M_Afro

Pau has done really well considering it’s his first year in England. He will benefit massively from his experience this year and hopefully by the start of next season he will have Mings or another physical defender alongside him and a physical DCM in front of him. He can then focus on what he is elite at which is progressing the ball (he’s also a much better defender than he gets credit for).

I normally wake up the day after a disappointing result with a renewed optimism but I am struggling this morning. We just look so flat and whenever a team cranks up the pressure we crumble so easily. Almost none of our players seem to be in form. 
However, things can turn very quickly and Unai is our special power. There’s still plenty of time for us to find the formula that gets us over the line. We aren’t going to run away from the opposition but we might find a way to stick in the fight and stumble home.

What I don’t want to see though is another weakened team fielded. We need to go with the best we can every match. Tired bodies need to step up and show some courage. This team needs to get angry and show some fight.

So I can’t make my mind up this morning. Half full or half empty. It’s a struggle but hopefully half full will win over. Here’s hoping for a Forest and Liverpool double.

What are the general thoughts on Youri? I’m torn to be honest. He is a great player to have in the squad. He’s experienced and he is a lovely footballer. The flip side is he lacks any physical stature in a team that is fairly weak and he is our highest paid player! 
I think if we could get a good price and replace him with a more physical midfielder then I would be tempted to sell in the summer. Best case scenario I’d obviously keeping him and buying a couple of additional centre mids but I doubt FFP will allow that sadly.

He’s a top player Ollie. We are so lucky to have him. The fact that he’s always fit is incredible when you consider the amount of work he puts in. I wouldn’t swap him for anyone. He’s perfect for us. Him and Martinez are the two players in our team who would be impossible to replace.
I really hope he gets his 20 league goals this season and he gets his place at the Euros off the back of it. He deserves all the success in the world.

I think we’re desperate for some physicality in midfield. I know that Tim is inexperienced but I would play him against Arsenal. I know it’s not very Unai but I’d love to see us set up 4-3-3 with Tim, Youri and SJM in the midfield. Then go for Bailey, Moussa and Ollie up top. We have been way to easy to play against in recent weeks and this would tighten things up and allow us to break fast.

We miss this King so much. We are just not the same team without him. I would sign 2 centre midfielders in the summer. Physical players who can also play. We are massively lightweight in the centre of the park. I would happily offload Youri or Buendia if it means we can beef up the centre of the pitch, as we have plenty of options in the attacking midfield positions.

I think that this will be a welcome relief for the players, allowing them to escape the pressure of the PL. I’m expecting a really big performance as we bounce back from some poor performances in the PL. 3-0 win to the Villa and hopefully a springboard to a good end to the season.

Man Utd are far from finished. They always raise their game against Liverpool and then they have 4 games which they should win all of. Spurs also have the advantage of a lighter fixture list and a fully fit squad. 
We on the other hand are limping over the line and I wouldn’t back us to beat anyone at the moment. We should however limp to another six points. That would leave Utd needing 19 point from 8 matches to overtake us. That’s highly unlikely but with their fixtures it is possible.

The reality is though, we will finish  somewhere between 4th and 6th. I think it will probably be 5th but I really think that 6th is more likely than 4th. At the start of the season, we would all have taken a 6th place finish and thus whatever happens we will have had a brilliant season.

Now, with my glass half filled we are still in Europe. We are still in the Champions League hunt. We still have a brilliant manager. Maybe we have had our bad spell and we are going to fly again for the rest of the season. Let’s hope so. UTV. COYVB. SOTC.

Doug has been fairly poor for weeks and he desperately needs a rest. Hopefully this will do him good and he can get back to his early season levels for the rest of the season. His intelligence really is his Achilles heel though. He is daft as a brush at times. He really is!!!

Idiot

Last night, Utd conceded 15 fouls, gave away 2 penalties and one of their players very aggressively told the touch judge to FO. They received one yellow card. If that had been another team, I’m sure they would have received 4/5 yellow cards. It was ridiculous. The same ref gave Chelsea 3 yellows from 7 fouls. The inconsistency is insane.

Tim is another one who doesn’t yet know how good he is. He is feeling his way into the PL and is understandingly a bit tentative due to his inexperience. If he can get his confidence up, he could become a great player. It would be amazing to have him, JJ, Morgan and Barry playing regularly for us in the future. All local lads who have got years in the tank. You can really build on those foundations.

3 hours ago, chappy said:

Like… us?

Exactly like us. Being similar to us does not prevent interest. Who knows then what might float his boat. A big salary increase? Promises over playing time? A nice kit? Who knows?

14 hours ago, rubberman said:

I imagine for Kamara cover we'll go for a Lenglet-style loan and save the permanent pennies for elsewhere.

I think centre midfield is the area where we are most exposed. Our starting players are great but we have no real strength in depth. I think we need to sell Dendonker and then buy two central midfielders. Maybe one could be a loan but we need to be able to rotate effectively without losing quality. Doug is looking absolutely exhausted now because of playing so many games. 

There may well be some serious interest in this guy in the summer. If you were a newly promoted side looking for a starting 9, or a more established side looking for a rotation 9 who can become the main man in a couple of years, then Duran would be of interest. Let’s hope that we can keep him happy here because I would hate to see him leave.

I’m absolutely convinced that this guy is a natural 10. He may turn into an 8 in time but for now, 10 is his best position. He really is a lovely footballer. If it all clicks in the next couple of years, he is going to be a star.

Amazing work @DJBOB and @fightoffyour. Thank you for spending your bank holiday bringing some focus to this. 
So we are at the wrong end of the table which is really interesting. I’m sure that there’s nothing sinister happening. Maybe our players are lacking some dark arts skills. I’ve long thought that we were way too honest. I would not condone cheating but we can certainly influence incidents more favourably in my view.

We definitely need to be smarter. I’m not endorsing Roy Keane type referee pressure but we need to influence the officiating more than we currently do. We are quite passive in our referee management. Hopefully if we can maintain our place at the top end of the league then the referees will start to treat us with more respect. I think that most referees are quite dismissive of certain teams based upon their status.

Every time I watch Villa these days we seem to get kicked off the park by the opposition who don’t seem to pick up any cards and then we seem to get carded for our first offence. Several Wolves players escaped cards on Saturday for cynical fouls. We had 3 cards from 11 fouls and they had 4 cards from 19 fouls.

Yesterday, Arsenal conceded 20 fouls and only picked up 2 yellow cards. City didn’t get any from 9 fouls. Odegaard should have been booked about 3 times but didn’t get carded. Cards can really impact the flow of a game but we always seem to get fairly harshly treated compared to other teams.

Am I being paranoid here or do other people think we are being harshly treated? Are there any stats which would bring some context to this? It would be great to know the average fouls per card for every premier league team. I know that this doesn’t tell the whole story but it would be interesting to see.

If we start him and Morgan down the left against City, it will not be pretty. He has not been the same player so far this season and we were wide open down that side again yesterday. It’s way too soon to write him off but Digne should be starting for the remainder of the season.

I seem to say this every transfer window but whoever we sign can they all please be taller than 6 feet and physically very strong and athletic. I’m just watching match of the day and all of the top clubs seem to have more physical players than us. More players with the physical attributes of big Tim would really help us.

17 minutes ago, punkiller1981 said:

Thought he was near faultless yesterday 

He was great. Our defending of set pieces is always much better when he plays. His range of passing is also a real asset. Hopefully he can stay fit for the rest of the season now.

5 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

What a tackle at the end yesterday?

Agreed. He did well when he came on. I would start him on Wednesday. We need more steel in the centre of the pitch against City.

He’s been really good over the past few weeks. Hopefully he’s had his dip and he’ll have a strong end to the season. He really is a talented footballer. He’s still clearly struggling physically but his confidence is on the way back.