chips'ngravy

19 hours ago, omariqy said:

I listened to the podcast too and whilst I agree with some of it, they are a very cynical bunch. I think they are being contrarian for contrarian's sake. An example is Grealish creating Keinan's chance against Arsenal. They mention that's not a big chance and Keinan still had to run and outmuscle a player. Whilst on the face of it that may be true. It was a massive chance created by unbelievable play that you would see someone like Messi do for Barca. Grealish does not play in the same position as Sancho or Rashford. They are forwards. Grealish plays from the left but is always in behind the midfield and between the lines. Foden and Mount are his competition. We all know it. Southgate knows it and I was dissapointed MOMs twisted it the way they did. 

Edit: they've always been fairly critical of Grealish and comparing him to players of 20/30 years ago. It's an unfair stance given the teams he is playing in.

Totally agree. I'm a long time listener of the pod and still think it's the best Villa related one out there, but it was a very skewed argument effectively supporting his exclusion.

It started slipping into the realms of the absurd when they were suggesting that if he was that good then we should be expecting to get something out of Man City and Liverpool when we play them.

By the end of the pod they'd unwittingly done at volte-face by saying perhaps he was the kind of player England might need when unable to break down stubborn sides. Well, hello...isn't that essentially the argument for having him in the squad all along? He's clearly something of a one off in the current era and would definitely offer something different if things weren't going to plan.

Very disappointing analysis of the situation. I must admit it's never as good if, as is often the case of late, Dan Rodgers is not on it. 

The latest 'Grounded with Louis Theroux' is a really good insight into Troy Deeney's life. I know he's not popular on here but he's articulate and comes across as a thoughtful and intelligent person. Could make an excellent pundit, I reckon.

I can give you a few numbers from Spain taken from La Vanguardia and RTVE.

In the week up to 13 August:

1467 hospital admissions

93 of which were in ICUs

125 deaths

Last 24hrs:

3650 positives

765 hospital admissions

658 hospital discharges

National occupation rate of ICUs:

4.4%

Total tests:

8m (about 17% of the population)

Ratio of PCR to Antibodies tests roughly 90:10

11 hours ago, Villarocker said:

I said similar earlier in the season. Jack would be perfect for Barca. 

Pochettino is the new favourite for the job as Bartomeu tries to save his skin, so it might not be as far-fetched as we think. Especially as they seem bound to make wholesale changes in the squad to bring the average age down. 

He appears to like the beach lifestyle too

I think Cantwell is a cracking player. Stood out for me in the home game vs Norwich. Had a pretty impressive first season in the Premier League and is only 21 (I think) so plenty more development to come. He's a local lad though so I wonder if he might stay put for another year or two.

Well, he obviously didn't work out for us but his spell with Blues last season has shown that under the right circumstances he is a capable striker at Championship level. His record relative to minutes played last year was a little over 1 in every 2. Not too shabby and surely interesting enough for a number of sides to take a punt on.

Just watched all his goals from last season. Hard to see him scoring any more than about 20% of those in the Premier League. The vast majority were free headers with no one within about 5-10 yards of him. 

I'm not saying he wouldn't be good for us or a success in the Premier League as I'm not familiar with his all round play. Goals alone in the Championship aren't as useful a metric as you'd imagine though on that evidence. 

Excuse my lack of research on this thread, but aren't we in for Eze? If not, why not? I see Palace have had a bid rejected and that QPR are holding out for 16m. Surely that puts him in our sphere of attainables? 

Definite no. Aside from his far-right sympathies he's just not good enough. Often caught flat-footed and rarely pulls off a save you weren't expecting him to save, which can be the difference wherever you are in the league but all the more telling when you're a struggling side.

No idea what the budget is or what the strategy is but he can't be the answer either way.

1 minute ago, zab6359 said:

Didn't against Arsenal?

We were much more positive and Guilbert didn't look as ropey as he does today

Need to be more positive. Can't bet the house on not conceding with our record of conceding. Suicidal

6 hours ago, John said:

How many times are they going to take to the streets to celebrate this? How many times are they going to be allowed to do this, before they face a penalty for doing this? They just do what they want and get away with it.   

Unbelievable. Places going back into lockdown over here in Spain and they just showed those images on the national news along with the Leeds fans doing the same. Leeds players were out on an open-top bus ffs! Not seen any criticism of it in the UK media.

He'll go and it could be the best for all parties concerned provided we get an enormous fee and we spend the money sensibly on improving the team. Southampton are a model of how to do it right and make a better all round side. Losing your best players now and again is a fact of life for all but a handful of clubs in the world. It's what you do with the cash that counts. 

I wouldn't begrudge him the move either. Put simply, he can do better than us at the moment. He'd be well into double figures for assists if he'd had some half-competent players around him this season. The El Ghazi and Davis misses merely underlined that.

Time to look forward and not shed tears. I just hope Suso is not around to decide who we buy

Samatta and Trez were awful from start to finish. That seems to be a pretty unanimous opinion on here. Now, you can understand him going with a player that has just scored 2 goals in the previous game. Samatta, less so. Nevertheless, that's what he chose to go with. The annoying thing for me was not making the change in the first half. We have 5 subs. When something is so clearly wrong then change it, that's what a good manager does. The protocol has always been 'give them an hour no matter what'. Well, we couldn't afford that luxury. 

Likewise, having got our noses in front and being so close to the finish line, make a sub or two...break up the play...do whatever it takes but just see the game out. Across the course of the season this naivety has relegated us. We just haven't learnt.

Unbelievable that such a shocking display was allowed to continue for an hour. Should have been hauled off after half an hour along with Samatta. Very disappointed in Smith for not having the balls to do so.

Ffs Dean...get Samatta and Trez off! So f**kin obvious. No time to wait! Should have taken them off after half an hour

Gotta get Samatta and Trez off. Can't do the basics

Some good stuff but all breaking down with Trez and Samatta. El Ghazi and Davis please

2 minutes ago, Zatman said:

In fairness I think he was a bit confused that it was Trezeguet who scored the first. He definitely cared today and no lack of effort from him today

Don't get me wrong, not saying he doesn't care or isn't making an effort. Just wondering about the emotional side of it from his perspective. If we stay up he could probably still make an argument to stay with the club he loves. If we go down it's a no-brainer.

Couldn't watch the game live today but just saw some, admittedly dodgy, highlights. It was hard to ignore the apparent lack of emotion from Jack when we scored our goals. Now I'm not questioning his loyalty or desire for us to stay up but I wonder if in the back of his mind us going down would make his decision to leave more straightforward? I think if we did stay up, albeit by the skin of our teeth and having played as poor as we have throughout the season, it would still represent a big wrench for him to leave.

59 minutes ago, Hobbit Feet said:

The difference has been a Pearson or Moyles with Premier League experience vs Smith with none and his poor decision making and inexperience. It’s cost us unfortunately. The board are to blame. The most stupid thing I’ve ever seen was to offer him a new contract 3 months into a first Premier League season when he hadn’t even started that well, he wasn’t going anywhere. Disappointed beyond belief.

Pearson, possibly. Always had my doubts about Chris Moyles though.

1 minute ago, jim said:

Cheers Dean you clown.

 Had we got Benrahma and Maupay,  as were Dean's preferences, instead of the shite Suso gave him, they probably would've been the difference.

1 hour ago, chappy said:

Obvious fuming about the injustice of the penalty but have woken up and thinking about it, feel more angry about our lack of reaction to it (Luiz and Taylor aside) - surely a decision like that is a spark for us to show some grit?

You're right, although I think this is where the absence of a crowd has been most telling, not only for us but for the others down the bottom. 

Moments like the pen, like Luiz passing to a stationary McGinn daydreaming about his next deep-fried Mars bar, like Trez running around like a mad-dog trying to close down while the others just stand and watch....these are the moments where the crowd, either through encouragement or opprobrium, will spark a reaction from the players. Without the crowd you're left with the raw abilities of the individuals on show and we know that's not a contest we're ever going to win.

6 hours ago, Paul33 said:

United looked very lively up top at the weekend but looked like a pub team at the back. It's up to our back room staff to capitalise on that ...... might be a case of attack is the best form of defence !!!

 

A cunning plan indeed but for one small oversight...................our absence of an attack