Leicester v Aston Villa : Sunday 13th September @ King Power Stadium 4pm kick off.

Seeing some suggestions that Gana might actually be fit for this one.

Sandie wrote:Seeing some suggestions that Gana might actually be fit for this one.

That would be amazing .... my response tells you how important I think Gana is to us!

From what I have seen of Leicester this season they have over run the midfield and used their wide players to great effect, Albrighton and Mahrez being key.
Stop them and you stop Leicester, Gana will be key to our success if he plays.

South London Villan wrote:From what I have seen of Leicester this season they have over run the midfield and used their wide players to great effect, Albrighton and Mahrez being key.
Stop them and you stop Leicester, Gana will be key to our success if he plays.

I don't think TS will risk Gana just in case.  I'd like to see Ilori at RB to get on Albrighton's case, but I think Tim will use Hutton to try and crunch Marc. It should be a good battle between Amavi and Mahrez, although I hope that Amavi can handle him when Mahrez cuts in.

Cant wait for this match think it will be a real cracker. Will be intresting how we line up tomorrow. Lescott needs to come in ASAP to settle our defence down and if he does than I can see us conceeding 1 goal max on the weekend. I am crossing my fingers that traore and Grelish are both fit because if they are then I think Tim will pick both of them and he rates both very highly, which will give us two attcking midfielders and a better balance to the midfield. If only 1 of them is fit to start then I can't see Sherwood being brave and picking Gil and therefore our midfield will have a defensive look about it.

I think this team could win
GUZAN
HUTTON RICHARDS LESCOTT AMAVI

TRAORE GUEYE WESTWARD GREALISH

GESTEDE SINCLAIR

I think this team could lose

GUZAN
HUTTON RICHARDS CLARKE AMAVI

SANCHEZ GUEYE
WESTWARD
GREALISH
SINCLAIR GESTEDE

This team will lose the match as mahrez and albrighton will be allowed to get at our fullbacks who both vacate their positions regulary. Also we will be very Stodgy in our attacking play as grealish will always look to cut into an already crowded central area with effectively 3 defensive midfielders all tripping over themselves leaving gestede and sinclair isolated. LETS PRAY THAT TRAORE AND GREALISH BOTH START

I agree with you JV. The attacking formation has to be our best bet .... if the right players are fit.

Jim Villan wrote:This team will lose the match as mahrez and albrighton will be allowed to get at our fullbacks who both vacate their positions regulary. Also we will be very Stodgy in our attacking play as grealish will always look to cut into an already crowded central area with effectively 3 defensive midfielders all tripping over themselves leaving gestede and sinclair isolated.             LETS PRAY THAT TRAORE AND GREALISH BOTH START

I agree, I had a look at the Leicester forums yesterday and they all felt their wide players would be key to this one. As you say, we need to follow them in playing things out wide so we have both an outlet and also the ability to cover for our two attacking full backs.

I can see Albrighton having a great game, here. He's a genuine Villa fan and might well be keen to impress having been discarded in the way that he was.

Defensively Leicester are not too strong and we can exploit that. What worries me is the space created in the middle because  both teams will be attacking wide.
This will potentially require a tactical formation change around the hour mark. That is when we struggle and fail to adapt  Palce and Man U games, case in point.
What options do they have and what do we do to counter?

Options wise, Leicester have just brought in Dyer who can as another wide player or offer fresh legs from the bench. Had a quick look and in their first three games they went 4-4-2 with Albrighton and Mahrez wide, King and Drinkwater in the centre and Vardy and Okazaki up front. Against Bournemouth they went 4-5-1 with Kante coming in for Okazaki.

I'd mirror what Leicester do (cf Jim Villain's team) to start with. If there ends up being oceans of space in the centre I'd like to think we would blink first rather than wait to adapt to what Leicester change to. For me, if we end up in that situation we should think about bringing on Gil at some stage. He would be able to capitalise on that space as an attacking midfielder. It's obviously important to have bodies out wide as that's where Leicester are at their strongest (and with Adama and Grealish I'd say we are at our most exciting) so bringing on Gil would have to be at the expense of a striker.

I would say that I'd not be surprised if Sherwood picks Bacuna for this one, either as a wide player or instead of Hutton. Wonder if Gabby might come straight back into the team following illness too?

Scotty surely, I think that is why Gabby threw his toys out the pram and deleted his social media accounts.
I wonder if he might play Hutton who may have one of those uncharacteristic late tackles on Albrighton

I'm worried whether TS has time to read this thread! I hope he does because a few of you guys would make good tactical managers. (seriously) I hope he is thinking along the same lines.

No logic or reason behind this but I think we will lose
3-2.

Quite a few of us predicting this being a high scoring game, I see.

It would be good to score the first goal and put Leicester into all out attack mode. Then it could be a game of goals.

Right it's time for players, manager, fans, everybody associated with Aston Villa to stand up and get some self belief. I'm sick of reading about how hard it is going to be to play the likes of leicester, crystal palace etc. The reason it's hard is because those sides have BALLS, they play with great determination, go out positively to win games , they have self belief and a plan, every player in the side seems to know their function and role. Granted they have some decent players, but so do we and were ASTON VILLA.

Time to raise our standards and start winning football matches and not just dare to hope, that if we have a fantastic season, we might just be able to scrape a midtable finish. Everybody at the club must have the attitude that this club belongs in the top 8 and anything else is a categoric failure. Yes we might come up short, but unless we start thinking bigger we will continue to flatter to deceive and be looking nervously over our shoulders come March.

IMO tomorrows match is pivotable to the season and I know that seems ridiclous to be saying as its match 5 but we all know football hinges on momentum and when you've got so many new players, new to the league in most cases young, unless we get in a winning habbit early then confidence could slip away on an individual level and as a group. Next two fixtures Leic and West Brom we need 4 points bare minimum because after those fixtures we go on to play Liverpool, Stoke, Chelsea, Swansea, Tottenham, Man City, Everton. If we go into those fixtures with no confidence, it's highly likely we will go on our perineal losing streak and the season will have slipped away even before we realise it.

There is no room for excuses, I don't really want to hear about how this and that player could have a great future or its going to take these players a while to gel, while that may well be a stark reality why focus on it and go into games with a weak mentality. Tomorrow is must win in my mind to provide a spring board and momentum to carry forward into this first quater if the season.

LETS GET SOME BALLS AND REALISE WERE ASTON VILLA