sharkyvilla

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

I don't think that the rules are helping them - the offside rule is a mess - active/inactive/attempting/blocking/letting play go on first/blah blah blah - the rule works best when a player is either offside or not, regardless of what they're doing there - Casemiro is interfering with play for the free kick that leads to their corner because we have eight defenders in a line and the position of that line is dictated by its efforts to put him in an offside position - he is directly affecting the positioning of those eight players - he's offside, I don't care if he's planting a daisy or picking up litter - we really need to get back to the idea of offside simply being about being offside or not.

VAR doesn't help referees - it's a failure -there's maybe a case for keeping it for offside decisions, but for the rest, let the ref make a mistake if he does - don't make it an opportunity for every dickhead who ever earned a refs badge to pile on and make extra mistakes.

We don't need to add blue cards, we don't need to add anything, we need to move the other way, to simplifying things, to removing dumb rules and then once we've done that, we need to absolutely drive to making sure refs actually implement the current laws, change player behaviours and give them the space to get on with it.

 

They aren't ever going to change player behaviours.  Sin bins is the last thing available to them that they can try and I think it's ridiculous they've abandoned trialing it.  That's the whole **** point of a trial, if it doesn't work then you scrap it and haven't lost anything.  I find it funny that the likes of Ange and Klopp say 'all it will mean is that teams time-waste for 10 minutes'.  Only football will come up with an argument in that trying to combat cheating like deliberate fouling to stop attacks, teams will just cheat more.  It's the only sport where cheating is such a big part of the game.

20 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

If Pau comes back fully fit say for next match, would Carlos or Lenglet be able to do a sort of hybrid DM role?

Might seem silly on the surface but sometimes you actually stumble onto a winning formula that clicks through injury and accident!

Thinking outside the box but maybe it would suit Cash once Konsa is back.  Kamara would be right back when in possession, Matty is mobile, tenacious and him cutting back and taking the safe option when passing might be more useful than out wide.  Just a thought.  I suspect we will get by with Doug, McGinn, Ramsey and Tielemans plus Tim which isn't a bad 5 to have, albeit Doug and McGinn will have to play pretty much every minute.

Too soon  

Gutted for Boubacar and wish him the best with the recovery first and foremost.  Unai has his work cut out, hopefully we may get a surprise with Tim or someone else stepping up.  I assume we can't sign an out of contract player at all, if there was one out there?

21 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Getting into the Top 4 and then collapsing is what we do anytime we think we are in with a chance. It's a far worse experience than just having a mid table season. 

I do hate this football club. It's a curse to ever support it. Football is more poison and pain and disappointment than any tiny bit of false joy that it brings.

 

At least I know I can add you to the ignore list now.

4 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Increasing peripheral member of the squad, with him coming off the bench later and later in each passing game.

Emery has taken a look and clearly doesn't rate him. I will be staggered if we sign him in the summer.  Would Traore have been as good option off the bench? 

All in all seems a strange signing, it was a bit of a gamble that hasn't really worked.

I wouldn't say a strange signing as we lost Buendia so had to loan someone in.  Unai must have seen him a lot and liked his ability and made a calculated gamble on getting him up to speed in the PL but it hasn't come off.  I'm surprised we didn't put Rogers on instead, he must be chomping at the bit and if he had produced a goal or assist at the Holte End he would have been flying.

I still think we will finish 5th but I can almost guarantee events will conspire so only 4 qualify for the Champions League.  I've been encouraged by our last two league performances and think we will win the next three, especially with Pau and Digne back available.  I'm a bit worried about Kamara coming off though, we could really do with a bit of luck with being able to keep a settled team.

9 hours ago, villa4europe said:

I was only half listening but did Lee Dixon really describe diabys goal as "scrappy'? 

He's almost as bad as Murphy, proper dour bastard 

It's like they took Lawro as the example of how to do co-commentary.  Abysmal.

18 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Can't see the majority of PL clubs going for that. It would just set in stone the sky 6 who already have the best stadiums. 

I've got a feeling it was more of a UEFA thing.  The FA version meant teams outside of Europe can spend 85% of income but teams in European competition only 70%.  Anyway it's all rumour I guess, I just wish we'd go ahead with the North Stand asap.

I read in the General FFP thread that there is talk of including infrastructure into the FFP calculations, which I find unjustifiable and would make development of a new ground very unlikely.  Probably even the current plans would be difficult.

I'm pretty sure he will play a significant part for them til the end of the season like last year.  If he played as many minutes as he did with us then his shins would be reduced to rubble by February but the way they've used him, he should be quite fresh.

What's Dr Tony up to these days?  He was an expert in these kind of things.

I assume we can't recall Nadeljkovic as cover?

The thing to do with people parking in the parent and child spaces is to wait until they get back to the car and pretend to phone the police about a child abduction.  This old guy I worked with who was facilities manager at a shopping centre said it worked quite well and got the message across.

He's still scored 4 goals this season so it's not as if he hasn't contributed.  It could go either way, we sell as him as the FFP would be good or we use him as a bridge between Konsa playing RB before Kosta settles in.  We could spend the money elsewhere if we did that.  Anyway I trust Unai and Monchi to get it right.

Offside offside get on with it

The early goal really helped.  Took any nerves completely out and we've steamrolled them since.  Absolute different class.

That was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  Watching it in Tenerife makes it even better.

What a pass that was.  Genius

1 minute ago, MaVilla said:

Because for all his odd moments of magic, overall, getting nearly 80k off the books per week (in the region of £2m in wages saved for the remainder of his contract), for a player who has barely played in the last 7+ months, to me, is something to celebrate.

thats 2m we can spend better elsewhere.

im not saying he didnt have some important moments for us, but overall, he was a very poor signing.

Football isn't just about money though.  Just comes across a bit heartless.

I'm not surprised by that poll, you'd think the vast majority of undecided voters would go for Biden and his lead will go up until the election.  If you aren't already pro Trump then you're never going to be, he's not going to get more popular by November.

Lol cracking start for Philips

The players have given us a lot of good times since Unai took over so I think the fans could do with giving them a push when things aren't going so well in return.  Then again I never go to the games so can't complain really.

He and Bailey haven't played in the same team much in recent months, I think that would help him a bit.

It's a shame we couldn't send him back and get Zaha instead.