The Gaffer took the front seat today on team news. He told the press that playing Cairney last week was a risk and "we have to be careful with him". And that was it folks - no other news!!! Assume though that both Soares and Kamara are okay to play but not Fredericks. Villa have had a stuttering start to the season but now seemed to have settled down, especially their wodge of ex-Premiership types and no, I'm definitely NOT going to specifically mention 'him'. [Having played with 'him' the Gaffer knows 'him' quite well of course.] Bruce will be wary of us though and probably set up his team to thwart us, relying heavily on James Chester. A bit like last season. And boy do we and David Button owe him one for that! If Kamara is available then that puts paid to my grand plan of playing the new, lean and mean, Marcel Djalo up front - alongside Fonte. And if Cairney starts - I think he will - my other grand plan of going 3 at the back also falls. So, guessing the Gaffer will more or less stick to his usual format: ...........................Button................. ........Odoi......Kalas......Ream......Soares... ............................McDonald....... ......Cairney......Norwood....Sessegnon... ........................Fonte.. ...........................Kamara.... Being in a maverick mood, was tempted to start Johan Mollo but there will be some tired legs in the second have so will save him to come off the bench.
I think Ayite will be in the starting 11 somewhere, not sure who will drop out of your line up Cottager, possibly AK47 or move Sess to left back in place of Soares. Also, is Johansen injured? Or are you just leaving him out? To be honest id like to see as close as possible to the team that started the 2nd half against Preston, we seemed much better in that 2nd half, thanks largely to Cairney coming on of course. Imo that 2nd half team is as close to the best 11 we have available to us at the moment. We then also have the likes of Mollo, Kebano and AK47 to come on and change a game if needed. Im surprised at the lack of game time for Jordan Graham, especially in recent weeks when we had so many of our attacking options out injured. Ayite, Cairney, AK47, Ojo were all out and he couldn't get a game. What chance has he got now that some of them are coming back to fitness??
Yup, dropped Johansen. Cairney will last an hour at best, so bring on Stefjo then. Like you bit surprised we've seen but a couple of minutes of Graham but guess we have to rely on what the Gaffer sees on the training pitch.
The man handling things today is Mike Jones. please log in to view this image The Cheshire whistler occasionally dips into the lower Leagues. His biggest nose dive though was in the Premiership when he allowed that infamous Darren Bent goal which was deflected off a beach ball, for Sunderland against Liverpool. For obvious reasons we haven't seen much of him in recent years, although he did ref three of our games in the 2014/15 season. The strangest of those was against Reading - or maybe not against them. Anyway, having committed 18 fouls the opposition saw 1 yellow yet our meagre 9 fouls culminated in 3 yellows and 1 red; Matt Smith in the 18th minute. Jones has only managed 5 games so far this season, one of them a League 2 game. The others were in the Premiership where he's handed out 18 yellows. PS The beach ball has been put on display in England's National Football Museum in Manchester. Any suggestions that Jonesey should join it can come after today's game.
I think I'd go with: Button Odoi-Kalas-Ream-Soares McDonald-Norwood Mollo-Johansen-Sessegnon Kamara I'd like to see Mollo & Sessegnon attacking the Villa back four. I think their pace would cause some real problems for Villa's veterans.
The actual team (both C58 and me got 8/11): Button Fredericks-Kalas-Ream-Sessegnon Johansen-McDonald-Norwood-Ayite Fonte-Kamara Not convinced by Ayite so far this season (watching him get outpaced by Sol Bamba is going to stick with me for a while) and it will be interesting to see how Fonte lines up behind Kamara. Also nice to see Fredericks back already, with Soares & Cairney on the bench.
Not sure I wouldn't have preferred to see some (all?) of our missing ones Surly. The bench looks stronger than the starting XI. But ever the cup full ... COYW !!!
Back to the drawing board then. Too many players trying to be in the same position at the wrong time. And what has Mollo got to do to get a game? Looks like another long(ish) injury with Johansen as well.
Not impressed with our tactics today. I thought we needed to be set up for quick counter attacks rather than the slow passing build-up; Villa were happy to press us and deny us time, which left us with little/no outlet. Given that we have players like Mollo and Sess who have demonstrated themselves to be perfect for the counter attack game, I just don't understand our decisions today.
As I have said before one dimensional tactics It appears that we once again had 68% possession & only 9 shots,somewhat pathetic, languishing mid table with no outstanding top teams, now 11 pts behind. Still say it a mid table season finish
Still only 3 points off the play offs to be fair so no panic from me, yet.... I think the next two games are big ones for us though, Bolton and Bristol City both at the Cottage, two homes games we really ought to be winning if we're serious about trying to gain promotion this year. Its a long old season but for me 6 points is a MUST from these two games
I've said it a few times before, SJ has to learn how to play different teams and change tactics to suit. But again it's possession football with no momentum, it's a gamble if it works or not, and it fails when you don't create or take chances.
I thought overall we played ok and if any of our three up front could shoot we'd come away with points. Villa put a shift in, pressed us high up the pitch and put bodies in their box to make it difficult to carve openings. We really do need a striker that can score goals though.
