M_Afro

His press conference yesterday was his best yet. He is an utterly fascinating man. The way he talks about learning from lower level teams is so interesting. This guy is a sponge who just soaks up football brilliance everywhere he goes. I still can’t believe he is our manager. When he talks about challenging for champions league, you can’t help but believe him. He makes anything possible for us. We are so lucky to have him. I hope he never leaves. If he stays here for 10 years we will be unrecognisable by the time he leaves.

Hopefully

Getting rid of Danny Ings in January was an amazing bit of transfer business for us. He is absolutely done as a player. We’d have been saddled with his wages dragging down our ffp but fortunately he’s just doing it to West Ham instead now. More brilliance from our manager.

We will finish this season with Arsenal being the only team to have done the double over us. That’s quite amazing and to be fair, they were incredibly lucky against us at VP. Unai has managed to out fox everyone at some stage. To limit a rampant, in form, expectant Liverpool, like we did yesterday, was simply incredible. The cohesive and attractive way that we move the ball up the field is a joy to watch. I really think that our success has been built on our defensive strength. Unai will be looking to improve us in the final third next season and who knows what that will bring. Whatever happens, being a Villa fan is exciting again and that’s all down to our Spanish genius. Absolutely love him.

Hmmmnnn. I think we’ve been there. In my view, Ollie is a Championship wide forward. He is a decent premiership centre forward. He either plays 9 or doesn’t play at all. I think he will still be our 9 next season.

If we win today, we are practically there. COYVBs

Brentford are still well in this game. They are solid at the back and always carry a threat from set pieces. A draw here is very possible and it would be a great result for us. Still plenty to play for guys. This is going to go right to the end of the season.

That’s fair enough but just take away any controversy by waiting until the end of the season. You’re probably right and I was only being a bit mischievous to be honest but the football authorities really don’t help themselves.

They’ve had forever to ban him. Why now. Surely wait until the end of the season. It’s gives Spurs an unfair advantage over everyone else.

Ivan Toney banned just before the Spurs game. It’s almost as though the powers that be are desperate for Spurs to finish above us! That can’t be true……can it?

They’re bringing it back…..topical.

I can’t believe that we are still in the conversation with only two game’s remaining. That in itself is a massive achievement. For what it’s worth, the disappointment conditioned Villa fan in me is saying we will probably fall just short but Unai has been proving me wrong all season. If it continues for too much longer, I may have to switch my default setting to cautious optimism. COYVB.

He’s got loads more class than Davis. His goals will come.

Give this man whatever he wants. How he’s turned the Gerrard mess into an effective, coherent team is anyone’s guess! Best Villa manager in the modern era.

You can see that he has all of the necessary attributes to be effective and he is absolutely massive! He could easily be our main man in a few years. He’s only just turned 19!

Good assist and showed some flashes. I think we are a better balanced team when he plays. Not sure how he missed that chance in the first half though. It looked easier to score.

Emi is our best player by quite some distance. He has been really good again this season for Villa whilst, just for good measure, become the first current Villa player to win the World Cup and becoming fifa Gk of the year. Quite remarkable. He wins us so many points. Our POTY and probably always will be whilst he remains at the club.

Yep but I’m not sure how many he would have started had we had other options to pick from for all games. Unai may love him. We just don’t know. Time will tell but in my view he’s always been most effective as an impact sub. He rarely dominates games. He does some good things and some bad things but his consistency is patchy. I think Unai will want better. I think the regular starters most at risk are Konsa, Young/Cash, JJ, Buendia and Bailey.

I know it’s been a couple of disappointing weeks but if we beat Spurs on Saturday, this race is very much still on. Liverpool are very beatable at home and Brighton will be on their last legs come the last day of the season. We can still do this. For perspective, people were still talking about us potentially getting relegated as recently as mid Feb. We have three games to go and a reasonable shot at Europe. We’d all have taken that after we lost to Arsenal in Feb. Villa Park will be rocking on Saturday and I think we’ll get the three points.

We’re just going to have to wait and see mate. In my view, Emi will become a useful squad player. Unai is an absolute perfectionist. Some of Emi’s traits as a player will really get on his nerves. I think he will be ruthless and if you’re not playing exactly to his plan, then you’ll be out.

It’s not though is it? What other options do we have? Coutinho has been injured. As has Bailey and Boubs. He obviously does think he’s worthy of playing under the circumstances but these circumstances are not of his making. Let’s see what happens when Unai is picking from his own squad. I just don’t think that Emi will be a regular starter then.

Nope. He’s a regular in someone else’s team that is currently managed by Unai. It’s going to take a few transfer windows to turn us into a real Unai team. Buendia will need to be much better if he wants to still be starting in 12 months.

Maybe. A bit certainly but he really needs to cut down on the sloppiness and the petulance. Until he does he will never become a regular in an Unai team.

This argument only stacks up if it’s only the difficult passes that are dragging your percentage down. The annoying thing about Buendia is the amount of times he misplaces a simple pass or gets easily dispossessed, often through lack of awareness. You rarely see KDB falling foul of those things. He really divides opinion Buendia which normally means his real value falls somewhere in the middle of the extremity views. I think that he will be a squad player next season. He is a useful option to have around but he has rarely been consistent enough to continue as a guaranteed starter.

He’s never really shown that he’s good enough to start for us and at £40m I think he probably was overpriced but he has always looked pretty lively from the bench. I suspect he will still be around next season and having a positive influence from the bench, when we need a spark. Ironically, we could have done with someone like him, to bring off the bench, in each of the last two games. That’s where his value lies.