mole86

47 minutes ago, est1874 said:

100%

Definitely what happened, Carlos was fine and the physio came on and ruptured his Achilles with his heavy hands.

He’s quietly having a pretty good start to the season

14 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

What's worse is that with our big squad players need game time. Cups were going to be the opportunity for that

The game is five days before the mid season break so I don’t think this is really an issue this season

Thought he had a good game last night, definitely seems to be getting his head up more. Weight of pass for the Ings chance that hit the post was perfect

23 minutes ago, VillaParkAvenue said:

They came in the same window, summer of 2020. That’s also when Lange arrived. Not sure if he was involved in those transfers.

He definitely was involved, he arrived before any of our signings that summer

1 hour ago, Spoony said:

Out of the £200m odd we’ve spent under his guidance, is Buendia the only “success” (and even then he’s inconsistent as ****)?

Martinez, Watkins and Cash have all been better signings than Buendia IMO

He was obviously referring to the Chelsea goal

4 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Yes its strange, Liverpool play Saturday as well.

Klopp has been crying Liverpool had no pre season so arranged it. Of course we are always happy to help them

All part of the conspiracy to get Gerrard the Liverpool job no doubt

4 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

I think the ropey Xmas-January results led us to reject that bid for him right near the end of the window. Wasn't it £30m or something?

We were too at risk of slipping into a smelly relegation battle so couldn't risk selling a PL ready midfielder.

Now we're likely to get nothing. Results always matter.

I think it was probably more that we couldn’t get the Bissouma deal over the line

27 minutes ago, Zatman said:

 is a difference between hoping he fails and expecting him to fail and I am in the latter

Thanks for clarifying that

12 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Might have been the same game but two different incidents.

Him and Mings had a spat in our own box whereas the ‘injury’ he picked up was on the touch line - I remember that because McGinn and someone else were encouraging El Ghazi to get off the pitch so they could continue playing.

Two different games from two years ago, what a strange theory that those incidents have ‘sealed his exit’ I appreciate not your theory

49 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

I'll watch it at some point but the reviews I've skimmed over suggest they've tipped the style over substance balance and killed the golden goose which kind of felt inevitable, just got to hope they don't follow that on with GotG3 but again I suspect that they will

Saw it last night and this was very much my reaction

Not sure if this is within site guidelines but I've got two tickets available for LCD Soundsystem at Brixton Academy on Friday (July 1st). Only looking for face value, private message me if interested

12 minutes ago, AvonVillain said:

It wasn't entirely like that at all. At risk of having comments deleted and being told off like a schoolboy, I'll bring this on topic and tie these things together. This was the best place to be for the run in directly after the restart; the humour, the trauma, the hope, the despair, it was all here and I loved it! I remember the debate that it was somehow, incredibly, still in our hands when all looked lost because it was! It was difficult to see as it needed a fair bit of working out and also belief... Belief.

Fair enough, I’m not trying to downplay your memory of that time but I don’t recall that at all, certainly until after the Palace game.

1 hour ago, AvonVillain said:

The first sign of trouble, incidentally, was the time of our miracle escape from relegation in our first season back, where I enjoyed the camaraderie on this forum after lockdown more than any other time

You remember it very differently to me, until we pulled out those last four results this place was still toxic despite better performances against Sheffield Utd, Chelsea, Newcastle, Wolves and Liverpool. Camaraderie might have come after the Arsenal game but even after we gave up the lead at Everton this was a very negative environment.

9 hours ago, Zatman said:

but he doesnt deserve a chance, he just got a job because his big name and his buddy as CEO. He is completely unqualified for the job and shouldnt be in this position. Would be same if we hired Frank Lampard

Don’t forget that he was only hired as part of a plan with Purslow to ensure he gets the Liverpool job , still the weirdest thing I’ve read on here.

At least other critics of Gerrard (and the decision to hire him) are relatively open minded. You’ve taken this stance right from the start and now seem determined to negatively spam the forum most evenings across a number of threads, although you do seem to have gone quiet about how awful Digne is…

Really like his all round effort, touch and vision. His finishing has surprised me a lot this season, missed a lot of straightforward chances. Tonight and the Spurs game particularly but just in general he’s not proven to be a clinical as I was anticipating. Good player though

4 minutes ago, VillaParkAvenue said:

Yeah, I meant before that. I would have expected him to start, esp when Buendia didn’t .

But that wasn’t the shape we lined up with, unless you thought he’d play as one of the two up top or in the hole in place of Coutinho? 

I was convinced he would start for us at Watford first game of the season, not surprised he’s impressing and I just really hope he gets a chance next season. He would have been a great option off the bench on Wednesday night 

7 hours ago, Zatman said:

Played 12 won 5 Gerrard for Villa 

Played 14 won 5 Smith at Norwich 

Not much difference in results except the quality of players

 

Pretty selective use of stats there including a win at League 1 Charlton. I think Smith is doing a decent job at Norwich but they did also just have a six game losing run where they didn’t score a goal for over nine hours.

I would love it if just once a manager thread didn’t get derailed from the start by people who didn’t like the initial appointment. The conspiracy theory about the club engineering the Liverpool job for Gerrard is amazingly weird.

I actually think he's been progressively getting better since half time of the Southampton debacle. I'm really hoping his form continues to improve as he's starting to have a real impact for us.

I'd disagree with the notion that he gives it away so often because he's always trying incisive/risky balls. 2 or 3 times a half he surrenders possession inexplicably just by taking a poor touch or taking his eye off the ball, he really needs to cut this out. It's so frustrating and puts us immediately on the back foot.

1 minute ago, Cliffy Biro said:

Well the work definitely starts here after the new manager bounce we had its been a very concerning few weeks. He's probably realising just how much work is to be done.

I’m really struggling to see how anyone could find the last few weeks ‘very concerning’. We had a bad result against Brentford, the only really bad result in terms of pre match expectations since Gerrard took over. Losing to Chelsea and United in the manner we did shouldn’t be cause for concern