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

Beyond Frustrating, Have they had physiology experts sit with the team yet if not why? It is piss poor if they haven't as it's way past the point of it being obvious that this Villa squad have mental issues when it comes to the last 5 mins of games.

Westward is the worst player I have ever seen in a Villa shirt. How the Hell has he managed to rack up the amount of games he has for us I will never know. RDM and the players are putting the last 5 min pressure, on themselves, due to their inability to score a second goal in matches.You don't spend the money we have this summer just to keep making the same mistake again and again. Cant see Dr Tony putting up with this for much longer!

11 points thrown away from winning positions this season. In just 10 games. With those we'd be second.

I took a long time to get to sleep last night. I couldn't even read because I was too wound up (that's another thing I'm blaming RDM for )!

When the team was announced last night and Westwood had been dropped, I let myself believe that Roberto had finally got it sussed. Then I noticed that Cissokho had replaced Amavi which implied that we were going to try to keep it tight again. I listened to the amazement and then dismay of the co commentatators as they tried to figure out why Villa were playing so deep. The description of Grealish playing in our half was an indication of our first half 'tactic'. As the summariser said "Grealish has never played there before"!

Di Matteo has clearly demonstrated that his name should be a dictionary definition for the word "clueless", and to that I would add the word "d*ckless" because to send out a team with that many proven attacking players and set them up to defend against Barnsley was a whimpish bit of management.

We've said before that with no apparent shape to our play the likeliest way of scoring is a piece of totally individual play, and that happened with Ayew last night. It shouldn't be the case though with the players at our disposal. Why the hell after ten games haven't we got a clearly recognisable system designed to get the best out of our specific players?

When it became apparent that Di Matteo was Dr T's favoured managerial candidate, we were disappointed on this site because the general feeling was that his brand of football was too negative, and he also only ever played with one up front which was going to make scoring the eighty odd goals needed for Championship promotion somewhat problematical.

The feeling was that he would come in and stubbornly impose 'his system" even if it was unsuitable for our players. This has unfortunately turned out to be true, and RDM is dragging our club down because he believes that "Roberto's way is the best way". We have suffered this kind of blind arrogance from successive managers, and it has to stop. A system has to suit the players, not the ego of the man in the suit on the touch line!

The progress of our great club is being held up by the inability of one man to see the wood for the trees.

Whoscored.com

Are we trying to walk the ball in to the net?

Do we not have anyone capable of a long range effort?

Excellent post, VB.

villabromsgrove wrote:When it became apparent that Di Matteo was Dr T's favoured managerial candidate, we were disappointed on this site because the general feeling was that his brand of football was too negative, and he also only ever played with one up front which was going to make scoring the eighty odd goals needed for Championship promotion somewhat problematical.

The feeling was that he would come in and stubbornly impose 'his system" even if it was unsuitable for our players. This has unfortunately turned out to be true, and RDM is dragging our club down because he believes that "Roberto's way is the best way". We have suffered this kind of blind arrogance from successive managers, and it has to stop. A system has to suit the players, not the ego of the man in the suit on the touch line!

The progress of our great club is being held up by the inability of one man to see the wood for the trees.

And the worst thing about this is? Most of the players we are wasting were signed by him! He has created this unbalanced squad with a wealth of striking options, a lack of strong central midfielders and a lack of quality out wide and has proceeded to play it in the way you describe. WTF? That makes it so much worse. He's determined to play things his overly defensive way but has signed players who don't suit it. We'd live with negative play had he gone about recruiting the players to play that way as we'd have been able to make it work. He needn't have bothered signing McCormack and Kodjia and should have just signed a load of midfielders instead if this was his game. The squad he has recruited is actually too top heavy even for a system of all out attack.

Taken together, it almost makes you wonder if he actually chose the players we signed? At least with Tim he was hopeless using players he didn't choose.

South London Villan wrote:Whoscored.com

Are we trying to walk the ball in to the net?

Do we not have anyone capable of a long range effort?

The damning comment for me was "no specific style of play" so Whoscored couldn't analyse it!

villabromsgrove wrote:

South London Villan wrote:Whoscored.com

Are we trying to walk the ball in to the net?

Do we not have anyone capable of a long range effort?

The damning comment for me was "no specific style of play" so Whoscored couldn't analyse it!

I know, awful isn't it.

I know I gave a downer on Westwood but www.whoscored.com/Players/79050 stats versus www.whoscored.com/Players/136644 Tishibola.

What is the use of a defensive midfielder who is such a poor tackler?

Mind, they seem to think Gardner is great: https://www.whoscored.com/Players/106495

It's a shame that the majority of fans have made their minds up about Gary Gardner. When he plays there is a lot of negativity about him being on the pitch. I think he has two perceived weaknesses, a lack of pace and passing to the opposition too many times.

The lack of pace is a fact.

Giving the ball away though has as much to do with the fact that he regularly tries to make forward angled passes through tight spaces, which is what better teams do on a regular basis. That means that he will fail to complete more passes than a backwards and sideways safety first passer.

His tackling can be reckless at times, because he loves a tackle. His heading is excellent and he wins most of his aerial duels, he also has a willingness to shoot with either foot from midfield which is sadly lacking in our team.

I know I'm fighting a losing battle to persuade people that GG is worth persevering with, but for now I think a midfield of Tshibola, Jedinak and Gardner with three attacking players in front of them would give us far more solidity and clout.

The irony is that it's more often than not the simple passes that he messes up. With the attacking players we have available I also think playing a midfield 3 is a bad idea for us as it either costs us a place for a striker or restricts our width. To succeed with these players we need to accomodate players like Ayew, McCormack and Kodjia where they are most effective rather than go out of our way to squeeze in an, at best, unproven midfielder. We need to play Mike Bassett's formation to have our team at it's most effective, IMO. Trying to shoehorn Gardner, Jedinak and Tshibola would be a flashback to the bad old days of Sherwood and his frustrating tri-defensive midfielder formation.

I don't like three in the middle either, but I get the impression that the nearest RDM will ever get to a 4-4-2 is a 4-3-3 formation. If that's the case then we can't afford a weak link like Westwood allowing the opposition to get behind them with ease. I would like a creative midfielder to be in there with Jedinak and Tshibola, but we let those go out on loan. We will continue to isolate our one striker, which will reduce any fluidity of movement, so we might as well toughen up the midfield.

That said .... I think we're going to win 3-1 today. I've not been drinking (yet:D ) either!

Isn't it damning that we're talking about the best formation we can expect due to the limitations of the manager rather than the formation that best suits the players? Agreed that Westwood must not play.

Sandie wrote:Isn't it damning that we're talking about the best formation we can expect due to the limitations of the manager rather than the formation that best suits the players? Agreed that Westwood must not play.

You've described our situation perfectly Sandie. "The limitations of the manager rather than the formation that best suits the players" is nail on head.