Shape

[Whitesideup]

We need to protect our defence. Forget about how poorly we defend at times, we have to make it harder for oppo to create chances. Now, I saw criticism of Harrison Reed recently, about him being lightweight and too short, but frankly I thought we missed him big time today. He helps us maintain a better shield in front of the defence. It won't prevent woeful defending but for example, I don't think he would have let Grealish have a run at our central defenders without a midfielder in sight. Anyone agree? or disagree?

Our team as it stands needs a holding midfielder who does what it says on the tin. I saw little evidence of one today.

[fulhamben]

Totally agree, like I said on another post, there might be a reason that both reed and lemina were missing tonight. And I do believe one of them would have played if available, so can't be too harsh on scott on that one if it is the case.but they weren't playing and our shape was non existent tonight, diabolical, one of the worst performances I've ever seen. Something has to happen fast

[Milo]

Agreed Reed type player thoroughly missed. However thinking back to last year how many times did he bail the defence out last minute? Our defence was always on borrowed time and has been for years.

[Statto]

Standard protocol when you don't have enough quality at the back:

(1) Try your preferred back 4
(2) Try a different back 4 combination
(3) Try a different back 4 combination
(4) Switch to a back 5
(5) Blame a lack of cover from midfield / forwards not tracking back

...and there it is, number (5). The repetition of 2018 is now complete.

[Radiowhite]

Reed is definitely important to our defensive midfield

[JimmyBullardsBarber]

Totally agree, like I said on another post, there might be a reason that both reed and lemina were missing tonight. And I do believe one of them would have played if available, so can't be too harsh on scott on that one if it is the case.but they weren't playing and our shape was non existent tonight, diabolical, one of the worst performances I've ever seen. Something has to happen fast

Our midfield is weak, even with Reed in the lineup. This is the EPL and going into the season we weren't prepared to defend properly, and I'm talking about the entire team's shape and movement. We need someone who will fix our shape.

[fulhamben]

Totally agree, like I said on another post, there might be a reason that both reed and lemina were missing tonight. And I do believe one of them would have played if available, so can't be too harsh on scott on that one if it is the case.but they weren't playing and our shape was non existent tonight, diabolical, one of the worst performances I've ever seen. Something has to happen fast

Our midfield is weak, even with Reed in the lineup. This is the EPL and going into the season we weren't prepared to defend properly, and I'm talking about the entire team's shape and movement. We need someone who will fix our shape.

only a new manager can do that

[Skatzoffc]

The fact is we didn't have any defensive midfield players in the team.
The defence are poor. We all know that but if they Mark the oppo forwards and winger's but our midfield don't track runners we will concede 4 or 5 goals a game.

This was against boring Villa.

I could see us losing 8 to 10 goals against a decent EPL team's 2nd string. The team will be so demoralised after 10 games it won't be worth watching the rest of the season.

Everyone in our team wants to get forward. But none want to defend from the front. It's like watching a school team.

[Whitesideup]

Just saying it's a repetition of 2018 is unhelpful. The point Skatzo makes is more relevant, that we did not play a defensive midfielder today and maybe as a consequence, we looked vulnerable without the ball. Villa could have been 4 or 5 up at half-time. If you want to go back to 2018, then think Chambers being put in front of the back 4, and the first time it was tried away at Liverpool. It made a difference .. but then we brought in Ranieri.

But Fulhamben and Skatzo are both right. This was a worringly poor performance against Villa, who are probably one of the weaker teams in the division.

[bog]

I just read that Scott felt there were a lot of positives...what on the batteries of the cars parked outside?

092.gif

[fulhamben]

I just read that Scott felt there were a lot of positives...what on the batteries of the cars parked outside?

092.gif

he had 3 options. 1 admit that he doesn't know how to coach a team 2 openly admit that he has lost the dressing room and say they won't do what he has asked them to do 3 lie and say there was lots of positives.

[Sting of the North]

I just read that Scott felt there were a lot of positives...what on the batteries of the cars parked outside?

092.gif

he had 3 options. 1 admit that he doesn't know how to coach a team 2 openly admit that he has lost the dressing room and say they won't do what he has asked them to do 3 lie and say there was lots of positives.

Or 4. he actually thought there were a lot of positives (which isn't mutually exclusive with there also being a lot of negatives).

[Skatzoffc]

We need to protect our defence. Forget about how poorly we defend at times, we have to make it harder for oppo to create chances. Now, I saw criticism of Harrison Reed recently, about him being lightweight and too short, but frankly I thought we missed him big time today. He helps us maintain a better shield in front of the defence. It won't prevent woeful defending but for example, I don't think he would have let Grealish have a run at our central defenders without a midfielder in sight. Anyone agree? or disagree?

Our team as it stands needs a holding midfielder who does what it says on the tin. I saw little evidence of one today.

:plus one:

[fulhamben]

I just read that Scott felt there were a lot of positives...what on the batteries of the cars parked outside?

092.gif

he had 3 options. 1 admit that he doesn't know how to coach a team 2 openly admit that he has lost the dressing room and say they won't do what he has asked them to do 3 lie and say there was lots of positives.

Or 4. he actually thought there were a lot of positives (which isn't mutually exclusive with there also being a lot of negatives).

if four is true then he needs sectioning not sacking, remove all sharp objects from his vicinity immediately

[Southdowns White]

We did have shape, The wrong shape! We knew the opposition strengths before the game, The midfield was always going to be needed to help the defence. We quite simply did not have the right players on the pitch to counteract Aston Villa.
Us as supporters, the management, the directors and even some of the state the obvious brain dead commentators have known for the previous three seasons we do not have players good enough to do the job. Yes we went mad the last time we came up, spending too much money on players who either weren't good enough or didn't want to be with us. I believe if we can get the defence up to standard able to do the job, confidence will grow and the rest of the team will be able to compete well enough to keep us up. 
For me those commentators (so called experts) repetitively banging on as though no one else understands the problem is the most difficult thing to live with, i watch the football but turn the sound off.
I feel at times Tony Khan has turned off his receptors to the problem (even after his tweet last night) I really appreciate all his family have done for my beloved club but please concentrate on getting a defence for this team before we are a laughing stock.

[Skatzoffc]

I just read that Scott felt there were a lot of positives...what on the batteries of the cars parked outside?

092.gif

he had 3 options. 1 admit that he doesn't know how to coach a team 2 openly admit that he has lost the dressing room and say they won't do what he has asked them to do 3 lie and say there was lots of positives.

Or 4. he actually thought there were a lot of positives (which isn't mutually exclusive with there also being a lot of negatives).

With a view on "positives", i would have to say there were some.

At times, going forwards, we played around/thro them very well but didn't get the goal.
The fact the game is over by this time, in the same way as the Leeds game, is a moot point.

But, this style has to be achieved by defending from the front, to stop the opposition style of play and to maintain a 0-0 scoreline.

Otherwise its all for nothing.
coyw!

[Sting of the North]

I just read that Scott felt there were a lot of positives...what on the batteries of the cars parked outside?

092.gif

he had 3 options. 1 admit that he doesn't know how to coach a team 2 openly admit that he has lost the dressing room and say they won't do what he has asked them to do 3 lie and say there was lots of positives.

Or 4. he actually thought there were a lot of positives (which isn't mutually exclusive with there also being a lot of negatives).

if four is true then he needs sectioning not sacking, remove all sharp objects from his vicinity immediately

Or he watches all aspects of a game as a professional coach, not as an angry fan? Is that so hard to imagine? 

[fulhamben]

I just read that Scott felt there were a lot of positives...what on the batteries of the cars parked outside?

092.gif

he had 3 options. 1 admit that he doesn't know how to coach a team 2 openly admit that he has lost the dressing room and say they won't do what he has asked them to do 3 lie and say there was lots of positives.

Or 4. he actually thought there were a lot of positives (which isn't mutually exclusive with there also being a lot of negatives).

if four is true then he needs sectioning not sacking, remove all sharp objects from his vicinity immediately

Or he watches all aspects of a game as a professional coach, not as an angry fan? Is that so hard to imagine? 

it is based on last nights performance. Sounds like he knows he's getting the sack to me, clearly lost the dressing room

[Bill2]

I just read that Scott felt there were a lot of positives...what on the batteries of the cars parked outside?

092.gif

he had 3 options. 1 admit that he doesn't know how to coach a team 2 openly admit that he has lost the dressing room and say they won't do what he has asked them to do 3 lie and say there was lots of positives.

Or 4. he actually thought there were a lot of positives (which isn't mutually exclusive with there also being a lot of negatives).

With a view on "positives", i would have to say there were some.

At times, going forwards, we played around/thro them very well but didn't get the goal.
The fact the game is over by this time, in the same way as the Leeds game, is a moot point.

But, this style has to be achieved by defending from the front, to stop the opposition style of play and to maintain a 0-0 scoreline.

Otherwise its all for nothing.
coyw!

At times we passed through Villa like they weren't there and the stats show we had the majority of possession, but, when we got to there penalty area it all went wrong. We never really breached their defence and the keeper apart from two occasions never really was threatened.

[filham]

The prime question is was Reed dropped or injured last night. Odoi was selected to replace him in front of the back four and in all honesty I didn't think that was a bad call.
The hard fact is that we need centre backs of quality and JK's admission that four have slipped through his fingers is worrying, I bet there is not now a queue of four more centre backs at the Cottage door waiting to join us.