Villa (a) Post Match Thread

[Darth Marty]

Agree mate...Check Zenit St Petersburg, they have no big names except Arshavin but they played the scum off the park at times.Fast paced and brilliant at times.We just need to stop being negative, we have the players for defense/ midfield and strikers, missing wingers and setting up the team to win...

Good point, they are an attacking team like no other at present.

Advocaat for Liverpool?!

[lfc1394]

Who should have played on the left???

Some one with a bit of pace, skill and direct running, El Zhar or Ngog.

[Johnny]

Some one with a bit of pace, skill and direct running, El Zhar or Ngog.

Like Robbie Keane???A seasoned pro or Lucas,no,a morrocan left winger who has played 3/4 preseason games or a 19 yr old striker from France???

[lfc1394]

Like Robbie Keane???A seasoned pro or Lucas,no,a morrocan left winger who has played 3/4 preseason games or a 19 yr old striker from France???

Keane and Lucas are never wingers, not by any stretch of the imagination, I mean seriously Lucas on the wing??? El Zhar has played better than any wide player we've had so far, what does he have to do to get a game. I know, be void of all attacking intent. Can you honestly tell me you agreed with the line up and the subs?

[El Jefecito]

One of the more frustrating PL matches for a while. I can see the logic in the original setup - if you accept that we have generally been at our best in recent seasons when we have controlled the flow of the game and built from possession early on to try and do damage later in the game when the opposition tire then playing effectively 4-5-1 from the get go should allow us to gain possession and position early on. The problem was that whenever we started looking like we were building something or were going to at least move their defense around in the first half we made a stupid mistake and we let this get to our confidence and started playing long balls to often.

There seems to be something eroding the confidence of the players at the minute and a lack of trust between the members of the team. Rafa needs to get this sorted and get players to up their work rate of the ball if we are to succeed. Hopefully people won't need to much motivation for the United game at least.

The first two substitutions I can live with. Not necessarily what I would have done but Ngog is probably the most natural lone frontman on the bench and people have criticised Rafa for giving people too many instructions so retaining the team shape when we are low on confidence is a reasonable idea. Aurelio did offer the width and crossing we needed at that point. Should have made two subs at the same time though for me. Benayoun for Keane seemed like madness especially when we could have bought the pace of Babel to bear on the Villa defense as an alternative.
The subs made me wonder if Rafa isn't getting less fond of Kuyt and Babel. A bit early to say but usually the former is kept on rather than other players and last season he certainly would have turned to Babel at the end of a game like that. Possibly that is over analysing things though.

Another game where no one on the pitch stood up and lead the troops. Mascher made an effort but a bit like Gerrard he tends to try and do everything rather than inspiring the team as a whole or helping to organise others and make us play more cohesively. I think the Alonso/Rafa split is hurting us a lot as he used to be like Rafa's mind on the pitch and helped to keep us ticking over and at his best enhanced those around him and made our game plans work.

Pepe was good. I love Pepe.

I was hoping for us to start getting at least some areas of our game together but nothing came of it. A truly tedious game with little to recommend it to anyone.

Benni instead of Babel I can see the sense of. Babel gets you chances on the counter. Villa were sitting deep. When the opponents are sitting deep, you have more chance of getting a goal from a clever through ball for the striker to run onto. That is what Benni is good at and what Babel is not.

Seemed fairly elemenatry to me.

[Fierce]

Some one with a bit of pace, skill and direct running, El Zhar or Ngog.

Like Robbie Keane???A seasoned pro or Lucas,no,a morrocan left winger who has played 3/4 preseason games or a 19 yr old striker from France???

Agreed, though to be honest none of the players mentioned should've started or played left wing!

Kuyt has the discipline and workrate for it, Benny has the intelligence to play there too. Suppose you could say the same about Keane, and I think had we won that game maybe Rafa would be lauded as astute

Strange team he put, strange subs too. But I think the players have to shoulder a hell of a lot of responsibility too, they just look like average players at the minute, a lot of the time anyway

Seems like we're not playing with an ounce of confidence, we look very rushed when on the ball and even basic ball skills seem lacking in parts

Seems like something is 'wrong' at the club. Whether it is or whether it just appears to be, could be the managers fault, the owners, the squad disruption, the injuries and olympics effect, or a combination of all of the above.

Only slightly concerned at the minute. Its very early days and table wise, we're doing fine. If that changes, or if nothing changes as the season gets on and all players are fit and ready, then I might get a little worried. Right now, its just frustrating and almost a little confusing

[Johnny]

Keane and Lucas are never wingers, not by any stretch of the imagination, I mean seriously Lucas on the wing??? El Zhar has played better than any wide player we've had so far, what does he have to do to get a game. I know, be void of all attacking intent. Can you honestly tell me you agreed with the line up and the subs?

Reira was bought to late to play against Villa and Babel missed the Euro`s and had a dire Olympics.El Zhar is a right winger.
Without Gerrard and Reira and up until Torres`s injury the line up was our normal line up considering we played 120 minutes days before.

Who knew the team would play so badly?

Keane,N`gog and Kuyt all had decent chances.

[El Jefecito]

Keane and Lucas are never wingers, not by any stretch of the imagination, I mean seriously Lucas on the wing??? El Zhar has played better than any wide player we've had so far, what does he have to do to get a game. I know, be void of all attacking intent. Can you honestly tell me you agreed with the line up and the subs?

Neither are Rooney or Deco, yet it is OK for Scolari and Fergiescum to do. They don't get flogged to death by their own "fans".

[lfc1394]

Reira was bought to late to play against Villa and Babel missed the Euro`s and had a dire Olympics.El Zhar is a right winger.
Without Gerrard and Reira and up until Torres`s injury the line up was our normal line up considering we played 120 minutes days before.

Who knew the team would play so badly?

Keane,N`gog and Kuyt all had decent chances.

Every one who saw the line up!!

I don't think the team played badly, I think our centre midfield was very good and the defence was solid. We lacked off the ball and made it very difficult for ourselves going forward. We had 1 shot on target that pretty much sums it up.

I've seen Lucas play a fair few times both on the box and live. I've never once thought, you know what he looks like he can play in the hole (where he was supposed to be in the first half) or even better out on the left. Now I'm not an expert but I can see that those aren't positions the kid is suited to.

If this was the first time something like this has happened I wouldn't be fussed, but we've looked **** in every game. Babel may have been ****, maybe off form maybe whatever but he has the ability to create and score, El Zhar has shown he brings something different to the side too, I would have played him on the right and Kyut on the left, making sure Dossena pushes forward (with Kuyt covering) so we can see him put in some of those crosses that he can delivery. Don't you want these kind of players playing, don't you want to be entertained when you watch a game of footie?

[lfc1394]

Neither are Rooney or Deco, yet it is OK for Scolari and Fergiescum to do. They don't get flogged to death by their own "fans".

UTD are a little different because they have that Ronaldo guy, Rooney has suffered to allow him to play and it works for them most of the time.

Deco doesn't really play wide, Chelsea don't have any wide midfielders, they have Cashly Cole and Boswinga, very early days for big Phil.

I'm hoping Reira turns out OK and gets played in position as it will solve some of our main problems.

[Johnny]

Every one who saw the line up!!

I don't think the team played badly, I think our centre midfield was very good and the defence was solid. We lacked off the ball and made it very difficult for ourselves going forward. We had 1 shot on target that pretty much sums it up. We missed Gerrard and Torres

I've seen Lucas play a fair few times both on the box and live. I've never once thought, you know what he looks like he can play in the hole (where he was supposed to be in the first half) or even better out on the left. Now I'm not an expert but I can see that those aren't positions the kid is suited to.We didn`t have much option

If this was the first time something like this has happened I wouldn't be fussed, but we've looked **** in every game. Babel may have been ****, maybe off form maybe whatever but he has the ability to create and scoreBut was he fit??, El Zhar has shown he brings something different to the side too, I would have played him on the right and Kyut on the leftOut of position like Lucas??, making sure Dossena pushes forward (with Kuyt covering) so we can see him put in some of those crosses that he can delivery. Don't you want these kind of players playing, don't you want to be entertained when you watch a game of footie?Course I do,but it`s not gonna happen against villa at their place with our two best players injured and so many players just back from the Olympics and just getting over 120 minutes against SL.I`ll start to worry when we`re 10 points behind ManU.

[El Jefecito]

UTD are a little different because they have that Ronaldo guy, Rooney has suffered to allow him to play and it works for them most of the time.

Deco doesn't really play wide, Chelsea don't have any wide midfielders, they have Cashly Cole and Boswinga, very early days for big Phil.

I'm hoping Reira turns out OK and gets played in position as it will solve some of our main problems.

As an aside Dossena was better than both Boswinga and Cashley this weekend.

[lfc1394]

@ Johnny Kuyt ain't exactly a right winger either!!
What pains me is that from the first SL game we have created very little, with the games changing when we've brought on El Zhar and the other night with Babel, we've got players there that can do a decent enough job if they are given the chance. We shouldn't have had to play 120mins on Wed FFS!!

@ El J, yep 2nd half anyway.

[Johnny]

@ Johnny Kuyt ain't exactly a right winger either!!
What pains me is that from the first SL game we have created very little, with the games changing when we've brought on El Zhar and the other night with Babel, we've got players there that can do a decent enough job if they are given the chance. We shouldn't have had to play 120mins on Wed FFS!!I don`t disagree,but it`s important to play seasoned pro`s in CL qualifiers ahead off El Zhar and play Babel when he`s full fit and fresh.It was Rafa`s choice to promote El Zhar.Rafa is the reason you know El Zhar is a good player.Leave Rafa to decide when to play him.

@ El J, yep 2nd half anyway.

[Johnny]

As an aside Dossena was better than both Boswinga and Cashley this weekend.

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