The defence and changes

[TheSandman]

I cannot help but note the irony of people crying out for a settled defence  (which I 100% agree with) when last season there was a clamour for MON to be resting players.

In fairness to K-Mac, there hve been injuries to key defenders so he has been forced to chop and change it.

Rest one player! Not bloody three quarters of back four. I like a settled defence too. I thought most of our rotation should have been done in midfield last season as Stan often looked clapped out.

For me we have to play with wide players in front of our full backs which is absolutely basic. There was no one in front of Beye, not even the fairy tackle-dodger, no one in front of Cuellar. MoN made the same mistake against Chelsea in the 7-1 which saw Luke Young have to deal with both Zhirkov and Malouda alone. That is the main cost of playing too narrow.

The main change needed is to not have Davies, in the team or even in the Birmingham area at the time. I'd go for Young two from Collins, Cuellar and Dunne and then Warnock if he has realised you need to be in the left back area and close to the winger to effectively defend against him. In front two midfielders in Reo and Petrov (neither are perfect but we'll have to make do). Two wide players and Ireland between them and in front of Ireland Gabby.
 

[Dan England]

I cannot help but note the irony of people crying out for a settled defence  (which I 100% agree with) when last season there was a clamour for MON to be resting players.

In fairness to K-Mac, there hve been injuries to key defenders so he has been forced to chop and change it.

Rest one player! Not bloody three quarters of back four. I like a settled defence too. I thought most of our rotation should have been done in midfield last season as Stan often looked clapped out.

For me we have to play with wide players in front of our full backs which is absolutely basic. There was no one in front of Beye, not even the fairy tackle-dodger, no one in front of Cuellar. MoN made the same mistake against Chelsea in the 7-1 which saw Luke Young have to deal with both Zhirkov and Malouda alone. That is the main cost of playing too narrow.

The main change needed is to not have Davies, in the team or even in the Birmingham area at the time. I'd go for Young two from Collins, Cuellar and Dunne and then Warnock if he has realised you need to be in the left back area and close to the winger to effectively defend against him. In front two midfielders in Reo and Petrov (neither are perfect but we'll have to make do). Two wide players and Ireland between them and in front of Ireland Gabby.
 

Thats exactly the team and formation I'd want to see. Not Ireland semmingly playing behind NRC and Petrov. I think that team would scare the shit out of defenders with the pace and options it would create.

[Surrey Villain]

The fairy tackle-dodger?  I wonder who that can be.  I don't mind him dodging tackles so much if he makes progress going forwards but he doesn't do much of that either.

[Captain Trips]

What we have at the moment are 4 similar wingers in Young, Downing, Albrighton and Bannon. I was pleased when we signed Milner cos he reminded me of Des Bremner. Hard working, tracks back, reasonably skilful. He complemented our midfield by giving it something different and made it balanced. We lost that when he moved inside and Downing was not the wide man we needed, unless Ashley was going. Now we have wide players who are very similar, better going forward than tracking back. When we play 3 of them, plus Ireland, its no wonder we get overrun by ex championship sides. We need to restore the balance as a starting point. A wide midfielder should be bought rather than a winger. One who is more of a worker rather than a dribbler. That would allow Ireland to bomb forward, knowing somene will tuck in behind.

[pmk1981]

the thing is, its so bloody easy to pick our starting lineup

                                                     Fridel
 young ---------------dunne-----------------collins-----------------------warnock


                               NRC--------------------------Petrov

Young  ----------------------------------ireland----------------------------------downing

                                                     gabby


Why is so hard to pick that lineup and play it correctly and not play ireland in a deep midfield role like last night, he is wasted there                           




 

[UK Redsox]

Least we know Beye shouldnt be anywhere near the first team. I always thought Davies would come good,but i'm not sure if he ever will now.

 After Gab went off it seemed obvious to put Ash and Albrighton on wings as the fullbacks were exposed,and have Ireland behind Heskey with the other two holding behind.

  When the final whistle went,my first thought was,we won't be seeing European football at VP for a while.

I didn't think that Beye was too bad at the beginning. Cuellar and most certainly Davies looked far worse in the first half.

Davies is nowhere near as good as Clark anymore

[jembob]

Four centre backs in one defence says it all.

And the best defender of the lot of them playing out of position at right back. When MON left I thought that we'd seen the end of players out of position, but last night was almost like an homage to his worst tactical attributes.

[pmk1981]

Four centre backs in one defence says it all.

And the best defender of the lot of them playing out of position at right back. When MON left I thought that we'd seen the end of players out of position, but last night was almost like an homage to his worst tactical attributes.

to be fair to the bloke,  luke young, dunne and warnock were all injured !!

he had no choice because there is no one else and out backup left back was sold to wba and our best left back was released

[AVFCRob]

The awkwardness of the square pegs in round holes strategy has been evident for ages as we all know. Carlos Cuellar is self-evidently awkward at right back, he doesn't overlap and makes it very easy for the opposing left back to know what he will do. However as I understand it he made it known to O'Neill that he didn't like playing there as Luke Young has done playing left-back in the past. So the question is why have the powers that be (MON and now Kevin MacDonald) continued to play players out of position against all the visual evidence that you could possibly want?

I mean I don't think that I ever heard MON explain his rationale for these kinds of decisions and last night Kevin MacDonald referred to Habib Beye as an 'experienced international' as if that alone can justify being played out of position.

I'm sure many of us have played at our own levels on the left side when you are right footed and vice versa and it isn't easy. You have to play against all your instincts and you are definitely less effective as a consequence.

So, going back to what I think I was trying to say, is why have we repeatedly weakened our side by playing players out of position? What's the thinking? I just don't get it

[pmk1981]

The awkwardness of the square pegs in round holes strategy has been evident for ages as we all know. Carlos Cuellar is self-evidently awkward at right back, he doesn't overlap and makes it very easy for the opposing left back to know what he will do. However as I understand it he made it known to O'Neill that he didn't like playing there as Luke Young has done playing left-back in the past. So the question is why have the powers that be (MON and now Kevin MacDonald) continued to play players out of position against all the visual evidence that you could possibly want?

I mean I don't think that I ever heard MON explain his rationale for these kinds of decisions and last night Kevin MacDonald referred to Habib Beye as an 'experienced international' as if that alone can justify being played out of position.

I'm sure many of us have played at our own levels on the left side when you are right footed and vice versa and it isn't easy. You have to play against all your instincts and you are definitely less effective as a consequence.

So, going back to what I think I was trying to say, is why have we repeatedly weakened our side by playing players out of position? What's the thinking? I just don't get it

 luke young, dunne and warnock were all injured !!

he had no choice because there is no one else and out backup left back was sold to wba and our best left back was released

[jembob]

AVFCRob. Take a look at JohnRobsonsSideburns classic rant on the 'The Mind of a Manager' thread. You are not alone.

This final paragraph has had me laughing all day:

Is it just me, or are the things above not clearly apparent to anyone who has watch even 20-minutes of Villa playing over the past year.  So why, oh why, oh why, oh why, can the men who have been in charge of Aston Villa during this period not see this.  How can 50,000 fans see this, and the man that matters not.?  I mean how can it happen?  What do they know, what have they seen that gives them such a contrasting opinion?  Are they so professionally trained that they know something that we don't? What the fuck is it, because I wish they'd fucking tell us.  TELL US KEV MAC, TELL US MON, because it's doing my bloody head in

[Shrek]

No one was bloody injured, he was trying to rest players! They will all be fit again for Sunday!

[pmk1981]

No one was bloody injured, he was trying to rest players! They will all be fit again for Sunday!

yes they bloody were !! it was on the bbc site for team news !!!

[eamonn]

Young and Dunne were injured, Downing and Warnock were rested accordin to the pre-match team news.

[OCD]

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle - Young, Dunne and Warnock probably have knocks and could have played if necessary but we could have been risking exacerbating their injuries and not having them for Sunday or longer.

However, how we're supposed to have kept a settled defence for these games when Collins and Cuellar have both only just come back from injury and Dunne was suspended for the first leg, I don't know.