First off, I didn’t see Saturday’s game so this is not a review of the game. Rather its a number of thoughts and observations as viewed by an interested on-looker.
However, it seems from the comments that many of you did see the game and were unhappy with the performance blaming it variously on certain players and the manager. I’m not contesting the point that we were poor but I do think we need to look at the potential reasons as to why we seemed so widely under prepared.
Villa are going into the season seriously undercooked. A combination of Euros, Olympics, Grealish leaving, isolation delaying his replacements and the disruption of pre-season friendlies being cancelled through Covid have resulted in the players being a week or two behind where they should be. The departure of JT and particularly Richard O’Kelly who was, apparently, popular with the players cannot have helped.
On Saturday, Watkins (a vital cog in Villa’s side) and Sanson were out injured, Luiz is still to return from his gold medal ‘heroics’ and the likes of Bailey, Buendia and Traore, in particular, lacked match fitness – Bueandia due to injury and Traore still recovering from a close season groin operation.
It was also a tricky start for Smith against a team with the best home record last season across the four top English leagues, the return of home crowds (which will change the win dynamics of last season) and with key players either unavailable or not match fit. That said, by all accounts, the first half was as poor as anything seen under Smith’s tenure.
Smith said, in his pre match press conference that Watford were ‘a bit of an unknown quantity’ and from reports we seemed to be unaware of Sarr’s speed, strength and skills which it has to be said is a major failure on the part of the coaching staff.
Having said all that it’s the first game out of 38 and this weekend Arsenal lost to Brentford and Citeh lost to a ‘Kaneless’ Spurs so to talk of Armageddon and relegation battles after just one game seems a little premature.
Moving on – although it seems Targett had a poor game Saturday, most of the criticism was levelled at the midfield (or more accurately lack of it).
Midfield is not a new problem – quite frankly it has been disjointed for the last two or three seasons. Smith just has to work out a solution as to how best to set up the midfield without Grealish (and Barkley).
There are new elements to consider in Bailey and Buendia to fit in alongside Luiz, Nakamba, Sanson, Traore, El Ghazi and McGinn. Then there is Ramsey, Chukwuemeka and Bodace to consider as well as Trezeguet when fit. Although I like El Ghazi, frustrating player that he is, I suspect if the right offer comes in he’ll be allowed to leave.
Young, I see more likely to slot in at left back than in a midfield role.
What formation does Smith play to accommodate both Watkins and Ings up front as surely he must do – an old fashioned 4-4-2, a 4-2-2-2 or some new, yet undiscovered formation – and where does Sanson fit in this jigsaw puzzle. It seems Sanson has taken the number 8 shirt this season and whilst traditional shirt numbers don’t have the same meaning as of yore could this mean that Smith sees him playing alongside Bueandia?
Sanson is an enigma. Following his ‘early’ arrival in January, he struggled to get up to speed with the Premier League. Missing the end of last season through injury and then being injured again (or was it the same injury?) over the pre-season hasn’t been ideal. However, Villa’s scope for improvement this season will grow if Sanson proves to be the midfielder he was held out to be when he joined us.
And then there is the question of whether the squad does need the addition of a top class defensive midfielder such as JWP who would also bring dead ball set piece skills that we seem to lack. Even though Purslow and Smith have both appeared to rule out any further new players coming in, perhaps Saturdays performance may have convinced them otherwise.
Fundamental questions though remain:
- Can Smith get the midfield mix right?
- Is Sanson the missing link and quality midfielder he’s claimed to be?
- Where does McGinn fit into our best side and
- Are Villa actually thinking about getting anybody else in?
And I can’t finish without a mention of the appointment of Mings as captain.
Mings’ appointment has come in for quite a lot of criticism – much of it centered around his confessed loss of self confidence in the Euros. Is that relevant – I’m not wholly convinced that it is, nor is being the best player a valid reason for choosing a captain. It’s clear that Mings is articulate and a leader on the pitch and one assumes that Smith has seen qualities in him, in and around the dressing room, that has led him to this decision.
I’m convinced that Grealish was appointed captain as part of a strategy to keep him at the club but that doesn’t make him a leader and, at times, he failed dismally to set an example – but I didn’t see any objections from fans.
What is off concern now is how quickly can we get all players fit and up to speed as we need to produce significantly better performances in our next two games at home to Newcastle and Brentford – neither of which will be straightforward.
Otherwise Saturdays result will not be the false start to the season I believe it was.
— Can Smith get the midfield mix right?
Big question and any success this season hangs on it. I’d hope he can because we have some great players (on paper) to choose from. With JG gone, he can’t simply mold it around one player, which has to be good thing if he can find right formations.
— Is Sanson the missing link and quality midfielder he’s claimed to be?
I personally don’t think so. He could be useful but he’s no Dennis Mortimer.
— Where does McGinn fit into our best side?
McGinn has a few assets: Excellent cross field passes and passes into the channels; he can hustle and bustle for the ball and get it to a safe place; he can also score. Middle of the part is where I see him.
Are Villa actually thinking about getting anybody else in?
I don’t reckon they will.
I think villa should play 4132 with mcginn in the center of the,3with buendia and bailey either side the secret to this system must be the defence midfielder in front of the back 4 I like nakamba but is he good enough to win the ball and pass forward to mcginn.
What about konsa or tuansabe(spelling crap) in the defence midfielder position. I think they could do the job when defending the 2wingers fall back either side of DM leaving mcgin forward to help press when lose the ball defend from the front.
Anyone think that would work
With Watkins and mcgin pressing the ball and ings gives us a chance to push more forward.
I’ve looked at the game 3 times and cannot get my head round as to why Smith allowed us to carry on playing so far up the field. Any mug would see Targett was truggling with Stopping Sarr ,he had no help from the centre back because he was covering the forwards, Sorry but we have now shown the league how to beat us , Mcginn was the only player running his arse off in midfield Nakamba doesn’t make it for me not dynamic enough, Badger hit on one good reason we dont have a hard man in our side to stamp his presence. All this attaking is no good if we are going to be caught out not defending when loosing the ball like we did. That game was how we beat Liverpool, long ball out to our wingman and forwards ,is Smith the man? No Terry or O’Kelly in his ear? biggest mistake so far to me..
That’s a pretty convincing defence of things Hitch, nice one.
To be fair, we’ve lost one game, which many of us actually thought we might and it’s like we’ve gone into meltdown.
I think you’re right, the build up to the season has been rubbish, as much as I think we’ve done very good business. Losing Grealish must be unsettling, to say the least.
I just don’t see it with the Mings being captain. Just as you think Grealish was given it to keep him sweet (I agree), so I think Mings has been given it to try and boost his low self-esteem. That’s a good thing Smith has done, but it’s not a reason to choose him as a club captain.
He just doesn’t present himself as a captain to me and McGinn should have been chosen. He only talks about the game and just goes about his job, exactly as he’s supposed to. Reminds me very much of a certain Sir Mortiimer, actually.
To attempt to answer your points specifically;
The midfield mix is an enigma. We have the players, but our reliance on two wingers can mean if they don’t perform, we’re massively underweight. This is a serious flaw in Smith’s thinking and is what has led to McGinn being totally wasted in being put in a holding type position to try and cover the midfield’s weakness.
It’s no coincidence that we have a frightening attack on paper, but totally failed to create any attacking threat for most of the game.
Sanson?
God knows. We haven’t seen anything of him, have we? Like Wesley, some players just have that whiff of “disastrous signing” about them. I think he’ll be one too, but would be happy to be wrong.
McGinn? We saw what he can do on Saturday.
He got tons of admiration for his energy and basically playing like two players for the price of one, through his workrate. If he’s not allowed to get up and down the pitch, he can’t show his biggest strength.
That’s ok, if Smith is going to get someone to replace him, but he won’t and that’s a player wasted, to my mind.
Others coming in? Smith has practically said not and I think that’s probably right.
Which begs another question.
We’ve only spent the Grealish money.
Our owners winding back on the spending?
Or a sign of Purslow wanting to see serious results of our previous spending?
Whatever, I’m now seeing the end of Smith’s reign.
I’m not asking for it, I can just see it.
I think he’s hit that ceiling and seeing O’Kelly walk has convinced me of it even more (I couldn’t give a stuff about JT, personally).
Here’s one for you;
It really wouldn’t surprise me if Smith wants to walk, but feels he can’t.
There’s something gone on, in other words.
But then, I’ve always loved a good conspiracy and am probably talking rot 🙂
Brad Young (19 yo cf) joins Carlisle on loan.
For me, whilst Grealish was a big loss it looked like and sounded like from Purslow and Dean’s interviews they were well prepared for losing Jack and I was positive on that front as i fully expected a plan to already be in place to identify the weakness of losing Jack and replace it quickly with a similar system but a tweaked one that would take us to the next level following the introduction of the 3 signings of Ings/Buendia and Bailey. However, whilst we are only one game in, it has already started to worry me about where we fit the signings in without drastically changing the formation and game plan.
surely we all agree Ings has to play, but so does Watkins, but so does Bailey and then so does Buendia….
like i said my worry was the lack of real identity, whilst preseason was abit of a mess, i wanted to see a clear level up in our play on Saturday. For me, you have to identify the stand out qualities in out top players and manage them to get the best out of all of them but i dont see any of that happening.
For me, 4231, the usual back 5, a new athletic strong DM with Luiz. Then the tricky bit, the last 4 players. we know how solid our back 4 were last season, with a tidy Luiz in front who can progress the ball alongside a solid DM, you have to then let the front 3 of Bailey, McGinn and Buedia have freedom to just pounce on every attack… question is, who plays upfront, i dont think Watkins and Ings can both play unfortunately.
like i said, imagine mcginn dropping into a midfield 3 on defence with a low block and winning the ball back and the pace and aggression of Mcginn pushing Bailey Watkins and Buendia forward. Last season we were excellent at pressing from the front, i think we have to use Mcginn as the main man this season to start everything.
Villalways – apologies for the delay in approving your post. We’ve been experiencing one or two minor issues with the site.
Villa announce the signing of Caleb Chukwuemeka (19) from Northampton Town. Older brother of Carney.
Attacker / striker who played regularly for Northampton last season.
It’s been speculated that a number of EPL clubs were after him.
Luiz has returned to training at BMH today which is very good news. I thought he’d be missing longer after the Olympics.
He should be match fit having also recently played in the Copa America.
Can’t believe Luiz is back already, I would have expected him to have had a much longer break after his summer exploits! That said, I’m not convinced he’s the “answer” to our midfield woes either…
I like Roy Bracy’s suggestion of 4-1-3-2 but would love the holding 1 to be Bissouma or Berge or even Isaac Hayden. We need someone with strength and mobility in that position.
Did anyone know that Villa had a secret game against Liverpool yesterday? , Who the team was not known but we lost 4-1 and it was hopefully with players that hadn’t got game time. Henderson apparently was the man of the match in the game, know wonder players are going down with muscle strain and injuries being not fit. Trying to find out more about it. Just asking seeing if other’s know.
I saw it today Bill but no idea who played.
Birmingham Mail have written about it Bill;
“Those who featured in the 4-1 defeat at Anfield include Jed Steer, Axel Tuanzebe, Kortney Hause, Matt Targett, Conor Hourihane, Carney Chukwuemeka, Jaden Philogene-Bidace, Jacob Ramsey, Frederic Guilbert, Wesley, Tyreik Wright and Bertrand Traore”
Looks like Hourihane will be a goner and may be replaced.
Wesley and Guilbert might go to.
Probably be loans and depends if we can get anyone to pay a decent chunk of their wages, is my guess.
Wonder if that’s when Traore did his hamstring.
Tuanzebe can cover at right back and with Ings coming in we do have cover up front so I think you might be right Badger although wouldn’t be surprised to see Hourihane here until Christmas.
We need to loan out Wesley so he can either prove his fitness or give us,a shout at an insurance claim.
Wonder if the game was requested by Liverpool given who played in their side?
It is Hitch. He scored and got the injury not long after.
I think we wanted the game, to make up for the cancelled one. In which case, it was good of Pool to entertain us, although it obviously suited them too. I do like Klippety 🙂
I’m starting to think there’s something going on behind the scenes at VP. I half expected JT to leave but ROK within days seems odd. If he was retiring it would make sense but he wants to go somewhere else. Maybe JG has heard something which convinced him to go too. Are the owners still fully motivated to push us into Europe. As Badger said, we have only spent Grealish money. I heard Eden’s might be purchasing an American team!
A few weeks back I was getting excited about how things were moving along and thinking top 6 was a real possibility. Now I’m worrying if we don’t beat Newcastle and Brentford we might find ourselves in a relegation scrap.
Can I say that your post is one of the most rational I’ve ever read?!
It’s a pretty good view on things i.m.o.
I would simply like to say that…
1. Midfield is an on-going problem and maybe Sanson will be at least part of the answer there.
2. I don;t rate Luiz that highly, but maybe if he’s playing alongside the right player he might blossom.
3. Nakamba is also short in his game for me.
4. It may take a few games for Villa to get their act together but some complacency there i.m.o.
5. All of a sudden I’m worries about the l-b position!
That’s why I like it when Hitchens writes, John.
His posts are always thought provoking, imo.
That and it’s not my usual rubbish 🙂
I’d be shocked to see Targett, our player of the year turn complete pants over a single summer. It just doesn’t add up.
The new additions, loss of JG, the international breaks, compressed schedule with project restart all combined to make it a tough start.
Some off you ugly lot screaming blue murder made me chuckle!!! I know the season is short and one year rolls into the next all too quickly, but I’m very excited about all this. We’ve not spent a penny from our war chest as we have the Grealish money. It’s absolutely perfect business sense for the owners to say we’re all spent out. Their dealings have been perfect so I wouldn’t be surprised at more arrivals, especially in the January window.
Keep The Faith!!!!!! UTV!
Traore out for 3-4 weeks, hamstring problem. It goes on and on one game and injuries, he was on for less than 20 minutes. Why do our players breakdown so easy? I like others are now wondering what’s gone on inside our club , New coaches and things now going wrong .
That’s a serious blow.
Suspect he came back too soon from groin operation. Bidace going to have to step up to the plate.
Let’s hope Ollie’s fit for Saturday.
Thanks guys, glad you liked the post – now I’m blushing 🙂
This is the problem with internationals. You can’t simply stay match fit season through to season and the next one. The body has to come back down a little and rest for a little while. Then once rested it’s ramped back up in pre season. If we want the best athletes competing week in week out then Thursdays nights in Europe league and international duties will ruin the overall quality. Timing of training , matches , recovery is absolutely vital and it must be a nightmare to manage.
That said I would imagine it’s a little easier when you have every peace of equipment available.
Sorry to rant guys.
I saw a good comment somewhere that said sometimes the training regime can be wrong and it has to be totally changed.
I’m not saying that’s the issue the Villa have, but you do have to wonder.
We do seem to get a lot of injuries.
Apparently Traore was injured in the behind doors match on Sunday against Liverpool. The question I have is why we he played in two matches on consecutive days, especially when he was returning from an injury.
With regards to NSWE they have a history of involvement in multiple teams at the same time, Sinai would not worry. Further, they must have invested in excess of £300m into Villa without a return to date. I can’t see them shutting up shop and running down their investment.
Perhaps they are demonstrating a rare approach and that is not splashing all the cash in one go. As Badger highlighted recently the club has made significant losses in the last couple of years.
Once a quality defensive midfielder is purchased I think we have an all round quality squad. Then we will be entering the zone where to replace any current Villa player with someone better is going to cost significant funds. I just can’t see us buying 3 / 4 £40 – £50m players per year. These figures are based on us surpassing our club record buy for the last three seasons. It will be 1 or 2 additions and youth players coming through. I fundamentally believe NSWE are committed to this model.
Purely fitness Sid. Many have moaned about the fact that a lot of the players didn’t look up to speed.
Smith has moaned about it big time, but you would think that it’s surely his fault, as he’s the gaffer?
And then we see the fact that he had to isolate because of Covid and we realise that he wasn’t running things for a while.
Putting my conspiracy hat back on, I wonder if this led to some sort of row, because of standards massively dropping while Smith was absent?
Hmm.
Otherwise, yes, that is surely what the owners and Purslow will be looking for, the youth coming through and paying for new signings.
Mind you, sustaining it seems to be the problem.
Southampton have been brilliant at this model for a good while and that Liebherr-owning family took a load of money out the club, but it seems to me they’re now seriously depleting their team, with selling Ings to us a good example.
Many of their fans already worry about relegation and if we do get Ward-Prowse off them, they may well be right.
Re the defensive midfielder thing, I’m a bit out of step on this one.
Surely Luiz, Naka and McGinn (if he’s going to be kept there) are adequate?
The defensive mid is not our weakness, imo. It’s the link-up that’s missing.
Hence my previous reference to a Keane or even a Gerrard type. Not easy to find, I know, but that’s the key to the jigsaw, imo.
Or just use McGinn, as has already been said. We already know he can do it.
is adequate enough for a push for top 7/8?
mcginn for me is the ideal number 10, excellent pressuring behind watkins, good hold up ability and ability to run in behind if needed, also has great range of pass. he would effortlessly slot in when more defensive.
McGinn could be pivotal for our season and give us a real identity
Badger, was that you in talk sport radio this morning?
Lol, no.
Why, someone using my nickname? The swine 🙂
Two Villan Badgers. What are the odds ? Must be like magpies!
Aha.
My conspiracy theory wasn’t far off.
O’Kelly left because the club demoted him to the U23s.
Now that was either down to Smith or the hierarchy have gone over his head.
that’s poor if it was down to Smith (after 10 years or more?) or worrying because maybe I was right and Smith wants to leave, but can’t.
Bloody hell, nothing goes smoothly at the Villa, does it?
If you believe ‘Football Insider’ that is.
‘We can exclusively reveal – a source told us’
I’d want to see more definitive proof than that.
O’Kelly is quoted as saying that he had decided to leave the club a couple of months earlier but with JT leaving and Smith isolating he delayed leaving to help the club.
Which sounds more plausible?
I’ve no doubt ROK stayed longer than he was going to, to help the club or most likely as a favour to Smith.
But I’ve also no doubt someone wanted to demote him.
If he was going to leave a couple of months ago, why didn’t he?
JT only left 3 weeks ago, after all and ROK could easily have left well before Smith was isolating too.
If it was me, I’d have expected Smith to support me.
I find it worrying that it seems he didn’t.
Loyalty doesn’t seem to count for much these days does it?
I don’t believe a word of it, but no doubt it’ll all come out in the wash.