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allani

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Everything posted by allani

  1. allani
    One thing that I have been critical of Ollie in the past about is his intelligence / movement in the box. He's had a habit of finding himself in positions where either there are defenders between him and the ball or between him and the goal. I watched his opener yesterday and although it looks like Bailey does all the hard work to give him an absolute sitter - if you watch it back then Ollie's movement is great. He drags his defender towards the near post as Bailey is nut-megging his way into the box, then gives the defender a little nudge so the defender thinks he knows where Ollie is and then cleverly drifts towards the centre of the goal. He's then in a great position for the rebound if Bailey shoots and hits the inside part of the near post or shoots to the far post and the keeper makes a block. Or if Bailey plays him the perfect square ball. It looks like an easy chance created entirely by Bailey's brilliant run and great pass. But actually Ollie's movement / positioning was SO much better than it has been in the past. His movement has always been very good outside the box (although I still think he's better moving towards their goal rather than towards our goal) but that incident and a few other runs that he made / positions he found in the box showed me that this is something that I think he and the coaches have really been working on this season. It's a sign of a genuine striker /centre forward. Very impressed.
  2. allani
    He needs a goal just to calm him down a bit. My only criticism of him yesterday was that he was trying a bit too hard to score. Once he's got a goal in him then he'll be a bit calmer in those situations and more likely to either hit the target or spot the man in a better position. But lots of encouraging signs that he's getting very close to his norm / best.
  3. allani
    I think these issues are things that are probably more important for kicking on next season and trying to close the gap with City, Liverpool and Arsenal (performance / dominance wise rather than points wise). There's things that we can do better this season too for sure - but at the same time I repeat my earlier post (trimmed to take into consideration the teams we are battling for 4th/5th/6th): - Villa have taken the lead in 17 matches and won 16 - dropping 3 points - Man Utd have taken the lead in 16 matches and won 14 - dropping 5 points - Spurs have taken the lead in 21 matches and won 14 - dropping 18 points We've scored more and conceded fewer than both Spurs and Utd. Our goals for is exceptional and on a par with City' Liverpool and Arsenal. Our goals against is still very good - 5th in the league with Everton being the only club outside the top 3 to have conceded fewer goals. The goals against really only looks poor when you compare it to the three teams currently above us. Which is why I think that (although we definitely need to be better at dealing with set pieces) we're performing in line with the other teams we are battling against. So I'm not dismissing your concerns (indeed I share them) - they just concern me a little less. We have a +21 GD difference to Utd (so effectively a 9 point lead) and a +7 GD to Spurs (so effectively a 5.5 point lead although they have a game in hand and one big win could reduce the GD significantly). I think they both have just as big (probably bigger) issues than us. Utd struggle to score, they are really weak at LB (which Fulham exploited yesterday), their first choice CBs are more error prone than ours and they have Onana not Emi in goal. Spurs have taken the lead in 21 out of their 25 matches this season and yet have still drawn 5 and lost 6. IMO Angeball is more risky (and more limited) than Emeryball. We might yet finish 6th but I do think that Emery is better able to react to a defeat or two then Ange or Ten Hag. If Brighton beat Roma in the Europa League that would be a huge plus for us as it would almost certainly take England ahead of Italy in the race for the extra CL spot. As would us getting further in the Conference League than Fiorentina. Having to finish 5th rather than 4th makes our ECL dream a bit more touchable.
  4. allani
    Nah. Magicians are just con artists / scammers in a DJ and top hat. Warlocks have genuine magical / supernatural skills.
  5. allani
    That's easy. Because Emery is a warlock.
  6. allani
    Apparently Forest have employed him to provide advice about how referees will / should interpret different laws and to explain why certain decisions will have been made during matches. The downside to doing this is that there seems to be little consistency between referees / VAR officials in the areas where a referee's insight would be useful.
  7. allani
    Yeah I think we generally are in the same boat here. Before the season started I was hoping for 7th place having been in / around the fight for European places all season. Losing Ty (and in my opinion to a lesser degree Buendia) before the first 45 minutes of the season were complete meant that became a much bigger challenge. We were always going to have a smaller squad than those around us. The fact that we've been able to cope (so far!) with so many key injuries and that players like Lenglet have really stepped up to the mark is incredible. Hopefully, if we can get Konsa and Carlos back and if Pau just needs a bit of wrapping up in cotton wool every now and again - then we can cope and iron out some of the wrinkles.
  8. allani
    Our defensive stats were pretty good last season. That said I do think a new RCB and a new DM would be high on my list of priorities (discounting FFP) - we have really good options for attacking CMs (especially with Buendia coming back) but at times could benefit from having more "robust" midfield with Kamara, Luiz and a DCM who can lap up pressure better. I think we needed that DCM before Kamara was injured but it's probably even more important now.
  9. allani

    Tyrone Mings

    allani replied to Demitri_C's topic in Villa Talk

    PS - I suspect my choice of Digne might raise some eyebrows. Just to re-iterate that I said defenders and I think Digne is a better defender than Moreno. That doesn't necessarily mean that I would start Digne at LB over Moreno. Attacking wise they offer different threats - some teams are more suited to playing Moreno, others Digne. I actually think that they are pretty close to each other (probably the closest competition for one place in our team) - there's no real drop-off in quality when one comes on for the other. Usually it just changes the type of threat going forwards or the level of defensive discipline.
  10. allani

    Tyrone Mings

    allani replied to Demitri_C's topic in Villa Talk

    I think our best four defenders are Konsa, Pau, Mings and Digne. But could that work as a Back 4? I mean if we assume that Bailey is providing width down our right (rather than our RB) then Konsa playing their and drifting into a coverinng Back 3 when we have the ball makes sense. In that scenario then I think the pace of Mings (assuming he doesn't lose too much) and his better aerial power mean he'd be the natural choice for the middle of that Back 3. The question is whether, when we are in the 4 defenders formation, he'd naturally drift to his left (which is something he does now - he's often in that space between a LCB and a LB to cover Moreno / Digne) leaving too Konsa trying to cover too much space / too many players. Given the Lenglet is probably going to go back at the end of his loan and that Carlos has been (in my opinion) quite disappointing defensively - do we need to sign a RCB? If so then can we find someone who is good enough with the ball at his feet, fast enough to deal with our higher line and disciplined enough to play in our defensive line but also good enough in the air to help us defend set pieces better? And then how do you fit the new RCB, Pau and Mings into the team / squad. Would Mings be happy as Pau's "cover"? Can we risk Mings being first choice and surviving a full and busy season after such a bad injury?
  11. allani
    Or even Mings. I think it is fair to say that Mings, Pau, Konsa and Lenglet are all better with the ball at their feet than they are in the air. (I've lost confidence that Carlos is good on the deck or in the air).
  12. allani
    Absolutely agree with this last point. As I say I think it is important to recognise that our defence has been ravaged with a ridiculous number of injuries this season - I think most teams would struggle when they can barely play the same back 4 two weeks on the trot - let alone never being able to play their first choice back 4 (although it does have to be said that I am not quite sure what that would be - as I think our best defenders are probably Konsa, Mings, Pau and Digne but I'm not sure how that works as a back 4). I think my biggest concern is probably us not winning enough aerial battles in our own box. I was annoyed with the first goal yesterday as we've conceded in that fashion a few times now - our CBs should have won the first header and Ramsey/Ollie shouldn't have abandoned their defensive duties until the ball had been cleared. Apart from that I think we were pretty good defensively. Cash made one bad error - but apart from that the defensive line worked well. I have to admit that my little river dropped out so I missed the Elanga chance (although on the replays I think it's far from certain that Emi wouldn't have dealt with that had he not put the shot wide). The other "big" chance that we gave up when the player sliced the ball miles wide was almost certainly offside. Last season we had one of the best defensive records in the league - I don't think that we've suddenly abandoned our defensive duties. We're missing a strong aerial presence and we're struggling with a ridiculous number of injuries across our back line. I don't know that Liverpool, Man City or Arsenal would cope with missing so many defenders for so much of the season.
  13. allani
    Yeah - I've lost a lot of confidence in Carlos. I was hoping that he's be our defensive leader (even with Mings in the team) but he's not got that defensive discipline. I do think we need someone who is better at winning the ball in the air though. Most of our defenders are better when the ball is on the ground.
  14. allani
    Sorry but I think the second goal was just one of those things that happens every now and again. Every single Villa player on the pitch did their jobs perfectly - with the exception of Cash. You can't set up the team on the assumption that someone's going to make a mistake or have the defensive line not hold just in case someone gets caught out. It was a bad mistake by one player. I do agree with you about our defending from corners though. It definitely requires some work. We don't win enough first headers and we don't seem to hold our defensive shape until we've dealt with either the first ball or the second. However, I don't think that our balance is as out as you are suggesting it is. You also have to take into account the fact that this season we seem to rarely have the chance to play the same Back 4 (let alone our first choice Back 4) in more than 2 straight matches. Last season in particular our Back 4 looked superb - because we played a much more settled unit and they really clicked. I suspect that part of the reason we've struggled more this season is that we've just not had those runs of matches where we've been able to field the same defenders every week. I think we've also missed Mings as a leader at the back (although sometimes he needed to focus more on himself than those around him) - although Pau and Konsa seem to be developing more of that (in a slightly calmer way).
  15. allani
    Just watched it and I think that if either Ramsey doesn't let his man go or Ollie doesn't leave his position then we have a great chance of preventing the goal. So yeah two mistakes and so not 100% on Ollie - although I still think if he holds his position then he's in a much, much better position to clear the danger from the ball that comes back across goal (as he's attacking the ball going away from his own goal).
  16. allani
    I need to watch the first goal again - I'm sure it was Ollie that left his position rather than Ramsey. I disagree about Emi being partially at fault for the second. If the defensive line holds (which it did apart from Cash having a brain fart) then the only chance Forest have of scoring is someone pinging the ball into the top corner. So Emi's job is to prevent that from happening.
  17. allani
    Who cares when you can go up the other end and score 4??? Mainly a point made in jest. But we're definitely set up to try and win matches 3-1 rather than 1-0. Forest's second goal was just a bad mistake by Cash dropping back out of the line (the rest of which did their job perfectly). It will happen every now and again and given the way we play as long as we keep getting it right a lot more than we get it wrong it's nothing to worry about. The defending corners thing is different and something that does need to be looked at. Ollie's mistake yesterday of just leaving his zone before we'd won the first ball or dealt with the second is something we've seen a few times now (not necessarily from him). Maybe it is a drawback of the zonal system but he (and Moreno) both pushed out leaving two men completely unmarked. That's something that can be addressed without impacting on the way we are set up and the way we generally try and play. I think it was the 9th goal we've conceded from corners this season - which is too many.
  18. allani
    We literally have the best record in the PL this season in terms of points "dropped" after taking the lead in matches. According to data on transfermarkt these are the stats: - Villa have taken the lead in 17 matches and won 16 - dropping 3 points - Liverpool have taken the lead in 20 matches and won 18 - dropping 4 points - Man Utd have taken the lead in 16 matches and won 14 - dropping 5 points - Manchester City have taken the lead in 22 matches and won 18 - dopping 8 points - Arsenal have taken the lead in 22 matches and won 18 - dropping 9 points - Spurs have taken the lead in 21 matches and won 14 - dropping 18 points This narrative about us bottling matches (which also came up on the match day thread where someone said that it "was killing us this season") is complete horse s***. We are currently THE best team in the country this season at seeing out matches in which we go ahead. Sure maybe at times we've made it a little bit more difficult than maybe it could have been - but Liverpool, United, Arsenal and City have all been ahead in matches this season and been clinging on at the end too. There's a lot we can and have to learn about how to "manage" matches or a season from teams who have a lot more recent experience of competing at this end of the table. But the idea that we're bad at holding out and winning games when we are ahead is rubbish. The area we probably need to improve is getting ahead in more matches - especially those when we are struggling or are under the cosh.
  19. allani
    Good little piece on Bailey's performance today on MOTD and how influential he was. Also good to see that he's up in third place in terms of minutes per goal contribution in the PL this season (at 88 mins) behind I think Haaland and Salah. But I did chuckle about the fact that they appear to have missed the fact that Ollie is now top of the goal contributors pile. An oversight because they were talking about Bailey? Or for the conspiracy theorist in us - was it a deliberate choice to use a table on player contributions that had a Man City and Liverpool player at the top - rather than a different stat that now has a Villa player at the top????
  20. allani
    If the Forest and Everton FFP breach penalties have been finalised by that point - it is possible that Burnley and Sheffield Utd might still have something to play for. Assuming both teams get the same punishment as Everton (and it doesn't get overturned on appeal) the bottom of the league would currently be: Everton 11 (-20 points), Sheff Utd 13, Burnley (13), Forest (14), Luton (20) - with Luton and Sheff Utd both having a game in hand. If it was as close as that going into the last couple of matches of the season then those two matches become a lot less "bankers" than they might if the two teams had already been relegated. The PL really need to get the appeal heard, (hopefully) dismissed and then announce the punishments against Everton and Forest so that the relegation battle is decided on the pitch rather than after the end of the season.
  21. allani
    I think the BBC web-site only shows the fixtures for the next two calendar months (if you click the forward button) - I've fallen foul of that design fault before.
  22. allani
    They've looked uncatchable and in terrific form before and then managed to string some bad results together. They are in such good form and winning games so easily - and yet if they lose to Newcastle they'll be closer to the battle for 4th than the title fight. I suspect that they won't lose to Newcastle tonight though.
  23. allani
    It's a small price to pay if it means Pau is fit for next weekend!!!!
  24. allani
    Brighton can do us a big favour (or not) in that respect.
  25. allani
    Emery's quote (on the Pau thread) seems pretty positive - definitely sounds like it was more precautionary rather than a definite injury. Fingers, toes and nuts crossed.
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