Aston Villa (H) 30/11 - Match Thread

alderz

alderz said:

Yeoldhammer said:

when was the last time we had 3 back to back clean sheets ?

I'm only looking at league fixtures, but last season. Beat Norwich 2-0 at home (31st August), drew 0-0 with Aston Villa away (16th September) and then beat Man Utd 2-0 (22nd September).

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/west-ham-united/spielplandatum/verein/379/plus/0?saison_id=2019&wettbewerb_id=GB1&day=&heim_gast=&punkte=&datum_von=-&datum_bis=-

I've just looked, and I think that we have only had four consecutive clean sheets in league matches ONCE since the start of the 1994/95 season (i've never gone further back than that in my spreadsheet).

Chelsea (0-0), Swansea (2-0), Aston Villa (2-0) and Norwich (2-0) between 29th January 2014 and 11th February 2014.

ASLEFshrugged

West Midlands local paper Express and Star reporting that Ross Barkley will miss this game with a hamstring.

Hamstew

Yeah I read that somewhere. Let's hope so.

Brother_Sledge

I'm banking on Barkley's absence and hoping they might be short of Cash too

ASLEFshrugged

Aston Villa have been very consistent with 9 players starting 8 times, Trezeguet 7 times and Barkley 6 times (was still with Chelsea for the first two)

Martinez
Cash Konsa Mings Targett
Luiz McGinn
Trezeguet Barkley Grealish
Watkins

On Saturday RW Bertrand Traore (2 starts) replaced Barkley with Trezequet moving to the left and Grealish to the centre at half time. Traore had just returned from a thigh injury and was substituted himself after he'd played 70 minutes. If he's not fit enough then Villa could give AM/RW Anwar El Ghazi (who replaced Traore) his first start of the season or play CM Conor Hourihane (1 start) alongside Luiz and McGinn.

BubblesNeverDies

Trezeguet Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim Hassan, Barkley, Grealish

He calls himself Trézéguet because his former youth coach noticed similarities between him and the real Trézéguet (David) in playing style and appearance.
This imposter has scored 7 goals in 46 games for Egypt, the real Trézéguet scored 34 goals in 71 games for France.
The man obviously has no sense of respect.

ASLEFshrugged

Harsh.

Socrates was one of greatest Western Philosophers who contributed to ethics. logic and especially dialectics.

The imposter was capped 60 times for Brazil

yoyo

Roberto Carlos used to go by the signular name Roberto..... look at the Mug with tbe same name we got lumbered with

alderz

Hulk smash.

The imposter plays football in China.

ASLEFshrugged

And he doesn't turn green, very disappointing

EXETERHAMMER

Same line up for this one, but hopefully Antonio on the bench.

BubblesNeverDies

ASLEFshrugged said:

Harsh.

Socrates was one of greatest Western Philosophers who contributed to ethics. logic and especially dialectics.

The imposter was capped 60 times for Brazil

But who would you rather watch on a Saturday afternoon in the pub with a pint.

Cuz1

Right now I’d settle for benny just to get in the pub

ASLEFshrugged

As Monty Python suggested that "Socrates himself was permanently drunk" I'd be more than happy to spend an afternoon down the pub with the original

Cuz1

Years ago I played cricket with ex Shrewsbury notts county and Nottingham forest, footballer sammy chapman,we were playing football pre season training and he kneed me on the thigh and I went down like a sack of potatoes he hovered over me and said I quote “I said the same thing to pele when I played for Tulsa roughnecks in the 70’s get up you big girl, somehow I believed him, the other day I saw sammy again and mentioned this to him, he said true story but he got up and scored an hatrick

ASLEFshrugged

Hmmmmm

Villa have kept clean sheets in all three away games (Fulham 3-0, Leicester 1-0, Arsenal 3-0)

alderz

Fulham, Leicester and Arsenal all (at home) try to play on the front foot, control possession and commit men forward. Fulham & Arsenal both have a very soft underbelly, while Leicester throw LOADS of bodies forward.

Leicester (11) and Fulham (16) both had more shots on goal than Villa (10 & 12), and Arsenal had 13 attempts to Villa's 16. I think we will create chances against them, we just need to be cautious not to leave the back door open.

Also, looking at the average position maps from those games, all three teams pushed their fullbacks very high up the pitch, which left Jack Grealish, in particular, in a LOT of space high up on the left hand side. I can see us sacrificing Coufal as an attacking option and asking him to sit deep, almost creating a back four with Cresswell pushing across when Masuaku goes forward.

The other thing I am noticing is that Douglas Luiz, Ross Barkley and John McGinn seem to crowd out the opposition midfield - all of whom played with a 2 in the middle of the park. I would imagine that our midfield pair of Soucek and Rice will put up more of a fight than the likes of Cairney & Anguissa, but it's still something to be wary of. Worth noting that Arsenal played Elneny and Partey against them (which you'd assume is a comparable pairing to our midfield in terms of strength and style at least), and Lacazette ended up dropping incredibly deep and almost playing as a CM.

So for me, the key points are that [1] we need to keep Grealish quiet and not leave him in space, [2] the match is going to be won or lost in the midfield battle, [3] we will create chances, we just need to be clinical.

OutcastLondoner

Is it still true that Arsenal have a soft underbelly? They seem defensively quite strong now but completely unable to score.

I imagine Fornals will float across into a more central position during a lot of the game to help the midfield.

alderz

OutcastLondoner said:

Is it still true that Arsenal have a soft underbelly? They seem defensively quite strong now but completely unable to score.

I imagine Fornals will float across into a more central position during a lot of the game to help the midfield.

Well, they concede an average of 12.6 shots per game, and only have an average of 9.1 themselves, and they have David Luiz playing at the back, so maybe it's a little softer than average! You are right though that they have improved a lot defensively in the past year or so.

ASLEFshrugged

alderz said:

Also, looking at the average position maps from those games, all three teams pushed their fullbacks very high up the pitch, which left Jack Grealish, in particular, in a LOT of space high up on the left hand side. I can see us sacrificing Coufal as an attacking option and asking him to sit deep, almost creating a back four with Cresswell pushing across when Masuaku goes forward.

The other thing I am noticing is that Douglas Luiz, Ross Barkley and John McGinn seem to crowd out the opposition midfield - all of whom played with a 2 in the middle of the park. I would imagine that our midfield pair of Soucek and Rice will put up more of a fight than the likes of Cairney & Anguissa, but it's still something to be wary of. Worth noting that Arsenal played Elneny and Partey against them (which you'd assume is a comparable pairing to our midfield in terms of strength and style at least), and Lacazette ended up dropping incredibly deep and almost playing as a CM.

So for me, the key points are that [1] we need to keep Grealish quiet and not leave him in space, [2] the match is going to be won or lost in the midfield battle, [3] we will create chances, we just need to be clinical.

As I mentioned Barkely is expected to miss this game and the next one against Newcastle.

Against Brighton Grealish moved into the middle with Traore or El Ghazi on the right and Trezeguet (or as some prefer Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim Hassan) on the left.

alderz

Yes, but the point still stands. They have a very mobile and competent midfield that has overrun the opposition in their away wins so far. Whoever the third of the three is, we will need to watch out for that

Yeoldhammer

I think, should we win this game, i can see West Ham and Moyes getting quite a bit of Media coverage.

alderz

I saw something the other day asking if we were outside bet for the top 6, so winning this could definitely see us getting some column inches

OutcastLondoner

We could actually go 5th with a win and the right results, can't we?

BubblesNeverDies

Aslef

Trezeguet (or as some prefer Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim Hassan)

Thanks for that. 👍

Yeoldhammer

Antonio back in training according to Moyes don't expect him to start against Villa.

thornburyiron

1-1 Sky pundit and 2-1 us by Lawro.

Lukerz

That Arsenal game is not overly reflective, they defended horrendously.

We will not allow that level of space behind us, plus our back 3 vs Watkins. He’s going to have to go some to get the better of them (not saying he can’t, but the form Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell are showing it’s going to take some performance).
The loss of Barkley is a blow but Grealish is the one to watch. I don’t think Barkley will be replaced by an attacking option. They made an attacking change vs Brighton & they lost. Think it will be Hourihane for this game.

I agree about the midfield area, we may need Fornals to tuck in there a little. He plays more narrow from the left & Masuaku is the sole wide option. I think our left hand side is going to be important. Cash likes to get forward a lot, if Cresswell & Masuaku can combine well, we may exploit that area when he does go forward.

Their side will not be overly different to last season. Cash & Watkins are improvements on their RB/ST last season. Martinez is a good goalkeeper but they had good keepers last season (Heaton, Reina). Without Barkley, the rest of the side is the same.

buffybegood

If Soton lose tomorrow, a win will take us 5th I think.

nychammer66

buffybegood said:

If Soton lose tomorrow, a win will take us 5th I think.

Nice, but I’m rooting for soton to beat Man U. Would love to see a big six team relegated plus went to uni in Southampton a lifetime ago.