Unai Emery

[Villan82]

He's going to find a way to get the midfield balance right with Kamara, Onana and Tielemans.

It may well be, to keep the box midfield, that Kamara and Onana sit, with Tielemans at 10 and Rogers wider. I think all 3 need to play and we'll certainly be better for Kamara back in there.

Huge correlation between goals conceded post February, which isn't really surprising. Not that we were immune to heavy defeats before Kamara being injured.

Equally, Emery is adept at changing the system mid-season too.

Agree with all of this.

[Risso]

I haven’t seen the game yesterday, but as a general point, isn’t it about time he sorted the defence out? Our strongest team and bench yesterday, and we get absolutely destroyed. The defence has been below par for way too long now.

[Villan82]

I haven’t seen the game yesterday, but as a general point, isn’t it about time he sorted the defence out? Our strongest team and bench yesterday, and we get absolutely destroyed. The defence has been below par for way too long now.

Yes, this is what is so frustrating for me. For much of last season we had to patch things up. We now have everybody fit and our form is quite patchy. I am hoping Kamara coming into the team will shore up the defence.

[Chris Smith]

I haven’t seen the game yesterday, but as a general point, isn’t it about time he sorted the defence out? Our strongest team and bench yesterday, and we get absolutely destroyed. The defence has been below par for way too long now.

Cash’s injury seemed to disrupt the defence. Carlos struggled with their quick movement and you could see why Unai didn’t start him for this one.

[Risso]

But it’s been going on for far too long just be down to individual injuries or changes in a game.

[SoccerHQ]

Unai is obviously brilliant, and a master tactician. I do wonder about our recent approaches against Spurs, and to an extent Chelsea in the second half of last year. It doesn’t feel that for teams who are good in possession and press high than letting them have the ball necessarily works. I think we need more control of the ball, otherwise it feels like a matter of time before our defensive issues are exposed. We do have a problem holding onto the ball in midfield.

When Unai first came in he made us very solid and hard to beat. The structure was a bit different and he even shut up shop away at Brighton for example. What we saw last season in terms of a free-flowing Villa was a contrast with that.

The pragmatic approach did work against Bayern.

I think it's a personnel issue at the moment. I hate the word 'transition' but we are in a mini transition. This time last year we were smashing everybody, Luiz was the King of Villa Park, Diaby and Bailey were there to use their pace while Rogers and Philogene were playing in the Championship.

If we could get things to 'click' we could finish stronger than last season

Worth remembering we only won 7 prem games after 30th December last season, just three at VP.

We limped to the finish line which was understandable with all the games and injuries in the final two months. Still made 4th as we were amazing in the September-mid December period and got the points needed in that run.

As much as it would be amazing I don't expect us to be playing European Football into May so with the stronger squad I'm expecting a fair better second half of the season this time so it's important we stay in touch and win the games we need to in the short term e.g. Palace, Brentford and Southampton at home.

[Smithy]

We're in a strange run of form.  We're struggling to put 90 minutes together, with periods of lovely football, and some sloppy play and conceding silly goals.  We're also having some brilliant results, along with some shocking ones.  But we're still joint 4th on points, and only in down in 6th on goal difference.

If we can get our form to be a bit more consistent across entire games we should be fine.  We do need to stop conceding so many, and whether that means getting Kamara back into the line-up, or re-introducing Tyrone and moving Konsa to right-back (which I don't like), I don't know. 

What I do know is that I trust Unai to figure it out and get us back on track.  We've been punching above our weight pretty consistently for two years now, and a blip was inevitable, and if "this" is our blip, then I'll take it.

[PaulWinch again]

But it’s been going on for far too long just be down to individual injuries or changes in a game.

Yep agreed. The stat quoted yesterday that we’d conceded 49 goals from 28 league games this calendar year illustrates the issue. We need to sort the defensive structure out.

[Chip Butty 111]

Unthinkable that we have Martinez in goal, and seem to be leaking goals for fun against pretty mediocre opposition in the league. The midfield has no chemistry yet and other teams are working out how to get at our defence and cause us problems. Yesterday everytime we got the ball in their half our forwards lost it almost immediately and they were at us again, especially after Rogers went off. We have a few out of sorts/not looking fully fit in Mcginn, Bailey,Philogene,Onana,Cash,Watkins. And overall we have lost our fizz from last season, it all looks a bit pedestrian atm. I'm sure Emery will sort it though and get the balance right.

[Gerrin]

I haven’t seen the game yesterday, but as a general point, isn’t it about time he sorted the defence out? Our strongest team and bench yesterday, and we get absolutely destroyed. The defence has been below par for way too long now.

We need a proper leader at CB. None of Pau, Konsa and Carlos are that.

[ChicagoLion]

But it’s been going on for far too long just be down to individual injuries or changes in a game.

I think part of the problem with the defence is what is ahead of them. Its a bit like the Smith team sometimes, where the opposition seem to be able to get at our back four pretty easily.
I think all hopes are on Kamara.

[eamonn]

Does anyone have the stats on what Emery's sides conceded on average at Valencia, Sevilla and Villareal compared to with us? I bet we score more goals on average than those sides did but his reputation was based on pragmatism and those dour lengthy tactical video sessions.

I'd rather us be this way than the opposite but we need to find some balance in how we defend as it risks killing us.

[PaulWinch again]

I haven’t seen the game yesterday, but as a general point, isn’t it about time he sorted the defence out? Our strongest team and bench yesterday, and we get absolutely destroyed. The defence has been below par for way too long now.

We need a proper leader at CB. None of Pau, Konsa and Carlos are that.

It’s not really that I don’t think. I think that’d be symptom rather than cause - the cause is the midfield just isn’t controlling the game or protecting the defence well enough.

[ChicagoLion]

I haven’t seen the game yesterday, but as a general point, isn’t it about time he sorted the defence out? Our strongest team and bench yesterday, and we get absolutely destroyed. The defence has been below par for way too long now.

We need a proper leader at CB. None of Pau, Konsa and Carlos are that.

It’s not really that I don’t think. I think that’d be symptom rather than cause - the cause is the midfield just isn’t controlling the game or protecting the defence well enough.

Agree.

[Beard82]

I think it is more a structual problem - then personale to be honest.

As stupid as it sounds - we defended quite well until we let in the 4 goals :-).  I think we just couldnt control the game or play through there press - I think thats were we miss luiz - and when we go direct, we're not cute enough for a decent defence.