Newcastle vs Aston Villa Pre-Match Thread - Wednesday, June 24th - 6pm

[Legion]

Ah. Yes. It was.

[Legion]

I'll shut up.

[Villan82]

Win. By hook or by crook. Win. Please win villa.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I think we'll play exceptionally well and get a point. Dean will be delighted. Too little too late. Everybody off to the Mailbox for a bit of shopping. PL wages. Good life.

[Villatillidie1982]

We need to win this or on Saturday, or I think we can forget staying up. But listening to the West Ham fans on Talk Sport, they sound as though they have the same problems as us, no direction and lots of money spent on poor signings. And many thought that Villa played well against Chelsea and that their team is going down.

[RamboandBruno]

Interesting. It's not Tim Flowers, lately of Solihull Moors, is it ?

No not Tim Flowers, a couple of Dvision below the Moors. He’s a sound bloke and been managing at that level for years, Hednesdford and places like that (not there now and Not Richard Sneekes), though is a baggies fan so taking a degree of enjoyment of our plight. I think it is a good point about the potential mindset of Smith though.

[ChicagoLion]

So what is it to be ?

A. JT on his mobile in the Boardroom.
B. Drinky on the piss in the players lounge
C. 4 3 3 with Jack on the wing.

[brian green]

I cannot wait to see some sign on the pitch, home or away, that the winds of change are starting to blow at AVFC.  There must be an end to the better be careful ingrained inferiority performances.  If we are going to go down, let's not go with a whimper.

[chrisw1]

We need to win this or on Saturday, or I think we can forget staying up. But listening to the West Ham fans on Talk Sport, they sound as though they have the same problems as us, no direction and lots of money spent on poor signings. And many thought that Villa played well against Chelsea and that their team is going down.

Those are words of people who read / heard we went one up and put in a battling defensive display.  Not people who actually watched the game and saw how utterly bereft of ideas we truly were.

[Footy-Vill]

I highlighted in Matt Targett thread just how tragic we are on the left side of the pitch defensively.
But also how that's our strongest area attacking wise.

What's interesting are that Villa concede the most crosses from the left side -404 - in the league but it's Newcastle that have conceded the most crosses on their right side

So we can expect a lot of attacking/defensive action to be taking place down this side of the pitch

For villa the imbalance with the amount of crosses coming in on the villa left is concerning and the Chelsea match was a clear illustration of problems we have had ALL season .
I said something will be done Vs Newacstle because Smith and Villa  can't allow that to continue

The system is far too open on that side and continuosly give up chances to the right sided attack of opposition.

I can only take Nakamba may be brought in.
Grealish and El Ghazi have both had responsibilities left hand side and both haven't done their duties .
Grealish for all his good work in the attacking third has not excelled at all in his last 2 matches and has lacked in contributing to the defensive side of things on the left.

I think he hasn't come back as fit as he could have and is really hoping to get by through ability . That is a question of how professional he's being.
And thus begs questions how best Villa fit him in the team

Regarding player discpline and defensive duties of attacking players EL Ghazi similarly throughout his time and Trezeguet to lesser extent have had issue in covering , tracking back and getting tackles in

It was a reason why Bruces showman Bolaise was not favoured in Smith's system .

Albert Adomah as limited as he was always tracked back and always did his best to cover
Grealish has done this plenty of times himself and has improved a lot on that side of the game.

I'm now wondering when Smith talks about development of players he's developing them to his system and sees that as becoming better footballers.
There's an argument to be had to leave Grealish in attacking and middle situation leaving others to defend.
At times Grealish has done that anyway.
So maybe just afford him that rather than have him in a free role drifting off the left and having to come back and cover.

We all know with the ball is where he's best.
The compromise is to play him in midfield.
But let's hope toady the battle on the Newacstle right =Villa left is won by Smith !

[VinnieChase84]

Guilbert and Targett are better than our ‘wingers’ that we have
Therefore they should be the ones we look for width from.

    352
   
                Nyland 
       Konsa Hause Mings
Guilbert Luiz McGinn Jack Targett
           Samatta Davis

[Walmley_Villa]

The 2 slowest teams with poor defences are bottom 2 in the table. We are so lacking in pace it will be a big ask to stay up.

[colin69]

Guilbert and Targett are better than our ‘wingers’ that we have
Therefore they should be the ones we look for width from.

    352
   
                Nyland 
       Konsa Hause Mings
Guilbert Luiz McGinn Jack Targett
           Samatta Davis

Yes I’d be happy with that line up, and if Guilbert isn’t fit then Elmo. Surely we must try 2 up front because his preferred system is pants, but I’ll be very surprised if he does.

[ChicagoLion]

Guilbert and Targett are better than our ‘wingers’ that we have
Therefore they should be the ones we look for width from.

    352
   
                Nyland 
       Konsa Hause Mings
Guilbert Luiz McGinn Jack Targett
           Samatta Davis

Yes I’d be happy with that line up, and if Guilbert isn’t fit then Elmo. Surely we must try 2 up front because his preferred system is pants, but I’ll be very surprised if he does.

So they play one up front and push full backs on to our wide players.
Even Bruce can work this out.

[AsTallAsLions]

Two up front has gone right out of fashion hasn't it. I wouldn't have thought when he took over that Smith was the type to get bogged down by trends, but surely he can see that Davis can't play as a lone striker. He has ability and it's a shame to waste it by not giving him somebody to play off of.

Samatta is too good to be sitting on our bench while our first XI stink it up out on the pitch too.

So, agreed - they should both be starting together, but they won't.