Todays injury updates- Núñez back, Byram out

[cambridgeshire canary 6,715]

Info taken from todays presser.

 

"Núñez is good. He's trained with us and he's available. Byram is not available. Everybody came through ok, everybody has trained this week as well so no concerns.Others are on track to be with us during our warm weather training when we go away. They're in the latter stages of their rehab which is good.We want them to have a break. We've a week off after tomorrow and then we travel out. Players can take their families as well, I want a good atmosphere around the place.

(Talking about Rotherham result) Sara has got two good feet. I always felt he needed the games to get a bit of rhythm. The nature of the Championship is games thick and fast. He seems to be getting that rhythm now, it was a good performance against Rotherham and he will grow and get better. I thought it was a really good performance from Max too. He linked up with Gabby for the first goal. He was involved in a lot of the good things that happened for the team."

 

[Google Bot 3,275]

Not watched the presser yet but Smith's mind seems to be heavily on that warm weather training camp, he mentioned previously about making it to the winter break too - bet he can't wait, probably spend a bit of time with his son too.

Let's hope for 3 points where we can turn the page on this half of the season, mark it a solid 7.5 out 10 and everyone can unwind relatively content.

[shefcanary 2,401]

"We’ve got the one game arranged in terms of a friendly back in the UK. That will be behind closed doors on a Saturday against Premier League opposition. We’ll come back from the US, train on the Thursday and Friday, play on the Saturday (December 3) and then have a full week’s run in to Swansea."

Okay, who do you reckon the opposition is? Villa?

[Google Bot 3,275]

3 minutes ago, shefcanary said:

Okay, who do you reckon the opposition is? Villa?

Won't be them as they play memorial match in Cardiff 30th November and reported they then be off to Dubai on their break.  

In fact, you'd imagine that most prem league teams will be away in that first week of December as they don't return to play until boxing day.

Could be someone like Forest maybe?

[Branston Pickle 3,656]

Could be a London side like post-covid (Spurs).   PL sides have longer out, obviously with more players at the w/c, but also with plenty sitting it out and will want some games to keep match-fit.

[littleyellowbirdie 2,546]

2 hours ago, Google Bot said:

Not watched the presser yet but Smith's mind seems to be heavily on that warm weather training camp, he mentioned previously about making it to the winter break too - bet he can't wait, probably spend a bit of time with his son too.

Let's hope for 3 points where we can turn the page on this half of the season, mark it a solid 7.5 out 10 and everyone can unwind relatively content.

I imagine he's relishing the opportunity to really work with the squad on the training ground instead of just talking between games coming thick and fast.

Not to be forgotten what he did with the time prior to project restart at Aston Villa.

[Google Bot 3,275]

1 hour ago, littleyellowbirdie said:

Not to be forgotten what he did with the time prior to project restart at Aston Villa.

I thought they lost 5 or 6 in a row after restart didn't they?  Sure there was some kind of stat like that as I remember thinking that in some magical land we could leapfrog them! 🙂

Arsenal win is what saved them, remember watching the match live and thinking why is it everyone else can pull something out the bag.

I really don't know how much that was due to the time spent during project restart as it was all webcams and training from.  Certainly an entirely different dynamic to this - it's not one of survival where 3 points saves your season - but more of a "Hit the ground running" variety and consistency which he didn't demonstrate previously. 

I'll take any omen though!  For me, I just hope they get a break mentally.  Atmosphere around this club is just a little too dark this season.

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Google Bot

[cambridgeshire canary 6,715]

3 hours ago, Branston Pickle said:

Could be a London side like post-covid (Spurs).   PL sides have longer out, obviously with more players at the w/c, but also with plenty sitting it out and will want some games to keep match-fit.

Do remember us playing a behind closed doors friendly during covid times against Spurs. I remember beacause the only footage of the match was a fantastic long range free kick goal Vrancic scored and that we were said to have won.

 

I do imagine it will be either Forest or Spurs.

Edited November 11, 2022 by cambridgeshire canary

[Capt. Pants 4,227]

2 hours ago, Google Bot said:

I thought they lost 5 or 6 in a row after restart didn't they?  Sure there was some kind of stat like that as I remember thinking that in some magical land we could leapfrog them! 🙂

Arsenal win is what saved them, remember watching the match live and thinking why is it everyone else can pull something out the bag.

I really don't know how much that was due to the time spent during project restart as it was all webcams and training from.  Certainly an entirely different dynamic to this - it's not one of survival where 3 points saves your season - but more of a "Hit the ground running" variety and consistency which he didn't demonstrate previously. 

I'll take any omen though!  For me, I just hope they get a break mentally.  Atmosphere around this club is just a little too dark this season.

 

Villa lost 4 in a row prior to lockdown but finished the season with 2 wins (inc Arsenal) and 4 draws. I'm not sure there are any omens from that, other than Smith was probably more productive in the time off than Farke was.

I agree that a win tomorrow will send the players away in a better frame of mind. The break will also show if Deano can really 'train' these players into playing how he wants them to play now that we have virtually a full uninjured squad including a fighting fit DM!

[Google Bot 3,275]

 

10 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:

Villa lost 4 in a row prior to lockdown but finished the season with 2 wins (inc Arsenal) and 4 draws.

Just had to check and it was they hadn't won in 5 pre lockdown and then failed to win in a further 6 post lockdown.  So I don't think you can really highlight the break as any kind of transformation.

15 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:

I agree that a win tomorrow will send the players away in a better frame of mind. The break will also show if Deano can really 'train' these players into playing how he wants them to play now that we have virtually a full uninjured squad including a fighting fit DM!

Amen to that.  I'd like to say no excuses, but i'm still not 100% sure this squad is as good as everyone thinks - I think Smith has quite the job on his hands and lacking that player of flair.

[Greavsy 2,413]

West ham possibly?  

[repman 635]

27 minutes ago, Google Bot said:

 

Just had to check and it was they hadn't won in 5 pre lockdown and then failed to win in a further 6 post lockdown.  So I don't think you can really highlight the break as any kind of transformation.

Regarding the improvement post lockdown, Villa went from conceding roughly 18 shots a game down to 10 and their xG against went from 2.1 to 1 exactly. The xGA was the 4th best in the league in that period. They certainly did improve and I think this improvement is in part the reason Webber went for Smith when he became available.

[Google Bot 3,275]

2 hours ago, repman said:

Regarding the improvement post lockdown, Villa went from conceding roughly 18 shots a game down to 10 and their xG against went from 2.1 to 1 exactly.

Strangely enough I was  looking at positional charts for Villa that season when reminding myself of their run of games when i posted earlier, and an xG graph popped up - but i didn't really pay much attention.

It was only when I read your post that I just found it again in my history:

It's a little annoying as there's no real date scale on there, but I guess just before the yellow vertical line (Change in season) is where the dramatic xG Conceded that you refered to?

It's certainly demonstrative of a massive change around that period.  Makes me wonder if this is why he's such a fan of the stat.  Not sure what the green is though.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Google Bot

[repman 635]

19 minutes ago, Google Bot said:

Strangely enough I was  looking at positional charts for Villa that season when reminding myself of their run of games when i posted earlier, and an xG graph popped up - but i didn't really pay much attention.

It was only when I read your post that I just found it again in my history:

It's a little annoying as there's no real date scale on there, but I guess just before the yellow vertical line (Change in season) is where the dramatic xG Conceded that you refered to?

It's certainly demonstrative of a massive change around that period.  Makes me wonder if this is why he's such a fan of the stat.  Not sure what the green is though.

The change of season is from the 19/20 season to 20/21. Post lockdown was 10 games so coincides with the xG conceded figure dropping dramatically. The green is showing how many passes they allowed per defensive action, this is generally a metric to demonstrate how aggressive a team presses.

By the looks of it, in the period post lockdown to the end of 19/20, Villa pressed less aggressively but brought their xG conceded number down. Then in 20/21 they obviously changed tack slightly and became much more aggressive in their defending, while maintaining the good xG record.