Aston Villa 2-0 Norwich City Post Match Thread

[paul_e]

20-25 points is being ridiculously negative.  If you go simply on games under Garde the points per game goes up to 0.8 which would see us on 26-27 so for me that's the pessimistic minimum.  If you then account for the fact that he clearly made fitness a priority and to make noticeable improvements to that during the season would take 4-6 weeks you can probably focus instead on results since 12/12 to get a real idea of where we are under him.  That puts us up to a point a game (and we're actually 17th if you do a custom table since that date) and goes to 29.  I'd therefore say that 25-28 is the pessimistic return, 29-32 is about par and 33-38 is optimistic, anything above that is make-believe.  So your 20-25 just scraps the bottom end of what I would consider to be the likely range and the bottom end of your total is just being silly and I think you know that, I'll honestly say that there is  absolutely no chance that we'll finish with less than 25 points, the sheer degree of regression we'd need to witness from the squad is almost unthinkable.

[tomd2103]

Disagree paul e. Sanchez plays at too slow a tempo for the English game and doesn't shift the ball quick enough for us when he is in possession. he does do the breaking up of play well enough and can keep the ball moving for large parts of the game but the pace of the game sees him off balance or not looking when trying to make a quick pass. At times he has looked great but far too often he hasn't and is a big contributory factor to why we're bottom.

Agree.  He has the physicality, but the game in this country is too quick for him and he ends up making some pretty basic errors when in possession.  Gana has done well in the defensive midfielder role recently, but he too is prone to giving the ball away needlessly at times.  We could really do with a real leader and steady presence in that position.

[paul_e]

Disagree paul e. Sanchez plays at too slow a tempo for the English game and doesn't shift the ball quick enough for us when he is in possession. he does do the breaking up of play well enough and can keep the ball moving for large parts of the game but the pace of the game sees him off balance or not looking when trying to make a quick pass. At times he has looked great but far too often he hasn't and is a big contributory factor to why we're bottom.

That's why I'm saying use him as the defensive shield to win the ball, move it on and then hold his position and let the fullbacks go forward with the knowledge that we've 3 players in behind.

I know - maybe i didn't make the point properly but I think that him trying to move the ball on leads to him making more errors than we can carry.

See i don't think he does.  If you really look at his involvement in games his mistakes are almost entirely int he last 10-15 minutes when his legs have gone.  The 2 simple solutions are to either tell him to give it everything for an hour and then replace him or to get him to run less and coserve energy better.  I think he wants to be an all action tackle everything that moves midfielder, which is commendable, but I just don't think it works in the premier league where pace plays such a big role.

[peter w]

 I think we're very feeble at the back for all our improvements and we haven't won game this season when going a goal behind. yes, there have been improvements but we will be lucky to come across two worse teams than Norwich and Crystal Palace in the run in. just because I'm not shouting from the rooftops after yesterday, and in all honesty struggle to even to register it as a positive with the league table in mind, it doesn't make it a silly suggestion. Just an opinion.

[pauliewalnuts]

I think we're very feeble at the back for all our improvements and we haven't won game this season when going a goal behind. yes, there have been improvements but we will be lucky to come across two worse teams than Norwich and Crystal Palace in the run in. just because I'm not shouting from the rooftops after yesterday, and in all honesty struggle to even to register it as a positive with the league table in mind, it doesn't make it a silly suggestion. Just an opinion.

Didn't Palace have one of the best away records in the league when we beat them?

Don't get me wrong, I know what you mean, it's hard to get too excited when you look at the table and get dragged back to reality again.

For all the "luck" involved in playing shit teams like Palace and Norwich, though, there's a fair amount of bad luck that has gone against us in quite a few games this season, so what goes around comes around.

I've been resigned to us going down for a while now - the reason everyone thinks we are dead and buried is because that's what we've looked for weeks and weeks now, so anything like yesterday I'm just taking as a nice bonus.

[tomd2103]

I think we're very feeble at the back for all our improvements and we haven't won game this season when going a goal behind. yes, there have been improvements but we will be lucky to come across two worse teams than Norwich and Crystal Palace in the run in. just because I'm not shouting from the rooftops after yesterday, and in all honesty struggle to even to register it as a positive with the league table in mind, it doesn't make it a silly suggestion. Just an opinion.

I think feeble is a bit harsh.  I think the Okore, Lescott, Cissokho combination has been pretty solid and if Richards can find some form then it should be a decent back four.

[olaftab]

If we picked up only another 4 pts then like him or not Garde would deserve the sack. A pt per game I reckon, just ticking over.

No he won't.

[aj2k77]

Norwich had the kind of ''luck'' we've had all season up front. Deflections going wide by inches and scrambles not falling the right way for them. I wasn't particularly happy with the tracking back again of the midfield as when they broke a fair few times their runners would hit the box un marked but they lacked the quality to punish us.

[aj2k77]

If we picked up only another 4 pts then like him or not Garde would deserve the sack. A pt per game I reckon, just ticking over.

No he won't.

16 pts from 28 games would be shite.

[PeterWithesShin]

Sisko is a big reason, you don't see teams targeting our left side like they were earlier in the season.

[peter w]

I have to say he has done remarkably well since coming back in. It's a shame he's not great on the ball in defensive positions, and can't take a man on in the attacking third, but he can put the odd decent ball in. Seeing as his career was all but dead and buried I'm giving him 'props' for being okay thus far.

[tomd2103]

Sisko is a big reason, you don't see teams targeting our left side like they were earlier in the season.

Agree with that.  He's solid defensively, but it's just that his distribution and crossing are so poor.  Saying that, if his attacking play was as good as his defensive play, he probably wouldn't be with us,

[ciggiesnbeer]

Sisko is a big reason, you don't see teams targeting our left side like they were earlier in the season.

Hmm good observation.

[Villa in Denmark]

Sisko is a big reason, you don't see teams targeting our left side like they were earlier in the for the last 3 seasons.

Fixed

[damon loves JT]

Maybe we won't overtake Palace but it doesn't change the fact that Palace fans I know are shitting a brick. Pardew has turned out to be Pardew. There's lots of fear at the bottom end of the table and we are the only club that doesn't need to feel afraid. That's all I meant.