Figured I'd get things started. ------------------------------- Well, tomorrow's the big day at Villa Park against Wigan. Here we go, hopefully the Lil Villans can get off to a great start against the Lactics (sporting a new crest if anybody's paying attention) and begin to hopefully improve on last season's run of form. Much has been made of Villa not making any big splashes on the transfer market, but the same could arguably be said for Wigan. They did nothing BUT lose players this offseason, and may end up finishing worse than 11th this season, but I doubt that they'll be in the relegation zone. They're basically a lower-midtable side at this point with a new manager, which means that things could definitely be interesting for Wigan this season. Speaking of interesting, an interesting stat is that the Lactics have NEVER earned a point in a season opener. At the same time, the Villans haven't beat Wigan at home during a league contest either. So yeah, something's gotta give (and sue me for jacking one of EPLtalk's bullet points for this game.). Formation wise, I'd go with a 4-4-2. Knowing MON, it could be any sort of thing, and we know he's gonna mix it up with the young guys that he's got this year. I think he'll continue to tweak until he gets it right, but personally the 4-4-2 would get the job done for this side. No matter what the formation, though, I'm thinking this is a should-win for Villa. They're facing a team that could be on the decline this year, and they're coming with a side that is only going to get better and better, and they're going to need to win these type of games if they're going to hang around in the Top 6 or 7 like they did last year. I'm predicting a 2-0 victory, Carew & Young scoring the goals.
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Looks like a 4-4-2 today, and I forgot that Carew had international duty so no Carew. Instead it's Heskey at the forward position. Stupid me. But yeah, here's what Villa's looking like today. Didn't think we'd see Delph so soon. Other than that, I like it. Looks to be a pretty interesting match.
1-0 Wigan at the half, with Rodallega scoring off of a volley from about 30 yards out. No doubt about that one. Their forwards are basically running forwards around our back 4, and Delph already living up to his reputation of being a fixture in the ref's book with a yellow near the end there. Wigan were definitely the better looking side in the first half. Hopefully the Villans can turn it around when they come out later, and shake of this Wigan monkey off.
Absolutely dreadful. Nothing in the back as Davies and Shorey were terrible. Cuellar didn't show much either. In midfield, Delph was not up to standard, and Young had a howler on the left. Up top, Heskey and Gabby had nothing. This long ball crap that we started after getting Heskey last January doesn't work, yet those are the tactics. There was no one on the bench to bring in to change the match. Looks like the form of the last 13 matches from last season has carried over. Doesn't look promising for the trip to Anfield next week. MON better sign some quality players, and fast.
And that's the final. 2-0 Wigan. I'm guessing that our guys forgot that today was August 15th, 2009 and that the season began today. That said, this was a deserved result. Wigan were most definitely the better team today. They had the most possession, most shots, got the most out of their offensive chances, their forwards ran our back 4 absolutely ragged, got almost all of the 50/50 balls, and just plain ol' wanted it more. I think the match could be summed up in what happened in the 88th minute...Their keeper ventures out, loses possession of the ball, I think Sidwell gets the ball, takes his time passing it off to Young who has an open net, only for Young to have the ball snatched from his feet by Bramble, leading to us losing possession off of a harmless corner. Bad way to start the season...not the way that I wanted to see Villa going into a match with Liverpool on the 24th, nor going into Europa League. Hopefully this was just a bad game and they'll shake it off...then again, they were terrible at home last season as well, and terrible at the end of the season in general so that may end up being a continued trend. Oh well, shake it off, Villans.
Agree with pretty much everything you said there. The Heskey signing no doubt has had a bad effect on the team. It upset Carew initially, we started going long more and more and now we never work the ball through the middle, every attack is either long or down the left flank. To be honest though, I'm obviously not a Heksey fan, atleast for villa right now, but I thought he had a pretty good game, atleast compared to some of the others. The biggest problem though has been the defence, as you said Shorey and Davies were pants, Cuellar I still can't really tell if he's just not any good or doesn't work well with Davies (the 2 of them cost us about 30 million US) and Beye was at fault for the second goal, although Davies being out of position forced him to cover so it wasn't really his fault. I'd like to see us move to a 4-3-3 with god knows who at the back, NRC Petrov and Sidwell in the center and Carew up top with Gabby and Ashley on the wings and work more on Carew distrubiting to the wingers from the center allowing them to overlap with their speed, not sure if we have the fullbacks for this formation though. It's very very clear that MON needs to bring in at the very least a midfielder and a center back, and really another left back would be ideal, I don't see Bouma as the solution after more than a year out and don't like the idea of playing Luke Young out of position
In the "make TFoAV feel a little bit better about Aston Villa losing to Wigan," news of the day, Wigan lost to Wolves 1-0 today. Lends more credence to the theory that the Villans just had a bad day on Saturday. Still would rather see a 4-5-1 with Heskey NOT being the 1.
As with any away game in an aggregate, scoring goals in Vienna will be crucial. Rapid's not going to be a pushover, they are a very good team in Vienna. We're sending our full squad over there, so I think that we're going to go full tilt as well. In addition, I hope that we're done seeing the 4-4-2. Ever since we went to it after bringing in Heskey, it's brought us nothing but trouble and we need to dump it. I doubt MON does that, but I think since it's a Europa League game, why not? Let's see the 4-5-1, and hopefully Carew plays. I'm hoping for a 2-1 Villa win. We need a win to right the ship after the Wigan debacle.
Guzan Beye - Cuéllar - Davies - Shorey Milner - Gardner - Reo-Coker - Sidwell - Young Heskey Subs: Friedel, Lowry, Delph, Albrighton, Petrov, Agbonlahor, Delfouneso Carew is out with a virus. Villa conceded in the first minute of the game. Gardner subbed off for Agbonlahor in the 55th minute. Davies subbed off for Lowry with 10 minutes to go. Finishes 0-1.
Well, that's a terrible shock to see that Villa went down 1-0 at the very beginning of the game. Damn, talk about shooting yourself in the foot. I'll have to see the highlights on this one, determine whether or not it was a wonder goal on Jelavic's part, or if it was more shoddy defending. If it's the latter, then we are in a heap of trouble right now. Kind of a surprise to see that MON actually went back to the 4-5-1 to start off...no surprise that he went with Heskey to start instead of Gabby, and even less of a surprise to see a shift to a 4-4-2. Looks like we might be going back to Villa Park down a goal. Good thing it wasn't here, the situation's still manageable. Still kinda sad to see that our first shots on goal came in the 90th+ minute.
It was the latter TFoAV, blame on other Villa forums is being directed at Davies for the goal. Main problem I saw was a lack of thrust in the middle of the park, with NRC/Gardner/Sidwell, Villa looked like they lacked a play maker imo. Still as you say, a one goal lead is not insurmountable.
So I just went back and watched the game, and it indeed was the latter. That is a shame, it took them 17 seconds to have one of the worst defensive lapses for a goal that they've had in a while, and they've been playing some pretty bad football since February. Other than that, the rest of the game (other than the lack of good chances and MON going back to the now-dreaded 4-4-2) was pretty decent. If we come out running the non-dreaded 4-5-1 and get a goal up in Villa Park, advancing won't be out of the question. Hell, why not just run 4-5-1 all season? We do not have the personnel at the moment to run a 4-4-2. Hell, we haven't had it since we started running it.
3:00 PM EST on ESPN Liverpool's last game was a league game, where they picked up their first victory of the season after a 4-0 thrashing of Stoke City. The Reds are looking to get themselves settled into a groove by beating the Villans tonight. WELL THAT'S JUST NOT GONNA HAPPEN, IS IT?! Well, it's probably gonna happen, but hey, I'm an eternal optimist so that's just how I am. As far as the Villans are concerned, the fanbase is currently in a bit of a panic due to losses to Wigan and Austrian powers Rapid Vienna, two teams that Villa could argue that they're better than. But they weren't the better team on the pitch on those two days, so that argument's out the window. All that matters is in less than an hour, they're going to take the pitch against one of the best teams in England, a sure title contender in Liverpool. I'm echoing the sentiment of many, I'm hoping that we come out in a 4-5-1, but knowing how MON abandoned it after 55 minutes in Vienna, we're probably going to see the 4-4-2. Hopefully we get a win. MON is asking for patience, and I suppose it'll be easier to be patient if Villa comes out with a point or 4 after the game. If it's a loss, then I suppose patience is going to wear thin.
Villa up 2-0 on Liverpool in Anfield at half-time. If that's not a dream scenario, idk what is. Further proof that 4-5-1 = GREAT SUCCESS. 4-4-2 = great failure.
Now it's time for Big Brad to step up. All indications are showing that we're gonna have to lean on him and the back 4 for the remainder of the game.
First Half Highlights : Liverpool 0 - 2 Aston Villa Click Here for Video Chances for Liverpool 46 Click Here for Video Danger Shots for Gerrard off Friedel 55 Click Here for Video Danger Chances for Kuyt 57 & 60 Click Here for Video