Quote from: Toronto Villa on September 29, 2020, 10:51:05 PMQuote from: Monty on September 29, 2020, 10:39:26 PMReally hoping I was wrong, and am encouraged very much by the signs so far this season.I was very critical and I still feel I was right to be. He saved his Villa career by using the break to fundamentally change how we played games. And we have become much better organized and disciplined because of it. But even yesterday we saw signs where instead of taking the game to a much weaker team and controlling possession, we allowed them too much of the ball for long periods. We can not afford to do that against the better sides. But so far, so good. Cannot really be critical about a 4 win start. I hope it continues.But this time last year he was being criticised for being too gung-ho and failing to hold onto leads. It's the age old debate, if a manager goes defensive and we lose a lead he gets criticised, if a manager doesn't go defensive and we lose a lead he gets criticised. Yes in an ideal world you just keep posession and see it out, but in reality it's not that easy. I thought the second half looked poor too, but the reality is he was just trying to adopt game management to see out the win against a side who had come back strongly against Leeds.
Quote from: Monty on September 29, 2020, 10:39:26 PMReally hoping I was wrong, and am encouraged very much by the signs so far this season.I was very critical and I still feel I was right to be. He saved his Villa career by using the break to fundamentally change how we played games. And we have become much better organized and disciplined because of it. But even yesterday we saw signs where instead of taking the game to a much weaker team and controlling possession, we allowed them too much of the ball for long periods. We can not afford to do that against the better sides. But so far, so good. Cannot really be critical about a 4 win start. I hope it continues.
Really hoping I was wrong, and am encouraged very much by the signs so far this season.
That actually made me feel emotional Hard to disagree
Quote from: richtheholtender on September 29, 2020, 09:31:30 PMHard to disagree Some good points marred significantly by the brainless use of "fans".
Hard to disagree
There are more types of counterattacking too. There's MON-ball, sitting in and waiting and boofing long to a big lad, and there's Kloppball, looking to win the ball high with pacy nuisance attackers, and everything in between. We'll need to be able to break teams down as well because we will go behind, we will face defensive teams, we will have teams come to VP to block us for 90 minutes, but purpose on the break is also an absolute necessity.
If he'd played a stronger team and say Jack and Ollie got knobbled and were out for a few months he'd be panned for picking them.
You can’t get away with making wholesale changes like tonight unless the opposition also do that. Bristol City played their reserves Stoke had 8/9 first teamers on the pitch tonight. Despite their riches of talent Guardiola still played Sterling and deBruyne last night arguably his best two players.Smith needs to learn.
Our second string is not good enough and he's currently only interested in developing Ramsey from the U23s where there are others who deserved a chance in a game like tonight's.
Quote from: olaftab on October 01, 2020, 09:47:26 PMYou can’t get away with making wholesale changes like tonight unless the opposition also do that. Bristol City played their reserves Stoke had 8/9 first teamers on the pitch tonight. Despite their riches of talent Guardiola still played Sterling and deBruyne last night arguably his best two players.Smith needs to learn.Absolutely. How DARE he not know what team Stoke would be putting out.
Quote from: dave.woodhall on October 01, 2020, 09:48:45 PMQuote from: olaftab on October 01, 2020, 09:47:26 PMYou can’t get away with making wholesale changes like tonight unless the opposition also do that. Bristol City played their reserves Stoke had 8/9 first teamers on the pitch tonight. Despite their riches of talent Guardiola still played Sterling and deBruyne last night arguably his best two players.Smith needs to learn.Absolutely. How DARE he not know what team Stoke would be putting out. Well you don’t take that chance. And if you do you make sure you have resources on the bench to take corrective action. Every game is there to be won.