AVTuco

Had to go check what incessant means. I still don't think he is a Villa player. I'm in denial. I'm hoping we can still return him.

I like his shooting. It's exciting.

Don't know their team when Tonev's played there, but his play here tells me Bulgaria just might be one of those I mentioned.

...with 15 caps. There are countries with pretty shit international teams in Europe...

Against Stoke you don't need so much quality. We just need a bit of luck, one freekick or a penalty, and we win.

A lower league player in some continental European league, that's what I see.

Helenius! Tonev...

Great...

Yep.

Why are we talking about him?

Since he played well last year against them. Don't understand that reasoning myself, but that's it. VillanousOne: Albrighton should be in, but I would put both Benteke and Weimann in there instead of Tonev. They have to start producing, sitting them on the bench won't help. I suppose Tonev hasn't caused any goals in our end or anything like that, but he hasn't done anything worth mentioning in the other end either. He's not a starter. If anything, he can be a surprise sub.

I like this one best of the few on this page. Why? It has no Tonev in it.

Still under 2% chance of being relegated!

close to my opinion.... with Vlaar - win without Vlaar - draw no real basis, I just prefer optimism. Is that optimism my friend? Looks like a draw to me.

Ive been watching villa for 40 years - seen some great teams 1974/5 Promotion & League Cup Double winning side 1977 - league Cup winning side 1980/81 - Championship Side 1982 - Nuff Said 1989/90 - Runner up team Graham Taylor The Cup winning teams of Big Ron + Brain Little None of the teams above had rookies playing at cenre back. Its often overlooked but the 1980/81 team was packed with players around 20 years old - Yet we had 2 stalwarts Evans/Mcnaught at centre half 1982 team started to fall apart when local lad Brendan Ormsby was given a run at CB after the sale of Mcnaught. ...You need senior pro's at the back.... Brendan Ormsby? Haha, it's been a long time since I heard that name. Thanks smetrov! Oh, and I kind of agree with your point regarding experience at CB. If given the choice, you would want both of them experienced. However, one experienced one can suffice also, like Mantis' example shows.

I think I've said this before: it's not a coincidence that Andi and Benteke are off form at the same time. They did benefit from each other last year, obviously Andi much more from Benteke than the other way around. I believe if one of them breaks out of their funk, the other one will probably too. I'm inclined to give Andi good game time and starts, especially since our other options are not so great either.

His recent form could be down to the fact that he is just 22 years old - 3 years younger than Clark, Albrighton and Herd, same age as Weimann and just a year older than Gardner and Baker - in just his second season in a top league, coming back from injury, struggling to find his form again in a poor side. I think we put so much expectation on him, yet forget how young he is sometimes. It happens when you hand in a transfer request and force the team to triple your salary. Expectations are justified. Think the payrise was on the table anyway, regardless of the transfer request IIRC. He fully deserved his pay bump and arguably could've got more elsewhere. Expectations of the hopeful are not the fault of the player going through poor form though. Yes, you're correct, transfer request was not needed to hike his pay. However, triple salary - much higher expectations. That's pretty clear.

I'm on the fence with this guy. He's not great, but not terrible either.

Looks a better athlete than football player.

His recent form could be down to the fact that he is just 22 years old - 3 years younger than Clark, Albrighton and Herd, same age as Weimann and just a year older than Gardner and Baker - in just his second season in a top league, coming back from injury, struggling to find his form again in a poor side. I think we put so much expectation on him, yet forget how young he is sometimes. It happens when you hand in a transfer request and force the team to triple your salary. Expectations are justified.

Vlaar and Clark as CB duo has been the best part of our team this season. Our problems lie elsewhere. Okore would have been fine as a back up and starter too. Baker is an ok fourth choice. We've had rotten luck, and an upgrade to Baker would have been great. But there has to be a limit to back ups for a team with limited resources like us. If we had more money I'd have used it elsewhere, not CB. Like AM.

Exactly.

0 - 0. Ugliest football ever seen.

To those saying we should've brought in more CB's in the summer: it's easy to say that now. More CB's would just have been too much in the beginning of the season.

Ok, I didn't notice this, but it sounds reasonable.