My doubles partner and I went to Villa Park during Winter County Cup one year,after we'd finished our matches,we were playing at the now deceased Coventry centre. We stood in the Holt End and the man next to us said "C'mon Villa" 57 times during the first half. I'm quite nervous about this game.
This is the problem, Gray would be better at actually getting on the end of balls into the box, however he is likely to frustrate by not being able to finish them. Deeney won’t get on the end of any balls into the box, however if by some miracle he did, and by some miracle he found himself without a defender within 10 metres of him then he’d have a better chance of finishing than Gray. Any long balls up to Gray will erratically bounce off of him in random directions, Deeney will at least be able to bring these balls under control. Essentially whoever we pick will leave us horribly frustrated at not being able to do what the other can do mildly better, and vice versa. We really need a striker.
On the subject of Deeney, it’s amazing in football how hard it is to build a reputation and subsequently how long it takes to lose it, or simply how lazy and disinterested the media are in clubs outside the top 6. Pretty much everyone that isn’t a Watford fan still sees him as our most important player and integral to survival, without releasing he hasn’t actually scored from open play in what seems like the length of the last ice age.
We do need to win. Every game that passes with just a point or less, is another game closer to relegation. Teams around us are picking up points - we simply cannot afford to lose ground.
The team performance today will be the key relegation indicator. This will not be an easy game, both teams will be up for it. Man U work rate is now the minimum standard required for every game & from every player.
Can see a few changes today due to the quick turnaround of fixtures. My guess would be Femenia back to RB and Masina to LB. Doucoure for Chalobah. Gray for Deeney. Maybe Dawson and Pereyra in with a shout too but doubt we will change half the team.
Depends on how you want to manipulate the maths, but that isn't the point. I still think we will be relegated for a number of reasons but like they say, how I wish to be proven wrong. I do have faith in Pearson for next season & all the changes that we will see coming down the pipe.
Stats should be read with caution, but nevertheless here's an interesting one from today's Times. Most aerial duels won since Jan 2018: van Dijk 353, Troy 337, Michael Keane 330, Tarkowski 313. This doesn't reveal whether the headers were collected by a team mate, of course. If not, was it the headerer's fault or team mates for not being in the vicinity?
I agree with you, as long as you change the word to 'uninterested'. Surely the football media cannot be disinterested in football, but that makes it even more shocking that they should be uninterested. However, probably many of these people regard themselves as part of the entertainment industry, not sports. Reporting and the news is in trouble these days. Disappointing yes, and in the broader context worrying. Plenty of people like to mouth off, not so many care about facts, (which is one reason I'm not interested in Facetwitter and the rest). They just parrot the pundits, the pundits pander to this and keep it simple. Whatever you say about Deeney he is not a clone and maybe he's happy to be part of the deal. After all, he's not got a lot of football left in him.
I don’t understand, what isn’t the point? It’s nowhere near mathematically certain we will go down - but it’s a busy period of games and teams around us are picking up points. This is a crucial time in terms of ‘being adrift’ or not - but you don’t think we need to win?
Villa have conceded exactly the same number of goals as us and scored just over twice as many times. It's not going to be easy. We must just hope the recent and current form is not fully reflected in those numbers. And hope that the boys try hard. Very hard.
Those really are fantastic stats, Troy keeps great company against some highly regarded central defenders there. Unfortunately Troy is a centre forward and our main requirement for him is to score goals.
Van Dijk/Tarkowski/Keane - when they head it, it doesn’t really matter where the ball goes as they are obviously defenders. For Deeney, it does. And too often it goes to no one in particular. And very very rarely does he score with his head. They would be fantastic stats if they were followed by a stat for how many key attacks or goals they lead to. But they don’t. What I take from that stat is that for someone who supposedly wins so much in the air, he should be far better at making usefulness of it.
Deeney is not the answer to our goal scoring problems but is a far better option than Gray. It’s Villa, Troy is a Birmingham fan. He has to play
But as you say, it doesn’t state where those headers go so we can’t say if they were good or not. One thing I noticed against United was that he won a lot of headers but nobody ever gambled on him winning the flick on. We’ve got Sarr and Delefeou who should running in behind the defence to get to these headers.
Deulofeu did run in behind when Chalobah flicked it on against Sheffield Utd - because it was put into a useful area. It may not state where Deeney’s headers go - but we have all seen him live since the date at the beginning of that stat. We know where they more often that not go so we can say they aren’t good.
Yep. Lack of organised mobility up front is one of our key problems. To get our current squad moving anything like Sheffield United would be a major, not an overnight task. Sarr is up for it. I think Delofeu would be. And, er… Gray. I'm beginning to feel sorry for Pearson and his team.
Is there no way to clone Gray and Deeney? We would have a player who can get a ball down and control it, have the knowledge to get into the box and at least have an ounce of scoring ability. We would have a bang average striker, but a bang average striker is all we need. Success is so frustrating to watch, even in those small cameo's he has had under Pearson so far, he does nothing. Well that's not true - he gives the opposition chances to attack and walks around like he's too good for our side. He is still young, there has to be some football in there.
I don't disagree, but as I alluded to in my original post, there's so often no team mate near him to pick up the headers he's won.
Because more often than not he’s stood 10/15 yards deeper than where he should be. He drops into CM far too much for a lone striker.
Do we have the sort of side who can play in an attacking 4-3-3? I mean why not go for it today. We may suck at scoring but surely creating chances will at least somehow bring a few goals? Our defence is much better than it was due to better communication skills. Is this perhaps to much of an attacking stance to take, I mean their defence is pretty poor at the best of times. Norwich could of scored at hatful.
I'm clapping happily on my way into Watty for the game. Going to have a nice late lunch and then onto the game. Whatever the result, I can say I've had a nice day out.
The other issue with the stat is that it highlights we probably play far too many long balls if our CF is winning as many headers as centre backs, who generally would be expected to win the majority of headers.
If I've learned anything from Attenborough, I suppose we just have to put them in a room together and let nature take its course.
I'm not saying Success is the answer to any question, but it does seem a little unreasonable that Deeney being totally **** is excused because of his injury and lack of football, whilst if Success isn't instantly brilliant he's binned off.
Surely that's just down to track record? Deeney has loads to rely on. Success has a goal against Muff. In fairness, both have made front page of the Sun.
