macandally

For those knocking Harrison/Barnes links, you cannot coach pace and they would give us that on both flanks as needed. 

I am surprised we didn’t just keep going until Liverpool scored.

I am just thankful the VAR decisions were right 

Boro are a different side without Ramsey, they click with him in the side, average without 

7 hours ago, Tom13 said:

Personally, I wouldn't. Technically sound, but mentally not strong enough and his decision making was often poor. Whenever he won a start or two, he often failed to deliver. You could literally see him panicking in possession, and the amount of times he chose to shoot when there was a better option...very frustrating. Having said that though, technically he was very strong and could do some nice linkup play when he kept it simple. But I think mentally he never thought he was good enough to hold down a starting spot.

I would suggest the number of key penalties he tucked away would mean mental strength.  He was unerring.  
 

Takes two people to make a pass, passer and receiver, for years Villa couldn’t do that so again, don’t always judge the individual by the team.

just look at Chelsea right now

Would take Carlos Alcaraz from Southampton at right price.  Technically very good, can finish and hit a free kick, be a good squad player to get in. 
Pretty sure he won’t be staying there with relegation so all comes down to price 

9 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

I dunno - I don't necessarily see Purslow being the guy for the group - I think they'd put 'a Purslow' into each club they own - I think he's influential in the Premier League, he has knowledge, contacts and obviously the ability and experience to do the role, but I think that's his focus, the Premier League - he spends much of his energy making sure that the rules of the league don't get changed in ways that would negatively affect us - that and the big picture at the club.

I think Alemany is more a players guy - someone who makes deals, someone who translates a managers' dream into players at the right prices at the right times - his whole focus seems more on the team. Now Purslow has done a lot of that while he's been here, but it might be that he's decided that he'd rather concentrate on the big picture fights, the 'club' stuff and leave player negotiation to someone else - it's possible that decision might have been made for him - but I think those two can comfortably co-exist, with Alemany the first team guy who reports to Purslow but carries out some of the duties he used to do.

In the past, Alemany has done more than that, but for both men, it might be a case of doing more of what you're best at and letting the other guy do the rest. I guess it might also be a case of both getting to do more of the bit they enjoy.

Heck I can't quite figure, I don't know too much about him but from what I can gather he's someone who grows a business through marketing, increases reach and visibility and penetration and all those other words that get marketeers all excited - which is interesting in that I think he can do that without necessarily overlapping with Nicola Ibbotson in her role as Commercial Director - Nicola is a deal maker in marketing terms, she's the one selling the space on the front of our shirts, and I think Heck is different, I think he's the one trying to make that space more valuable - so they will naturally have to work together, but again, I think they can do that without getting in each others way.

Purslow again appears in that picture, he's worked closely with Ibbotson in making shirt deals at a couple of different clubs and seems to be quite involved in those deals - whether Heck to an extent restricts Purslow's involvement isn't quite clear, but if his focus is more on promotion of the brand than sale of it, again I'd say it should work.

Heck though has done more than that in the past, he's run teams, so whether he's stepping back into his specialisation and away from a general role, I don't know.

Paul Tyrell will I guess continue to be Paul Tyrell - taking the big picture stuff from some of those people and translating it into plans that get carried out by people who know how to do it.

Lange is more difficult - especially since Lange's role has always been a little bit difficult to understand anyway - in the past, we've had this trio of people - manager, Purslow and Lange - presenting players, coming to a consensus and then Purslow making the negotiations. Of those people, I'm guessing that Alemany will replace Purslow in terms of what Purslow does now, but that Purslow will still be involved in terms of ratifying transfers and purchases with the board, how Lange works I'm less clear on - if he's going to be presenting data to Alemany, then I think that's a lesser role, if he's going to be Alemany's right hand man, his eyes and ears, picking out players, recommending them, assessing them, then it's going to take a very big lump of trust on Alemany's part to make that work - especially since it's quite probable that Alemany already has people who do that. That's the relationship I can't figure.

Unless...

If we upscale this to the group level, I don't see Purslow as CEO for V Sports - he's a Premier League specialist with a big job already, I don't see Ibbotson as being the group person because different markets require different contacts and experiences and selling a Premier league shirt is different to selling one for an Egyptian club, or an MLS one, but the two new guys I can see having a group role.

If Heck can grow business's then he can grow Villa, Vittoria and the future group clubs, if his job is visibility and marketability, then I think that's a skill he can carry across the group - and looking at that across the group gives him something he'll 'run' which maybe takes away from him stepping back into his specialisation with Villa.

Player markets are peculiar in that they are global, but also extremely contained - all of the worlds best players end up under a reasonably limited number of global agencies - the contacts Alemany has in Europe are contacts that are good for the whole world - and I think his role is definitely one that can be scaled up for the group - which might make more sense in that he'd then have a Lange type figure at each club who liaises with the manager and CEO of that club on his behalf....maybe.

Or maybe Lange's role goes group wide and he becomes responsible for collecting data on players at all sorts of different levels on behalf of the group - making recommendations to Alemany on who might be worth signing, that Alemany then takes to the CEO and Manager at the clubs involved and then puts to the board for financing.

It's difficult to understand exactly how this is going to work - but we now have a number of senior people who have run large sports teams on our books - that ought to have a positive effect I think - it'll be fascinating to see the impacts they have.

 

Good post and read.  I guess nearest analogy could be the Red Bull approach?  

33 minutes ago, Indigo said:

I don't really understand the certainty some have in the kind of players that will or won't be signed. Most were surprised that a left back arrived in January, and it's not like Emery hasn't signed or wanted to sign Premier League players previously. Nor is it a blanket rule that PL player = no good deal to be had. We're in the early stages of a period of quite a few changes in the club, it's difficult to know exactly what to expect.

Nobody knows except Unai and the recruitment team!

it’s just the usual “football manager” 19 changes including 7 first teamer’s because we know better

6 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Not sure he had much choice given how light on numbers we've been.

4 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

It’s not though is it? What other options do we have? Coutinho has been injured. As has Bailey and Boubs. He obviously does think he’s worthy of playing under the circumstances but these circumstances are not of his making. Let’s see what happens when Unai is picking from his own squad. I just don’t think that Emi will be a regular starter then. 

Only lately, Buendia was first choice for the games when those players were fit? 

I think he tries too hard and ends up beating himself most of the time.

Needs to relax on the ball

2 hours ago, M_Afro said:

Nope. He’s a regular in someone else’s team that is currently managed by Unai. It’s going to take a few transfer windows to turn us into a real Unai team. Buendia will need to be much better if he wants to still be starting in 12 months.

Semantics, if Unai felt he wasn’t worthy of playing, he wouldn’t be playing 

1 hour ago, Lerner's Driver said:

Who else's could it 

20 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

Maybe. A bit certainly but he really needs to cut down on the sloppiness and the petulance. Until he does he will never become a regular in an Unai team.

He is a regular in an Unai team?

6 hours ago, Leeroy said:

Mcginn has been good under Emery, but we can't ignore that he has just one goal this season and only a couple of assists. That isn't good enough for a player playing in an advanced midfield role. I like mcginn but I think his role now must only be as an impact sub. Don't think we should sell but we need to upgrade that area of the pitch and that would see his minutes drastically reduced next season. Maybe sell in summer 2024 though. Ramsey is young and will get better but he's starting too many games, next season he needs more competition which will hopefully get more consistency out of him.

 

Buendia is another one, he is our record transfer but what is he really offering except work rate? Very rarely does he open up a defence and he has scored just 9 goals in two seasons for us. Again I probably wouldn't sell this summer but next season he shouldn't be more than an impact sub in the league. We need to bring in a significant upgrade this summer. Likewise for Bailey, everyone says sell, maybe we should, but I wouldn't be opposed to him being an impact sub next season either. But definitely shouldn't be starting. Watkins I'm 50-50 about, maybe give him another season as main striker, but these periods without scoring are a concern. Konsa needs more competition too and we need a right back. Young is a great professional, but do we want to rely on a 38 year old in defence again next season? No in my view, but definitely give him a coaching role. If we can sell Digne we need another left back too and while Moreno has looked good for the most part (except the last couple of games where he's been poor) he'll be 30 next season so we won't get more than a couple if seasons out of him.

 

Traore, Coutinho, Chambers, Olsen and all the players on loan (Sanson, Nakamba, Davis, Hause, Wesley etc) need to be sold IMO, none of them have a future at Villa. I'd almost consider with a couple of them, if we can't sell, just release them like we did with Guilbert but that's down to the owners. The young players on loan (Archer, Ramsey, Iroegbunam etc) maybe go on loan again or are integrated.

 

Buy:

Young backup goalkeeper (eg James Trafford, Bazunu)

Right back (eg Foyth, Dumfries, Geertruida)

Right sided centre back (eg Christensen, Timber) 

Attacking left back (eg Truffert, Tierney)

Central midfielder (eg Guendouzi, Kokcu, Lo Celso)

Creative attacking mid (eg Goncalves, Maddison)

Pacey winger (Williams, Torres)

 

That's seven new players without buying a new striker so shows the amount of work we have to do this summer if we want to break into the top 4/6 positions. Might well have to do it over two summers (2023 and 2024) as would be very expensive to do it in one summer alone.

 

So rip the heart of the team by selling 6 starters?

Forest say Hi  

3 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

No chance he starts for us next season if we get our recruitment right. 

In your opinion of course 

7 hours ago, M_Afro said:

This argument only stacks up if it’s only the  difficult passes that are dragging your percentage down. The annoying thing about Buendia is the amount of times he misplaces a simple pass or gets easily dispossessed, often through lack of awareness. You rarely see KDB falling foul of those things.

He really divides opinion Buendia which normally means his real value falls somewhere in the middle of the extremity views. I think that he will be a squad player next season. He is a useful option to have around but he has rarely been consistent enough to continue as a guaranteed starter.

I believe the more the threat around him, the more space he will have to play.  Our main threat is Watkins, centre halves nullify that and the midfield can swamp Buendia.

Need that second striker, wide threat.  It’s not any individual, it’s the collective that needs fixing and the individuals will thrive 

14 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

Doesn't even matter who we sign. It never  change.

There is something 'midtableness' about our club that seem to have existed for agres and deeply enrooted within the walls of the club.

I don't know how or if he will be able to change the mentality. It will be the hardest part.

If you can’t change the team, change the team! ;0)

De Bruyne said the other day that for his position pass completion is irrelevant, as if he is hitting high numbers he is not doing his job.

Buendia is the same for us, he should be trying those passes inside the full back and in between the centre half’s.  Ergo, he will give it away more.

I am not going to argue his stats can improve, that goes across the team but it’s always the same handful of people targeting him.  As before, boring now  

2 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Lo Celso is owned by Spurs so probably have to deal with Levy shit negotiations

True, but they put a price on him in Jan so hopeful that’s still there 

5 hours ago, nick76 said:

I’m not sure I agree, we’ve seen what Smith Rowe can do but less so Nelson. At this point, unknowing how the injuries have affected them then I’d take Smith Rowe.  Obviously transfers fees and wages then would have to be taken into consideration but pure playing to date, I’d take Smith Rowe.

Shoot holes in Lo Celso then advocate a player who spends more time on the physios table than the pitch! 
 

Got to love Villatalk! 

2 hours ago, nick76 said:

What if Emery wants some of those PL players?  We don’t know what he wants.

Also Lo Celso definitely didn’t prove he could handle the PL, he was average to poor in his time here.

Pretty sure Emery will have final say on all transfers and knows who he wants.

No we don’t, but we know where he looked in January.  

I don’t recall Lo Celso being out of place in the Premier League, he looked technically competent but maybe a touch off the pace which isn’t unusual for overseas players new in.  Therefore perception, you have yours and I have mine.  Plus Spurs don’t play the Emery way, so just because he didn’t do a job for Spurs, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be a good addition to add depth to our midfield.

I am hoping that we don’t pay any “premier league premium” this year and leave Unai to bring his choices in, he has earned the right.  Plus I would back his analytics against our scouting team!

Lo Celso and Guendozi have proved they can handle the premier league, shouldn’t cost the earth and in Unai’s eyes can be coached in his system.  No brainers.

If there is one thing you can be sure of by now, Emery teams punch above individual players

3 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Come on, he was comfortably our worst player today. Not sure that’s unconscious bias! 

We are happy to laud the team when we are winning but single out individuals when we lose.

Top tip, don’t ever try coaching, you sound just like Gerrard 

4 minutes ago, VillaParkAvenue said:

He doesn’t seem ready. Lots of talent but really immature. Somewhat strange January signing when we needed someone who could do a job right away.

He is 19, not sure how “mature” we were expecting 

Just now, Delphinho123 said:

It wasn’t, but why can’t people criticise an atrocious performance from our worst player on the day? 

Because he wasn’t, but in your mind, he was likely due to your obvious unconscious bias 

1 hour ago, Delphinho123 said:

Scapegoat? He played poorly, yes? 

It’s really boring now, whole Team was below par but bet this was the first thread you headed to