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allani

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Everything posted by allani

  1. 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).
  2. 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).
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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????
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. allani
    It's a small price to pay if it means Pau is fit for next weekend!!!!
  11. allani
    Brighton can do us a big favour (or not) in that respect.
  12. 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.
  13. allani
    I would be surprised if Pau, Carlos and Konsa are all out for another month. Pau looked fairly relaxed and comfortable on the bench rather than a player who was worried that they might be out for a few weeks (but that might just be wishful thinking).
  14. allani
    Pretty sure that their big chance would have been ruled out if they had scored as it looked offside to me - the reply was pretty quick so it's not certain but it looked like he was most of his upper body offside (unless there was a trailing leg somewhere along our back-line).
  15. allani

    Pau Torres

    allani replied to Delphinho123's topic in Villa Talk

    I thought it looked like he maybe over-stretched making a tackle after a bad pass from Moreno near the end of the second half. Hopefully, it's just as case of it being a bit sore and so erring on the side of caution. There didn't seem to be any sign of ice or strapping and he seemed to be fairly comfortable on the bench.
  16. allani
    If they are the only CBs available then there's not much else we can do. Hopefully, Pau was precautionary and Konsa makes good progress in his return.
  17. allani
    Yes - your point is thoroughly validated by the stats. Taken the lead 13 times and won 12 of those matches. Man Utd is the ONLY time this season we've not won having taken the lead.
  18. allani
    Hardly killing us when we are 4th in the league... Sloppy yes. But we don't need to over-react.
  19. allani
    But I think the benefit to us is also that we bring more retail in house (rather than being tied into Fanatics) - so we get more from the deal, a bigger percentage of the sales and (hopefully) access to more retail outlets so more sales. It seems like a win, win, win.
  20. allani
    It will become an issue in about 2050 when we're trying to figure out how to layout the stars for our 32 league titles.....
  21. allani
    I actually quite like this. Should we have 7 stars when we play in the FA Cup (maybe not above the crest but somewhere semi-discrete on the shirt)?
  22. allani
    Only when we play in the Champions League (which will hopefully mean exactly the same thing!).
  23. allani
    A new kit manufacturer and a new shirt sponsor announced at the same time would do wonders for our FFP projections!!!
  24. allani
    Well he does then say that Celtic's kit / merch revenues were £29m (although it's not clear whether they rose by that amount or rose to that amount) so potentially £100m every four years.
  25. allani
    I think it is absolutely coming from the club. We can't release the info officially but there's nothing that directly ties us to media "speculation" or discussion (there's no way this can be speculation now). A couple of things that I noted from the article - (1) "Celtic raised £29m in kit and merchandising revenue alone, which represented nearly a quarter of the Scottish giant's overall turnover, while Leeds recorded a similar figure in 2022" and (2) "The franchise’s (96ers) valuation was under $300m when Heck first arrived, now, it stands at over $3bn." I have said for a while that though FFP might be a challenge short term - we've clearly fallen so far behind other teams in a number of areas that there's real potential that FFP could play into our hands really well in the next few years because there's so many more opportunities for us to grow our revenue numbers faster and higher (in percentage terms) than a lot of other clubs. We might not match them with the overall numbers but the difference between our "now" figure and our "then" figure could be huge which would give us some real power in the transfer market.
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