Aston Villa vs Sheffield Utd pre-match thread - June 17th 6pm

[Clampy]

Obviously the majority of us all wanted this season to be declared null and void so I can understand some fans not really being up for this. It's happening now though so I just hope we can get a couple of morale boosting wins on the board and stay up comfortably. It's Villa though so we will no doubt make bloody hard work of it.

I'd go with the team RamboandBruno put up but with Elmohamady instead of Guilbert. We might has well have someone in there who can swing in a decent cross if in we were to play two up front. I'd probably pick Elmo anyway if we only play Samatta as the lone striker.

[manic-road]

I really hoe we get something from the game but  think we will lose 1-3. Our defence has been shit all season and I doubt the "rest" the players have had will make much if a difference.

[DB]

Not really all that interested. It's not football as it should be.

Pretty much my view on it.

Me too, not really up for it. Let's see.

Was just thinking I might go and watch it in El Leon.

Would be nice.

[Tom_Mc9?]

I think we’ll win, but I’m unsure whether or not I’m getting the traditional pre-season misguided sense of optimism. 2-1 Grealish and El Ghazi.

I’m going to be cheeky here. If any ST holders have a code for Sky Sports/Now Tv they don’t need, can they let me know? If this is inappropriate, I’ll take it down, obviously. Thanks!

[mr underhill]

what exactly did we do to Danny Murphy for the hobbit sized cnut to despise us so much?

[paul_e]

If Mings were to move to the left of the three then he has the ability to step out with the ball and make another body in midfield. He wasn't helped centrally with Hause playing next to him who was patently unsuited to a three man defence and playing out from the back. I think that forced Mings to take a lot more risk on the ball at times. Mings also is horrible using his right foot which got exposed the longer it went on.

The problem with going with four at the back is that our full backs particularly Targett aren't strong enough defensively.

Agreed on the defensive midfield problem and I don't think McGinn is going to help in this area either.

This isn't the time for experimentation so I don't see it happening but I'd be tempted to go with something like this:

Guilbert Engles Mings Targett
                Konsa
   Luiz   McGinn   Grealish
         Samatta Davis

Konsa holds a few metres in front of the centre backs as the ball winner who moves it quickly to the fullbacks and other midfielders. Nakamba should be playing this role but so far this season he hasn't shown the discipline to hold the position which has meant a big gap appearing in there all too often.

Guilbert and Targett play more like wing backs getting high up the pitch and providing the main width.

Luiz and Grealish play from the centre but drifting to the right and left (respectively) to both help out defensively and to find space in attack.

McGinn joins attacks late from midfield to pick up the ball at the edge of the box.

Up front I'd play off Davis as the pivot bringing the full-backs and midfield into the game with Samatta playing more of a poacher role.

The risk is that we're quite narrow if the fullbacks aren't involved but, for me, it's a risk worth taking as Jack in particular is very dangerous when he can drift into pockets of space between the midfield, fullback and centre back. Luiz is a bit more of a gamble but I think he has the ability to be very good there, just not the experience.

[tim]

I think we’ll win, but I’m unsure whether or not I’m getting the traditional pre-season misguided sense of optimism. 2-1 Grealish and El Ghazi.

I’m going to be cheeky here. If any ST holders have a code for Sky Sports/Now Tv they don’t need, can they let me know? If this is inappropriate, I’ll take it down, obviously. Thanks!

Am i right in thinking that the game is being shown on Sky Sports News channel as well as the regular Sky channels? I don't have the subscription so only get basic sky options ('SP News' being one of them) but it looks like this may be on one of the free ones..?

[robbo1874]

There's absolutely no reason for the clubs or league to want to go down the no fans route.  You wouldn't have clubs spending hundreds of millions on stadiums if they didn't have aspirations to continue growing their match attending fan base.

Spurs particularly would be getting burnt right now. Shame.
There’d be some accountants and contract lawyers at Everton flapping a bit over the new stadium project currently I would think.

[mr underhill]

pretty sure it's not free to air tim as for ST holders at least the club issued a free voucher for this and the Chelsea game through nowtv

[Lastfootstamper]

I think we’ll win, but I’m unsure whether or not I’m getting the traditional pre-season misguided sense of optimism. 2-1 Grealish and El Ghazi.

I’m going to be cheeky here. If any ST holders have a code for Sky Sports/Now Tv they don’t need, can they let me know? If this is inappropriate, I’ll take it down, obviously. Thanks!

Am i right in thinking that the game is being shown on Sky Sports News channel as well as the regular Sky channels? I don't have the subscription so only get basic sky options ('SP News' being one of them) but it looks like this may be on one of the free ones..?

As mr underhill says, the Sky schedule says it's only on the paid Main Event and PL channels. SSN do also have the preview show from half four, but they switch back to plain old news at six. The Sky free games (25 of them, I think) are on Pick on normal freeview telly, although I don't think any have been announced beyond the first weekend of July.

[SteveN]

I dreamt we won 1-0 and had to see out 7 minutes of non stop pressure in added time.  I woke up sweating.

[DB]

If we lose, that could be it. Confidence dropping and tough matches to come. Having had the break, you would hope we have worked on a few things and improve from where we left off.

[Lastfootstamper]

Hopefully we have managed to work on some things, but I can't imagine coaching's been easy when there's been no collective training sessions. There's only so much you can do by conference app, and I doubt that includes defending at corners or midfield 3v2's.

[Drummond]

I think we'll win the first three games back. There I've said it. There is definitely talent in our squad, they've had a breather now a chance to work on things and gel together in training. McGinn is back, Davies is back and we'll do ok. It's the equivalent of a new, short season. 2-0 or 3-1.

[simon ward 50]

Sitting on the fence 1-1