M_Afro

17 minutes ago, troon_villan said:

He still hasn't scored this season. In fact, he hasn't even registered a shot on target yet.

Ha ha. Give him chance. He’s still a bit scared of the Unai wrath to go up for a corner following the Arsenal game last year. It’s only a matter of time before he’s let off the leash again.

Can you imagine Dibu scoring a last minute equaliser, away from home, in front of the opposition supporters. He would be uncontrollable. He’d be jumping into the crowd and offering them all out. I’d pay big money to see that. Particularly if it was at Arsenal. It would be priceless.

3 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Danny Cooksey. He was Sam in Different Strokes before that

Different Strokes. What a program that was. Got to be one of the greatest theme tunes too. They don’t make em like that anymore. Genius. I’m smiling just even thinking about it.

Leon was not at his best today. He’s so frustrating at times. He always seems much more effective when he comes off the bench than he does when he starts matches. I’d definitely give him a new contract but hopefully get a better starter so that Leon can be an impact player.

Spurs are looking very good against United. I actually think that United and Spurs have better squads than us and we’ll do really well to finish above either. We do have our not so secret weapon though in Unai. With him in charge we’ve got a chance. Our form has dipped but we’re still in a good position. If we get our form back soon, we’re very much in with a shout of top 4.

6 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

Much better than Carlos today. I like him actually. Really composed, never pisses around with the ball, plays what he see's. He's been a good deputy for Pau without having that killer pass. 

Agree with all of this. His passing is actually good, it’s just not Pau good. One pass he hit to Moreno today, when we nearly scored, was brilliant.

He’s absolutely class. He can do everything. I think he’s our best player and probably the most difficult to replace. Hopefully we can keep him at VP for the rest of his career. I doubt that we’ve ever had a better keeper than him. Certainly not in my past 40 years as a fan.

I thought he did well today. He used and kept the ball well and made himself available all of the time. Could easily have won it for us but fora brilliant block. Fair play to him.

2 minutes ago, jayEm said:

Tarkowski got a yellow

Yep. That’s what a said. They only got a single yellow card……somehow. Tarkowski should have had three or four on his own.

2 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Robbed of a penalty today and Tarkowski almost snapped his ankle 

Agreed. He is struggling with the physicality of our league but he was far from awful today. I’m just glad he is still alive after what was quite frankly a disgusting foul from Tarkowski. Truly disgusting tackle.

2 minutes ago, tinker said:

Ref cost us, he bowed to the Everton fans, weak.

This is so spot on. They’ve somehow escaped with a single yellow card and we got 4! What the actual…… He was woeful throughout and rewarded the team who made no attempt to play football and just wanted a fight every two minutes. It was so frustrating.

I think we will win 0-2. It will be a tough game but we should be too good. That’s based upon Pau starting. He’s so crucial to us. If Lenglet is starting I think it will be a draw.

This guys career must be done at Man City. I watched their match yesterday and despite being 2-1 down and desperate for a way back into the game, Pep didn’t bring him on. He even bought on twenty year old Oscar Bobb in preference to Jack. It now looks as though Foden, Doku and Bobb are ahead of him in the wide forward pecking order. 
I think it’s all a bit sad really. It’s sad that he will unlikely never reach his potential. It’s sad that England will never see the best of him. It’s sad that he doesn’t seem that bothered about it either. What a total waste of an incredible talent.

I’ve just come back from watching my 9 year olds match in which he played centre forward, left back, centre back and goalkeeper all within a 50 minute match. I asked him after if he was bothered that he’d basically had to play all those different positions in a single match. He said “no Dad. I just want to play. I don’t care where, so long as I am playing.” I’m sure part of Jack must still feel the same way. I hope he doesn’t have to deal with a lifetime of regret as he gets older. Just all a bit sad really.

7 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

It doesn't matter what people think of some players, only what Emery thinks of them

I agree. It’s so refreshing to have a manager who backs his players and only makes transfer decisions based upon the long term good of our club. Transfer windows are far less stressful under Unai. You just know that he’s not going to saddle us with another Nzogbia etc.

Last January was one of my favourite windows ever. Sign young striker with huge potential. Sign progressive left back for reasonable fee who can make an instant impact but remain an important player for his entire contract. Sell a really high earner, who doesn’t suit our style of play and is in the decline. Absolutely perfect window.

Imagine being a player who is backed by Unai rather than being told we need reinforcements because the current squad aren’t good enough. He is giving them confidence but also providing no place to hide. We have our ambitions and we expect you to match them. Now get on with it! It’s all so very refreshing.

20 minutes ago, Adman said:

He's an Aston villa player and it seems a bit of an "up yours". We've spent £20mill, countless hours and support to settle him in and given him plenty of opportunities to shine in a successful team.  

Hopefully we can free up some cash and get someone in who appreciates our club

Fair enough. I think you’re reading way too much into it. In my opinion we are sometimes way too quick to accuse people of stuff these days. I’d rather give him the benefit of the doubt and support him. He’s still a kid really and needs us to get behind him. I don’t think his actions are disrespectful to our great club but I appreciate your point of view.

4 minutes ago, Adman said:

If true, reinforces the "petulant" accusations..

How does it? He seems to be a bit of a character. Maybe he’s just doing it on purpose for a bit of sport. I’ve not seen anything petulant from him. He always tries really hard.

People need to give this guy a break. There’s been lots of unconfirmed nonsense on social media which people are quick to jump on but all we really know is what we have seen and that is a talented young player who always gives his all when he gets an opportunity.

I think he can be a top player and hopefully that’s with us. I trust Unai to do the right thing. If that’s for Jhon to stay then we need to get behind him. If he leaves then so be it. In the meantime we should support him fully. He’s a young kid miles from home trying to make his way in a ruthless business.

I can’t see us selling him until the summer. It makes no sense to sell him now. He has been fantastic so far this season and Moreno is still short of showing his best form. Sounds highly unlikely to me.

9 hours ago, MaVilla said:

good vid this.

Parts of it game me the shivers tho........remembering our decline.....yikes

 

 

Thanks for sharing. What a great little summary of the past decade or so. All Villa fans should be forced to watch this as a stark reminder of just how great things are. Even when we get the odd poor result. 

Incredible year. The best in my 40 years as a supporter. Results amazing. Performances amazing. Some great goals. More importantly we have a team full of professional players who act in the right way and make me proud to support them. To top it all off we have a gentleman at the helm insisting upon continuous improvement. What a time to be alive 

Pau has been our best player in my view. We are much better at both ends when he is playing. I absolutely love him. Honourable mentions for Digne, Doug, SJM Boubs and Ollie who have all been superb too. If we keep all of these guys fit and available, the rest of the season should be very interesting indeed.

No Boubs, Pau, Digne or Youri plus the poor form of JJ, Moussa and Nicolo mean that this is much tougher than it should be. They are relatively ok away from home too. I suspect that this will be tight. We need the crowd to stay with the team. I think we will nick it by the odd goal but would not be surprised if we fail to take three points. Big, big game. Would bite your hand off for a 1-0 now.

20 minutes ago, eholm said:

Agreed. However, I guess Dendoncker is his current deputy although I am sure Unai would like to upgrade him. Our biggest issue will be moving players like him on. We’ve got players who fill out the squad who are on very good wages but need improving on e.g. Dendoncker, Traore etc. FFP will hamstring us to a certain extent in this regard. I cannot see a way in which we sign another CDM without shifting Dendoncker on - and that will not be easy unfortunately. 

If an opportunity to move Dendoncker on arises, I wonder if we would risk moving him on without securing a replacement until the summer. It’s a chance for us to take advantage of a desperate team like we did with Ings last season and also makes space available for the very start of the summer window.

I would be tempted at the right price, although it’s risky. We are of course in a much different position to this time last year however so I suspect we would act with greater caution. I thought it was a brave move to sell Ings last January but I thought at the time that it was the right thing to do. Would we be so brave again?

1 minute ago, bojong said:

Do we want West Ham to win? 

Draw probably the best result then a hammers win. Small margins though.

Just now, foreveryoung said:

It was that bad.

An I base my reaction on weather we win or lose, not stats.

We have lost at old Traford loads yes, but we are 3rd in the league went 2-0 up in 25 minutes against a Man U team who have been relatively poor this season, not scoring even 1 goal in 480 minutes and a 70 million striker who hadn't yet scored in the Prem.

Obviously us being the Villa, lied on our backs, while they got all that back, then watched our goal keeper rub salt in our wounds by helping the scorer of 2 of the goals relieve his cramp. What a night to remember hey!

You need a lie down mate. That level of stress is not good for anyone. We are having an unbelievable season. Enjoy it (even the rubbish bits). That was our first defeat in 11 matches. We’ll bounce back.