Aston Villa 0
West Ham 1
So. I’ve spent the journey back from Villa Park to Plymouth trying to collate my thoughts on the many questions I have floating around my head after Villa’s bad start to the season.
Let’s start with today’s game.
First half, certainly not a vintage Villa performance but we were 100% the better of the two sides. West Ham barely troubled our half never mind the penalty area.
Second half, Villa completely ran out of ideas with West Ham more or less allowing Digne to be the outlet knowing that Kurt Zouma was gonna dominate anything that came in to the box.
I’m trying to find a way that I can avoid being critical of Gerrard but at the same time not come across like I’m defending him and I’m really struggling.
When the most positive thing you can say about a game is that the opposition we’re equally as poor as us then it’s not a great positive.
I’ve been critical of Villa defensively this season but I thought we were incredibly unlucky to not get a clean sheet today. I haven’t decided if I thought Konsa & Chambers did well today or if West Ham were just so bad that they weren’t tested.
Villa certainly didn’t deserve to win today but I don’t think they deserved to lose either. I think XG’s of 0.49 plays 0.56 hammers that home.
Onto the bigger picture.
Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and West Ham have now all beat Villa this season. Villa’s XG has been less than 1 in all of these matches.
This brings me on to questions about Villa’s system/tactics/coaching. Unfortunately, I’ve no answers to any of my own questions.
It’s widely thought that the system we played last season was the work of Mick Beale and he’s taken that with him to QPR.
We’ve got Neil Critchley in but we’re still playing the same system as last season.
So.
Why have we got Critchley in to coach Beale’s system?
Was it Gerrard’s system all along?
Will Critchley get a chance to input his system?
What is Gary McAllisters role?
One thing I can offer an opinion on is John McGinn. This system is absolutely negating anything positive that he brings to the team. His entire role seems to be just filling in for The full backs when they supply the width the team so desperately lacks. It’s an absolute waste of a player and his performances are getting worse by the game.
Gerrard has made a real problem for himself by giving McGinn the captaincy, ain’t he.
He should definitely have been the first player hooked yesterday. He’s just become so easy to play against, once you negate his physicality (which West Ham did) and his energy (which where he plays in Villa’s system does) then you aren’t left with a lot, are you?
I don’t think the performance yesterday warranted the boos. We were poor, but I don’t think we deserved to lose.
Fan pressure is increasing on Gerrard but he’s Purslow’s man and it’d take a lot for Purslow to pull the trigger I reckon, so, for now, we’ve got to get behind them and hope Gerrard isn’t too stubborn or blind to make the changes this team is crying out for.
Onto Arsenal and Man City. Shudders.
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