Villa's style of play

[paul_e]

We are doing fine on the budget we have ffs. Moan, moan bloody moan.
Stop moaning when we beat Hull on Saturday. You might just realise how far we have come in the last 18 months.

A near 40m transfer spend in two seasons budget?. Jesus, if this is considered fine for that kind of outlay i'm shocked at how low some of our supporters requirements are.

Personally i expect more quality on the pitch for that kind of outlay. As it is i'm literally bored shitless at the game 90% of the time. The first half against Liverpool and the Newcastle match were mind numbing in their uselessness on the pitch. The City performance probably ranked a brief step up from those but that's not saying a lot.

If the likes of Everton and even the Baggies can actually play good football then so can we. I just want to see us do it. We're getting by with so called lucky wins, other teams are stepping up and earning them by their actual footballing prowess, why do we have to be different ?

We earn our victories by our sporting prowess, it's not like we're Stoke playing for throw ins and lumping a bunch of giants in the box, we've scored a few very good goals this season already based on playing to our strengths which are to counter quickly and make the most of the pace and the movement of our attacking players.  This is the norm in premier league football, most teams that have won the league since it formed have done so by scoring a lot of goals on the break.  If you don't like it then English football isn't the game for you.  Clinical passing has a place of course, and we do it very well at times (our first goal on saturday for example) but if 75% of our goals come from breaking with pace then i'm all for it.

You still haven't given any examples of elements of the game that you want to see and have seen no sign of from us.  Everyone agrees we're inconsistent, that's part of the problem with having a squad with an average age of 22-23 they're going to be inexperienced, but your insistence that there's nothing positive about us is sounding like a wind up right now.

I find it quite amusing as well that you state you find nothing good about the way we play but then specify the first half against Liverpool, does the 2nd half get dismissed because it doesn't fit your narrative?  Much like you've completely ignored the half a game against the title favourites where we scored 3 to their 1 and looked comfortable protecting that lead.

I give up with you, as above, I'm convinced you're on the windup, no one can be so pathetically pessamistic about their own club, I just don't understand your angle for it.

[eamonn]

It would be nice to dominate posession in a game, or even the lion's share. Just once as a dying wish...

[brontebilly]

We are doing fine on the budget we have ffs. Moan, moan bloody moan.
Stop moaning when we beat Hull on Saturday. You might just realise how far we have come in the last 18 months.

A near 40m transfer spend in two seasons budget?. Jesus, if this is considered fine for that kind of outlay i'm shocked at how low some of our supporters requirements are.

Personally i expect more quality on the pitch for that kind of outlay. As it is i'm literally bored shitless at the game 90% of the time. The first half against Liverpool and the Newcastle match were mind numbing in their uselessness on the pitch. The City performance probably ranked a brief step up from those but that's not saying a lot.

If the likes of Everton and even the Baggies can actually play good football then so can we. I just want to see us do it. We're getting by with so called lucky wins, other teams are stepping up and earning them by their actual footballing prowess, why do we have to be different ?

If you watch when we play well it's from passing it on the deck. Lambert has had to clear out a lot of shit players who were also hoofball merchants. We are progressing, we're not instantly going to turn in Brazil but we are improving.

Some of the players Lambert has brought in (either signings or former academy players) are hoofball merchants too though. Baker is worse than Collins ever was for example.

Fair enough if your attitude is the result is all that matters but this thread is about style of play ain't it...

Think there is more chance of us picking up points if we keep the ball more.... That's likely to require Westwood coming back in

[PaulWinch again]

We are doing fine on the budget we have ffs. Moan, moan bloody moan.
Stop moaning when we beat Hull on Saturday. You might just realise how far we have come in the last 18 months.

A near 40m transfer spend in two seasons budget?. Jesus, if this is considered fine for that kind of outlay i'm shocked at how low some of our supporters requirements are.

Personally i expect more quality on the pitch for that kind of outlay. As it is i'm literally bored shitless at the game 90% of the time. The first half against Liverpool and the Newcastle match were mind numbing in their uselessness on the pitch. The City performance probably ranked a brief step up from those but that's not saying a lot.

If the likes of Everton and even the Baggies can actually play good football then so can we. I just want to see us do it. We're getting by with so called lucky wins, other teams are stepping up and earning them by their actual footballing prowess, why do we have to be different ?

If you watch when we play well it's from passing it on the deck. Lambert has had to clear out a lot of shit players who were also hoofball merchants. We are progressing, we're not instantly going to turn in Brazil but we are improving.

Some of the players Lambert has brought in (either signings or former academy players) are hoofball merchants too though. Baker is worse than Collins ever was for example.

Fair enough if your attitude is the result is all that matters but this thread is about style of play ain't it...

Think there is more chance of us picking up points if we keep the ball more.... That's likely to require Westwood coming back in

I can think of Baker and that's it, it's hardly loads.

[JD]

I think the style of play is still evolving. Given the injuries we've already had this season it is difficult to have had a settled team and style. Add to that the number of new players it is going to take time for everything to gel.
I think we are exciting to watch for the very reason that none of us have any idea how we will play. Saturday saw two contrasting styles and as we got more confident we started to play better. I think it took us a bit of time to get to grips with Man City's set up and their mobility. Once we started closing them down more, we realised we were fit enough to match them by playing through them.

I think (and hope) that the players take great confidence from the second half and result on Saturday and we hit the ground running against Hull.

[aj2k77]

I'd like to see us actually hit the game running for once and impose ourselves on the other team. Going behind in 5 of the 6 games so far cannot continue. We need to be more agressive and confident from minute one. Especially at home.

[Concrete John]

We are doing fine on the budget we have ffs. Moan, moan bloody moan.
Stop moaning when we beat Hull on Saturday. You might just realise how far we have come in the last 18 months.

A near 40m transfer spend in two seasons budget?. Jesus, if this is considered fine for that kind of outlay i'm shocked at how low some of our supporters requirements are.

Personally i expect more quality on the pitch for that kind of outlay. As it is i'm literally bored shitless at the game 90% of the time. The first half against Liverpool and the Newcastle match were mind numbing in their uselessness on the pitch. The City performance probably ranked a brief step up from those but that's not saying a lot.

If the likes of Everton and even the Baggies can actually play good football then so can we. I just want to see us do it. We're getting by with so called lucky wins, other teams are stepping up and earning them by their actual footballing prowess, why do we have to be different ?

Numbers like £40m always seem excessive, but you need to put it into context.  A massive rebuilding job was needed, so that £40m has had to be spread over something like 16 players.  That's an average of just £2.5m a player, which isn't really a lot in Premier League terms.  Rather than go for established, but limited, players with that, he's gone the youth route, hence why patience is needed.

If you added £40m of talent to the squad MON left then you can rightly say we should be seeing better.  But £40m to the squad TSM left is a whole other story. 

[Witton Warrior]

Discussed this with the chaps I sit with on Saturday - we reckon the style is best described as  "Harum-Scarum"

[not3bad]

Discussed this with the chaps I sit with on Saturday - we reckon the style is best described as  "Harum-Scarum"

It certainly leaves me stressed, but "Bored shitless"?  Hardly.

[Ghost of Pongo Waring]

Discussed this with the chaps I sit with on Saturday - we reckon the style is best described as  "Harum-Scarum"

I don't think we play in a reckless or impetuous style at all.

[Concrete John]

Discussed this with the chaps I sit with on Saturday - we reckon the style is best described as  "Harum-Scarum"

I don't think we play in a reckless or impetuous style at all.

I wouldn't personally use the word reckless, but we do seem to have very much an attacking philosophy to our game.

[Ghost of Pongo Waring]

Discussed this with the chaps I sit with on Saturday - we reckon the style is best described as  "Harum-Scarum"

I don't think we play in a reckless or impetuous style at all.

I wouldn't personally use the word reckless, but we do seem to have very much an attacking philosophy to our game.

I agree we've an attacking philosophy but if we were reckless with it we'd have been beaten heavily in most games this season.

[LeeB]

We are doing fine on the budget we have ffs. Moan, moan bloody moan.
Stop moaning when we beat Hull on Saturday. You might just realise how far we have come in the last 18 months.

A near 40m transfer spend in two seasons budget?. Jesus, if this is considered fine for that kind of outlay i'm shocked at how low some of our supporters requirements are.

Personally i expect more quality on the pitch for that kind of outlay. As it is i'm literally bored shitless at the game 90% of the time. The first half against Liverpool and the Newcastle match were mind numbing in their uselessness on the pitch. The City performance probably ranked a brief step up from those but that's not saying a lot.

If the likes of Everton and even the Baggies can actually play good football then so can we. I just want to see us do it. We're getting by with so called lucky wins, other teams are stepping up and earning them by their actual footballing prowess, why do we have to be different ?

Going back to this again, Everton have had two 0-0 draws already this season. And one was against the baggies.

Bet that was scintillating stuff.

[supertom]

In fairness I think we've had a very tough start. Taking the Toon game out the equation and we've played Liverpool, and Man City at home. Spurs too if we're counting the Milk cup. Those are very tough teams to try and dominate on our own patch. Likewise, away from home we've had tough games against Arse and Chelsea.
That we probably average about 40% possession at the minute is not that big a surprise.

Our passing does need to improve. The way we keep the ball, especially at Villa park, needs to improve. But lets wait and see how we fare in a run of games against bottom half opposition. If we want to make that step up to mid-table this season and finish around 8th-11th, then we have to dominate teams at home, particularly the bottom 12 sides. What we've desperately got to improve upon is shifting momentum in a match. Newcastle came flying out the traps and we couldn't counter it. Lambert did nothing to change matters either, particularly regarding Ben Arfas dominance. I'd hope hes learned that the 4-2-4 bollocks doesn't work. But he showed saturday that he's got the ability to switch things around to suit a game. It might have had a degree of luck, but it paid off.

We're only 6 games in so far. Lets start worrying about the style at Christmas if we've hosted a lot of low end clubs and been complete shite to watch. As we saw against Sunderland last season. We do have the capability of putting someone to the sword and absolutely twonking them in great style.

Honestly though, I think this is a results first business. If we have to win games ugly then so be it. We've already seen from last season though, that we're capable of producing some cracking goals. I also think Benteke being injured will be a benefit in the long run. It's forcing us to alter the way we play because basically our game largely revolves around CB. We play through him, off him, or just give him the ball and let him make something out of nothing. That's good in someways but leaves you a bit one note generally. It was like under O Neill. Most of our game revolved around hitting the ball out to the left wing for Ashley Young.

[Concrete John]

Discussed this with the chaps I sit with on Saturday - we reckon the style is best described as  "Harum-Scarum"

I don't think we play in a reckless or impetuous style at all.

I wouldn't personally use the word reckless, but we do seem to have very much an attacking philosophy to our game.

I agree we've an attacking philosophy but if we were reckless with it we'd have been beaten heavily in most games this season.

I think the difference between 'reckless' and having an 'attacking philosophy' is how good a side you are.  We're better this season, so are avoiding some of the hammerings we got last season, while not really changing how we approach a game.