Match Day Thread Aston Villa v Saints, Sunday 1st, 12:00 Don’t PPV!

A crazy 3-3 draw again I reckon.

 

I’m expecting the wheels to come off for Villa. Good side but due a correction. Unfortunately I’m expecting the same for us. 0-0.

Lol. Not really, there will be goals.

 

Feeling positively positive about this one.

 

The Pope wasn't available.

 

Isn't he playing in goal?

 

Villa centre backs such as Mings like to take risks on the ball thus we must press them high and suffocate supply to the front three. This stopped Calvert-Lewin.

 

The more I watched the highlights and listened to comments the more I thought that Ralph has created a different Redders to the one we thought we had. His defensive, build up and team play is a key reason we never look vulnerable on our left and he gets Bertie involved in attack and covers for him

Theo to be a super sub for Stuart

I hope we don’t give Grealish too much space on our right

 

I think you need 6 games

 

Always a dangerous time for a Saints' fan. We must always leave space for doubt, so that we can say 'I bloody well knew it!.'

 

Fully aware of that Fran but feel the need to be up for the win whilst acknowledging the possibility of disappointment.

 

It’s the hope that kills.

 

They are a very good side now... But so are we.

I reckon desmond 2-2

 

6 clean sheets is the way to go...

... just saying

 

I think that’s true on Redmond. While his finishing was disappointing at the weekend I thought generally he was decent and his all around game has changed a lot. In many ways he’s more similar to what Armstrong does on the other side in that he’s pulling inside into a more traditional AM/CM space and not prioritising running at fullbacks to beat them with dribbles. Many times against Everton he drew them out and then fed balls through to Bertie in wide spaces behind them. It’s interesting because I don’t think it’s his natural game and has obviously taken a lot of adjustment. However it’s clearly a RH instruction as you can see the hallmarks of it mirrored in Armstrong. Problem is, I think we get on players’ backs for seemingly playing within themselves sometimes. Ralph is very tactically ridgid and knows what he wants from his setup.

 

Villa beat Liverpool, who like us play with a high-line 7-2 and lost to Leeds 0-3, who like us play with a high-press.

 

Hopefully the Spuds game and the first half against Chelsea taught us when not to rely too much on the high line.

 

Which is largely what attracts me to giving Theo a go on that side. If Ralph wants our left sided midfielder to come inside, rather than go down the line (which he clearly does), then having someone like Theo who would be coming inside on his favoured foot sounds very tempting. Defenders will hesitate, or make the wrong decision, when trying to work out if Theo is wanting to shoot, or slip Ings/Adams in, or feed Bertrand out wide.

I'm not saying it will definitely work. It's not a role that I can really recall Theo playing before. But I'm tempted to give it a try.

 

In the Chelsea game Theo mixed it up by cutting inside but also going outside the full back, keeping him guessing.
If he played on the left I would like to think that he would do the same.
But that aside, isn’t it great to have 4 players capable of filling those 2 positions who are all capable of affecting the result.

 

When this game comes around it will be the start of November. We have got 10 points from 6 games.

At the start of November a year ago we had just 8 points and had played an extra 5 games (11)

That's a big improvement to the start. Still a long long way to go but reason to be optimistic.

 

And yet at the same time, undertaking a direct comparison of our six matches so far this season puts us one point down on last season.

(Obviously no direct comparison can be made with home to WBA. So I've treated that as being a two point return from last season, given that was our average home return from Bmouth, Norwich and Watford.)