honest_bertie

Watching on tv i get the impression that the villa crowd are now on board with how we are playing. Would Love to get to VP soon if poss. Seems like things are changing ref the home crowd. Rather than murmurs of discontent when we play back to retain possession it seemed to be applauded in the last few games. 
 

I imagine this really helps the players confidence, and i think Unai has been brilliant communicating how we are intending to play to fans and how the fans have such an important role. I love his “family” comments, he has a real understanding of the need for all to on board with how the team plays and why, including the fans. 

1 hour ago, nepal_villan said:

Hardly played out of the back yesterday. We lose so much possession as a result of punting so many balls upfield. 

This is what frustrates me so much. If we had Kamara and Luiz of front of the defence i’d be pretty confident we could move the ball on from there with those guys playing. To me it seems so often that McGinn gets the ball in midfield and thats where we lose possession. Want JM to do well but its mot happening and Doug is the better option for multiple reasons.

5 hours ago, The_Steve said:

In the post-match Gerrard said one of the reasons he brought Phil in was to show the likes of JJ what an elite player looks like in training and on the pitch, and what he should aspire to be. I think that's a super interesting and overlooked point many wilfully ignore.

Sounds like a way of not having to admit PC hasn’t reached the level of performance he/we hoped for.

What struck me watching last night against Leeds was that he seems to be a second behind the other players, never anticipating quite obvious passes and moves. His best bit of play was to drag a defender away to create space for JJ goal, apart from that he was and continues to be completely blunt and slow in response to teammates around him. I think with having Emi and phil just behind him it actually highlights his level, mid/lower premier league striker, he’s just not got the instinct or reading of the game to play on the same level with players like Emi amd Phil. Sad but just not good enough. Would prefer Ings for now. 

Should have been Ramsey or Watkins off. 

Its amazing how people become stuck with ideas, we have been buying younger players with potential and generally done well with it to date, but it does not mean we can’t buy established players as well.

my feeling is like the smith/gerrard situation… dean had reached his ceiling and we needed to try the next thing, try for the next level. We don’t yet know if gerrard is that or not but we had to try. We now have to do the same thing with a few players. We have been buying 20-30 mil players, now we need a next level player or two. This would not be dismissing and stopping buying potential anymore, but be attempting to add the next level of player, if we want to progress its a balance of both. We are not going to beat man city etc to players so we have to think different, look at players like Courtinho, who may or may not work out. If they don’t the owners lost out on a few £, or they do work out we keep heading towards the higher regions of the league and Europe.
 

to me Cortinho is a risk worth taking. It raises our profile to other players who might not look at villa as a possible place to go, he is a better player than we have currently, having him and Buendia behind the main striker will end the ings/watkins problem and force one of them onto bench, which is how it should be and he knows gerrard and the league already.

why not?

Walking a thin line right now. Concerned he is to stubborn, first time i have wondered if this job is now to big for him. Is he now what we needed, but not what we need?

Unfortunately i feel like John is a significant problem. He inconsistency tends to be the reflected by the team performance. Plays well and team plays well, plays poorly team goes to s*it. He sets the pace/standard of the match for us.
 

At a Spurs, Arsenal, west ham and clubs we aspire to match, reality is he would probably be on the bench often, for us he is a guaranteed starter. 
 

I real like him, love it when he’s good but if we want to be a Euro place team, truth is we need better, or he needs to be consistent 4 games out of 5, not 1  or 2 every 5

Not on it today. Hate Spurs, it will be a media w***fest now about how brilliant they are, whereas we lost that match with sloppy play. Axel should have been in place of Hause, would have kept up with Son a bit more. At least we didn’t have to witness the mercurial return to scoring of the genius that is Harry Kane. Oh well, on to Wolves

14 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

wow, listening to Ole at the wheel moaning about us.

"the goal was offside"

"we were naughty getting about them while waiting for the penalty to be taken"

 

Exactly what the sky 4 have been doing for years. Then they don’t like it when villa come along, flip the script and give it back. He nervous, knows he’s been found out and not good enough for job. If he wasn’t ex manure he’d of been sacked ages ago.

Class

Pleased with this signing.

Find it strange how people seem to obsess with "how he is going to fit in". We need a squad and options off the bench, but also options in the first 11 that can change during the game, for too long we have fallen into, get the ball and look for JG. Now that's not an option we are obviously trying to spread the creativity and options going forward.

Ings gives Ollie competition, a good thing as Wes and KD are not challenging him any time soon for the striker spot.

Ings can play on the left side of attack if needed, or so can Ollie with the other up top.

Also gives us the option of going two up top if needs be, but two quality strikers, not Ollie and a n other.

He may be getting older, but still sub 30 so should be fit enough, and his experience/leadership will be very useful to the younger/newer players. He strikes me as someone who tells it how it is, add that to Ash Young and Mings, I reckon this is important.

He has a bit of a history of injuries, but maybe he has realised that how he can fit in at Villa will not burn him out. He can rotate with Ollie if needs be, for certain games he might be the better option, thus helping us not burn Ollie, playing Ollie every minute of every match.

Makes a to of sense to me this signing. Never liked him for other teams, but that was because he always seemed to score against us, and he was that dogged, annoying player that you only like when he's in your team. Welcome Danny.

Looks like he can play anywhere across the front line. Maybe he would be coming in to play left wing with Jack central behind Ollie and Buendia right. Like the sound of that if so. 

Swap McGinn for Bassouma and i reckon that would be a big step forward for our midfield. Appreciate all he has done for us but should be on bench fighting for a place now, not an automatic starter. We need better, and with better i think Luis will shine more. Think he gets pelters on here, but is often hung out to dry by McGinns sloppiness.

Although we are not playing quite as slick as we were we are still winning, games we would have used to have lost. 

Had a few bumps in the road v burnley and spam. Hopefully a rest this week will do the players good and we can start getting back to where we were, not being quite so week in midfield. 

Shout out to Nakamba but need fully fit and firing Luiz and McGinn to play at our best. Think Dean needs to sit down with Barkley and have a word, great when he’s on it but just to lethargic, leaves so much space for other team to run into because he seems so resistant to chasing back. Think i would prefer Ramsey or Sanson in there. Barkley a frustrating player.

If he is a box to box midfielder then maybe it would be good for him to replace Barkley, 2 box to box midfielders might be what we need in the middle, Barkley does seem reluctant to get back once attacks are over

Love this team!

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Lot's of sentimentality going around here because you like the guy.

Fact is Elmo and Cash are both comfortably better than him.

This guy can't cross and defensively he was all over the place last season. Getting some money out of him and off the wage bill would just help a lot when trying to sign some more players.

Guilbert isn't good enough for where we want to get to. Simple as that.

Opps, double post

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Lot's of sentimentality going around here because you like the guy.

Fact is Elmo and Cash are both comfortably better than him.

This guy can't cross and defensively he was all over the place last season. Getting some money out of him and off the wage bill would just help a lot when trying to sign some more players.

Guilbert isn't good enough for where we want to get to. Simple as that.

Sorry but i find this post rather ironic considering the constant unconditional praise you lavish on Keinan Davis, who is currently a striker who struggles to  score. I like KD and want him to do well but it you cant have it both ways. I seem to remember Fred defending rather well a lot of the time in his first season in the premier league, also making a few mistakes. Your post is just contradictory based on your posts un the KD thread. In reality is KD good enough for where we want to get to, probably not, but both he and Fred have roles to play.

If possible, we should be building a team round this guy. Purslow/Smith need to sit down with him, tell him that they want to build the team round him, whatever league we in, double his money and tie him down to a new longer contract. Really rate Dougie, but not just as an individual, like jack, its the balance he offers to the team. As someone mentioned, think Jack is now to much of an individual, comes with so much baggage being homegrown villa, be sad to lose him but given a choice would rather see Doug stay and develop a team round him. Heres hoping.

Claret shorts. Bloody hate them. 

Deserved a point, missed chances we should have buried in first half, mistakes cost us. Ref a disgrace, their left back should have been carded in first 5 min, co-commentator can do one as well, begging for spuds to win it all game.

I think many people have forgotten he is 21 and settling in to a new league (toughest in the world) and a whole new culture/country. The sort of player who in previous years would move on and we’d be seeing him being successful for another team thinking, shit we should have held on to him. Gaye, Traore and Enda Stevens spring to mind