Put your finger on what we lack?

[Matt]

We are really poor at the back, spent a good chunk of our summer budget on a centre half who can't get a kick.

Really lacking quality in central midfield, I love Lemina and Gomes but they're both grafters really and a bit limited technically. Gomes is having a really poor season imo.

There is too much focus on how the opposition will play and how to stop that rather than on our own identity and style of play (what is our style of play? Answers on a postcard).

Lack of wide options. We're really missing Neto, of course, and we ain't really got anyone to replace him. Bellegarde has looked absolutely awful recently, I'm hoping that's because he just isn't a wide player but is having to fill in there. Sarabia way too slow.

GON not having any trust in his bench. The fact Fabio and (especially) Sasa could not get on the pitch today is an absolute joke. Without Sasa's goals at Everton and Bournemouth GON may well have lost his job by now. Hwang put in a 0/10 today and yet played the full 90, absolutely baffling.

 

[sedgwolf1980]

A plan.

We had one, then because of a few flat performances behind closed doors some idiot decided to throw the baby out with the bath water.

 

[Coshamwolves]

Need at least one CB that has some pace...we need more experience in CM...Jao Gomes is not the answer at the moment.

 

[JadeWolf]

Strength in depth. 3 key players not starting today (Neto, Sa, Ait-Nouri) and 3 not 100% healthy (Dawson, Lemina, Cunha) and we’re really really poor.

That’s no different to most sides in the mid table area though, to be consistent you need your best team playing pretty much every week.

 

[Jefe]

Neto.

Ding ding ding - we have a winner.

We are a one-man team... maybe one and a bit if you throw in RAN. Otherwise workmanlike with decent individuals that yet do not amount to the sum of their parts, let alone more. Whereas before, the tactic was seemingly give the ball to Neto and tell Hwang to hover and time his run at the last moment, GON has no other method of getting us up the pitch quickly and carving out chances. Our attempts to play out from the back are sluggish, laboured and often put us into trouble. The closest thing was have to a Neto is Bellegarde, and GON seems unwilling or unable to utilise his strengths. Neto will be back after Christmas, but how long until he gets back to his previous sharpness? What if Heaven forbid, he pulls it again like Hwang did?

 

[hollo]

Would you take Roy Hodgson over Gon?

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Would you take Roy Hodgson over Gon?

100%

 

[Justawolf]

100% not

 

[Sedgers]

A solid defence. We're scoring goals again (not today obviously) but we're conceding too many goals. I think Toti needs a rest. Move Kilman back to the left and give Bueno a go on the right of a back three.

 

[Cookyssweetleftfoot]

Would love a quality pacy striker with Cunha playing off of them.

A keeper, additional wide option and a pacy defender.

Right now we have very limited options on the bench.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Would love a quality pacy striker with Cunha playing off of them.

A keeper, additional wide option and a pacy defender.

Right now we have very limited options on the bench.

Options that we won’t use anyway!

 

[Fenrir_]

Organisation

We've conceded at least three goals on five different occasions this season, we've only had seventeen games! Conceding at a rate of 1.7 goals per game, it's way too high. We'll be alright this season because of the total lack of quality at the bottom but keep conceding like that and there's only one way you end up going

 

[wolfgar]

One big problem we have right now is that we have too many players in our squad that the manager doesn’t really fancy or appear to trust. Sasa, Fabio, Traore, S Bueno for starters are really just there to make up the numbers and provide cover as things stand. No real chance any of them force their way into the first team unless we have no other choice. We need actual competition for places.

I’d move Sasa, Silva and Traore out in Jan if it were me. I actually think signing the likes of Brownhill and Che Adams as replacements would actually improve us, which says a lot I think?

Lemina, Toti, J Gomes, Kilman Dawson, Ait Nouri, Bellagarde, Hwang, Neto and Cunha is a decent foundation from which to build a good side, but the rest are pretty meh or replaceable at present if I’m being really brutal.

 

[Fenrir_]

One big problem we have right now is that we have too many players in our squad that the manager doesn’t really fancy or appear to trust. Sasa, Fabio, Traore, S Bueno for starters are really just there to make up the numbers and provide cover as things stand. No real chance any of them force their way into the first team unless we have no other choice. We need actual competition for places.

I’d move Sasa, Silva and Traore out in Jan if it were me. I actually think signing the likes of Brownhill and Che Adams as replacements would actually improve us, which says a lot I think?

Lemina, Toti, J Gomes, Kilman Dawson, Ait Nouri, Bellagarde, Hwang, Neto and Cunha is a decent foundation from which to build a good side, but the rest are pretty meh or replaceable at present if I’m being really brutal.

Also not willing to give a minute to any kids as of yet

Which is a bit frightening now I think about it!

 

[wolfgar]

Also not willing to give a minute to any kids as of yet

Which is a bit frightening now I think about it!

It doesn’t bode well does it?

 

[QB Wolf]

squad strength

 

[Narfolk Wolf]

A good coach, we're now so far, away from the quick attacking football of the Rennes and Man Utd performances it's depressing.

 

[loppers86]

strategic vision and ability to execute.

 

[Pengwern]

The composure to take better care of the ball & the positioning to ensure that we can win it back quickly

 

[North West Wanderer]

Julen Lopetegui.

why oh why oh why won’t you let it go!

 

[Perton Wolf]

Zero leadership
A lack of physicality
Absolutely zero up top
Weak in every challenge
Totally half hearted

Fair summary, the lack of physicality and aggression is a big issue. We're just too nice as a side and that comes down to us not recruiting the right mix of players.

I'd expect Brentford to bully us after Christmas, too.

 

[North West Wanderer]

three things for me -

1. Leadership. i don’t think we have natural leaders and talkers in this squad. If we were persisting with a three, Coady would have been perfect for us still. we need that voice.
2. Strength in depth - the manager, rightly or wrongly clearly doesn’t trust Sasa, Fabio et al. We are effectively without options.
3. Consistency - down to both the manager and the players. moving to a back four was crackers too, and it showed. the players down yet have the ability to effectively and costistent change their approach.

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

Clean sheets. Keep it tight at the back against West ham, Fulham etc and we'd be 7th or 8th in the table. As it is we're 13th.

 

[Wolf316]

why oh why oh why won’t you let it go!

It was tongue firmly in cheek.

 

[North West Wanderer]

It was tongue firmly in cheek.

phew

 

[Ned]

Pace, in most areas of the pitch.

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

Pace, in most areas of the pitch.

Really? It's only really Dawson and Sarabia that have been starting that don't really have any.

 

[theweave]

Luck

 

[WolfLing]

We lack the centre backs and full backs capable of playing in a back 4. It's always been our biggest issue.

Dawson isn't fast enough.
Kilman isn't aggressive enough.
Toti isn't good enough positionally to play left back in a 4.
Semedo isn't switched on or aggressive enough.
Ait-Nouri is a wing-back.
Doherty is a car crash in a 4, unfit and not bothered.
Jonny is probably too small to play in a 4.
Both Buenos don't appear to be fancied at all in a 4 or 5.

Combine Dawson and Kilman, you'd have a perfect centre back.
Combine Semedo and Toti, you'd have the perfect fullback.

But for the time-being, we have to play with 3 centre backs.

What that means is we are somewhat limited to the forward players we can use. The most effective players here will be ball-carrying, fast, dynamic players, which is why Cunha/Hwang/Neto worked so well until Neto's injury.

A back 3/5 limits what you can do going forward. Sarabia has quality, but sometimes gets lost as one of only 3 front players. He's the perfect 4th attacking player to link the midfield and front 3 when playing with a functional back 4. He played relatively well against West Ham, but playing him and Bellegarde took too much away defensively.

Look at West Ham's back 4 yesterday compared to ours and it's night and day. All of them competitive, all of them fairly quick and strong. We need a Zouma type player, a proper all-round left back and a switched on version of Semedo every game.

That then opens up a world of possibilities for midfield and attack in terms of formation, personnel and style.

 

[waveney wolf]

What every decent team has ...a central spine .
IE a good keeper
A good centre half pairing
A good 20 goals striker

 

[Contrarian]

We finished 7th twice, playing a back 3. I know people say "all the best teams play a back 4". But then, so do most of the worst teams, too! Back 4 is just more common all round.

It's not the starting positions, as much as the players in it. We've got too many lower half of the table level players, so that's where we will be. A magician could take us up a few places perhaps, as long as we could get VAR on our side, too.

A good back 4 isn't going to make our forwards start pinging precision passes to each other at high tempo. I tend to think they just can't do it, our forwards tend to be ball carriers and runners rather than passers.

We do need to improve the defence, we are conceding far too many, also through individual errors and organisation (again, lower half the table players, that's what you get). And that would put us at best back to the Bruno Lage season of finishing 10th with a lot of ground low scoring matches. And a lot of supporters really hated that, too.

Clean sheets don't lose you matches, but they don't win you matches, either. For that you need to score. This season, we are committing more forward and it's no surprise that we are scoring more - but also conceding more. It is surely what would be expected? And a lot of supporters are really hating it too, of course.

Lack of contribution from the wing backs has been a continual problem since we were at our best, also playing a back 3. For too long, we've been neither one thing nor the other, perhaps. Wanting to move to a back 4, but still with players acquired to play in a back 3. Wing backs not good in a back 3, centre backs not good for a 4. Add on one-dimensional attack that relies on individual flair, because other than "Neto beats 3 players, crosses for Hwang who taps in", we have no plan. Too lightweight all round.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Urgency and directness in our play

Too much sideways and backwards

 

[Ned]

Really? It's only really Dawson and Sarabia that have been starting that don't really have any.

Kilman isn’t quick, I wouldn’t call our midfield particularly quick either. They get around the pitch but they aren’t “quick”.

 

[QB Wolf]

The thing about playing 3 CBs is it's a 3/4 when you're attacking and a 5 when you're defending, just means you need fit quick WBs who can get up and down, which Semedo and RAN can.

We needed that security yesterday - big mistake from GON

 

[AndyWolves]

It goes all the way through the squad unfortunately.

You could pick quite big defects in most of our squad bar a couple.

I don't think GON is really the man that can play in a way to mitigate them, sometimes we play in a way that makes them worse :-

Dawson and Kilman are just not a CB pairing, however, they look quite good in a 2.
Toti is a head it and kick it player - don't give him anything complicated to do
Hwang is a finisher, don't get him to do anything else
Bellegarde is not a wingback
Sasa gives us a presence in the box - that's sometimes what we need

 

[Narfolk Wolf]

Urgency and directness in our play

Too much sideways and backwards

It's why I said coach.
Once a game we show quick passing and movement score a goal, then revert back to aimless dross.
We need to balance the defensive mindset with better attacking play.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

It's why I said coach.
Once a game we show quick passing and movement score a goal, then revert back to aimless dross.
We need to balance the defensive mindset with better attacking play.

I blame the coaching. Standards are very low.

Can’t take a corner, free kick, throw in without creating something of note

Simply not good enough is it

 

[derbyrameater]

Confidence!!

 

[Clipboard]

We are really poor at the back, spent a good chunk of our summer budget on a centre half who can't get a kick.

Really lacking quality in central midfield, I love Lemina and Gomes but they're both grafters really and a bit limited technically. Gomes is having a really poor season imo.

There is too much focus on how the opposition will play and how to stop that rather than on our own identity and style of play (what is our style of play? Answers on a postcard).

Lack of wide options. We're really missing Neto, of course, and we ain't really got anyone to replace him. Bellegarde has looked absolutely awful recently, I'm hoping that's because he just isn't a wide player but is having to fill in there. Sarabia way too slow.

GON not having any trust in his bench. The fact Fabio and (especially) Sasa could not get on the pitch today is an absolute joke. Without Sasa's goals at Everton and Bournemouth GON may well have lost his job by now. Hwang put in a 0/10 today and yet played the full 90, absolutely baffling.

Cant argue with any of that. Agree that Joao Gomes is having a poor season. Still think he will be a great player though. ON the plus side we did score a cracking "goal" yesterday.

 

[Fifty Niner]

Interesting thoughts. Common themes are slow tempo, can't pass, now real pace, not physical enough.

The Villa squad isn't full of superstars but they have a very good manager who has gelled the team into title contenders as things stand. Meanwhile, Gaz is struggling to get a consistent tune out of our players and as the season drags on we appear to getting worse. Perhaps the long break in January will do us good but then again everyone else gets the same break!

As many have said already, and Talksport also mentioned in when commenting on Forest's latest loss to Spurs, the PL table this year puts a bit of false reading on where teams are really at because the points tally of the three promoted teams is so bad. The bottom three last season were four points better off on average than the three this season, none of whom have yet got into double figures. We were on thirteen and third from bottom after seventeen games and this season we are on nineteen. Last season nineteen points was six clear of the relegation zone this year it is ten points.

So, despite the aforementioned shortcomings of the team I can't see Luton, Burnley nor Sheff Utd overhauling 10 points. It's going to be a lot of fairly dour games with nothing really to play for except for the occasional glance over the shoulder to keep the distance.