Minority Report 2017/18 v Aston Villa

I know that we have lost, and on paper 0-3 looks like a sound thrashing, but more than anything the result shows how close and competitive games in this league can be. The game hinged on the first goal, and sadly the man who has saved our bacon on so many occasions this season was the player at fault. He will know it, and everyone in the ground and on TV will know it. They will also know that the penalty award was a mistake by the linesman, so even the officials were not perfect.


The 0-2 score line at half-time forced Hecky’s hand. There was just no point in continuing to play 4-5-1 against Villa’s 4-4-2, but the risk was always that we would lose the control of midfield that we had exerted in the first 45 minutes. That was a risk that Hecky had to take in order for us to have a chance of getting back in the game. Villa had been happy to sit back in two banks of 4 in the first half and let us have the lion’s share of possession, preferring to explode forward with pace when they had the opportunity. There was room down the flanks, which we exploited on the right, but on the left, Barnes showed his inexperience and although there was a similar opportunity on that side, we failed to exploit it. However, John Terry dominated proceeding in the centre of the Villa defence and although we had opportunities, he saw that they were snuffed out before they amounted to a chance. In the second half, with a cushion of a 2 goal lead and an opposition who had sacrificed a mid-field player in their search for goals, Villa pushed their midfield higher and we began to see the real Conor Hourihane, instead of a pale imitation dressed in black that we saw in the first half. Villa controlled the second half, almost entirely, and it was no surprise that they added to their tally, and frankly, it might have been more.


In spite of the heavy defeat, for me the game was interesting. We played some very good football in that first half and in Williams, Potts, McCarthy, Hammill and Moncur we had players who offer us a very bright future. Sadly, Villa had some players who were even better and after the first goal, we never really looked like getting back into the game. Can the system make up for a lack of quality overall? Well on this occasion the answer was definitely not, but I still feel that the first goal dictated everything that happened after it. Can we play 4-4-2 successfully? Well on the evidence of today, McBurney would have been an essential component in that system. We just could not get the ball forward quickly enough, or effectively enough without a big man to play off. I suppose those who saw us come from behind against Derby in the week playing 4-4-2 will disagree, but that is how I saw it on today’s evidence.


Let us not get carried away with one defeat. We have lost, but there is always another day.

 

Can`t disagree wi any of that, John Terry looked at times as though he was playing in a friendly.

 

Also BFC were playing a 4 3 3 first half !

 

Sorry barnsley clearly played 4141 williams between midfield and defence with Bradshaw running around to no affect on his own upfront. If we play one up that player needs to forget about linking up and just play on the last defender and stay in the box.

 

I refer to our system as 4-5-1 just so I do not have to get into this sort of detail. For me, 4-5-1 and 4-3-3 are the same system anyway. 4-5-1 is the defensive face and 4-3-3 the attacking face of the same system. This is not unusual. 4-4-2 becomes 4-2-4 when a team is attacking or even 2-4-4 when both full backs push on. This use of numbers to indicate systems is merely a shortcut to indicate a general way of playing rather than any strict adherence to the positioning of the individuals. In actual fact, Duntpasstome is also right. Williams played behind his fellow central midfield players, but the two wingers advanced ahead of our midfield on most occasions, but so did our right full back. So is that 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3. I do not bother with all the intricate combinations of how you describe the system to be honest. I simply count the number of defenders, count the number of attackers and all the rest are midfield players, no matter where the game may take them on occasion

 

At quite a few points it was

Davies

Jackson Lindsay

Williams

McCarthy moncur Pearson

Hammill Potts barnes

Bradshaw

2-1-3-3-1

Great formation

 

Not a minority report today.
Pretty much sums things up.
Championship football is fine margins & as soon as we were chasing the game, the game was up, with
Terry mopping up every attack.
When you look at the budgets / resources of the two teams, we can take positives from it.

 

When you sit in the east upper and look down they clearly and rigidly when playing as hecky asks set up as 4141. Potts pushes at our goalkicks to support Bradshaw and the centre defenders pull wide and Williams comes deep for the ball. The team attacks as a five with support sometimes from Mccarthy at rb. But I am just being pedantic sorry and it doesn't matter.

 

Great report enjoyed reading that

 

John Terry won't have an easier game all season...

 

1 up front is **** at home. Pleasingly concise.

 

Agree with all of that Red Rain, especially the last sentence.

 

Exactly as I saw it.

 

Can I just say.. maybe in cloud cuckoo land its just one defeat... but in reality the stats came up yesterday about Heckys last 20 games, with 3 wins.
Now I love Hecky to bits... but with new owners coming in, he as to feel a tad of pressure. Harry Redknapp was shown the door yesterday. New owners will not want to be relegated, and the nearer we are to the bottom. the more precarious his position..
I think the .. he's one of our own bit... will not save him or for very long.... Hecky needs wins.

 

It's actually 5 wins not 3.

Hecky:
Wins: 5
Draws: 6
Losses: 9
Points calculation: 21
PPG: 1.05
Season total: 48

Common thief:
Wins: 4
Draws: 5
Losses: 11
Points calculation: 17
PPG: 0.85
Season total: 39

 

A very forgiving report that I saw a team at home playing a negative formation Albeit changed after the horse had bolted I also saw an away team that had a game plan and executed it perfectly Snodgrass in particular had so much space at times he strolled through the game John Terry likewise didn't get a dab on he made it look easy because it was easy all in all it was a dire performance from Barnsley and I really hope these lads learn quickly and Hecky too because from where I stood and watched this team without substantial changes will struggle

 

It was a shame that the game was settled on two incidents where our goalkeeper could have done better
and an "iffy" penalty decision. For our part , whilst we showed pace and passed the ball round, we lacked
any penetration. For the first, Davies was looking up as though he was trying to work out what he was going
to do next, but failed to collect the ball, leaving Adomah a tap in. At 0-1 we were still in it, but the penalty made
if very hard for us. We had no real stand out performers whilst for them, with Adomah, Snodgrass, Davis and Kodjia up top they carried a real threat.

In the second half, from my seat in the East Stand Lower tier you could clearly hear Terry barking out instructions
to his fellow defenders as to where to stand and where necessary when to move up, not that they needed to be told because in Chester, Whelan, Elmohamady , there was years of top flight experience to help them slow the game down. When he played for us, Hourihane was a key player, whereas yesterday, apart from a couple of touches,
for me he was virtually anonymous.

For our part, our best two chances fell to Ugbo. He probably could have done better
with the header and the one he put just wide. Davies must have been disappointed for the third and it was a shame that on such a memorable occasion the whole team failed to give a better account of itself.

As others have said, hopefully that's a one off and we are able to put it behind us and now kick on from there.
I personally think we've got enough to survive and hopefully we can bring some "experience" in during the January window to ensure that we do, because in my view it was purely " experience" that was the telling factor in Villa's win yesterday.

 

Interested in your views on Lindsay's performance yesterday

 

Lindsay was our best player at the back in my opinion. When he got the ball, he at least made a
concerted effort to get forward in an attempt to launch attacks. Failed to see how Williams was
made MOM in deference to Lindsay to be honest.

Hammill was the pick of the bunch up front for us. I thought him and Hedges were unlucky
with the goalbound "flicks" that they both attempted. Thiam didn't do much when he got on and Ugbo tried
his best when he replaced Moncur. Unfortunately for us Chester, Whelan, Elmohamady and Terry were on
form and kept it very tight at the back. Terry probably won't have an easier game than that all season.
He's 36 now. He must have been some player at the height of his career with Chelsea.

 

After the stick I took for my comments about Lindsay in the Sunderland game, I was hoping that I might not have to make any comment this week. Ah well, you have caught me.

If what we wanted was to sign a lad who can hit long diagonal balls to the two wide players, then we have got our man. It is his defensive reading of the game that I have problems with. He is still dropping back out of the line of the back four on occasion as I pointed out last time. He is worried about his pace, and the Villa front two were very quick, but as I pointed out before, he plays players on side who are beyond the line of the other 3 defenders. I have no idea who was at fault for their 3rd goal, and I note that those who on here who would like to see Adam Jackson fail, were soon attributing the blame to him. I personally, do not wish to fall into that trap, and frankly, I do not remember who was allocated to marking Davies.

All that might seem a bit meally-mouthed, because I thought that he was much better than in the Sunderland game, but equally, he did not forces me to reconsider my previous comments. I look forward to seeing him improve even further over the coming weeks, and to taking back my comments post Sunderland.