I think the idea with Drinkwater is to use his experience in the 1st half of games to make sure we go in at halftime still in the match. this gives confidence to the team that they can come out in the 2nd half believing they can get something out of the game. After a bright start to the season, it was becoming evident that the team was losing belief if they went behind.
Quote from: old man villa fan on January 25, 2020, 10:39:06 AMI think the idea with Drinkwater is to use his experience in the 1st half of games to make sure we go in at halftime still in the match. this gives confidence to the team that they can come out in the 2nd half believing they can get something out of the game. After a bright start to the season, it was becoming evident that the team was losing belief if they went behind.Haven't we gone behind in the three games Drinky has started? We only improved in the last two when he went off. We should never have taken a gamble at this stage of the season on a player so unfit. Trying to find positives in his performances thus far is really grasping at straws, they have verged from catastrophic to very poor let's be honest.
Quote from: brontebilly on January 25, 2020, 12:45:23 PMQuote from: old man villa fan on January 25, 2020, 10:39:06 AMI think the idea with Drinkwater is to use his experience in the 1st half of games to make sure we go in at halftime still in the match. this gives confidence to the team that they can come out in the 2nd half believing they can get something out of the game. After a bright start to the season, it was becoming evident that the team was losing belief if they went behind.Haven't we gone behind in the three games Drinky has started? We only improved in the last two when he went off. We should never have taken a gamble at this stage of the season on a player so unfit. Trying to find positives in his performances thus far is really grasping at straws, they have verged from catastrophic to very poor let's be honest. In the last two games we have gone behind in the 1st half but still been in the game and came out 2nd half to take points from both games. From the Leicester league game we looked as though the game was lost once we went behind. Our midfield looked too inexperienced and left us with nothing to bring on later in the game to change it. I am not saying that Drinkwater was the best to bring in to cover our shortcomings but I could see the question that needed answering.
Quote from: old man villa fan on January 26, 2020, 01:34:49 PMQuote from: brontebilly on January 25, 2020, 12:45:23 PMQuote from: old man villa fan on January 25, 2020, 10:39:06 AMI think the idea with Drinkwater is to use his experience in the 1st half of games to make sure we go in at halftime still in the match. this gives confidence to the team that they can come out in the 2nd half believing they can get something out of the game. After a bright start to the season, it was becoming evident that the team was losing belief if they went behind.Haven't we gone behind in the three games Drinky has started? We only improved in the last two when he went off. We should never have taken a gamble at this stage of the season on a player so unfit. Trying to find positives in his performances thus far is really grasping at straws, they have verged from catastrophic to very poor let's be honest. In the last two games we have gone behind in the 1st half but still been in the game and came out 2nd half to take points from both games. From the Leicester league game we looked as though the game was lost once we went behind. Our midfield looked too inexperienced and left us with nothing to bring on later in the game to change it. I am not saying that Drinkwater was the best to bring in to cover our shortcomings but I could see the question that needed answering.How has he answered that question or used his experience to help? He's been awful in every game he's played, then after he gets subbed, we get better. Even Dean Smith admitted he took him off against Watford as it "wasn't his game".
I like him a lot. He's by no means perfect, but he just oozes natural ability.
Luiz has a lot of talent, and looks much better playing further forward as he can pick a pass. His big problem is he seems a bit thick - regularly gives away needless free kicks within 30 yards of the goal and last night got himself booked for kicking the ball away shortly after Mike Dean had booked Konsa for throwing the ball away. It's very frustrating, but if he can learn form his mistakes and apply a bit more intelligence he could be a top player.