Alan McCafu

[SoccerHQ]

The back 4 isn't that much worse than Newcastle's really.....there one yesterday was Jamaat- Williamson-Colo- Dummett, is that really that superior to ours? Newcastle don't concede much so I'd say as long as you have a reasonable defensive coach on the staff and crucially with us experience in there you get get a realitively average group of defenders coached into a decent unit against 3/4 of the premier league teams.

[ozzjim]

I think the 2 biggest differences for us this season will be experience in the back 4, and Sanchez in front. Keeping them fit will be the key from here on.

[PaulWinch again]

I think the 2 biggest differences for us this season will be experience in the back 4, and Sanchez in front. Keeping them fit will be the key from here on.

Yep I think experience at the back is really important, and we look so much better. I think Sanchez will allow Westwood to be a better player, but we really need to add creativity to the squad now.

[old man villa fan]

Yes fair point about Okore.  But disposing of Colin's was probably a mistake in hindsight.

Vlaar was the replacement for Collins in what was two seasons of trying to improve the squad and lower the wage bill.  Vlaar is a far better player than Collins.  At the time we also had Dunne but what was not known at the time was that he would miss the whole season through injury.

[Ian.]

Collins and Dunne were both trouble and in the end useless and costing the club a fortune. They let us down terribly the season MON left.

[N'ZMAV]

Collins and Dunne could still have been useful if they were fit, hungry, concentrating, had the right attitude and cared for AVFC. Other than that, yeah...

[Legion]

Collins and Dunne could still have been useful if they were fit, hungry, concentrating, had the right attitude and cared for AVFC. Other than that, yeah...

Dunne was definitely hungry.

[N'ZMAV]

No, I think he was full.

[john e]

QPR centre back pairing of Dunne and Ferdinhand
Plenty of experience right there !

[Matt Collins]

A lot of the above is true. But the best way to stop the opposition scoring is to keep the ball. If we get 40% possession we've done well. So the defence will always be under more pressure

Similarly, although we tend to think we are shit at attacking and defending set pieces, I wonder if we're actually that bad as a proportion of set pieces taken for and against? I'm assuming we tend to get fewer and concede more corners than most

[Matt Collins]

Just googled the corners point and found this. It's from the season before last but I think the point still stands (we were certainly moaning about bannan and westwood's delivery that season)

Team   Conversion%
Man Utd   6.73
Wigan   5.00
Stoke   4.86
Chelsea   4.85
Norwich   4.14
West Brom   3.93
Aston Villa   3.82
Sunderland   3.59
Man City   3.04
West Ham   2.73
Everton   2.56
Qpr   2.56
Fulham   2.44
Swansea   2.37
Reading   2.29
Southampto   2.17
Liverpool   1.99
Tottenham   1.35
Arsenal   1.29

[Steve67]

I think the 2 biggest differences for us this season will be experience in the back 4, and Sanchez in front. Keeping them fit will be the key from here on.

Yep I think experience at the back is really important, and we look so much better. I think Sanchez will allow Westwood to be a better player, but we really need to add creativity to the squad now.

Totally agree. Creativity is the requirement. Cole might be it, but he needs good competition. I hope for another centre mid to replace KEA and a winger.

[Matt Collins]

The fact that the players we are relying on for creativity are cole grealish and n'zogbia says an awful lot. It's actually better than last season where we decided we didn't need creativity at all. But it's still way below teams we'd like to compare ourselves to.

[peter w]

A lot of the above is true. But the best way to stop the opposition scoring is to keep the ball. If we get 40% possession we've done well. So the defence will always be under more pressure

Similarly, although we tend to think we are shit at attacking and defending set pieces, I wonder if we're actually that bad as a proportion of set pieces taken for and against? I'm assuming we tend to get fewer and concede more corners than most

The thing is regarding possession is where you have the ball. Newcastle, as most teams do against us had the lion's share of the possession - around 60%-40%. However, we had the territorial advantage of 51%-49% which tends to suggest that we allowed Newcastle to have the ball, as we do with most teams, where it doesn't hurt us. If we have the the ball more in the opposition half than they do in ours then it's a sign of the team being in better shape.

[Matt Collins]

True. But we still can't score when Newcastle have the ball. On an individual game possession stats are very unreliable. But over a season they are a great indicator of how well a team has done - only the two or three sides that are an exception (very possession orientated sides like Swansea or Everton; or long ball sides like west ham or palace) tend to have a different ranking from where they finish in the league.

We were 19th for possession last year. And top for long balls I think