M_Afro

6 minutes ago, tezzaleed said:

what balls.  he picked a team that was easily capable of beating Stevenage.  his tactics were reasonably ok.  one person is responsible for that result.  Dendonker.  get rid of him and we're fine again.

Stevenage are doing really well this season. They played like a well drilled and confident team. We played like strangers. Why not start with your best 11 and then it doesn’t matter if you make a balls up in the 88th minute because hopefully you will be multiple goals ahead.

I’m not sure how long you’ve followed villa for but we have had multiple examples over the years where we field a weaker team and balls it up. Why take the risk? 

1 minute ago, Risso said:

You say that we were unlikely to win it. but there are 7 Premier League teams out already, and more all Premier League ties to come, where we would have had a straightforwardish away trip to Stoke.

We’ve just lost to a 4th division team at home. No away game is straightforward for us. We haven’t won an fa cup game since 2015!

Today is on Unai. He chose to play a weaker team and we lost. Having said that, the players also let us down with such a poor performance. We were unlikely to win the cup so it doesn’t really matter but I don’t understand why we have to rest players. Our squad must be the most underused squad in Europe. They are virtually part timers. 38 league games and 2 cup games a season should be fairly easy to manage!

There’s no point getting emotional. He’s not good enough. He won’t be here for much longer. Unai will give them chances and slowly rinse out the weaker players.

Awful today again. I am very quickly running out of patience with him. The Grealish three (Bailey, Ings, Buendia) will all be gone before the start of next season I reckon. 

6 minutes ago, Villaphil said:

6 month loan would suit everyone involved??  Villa need improvement, Maguire needs game time and Utd want to be able to sell him in the summer.

I’d be all for that. I agree with you. I think everyone wins with that scenario. 

Harry Maguire is better than Mings (and I rate Mings). If he were available at the right price/wages then he would be a great fit for us. Unfortunately I just think he would be too expensive and therefore I’d give it a miss. I also think there’s absolutely no truth in the rumours.

24 minutes ago, PaulC said:

Bit surprised you would include Benteke ahead of Gray or Withe. Walters was the best youth player I have ever seen. At 15 he won the FA youth cup for Villa. Cowans would get my number 1 too. He had everything and. Skill, tenacity, and a great range of pass with either foot. Hed have got 100 caps nowadays. People knock Southgate but nobody got a chance in them days. Hoddle was picked ahead of Robson and Cowans. Then you had losers like Brooking being constantly picked. 

I only saw Gray when he came back and he was at the end of his career then. I think I was maybe too young to appreciate Withe fully but I think Benteke was a better all round player. 
I loved Wally. He was my very first football hero. His step overs were a thing of great beauty. Wonderful player.

1. Cowans

2. McGrath

3. Yorke

4. Benteke

5. Walters

If you have never seen Gordon Cowans play football, treat yourself to a few YouTube videos. I have never seen anyone who could hit a first time pass with such vision, accuracy and control. He was better than the media darling Hoddle in my view. He owned the football which did exactly what it was told when Sid was in charge. He was truly magic.

If we don’t think we can give him much game time next season we should send him on loan to another PL team. He is ready for the PL and we can get someone else to pay us to aid his development.

I think he will be much better than Carney and will play for England 50 plus times (injury permitting). He’s got it all. He really understands his role in the team and is very disciplined at carrying out his manager’s instructions. The Sultan will love him.

35 minutes ago, gwi1890 said:

Yes saw this earlier, playing regularly in the second division looks promising and wouldn’t cost a fortune.

Looks very similar to a young Jack Grealish!

This guy was so good yesterday. He just gets better with every match. He must be worth £50m already. We’ve been crying out for a player of his ilk for so long and hopefully he will stay for a long time. I just love him.

It also brings me so much entertainment watching the reaction of my wife, every time my 8 year old son shouts out “I love Boubs” at the top of his voice! Ha ha. Love it!

Anybody know where Donk was today? We may need him on Wednesday!

He was excellent when he came on. I think that super sub works best for him and Buendia. Little Phil could really be important when trying to break a team down or trying to hit teams on the break. Good to see.

Incredible performance. Another assist and he gave the Spurs defence all kinds of trouble. Really pleased for him. Keep it up Ollie lad.

Poor half although he did a few good things towards the end of the half. Needs to get involved more though.

Just now, Adam2003 said:

Fair play, excellent first half. Actually looked like a goalkeeper with 60+ international caps.

Agreed. Credit where it’s due. Solid half.

If the right person is available, at the right price, we will do some business. If they’re not, we won’t. We will be trying but there’s no guarantee and also no need to be reckless. 
I’d be happy if we could just offload a few and free up some salary for moves in the summer. We have to get away from constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. Unai will be happy to work with what he has for now. If we continue to play like we did against Liverpool, the rest of the season will be really fun.

35 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I'm not sure. I think it's easy to be forgotten about. 

A premier league job was there. How often do they come up? 

 

I agree. He had to take the chance. I suspect it may be his last sadly.

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

We won 7 games in 2 and a quarter seasons against the scum 6 and it was only City we didnt beat in that time

You’ve kind of missed the point mate. This is about competing at the top of the table and having a game plan to be able to do that. You can only do that consistently by controlling the game. 

I just don’t think it’s going to work out for Emi at Villa. I predict he will leave in the summer, having failed to nail down a regular starting place. I really hope that he will prove me wrong still but I just don’t see what a lot of our fans do. His stats in the PL are poor and I think that’s backed up by his performances. 

23 minutes ago, Zatman said:

I would say Freidel was as good as Emi but we signed him at about 36

I honestly think that Freidel was overrated. He was terrible at commanding his area and was totally reliant on his big centre halves when defending free kicks into the box. His strength was that he made few obvious mistakes but he couldn’t do half of what Emi can. Certainly one of our better ones but not in Emi’s class in my view.

5 hours ago, AV82 said:

I love him and I'd be sad to see him go but he's very replaceable imo.

I’m sorry but he is not easily replaceable at all. He’s the best keeper we have had since Bosnich. That was probably about 25 years ago. Since then we have spent an absolute fortune on sub-standard keepers. Non of which are in the same class as Emi.

No keeper of equal standing to Emi would touch us with a barge pole. We have a top player who loves the club and has a massive profile. Why on earth would we want to lose that? Keep the guy and make him captain.
Aston Villa had become a breeding ground for players who don’t really care. We are slowly changing that culture and keeping actual winners around is critical to achieve that. We must keep Emi. It’s essential for our future.