Re: ASTON VILLA V NOTTINGHAM FOREST

by **Sandie** Sun Sep 11, 2016 2:26 pm

Agreed, I don't think pushing Ayew and McCormack deep is a good tactic. Two up top and a winger would be much better.

Bunn on for Gollini.

by **villabromsgrove** Sun Sep 11, 2016 3:17 pm

Bunn was an invisible obstacle. We started to play with width on the right when Gestede came on, but then tried to shut up shop when we took the lead. We never learn do we?

by **villabromsgrove** Sun Sep 11, 2016 3:40 pm

Stoikovic kept Forest in the game with a number of excellent full stretch saves. Easy when you're an experienced international, 33 year old, 6 ft 5 ins keeper. Are you listening RDM?

by Jim Villan Sun Sep 11, 2016 4:13 pm

As frustrating as it was to drop 2 points at the death today, there were very positive signs from an attacking sense. Over the course of the season we are going to score a lot of goals. All 4 of our strikers are quality and look like they could score at any given opportunity. it didn't go for us today and part of that was down to the weakness and ineffectiveness of the centre mid pairing and a replacement keeper who wasn't up to the task. However we must recognise the many positives to come from the match, to create as many chances as we did today was exciting to watch, the ability to create chances is what separates good sides from average/poor sides and from todays showing it looks like we have the talent to carve teams open. One frustrating aspect today and something I couldn't understand, why didn't DM bring on Jedinak to help see the game out? We only had one defensive mid on the pitch when they scored the equaliser and that was Westward Very Happy

, We definitely need to learn how to see matches out and learn it fast as were not going to pick up many easy points in this league. Grealish should have come off after we scored our 2nd. We need Tshibola and Jedi to stay fit as centre mid is a weak area for sure without them.

by **Sandie** Sun Sep 11, 2016 4:18 pm

I can't quite decide between that being bad luck (25 shots on goal, against 3) and a Sherwood style tactical fuck up. McCormack was playing too deep for much of the game and, we didn't strengthen the midfield when we took the lead. Westwood and Gardner (who messed up a simple pass in the lead up to the first goal) are too weak and Forest were afforded too much space for both goals. RDM seems to be picking individuals rather than a team. We have four strikers, all of whom could justify a start but really only two of them should be starting. I also think we are already ruing not pursuing another midfielder as we are so, so weak in that area.

by **Sandie** Sun Sep 11, 2016 4:20 pm

I already have a worrying feeling that Tshibola is made of glass. His injury record at Reading wasn't great.

by **villabromsgrove** Mon Sep 12, 2016 11:46 am

After watching the match and taking a fair while to consider the way we set up, played and the tactics we used over ninety minutes, I'm wondering at what stage should we start asking questions about RDM's performance?

Tony Xia said yesterday "we can't keep making the same mistakes", and yet that's exactly what we appear to be doing.

We've played six matches now and only won one of them. We will win occasional games with the number of shots we're taking, but we'll also continue to throw away points with the repeated questionable decisions being made by our management.

The fans still seem to know more about how Villa should be setting up and playing than RDM, and quite frankly that's unacceptable considering how highly paid managers are these days.

by **villabromsgrove** Mon Sep 12, 2016 11:55 am

Browsing other sites I noticed that Gary Gardner came in for a lot of criticism yesterday. Having watched the game again I was actually impressed with the amount of work he got through in the first half. I know he misplaced a pass up near their penalty area which started the move from which their first goal was scored, but other players should have intervened defensively and were also culpable.

GG's ball winning and willingness to make the penetrating passes seem to have been overlooked.

by **Sandie** Mon Sep 12, 2016 12:38 pm

It was probably his best performance so far this season, I remember thinking he had played well at half time. However, that's as much to do with how desperately poor he's been in the other games. Second half, however, he had faded and dropped out of the game (something Westwood also does) and then went on to make that goal-costing error (he was misplacing simple passes a few times against Bristol City too so it's by no means an isolated incident). I think, following his performances in the previous games, everyone's just ran out of patience.

We can't afford players like that to be regular starters. We need a robust midfield that can grab a game by the scruff of the neck and influence it rather than a couple of lightweights who either fail to have a consistent level of influence or who make errors that cost us or who seem to only play well when the rest of the team play well. Our midfield is a worry. I'm starting to think we should have spent some of the money we spent on strikers on another midfielder. We'd probably have a few more points on the board had we not given Gardner and Westwood so much game time so far.

by **Sandie** Mon Sep 12, 2016 12:50 pm

villabromsgrove wrote:After watching the match and taking a fair while to consider the way we set up, played and the tactics we used over ninety minutes, I'm wondering at what stage should we start asking questions about RDM's performance?

Tony Xia said yesterday "we can't keep making the same mistakes", and yet that's exactly what we appear to be doing.

We've played six matches now and only won one of them. We will win occasional games with the number of shots we're taking, but we'll also continue to throw away points with the repeated questionable decisions being made by our management.

The fans still seem to know more about how Villa should be setting up and playing than RDM, and quite frankly that's unacceptable considering how highly paid managers are these days.

I'm not far off that point of having serious questions about the manager. He's been given a hell of a lot of latitude probably because of last season and the feel good factor of having a new owner. However, we are in the Championship and we are not exactly excelling in it despite spending a fortune. The tactical plan is consistent with the 4-3-3 but I'm not sure it's a good one or that it suits our personnel. After years of railing against it, I actually think we should be going for a 4-4-2! However, in mitigation it is true we've been unlucky. Our stats for hitting the woodwork must be through the roof and some of the goals we've conceded have been unfortunate.

We need to start winning games rather than throwing them away and if we don't win at least one of the games this week questions will need to be asked. I don't think it's right to say a manager ought to be sacked at this early point of the season but I also don't expect Dr. Tony to be a patient man.

by **villabromsgrove** Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:55 pm

I think we may well struggle with the bizarre choice during the transfer window of a 21 year old inexperienced goal keeper with no proper back up. We may also be made to pay for ignoring the need to sign a good creative central midfielder to knit the back and front of the team together.

We have to try and pick up what we can until January, when hopefully Steve Round can put these glaring errors right.

by **villabromsgrove** Tue Sep 13, 2016 8:44 am

I was surprised that Di Mtteo said he couldn't bring on Jedinak as a sub because he wasn't fit enough. What was he doing on the bench then?

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