Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Londonvilla on May 15, 2012, 04:22:04 PM
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No more Austerity football – What style of football should we play
I was listening to Paul Hawksbee and Andy Jacobs on talksport when news came through that Mick McCarthy odds on taking over the Villa were coming down. Andy Jacobs went into a rant about how this was would be a mad decision and fans no longer wanted to see austerity football, which I think pretty much sums up what we've all had to live with under Alex McLeish.
But the question is what style of football do we want to see? as all the leading candidates for the Villa job have different approaches to the game.
Lambert plays a different formation every week , adapting his team in relation to the opposition (horses for courses) sometimes passing football, sometimes the long ball game
Rodgers plays Tic Tac football where you deny your opponents possession of the football by retaining possession even if this means going back or sideways
Martinez plays a pass and move system which involves overloading the midfield because you are playing three at the back
Holloway plays counter-attacking football based on everyone's a defender when you haven't got the ball and everyone is an attacker when you have got the ball
Taking into consideration the fact that unless Randy Lerner is going to invest £980 million in the team (like man city) were not going to win the league, what style of football do you want to see and which manager is best suited to produce it ?
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Some simple basics
Go into every game attempting to win it
Defense to be organised and tough to break down
Midfield to work very hard with the ball and even harder winning it back
A pair of strikers who links up play and knows where the net is (we have one already)
Throw into the mix a bit of flair and pace
Almost everything the last muppet forgot to implement
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I want us to play winning football...
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But who will delivery winning football considering the restriction on our wage bill?
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MON deployed strong defending with fast counter-attacks using both wings and also a focus on set-pieces. The players and he did not always get it right, but basically it worked a treat for Villa's budgetary level. He lacked a goalscorer like Bent and he was too slow to pep things up in the second half of games with substitutions.
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To be honest I haven't seen enough of the potential managers current teams to judge, other than when we play them and MOTD plus the odd Sky game. I'm impressed by Martinez and his ability to take on the big boys and beat them, and not by the odd flukey goal after defending for 80 minutes either.
Lamberts teams seem very well set up, play decent football and he seems to have the ability to switch formations dependant on the opposition, which I like.
Whoever it is, they will have to instil a tremendous work ethic into the team. For all thier style and panache, Barcelona are one of the hardest working teams I have seen. When they lose the ball, they bust a gut to close down and get it back asap.
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I think M'ON style football would suit the current playing staff best, especially Gabby, Bent and N'Zogbia, and should be deployed, as Houllier tried to take us down the pass pass route and failed miserably. It would cost us too much to replace the current team with a whole team who were happy to play that way. Having said that I still think their should be a place in the team for a Makoun or similar, to take over the Petrov role and keep the play ticking over in the middle.
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Collectively we have to be one of the slowest teams in the league and some of the most technically wanting. We need to improve both aspects. When teams like Swansea can come and take the piss, having been put together at a fraction of the cost, you know that good footballers are out there if you know where to find them. Having been exposed to some of the garbage of the past few years, we don't need Man City money to put bums on seats at Villa Park.
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Keep it simple, don't go out of our way to destroy McLeish's legacy too soon.
HOOF! THUMP! THWACK! HOOF! BANG! HOOF! THUD! Oh... 0-1, bugger.
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Trouble is, if you haven't got the ball you are going to be under the cosh for long periods, as we know all too well. With our current defence that's just asking for trouble.
Players with the ability to keep the ball and with an eye for a pass is what we need. Makoun and Ireland for a start. And we haven't seen the proper Nzogbia yet.
If it is Martinez, I hope to god he brings Moses with him. Hell of a player....
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Passing, possession based football with an appropriate manager, it's quite simple really.
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For me the important thing missing last season was tempo, everything seemed so telegraphed because we were so slow to get the ball around that teams found it easy to adjust to us. It also meant we ended up with no space, so going back to the defence who then went safety first with a big hoof up field. The whole team just needs to speed up 10% and we'll suddenly look much better.
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An impassioned, heart on sleeve performance week in week out. Losing's not so bad as long as all the team tried and played their guts out.
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The best Villa teams for me have been those that defend well and counter attack at lightening pace with good finishers. I'd love us to play like we did under Sir Brian or BFR, even our greatest team of the early 80s played that style. I think it suits AVFC and is what the fans have been born on.
Unfortunately it requires a strker who can hold the ball up (Bent is fucking useless at that) and can then lay it off to a midfielder or winger (Gabby is not much better). So straight way you need two new strikers to play that way...
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MON deployed strong defending with fast counter-attacks using both wings and also a focus on set-pieces. The players and he did not always get it right, but basically it worked a treat for Villa's budgetary level. He lacked a goalscorer like Bent and he was too slow to pep things up in the second half of games with substitutions.
I still remember that every single game we'd see, bang on the 70th minute, Carew on for Heskey or vice-versa.
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Keep it simple, don't go out of our way to destroy McLeish's legacy too soon.
HOOF! THUMP! THWACK! HOOF! BANG! HOOF! THUD! Oh... 0-1, bugger.
Applauds.
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To see pass and move football ala 1992/3 would be a delight. Can it be so difficult to expect movement off the ball these days ?
Nick
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Crab football would be an improvement on last season.
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Just as long has we play attacking football with effort, desire, and passion I don't mind let's just hope we get the right man to bring this to us.
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Just as long has we play attacking football with effort, desire, and passion I don't mind let's just hope we get the right man to bring this to us.
Ossie Ardiles?
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In all honesty,Blackpool play some better stuff than anyone and I would love to see Holloway given a decent crack at a bigger club, I think he would treat it as a privilege and do really, really well.
In terms of which is best for us, probably Lambert, but if he said no I would offer it to Holloway.
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A passing game but with work ethic to win the ball back quickly.
Holland were known as the team that gave us total football in the early 70's but they were also one of the first to play the pressing game high up the pitch. As a club side Kiev were the first to develop the system of pressing and became masters of it.
Even in the days of MON when Barry was at his best, teams still strolled through our midfield because we didn't press the opposition to win the ball back and in fact just dropped back which gave even more space.
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i just want us to play FOOTBALL
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MON deployed strong defending with fast counter-attacks using both wings and also a focus on set-pieces. The players and he did not always get it right, but basically it worked a treat for Villa's budgetary level. He lacked a goalscorer like Bent and he was too slow to pep things up in the second half of games with substitutions.
MON lacked more than a goalscorer, he lacked modern football knowledge. Counter attacking football is very limited, especially as we saw under MON at Villa Park. Home games should be where you dominate teams using your more technical skills, a place to grow confidence and help you develop your style of play, not racing down to the corner flag and trying to keep it there with 85 minutes played.
The ball has been our enemy at Villa for far too long. It's about time we started loving it again.
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In all honesty,Blackpool play some better stuff than anyone and I would love to see Holloway given a decent crack at a bigger club, I think he would treat it as a privilege and do really, really well.
In terms of which is best for us, probably Lambert, but if he said no I would offer it to Holloway.
I would prefer Poyet if Lambert isn't offered the job or available. I was really impressed with Brighton when we played them in the cup. He has achieved wonders with them.
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I would love to see a decent, solid back four including a couple of full-backs that can get up to join in attacks, two of holding midfielders and then Ireland behind Bent with wingers out wide. I think that system would require a few signings, though. N'Zogbia on the right could really work in that formation and I'd not be against bringing someone like Matt Jarvis in. Herd has been great in the deeper midfield spot and with a more experienced head in there with him I would fancy us to improve greatly over this travesty of a season.
Whoever comes in only needs to field a team with a bit of bollocks, though. I'd be delighted with that.
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To return to some of the counter attacking play that we saw under MON would be a great start, especially away against the stronger teams. This means primarily tightening up at the back and then finding players with speed who can make quick and decisive passes. We also need to return to being clinical at set plays - at both ends of the pitch. How many points would we have gained if we had improved on that this season. However, we also need to be able to mix things up when we are at home against the weaker sides. We need more possession and be able to break teams down. This has been a problem for years, which is not a coincidence but due to the fact that this requires some real quality, particularly in the middle of the park.
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Lambert plays a different formation every week , adapting his team in relation to the opposition (horses for courses) sometimes passing football, sometimes the long ball game
Rodgers plays Tic Tac football where you deny your opponents possession of the football by retaining possession even if this means going back or sideways
Martinez plays a pass and move system which involves overloading the midfield because you are playing three at the back
Holloway plays counter-attacking football based on everyone's a defender when you haven't got the ball and everyone is an attacker when you have got the ball
All of these types of football interest me, they seem a lot better than Ecks football. Lambert by choice, wouldn't mind Hollaways
I do worry that Brendan Rogers has just kept Roberto Martinez football style at Swansea and whether he could bring it to VP
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I would love to see a decent, solid back four including a couple of full-backs that can get up to join in attacks, two of holding midfielders and then Ireland behind Bent with wingers out wide. I think that system would require a few signings, though. N'Zogbia on the right could really work in that formation and I'd not be against bringing someone like Matt Jarvis in. Herd has been great in the deeper midfield spot and with a more experienced head in there with him I would fancy us to improve greatly over this travesty of a season.
Whoever comes in only needs to field a team with a bit of bollocks, though. I'd be delighted with that.
Agree with that Spen. I would say that Ireland and Bent are probably our best two players at the moment and that formation would bring the best out of them. If we played 4-3-3 and had two full backs bombing on, the two players either side of Bent could tuck in and find holes inside where they could cause real problems. Of course we would need midfielders who could pick the ball up off the defence and find the likes of Ireland and N'Zogbia in the holes and I don't think we have anyone like that at the moment.
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Of course we would need midfielders who could pick the ball up off the defence and find the likes of Ireland and N'Zogbia in the holes and I don't think we have anyone like that at the moment.
Makoun.
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I'd love us to sign a couple of decent full backs,as they're so important nowadays as they see a lot of the ball,and if their good going forward you don't have to play wingers,and get over run in midfield.
We probably have the worse two in the league,and I'm not sure if the younger ones will.cut it.
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I'm all for a more fluid passing game, but WBA had that under a few years ago and were still shit.
As much as I dislike him, Fergie gets the balance right where his sides can pass most sides off the park, but he will also vary and evolve his tactics. His early PL sides were very 'defend deep and hit on the break' away from home and when he has a big striker (Hughes and RVN) he's not afraid to hit him early. Lambert has a bit of that about him, which is one of the reasons his my pick for the job.
MON's Villa sides were an example where not being able to vary tactics hurts you, but then so is Arsenal under Wenger.
I just don't think there's one right way to play the game. If we can pass it and keep it well, have pace it the side to break on teams and big striker option in the squad, then I don't think we'll be too far off a winning side.
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Of course we would need midfielders who could pick the ball up off the defence and find the likes of Ireland and N'Zogbia in the holes and I don't think we have anyone like that at the moment.
Makoun.
From what little we saw of him last season, I got the impression that passing was not one of Makoun's strong points. He seemed likely to follow up a good pass with a pass to noone or straight in to touch. Still think he needs to be given a chance, but not sure if he will be.
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Makoun seemed great at short passes, but not medium or long range ones. As such, he's great with a packed midfield to keep the ball moving, but not so much if you're looking for early balls into the forwards or wingers.
Guess his Villa future depends on how the new manager wishes to play.