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allani

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Everything posted by allani

  1. allani
    Agreed. For the battle for 4th - 8th I think our offensive and defensive numbers stack up pretty well. But if we want to do more than consolidate our position in that battle each season (which would still be a tremendous step forward from the last 20 years) then the numbers need to improve. I do think that a lot hinges on how well Mings comes back from his injury. I think he adds that physicality, aerial strength whilst still being pretty good with the ball at his feet and being able to win the ball back and quickly transition into attack / control of the ball. I don't think that it's a one or the other - there are a handful of players just in the PL who I think could deliver both and who we'd have a pretty decent shout of being able to sign. As you and I have said many times through the years it's about balance. I think all I was trying to say is that part of the reason we've lost a bit of balance is because we've had so many injuries in very specific areas this season - almost all of which have been in more "defensive" positions. So whilst I definitely think that another Kamara-esque DM, a RB (unless Kosta turns out to be a genius signing who can have an immediate impact) and a prospect CB (to replace Lenglet / Hause / Chambers) are high on the priority list - I think some of that balance would naturally return if Mings, Ramsey and Buendia return in the summer and we can avoid having so many CBs out at the same time next season.
  2. allani
    PS - with the exception of Liverpool, Arsenal and City - only Everton and Man Utd have conceded fewer goals than us. We've scored 21 more goals than Utd and 31 more than Everton - so I'm not sure we should be modelling our set-up on them. Let's say that Spurs win their game in hand 1-0 (and I really hope they don't) we'd then have exactly the same record as them in terms of wins, losses, draws, goals for and goals against. Interestingly last season our defence was the joint 7th best - this season we are joing 6th best. We finished last season with a GD of +5 and this season it currently stands at +18. If we continue this season's goals against rate then we'll finish off conceding 9 goals more than last season. Given all the defensive injuries we've had (not just to defenders but including Kamara, Buendia and Ramsey) that's not awful. Again I'm not saying that I disagree with your general point. Just that maybe it isn't quite as critical as it might appear.
  3. allani
    Except last season our goals against was good and our goals for was poor. Didn't Emi break a record on clean sheets last season? 12 months ago our issue was definitely scoring goals rather than conceding them. We have played most of the season without either of our first choice left-sided midfielders, a recognised DM and probably the two players who headed the ball most frequently in the box (Mings and Buendia - although that is based on memory rather than any confirmed statistics). That said I do agree that my focus for the summer would be (mainly) defensive: - I would like another ball-playing DM to cover for Kamara but also allow us to play a Kamara, DM, Dougie three when we want / need to lock down the midfield. - I'm not convinced by Konsa at RB (he seems to lose his defensive ability and he doesn't offer enough going forwards) but I don't think that Cash is quite good enough in either direction. - We need more aerial power in the box (both ends of the pitch). However, assuming that Buendia, Ramsey and Mings return from the summer in close to peak fitness (a big assumption I know) I'm wondering how many of those gaps they would / could fill? Would slotting Mings into our defensive line and having Buendia / Ramsey rotating on the left solve most of our defensive issues without inhibiting our new attacking threat? Questions that would probably have been resolved during this season but may not be resolved before the end of pre-season.
  4. allani
    I know. This plaice only seems to accept fish based puns.....
  5. allani
    Looks like a Jem of a player.... (collects coat and siddles quietly out of the forum)
  6. allani
    With the Adidas and front of shirt sponsorship - I reckon that's close to a £30m player this summer and next summer that we don't need to sell if Emery doesn't want to.
  7. allani
    Me likey
  8. allani
    There used to be an old adage that went something like: Q: How do you end up with a small fortune? A: Start with a large fortune and then buy a football club.
  9. allani
    I've always wanted us to do a shirt based on the style of the Sampdoria kits - I think they've had some absolute belters over the years (home, away and third kits). I also like the fact that their kits seem co-ordinated - so there are consistent design elements across all their kits (its just that the home kit might have the bars going horizontal, the away will have them vertical and the 3rd might be diagonal and they might all be a different width). They also tend to stick pretty much to their four key colours (white, red, blue and black) - which I think we could also do pretty easily (claret, blue, yellow and white). I'm not a big fan of the current trend for the away / 3rd kit to be garish and "different".
  10. allani
    I really like that. I think it might also look good in claret and blue.
  11. allani
    I think we might have been a bit "blinkered" by the fact that BK8 reputedly offered double what anyone else did - so I think I would be surprised if these kind of clauses were added (especially as we knew that the deal was constrained to a set timeframe due to the forthcoming ban).
  12. allani
    To add to this - I think we also need to factor in the fact that we're effectively now part-owned by Comcast. They are going to have access to a lot more companies (either those that they directly own or those that they have existing relationships with in the sports marketing / media world) that can justify the size of sponsorship that will get us closer to the numbers that our rivals are getting. They'll have existing deals in the US that they can use to prove market value - as well as using the numbers from other teams in the top 7 or 8 of the PL (and hopefully in the CL). For example (and I'm not sure that this would be allowed due to potential conflict of interest) Sky being a front of shirt sponsor would easily be able to justify trebling or quadrupling what BK8 are currently paying. If you look at how much they spend on football in the UK and in Europe any sponsorship deal with us would be minute in comparison to the overall total. So it would be incredibly difficult for anyone to say that they were not paying a fair market price if the deal was significantly higher than our current BK8 deal. And of course theoretically a part of any such sponsorship would effectively be "free" as far as Comcast is considered because they'd be partly sponsoring their own investment (which would also grow in value as I suspect the "value" of Villa as a business entity will increase if we have a big front of shirt sponsor with a long-term lucrative deal. If Sky is disallowed due to a conflict of interest then there are multiple other Comcast companies / subsidiaries / existing partners / clients that would still retain a pretty strong justification for a large investment in the European market.
  13. allani
    I suspect that the reason the Adidas deal hasn't been officially announced is down to some clause in the deal to terminate / buy ourselves out of the Castore contract. Castore will be keen to extract as much as they can out of the limited time remaining. I think it is pretty clear that the deal has been done due to the number of "unofficial" reports through the media and the fact that a certain poster on here redacted himself from further discussions on the nature of the deal. Therefore, I think it is 99% certain that Adidas are already working on / have finalised our kit designs / started manufacture for next season. As serious players in this market and the pretty much confirmed "fact" that we are in their "elite" category - I suspect we'll hear all about our new kits very early after the contract starts.
  14. allani
    I never thought that there was much atmosphere at Upton Park either. Always felt like the away end was a lot noisier and the majority of the home noise was just Representatives for North East Somerset near the away end asking you to meet them in the car park outside.
  15. allani
    No. I think the only mitigation would be that the defender is trying to bring his arms back into his body - rather than them going outwards. However, I would say that there are considerably more issues with that decision than with the decisions to rule out either of West Ham's goals. Yet it didn't even get mentioned by the BBC or in the other "independent" match reports I read. I do think that the media aren't helping on this -I think the BBC headline was something like "West Ham denied winner by VAR". If you only read the headline then it implies that VAR has made a mistake - when clearly VAR eventually got to the right decision. I still don't understand why they were checking for handball. Soucek clearly pulls Konsa back by his shirt - impeding his ability to clear the ball and then wraps his other arm over Konsa's shoulder to wrestle him back further. Both of those were more than sufficient for a free-kick to be awarded before it even got to whether there was a handball or a potential offside.
  16. allani
    Think that is Zaniolo's second PL goal and both have gained us a point. Those two points could be vital come the end of the season.
  17. allani
    A draw away to the team in 7th... Awful
  18. allani
    Leon!!!!
  19. allani
    Nah - he knew the man had beaten him. He was going for a tactical yellow all day long. It looked worse than he intended but he has no intent to win the ball.
  20. allani
    Disagree. First half we played the tactics and were good. Second half both left sided defenders were caught too far forward leaving us exposed. Second goal was just plain stupid.
  21. allani
    I love Konsa but he's at fault for both goals.
  22. allani
    Their best defender going off. Hopefully we can exploit that side of the pitch now.
  23. allani
    Interesting take. I thought Luiz was pretty good given that basically the central midfield is flooded with both teams determined not to lose that battle.
  24. allani
    Yeah neither were penalties - but both times their player touched the ball almost by accident. So encouraging signs that when we run into the box then their guys are trying to put a foot in - they only need to miss once...
  25. allani
    Two teams who are good at exploiting space in behind the defence. I think we're doing the right thing but making sure we don't leave gaps at the back.
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