Aston Villa v Wolves Post Match Thread.

[andyh]

The new owners of Wolves who appointed Nuno took a gamble and boy has it has paid off massively.

[Damo70]

I don't see more quality in Sheffield United's squad, probably Newcastle or Brighton's either. They are all well-drilled and capable of looking more threatening than required though. Our goal threat has evaporated with Jack being largely nullified.

I agree. Sheffield United, Palace, Burnley, Newcastle, Brighton, Southampton, Watford, West Ham and Bournemouth are all above us and none of them are that special on paper. But they pull out positive performances and positive results.

[supertom]

Geez, everybody wanted both wingers out of the team and called for the diamond. I've no idea why, we already have no pace so putting four, slow central midfielders into the team was hardly likely to help. Smith has bowed to pressure to play two up front, the team won't have trained in that formation at all. Managers do start to look desperate when they start throwing reactive formations together.

And yet the tip of that diamond spent the entire 90 minutes being anywhere but. I'm starting to think Jack plays where he wants once he crosses the white line.

The crux of the problem is, we have wingers they aren't good enough and we don't have the creativity elsewhere or up front to play a different way regardless

Dean honestly expected Hourihane, Nakamba and Hause to run the flanks to provide service to the forwards.

You’ve gotta be piss drunk to think that would’ve been successful.

Glenn Hoddle said continually in the first half, and it's not exactly a great insight, that our forwards remaining rigidly central was giving Wolves an easy time. Whereas if you play two up you need your forwards to be working the channels. That's the advantage of two up top. One works wide, and the other is still in the box to cause trouble. Neither did that. They probably weren't instructed to. Consequently you have no width, and a CH playing RB isn't going to create much. Shambolic and the kind of tactical ineptitude that we can do without. I'm all for keeping the two up top, but you've got to have the strikers working the wide areas and stretching the defence on wide balls. Vass and Joachim used to be very good at that. Davis and Samatta may be a million miles from that sort of quality, but they've enough speed to do that effectively.

[Villan82]

 Do'L, McLeish, Lambert, Sherwood, Di Matteo, Bruce and, I hate to say it, Smith.We have had some uninspiring managers since Gregory. I leave MON out of that because he at least had us competing at the top end of the table (for all his faults).

[brontebilly]

Well he picked the formation I certainly wanted pre-game. On the positives, I liked our shape defensively. Taylor and McGinn when they came in did well as did both our centre backs and Luiz. A very good Wolves side created few chances against us and it took a brilliant goal to finally breach us.

On the flip side, Grealish started well but the longer the game went on the less interested he became. No idea why he decided to take up a permanent station over by the dug outs. Hourihane, in the team for set pieces, was dismal. Great playing with a front two but both looked as if they met for the first time in the dressing room pre game. Samatta in particular was anonymous. The lack of fight, quality and spirit after Wolves went ahead was depressing. There was one quality ball in by AEG but little else. Not fully gone yet but we seemed resigned to our fate in the closing stages.

Nyland 4, Konsa 5 (Elmo 6), Hause 8, Mings 7, Targett 5 (Taylor 7), Luiz 7, Hourihane 4 (McGinn 7), Nakamba 6, Grealish 6, Davis 6, Samatta 3.

[gpbarr]

What is it about Aston Villa that has made us so far behind sides in terms of simple off the ball movement? We're 30 years behind the times in the way we play. It goes way back too. Pockets of good play aside, but never consistent, or seemingly without any forethought or grand plan, we play so rigidly. Even in better times under Gregory and O Neill, our play was pretty simple. With pube head we were very effective on counter attack, but as a possession side trying to break teams down, the movement was often poor. No small triangles, no pass and move, just a rigid 4-4-f-2. We've been the same way ever since, without an effective system and worse players.

Wolves by comparison, who weren't even that good today, coasted and every part about the way they played showed they've developed as fluid way of playing for a number of years. If a player receives the ball, another player has already anticipated the need to move and be in a position to receive the next pass. We don't do this and we've not done it for over 20 years. Frankly it's pathetic. It also highlights just why British managers have struggled for success this century and foreign coaches have become more successful. Then you look back at our meat and potatoes appointments, almost entirely predictable and uninspiring. There's a lot of intelligence in the way modern sides set up and train, but we're so far behind still. Unfortunately our choice in foreign coaches has been poor recently. There were some signs of Houllier instilling a bit more subtlety into our game, but we undid that all with the next appointment.

We've got to once again tear it all up, go back to square one and rebuild in the championship. But whoever the new manager is, needs tactical nous and an understanding of the modern game. In recent premier league times there haven't been many sides as consistently frustrating to watch as us in terms of passing and movement, in that ability to play in tight spaces. And the worst part is, we have a player like Grealish who'd absolutely excel if we could just drag ourselves out this outdated mentality.

For me it’s the British manager thing - there is a reason all the top clubs are managed by foreign managers - they have moved on and we are still stuck in the 70’s. There are plenty of promising managers in Germany, Spain, Argentina, France etc who’d pay their own taxi fare to B6 - do our new owners have the nous to go with their money??

[RamboandBruno]

I think there is little point in demanding smith should go with 6 games left, I doubt very much whether it’s going to happen. It’s a perfect storm now of a manager scrambling round trying to find anything to scrape any kind of win and players who on the whole aren’t good enough.

Hindsight’s a great thing but it’s fairly obvious now that most of the players aren’t up to this level. You can blame the manager all you like for tactics and motivation and there Are problems there, but virtually every one of our set pieces were awful today because of the delivery, the players are at fault for that. I do think Grealish cares and he had a decent first half, but his body language is wrong and for me in the last 10 mins when we desperately needed some inspiration, it seemed like he didn’t really want the ball.
We could still stay up if Bournemouth and West Ham keep losing and it comes down to the last 3 games, so midweek is vital on that front an we need Brice to do us a favour. But if we did stay up another rebuild is obviously needed, it’s been said already but a group of players aren’t going to get any better, Taylor (although he didn’t do anything wrong today), hourihane, nakamba, Trez, el Ghazi, maybe Samatta though he looked decent before lockdown. If and probably when we go down, I think we still need to clear at least some of those players as well as losing Grealish, Mings, McGinn. We need to try and do a wolves a build a premier league side in the championship, easier said than done.

[gpbarr]

Do'L, McLeish, Lambert, Sherwood, Di Matteo, Bruce and, I hate to say it, Smith.We have had some uninspiring managers since Gregory. I leave MON out of that because he at least had us competing at the top end of the table (for all his faults).

Striking that all those managers are either British and/or lacked any real management experience. Why do we keep doing it??? Appoint an experienced foreign manager who has had success - please!

[CT]

Another Summer of changing the entire squad beckons again.

[hilts_coolerking]

The quality isn't there. We try, we close, we run about, we put the miles in, but there just isn't that turn of pace, the quality up front or in midfield with delivery.

It's nothing to do with intangible clichéd stuff like bottle and the like. Its about a side like Wolves having the quality of organisation to make it very difficult to find space and deny opportunities. Its about Johnny making a run that isn't picked up and when the ball does fall, for realistically the only chance of the game of note, and having the quality to take it.

We are reliant on Hourihane, a player who was nicknamed Hologram last season. He lacks pace and a righf foot.
Nakamba, lacks composure and a range of passing. AEG and Tezuguet, Taylor, Elmo, Konsa, House, Samatta, Wesley, Nyland, Davis they're all not good enough for this level.

Coaching, systems, it really doesn't matter when you aren't good enough. We are a Championship squad, with a sprinkling of good players; Heaton, Mings, McGinn, Luiz, Grealish. Sadly we will likely only keep one of those for next season, Heaton and maybe Luiz.

Recruitment has been poor and now confidence is completely evaporated. But what system and selection can anybody put out and say with confidence that yes, that is a side who will dominate games in this league. I can't and to that end Smith has been left badly exposed.

I'm disappointed I won't get to see Grealish live again in a Villa shirt.

And that's as good a summary of it as anyone's going to get.

[David_Nab]

If your picking a 3 man midfield in a  4-3-1-3 formation if you think Conner is a right sided MF in that formation you are already in trouble.What's worse is against Newcastle he was further forward and on the left to use to get balls into the bow.Time and time again when we have played Conner has he is used deep he is hopeless at this level in that role.

Smith will claim we are better in defence , I would argue its not that we have got better at defending its more the team is playing  deeper and  more cautiously which has nullified us as any type of attacking threat.

[mallo]

Not with a bang but with a whimper

[villadelph]

Another Summer of changing the entire squad, coaches, scouting department and juggling ffp beckons again.

Fixed that for you..

[PaulWinch again]

The quality isn't there. We try, we close, we run about, we put the miles in, but there just isn't that turn of pace, the quality up front or in midfield with delivery.

It's nothing to do with intangible clichéd stuff like bottle and the like. Its about a side like Wolves having the quality of organisation to make it very difficult to find space and deny opportunities. Its about Johnny making a run that isn't picked up and when the ball does fall, for realistically the only chance of the game of note, and having the quality to take it.

We are reliant on Hourihane, a player who was nicknamed Hologram last season. He lacks pace and a righf foot.
Nakamba, lacks composure and a range of passing. AEG and Tezuguet, Taylor, Elmo, Konsa, House, Samatta, Wesley, Nyland, Davis they're all not good enough for this level.

Coaching, systems, it really doesn't matter when you aren't good enough. We are a Championship squad, with a sprinkling of good players; Heaton, Mings, McGinn, Luiz, Grealish. Sadly we will likely only keep one of those for next season, Heaton and maybe Luiz.

Recruitment has been poor and now confidence is completely evaporated. But what system and selection can anybody put out and say with confidence that yes, that is a side who will dominate games in this league. I can't and to that end Smith has been left badly exposed.

I'm disappointed I won't get to see Grealish live again in a Villa shirt.

And that's as good a summary of it as anyone's going to get.

I think it absolves the coaching too much. There is absolutely no game plan at all.

[Legion]

Pitiful and abject at best.