Swansea City vs Aston Villa Match Thread

[supertom]

How's cleverly played so far ?

Pretty anonymous to be honest.

The 5-3-2 isn't working so far. We can sacrifice Okore and then bring on another midfielder or attacker. Match their formation a little. It worked against Utd because they're 3 at the back as well.

[Legion]

How's cleverly played so far ?

Pretty anonymous to be honest.

The 5-3-2 isn't working so far. We can sacrifice Okore and then bring on another midfielder or attacker. Match their formation a little. It worked against Utd because they're 3 at the back as well.

Knife through the heart and offer up a prayer? Might get us into a little bit of trouble.

[SamTheMouse]

The midfield is shit again.

It's not their fault, it's the formation. Can't understand this new-found fascination with playing five across the back. All it does it give the opposition a man over in midfield, so even if your packed defence looks a bit more solid, it has twice as much to do. If you're going to play so deep, you have to direct to Benteke and get players up to support him more quickly.

[silhillvilla]

0 shots on target
0 corners

[Rudy Can't Fail]

While trying to play it at the back, the fact that we aren't really used to doing it is starting to show. There is a lot of uncertainty back there and you get the impression that the defenders would love to just whack it long and get rid. As tough as this might be they are being told to stick with it, but in all likelihood the short term affect might cause us some problems.

Agreed. Swansea, based on that first half are light years ahead of us. Saying that, we're hardly playing to our strengths. If Lambert wanted to sabotage our attack he could do no more than playing Gabby so deep. We really look lost out there.

[Dave]

0 shots on target
0 corners

Yet two of the three best efforts on goal were from Gabby and Benteke.

[Ron Manager]

There was a point where Benteke headed the ball back into the penalty area and there was no Villa player in sight. Why?

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

Passing the ball out from the back is great, but the real issue is our lack of goals. Agbonlahor loses the ball every time he gets it.

[Tom_Mc9?]

It's not working today. A lot of individual errors which I don't think can be solely attributed to the weather, unfortunately. Not good from Okore, but he will have off days at this stage.

[Legion]

From Edvard on FB:

Lambert went to look at Bayern and saw that Neuer plays the ball to the left/right backs - somehow he didn't notice that theirs are normally on the halfway line and not at the cornerflag

[DrGonzo]

Back three looks awful, Okore for Grealish.

[Toronto Villa]

While trying to play it at the back, the fact that we aren't really used to doing it is starting to show. There is a lot of uncertainty back there and you get the impression that the defenders would love to just whack it long and get rid. As tough as this might be they are being told to stick with it, but in all likelihood the short term affect might cause us some problems.

Agreed. Swansea, based on that first half are light years ahead of us. Saying that, we're hardly playing to our strengths. If Lambert wanted to sabotage our attack he could do no more than playing Gabby so deep. We really look lost out there.

It reveals how devoid we are of quality in that area that we have employed a forward to do the role of an attacking midfielder. Gabby, love him, doesn't have the required intelligence in the final third. We've seen that a couple of times where his ability to run at the defence has been sorely let down by his final pass or losing the ball at the last minute having done good work prior to it.

[Legion]

Try Grealish in the role.

[SamTheMouse]

Presumably Lambert has told Gabby to drop deeper and link up the play in order to compensate for the lightweight midfield. Which is moronic, because Gabby has the close control of a newborn calf. The lad is useless in a congested area - he needs space to lope into. Does Lambert still not know his players' strengths?

[Stu]

No excuse for a poor performance today. This is about as strong a team as we can put out.