Villa - Everton

JP with a save preventing Villa from going up 3-1.

Gordon with a run in to the box but Rondon can't connect and bundle the ball in to the goal.

A proper striker would have scored there but we have Rondon, so....

Oh dear, poor Villa players, going down like flies....

Based on just 10 minutes, it's pretty clear that Onana and Iwobi will be starting in the middle of the park in the next game.

Onana almost scores.

At least we are showing some fight here but it's a bit too little too late.

Gordon with a chance, saved.

All over, 2-1.

The last 7-8 were somewhat promising but the rest was brutal.

Too slow moving the ball around is the number one issue for me since it give the opponent time to regroup and they are therefore never caught on the backfoot.

The positives: We look more solid at the back than last season. Iwobi is a decent CM. Patterson looks very good for someone so young. Davies did okay when he came on. Onana, despite giving it away for their second, is going to be fantastic for us. He really does have that something special about him.

The negatives: I can't for the life of me understand why Frank didn't start Rondon. We looked much better when he and Dele came on, Gordon went out to his best position, and we started threatening their defence. Mykolenko is poor. McNeil looks like a very bad buy - too slow for the PL, both in thought and action. Gray is, at best, an impact sub. Generally, we looked like a mid-table Championship club until the last ten minutes.

I don't get why Lampard starts with Gordon, McNeil and Gray up top, and Pickford still hits long balls to them. Fucking madness. It's like there's an imaginary centre-forward up there. Those three are probably the weakest front line in the league. No, not probably, definitely.

v Notts Forest:

Pickford
Patterson Coady Holgate Tarkowski Vinegre
Iwobi Onana Dele Gordon
Rondon

Having sold Richie and knowing that DCL is crocked most of the time, it's criminal that we haven't signed a striker over the summer.

Armchair wrote:Having sold Richie and knowing that DCL is crocked most of the time, it's criminal that we haven't signed a striker over the summer.

Even Holding on to Ellis Simms, who seems to have had a good impact on loan, until we bought an experienced striker, seems like a decent option.
We could have had 3-4 games out of him, before the window closes.
Oh well.

Astonishing mess in the forward line. Zero decent strikers available to play at the moment and could be the situation for months. Unless we get two half-decent strikers in during the next 3 weeks we can kiss the prem goodbye. I mean, an attaking line up of Gordon, McNeil and Gray is an absolute joke and the back up is fucking Rondon!!?? A shambles!
My best mate is a massive Brighton fan and cant wait to get rid of Maupay. Thinks hes useless and needs 10 attempts per goal (like McFadden lol). And he would improve our attack!!! ?? Need something and bloody quickly!!

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:

Yankthattoffee wrote:

Armchair wrote:Having sold Richie and knowing that DCL is crocked most of the time, it's criminal that we haven't signed a striker over the summer.

Even Holding on to Ellis Simms, who seems to have had a good impact on loan, until we bought an experienced striker, seems like a decent option.
We could have had 3-4 games out of him, before the window closes.
Oh well.

i just don't get it mate ... Frank loans out Simms & Dobbin who could have kicked on from this opportunity... ok if he thinks Rondon as the only available striker is average enough to start... but he's so poor he's on the bench.... I mean WTAF ! ... Gordon leading the line is a pathetic joke IMO

My worry is that we won't get any of our preferred strikers, and will panic buy some useless tosser like we did with Tosun and countless others over the past few years.

I'm guessing that we went into this window with a clear direction of travel. Sell Richarlison because he wants CL football and we need some cash, keep hold of DCL as our main striker. Loan out Simms and Dobbin because neither of them are good enough to start for us and they need to play every week to see if they ever will be good enough. Bring in at least two attacking players, with Rondon as an option for ten minutes at the end of a game if we need to throw everything forward for an equaliser. Ok, so you have to assume that we have achieved all the objectives apart from the most important bit, bringing in new strikers. We must have known who we wanted, but haven't been able to get them. We might be waiting on one or two, possibly Broja, in the hope it happens. Perhaps we looked at a couple but were given stupid prices and ridiculous wage demands - possibly Emmanual Dennis for example.

Of course, the nightmare was the injury to DCL. If he'd been fit, the need to buy our new forward wouldn't have been so pressing, we could have waited til the end of August if necessary. Typical of our luck that he's out for the first six or seven matches at least. For me, the other problem has been McNeil. I had my doubts about him, particularly because his stats were so appalling last season and he's slow. Cornet seemed the obvious buy if we wanted to raid Burnley. Then McNeil looked brilliant in his little cameo against Dinamo Kiev - but that was a friendly. In the reality of the PL he has looked lost so far, which may be because he doesn't suit our current system.

Anyway, we can only hope things settle down and we aren't bottom by the World Cup break, which would be hugely dispiriting go into a long period without a game.