shit

Agree. I think Burnley are the only side not slaves to the Pep trend.

I really don't mind it as a tactic sometimes but doing it constantly defeats the point. The idea is to pull opponents out of position but if they know what you're going to do, they're not going to be out of position.

The ideal would be to mix it up with distribution one third short, medium or long so that opponents cannot just swarm your defence and there is space everywhere.

The fact that so many managers appear to be incapable of such a simple concept does make you think that a lot of the plaudits levelled at the current crop of managers is hyped up nonsense.

 

[LoopisDeLupis]

Put simply, Iheanacho has to play as well. He has the same relationship with Villa as Nugent did with Ipswich. Free goal.

 

[LoopisDeLupis]

To be fair, no team outside the top four have a positive goal difference. That suggests that there are sixteen sides largely incapable of keeping clean sheets.

One clean sheet in the league this season isn't justified in any context whatsoever.