Kick off at 5:45pm and live on Sky today. Our journey in the EPL continues against a strong Villa team who have settled well this season and have added to their squad well. With our new additions team selection become more difficult to predict, we have competition in most areas now although CB choice is less so. Keeping with CB's it's a cert Hec will start but along side who? The selection so far has varied and the high possibility of new recruits is looming, it's our problem position at the moment, perhaps for now we revert to Ream as the established partnership. I would think that the only other certain starters are Mitro, Zambo and Reed, the rest is up for grabs. As long as we can continue with the right spirit we will get some points on the board and confidence will be lifted. I doubt the media and football pundits will stop saying we will be relegated, hopefully this adds some fuel to the fire in our squad. We must remember that their are no weak teams in the EPL and there are several that are world class, we need patience and support our club to the hilt. Lets live the dream.............
Think we should stick with the Championship back 4 of Odoi - Hector - Ream & Bryan, not ideal but need to gradually bed the newbies into Premier games once the transfer window is shut. because of that I'd have a more defensive MF with Anguissa - Reed & Onomah in MF Mitrovic up front with BCDReid and Kebano
Well, 2-0 down after 15 minutes and quite frankly we are making Villa look like Barcelona. Tete looks a good player, but the five at the back (and no Reed) has thus far blown up in Parker's face.
Paddy Power have already paid out on us being relegated, a bit of a PR stunt of course as it won't really cost them that much, still embarrassing though to be written off this early but can hardly argue with it. The transfer window closes a week today, I honestly can't believe we still haven't signed a centre back, surely that had to be a priority? Odoi, Ream and MLM weren't good enough last time so what did we expect this time? Already talk of us breaking records this season, most goals conceded, lowest points total ect. Embarrassing stuff. The chase to get to the Premier League is definitely more enjoyable than being in it thats for sure.
We seem to have fallen into the same trap as last time Slav took us up. Where we kept changing the back 5 in all the opening games and in the end had lost games & confidence by the time November came. Is Parker overthinking his tactics ? We haven't improved in the central defensive department, during transfer window. I think most fans Identified that we needed to concentrated on finding CBs in the transfer window quickly to get them settled in before the season got underway or we would struggle again with the likes of Ream Odoi and MLM. Hector who was a stabilising effect last season, has been a disappointment so far too. It has to be said that most Premier teams are struggling with their central defence, obviously Klopp identified the keeper and CBs as being the major issue and got it sorted. Since Man City lost Kompany and had injuries to Laporte they are more vulnerable. Chelsea, Arsenal & Man Utd have had center back problems. Spurs had a good partnership in Alderweireld and Vertonghen but they've gone and haven't replaced them.
We actually looked better at the back when Hector went off; I have no idea what has happened to him this year. We looked okay going forward, Tete and Anguissa in particular looked good. However our defending is so disastrous that the game was already gone after 15 minutes. In particular, I never want to see Odoi at CB again; I remain fond of him, but he's just a backup right back at this point.
I couldn't agree more Surlyc. Hector seems to have lost the will at the moment, whether that's fitness or confidence I have no idea. MLM looked alert and many times better than Hec, the opposite to last season. Tete injury is worrying but Aina should fit in to RB, but as TK has been tweeting we need CB's, and they need to be good. How we get these in now knowing the poor state we are in will be harder still. How we ended up with 6 yellow cards and AV's Cash didn't get one beggars belief.
