Aston Villa v Southampton Post Match Thread

[Legion]

Yes. That. He needs to change it.

[Roysmert]

I know he's not everyone's cup of tea and I can understand why but for a start, i'd put Neil Taylor back in. He's utterly hopeless going forward but at least he can defend and a bit of experience in the team at the moment wouldn't go amiss.

I tend to agree.  I think even that that would just be rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic at the moment though.

Chester, Taylor and Elmo all have to come back in for me. We HAVE to become harder and with more nous at the back, if we persist with a midfield that doesn't know if it's coming or going.

[mike]

Look at Sheffield United: chasing down defenders, chasing lost causes, block after block, defenders doing proper defending throwing themselves in front of the ball. players challenging hard for headers, marking their men, and taking their chances, that is why they will stay up comfortably.
Look at Aston Villa: players constantly falling to the floor at the slightest challenge and holding their faces, whingening at the referee, defenders who seem to have no communication with each other, no marking from set pieces, a midfield you can drive a truck through, a centre forward who misses vital chances and cannot hold up the ball, wide players who do not get crosses into the box, overplaying in the wrong areas, a reliance on one player, not a team, serious injuiries to our most aggressive players.
After yesterday I saw Engels disintegrate from a player I thought showed promise into a jibbering wreck of a defender, Hause likewise, Guilkbert had one of the poorest performances I've ever seen, ditto El Ghazzi, Jack tried but he can't do it all, the only player who really looked like he was up for a fight was Luiz.
Smith stood and watched, where is the young tactical manager that was at Brentford? He seems to have assembled a squad of players with no backbone, who cannot comprehend that you can't play unless you win the ball, and if you change it we haven't the type of players re. Sheffield United.
This manager assembled this squad, which we all know is weak, and unless something changes we are going down, with a whimper.
Shane Long FFS terrorised our defence!
I think players like Hutton and even Chester woukld have given him a whack or two, but he and Ings had the freedom of our defence, we conceded on average 25 shots per game...how the frig are we going to win a game like that!!!!
For FFS Smith tighten up our team somehow (ie three at the back, play for some clean sheets to build confidence) or we are doomed to relegation.
Rant over

I’d really like to take issue with this. Sadly, I can’t.

[RamboandBruno]

I think the players bear some responsibility, of course, but if they're regularly turning in such poor performances why does the manager keep picking them?  That's his fault.

This.

Agree smith and his team have responsibility of course and he made glaring errors yesterday, Grealish on the left, been well covered already. But whilst I think he is culpable in terms of using one formation, I’m not sure he has massive choices in terms of players. He’s swapping trez and rl ghazi regularly, same as Nakamba, Luiz and hourihane. Ok he can drop Wes for Kodja, but honestly if we’re looking at Kodja as our saviour, we’re relegated.

My main point is, no matter what Smiths good and bad points/tactics are, players not tracking back or putting in 100% effort is down to them. McGinn however good or bad never stops trying, same as Guilbert, Grealish and Mings. Can the same be said for a Luiz, El Ghazi and numerous others

[David_Nab]

I think the players bear some responsibility, of course, but if they're regularly turning in such poor performances why does the manager keep picking them?  That's his fault.

This.

Agree smith and his team have responsibility of course and he made glaring errors yesterday, Grealish on the left, been well covered already. But whilst I think he is culpable in terms of using one formation, I’m not sure he has massive choices in terms of players. He’s swapping trez and rl ghazi regularly, same as Nakamba, Luiz and hourihane. Ok he can drop Wes for Kodja, but honestly if we’re looking at Kodja as our saviour, we’re relegated.

My main point is, no matter what Smiths good and bad points/tactics are, players not tracking back or putting in 100% effort is down to them. McGinn however good or bad never stops trying, same as Guilbert, Grealish and Mings. Can the same be said for a Luiz, El Ghazi and numerous others

Yes he does keep swapping them and its not working so you would  think at this point changing the shape might be an option ?

[Pat McMahon]

Some serious work to be done on the training ground.

I don’t want to repeat much of what is said above but the squad recruitment in the summer did not provide us with pace and power. Nor do we seem to have many leaders. I said after Arsenal that we have a soft underbelly and that softness is becoming more visible by the week.

I am genuinely concerned now as I see no changes in personnel that will improve us. It has to come from formation / tactics and desire from the players themselves.

[Toronto Villa]

I think the players bear some responsibility, of course, but if they're regularly turning in such poor performances why does the manager keep picking them?  That's his fault.

This.

Earlier in the season there was plenty of effort and energy. But as winning positions were lost due to tactical naivety and ineptitude and systems/personnel clearly were not working yet the manager kept playing it anyway, I imagine the players have lost faith in it. You could see it on Saturday. They knew it was futile as Southampton ran us ragged. I can imagine some of them thinking "why the fuck are we are not changing this if it isn't working?"

All good managers have a number of tactical options to turn to. Games change all the time, players get hurt, opponents adapt and the best managers, even with the best talent on the planet need to be able to adapt during the game. And that comes from what is worked on during the week. Right now our defending is so poor that even Wesley is scoring bucket loads in training. It's the only reason I can think he keeps getting selected.

[West Derby Villan]

I think the players bear some responsibility, of course, but if they're regularly turning in such poor performances why does the manager keep picking them?  That's his fault.

This.

Earlier in the season there was plenty of effort and energy. But as winning positions were lost due to tactical naivety and ineptitude and systems/personnel clearly were not working yet the manager kept playing it anyway, I imagine the players have lost faith in it. You could see it on Saturday. They knew it was futile as Southampton ran us ragged. I can imagine some of them thinking "why the fuck are we are not changing this if it isn't working?"

All good managers have a number of tactical options to turn to. Games change all the time, players get hurt, opponents adapt and the best managers, even with the best talent on the planet need to be able to adapt during the game. And that comes from what is worked on during the week. Right now our defending is so poor that even Wesley is scoring bucket loads in training. It's the only reason I can think he keeps getting selected.

Wesley probably would score loads against our current defending

[Wiggz]

Long time since I last posted - I just wanted to throw my two penneth into the ring.

First, I know everyone goes on about moving Jack in-field, and whilst I agree he can be more effective there, there's two things to consider. 1) he doesn't hug the touchline, he floats from that position into the middle, drops deep, switches, etc so that's a 'starting' position not where he spends most of his time necessarily and 2) when he's in the middle, he got robbed as he was closed down quicker, leading to MANY counter attacks against us which the two either side couldn't halt as they are bombing forward providing attacking options. We need to be careful of that if we do bring him into the middle again.

Secondly, we have an attacking coach. We've wanted somebody to "go for it" for many years since O'Neil (spit). My only issue here is that with the quality of teams we play (say what you want but Southampton are on a roll and it is the premier league after all) we will get found out at times and dicked, like on Saturday.

Here's what I think is wrong. Defensively, aside from the first handful of games I think we've been poor. I love Mings to death but he has directly contributed to a bunch of goals and the general "worry" factor when players are bearing down on us. He takes too much risk at times. I still want him back! Engels is unproven at this level and will have to learn fast - not his problem. Then we're on to the double-edged sword here, our Full Backs. Their attacking intent is excellent. Guilbert and Targett in the opposition half or final third is a great asset, unfortunately only one of them has any sort of recovery speed (Freddie). We are getting caught 3 on 2 so many times that I wonder whether it might be worth switching to a back 3 and using them as wing backs.

I don't know what the fix is, but I was hoping for a great defence with sporadic goals from the gang. We're getting less of each with each game and ultimately Dean has to earn his money here.

[PeterWithe]

Agree with a lot of that. Wouldn’t play 3 centre halves though.

[Wiggz]

Agree with a lot of that. Wouldn’t play 3 centre halves though.

Not necessarily saying we should. I think we need to do something because we started the season looking decent at the back, soft in the middle and light up front but strong on the flanks. We're drifting into weak at the back, soft centred, lethargic and weak up front.

I'm sure 3 points will help, but we have to EARN that with hard work and only Nakamba gives us that in midfield now McGinn is out. Hourihane is great but a little one dimensional (not a criticism) and Douglas Luiz is a quality technical player but dwells on the ball. We need to give Lansbury a couple of games I think. We need somebody who is going to do what Delph used to; roll the midfield and transition. That's what McGinn gives us when he's not tear-arsing around trying to do everything else

[Drummond]

We've an attacking coach without attackers that are good enough in this league. That's the issue.

[Legion]

We've an attacking coach without attackers. That's the issue.

[Drummond]

We've an attacking coach without attackers. That's the issue.

Funnily enough that's what I typed first then edited it!

[PeterWithe]

Luiz will come good, he’s technically sound but hasn’t adjusted to the pace of the game and currently wants far too much time on the ball. He gets dispossessed from both waiting for the ball to come to him and being muscled off it. He seems to shield the ball well when he can see the opposing player coming.

He just needs to work harder, it’s really up to him if he wants to because if he can’t contribute against pressing teams he isn’t going to have much of a career.