Aston Villa’s Continuous Improvement
Aston Villa got their first draw of the season last night against Burnley. Burnley are on a good run of form and a draw may look like a good result. However, if you watched the game, we could have easily won 5-0 or more. Villa played some nice football, defended well and always looked in control. Why did we lose then? I don’t subscribe to being lucky or unlucky in football. I am firmly in the Arnold Palmer mode of thinking from when a journalist accused him of being a lucky golfer. His response ‘the more I practice the luckier I get’. Make no mistake, the reason we did not win last night lies firmly with the players and the coaching staff. It is not the nasty football Gods interfering with our performances.
Who exactly is accountable?
It is difficult to say who exactly is accountable as it is not a single individual, it is the group. Yes, El Ghazi had 8 shots. We hit the woodwork twice. Brady cleared off the line. We could even look to blame the ref for not giving Ben Mee any of the three yellow cards he deserved. But those type of excuses are the type you will read on a Baggies blog or a Blues blog. They blame the ref, Covid, no fans, the Premier League, the EFL, VAR, the Elite clubs and any other conspiracy theory they can come up with. They always fail to take a look at themselves to see what they are doing wrong. This is a normal insecurity many people have, and it stops people improving. I work for a US company and like many US companies we are very much into the concept of ‘Continuous Improvement’. We are actively encouraged to reflect on our decision making and performance with a view to seeing how we can improve. This learning process helps us to identify our mistakes which helps us to avoid repeating them.
What mistakes did villa make last night?
There are many factors which contributed to last night’s draw. Not all of them strictly mistakes but things we can learn from. One glaring issue is our lack of firepower up front. I think Watkins is great, but he can’t be expected to score in every game, he is allowed a bad day. We simply don’t have cover for him. could argue ElGhazi is not good enough, and he probably is not good enough for where we want to be, but he ticks the box for where we are now. If we are going to be realistic we could probably go through our entire squad and only come up with maybe 3 players which we don’t need to upgrade. We could also look to our coaching staff. Our tactics looked right, but could we have coached better finishing and crossing. Could we have made our substitutions earlier? Could we have changed selection? Elmo was very poor last night; would Fred have been better? Should Louie Barry be given a chance?
Things villa need to do differently
The list of things we could have changed goes on an on. There is no quick fix to making Aston Villa better. There is no opportunity to go out and buy a few good players to try and break into the elite group next May. These ideas are naive and acting on them can damage our development. The current stage of Aston Villa’s development requires patience and strong leadership. This is exactly what NSWE and Purslow are delivering. Six months ago, we were fighting relegation, 12 months prior to that we were in the Championship. We are continuously improving, and we need to continue to do so. If we follow a plan and gradually improve our squad. We will get stronger first team players and a better bench of backup players. Last summer we brought in 5 players, the summer before it was 14. Next summer I hope it is 2 or 3. We have the numbers we now need the quality. I would like to see us sign Barkley, maybe Dele Alli and a real quality LB. That would probably cost about 120m. In Jan we may or may not sign anyone. If we were to get someone in that I would want it to be one of the 3 signings for next summer and not a desperate attempt to fix a gap or rash purchase thinking we can now compete with Spurs or Man Utd etc.
Aston Villa’s Coaching staff
For continuous improvement we also need to assess our Head Coach and his coaching staff. Are they continuously improving? Without a doubt yes. We are clearly getting better each season and we are playing some nice football. We have had 6 clean sheets this season and have 19 points from 11 games. I think it took us 19 games to get 19 points last season. Relegation is not a concern this season and that is hugely important. The bigger question is do our coaching team have the ability to bring to the next level in our development. Do they know what positions are most important to address in the transfer windows? Do they have the vision to deliver the project we all want delivered i.e. Villa to be a top 4 club competing for domestic and international silverware every season? If not, when is the right time to address this? Is it now or do we wait another year and see where the continuous improvement has led us to, maybe we will be a comfortable top 8 club next season with the current setup? As much as I like Deano, I don’t think he is the man to lead us to the promised land, for that I think we will need a change. He has been absolute perfect for bringing us to where we are now from where we were under Bruce and he is still delivering. Hopefully, I will be proven wrong and we will see Deano take Aston Villa to the top but I guess only time will tell.
Baggies on Sunday
We have a trip to our neighbours on Sunday and their first game under the stewardship of Big Sam. If we thought last night’s game was dull and Burnley just wanted to escape Villa Park with a point, then get ready for Sunday. Big Sam will be over the moon with a point. The double decker will be parked in front of goal and we will be challenged into trying to score. I expect we will have another 25+ shots. The big question will be if we have learned from last night’s game and will we do anything differently to convert one of our shots. For a start, I hope to see Cash, Luiz and Barkley start so that should make life a little easier for Deano. But he must learn from the Burnley game. If it is not working, he must change things about to get a system that will work.
UTV and a 3-0 win to the Villa
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A proud day for the City of Liverpool. Liverpool and Everton 1st and 2nd in the Premier League
The expected teams winning this weekend so far. Let’s hope that continues into tomorrow evening when we visit our neighbours for some boring football.
Their fickle fans were all against sack Bilic and didn’t want Big Sam. Now they think Big Sam is the man to turn them around. An embarrassing thrashing tomorrow evening would be nice to turn them on Sam again.
Mike dean is a pray,de bruyne turned around and ran into soton player by pure accident yet dean booked him crazy
My least favourite ref. He likes his feeling of power and exerting it.
I have salah in my fantasy team ,an assist and 2 goals in a cameo role,imagine we had subs like that ,but then Smith would probably put him on as a winger
That’s the difference between the top sides and the rest, they are far more clinical when they get chances.
That, and the strength in depth. The Liverpool and City bench players would be 1st 11 for the the rest of the Premier League.
There are only about 3 players in our squad that I feel like we don’t need to upgrade. It will be a long process to turn us in to a top 6 side
Like these lockdowns doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,like expecting el gazi to score,no chance lol
He’s our pen taker. He must be kept on the pitch at all times
Isn’t Salah a right wing player, that’s where he plays for Liverpool in a 4-3-3. Firmino is the central striker
Tongue in cheek remark,spud would put him right back tho
Yes, he would be a RB with Spud but maybe CB. That’s if he even got his place on the bench 😀
I have to say I like the way the debate below is going. We have very different views and I haven’t seen one person referred to as a fucking thick Cnut yet 😀😀😀.
That said I am out for a few pints now so maybe later on my vocabulary will loosen a little 🤪
lol
Enjoy mate
I am in the pub and meeting the Mrs in about a half an hour. She is shopping. It’s lovely to have some me time and a pint
What about the burger
Food coming soon 😃
There’s only a debate because you keep suggesting we replace him with someone without a Brummie accent. You stupid thick cnut. 😀
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
And if you are a brummie you are never content with what you have,it’s also an Irish thing ,so I am fcuked completely 🤣🤣
😀😀😀
Big Sam is a local isn’t he? Maybe I should push for him instead of MoPo or Hasenhuttl 😀
Speaking of taking people from the Tesco’s. Conor Gallagher is looking good for him. It would be nice to buy him on a permie from Chelsea in Jan and they recall him from his loan. If u read a Baggies blog he is by far their favourite player and they are very nervous about the potential of a recall in Jan 😀😃😀
Talking of managers, I think it’s worth remembering next time a change is imminent, fans lose faith or a manager moves on, how Burnley actually set up and play football.
Dyche is often mentioned by quite a few as a replacement but the anti football, cheating and thuggery on display last night & game after game, season after season should raise a huge red flag.
It is only 11 months ago people on the blogs were calling for Smith to be sacked and replaced with Big Sam too. I would hate that style of football at Villa. Even JCV went through a Pulis envy period 😀😀
I was wavering that wintertime as well, it didn’t look any better than Bruce at one stage, just before the 10 game run.
We have come so far under NSWE and a lot of that is down to patience and no knee jerk reactions. Yes that kind of contracts my upgrading DS idea.but it is a blog and somewhere we can express thought 😎🍺
Pulis envy ???
WTF.
😀😀😀
Jcv wanted Pulis as our manager 🤪🤪
He heard pulis did a good deal on hubcaps
Begley mentioned we have 27 games to go and how many points we can get,we have city utd chelsea spurs everton all twice plus pool and gunners we don’t usually get many points out of them games,so it’s down to 15 now
I think we will pick up some more points against the big teams this season. I am looking forward to United in New Year’s Day. Hopefully we have our best 11 fit, if so we can give them a game.
Out of those mentioned I would suggest Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton, Spurs are all vunerable at times. Big fears for me still only City & Pool.
We already stuck 7 past Pool but I agree, City and Pool the big fears. Spurs come in 3rd more feared and the rest are there for the taking.
Brighton leeds hammers soton burnley 1 point, 11 goals conceded like your optimism for big games,if anything happens to jack
The only really bad game out of those was Leeds and Saints a close second. Not getting the result you deserve is something we will get better at in time. I think it is to be expected with a newly promoted and developing team
There have been a lot of unexpected results. Too many to list.
There have been, yet Liverpool are top of the pile and Fulham, Baggies and Sheffield Utd are down the bottom. The expected teams are in their respective half’s except for maybe Saints, Villa and Arsenal. It does tend to balance itself out each year
You get what you deserve ,we didn’t deserve nothing more from them games ,you can’t keep saying it’s unlucky when you miss chances,do something about ,one papers said today 27 shots but only 2 of them had venom to nicey
Apart from the Leeds game, we could just have easily taken all the points from the other games. I have to agree a bit about us without Jack, but hopefully he stays fit and we won’t need to worry about that.
On a good day, we could beat anyone. Been a very long time since I was able to state that with some certainty. Even without the tinted specs, I really believe it. To back this up, I need only mention 2 results. The 7-2 one, obviously and most recently, Sandwells draw against Citeh.
Dean Smith…
“Loads of positives. We changed 40% of our team tonight. Our squad has been tested and come through with flying colours. It was a performance worthy of a win.”
He didn’t comment on his job being in danger 😎
LOL
I get some of use think Smith deserves more time ,me no last night perfect example of his poor skills
Sub Davies comes on as a winger something Bruce or mcleish would do, Davies needed to go up top and use his body on burnley centre half disrupt them,Elmo is a championship fullback at best yet Smith keeps playing him with Freddy not getting a look in,Conor who I don’t rate as a midfielder would been an option for last 15 mins we didn’t have to defend so that would suit Conor but he links up well with jack out wide ,as for last point elgazi never should have been allowed to put on a villa 1 st shirt after everyone game in lockdown where he ducked away from the ball
Plenty things Smith could have tried but just stayed with normal
Also, Watkins is a proven winger. Last season was his first playing as a striker.
It’s a little difficult to judge the alternative players starting last night, given the nature of Burnley’s game plan, but I think most did very well considering the length of sbsence for most.
We know Elmo will be gone in the summer anyway, El Ghazi on another day has a hattrick, Hause was dominant at LCB and Nakamba mopped up very well. I think it’s important that despite the disappointment we don’t forget the effort the squad players put in last night, bodes well for the near future with busy christmas period coming up.
From a performance, controlling the game, chances created point of view it didn’t affect the way we played.
On another day, we could definately have won the game easily. With 2 decent wingers, Jack could play in the 10 role more often. Prefer him playing wide and cutting in though.
If we had beaten Burnley 4-0 and drawn 0-0 or even lost to Wolves people wouldn’t be complaining too much. Football is a funny old game 😀
Agreed, the squad did well last night. As I said in the leader we have the players for where we are and we are progressing nicely. It will take a good few years to change the bull of our players into higher quality. But we now have a squad that works. Maybe not he beat but it works. Under Bruce we didn’t have that
Next up The Tesco Bags. Big Sam will be playing 7 at the back. Bring it on. Dinosaurs like him (and Bruce, Pulis etc.) have had their day. I can see it being a bit like last night, only this time at the very least, one of our many attempts will hit the back of the net. Assuming we will be dropping El Ghastly and restoring Jack to the left, with Barclay coming back in. Traore is taking longer than I had hoped to show some form but |I think he may stick with him in Trez’s absence. Back to the usual back 4, I can’t see Sandwell getting much past us.
Jack does appear more effective on the left than in the centre and I really hope Barkley is back too. With those changes I think we should be able to find the net a little easier. I am not too concerned who we play at the back as long as they can stay focused and warm while watching the game take place at the other end of the pitch 😂
Having Luiz back will improve our chances going forward too. Much less of a defensive midfielder than Nakamba.
Yeah, maybe get some decent passes into the box. Elmo’s passing was very poor, normally he is much better
Can’t disagree with much of that. Only thing I would take issue with is your continual digs at Deano. Managers only become great managers with experience. Any of the so called top managers have all had spells learning their trade. And when they get to a club with the biggest and best squads, they tend to look better because they have better options on the pitch. With our squad, I would say that none of these ‘top’ managers could or would have done any better than Deano has to date. So, in my view, they are not better managers, they just have better players. UTV
Point taken. I am genuinely not trying to have a dig at Deano.I do like Dean and he is doing a fantastic job at Villa. My concern is whether he can really take us to the top level. I would love it if he can. I have to admit I am a little envious of Saints with Hasenhuttl. He looks real quality and Saints look to be going in the right direction
I get where you are coming from, I just can’t agree with you. Changing a manager for the sake of it (upgrading ! as you put it) just can’t be compared to bringing in new players. Too much upheaval, and a really backward step for me.
Yes it does carry its risks and could backfire spectacularly 😀😀.
I did soften a bit above and asked the question when the right time would be 😀
I think that’s where you are getting stuck on this. Yes, Hassenhuttl looks real quality, he doesn’t have a Brummie accent for starters. Deano doesn’t come across as well as he might but I’m pretty sure he does not deserve getting sacked just to bring in someone who talks a good game (Pochetino for example). Would just disrupt what we have achieved so far. We seem to have in place a plenty good enough coaching and scouting set up. For me, the time to bring in a new manager would be when he is clearly failing. That’s just not where we are right now.
That is the dilemma. I am thinking the time to bring in a new manager is before u start failing. I like the idea of bringing in a manager to build on what we have and push us forward.
If I was given the authority to make the decision for the club it would be really difficult. I can see both side of the debate. I do like the debate though. My current thought is that I would upgrade Smith if I was to make the call. It would have to be what I consider to be a major upgrade and clearly there are no guarantees it would work out. As you said and as I have said, we are progressing very nicely under Smith since he arrived.
We are progressing nicely, dominating games, look dangerous and seem to be well clear of any relegation battle, I agree with you changing the manager now would be simply ridiculous. You don’t sack people for achieving.