I Make Pies

There are no easy games in the Premier League any more. Everyone is well organised and can play. The best teams have more quality in the final third and greater levels of consistency and confidence but that's about it. Barring a couple of exceptions, we stopped having bad teams in the league about five or six years ago when the new tv deal came in. In the old days a game at home against the team second bottom was expected to be an easy win, and the players got hammered if it was anything but (I remember us being 2-0 down vs Coventry in 2001?2002? and the whole crowd sung "what a load of rubbish" as the players went off at half time). It's a different league now but expectations remain the same.

I thought Buendia was excellent on the defensive side of things today but a bit clumsy in the attacking half (aside from his goal). Coutinho has more quality but can he do the defensive work from the left side of midfield? If he can, a midfield of Coutinho-Kamara-Luiz-Ramsey looks very strong on paper.

Every now and again we seem to play a strong team and batter someone. That was today. Shame we can't put a team like this together more often.

Gerrard & Beale: Rangers to Villa

Beale: Villa to QPR

Critchley: Blackpool to Villa

Beale: QPR to Rangers

Critchley: Villa to QPR

Gerrard: Villa to Blackpool to complete the merry-go-round?

Centre mid seems to be the strength of our team atm and, barring a couple of errors, Raikhy has acquitted himself well. Watkins and Bailey have been 2 on 2 with the opposition defenders a few times and we have struggled to get them the ball.

Hard to judge how far this team could go given the poor standard of the opposition. It was one way traffic for 90 mins. 5-0 flattered Brentford. Our forward line looks better than two years ago, midfield not as good given we had Carney and AJ, defence fairly similar probably. Still have players to come back like Feeney and K Young (if they are not involved in the first team). Plenty of encouraging signs anyway.

Quick mention about one of the weirdest things I've seen from a referee - Brentford played the ball forward and the ref caught it instead of moving out of the way. He then gave Brentford an uncontested drop ball in the Villa half even though all the Brentford players were in their own half and the ball was going through to the Villa defenders.

Commentators who reference players by their clubs during international matches. I.e. Man Utd's Rashford rather than England's Rashford. Internationals are supposed to be an escape from club rivalries.

U18s: Wright (GK); Rhoades, McDowell, Softley, Barber; Munroe, Alcock, Pierre; Moore, Lynch, Lutz. Subs: Hammond (GK), Mitchell, Onuchukwu, Timson, Pavey.

Marschall (GK); Ealing, A. O’Reilly, Feeney, Revan (C); Bogarde, Rowe, T. O’Reilly; Afoka, K. Young, Shakpoke. Subs: Zych (GK), Frith, Raikhy, Wilson, Katsukunya.

One big plus for us last night was Kamara. Looked great despite being out for several weeks and playing in a congested midfield, constantly pressured by the opposition. He pressed without fouling, allowing us to nick the ball back a few times, and then had the composure to find the right pass. Going forward Kamara + Luiz/Dendoncker/Iroegbunam looks very strong.

France must have a hell of a team if this bloke cannot make the squad (even if he is not 100% fit yet).

Just watched the game back. Great win! Wish I had been there after sitting through so many horror shows against this lot at VP. A couple of quick additional observations:

- The Lisandro Martinez elbows were ridiculous. He looks at Bailey, draws his arm back, bends his elbow, then smashes him in the stomach with the point of the elbow three times in five seconds. Each one is a clear red card offense. Was the VAR offical on a piss break when that happened?

- The Man U centre backs were much better on the ball than Mings and Konsa and it restricts our ability to play out from the back. Thankfully Emery has spotted this and set us up accordingly with Martinez starting our attacks rather than the defenders. It wouldn't surprise me if we have a new cente back partnership by the start of next season (Diego Carlos + AN Other [Pau Torres?])

Great performance last week but he needs to do it on a consistant basis in the Championship before he should be considered at PL level.

We didn't play with inverted wingers today and managed to get in behind and put more crosses in than usual. I wonder if this is a directive from Emery.

Liked the look of Wilson. Revan Motm.

I like the lion and would be happy with either design. I suspect most will vote for the round badge.

There are a couple of things done for branding/marketing reasons imo:

1. I think the lion is facing to the right to make our badge distinctive. Otherwise it looks too similar to Chelsea's (assuming the round badge is chosen).

2. 1874 - we are currently the second oldest Premier League club behind Forest and this is a selling point (not counting Crystal palace's claim to be the oldest based on them sharing a name with a club who existed 45 years before they were formed).

More pace and power please, especially in attack.

It's worth remembering as well that arguably the best two attacking players in this team, Shakpoke and Burchall, have been hampered by injuries.

I wonder what's going to happen with the kids going forward. We ditched Delaney so we could teach them how to play Gerrard-ball, but they have the same problems as the first team - can't break teams down and only one man in the box for crosses. It's been easy for Brentford to sit deep and stifle us.

Watched it for the first time. You could see the difference width made to us with the second goal. Bailey hugs the touchline, drawing the defender across, then a little jink followed by a run inside and he's in behind. Liked the look of Cam on the right too - I've seen him play there for the U21s and he has that same movement to get in behind his marker. None of the through balls worked for Buendia but the extra space gave him the chance to try them, and you only need one to work and we are in.

Bailey is our best attacker when he's on his game and a priority for our new manager must be to unlock the potential of this bloke. Keeping him close to the touchline should help.

The only question for me (if we are playing 4-2-3-1 going forward) is what to do with Ramsey. Think we are better off with specialist holding midfielders in the middle and wingers/forwards out wide. We already have two number tens also. Big fan of his but he didn't offer the same threat in behind playing from the left in this game.

Uncle Luke would've been proud of Kobei's performance. Looks like a good footballer to me.

I reckon they will go for someone with Premier League experience. Deano had experience of the league we were in when he was appointed, Gerrard didn't.

Better performance today as expected with a stronger team and unlucky to lose. There are similarities with the first team - well organised and strong in possession but struggle to break teams down (outside of a frantic last 10 mins). Our best opportunities seemed to come when Fred nicked the ball in midfield and set up a counter.

Josh 'Kerr Smith' Feeney continues to stand out.

No complaints about the result. If anything 6-2 flattered us. WBA were bigger, stronger and did the basics better than us. We also helped them out with a number of errant passes inside our own half, defensive mistakes and just general bad defending. Did think the sending off of Marshall was harsh though. There were two defenders behind him and the WBA striker lost the ball about half a second after the keeper tripped him.

Positives:

Tommi O'Reilly played well throughout. I've seen him have moments in games but this was the first time he put it together for 90 mins.

Tristan Rowe and Kerr Smith had games to forget but showed enough, particularly with the ball, to illustrate what they can do.

Plenty of hard work from all.

Umm, that's about it. We go again etc. As others have said, this was a tough game against an older, more experienced and more highly rated team.

Tommi O'Reilly needs to get on the ball a bit more. He can unlock the door but seems to drift in and out of games.

Mark Regan doesn't seem to know who our players are. Still better than Jack.