Match Thread Aston Villa 0-1 Everton. Sunday 18th January 2026 @ 16:30

[Ged G]

I think it's a few things.
Some teams are easy to read and I think Villa are one of them, tippy tappy football out from the back. Despite what people say about Moyes he's a very good tactician, reads the opposition well and sets his team up to suit away from home.
When we are at home it's totally different, we are expected to be on the front foot and the away teams read us like a book and set up well against us.

I think at home everything needs to be a bit quicker and you will see a different team, Grealish needs to let it go quicker.
We are also a little defensive minded when at home and I think it confuses the players. How many times do you see our wingers knocking it backwards, when for me at home it should be all out attack.

Then there is the mindset, we should have a defensive mindset away, and an all out attack mindset at home. We have the away mindset sorted, at home we look confused sometimes.
We seem to feel the expectation at home and I think the reigns need loosening at BMD and the players told to go out and enjoy it rather than playing chess at home like we do away.

Agree. Especially about playing at home... huge pressure there

 

[Ged G]

I mentioned this recently too, but I think it’s do with an expectation of how the game will go.

For example, Wolves / Brentford at home, we’re expecting them to give up possession and sit in; this is where we struggle and where need a Plan B.

This could even come down to personnel selection / shape adjustment: Aznou in for Mykolenko, Patterson at RB over O’Brien, Garner as a single DM with Röhl & Armstrong pushed higher up, etc.

We seem to relish playing stronger teams / games away from home, as we’re not expected to be on the front foot; this suits players like Mykolenko, and also Moyes’ Plan A approach.

I’d love to see us adopt a more attacking approach through personnel and team shape for home games where we’re expected to win.

Again, as others and myself have written recently, the key thimg is "we’re not expected to be on the front foot". We are not great at that and Moyes best when away

 

[DualityNSNO]

I think it's a few things.
Some teams are easy to read and I think Villa are one of them, tippy tappy football out from the back. Despite what people say about Moyes he's a very good tactician, reads the opposition well and sets his team up to suit away from home.
When we are at home it's totally different, we are expected to be on the front foot and the away teams read us like a book and set up well against us.

I think at home everything needs to be a bit quicker and you will see a different team, Grealish needs to let it go quicker.
We are also a little defensive minded when at home and I think it confuses the players. How many times do you see our wingers knocking it backwards, when for me at home it should be all out attack.

Then there is the mindset, we should have a defensive mindset away, and an all out attack mindset at home. We have the away mindset sorted, at home we look confused sometimes.
We seem to feel the expectation at home and I think the reigns need loosening at BMD and the players told to go out and enjoy it rather than playing chess at home like we do away.

That makes sense, but it's not what's happening really.
We've never set up to control a game or even try to, home or away, and we use more or less the same tactics but different personnel, and it doesn't work that way. Moyes finds a way to play away from home (a RB at RB, not a CB there, etc.) but then forgets all about it at home and we revert to overly cautious for some reason. A very good tactician will have more than 1 way to play is what I'm saying.

Again, we're doing well beyond what I'd expected and he deserves credit, but these are the exact same criticisms WHAM fans of him when he was there. We can all pretend and point and laugh at them wanting prettier football or whatever people believe in their heads, but the (few) normal fans they had criticised exactly this - they got smashed at home regularly, with Declan Rice and a team that went on to fluke its way to a euro cup, because they had no setup for anything there in the PL.

End of the day, we all knew what we got with Moyes - the stubbornness is par for the course with him, and that won't change now, considering it hasn't for well over 20 years.

 

[stopstandthere]

Exceptional leadership from Garner. Looking forward to seeing more of this going forward.

 

[Dwight K Schrute]

"Tarkowski has dipped this year"... the stats say otherwise.

I agree. He's a good defender, and his numbers show it. But he has had an increase of poor moments this year and I put that down to: 1) coming back from his first major injury in years. 2) Playing alongside Michael Keane.

 

[NathDogg]

Exceptional leadership from Garner. Looking forward to seeing more of this going forward.

He should be the skipper now.

Defo a future Everton captain.

 

[ValBlue]

I hope this make-shift team and formation sticks for a bit. Of course when Ndiaye is back, he immediately goes back into that RW spot and KDH will need to get back into being our midfield catalyst next to Garner.

But the 3 man midfield seemed to work, no? One game sample size I know.

We have a lot of CMs who are capable of playing box to box effectively. Having a 3 man midfield and asking them to cover defensively, press high and make runs into the box could be the solution we’ve had to creating goals outside of Grealish. It probably also helps the full backs by giving them an extra pass - it would probably help more attacking full backs even more.

Moyes is slightly obsessed with Central Midfielders, so why not play with a formation that can actually accommodate them? Whilst I’d love to see Garner/KDH/Armstrong or Rohl moving forward as a 3, I could see Gana benefiting from a 3 man midfield more than anyone when he returns.

Just don’t think we have a CAM good enough that playing a 4231 is worth it. 433 in theory suits the personnel of the squad a bit more. This game is an example of what it could look like moving forward, even without KDH or Gana playing.

 

[Kevsleftpeg]

I think it's a few things.
Some teams are easy to read and I think Villa are one of them, tippy tappy football out from the back. Despite what people say about Moyes he's a very good tactician, reads the opposition well and sets his team up to suit away from home.
When we are at home it's totally different, we are expected to be on the front foot and the away teams read us like a book and set up well against us.

I think at home everything needs to be a bit quicker and you will see a different team, Grealish needs to let it go quicker.
We are also a little defensive minded when at home and I think it confuses the players. How many times do you see our wingers knocking it backwards, when for me at home it should be all out attack.

Then there is the mindset, we should have a defensive mindset away, and an all out attack mindset at home. We have the away mindset sorted, at home we look confused sometimes.
We seem to feel the expectation at home and I think the reigns need loosening at BMD and the players told to go out and enjoy it rather than playing chess at home like we do away.

I think it pretty simple. We play a higher line at home because we have more possession and this doesn’t suit either Tawks or Keane because they are so slow and easily bullied. One long ball has them on a foot race which they usually lose and it makes the entire team nervous. When we have top athletes at centre half like Jags, Lescott and Distin we didn’t need to worry because they had the pace and strength to play a high line. I think we’ll see a big difference when Jarrod and Jake take the field at home.

 

[DualityNSNO]

But the 3 man midfield seemed to work, no? One game sample size I know.

FWIW it's happened a lot more, but rarely/never at home.

 

[ValBlue]

FWIW it's happened a lot more, but rarely/never at home.

Makes it even more frustrating considering where we could be if a few of those awful home performances were set up like when we’re away.

 

[DualityNSNO]

Makes it even more frustrating considering where we could be if a few of those awful home performances were set up like when we’re away.

Yeah absolutely, that's pretty much my only major criticism of Moyes, along with not utilising subs (when we have/had them, pre-AFCON).

 

[DanB90]

That Emery is one bad loser.

All the talk seems to be about his headloss, rather than the shift our lads put in, or how he got outclassed by Davey Moyes.

 

[davek]

That Emery is one bad loser.

All the talk seems to be about his headloss, rather than the shift our lads put in, or how he got outclassed by Davey Moyes.

TBF they are at least in theory vying for top two and we're a mid-table team, so the media emphasis is on them.

 

[Noble Savage]

That Emery is one bad loser.

All the talk seems to be about his headloss, rather than the shift our lads put in, or how he got outclassed by Davey Moyes.

I like him. He's a good coach who let's his team play some great footie. He also has a little snide in him .
Could do with someone like him when Moyes gets booted upstairs.

 

[knowing your history]

I mentioned this recently too, but I think it’s do with an expectation of how the game will go.

For example, Wolves / Brentford at home, we’re expecting them to give up possession and sit in; this is where we struggle and where need a Plan B.

This could even come down to personnel selection / shape adjustment: Aznou in for Mykolenko, Patterson at RB over O’Brien, Garner as a single DM with Röhl & Armstrong pushed higher up, etc.

We seem to relish playing stronger teams / games away from home, as we’re not expected to be on the front foot; this suits players like Mykolenko, and also Moyes’ Plan A approach.

I’d love to see us adopt a more attacking approach through personnel and team shape for home games where we’re expected to win.

Can still score from set pieces against these low block teams like the goal that should've been given first half.

West Ham game was a case point imo. Went 1-0 up with actually a goal from a corner I think? Then just sat back second half protecting the 1-0 and West Ham got stronger and could've won it in the end.

Will probably go down there in a few months and win comfortably 2-0.

Most important thing is winning a game every other week but will get frustrating for the 50k at BMD if the mediocre home form continues next season.

Also Brentford comically exposed the high line at home so this is where the combination of J O'B-Branthwaite is needed next season as no change Igor Tiago would be getting away from them as easily as he did from Tarks.