Aston Villa vs West Ham Pre-Match Thread

[Bobby Boy]

There's a lot of unease about this game on here and I totally get why.

With the fixtures we have coming up over the next couple of weeks we absolutely cannot afford to lose this one.

I think we will though.

1-2

[Ads]

West Ham have not scored a goal in the league this season, lost all 3 games and have taken 0.01 more points per game than us in 2022.

[Bobby Boy]

West Ham have not scored a goal in the league this season, lost all 3 games and have taken 0.01 more points per game than us in 2022.

So are you plumping for a win then?

I hope you are right.

[N'ZMAV]

West Ham are more street-wise and physical than us. We need to toughen up. Rice and Soucek will have a pretty easy afternoon.

[Dave P]

Read elsewhere that Emi Martinez has injured is hand in training - hopefully a load of rubbish

But let’s remember the Villa rumour rule. If it’s a good rumour, then it’s a load of bollocks. If it’s the hint of bad news, then it’s not just true, but a 1000 times worse than imaged.

[Dave P]

I’m going 2-2 this game as I’m a optimist. Watkins and Bailey.

[Chris Smith]

1 - 1 hopefully we will defend well from corners / free kicks

Noticed that Rice did not play last night for West Ham - hopefully he will be out injured, last season he ran the show for them down at Villa Park.

Looks like they rested a lot of players last night so I wouldn’t read too much into Rice not playing.

It’s a winnable game if the players show some belief and courage in possession and stop the habit of gifting goals to the opposition.

[VinnieChase84]

Im bringing my lad (6) with me which will be his first ever Villa game. Im hoping its a magical day for him more than anything else. My fear is it going sour. For love of god Villa please win a f**king game by ANY means

[Chris Smith]

Im bringing my lad (6) with me which will be his first ever Villa game. Im hoping its a magical day for him more than anything else. My fear is it going sour. For love of god Villa please win a f**king game by ANY means

Hope we win for him and he loves it otherwise it could be a tough introduction if things go badly and the crowd turns.

[VinnieChase84]

Im bringing my lad (6) with me which will be his first ever Villa game. Im hoping its a magical day for him more than anything else. My fear is it going sour. For love of god Villa please win a f**king game by ANY means

Hope we win for him and he loves it otherwise it could be a tough introduction if things go badly and the crowd turns.

That's exactly my fear. I'm trying to manage his expectations over next 48 hours lol

[sendô WHU]

Greetings Villains. Another Claret & Blue derby is upon us, but this one sees neither team looking in particularly great form. West Ham three straight losses in the league and zero goals. A far cry from the team that was lighting up the league and prompting premature talk of a title challenge a little under a year ago, yet the personel playing now are pretty much identical to the ones we had back then. Indeed Moyes has signed several new players, but insists on "easing them in" and waiting until they're "up to speed" with how West Ham play (which at the moment seems to be not great) much to the consternation of many hammers fans.

The primary issue seems to be that West Ham are a victim of their own moderate success. No longers are we a side that teams will look at as three points to be grabbed by attacking and playing the way you want to play. Everyone adapts their game to nullify ours. It's certainly a compliment, and even Man City did it opening day, playing the "inverted full backs" that tucked into midfield and smothered the space, snuffing out counter attacks before they could be started.

The trouble is, Moyes changes tact like an oil tanker doing a handbrake turn. Our line up and general play is very predictable. Work the ball side to side across the back, push down the wings and look for an overload to get a cross in, which inevitably will be floated to where the keeper can get some catching practise. Our counter attacking has again been worked out (for about 9 months now) by putting a big centre back on Antonio and not giving him the space to bring the ball down or turn, which inevitably leads to the ball bouncing off of him or him falling on the floor flapping his arms about.

The other issue is centre midfield, somewhere that other teams think is a strength. The problem is Rice and Soucek have stopped both sitting and acting as a double pivot. Rice seems to think he is an all action superstar in the Stevie G mould, bounding into the box and scoring pearlers. Indeed he's still trying to take penalties too. Soucek has also been bounding forward a lot - which is of course a strength of his - and looks like an auxiliary striker more than a DM. All this leaves holes for other teams to exploit in the middle, like Brighton did with impunity last week. We need a third man in there, linking play and pulling the strings. Lanzini has done this to an extent in the past, but honestly the game has been passing him by match after match for months. Fornals maybe could do it, but Moyes keeps playing him on the wing.

I'm maybe being a bit harsh. We had a long and exhausting season last year with a short break and short pre-season (especially for those players on international duty in June for those 4 pointless friendlies - sorry really important Nations League games). Add to that injuries to every centre back we had meant we weren't quite ready at the start of the season, but then in the Premier League there are no gimme games. If you're not 100% you're going to get beat.

Anyway, as to Villa. On the outside looking in, aside from that initial lift after Gerrard joined and you won a few on the bounce when Coutinho came in, I can't really see how you've changed as a team much from when Dean Smith was in charge. It looked like you were about to make a wash of signings, change how you played and push on, but that hasn't materialised. Worse, the area you appeared weakest when we last met - central midfield - is still the same. Still, Ings looks like he is staying fit and finding a bit of form, and sometimes all it needs it one in form striker nicking some goals to get the wins that gives the whole team a lift and turns things around.

It's hard to predict a result. If Moyes sticks to his usual 4-2-3-1 formation with the same predictable style and players from last season I can see West Ham sinking again. Last night he went with a 3-4-3 vs Viborg now that we've got some defenders back, and I suspect this is how he will want to line up. Get numbers into the middle of the park, smother Villa's play and look to dominate the match, something West Ham do not do enough of of late. I only hope Moyes is brave enough to stick Scamacca in from the start instead of Antonio, as the big lad looks like he knows where the goal is, whereas Antonio only seems to know how to miss sitters.

[Dave P]

^^ Quick, hide the insults before he goes back to his proper friends!

[dave.woodhall]

^^ Quick, hide the insults before he goes back to his proper friends!

I was just wondering which of his two faces he said all that out of.

[mrfuse]

Should be the perfect time to play West ham just after a Thursday night away trip for them having a poor start to the season in the League.

In reality we will be their spring board to start the season,I'm quite a positive person and I hate being so negative about the Villa. I want to be walking to the ground in a jubilant mood seeing the Holte end which always gets my neck tingling however many times I see it and I think right lets have it were going to give you a spanking today.

I just don't see Gerrard being about to out think/play any Manger in the the current League apart from Lampard.

The plus side at least my Saturday wont be ruined just my Bank Holiday.

Come on Villa prove me wrong!

[RamboandBruno]

Im bringing my lad (6) with me which will be his first ever Villa game. Im hoping its a magical day for him more than anything else. My fear is it going sour. For love of god Villa please win a f**king game by ANY means

Hope we win for him and he loves it otherwise it could be a tough introduction if things go badly and the crowd turns.

That's exactly my fear. I'm trying to manage his expectations over next 48 hours lol

My 12 year old lads first game was in March 2015 on his 5th birthday. Played Swansea at home, dreadful game and we lost 0-1 to a last minute goal, another scrape to safety that season, before inevitable relegation the next season.
Despite all of that, he was addicted from the minute he went to the match and is more than addicted to this day, e.g. nagging me to drag him to Bolton and back on Tuesday.
Obviously we want to win tomorrow and definitely don’t want to lose and seeing booing etc, but i bet whatever happens your lad will love it and get the bug for life.