Aston Villa v Sunderland - Match Thread

[citizenDJ]

It's difficult to say, what with not knowing the full extent of the illness in the squad, but if possible I would have played;

                   Guzan

Hutton   Richards   Clark   Amavi

             Gana      Sanchez

       Gil        Veretout       Sinclair

                   Gestede

[citizenDJ]

Not sure what Sherwood is thinking with that line up. The midfield four looks very flat. Maybe he's expecting Sunderland to park the bus as they did last week at Swansea. Our attack will probably consist of hoofs up to Gestede or relying on Bacuna and Amavi to get a few crosses in.

I expect we'll see Gil come on later when we're struggling for ideas. Would have loved to have seen Grealish running at these.

Mind you, hoofs up to Gestede may well be quite effective against this lot.

[brontebilly]

Dont think Ive ever seen Bacuna play well on the right of midfield. At least we will have pace on the flanks but playing all three of Sanchez, Westwood and Gueye together is nonsense. Either Gil or Veretout should be starting and possibly both.

[passitsideways]

Is that a 4-3-3, then?

                    Guzan

Hutton   Richards   Clark   Amavi

                  Sanchez
            Gana    Westwood

Bacuna                         Sinclair

                  Gestede

Yeah, this is what I would expect. Bacuna to chuck in some crosses, Sinclair coming inside and Amavi providing our left-sided width. If we're struggling for creativity, Gil and/or Veretout off the bench.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Let's see if Gueye is allowed to play his preferred box to box role. We definitely need some attacking threat through the middle.

[Matt Collins]

Don't know about the illness constraints but that team looks awfully low on attacking quality and creativity. Sunderland have lens and Defoe where we have Sinclair and bacuna

Hopefully the gestede route pays off then

[ez]

Possibly our easiest game of the season. 3-0

[supertom]

Its a strange lineup but we can only assume the illnesses and injury have played a part in the selection. Grealish would have been nailed on to play were he fit and Troare probably.

I think the key for me today is our bench. Can Gil, Veretout or Ayew provide something should they be called upon? Or even Joe Cole? 15 minutes to potentially turn things might not be beyond him.

[JUAN PABLO]

I would imagine gabby is sick , shame would have liked to see if tim would have dropped him.

We will miss jack.

[Dave]

All of our attackers on Tuesday and all our defenders on Saturday?

Fair enough.

[adrenachrome]

Not sure what Sherwood is thinking with that line up. The midfield four looks very flat. Maybe he's expecting Sunderland to park the bus as they did last week at Swansea. Our attack will probably consist of hoofs up to Gestede or relying on Bacuna and Amavi to get a few crosses in.

I expect we'll see Gil come on later when we're struggling for ideas. Would have loved to have seen Grealish running at these.

My initial reaction was the same. I had been thinking of starting a thread along the line of "do you think we will ever see Trarore, Gil and Grealish selected in a starting lineup in the PL?". Now we are playing one of the worst teams in our league, Traore and Grealish are injured, and still no Gil.

[Chris_Jephcott]

The only thing I can say is that we have no idea who is and who has been affected by this illness. It could be that Gil had it and isn't feeling 100% yet as these bugs knock two shades of shit out of you.

It looks like a bit of a patching job to me and not how Tim would have liked to have set out on balance. We'll see.

[PaulWinch again]

No Grealish or Adama is a big blow. Come on Villa.

[adrenachrome]

Well, I feel ill. But that might be due to a large intake of alcohol and watching The Bears get trounced in the Rounders by a load of 16 stone fat fuckers.

Come on you lions!

[boboonthecorner]

I'm not sure what Bacuna has done to earn A) A new contract or B) To be playing in Midfield. The guy is undoubtably talented but one of the laziest players I've seen in a Villa shirt and I've seen Nigel Callaghan..... 1-1 today.