After Tuesday night's impressive and perhaps slightly unexpected League Cup romp in Norwich, Villa rather annoyingly dropped another place in the league owing to one of the teams below us beating one of the teams below us. That's twice this weekend that has happened *grrr*. I think most can agree that we are playing better than results or league position would suggest. Indeed our trouncing of one of the form sides in the league in their own back yard would point at that fact. Yes they were ful
The metaphor I would use to describe Villa at the moment is that of a car that is stuttering to start. But once it does it will be fine. I don't mind that our start has been poor. Most would not have expected an easy transition from a McLeish side. Granted we probably didn't expect the worst start in a generation, but that's what we have. We still need to look at it objectively and not start self-harming over statistics though.
We are going through a phase where it appears that we can't
First off, let me say that just because this blog is called 'The Optimist' it doesn't automatically follow that I will fly in the face of criticising things that need to be criticised. Believe me, if I want to moan I will moan. But if I don't then I won't. I called it 'The Optimist' because in my years on VillaTalk I have come around to the realisation that on average I do tend to see the positive side of things more than most. So it seemed an apt name.
Anyway, on to Villa.
As a first p
I hate the term 'must-win'. Apart from being over-used, it is more often than not mis-used too. Saturday's early kick off (12:45BST) against Norwich City in isolation is probably not must-win for our prospects of staying in the league, any more than say a match against any likely-struggler like Norwich would be. After all, it is only game number 9 of a 38 game season and we're not currently in the bottom 3. So technically it's not must-win. Now in saying all of that, having not won in 4 mat
If that’s what happened it is kind of a bizarre thing for the manager to do.
When you’re flying long haul for work (AND your job requires you to be at peak physical fitness) surely your employer can sort out appropriate travel arrangements.
Then having some of the staff get better treatment than others. In what world would that be acceptable?
Really impressed by Serie A lately. Seems to me the quality is big improvement over last year. So many cool players! Taty. Scamacca. Chiesa. Ivanovic? Spelling. 😬
Seems to happen a lot at some clubs - Sheffield United a good example.
Honest question: Are we any better? That is, if we are 3-0 down at home by halftime, do we leave Villa park half empty?
You could at times play Morgan at 10 and then JJ / Buendia and Diaby/ Bailey either side of him with Ollie / Jhon up front.
Or in a 433 JJ left mid and Morgan left attack. That would be frightening to be fair as they could easily swap positions .
Hmm... interesting take.
What I heard was this: "Some junior players were in first class, and some first team players were in economy."
Why? Why not all in the same class? If I was Terry, I'd be annoyed too. Had AVB made them all fly economy, then that's that.