ozvillafan

Ref looking at a replay which is herself not 5 yards from the original incident.

Nah - it just wasn't "In the spirit of the game"

Dirty, dirty England. Cynical and clinical. Like watching Man City with the referee letting everything go. You are the better team - but I'd get more joy out of watching you lose the final.

John McGinn mk II

Crap. Gutted for Ty.

Fair call. McGinn the best option then, imo. Bailey to the bench and Tielemans in the 3 man midfield.

Agreed. I was kinda hoping we'd start with Coutinho in his place against Newcastle as he's the closest we have to Emi. It's possible for McGinn to fill that role if we go 4-3-1-2 and bring in Tielemans for Bailey.

While not quite as bad as opening day last season - Newcastle are actually a good side - the scoreline and manner of defeat has tempered my expectations somewhat. 3 things I learned: We already miss Buendia Without Mings or McGinn we are leaderless Digne and Cash < Moreno and Young

Need to get McGinn on the ball. Cash and Digne not having much effect on this game either.

Hmmmm.. People would have said the same about wolves not so long ago - just substitute Portugal for South America. It's not a long-term viable plan.

I'm lost for words. Gutted for him

Aye. I remember the matildas (Aussie national woman's team) playing the mens (boys?) under 18's national side. They were down 6-0 at half time. The point of the contest was to get the girls used to physically imposing teams and moving the ball on quicker, so not pointless. I suspect in any other contact sport (and a lot of non-contact ones) you'd find a similar result. Not sure why in football it's constantly raised. I will say this for the woman's game: They are tougher than the men. No Neymar-like rolling around the pitch when being breathed on. They generally just get up and get on with it.

That's Ange-ball. Going to take a while for the central defenders to work out when to stick and when to twist. Same happened with Celtic when he took over - they copped a few hidings. The question will be: Will he last until it clicks?

Surely you can't be serious.

Yeah, that Rashica thread was a horrible plaice. ... I'll get my coat.

Probably his best game for us, imo, was vs Newcastle at home. Him and McGinn playing down the right gave Newcastle's towering left back Dan Burn such a torrid time they had to replace him halfway through the 2nd half.

Lies, damn lies and statistics Neither Dubravka or Emi kicked a ball straight to a stationary (and somewhat bemused) opposition forward. So that's 1 to Olsen and 0 to the others. Neither Dubravka or Emi had a goal attributed against them from what appears a basic error (parrying the ball back out into the goal area). So that's 2 to Olsen and 0 to the others. I think the issue is that we have to play different when he's on the pitch as he doesn't seem to have the confidence, mentality and - arguably - the ability to play the way we want, which breeds insecurity in the rest of the team. That gets seized upon in the PL - not so much in a friendly.

So Newcastle has Pope and Dubravka - both keepers that can reliably fill between the sticks and of comparable talent. ... we have Martinez and Olsen. Night and day.

Gabby Agbonlahor Should have left a club legend. Instead, left 6 stone overweight and Villa relegated.

You forgot Januzaj - but otherwise a decent list

Meesah

Not yet - but I'll keep you posted

It's been Thursday for 16 hours already! Even longer for you @Kiwivillan !!

I've kept away from this thread on purpose. Now that I'm here and catching up on a few things - just had to say I love your diamond AV logo! A real standout amongst all the other PL badges. Well done!

No no - you have that backwards. I don't read twitter. Ever. Too much garbage, regardless of topic. But I do read the ones that filter through on here. Some may still be less than reliable - but it's still better than trawling through all of Twitter.