Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Nastylee on April 11, 2015, 12:37:28 PM
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Since Tim has taken over he has said on a number of occasions that Villa are ill equipped to battle this relegation by eeking out results and that we need to play and attack. Is he right?
Although he has us playing and scoring, our defending is atrocious and contributing to our inability to get clear of trouble. I believe he is being too attacking. For example, Richardson and Bacuna at FB against QPR might have given us some attacking options but also left us woefully exposed in defence. Surely Lowton has proved a better defensive option in recent weeks on both flanks? This all or nothing approach has cost us what should have been draws against Stoke and Swansea when in the last 10 mins we opened up too much looking for a win when we should have ensured we got at least a point. Just think about those extra 2 points now given the league positions.
As for the 'we can't defend' statement: while Lambert's brand of football was atrocious we proved we could grind out a result. Think about those wins at Stoke and Liverpool for example. It seems that Sherwood has gone the complete opposite end of the scale and a middle ground might have been a safer bet. Will his 'all or nothing' approach work? We could really do with something to work.
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The fence hasn't been helped with the injury situation. Not having a decent full back to call on has hindered him massively. I massively prefer Sherwood's approach to Lambert's though. The football is better, the results are better, and we'll score more goals. I think he'll keep us up but it'll be squeaky bum time for a while due to the damage inflicted by Lambert. Next year will be much better, I'm sure.
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The fact that under Lambert our attacking form was a national joke, and that it's been all but forgotten under Sherwood, shows me where my apprciation should lie. We don't have great players and we have an absurd injury list, and Sherwood has made tactical errors, but I think we have the best chance of staying up the way we're playing right now.
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The football will be better in as much as it can't be worse than Lambert. What he must do is achieve what Lambert didn't, that is to not only score goals, but make us far better when we don't have the ball and have to defend. We all knew what was needed at the end of Lambert's first season. We were looking quite outstanding at times in attack, scoring goals, many quite outstanding. But we couldn't defend at all, and from set pieces utterly abysmal. We're in danger of slipping back into that and we can't expect Benteke to bail us out every week. I like Sherwood's approach, but we have too many players at the club who are simply not of the level required for a long PL campaign. What I do like is the coaching staff he has employed and that he has people in that he trusts to share the load. We simply have to stay up, and after that we can look forward to what will be an incredibly exciting (or at very interesting) summer.
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I don't think our defence would be quite this bad if we had our first choices all fit and playing. I actually think we've missed Cissokho. He's absolute shite on the ball going forward, but defensively is better at LB than anyone else on our books. Hutton likewise has been in and out somewhat under Sherwood.
I also think many of our defensive problems have come from individual defensive errors more so than general organisation. The players need to show a bit more concentration, particularly late in halves.
If we get just a bit of luck with injuries and sort out the fullback areas, we'll look more solid and we'll pick up more points. But for lapses we'd have come away with a point from Stoke and Newcastle, and had 3 points against QPR.
He's definitely made an improvement on Lambert, but it's still clear as day that we need at least 5 decent new signings in the summer and a lot of dross needs discarding.
In terms of our attacking philisophy, we should keep it going. I do agree, we're not good enough to sit 10 men behind the ball and hold out. We should be going for wins, not 0-0 draws. Even under Lambert we rarely held out in games. Opposition if half decent would always find a way through.
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No fair point about the defence specifically. What I meant was defending as a team as opposed to specifically the defenders. We seem to have huge holes that the opponents attack into when we press forward. We have to be more disciplined everywhere on the pitch, and get the ball back faster if we lose it.
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No fair point about the defence specifically. What I meant was defending as a team as opposed to specifically the defenders. We seem to have huge holes that the opponents attack into when we press forward. We have to be more disciplined everywhere on the pitch, and get the ball back faster if we lose it.
In principal, playing Sanchez should help out, but he's not quite cutting it. I think Sherwood would probably fancy having another player with Delph's physical attributes to pair with Delph.
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We have gone from boring turgid shite to a gung ho maverick approach. We need to find a happy medium somewhere in between the two.
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I think we have been a bit gung ho at times, but scoring goals is what will keep us up, "not losing' won't be enough, so we really have to go for it.
I am 99% sure, though, that if Lambert hadn't been sacked, we'd have got relegated.
We still might, but if it happens, we will at least go down fighting rather than boring the nation to death like we did under Lambert.
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99% is being quite conservative
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I think we have been a bit gung ho at times, but scoring goals is what will keep us up, "not losing' won't be enough, so we really have to go for it.
I am 99% sure, though, that if Lambert hadn't been sacked, we'd have got relegated.
We still might, but if it happens, we will at least go down fighting rather than boring the nation to death like we did under Lambert.
Agreed. That Hull away loss was the final straw.
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No fair point about the defence specifically. What I meant was defending as a team as opposed to specifically the defenders. We seem to have huge holes that the opponents attack into when we press forward. We have to be more disciplined everywhere on the pitch, and get the ball back faster if we lose it.
In principal, playing Sanchez should help out, but he's not quite cutting it. I think Sherwood would probably fancy having another player with Delph's physical attributes to pair with Delph.
I think that Cleverly has improved massively, actually; he's discovered some energy and is making some good runs.
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No fair point about the defence specifically. What I meant was defending as a team as opposed to specifically the defenders. We seem to have huge holes that the opponents attack into when we press forward. We have to be more disciplined everywhere on the pitch, and get the ball back faster if we lose it.
In principal, playing Sanchez should help out, but he's not quite cutting it. I think Sherwood would probably fancy having another player with Delph's physical attributes to pair with Delph.
I think that Cleverly has improved massively, actually; he's discovered some energy and is making some good runs.
He has. Whether we can get away with a two man mid with just him and Delph remains to be seen. But we're still one decent player short in the middle. I think a 3 man will be required in most games.
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I dunno whether his gung-ho style is going to keep us up, but one thing's for sure: if Sherwood had been here since the start of the season, there's no way we'd be shitting ourselves about the possibility of relegation right now.
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I dunno whether his gung-ho style is going to keep us up, but one thing's for sure: if Sherwood had been here since the start of the season, there's no way we'd be shitting ourselves about the possibility of relegation right now.
Despite being far from convinced by Sherwood, I'd agree with you on that.
If we go down, the primary cause will be standing by a manager who clearly was out of his depth for way too long.
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No fair point about the defence specifically. What I meant was defending as a team as opposed to specifically the defenders. We seem to have huge holes that the opponents attack into when we press forward. We have to be more disciplined everywhere on the pitch, and get the ball back faster if we lose it.
In principal, playing Sanchez should help out, but he's not quite cutting it. I think Sherwood would probably fancy having another player with Delph's physical attributes to pair with Delph.
I think that Cleverly has improved massively, actually; he's discovered some energy and is making some good runs.
He has. Whether we can get away with a two man mid with just him and Delph remains to be seen. But we're still one decent player short in the middle. I think a 3 man will be required in most games.
I don't disagree.
I wonder whether 3-5-2 might not be a better set-up for us at the moment.
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Well I was on the fence about the Sherwood appointment and I remain so. I can see how he is a good short term abiliity because of his energy and postitive tactics, but it is over a longer period where we will see if he can improve us. To say that he has been an improvement on Lambert is not saying much, but that maybe all we need to stay up for now, but if we are back in this position again under Sherwood next year than that would be proof that he is not the right man for the job.
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Think he's done well on the whole so far but not happy with Richardson playing again today after a diabolical performance on Tues
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Personally, I like everything the guy has done, doing and said.
Its sums up football at this present time that we judge a man already after only 5 minutes in charge. He's working under the same circumstances as Lambert, with the same players that have been fighting relegation for many a season now.
He isn't Jesus.
I heard many pundit say we should of gone for Pullis before he joined WBA. I'm sorry but so far Pullis isn't the messiah all journalists would have us believe.
I like Tim and I will pass my final judgement on him as Aston Villa manager in 3 seasons time, no matter what happens.
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A 1-0 win. Perhaps we can do it.
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Yeah, so cut him some slack.
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And we didn't get that 1-0 by parking the bus either. We still managed to be a threat on the attack. Could have won 3-0 today. At least we've seen that our backline is capable of producing a solid clean sheet too. Spurs barely had a chance of note.
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In answer to the original question yes he was right, we were a club not equipped for a relegation battle.He also said we would lose a few whilst he tried to put it right.I think he's learning quickly on the hoof and it's showing in the team.For resilience look to today'so game. For calmness and realism listen to today's post game interview.The right bloke right now and a load more improvement to come.
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Well, we if we'd have McLeish'd our way through the last few fixtures, we might have gotten draws against Stoke, Newcastle or Swansea; but we'd probably have dropped the odd point against Sunderland, Spurs or Albion.
I'll take Sherwood's approach and go for it, every time.
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the difference between Lambert and Sherwood is that at 0-0 Sherwood had a plan to score goals, and we should have been at least 2-0 at HT. Lambert would have started with a plan to finish 0-0 and we would have ended up losing.
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Don't get me wrong, no way am I suggesting Lambert should have stayed or tat Sherwood isn't doing a decent job. My point was that he was perhaps doing our team an injustice by saying we couldn't scrap and battle our way to results. Until the Arsenal debacle we had one of the best defensive records in the division. I think we do have the players to battle and defend like we have seen today. I am genuinely hopeful that we can finally push on after a turgid few years.
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Love what Sherwood had done so far...just look at the difference in Benteke! Just wish he'd give Gil more of a chance.
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Sherwood seems to have identified that we needed to hit the forwards much earlier in the play to utilise our pace on the break, rather than passing it aimlessly all over the back/middle of the park and then to forwards who were static and marked with no space to move into, he has also galvanised Cleverley and Benteke, the goals for column alone vindicates him. he has also tapped into the passion of the supporters as well, the bloke gets us past the scousers next sunday and he can name his price i reckon.
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What I liked yesterday is that we played in a number of different ways. We knocked it long at times. We played some lovely intricate football at times. And we fought hard to close down the opponents when we didn't have the ball. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
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What I liked yesterday is that we played in a number of different ways. We knocked it long at times. We played some lovely intricate football at times. And we fought hard to close down the opponents when we didn't have the ball. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
I think Sherwood out-thought Pochettino yesterday. The gameplan was spot on and they had no answer.
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I think we have been a bit gung ho at times, but scoring goals is what will keep us up, "not losing' won't be enough, so we really have to go for it.
I am 99% sure, though, that if Lambert hadn't been sacked, we'd have got relegated.
We still might, but if it happens, we will at least go down fighting rather than boring the nation to death like we did under Lambert.
agree with this 100% paulie. I like lambert and desperately wanted him to succeed, but that spell around the time of the last break for international matches, it became clear to me he had to go. And thank fuck we pulled the trigger then- even after his new 4 yr deal. Fucking hell, what were we thinking with that? I thought we'd go down then, easy. Now I think we'll not be comfortable, but we'll scrape through. The Spurs win was absolutely massive.