No more Austerity football – What style of football should we play?

[Londonvilla]

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 ?

[Hookeysmith]

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

[avfcpg]

I want us to play winning football...

[Londonvilla]

But who will delivery winning football  considering the restriction on our wage bill?

[paulcomben]

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.

[avfcpg]

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.

[pedro25]

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.

[Toronto Villa]

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.

[cdbearsfan]

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.

[avfcpg]

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....

[PaulWinch again]

Passing, possession based football with an appropriate manager, it's quite simple really.

[paul_e]

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.

[Rancid custard]

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.

[Fuse]

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...

[Chipsticks]

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.