Unai Emery

[Ger Regan]

Would people consider 7th and a c*p w*n (trying to avoid jinxing it) a success this season? I'd take it right now.

[Meanwood Villa]

Would people consider 7th and a c*p w*n (trying to avoid jinxing it) a success this season? I'd take it right now.

Very much so

[Tayls_7]

Would people consider 7th and a c*p w*n (trying to avoid jinxing it) a success this season? I'd take it right now.

Very much so

Absolutely.

[Clampy]

Just because we're midtable (or 5 points off a Champions League spot) now doesn't mean that's where we are going to finish. By the same token, if we were 4 or 5th now, there's be no guarantee we'd finish there anyway. Yeah, it's not been a good or as fluent a league campaign as it was last season so far but I don't think it was quite worth 6 or so paragraphs of 'what's going wrong down the Villa' either.

[Mister E]

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what's going wrong at the moment ... I just can't see us getting much this week, unfortunately. Which would be another missed opportunity.

Great post.
The bit that really struck a chord for me was "We're too easy to play against. We fail to match teams physically, we concede too easily".
I've said frequently to the guys I sit with that we always seem to get bullied and not win the 50:50 challenges; and we certainly saw that on Saturday. It's not about upping the physicality of our challenges, more about positioning, anticipation and timing.

[85kota]

Liverpool starting to flag and Chelsea have been cooked for weeks.

It's all still to play for.

We can beat the pair of them and have some defenders back for the rest of the season.

UTV

[Olneythelonely]

Would people consider 7th and a c*p w*n (trying to avoid jinxing it) a success this season? I'd take it right now.

Think I’d take 17th and a cup win

[Hookeysmith]

All the talk is of lack of consistency yet I read recently we have had  a total of 10 different Centre Half pairing combinations including the recent one of a young kid from the reserves with the best CDM in the prem.

It's not all about tactics and game plans if it's changing personal each week. I am sick of hearing about other teams injury list.
We have done very well to be where we are so far

[rooboy316]

It's all relative, innit? We haven't been 'poor' based on the last 15 years of following this club, obviously, and no one is arguing otherwise. However, I do think we've been poor, or at least, underwhelming, based on what this team capable of. We've had spells in games which shows exactly what we can do, but we haven't reached those standards for significant spells as well, which is where the frustration lies for me.

Boozey's post is a good summation of why that is.

[Hillbilly]

Jonathan Wilson wrote that the 'Guardiola' approach of pissing around and playing it out from the back might be at the end of the road as other coaches have found ways to counter it. He said it's not yet clear what might replace it though.

Part of the issue could be that defenders trained to be the first line of attack might not be best at defending so are susceptible to a Graham Taylor style of football.

[ROBBO]

Never saw the sense in wing backs, neither defender or attacker but trying to be a bit of both.
Give me a genuine speedy winger every time, someone who can turn a full back and knows how to put in a decent cross.

[aj2k77]

Would people consider 7th and a c*p w*n (trying to avoid jinxing it) a success this season? I'd take it right now.

7th and a trophy would be magnificent.

[PaulWinch again]

Bloody right it would, I think I’d take 7th right now!

[Baldy]

All the talk is of lack of consistency yet I read recently we have had  a total of 10 different Centre Half pairing combinations including the recent one of a young kid from the reserves with the best CDM in the prem.

It's not all about tactics and game plans if it's changing personal each week. I am sick of hearing about other teams injury list.
We have done very well to be where we are so far

Agreed Hookey. Last season we had four or five long term injuries to contend with but this season has been like a chinese torture. A constant drip of short term injuries to many, many players.

I doubt we have had the same starting eleven for two games in a row all season!!

It's the lack of continuity and getting a settled team that has halted our growth this season.

Unai must be pulling his hair out.

[PeterWithe]

Yep, what Chris said.

At one point this year we went , I think, 7 or 8 games in a row without fielding the same back 4. It's really hard to get a functioning offside trap from that.

Even at the weekend we were fielding a brand new back 4 and then had to make a change in the first half before Maatsen even came on. It's not a great surprise that our defenders are a little out of sync.

But at the beginning of the season the same defence that played the high-line last season were all fit, weren't they? And I don't think we bothered with it then.

Aye, if he's wedded to that system then all the defenders, in whatever combination, should be drilled and drilled into it. Like they were last year.

It does smack of a change of heart about its benefits.