mikeyjavfc

The fact they still haven’t set a date for the city game is mad. Shows how ridiculous is was to pander to Man city and Utd to get there first league games delayed. No doubt they will both moan about fixture congestion when they do finally set a date.

Last 2 games I have really noticed that Hause is so dominant on a long ball its crazy. Great leap and heading ability means that the forward rarely has a chance to get knock-down. Really reassuring when it pings his way by the opposition.

Because people would rather moan about fictional problems than do a small amount of fact checking.

Not sure how all this is going to effect their squad for the weekend. They played their heart out for Bilic on Tuesday and got a deserved point away at Manchester City only to see him sacked and replaced with big Sam. I think in the long run big Sam will get them organized and hard to beat, but in the short term I think there could be a bit of anger and apathy in the squad for a week or two. Hopefully they are not fully focused at the weekend and we capitalise.

Yeah I think a loan is more likely if he is to be left out as it won’t count against us for FFP like a loss on sale price.

He’s 1 year into a 5 year contract. I doubt we’d sell him at a big loss in the near future as it would be recorded as a loss under FFP and limit our future spending, so expect him to stay unless a decent offer comes in (also unlikely without games to prove his worth).

Why do we need to sell him in the near future? I’d rather keep Wesley as decent back up than sell him for a big loss. We need a squad.

Watkins is not going to play 40 games consecutively without picking up a knock or 5 bookings, so I hope Wesley will get a chance later in the season. Lets not forget this guy was called up to the Brazil senior squad last season, so there is a good player there that I want to progress at villa.

An utterly rudderless club.

Great peno. Lovely to see a player come off the bench and get the winner. Good sub by Smith.

Fantastic stat. We are twice as good as last season!

That’s fine. I’m not saying Traore needs for 40 full games to get up to speed. I’m saying he needs time, coaching, SOME full games and plenty of minutes off the bench over the season to get up to speed. Look at Trez last season to this season. That improvement can be Traore next year if we manage him right. Thankfully we are much better stocked this season so we don’t NEED to play Traore for the next 40 games like we did for Trez last year!

Classy player. Just needs time to get his brain up to premier league speed consistently. Might only see his true ability next season.

Orgies are allowed in Tier 2 aren't they?? I better get the department of health and social care on the phone to check, this is important.

Hmm doesn't look very Covid secure... at least 3 house holds mixing there! Still, much better than a drink or drugs scandal - I think we call this progress for Jack.

My issue is that even if the Baggies game is postponed as well, the first team Newcastle do play again will come up against a half fit and depleted team with a couple of days training, and will very likely get an easy game. We on the other hand by accepting the postponement will come up later in the season against a full strength team and with the pleasure of a mid week fixture slot in a packed schedule. Hardly fair.

Jude thinks so too:

Another interest stat here that confirms what most of us know: Under ‘expected points’ (basically comparison of xG for and against per game) we should be sitting 4th in the league with a game in hand. Just shows we have been unlucky with our recent results. Hopefully we revert to the mean soon and convert our good xG to wins.

This is an issue of fairness for me. Are they really going to let Newcastle postpone another game after this one? Very unlikely. Instead Newcastle will likely play West Brom with half their squad missing and 2 days of training under their belt and most likely get rolled over. Meanwhile we will play our postponed game against their full strength squad in a mid-week slot wedged somewhere in an already packed schedule. Completely unfair. They should have put out a team or forfeited 3-0.

The issue for the premier league is that if they delay this match then there is no guarantee that things will be any better for Newcastle next weekend (and may be worse) and then they will need to make another decision about another postponement. I will be severely pissed off if our match is delayed and then Newcastle are forced to play their match next weekend with a severely weakened team and it ends up being a walkover for their next opposition.

Agree but postponing it is not a good option for us either. It will move to a mid-week where we have even less time to prepare. Hope this gets played on Friday against the Newcastle U16s if need be.

It’s unlikely that Terry is an ideological racist but using racist language as a means to get a competitive advantage over a competitor (ie wind them up) is an extremely scummy thing to do, and gives a platform for genuine racism to grow. I think the same can be said of Suarez on Evra. The will to win and get an advantage really overrode their decency and judgement. See also: Suarez and biting people!

Well yes but could have been a whole lot worse. 2 games is not significant in the length of the season really. We have a good 7 day lead in to our next game so I hope to see a proper system next game that makes the most of our available squad.

I won’t blame Dean Smith for this loss. Losing Ross in the first minute can’t have been good for the game plan and with no like for like replacement the system suffered from back to front. Couple that with 1 days prep with the full squad and half the team looking gassed from internationals and Smith gets a free pass from me. Despite all that, we still looked dangerous and even ignoring the penalty shout we did enough for a point or even a win if not for dodgy finishing in front of goal. Without the international fatigue I think the concentration, control, passing, finishing etc is that much sharper and we win comfortably. This was a far cry from the Leeds capitulation.

Lost Barkley in 3rd minute and half the players looked gassed from international break and...we still did more than enough to win + got a VAR bumming at the death to screw us out of deserved point. It’s a shame but there’s no need to overreact. We’ll be better next time out with or without Ross back fit.