M_Afro

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

We don't need to study stats to understand from 2-0 up in 25 minutes, the game should have been ours.

Stats mean nothing if you dont win the 3 points.

I’m actually saying that you should base your reaction on the game not the result and then using stats to underpin my point. You need both to add real context.

Why should the game have been ours? Utd lose very few at home. According to MOTD, they have not lost at home on Boxing Day since the seventies! Utd also have some very good players capable of hurting anyone. We had chances to kill the game. We didn’t take them. They took theirs. We lost. We move on.

How many times have we been to Old Trafford in the past 40 years and felt genuinely aggrieved that we lost?  The answer is once. We have had lots of decent backs to the walls performances but never have we been able to compete on an almost equal footing as we did yesterday. It really wasn’t that bad.

23 minutes ago, Tayls said:

Dude, I appreciate that fans are happy with how the stats look and all that jazz, but, we lost. We lost the game despite leading 2-0. 
We had great numbers against Sheffield Utd as well and still only scrapped a draw at home. We need to actually win football matches. 

I get that but we have won 12 of our first 19. We are not going to win them all. Nobody does that. Man Utd have got some very good players and they were at home. They made the most of their chances and had a large dose of luck. We didn’t. 
Against Shef Utd, if the Bailey goal had stood as it should have. We would have won that too. These are the fine margins that exist. It will not always go our way. I’m sure we’ll bounce back soon. We were unbeaten in 10 before yesterday.

People are way too influenced by results, rather than looking at what actually happened. We had higher possession than Man Utd, we had higher XG, we missed 3 really good chances that would almost certainly have won us the game, all of their goals had a large slice of good fortune and would not have gone in more often than not.
Twelve months ago, if you’d told me that we would be going to Old Trafford and achieving the above, whilst sitting third in the league on 39 points after 19 games, I wouldn’t have believed you.

Unai is a miracle worker. There are at least 6 teams in the league with better squads than us and yet he has got us out performing half of them. On the balance of play yesterday, on most occasions we would have got a win. We didn’t unfortunately but we should stop being so reactive and thank Unai that we have a second half of the season that is still so exciting to look forward to.

Our players aren’t suddenly rubbish. Unai didn’t get it wrong yesterday. We just unluckily lost at Old Trafford to Man Utd.

1 minute ago, Jas10 said:

Don’t see the logic in throwing out names such as Gibbs-White and Philips (would anyone even be bothered or interested if he wasn’t at Man City)? Not even that good and certainly wouldn’t represent any kind of value…

Players that would cost a premium and destabilise our wage budget/structure that are simply not even worth it.

To repeat this again - we didn’t employ Monchi and his network of scouts and analysts to then blow millions/billions on PL based players. We will scout the globe and carry out as much research as possible to find high potential, quality and maybe most of all - value!

Maybe we will be more active in the La Liga market going forwards too…

We’re going to sign players that Unai himself wants and rates and sees fitting into and improving the side - that gives me major reassurance…

I’m so glad he won’t have players thrown on him and be pressured to play overpaid prime donnas or sick notes.

We’ve managed to conduct a decent clearout so far, let’s not add to that heap…

I totally agree with everything that you say here but Gibbs White would be amazing for us. He is so consistent at home and away. He works hard. Can carry the ball and his weight of pass is exceptional. He can also finish. All of our 10’s have their moments but particularly away from home, can go missing for large parts. Gibbs White would give us much more ballast in fixtures like yesterday.

He would admittedly cost a small fortune but unlike what we are finding with our players from abroad, particularly the forward players, he would be able to influence from day one. If we did have the money available, I would rather we spend the lot on someone who is as close to a sure thing as possible as opposed to spreading it over 3/4 more risky investments. Obviously being able to do both would be the optimum solution.

It’s Man Utd. It’s Old Trafford. It’s Boxing Day. All of that equals a home win. This Villa team are different for sure but I just can’t see past the history that says we lose this one. Will still have been a fantastic first half season no matter what happens.

At some stage Chelsea will come good. They’re not far off. They rarely get outplayed but they just miss so many chances. They should have been two or three up at halftime today. I also think that Jackson will come good. He’s got everything that you need apart from confidence. I will continue to enjoy their ineptitude whilst it lasts though. Long may it continue.

5 hours ago, Farlz said:

I know he's young and in a new country and everything but I don't ever feel like he contributes anything. 

Our winning home run would have come to an end much sooner if he hadn’t scored an absolute worldie against Palace. 

1 minute ago, Pinebro said:

He just scored and saved us against Brentford and he almost scored again tonight

Ok mate. Maybe you know better than Unai. 

6 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

Yeah he is "ok"

That's why he should not be starting these type of games

I don’t think Moreno is fit mate. I suspect Unai, who sees them every single day, will make the right call. Hopefully Moreno will get back to last season’s form soon.. Until then we have Digne who has been really good this season and has earned the shirt. Moreno needs to earn it back.

1 minute ago, Pinebro said:

We need Moreno's attacking prowess. He makes things happen

Digne is too slow and unadventerous

I think Digne has done ok for creating chances this season. He’s not as fast as Moreno but his delivery is quality in my view. We’re lucky to have both of them in my view.

1 minute ago, UpTheVilla26 said:

Missed him tonight. He's just a class player who adds so much to this style of play. 

 

This is so true. Big Emi, Pau, Boubs, Doug and Ollie are our most important players. They’re all irreplaceable with our current squad. We were obviously missing two tonight and it really showed. Hopefully Pau will be back for Manure.

30 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

Digne is so slow and poor going forward.

This is the reason why Moreno has to play every game. Especially games like these

Digne has been quality so far this season. Moreno needs to earn the shirt back from him. I wish we had the same quality as those two in the other side. Both are really good.

I like Cash. He’s a good guy and a decent squad option but he is the obvious weakness in our starting team. Needs replacing but he’ll keep giving his all until that happens. He needs our backing.

We were really poor, end of. We’ve had some tight decisions go our way recently and tonight they went against us. It’s hypocritical to bemoan our luck when we’ve really benefited from VAR in recent weeks. We weren’t good enough tonight. We move on. We’re still second which is incredible.

With all of their injuries we really should be winning this. I think we will. 0-2 to the mighty Villans. COYVB.

1 hour ago, UpTheVilla26 said:

No, he's not anything. He's a clumbersome waste of space and nowhere near good enough for this club. 

A desperate Gerrard signing. 

I’m pretty sure he was a Lange signing. I don’t think Gerrard wanted him. 
Anyway. I think you’re being harsh. He doesn’t suit our style of play but he has plenty of international caps and plenty of premier league appearances to boot. I think he is a useful option for a lot of decent sides. He just doesn’t suit us.

Probably a case of trying too hard but he looked really poor tonight. You can see why Unai has his reservations. He’s a useful player to have in the squad but I think he lacks the quality to be starting every week.

This guy has had the biggest turn around of any player I can remember. He looked to be on his way out all summer but now he is completely indispensable. Total professional too. He seems to love it here. Well worth his £750k/day salary!

He is so professional. He can’t be happy with how things have turned out but he never complains and he always tries his absolute hardest when he comes on. Top man as far as I’m concerned.

I love Unai. We weren’t great tonight and we looked really tired and yet he still managed to engineer an unbelievable win against an excellent team. He is also so humble and diligent. What’s not to love?!

I was chatting to a guy this morning who is a massive arsenal fan. He admitted that Villa had become his second team and was amazed at the style of our football. He said that Unai was really defensive at Arsenal. Sometimes things are just meant to be. Long may it continue. UTV. UTU.

3 minutes ago, El Zen said:

What a time to be alive. Absolutely mental, all of this. 

That’s so true mate. I never thought I’d see days like these. We just need to enjoy every second whilst we can. 

I never thought I would see a Villa team play to that level. It was absolutely unreal. Unai is the best thing to happen to our club in the last 40 years. God bless you Unai you absolute legend.

Unai is brilliant. His Villa team are brilliant. That was not brilliant but we still won.

Life as a Villa fan is pretty brilliant at the moment to be fair! Remember when we had to play brilliantly just to stand a chance of winning a game? Onwards and upwards.

We had rank goalies for years at Villa. It has been a real problem position for us. All of a sudden this champ turns up and just makes it all look so easy. He is one of the greatest players ever to represent our club. We are so lucky to have him. He is absolutely box office in every way. I hope he never leaves. Legend.