I'm posting this now after a victory so I'm not accused of 'poodle-ism'. Villa controlled the midfield last night until around the 75th minute when their whole team gave up. Our central 3 are just too pedestrian (Livermore being the most active). Delph, Westwood and Gil were all far quicker to the ball and beat our men far too easily. The reason we won the game is because Villa had no end product and if we'd have played another PL team last night with any sort of goal threat I'm convinced we wouldn't have won. So, a welcome 3 pts but I'm not getting carried away.
They've got a really good midfield, they really shouldn't be doing as badly as they are. That Gil was a steal at £3.2m.
Well Diame is back for QPR and now we have 3 strikers fit Ramirez is another option. So cheer up, it could be worse.
We also decided to play on the counter which by nature means giving up the bulk of possession. And it worked. Rather than against Leicester where we had all of the ball but lost.
Once Diame's back he will replace, certainly on last nights performance, Meyler, and we'll see a whole new ball game. I agree that we were pedestrian last night, but for me that was down to the fact that, yet again, Livermore was forced into doing most of the work, Thudd looked more like he was at least trying, and Meyler just didn't turn up, maybe he shouldn't be allowed to do any more pressers, maybe that took it out of him. It must be hard to control the middle of the pitch when you're playing with only one fully effective CM. #prayforlivers
I agree with this. A very welcome three points, but let's not kid ourselves that the played particularly well.
Really???? Villa looked pretty in posession on the halfway line. Everything was in front of City and they carried very little threat. I'll gladly give up meaningless posession if it means we're effective when we have the ball. We weren't the best last night but I thought the shape of the team and moving the ball forwards quickly on the counter attack meant that we looked far more dangerous than Villa.
I thought the whole midfield did ok last night. They are probably just trying to build their fragile confidence by attempting to be solid without being spectacular. Hopefully as we gain more points and wins we may see some fluidity return to our play. I would say their lack of end product was more down to our stifling of them in the last third, but i'm sure others will have differing opinions.
You put a fully fit diame back in there and it becomes at least 3 times better. I honestly believe his injury has cost us at least 6 points this season, and thats being harsh on his impact!
Last night we set up not to lose, and their mid-field had the Lions share of the ball, but it was all in front of us. The mid-field achieved was they were set up to do.
Let's be honest, Delph and Westwood would walk into any number of PL teams - as mentioned above, Villa did have lots of midfield possession w'out being particularly threatening; we started nervously but certainly grew into the match as it went on.
The team did their homework, completely nullified the opposition threat and created enough chances to win the game, to me that's playing well. It doesn't always have to be free-flowing possession football and we weren't outplayed in midfield as some have suggested. We were happy to let them have the ball because we knew we were capable of defending and by allowing them to push forward it would create space for counter attacks.
I think our tactics were spot on. We won, reduced them to not forcing MecGreggor into making a save until the last minutes, and I don't think we had a bad player on the field. Meyler may have given the ball away a couple of times, but he was involved in everything. As for Alex Bruce and Dawson, I hope all their doubters on here are feeling a bit sheepish this morning.
Agree, my concern is Huddlestone and his lack of pace, cant argue he's one of the best ball players we've got, but without the ball, opposition player's tend to go past him like he's not there.
I agree really. Livermore was good. Huddlestone was better but still too cumbersome, he's so easy to beat. Meyler got everything wrong again. I want to like him but he has these games were every pass is ****ed up. When he's bad he really is shambolic.
Livermore has been battling hard in the midfield but I just don't think he has much quality, he's forever giving the ball away, like really simple passes. If we go down I'm pretty sure he won't play in the Premier League again.
Agree. We can probably get away with Hudd being a bit pedestrian but not when Myler doesn't really turn up, like last night. We need Diame back.
No doubt Huddlestone looks overweight and pedestrian - great ball player but I'm not sure that's enough The influence Phelan is having is obvious - he spent as much time in the technical area as SB and the team were obviously listening to him and doing what he wanted (in the main)
