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You really are the turd in the punch bowl. Can you just get behind the team FFS.

I look around the first 11+2 or 3 and I'm astounded by how much quality we have everywhere which has somehow happened under the radar. Lockdown happened at the best time for us in 2020. Without breaking that cycle of defeats we were down. The 2019/20 season actually started decent enough. We played spurs off the park for periods in the first game but then lots of dodgy decisions and bad luck went against us. The perfectly good goal at the end of the Palace game as an example. Once we were able to regroup during the hiatus, the team became more organised and we fought hard enough to stay up. Yes, the bizarre Hawkeye goal mouth incident helped but there's no guarantee we wouldn't have still drawn or even won that game. That momentum, coupled with some camaraderie developed during the fight last season has carried on into this season. The playing additions have been Emi Martinez, Matty Cash, Bertrand Traore, Ross Barkley and Ollie Watkins. Barkley and Traore haven't featured as much as Watkins, Cash and Martinez but all have made a significant improvement. Then existing players who were already good have improved. These are Targett, Mings, Konsa and Hause. Then Douglas Luiz, McGinn and El Ghazi are all starting to fulfill their potential. We've somehow ended up with: The best goalkeeper in the Premier League A back 4 which could easily be and would probably be most effective as England's back 4 A rock solid, high energy international level 2 central defensive midfielders who are also excellent at taking it forward in McGinn and Douglas Luiz. One is the main midfield dynamo for Scotland, the other is now being recognised as a main part of Brazil's international midfield. In Grealish and Barkley we've got the most in form player in Europe at the moment and stats that are up there with anyone in the world and a top class international who has very similar attributes to Grealish but has a point to prove. 2 very effective wingers in Traore and El Ghazi who are starting to look very capable and are hitting some good form right now. And a striker who is able to play up top on his own, is one of the best I've seen at holding up the ball, works harder than almost anyone, runs the channels, has great close control. Oh and scores 1 in 2. There's quality everywhere and I don't see a weak spot. Potentially the squad is a bit thin and once we lose a couple of players with injuries and suspensions we might have some gaps and it might look very different. But even in that event, we have England's best goalkeeper sitting on the bench, Jacob Ramsey eager to impress, Elmohamady, Taylor, Hause, Engels, Hourihane; mostly established international players ready to come in. And not forgetting Wesley starting to push for a place towards the later part of the season. The weakest point? It's maybe the greatest strength. The instruction from the management to go out and play, express and enjoy yourself. The lifting of the shackles. It's how the Villa team of 1994/95 under Big Ron used to be told to play. It can result in poor decision making sometimes but it can also result in a dynamic attacking team. If the players continue to keep confidence, not let complacency creep in or try to coast thinking they've already put enough in, then we'll be right up there at the end of the season. Every game will be a battle and now they have the quality everywhere, the application will keep them winning. There are some exciting times to come, starting with righting the record against Man United tonight.

I've seen enough this season to know that whatever happens tonight, we're a good team.

We DO NOT have Covid. And the relief was all around.

Not a scooby doo what happened here, maybe the wine? Anyway, can't remember what I was going to say other than Happy New Year.

I feel slightly apathetic. You just can't win against fixed matches. We all knew he would give Man Utd an incorrect penalty. Predictable, hilarious and shockingly awful refereeing. Gave them everything he could and then some. But we're used to it. Standard of refereeing is **** abysmal. It's mental how poor it is. Anyway. We looked alright, one of the worse displays this season, but we still looked like a far more composed football team than Manchester United. If the referee didn't want to interfere and give them a chance to get back in the game, we would have won that, guaranteed. They are a very good counter attacking team, but other than that shockingly shit. Absolutely awful team in possession. Remind me of us in 2009. They will never get far in Europe with OGS. Absolute certainty. Anyway, onwards and upwards. 11 vs 11 we would have won that.

Hi Jack, overall fair post but I want to pull you up a bit on the bolded part. A few months ago I was working away on improving my 5km race time. I’d beaten my 2 mile record, everything was going fine, and then I got COVID. A mild dose, no hospital admission and certainly no dying. But I have not been able to run more than 100m since. I don’t know if I ever will. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to play football again. There’s absolutely no chance I could run a 5k. Some days I need to leave work and go lie down. Please don’t tell me that’s irrelevant. Other than the bolded bit your post makes fair points, and I wish you all the best for the New Year, but don’t treat this as just another flu. I hope one day I’ll get better and be able to run again.

No review on this outrageous hand ball either.

No brainer all this surely ? Hause has been superb in nullifying orthodox big forwards but Man Ure play on the deck and have fast feet ...... for that reason Mings is easily the right choice. Hause has done no wrong but Smith should always pick the best team for each game and for this game Konsa and Mings offer the better chance of keeping the likes of Rashford quiet.

Very unfair on Hause. He’s a better player than Mings.

Michael Oliver was absolutely diabolical. Not because of the incredibly soft pen (how many have United had this season?) but letting them do whatever they want. Matic committed 3 yellow card worthy offences, and only got booked on the 3rd one. McTominay, 4 or 5 fouls, no yellow. Luke Shaw, easily 5 fouls, yellow on the final one. No point going there, matching them, creating fantastic chances if the ref is always looking for a way to win them the game. Corrupt.

This thread is the definition of ppl losing their heads

That still makes more sense than us appointing Mcleish.

We deserved more from that. Best thing to take from this is we can beat absolutely anyone this year, even utd at old Trafford, we were the better side for large parts, and it was only10 mins at the start and 10 mins after the penalty(which was not a pen) that we weren't the better side. This is easily the best villa team I've seem in many years. UTV

A stretched diving header that he got something on but by blind bad luck flicked it on to martials head What are you moaning about? His positioning, his technique, his effort? Or his bad luck? Because for me it's the last one and I'm not going to hound him for it, that's not shit or a mistake

Definitely first time this year.

Been waiting all year for this one. I'll get my coat

Watching the 1996 league Cup final with my dad in his hospital room. We went absolutely mad when the goals went in. Like a typical kid, I did a Klinsmann across the wooden floor and had to have the nurse come in to sort out my bloody knees. He passed away just a few months later. It was one of the last things we did together and I'll never forget it.

Since the discussion has come up in another thread, and the issue is more permanent than any one transfer window thread, I thought it would be a good idea to have an ongoing thread for discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the new - and then ongoing - rules for visas for footballers, and non-playing staff, and also for updates about when they change. I suspect, based on a look through some of the Jan 2021 transfer thread at people's wishlists, that a lot of fans have not quite grasped the significance of the change in rules yet, particularly around the transfer of players from 'smaller' European leagues like Sweden's or Norway's. To very briefly sketch out some of the most important new rules: Players with British or Irish nationality are completely unaffected; Otverseas players need to qualify for a visa. There are two routes to qualification, the first of which is an 'auto-pass' and the second of which is something called a 'GBE' or 'Governing Body Exemption'. In practice, this means a player needs to score 15 points, which can be achieved via six qualifying criteria. 'Auto-pass' candidates are regular internationals for top countries, as decided by FIFA rankings. A player who has played in 30% or more of internationals in the prior 12 months for a FIFA top 10 team will gain an 'auto-pass'; you need 40% or more for a team ranked 11-20; 60% or more for a team ranked 20-30; 70% or more for a team ranked 31-50; international teams ranked 51 or lower (which currently includes eg Ghana, Greece, Finland and Ivory Coast) do not generate auto-passes no matter how many games a player has played in. The six qualifying criteria for a GBE (ie, for those players not qualifying via international appearances) are: international appearances below the threshold player's domestic minutes player's continental minutes final league position of player's last club continental progression of player's last club league quality of player's last club The final of these, the league quality of player's last club, has attracted attention because playing in one of the top 3 'bands' alone achieves more than 50% of the points needed for a GBE. The league quality rankings are summarised in this chart: People have noticed very quickly that this will make it much easier to sign players from Brazil, Argentina and Mexico (and Russia) than it has been previously. By contrast, it will be harder to sign from other European leagues. You might notice that the Allsvenskan is in band 6, for instance, which makes it almost impossible for a player in this league to get the requisite number of points for a GBE (a band 6 league scores a player 2 points for league quality). You can find a full list of thresholds and points by looking at the first document at this link: https://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/policies/player-registration/points-based-system Fortunately, a company has already looked at how many players are currently eligible per league: Essentially every player in the other 'big 5' leagues is eligible. Eligibility from Latin America is hugely increased, with more than 200 players eligible in Brazil and Argentina, and nearly 100 in Mexico. By contrast, only 14 Ligue 2 players are eligible to play in England, and only 6 playing in Sweden. There are further changes to signing youth players as well: Clubs cannot sign overseas players who are under 18 (so we won't be able to sign players like Sil Swinkels or Lamare Bogarde any more) The criteria are slightly easier for signing players in the 18-21 age bracket (so for instance, you can get credit for the level of the league you made your debut in which is similar to the points for appearances made for older players) Clubs will only be able to sign 3 U21 players in the January transfer window, and a maximum of 6 per season ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It's somewhat difficult to predict the impact of these changes, beyond the obvious like 'more Brazilians'. However, I will venture some predictions so I can look stupid later. First, it looks likely that League 1 and 2 teams will be largely shut out of the overseas player market (and National League and lower clubs are not allowed to sponsor overseas visas at all). I imagine it will be difficult for those clubs to pay competitive wages for many of these players (though it would be amusing if League 1 filled with budget Brazilians). Second, Premier League clubs will have to change their youth recruitment policies, and may well miss out on the most promising youth prospects who will move to other European teams, who now have an extra incentive to capture promising youth before they turn 18. Finally, and maybe this is quite obvious as well, the 'home grown talent' price premium will enter even further overdrive. What are your thoughts and predictions?

Sorry, but was that not handball at the end by Maguire?? Not even checked. Won't be mentioned.

Proud of the team tonight. We gave them one hell of a match and could easily have got something. UTV.

Man U have been the most in form team in the league since February. We’re at their place and going toe to toe with them. It was an unfortunate goal to concede and we’ve been very poor with our set piece delivery but it’s not been a bad half all things considered.

Mings’s distribution to Ollie will be really important tonight. That side of his game doesn’t get enough credit. He’s adept at helping kick start attacks.

Why are people trying to come up with Barkley conspiracy theories?!? Most likely isn’t fit enough, squads been playing well, so no need to rush him back in and risk further injury.

I thought about it but was too busy hovering over the lock button in case someone started a Rashica thread

A friend of a friend asked him to record a birthday message for my kid. He must get so many of these requests yet he did it straight away. It meant so much to my daughter, she made up. The guys not just a top footballer, he’s a top bloke. Will be gutted the day he leaves.

100% correct from Dean. Why didn't Oliver go to the pitchside monitor. Why didn't VAR instruct him to?

I hate to see our Villa Talk family cruelly and personally slagging each other off because they dont agree, can we all agree to disagree rather than personal attacks been a shite year out there without brining it in here

I think a problem though is people hype themselves so much over particular games that 2 or 3 nil defeat will see a bit of perspective lost in post match threads and inevitability Dean Smith one will get pretty hot. Hopefully it dosen't happen but you could see the way people worked themselves in a frenzy after Leeds won 3-0. Yes a poor performance but it didn't mean DS was clueless or we were going to tumble back down into the bottom 6 and it hasn't happened two months on. Hopefully we don't lose 3-0 either but it could happen if we have a slow start and aren't quite on it in first 10 minutes like Leeds as they're a nightmare to play if they go a goal up. Everton lost 3-1 to them on November 7th and that was their third straight defeat but they've regrouped since and are nicely placed in top 4 so a defeat at Old Trafford isn't going to define thingas as many teams lose there and finish 6th or 7th. Point would be a very good result for me just like Chelsea was.

We’re a day closer to rejoining the EU.

Very good post about this on redcafe: https://www.redcafe.net/threads/cavani-gets-3-match-ban-from-fa-for-his-social-media-post.459616/page-20#post-26579247

I expect them to win, more than likely with the help of the officials but that we are going there to play them rather than try and scrape through the 90 mins is good enough for me. With the players we have now we have a chance and will be positive, two years post promotion that will do me regardless of the outcome. Beating them though would be so so so sweet.

I'd like to see a venn diagram of VT posters suggesting we should piss most teams every week and the Smith outers from last season.

Not much. Pepple just need to have a player to blame and the last month Mings have been FotM.

Badly misjudged a cross that should have been dealt with easily.

I'm so confused what did mings do wrong

I just can't see where a goal's coming from tonight. They're doubling up on Grealish and Traore doesn't seem at it. It's a game where we'd be far better with Barkley.

Get Davis on FFS

I get that but why keep telling us he’s fit every press conference?

They're one of the form teams in the league, they're flying and looking to go joint top, we've beaten them once in the league in our last 43 attempts. I'll take a draw. We're a good side, we really are, but I think we'll lose this one.

I’m just so excited to watch us again, and I’m looking forward to every minute of every game... it’s been a long few years since I felt like that

As I said in my initial comment, the Doc was responsible for one of my best years as a Villa fan. Unless you were there it is hard to understand how utterly desperate it was in 1968. After playing 18 and winning just two on 9th November we faced Preston at home who hadn’t beaten us at VP for 48 years. I was on the Holte with my two brothers and it was desolate. I think the crowd was around 12,000 and there was zero atmosphere. We lost 0-1 which sent us to the bottom of the then division 2. Immediately after the game there was quite a large protest by fans as they invaded the Trinity making for the directors box. I remember quite a few police piling in and several police horses. It is no word of a lie to say that we thought the club was finished. The game was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back.Then things started to change. The manager Tommy Cummings was fired by the board and within weeks the club was sold to Pat Matthews. As one of a consortium Doug Ellis became chairman and on the 18th December he appointed Tommy Docherty which was quite a coup at the time. Instantly everything changed. Starting 21st December ‘68 we won 5 on the bounce and only lost 1 in the next nine. The fans came flooding back. Just over a month after Docherty arrived we beat Southampton 2-1 in the FA Cup in front of 52,000 at Villa Park- it was incredible. I remember standing on the Holte at the final whistle wondering how the hell we had gone from 12:000 in November to 52000 10 weeks later. I doubt there has ever been as big a transformation in support anywhere in football. It was all down to ‘the Doc’. We avoided relegation and somehow knew the tide had turned and that the sleeping giant was waking even though the club behind scenes was still a mess. I was gutted when Tommy was fired in January 1970 and felt he needed more time. Unfortunately we were relegated in 1970 but Tommy had made us proud again and we knew something special had started.

Happy new year you bastards

I thought people by me were poor. They can afford more explosives than the Army.

You seriously think Hause is better than Mings? Crazy talk I tells ya!