roonst83

Was trying to watch the press conference for this, which normally isn't a problem with my subscription but looks like it now says its for Villa TV+ members only. Ridiculous. Was fine last week. Anyone else experience this?

Yeah and his goal for Brentford typifies how we should be using him. Buendia and Coutinho will find those gaps and Ings will be looking to get through the lines and play off the shoulder.

Yeah he's just what we need. Really like him. Although undoubtedly Leeds will want an obscene amount of money for him. I can't see Leeds going down but would like to go for Phillips regardless.

Every time I see him, I'm impressed. Seems alert, quick enough and intelligent with his play and is neat on the ball and also gets stuck in. Just feels like one of those players where it just isn't working out for him here, but really hope we persist with him and get him more game time. Only thing that may hamper that is our desire to promote the likes of Carney and Tim into the same area, which I'm a fan of, of course. What I admire about him is he always wants the ball and never goes hiding. I can't see Gerrard dropping Luiz for him but I'd be okay with it given how sloppy Luiz and ineffective has been at times. I like Sanson and want to see more.

New manager's first home game will be against us. Typical.

Not sure if we'll keep both Ings and Watkins. Ollie's goal, despite a very average performance, will probably bank him another guaranteed start in the next five games so I expect to maybe see Ings drop to the bench. Watkins is definitely a confidence player so hopefully his very well taken goal on the weekend gives him the encouragement and confidence he needs. I think Buendia will be brought back into this one as it'll be a dogfight in the midfield and we will need Emi's tenacity. I would like it if we started with Ings and there could be reason to keep an unchanged team. For me, I'd be approaching this like an away game. We always go right for Saints and usually always succumb to early goals and defeats. That needs to change so hope we can stay solid in midfield and at the back. Should be a good game but really think we need the first goal to give ourselves the best shot at not losing to these. Oh, and as others have said, avoid giving away set pieces from less than 30 years out to help avid the obligatory.

Kept things simple. Used his body really well, was strong with and without the ball and drove us forward so we’ll. man if the match by a mile and, most critically, he played so well for the whole 90 mins. None of the above has been evident enough all season. His inconsistency has been frustrating this season but today he showed how good he can be. Controlled out play and tempo a lot today as well. Really good to see.

I think it’s more often not a case of Ings not playing well, more that we can’t get him involved atall. He doesn’t lose the ball, doesn’t not try or make effort and isn’t missing countless chances. His work rate is excellent and his vision is very good too. We just do not play in a way that suits him. We don’t look for him with through balls and can’t seem to get him involved. But I do think we should persist with him as a ball playing side should’ve able to make use of one of the league’s best finishers. Plus Watkins has been awful on the whole. I’d be keen to keep him in especially against his old club next.

Much much needed win. We actually dominated the play more than I expected as Brighton are usually good at dictating play. Game was very scrappy but once we took the lead we calmed down more and looked more assured. That said, Brighton we’re woeful and didn’t really threaten us atall. McGinn was man of the match but a country mile and, crucially, he was involved for the full 90mins which hasn’t been the case for a while. Broke up play and drove us forward so much. Really good to see. Really pleased with the Watkins goal but thought he was mostly poor aside from the very good finish. That goal reminded me of the ones he’d score last season. And look how much it meant to him. Good to see Ings going nuts with Ollie too. Love to see that. Great to have Konsa back too. Love his aggression and passion. Think he brings the best out of Mings too. We looked much more solid than recently and comfortable at the back. I must say I thought our in-game management wasn’t the best after going 0-2 up. Hard to say as we saw out the win with a clean sheet but we completely dropped off and our poorest period of play was after we scored until the end. I never fancy Ashley Young starting as he doesn’t offer us much but he didn’t do much wrong. I just feel a better team than Brighton would punish us. The ref really didn’t have a grip on the game. But our yellow cards were mostly completely unnecessary, as they often are. But we showed great discipline in the second half and controlled ourselves well. Coutinho showed moments of class with flicks and tricks but wasn’t too effective for us overall. Ramsay showed quality in the first half but didn’t notice him second half atall. But we got a much needed win and after last week it’s more than I thought we’d get. Makes you wonder what’s been happening these last few weeks against the likes of Newcastle, Leeds and Watford. If we’d kept things more simple as we did today we could’ve taken more points. Big win today and hope we can start to push on and take confidence from a clean sheet and comfortable win.

Konsa straight back in. Easily our best and most consistent CB.

This. Every day of the week. Chambers's positioning has worried me and has a tendency to lunge in. He should be used as a reserve defender and not a DM. Luis at DM didn't stop us winning plenty of games home and away last season so we should be able to gain more control of the midfield in games if we're not expecting McGinn and Ramsay to cover full backs who are being asked to bomb forward so much. Gerrard needs to get us back to doing the basics well and revert back to getting us playing how we did in his opening 6 games. Trying to change too much with new instructions is causing confusion and it shows.

Tough one. I’m really not sure.

I’d be tempted to start Bailey in this one. He won’t get better without decent minutes and despite his performances flattering to deceive, I think he’s better suited against a team that will come at us and not sit back. Brighton will dominate the ball almost certainly so we’ll have to try exploit them on the counter. I want to see Bailey running with space rather than against teams sat back where he gets crowded out. I completely understand why there’s good reasons why Bailey shouldn’t be anything other than a sub but something needs to change for us as we’re lacking any creation.

That’s a fantastic idea!

Sadly he’s not adding anything positive to us right now.

Very valid and I understand what you're saying. It does feel a complete waste to have a striker leading the line who we aren't expected to score, but the other work they need to do definitely frees up the likes of Buendia, Coutinho and Ramsay to get on the scoresheet. Watkins's overall involvement is so lacking in every department right now that I guess I just feel having Ings isn't any worse than Watkins and given the opportunity (ala, Brentford away) Ings is more likely to score. Also dropping Watkins will be good for us in the long run as he is playing like he's too comfortable with his starting position so you'd hope he's improve if he knew his place was at risk. It currently doesn't look that way as Watkins starts regardless. But I definitely take the point that Ings with his style of play isn't perfectly suited to our shape, but we've only got him ro Watkins and the latter is massively flattering to deceive right now. Time to give Ings a run.

Makes a lot of sense. Interesting point about McGinn, hadn't made that link before but he was unusually quiet the other night. Doesn't seem to play well across the full 90 rather in bursts (same goes for a lot of others tbf). I'd agree with Hause over Chambers to try thwart the threat of Wood from Tripper and ASM's crosses. Watkins needs dropping, he's too often ineffective and isn't the threat he once was. He also seems to respond well to bring dropped so hopefully it'll give him some much needed fire in his belly. Ings is a pure finisher, may not possess the same press but he's got way more footballing intelligence than Watkins so should, in theory, work well with the vision of Buendia and Coutinho if both are available.

Any idea if there’ll be an open workout for this somewhere like York Hall again in Bethnal Green? Was great to be up close and personal last time and get to meet Till and Masvidal as well as watch Leon Edwards and Dominic Reyes too.

How long did it take for the website to recognise your membership status so you can buy tickets? I’ve purchased a claret membership but it’s still not allowing me to buy tickets as it says “Coming soon”. So frustrating as the ticket office is closed until Monday now where they open it up to season ticket holders to get extra tickets.

Quick question about this, how long does it take to be able to book a ticket under your membership once you've purchased it? It say s72 hours for the pack to arrive in the post etc, but if I purchase the claret membership today can I purchase a ticket for the Watford game today? Will the online system recognise this, does anyone know?

Absolutely pivotal. We looked dead and buried. The moment they sacked him was the moment I started to really believe we had a chance.

I came on here to ask this exact same question. I'm looking to go to the Watford game and possibly another home one before the end of the season (new dad of twin boys has made getting to games difficult) but it doesn't make sense to spend £40 on a membership for potentially one game especially if it runs out in 4 months. If it's for 12 months from date of purchase then I'd do it. So, any help in solving this is greatly appreciated.

Couldn't agree more.

Aren't both of those available? Both played the other day didn't they?