Barnsley FC v Aston Villa FC .... 7:45pm Tuesday 27th September.

Championship matches are like buses .... a gaggle of them turn up in a row, then nothing for a couple of weeks (international break again).

Tuesday night at a very good Barnsley is a match that RDM cannot afford to lose, but that knowledge may influence his team selection yet again. He has to realise that the large amount of money he spent on attacking players has made it impossible to set up negatively and still expect to win. There is no easy way to put out a balanced side, because we ignored the need to buy quality mobile attacking centre midfielders in the transfer window.

Team selection is key on Tuesday. We have to play a back four and that unit should remain unchanged barring injuries. They have to learn to play as a tight unit. Bacuna is probably our best available right back and Elphick has to play as right centre back, not on the left of Chester as happened a lot yesterday (his own goal came because he tried to use the outside of his right foot when he was defending on the left). Chester and Amavi should complete the back four. Jedinak should be given the role of holding midfielder in front of the CB's and Tshibola should be the more mobile of the two centre mids. Now comes the tricky part where RDM has to try and get balance and supply from our attackers. If Adomah is going to find a place in the team it can only be as a natural right winger, so if he starts then so must Gestede because Adomah needs to target him. It's no good bringing on Gestede to replace Adomah as happened yesterday. They have to play together. So if Adomah starts we have to play 4-4-2, the formation picks itself. Kodjia has to play alongside Gestede and Ayew has to play on the left. Ayew is at his most dangerous when he has the freedom to cut inside on his right foot. He was almost unplayable late on against Newcastle in that position. This has the added advantage of allowing a very speedy Amavi to overlap him and split the attention of defenders.

When McCormack is fit, and Grealish is back in contention then fresh legs can be added to the second half equation. Hepburn Murphy should continue to be given cameo sub appearances because his pace and enthusiasm ask questions of tired defenders.

NEGATIVITY must be made a sackable offence for a Villa manager with a plethora of attacking players at his disposal! Get it right RDM or face the inevitable wrath of Dr T!

How do you guys see Tuesday evening's match?

If we play the right team we could win this match, but as our manager currently appears to see a draw as cause for celebration I'm going for another 'stuck in a rut' draw.

Westwood should not even be on the bench on Tuesday, because if he is Roberto may not be able to resist the temptation to bring him on at some point, which will kill us off.

I have seen a number of better organised teams this season, I've seen teams that are obviously better coached than us, and sadly I've seen teams that appear to be fitter over 90 minutes than us .... but I haven't once seen a team with as many individual quality players as us! That tells me that our 17th position in the league is down to our inadequate management, not the players.

It should be relatively simple to start winning matches if our management team show a bit of bravery and ambition. It has to start against Barnsley .... no excuses!

I agree that we need to play 4-4-2 and agree that Tshibola and Jedinak should be our central midfield with Adomah and Ayew taking up wide positions. What I would consider doing differently is deploying Micah Richards at right back.

This needs to be a win and, more through hope than judgement, I'm saying it will be 2-1 Villa.

RDM seemed upbeat after the Newcastle match, but he has to be realistic because his neck is on the block. We have only won once in nine league games and one EFL Cup match, so a win against Barnsley is not just way overdue it's essential to his future. Barnsley have started well, but have now lost their last two games against Reading and Brighton so they're not unbeatable.

Another safety first team selection will not be acceptable, and would be tantamount to professional suicide for RDM imo.

When a manager is under pressure he is a lot more likely to try and go safety first rather than throw caution to the wind. Our poor results and proneness to a late collapse will also affect the choices the players make as well as those of the manager.

I think Di Matteo has put himself under pressure Sandie. He hasn't picked the right starting eleven once as Villa manager, and the results back that up. RDM prefers a more defensive set up (historically) as a manager, and yet his summer signings were those of a much more attack minded individual. He now has to change his approach to get the best out of the players that he's bought, because if he doesn't he will not get the maximum out of them as a team.

I think most of our players are now good enough and mentally tough enough individuals to keep going. It will only be tactics and selection that will stop them winning imo. A couple of good results will give them all the confidence they need.

AVFC have suffered through having a succession of managers who have tried to impose their 'style' of football on players regardless of the fact that they weren't suited to the system being played. Is RDM going to join that list, or is he bright enough to alter the ingrained habits of a footballing lifetime for the sake of the club and his own reputation?

I think his biggest issue with selections has actually been the fitness issues players like Tshibola and Adomah have suffered. Tshibola's injuries have meant we've been pretty much forced to deploy the lightweight and ineffective Westwood. With Adomah signing late on and then being injured to start off with we haven't had a genuine right winger and ended up blunting the effectiveness of the man I believe to be our most effective attacking player, Ross McCormack, by playing him deeper.

What Di Matteo's problems have been has been how he's used the strikers we have too many off and recruitment that's left our squad unbalanced. We have too many top strikers to keep happy but are threadbare in midfield and out wide. There was also no defending the way he messed up in the first half against Newcastle with his selection.

The problem is that whilst it seems simple what to do right now it's only going to get more complicated. McCormack will be back from injury and he's the player with the highest number of chances created per game in the league. Our problems with trying to accomodate too many strikers mean that only two from him, the extremely bright looking Kodjia and our most reliable goal scorer Gestede can play. There's also Grealish to come back and I like how Ayew is playing on the left so that's another complexity.

Sandie wrote:I think his biggest issue with selections has actually been the fitness issues players like Tshibola and Adomah have suffered. Tshibola's injuries have meant we've been pretty much forced to deploy the lightweight and ineffective Westwood. With Adomah signing late on and then being injured to start off with we haven't had a genuine right winger and ended up blunting the effectiveness of the man I believe to be our most effective attacking player, Ross McCormack, by playing him deeper.

What Di Matteo's problems have been has been how he's used the strikers we have too many off and recruitment that's left our squad unbalanced. We have too many top strikers to keep happy but are threadbare in midfield and out wide. There was also no defending the way he messed up in the first half against Newcastle with his selection.

The problem is that whilst it seems simple what to do right now it's only going to get more complicated. McCormack will be back from injury and he's the player with the highest number of chances created per game in the league. Our problems with trying to accomodate too many strikers mean that only two from him, the extremely bright looking Kodjia and our most reliable goal scorer Gestede can play. There's also Grealish to come back and I like how Ayew is playing on the left so that's another complexity.

You've hit the nail on the head "only two strikers can play" if we're to create the right balance. Let's turn that into a positive though .... two of our substitutes each match should be the two of our quality strikers who don't start the match. Fresh legs would mean that we can bombard the opposition for 90 minutes. Whichever strikers start the match we have to make sure that providers and assisters are on the pitch at the same time. Then we'll have some kind of balance to our efforts.

https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2016/09/27/di-matteo-barnsley-preview?

Does RDM realise that the negativity in our first half play against Newcastle was down to his team selection and his attempt at 3-5-2, which was a mess.

It's alright saying that he feels we're almost ready to play our best football, but he must understand that it can only happen when he gets it right for 90 minutes. Is he personally capable of that?

A lot of the players are talking up the 'frightening' Villa attacking force. Now they've got to deliver. Talk is cheap .... Tonight's the night.

If RDM doesn't realise his mistake in the first half on Saturday and doesn't remember what worked in the last 20-25 minutes then there's no hope for him. I eagerly anticipate tonight's team selection.

If Westwood starts tonight even if it's alongside Jedinak and Tshibola, then I will take that as confirmation that RDM is incapable of learning. Westwood is taking the place and the space of a player who is prepared to get stuck in and tackle. He doesn't do 50/50's, he doesn't win headers he doesn't control his area of the pitch. He doesn't stop goals, he doesn't assist or score goals and yet he's an ever present blot on the Villa midfield landscape.

I know Gardner isn't popular but in his last game he won half a dozen aerial duels and tackled robustly on a number of occasions for over 60 minutes. I know he gave the ball away on the edge of the opposition's penalty area (it led to their goal), but lightweight Westwood immediately avoided the tackle that should have blocked their counter attack.

Gardner lacks pace, but he doesn't lack heart. Neither does Jordan Lyden who is ultra competitive. Continuing to allow Westwood game time is tantamount to managerial suicide. The position he ambles around in is a 'black hole' into which any chances of a win repeatedly disappear.

This is my customary 'Westwood' match day rant, but until he's removed from the scene we will continue to appear to play with ten men with all that implies.

Gardner does not influence games, he gives the ball away too often when passing and he is only marginally less lightweight than Westwood. He's as bad as, if not worse than, Westwood and the two of them together have to be one of the worst midfield pairings I can remember this club deploying (maybe apart from the time O'Neill played Osbourne and Salifou in a European game). Alongside Jedinak we need a driving midfielder with good passing range and there isn't that many in our squad. In fact, Tshibola is our only one and Gardner and Westwood are the opposite of what we need.

Does anybody want/expect Grealish to come straight back into the side?