nayenezgani
Jimmy Neighbour
Smith sounds like a great bloke.. Very complimentary too.
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**Official OMT** - Who's going to the season opener? (Not an OMT)
- Thread starter Jordinho
- Start date
fernadez
Dean Austin
Mourinho would have never waited that long. I always liked his 20 minutes substitutions. Boo fudging about.
SylDave
Jason Dozzell
But he did change it after 20 minutes, we went from a diamond to 4231, the problem was Lamela was allowed to drift inside from the left as his starting point and still more resembling a half arsed #10, Kane was the #10 and Lucas was the main striker, with Sissoko playing on the right of the three, the only thing that changed at ht was Lamela had clearly been told to hold his starting position on the left.
Once Eriksen came on Lucas went to the right and Kane went up top, Eriksen naturally drops deep anyway and what resulted in was when Lamela drifters in from the left he was not taking up the same space as Kane, and Sissoko playing more of a box to box role from deep resulted in us looking so much better, as well as stating the obvious Eriksen himself, the slow build up was a result of the four forwards all being square pegs in round holes and smothering each other.
braineclipse
Steve Sedgley
Have to remember that the first half was without Son, Alli, Eriksen and Lo Celso. That's a lot of creativity out of the team, Villa also defended well and we can't expect the team to be properly gelled for the season opener.
Could and should have been better, but these things happen.
Could and should have been better, but these things happen.
Hashegotthesackyet?
Gudni Bergsson
Getting into the ground was a shambles! Ticket /card readers not working for the majority of people.
Kandi1977
Garth Crooks
Had to work for most, because stadium looked pretty packed.....
My view on game from the ground (and had no issues getting in)
- We always had possession, territory, never looked in trouble (other than conceding), difference was tempo and getting to pull Villa wider in second half.
- Eriksen without doubt changed the game when he came on, this was the Eriksen people want to see, he grabbed the game, he called for the ball, he gave instructions to others, the front line starting making more runs knowing the early pass was coming and he was looking for the space to shoot. Didn't look like a guy who has packed his bags.
- N'dombele grew into game, think early he was caught/surprised by lack of time and space, but still was aggressive, looking to go forward, decisive pass attempts, looking to put himself into shooting positions.
- Harry looked up for it, fresher, typical Harry, missed a couple then when it counted put it away. He, Lucas and Lamela had good but not great (yes, I'm aware he scored 2) games.
- Winks for me was average, this is the Winks that worries me, slow, not physical enough, choosing the safe option, part of first half tempo problem.
- KWP is the one I probably disagree with most people on, not a good game for him. Lots of possession, team used him as an outlet a lot, yet he wasn't effective with it. Defensively he looked very uncomfortable the many times Villa distributed from back/keeper onto his side in the air, didn't look like he knew if to attack the ball in air, to stand off, get in front his man or stay .. Sissoko and others spent a fair amount of time on the cover for him.
Re Villa, stood off too much and too deep, can't do that and expect to survive that level of pressure. Grealish got caught, very predictable player, in the game he received the ball on the left several times, then ran sideways before distributing to RB/RW player, exactly same motion he was trying to start when Lamela picked his pocket. But perhaps the most annoying thing with them is the amount fo times they went down softly, rolled around (#9 a major culprit) and the ref bought it .. fudging brick to watch.
All in all, important to hit the ground running, get the three points, get Harry off the mark (none of this August, new ground BS), Poch has a bit of work to do on training ground this week. Will be important to get the other players back in.
- We always had possession, territory, never looked in trouble (other than conceding), difference was tempo and getting to pull Villa wider in second half.
- Eriksen without doubt changed the game when he came on, this was the Eriksen people want to see, he grabbed the game, he called for the ball, he gave instructions to others, the front line starting making more runs knowing the early pass was coming and he was looking for the space to shoot. Didn't look like a guy who has packed his bags.
- N'dombele grew into game, think early he was caught/surprised by lack of time and space, but still was aggressive, looking to go forward, decisive pass attempts, looking to put himself into shooting positions.
- Harry looked up for it, fresher, typical Harry, missed a couple then when it counted put it away. He, Lucas and Lamela had good but not great (yes, I'm aware he scored 2) games.
- Winks for me was average, this is the Winks that worries me, slow, not physical enough, choosing the safe option, part of first half tempo problem.
- KWP is the one I probably disagree with most people on, not a good game for him. Lots of possession, team used him as an outlet a lot, yet he wasn't effective with it. Defensively he looked very uncomfortable the many times Villa distributed from back/keeper onto his side in the air, didn't look like he knew if to attack the ball in air, to stand off, get in front his man or stay .. Sissoko and others spent a fair amount of time on the cover for him.
Re Villa, stood off too much and too deep, can't do that and expect to survive that level of pressure. Grealish got caught, very predictable player, in the game he received the ball on the left several times, then ran sideways before distributing to RB/RW player, exactly same motion he was trying to start when Lamela picked his pocket. But perhaps the most annoying thing with them is the amount fo times they went down softly, rolled around (#9 a major culprit) and the ref bought it .. fudging brick to watch.
All in all, important to hit the ground running, get the three points, get Harry off the mark (none of this August, new ground BS), Poch has a bit of work to do on training ground this week. Will be important to get the other players back in.
metalgear
Luka Modric
Agree that the first half was a torture. I hope that we will get better after a few games like we usually do, but wish we could start the season blazing away with confidence inspiring performances.
The problem in the first half was that there was not enough movement up front. Kane needs to drop back more and pop up when needed to confuse narrow defences. Moura too.
Sent from my SM-T835 using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
The problem in the first half was that there was not enough movement up front. Kane needs to drop back more and pop up when needed to confuse narrow defences. Moura too.
Sent from my SM-T835 using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
Actually, if we had not conceded in the first half, there would have been no issue. Retain the ball, push the opponent back, make them work very hard without the ball and wait for the mistake. The reason everyone is freaking out is with Villa's first attacking touch we made individual mistakes that cost us a goal.
I actually do not want Kane coming back, maybe going wide bot not back. My real hope is with Lo Celso, N'dombele, Eriksen, Lamela, Lucas and Son as AM options, Kane should not be need to do anything but stay up, make runs (go wide if needed).
BrainOfLevy
Michael Carrick
I think almost all the players suffered from the fact that a diamond in possession against a team that will defend is just too predictable.
There is no fluidity in the positions and it means it’s really easy to stop. We’re basically never going to free up Lamela to play any incisive pass because that area is crowded, and going wide it’s easy enough to shuttle across, maybe you can get an overlap with Sissoko or N’Dombele but even so, you know it’s coming and it’s easy to stop. Winks couldn’t really do anything but set the rest of the team up to play into those cul de sacs.
I think the diamond can work if you get more fluidity in the positions. Lamela, for about the first 3 minutes of the game, actually started on the right, and then almost never went out there again. If you had Winks making runs from deep and Sissoko dropping back, if you had the attacking players pulling wide, the full backs driving through the middle, then we become a lot harder to track and predict.
Second half we basically just added positional fluidity to our game. Lamela left, more of a 442, and then with Eriksen coming on the positions changed again. The diamond is decent for possession but I think the players need to trust in the system a lot more to start getting that fluidity that they need, otherwise it really doesn’t work against low block teams.
All the players suffered because of the system so I can only judge them on the second half, when near enough all of them stepped up.
Spur of the moment
Frederic Kanoute
At each gate there were a dozen or so stewards with scanners. First one we went to told us the data hadn't successfully been uploaded to our cards and we needed to go to the ticket office to get it sorted. That would have meant trawling back round the other side of the stadium.
But having read on here about all the shenanigans last week, we simply ignored him and tried the next steward along. Guess what - worked fine for all nine of us.
Bedfordspurs
Mark Falco
It was a shambles
They wouldn’t met my nephew in so I threw a few Fecks at them and said if we miss the game we want compensation... they said if we had the email they would let us in
Low and behold the card worked at the actual entrance just not the security.
Spur of the moment
Frederic Kanoute
Indeed. One scanner doesn't work so steward refers everyone to the TO. The next gets your cards to work fine.
Don't these stewards ever even talk to one another?
parklane1
Tony Galvin
Football manager ( and the likes) has a lot to answer for.
As for the game we were poor in the first half for sure, second half we started to play and Eriksen coming on changed the game. Though KWP had his best game for us and Kane was very good. Not a lot more to get excited about but 3 points is 3 points and we now go on to the next game.
It always feels to me that other managers are more willing to make subs earlier, Poch seems to leave it too long.
Spur of the moment
Frederic Kanoute
He explains in his book Brave New World the reasons he prefers not to bring on subs until late in the game.
It's a while since I read it but in essence he says that yanking players off early can have a negative impact on both the player concerned and on team morale overall. Squad harmony is his no 1 priority, that kind of stuff.
Does anyone actually agree with that? Where's the pressure to improve one's performances without fear of getting hooked/dropped?
K.D.D.D.D.Soc
Ian Walker
Perhaps the pressure is not being in the next starting line up, but then doing that would only encourage the tin foil hat mob.
PochettinoPochettinoPochettino
Serge Aurier
Not sure if posted but quite funny.
Leyton orient one is quite funny too.
Leyton orient one is quite funny too.