If Villa adopted the Spainish model......

[MoetVillan]

I think if i had the choice between Xavi and Drogba starting for Villa next season, the Drog gets it by a country mile.  Direct, fast and tough.  I agree with the "lets worry about pretty football when we are winning" sentiment.

[Irish villain]

The Germans play good football too. I like to see football played on the deck with players holding onto possession. I think our game requires too much energy being expended because the other team will have a lot of possession. Football is an easier game when you have the ball and you're not chasing the team with the ball.

If we were better at holding possession we could have had a few more points on the board last season.

[Monty]

i will get shot down here, but it reminds me a bit of Arsenal, who are winning as much as us at the moment.  A team that dont like it up them, see a shitty away day at Bolton, and how attractive tiki taki looks like when you have just been kicked off the pitch.  I like a blend of craft and directness.

That sort of thinking is why England are rubbish. Sure, Spain aren't direct, they don't play vague, risky passes to nobody in particular and give possession away cheaply - how exactly is that bad? As for "don't like it up them", well, who does like it up them? But they have the technique to deal with it.

One thing that annoys me is that people seem to think that Spain don't want to score, whereas the Germans, for instance, have been all nippy and entertaining. The Germans have played largely on the counter-attack - shock horror, how Villa play - so of course they got more space than Spain do. When Spain get the opportunity to counter-attack with pace, of course they do it as well, but they just never get the chance as everyone parks the bus against them.

Spain would probably win the Premier League, Barcelona almost definitely would and if Villa made a halfway decent attempt to imitate them we'd do a hell of a lot better than we are now.

[jembob]

New team required for this to be achieved.

New manager too. It would be nice if we could string a number of passes together leave alone making it a way of life. Plus, our own Spanish member of the squad is amongst the worst passers of the ball that I've seen in professional football.

The thing that has really struck me about virtually every other team in the WC is how much more comfortable their players are on the ball compared to the England squad. The Spanish are great at receiving the ball at pace, controlling it, retaining possession and passing. They believe that their team mates will do this and accordingly move into a position where they can get the ball back. It's very, very well done but not complicated! I struggle to understand why the likes of MON cannot see how this sort of play could be beneficial to us rather that the long ball up to the big guy sort of crap.

I haven't renewed my season ticket yet, as the majority of home games last season followed the same tedious, uninspiring pattern. Not entertaining, not good even at a basic level and frustrating. THe answer to the thread question is that YES, I would love to see us employ a smart passing game and it would fill VP. MON is not the man to bring anything new, and for next season we'll see the same tired, repetitive pattern to every game. Having seen every game of this WC, it makes you realise how far England and Villa are away from playing football at the sort of level that the rest of the world can do!

[MoetVillan]

Jem, I dont think we do play long ball football at VP.  I think there is a lot of patient build up that gets chastised  (certainly where I sit).  England dont play possesion football as they are constantly trying to get it forward, which is the way the Premier league as a rule plays, certainly United and Chelsea.  Its not so much blood and thunder in la liga, and when you play a certain way to fit your league, and excel, thats why you get picked, and when they get out of their comfort zone, it becomes harder to play (see England at the WC, or some how long players from La Liga take to settle into the PL).  Hargreaves was a different sort of player when Sven picked him.  He got lambasted for the selection, but injuries aside was for me one of the best decisions he made. We, at Villa need to challenge in the Premier league.  Not La Liga.  We need to be able to compete against Arsenal, but also Blackpool, Blackburn, Wigan and Bolton.  I think fancy football will struggle at these places.  IMO

[enigma]

As for developing players, I think we have done a lot of that with Young, Milner, Davies, Albrighton, Clark, Gabby, potentially Delph....

We bought most of those rather than bringing them through as kids but regardless, as good as they may be they aren't quite at the level of Xavi, Iniesta, Messi etc.

[Toronto Villa]

It's not about one style. It's about being able to play several styles and systems. I'd love Villa to play more like Spain, but rather I'd like them to know how to change when things aren't going to plan. That's what holds us and Arsenal back.

[cb]

I'd love to see us playing the way Spain do. For me it's exactly how the game should be played. I think Xavi and Iniesta are absolutely brilliant to watch, even when they are not scoring. Some of the things they do just to hold on to the ball are well worth the price of admission alone.

However it should not be underestimated how difficult it is to do this. No team in England can just start to play this way, as it requires players of technical excellence some way beyond anything available today. It would require a concerted effort on the coaching front and ten years of hard effort, not to mention a fair bit of luck to develop the players necessary to play this way. Would the fans be patient enough for that? I think not.

We do pretty well on our player development, but none of the players we produce can hold onto the ball like the Spanish do. Maybe we can slowly add a bit more technical ability to our players, but I think we'd need to bring in some additional coaches to achieve this.

[Monty]

Well said, cb.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

It could never happen. The Holte start getting on the players back after 2 or 3 passes between our defenders as it is, let alone 20 going back and forwards between midfielders and defenders.

Far too impatient (annoyingly so as well).

Personally, I think it's very tedious to watch.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Just lump it in box, get it in there!

[BedsVillain]

I adopted a Spainish model once....high maintainence and she didn't do any cleaning... give me Polish any time!

[Legion]

Spainish?

[BedsVillain]

Spainish?

Yeah, it's like Spain, but not quite...

[supertom]

Playing like Spain would require 10 Spanish players and cost us about 500 million.

We should aspire to play like ze Germans. Tidy on the ball, well organised and breaking with pace. We're part of the way there, we just need to improve the ball retention, movement and add a couple more technically accomplished players. And of course, revert back to 4-3-3.

Spain, either too, or against their credit, never got out of 3rd gear in the tournement. Scary they could win it without ever really being at their best. But look at Arsenal. For all their pretty play, they've been miles from competing for a title for years. When they last won the league, they still had an English spine, and could compete physically as well as having the flair. Viera owned the midfield. Ljungberg worked hard and gave goals too.

Now if you get at them, they often seem a little spineless.

I think when we counter at pace we are good to watch. On the ball, when a bit more composure and consideration is required, we need to improve, and to mix our game more.