Comments on: Can Brad Guzan take the heat at Aston Villa?

By: schmutzdeck

schmutzdeck — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:41:27 +0000

Steve,

I agree with your concern re the non-shot stopping side of things. And onetakedizzle has covered most of that.

I would only add that Given is more experienced but Guzan is hardly a newbie. I really doubt that he is thr problem. Even if you brought in Neuer, Casillas or Buffon I’d have a hard time thinking it would make a lot of difference.

The Villa team in general does not seem to have a very high talent level. They have some useful strikers but In terms of the midfield and the defense it seems as if Lambert has mostly been reduced to playing the best of a bunch of spare parts.

The Roma edition of MB90 would look pretty good to them right about now.

By: Steve Davis

Steve Davis — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 23:00:12 +0000

Some valid points. My main mission here was to begin the conversation … not necessarily to advocate benching Guzan. Not at all, in fact. I think he’s doing just fine, and I hope his confidence isn’t taking a beating… although one never knows.

By: tylerbetts

tylerbetts — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 17:15:20 +0000

Good counter points. Especially that first one. I’m sure Liverpool would love to have gotten an asterisk-laden shutout against Stoke.

Also agreed on the midfield issues. If you can’t win in midfield, you put your back line under too much pressure, and it doesn’t matter how well organized your backline is, you’re going to concede goals with that much pressure. See the Chelsea game for a texbook example of how midfield domination leads to pressure chances and the eventual leakage of goals.

By: onetakedizzle

onetakedizzle — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:53:41 +0000

I normally love your stuff Steve, but there are a couple of things here where I’d like to take exception:

- I think the shut out v Stoke deserves a little more credit than an asterisk. Yes Stoke are a defensive side, but given the formation Villa were playing, there was plenty of chance for counter attack. It also came in the middle of a run of six league/non-league games where Villa gave up a total of three goals. So that asterisk game was well within the norm of that run.

- You say that Villa are in the bottom three, but when I look at the table they’re three points clear as of today. Given (PUNS!) the way they’ve been playing, those three points will probably be the difference between survival and non-survival but can we wait on that obituary?

- I think that many of the defensive issues could be chalked up to the fact that Villa can’t possess the ball in the middle of the field. There is no midfield presence (most of their goals come on the break) and when a back three/five is constantly pinned in, you’re going to see 3, 4, 5 and even (yikes) 8 goal games.

- Lastly, just an observation that while I agree Guzan should be directing that backline, he’s directing a bunch of kids who have even less first team, Premier League experience than he does in most cases. The season is getting on, but Nathan Baker, Matt Lowton, Eric Lichaj, and Chris Herd aren’t exactly experienced players.

We can still be friends, but I think you’re selling Guzan a little short on some of this.