Aston Villa Head Coach Dean Smith admitted that midfielder Marvelous Nakamba is “still a little bit off it” with the player still off the pace in terms of his fitness after picking up a knock in this summer’s African Cup of Nations.
Nakamba has missed out of making his Premier League bow having not featured in both of Villa’s opening two match day squads.
The Zimbabwe defensive midfielder did extra training at Bodymoor Heath on Saturday in an attempt to get up to speed.
“He’s not done a lot of training before he came to us,” explained Smith. “So we’ve been working on his fitness.”
It’s unlikely that Nakamba will play any part in the upcoming Everton game, although it’s hoped he will feature by the end of the month.
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Bilko has it right- drop the 4-3-3 formation. Load up the midfield (3-5-2 or 4-2-3-1) like most of the top teams do and this will allow McGinn and Grealish the chance to support Wes and get goals from outside the box. Play the two new fullbacks. 2 losses with the “old” formation and players has obviously not worked. Eliminate the mistakes that cost us 4 goals ( Grealish and Wes in Spurs game/ Heaton and Luis v Bournmouth) and we could be sitting on 4 points. Eliminate mistakes from now on and it gives us a chance. Go back and view the Bournmouth game: we actually created 8 very good scoring chances- only one was from our striker. Extra players in midfield keeps the game tighter and allows us to stay in the game. Cheers. Alex in Miami.
Have to agree with all points so far. I think not signing competition and support for wes was short sighted. I dont see Davis as anything other than a cart horse, sorrt he needs to go out on loan and up his game because he cant be relied on to led the line..kodjia isnt half the player he was a couple of seasons ago and thus pretty much relying on wes and the wingers to pop up with half a dozen each is a little brave in my opinion. A further seasoned striker to.help with the goals much like grabban did for us was needed and i agree i hope we dont suffer form a lack of.goals.
Frustrated not to.see guillbert play as he was decent pre season and his pace is a weapon. And 16m left back still.on bench baffles me. I can get on board with mot making wholesale changes across a back line but why spend so much on a left back to not play him.
Sorry chaps, completely disagree here. It is too premature to judge big Wes on just two games and the team has not played to his strengths so far. My view is that he hasn’t received sufficient service from the wings and I’m quite surprised Guilbert and Target (both of whom are more direct/better at crossing the ball than Elmo and Taylor) haven’t started.
The team needs to time to gel and to adapt to both the Premier League and Smith’s philosophy of playing.
Patience before we start writing off players/calling for further signings.
played 2 lost 2. imo heaton guilbert engels mings taylor
jack luis conor john trez
wes. one winger is enough, midfield is now solid which will enable wes to play higher up. dean smith seems hell bent on playing 2 wingers. I think that’s our problem
Find myself in total agreement with Colin again, why did we let Maupay get away??? UTV.
Don’t think midfielders is our problem, it’s our lack of fire power, we look woefully light up top and it was a massive mistake not signing another striker it’s already coming back to bite us, and something has to change rapidly or we will find ourselves well into the relegation zone, yes a long way to go, but we’re not looking good up front and as we all know goals win games, I’m just hoping we don’t find ourselves too far adrift come January. Personally I think Everton will be tougher than Bournemouth all we can do is hope for the best, can’t see how Smith thinks Wesley is doing ok for me he’s way out of his depth. And I think it will come down to Kodja and Davis well that’s all we have. Fingers crossed for Friday.