cheltenham_villa

13 hours ago, AndyM3000 said:

Rest will do him good, the pitch looked a bit sluggish today, a few of our players were having trouble with passes.

Lost the ball for their goal, but Kamara would have made a tactical foul if he didn't pick up that early yellow. There's been a few games where either Luiz or Kamara have picked up silly early yellows and it puts them on the backfoot in situations like this for the rest of the game.

Lost the ball but in a very safe area. To be fair we had good numbers back, we just didnt pick up the goalscorer and the deflection off Digne did us no favours.

Not his greatest game, to be expected though.

2 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Do you think ref gives against usual teams that get penalties? 

yeah i commented somewhere else that Salah and Bruno definitely get those pens. I still dont personally think that makes it a pen though. 

You see this type of contact all the time in free kicks and corners. Just my personal opinion it isnt quite enough contact, which is probably why Ollie is able to get a cleanish strike away.

not written him off, just trying to work out what i expect. I dont think i see him as a starter, i think hes probably in with Bailey, Tielemans, Ramsey, Carlos starting 10-20 games a season and featuring in nearly every games.

Thats not a criticism. 

The big plus for me is how quickly he has come in and actually been effective. Hes played a lot of games already and hasnt looked like a stranger at all.

i wouldnt describe it as outrageous. Its a definite push but probably gentle enough to go down as contact. Of course id have liked the pen, if its given against us though im arguing and calling it a stupid challenge.

If the ref gives it, i think VAR keeps it as a pen, if he doesnt i dont think theirs enough personally to over turn it.

While I've enjoyed his cameos, I often wonder if he offers more than say a Traore? He's a slightly different player as his size and physicality is a good weapon for us but I'm fairly sure Traore would have outscored him given the same game time. 

Its a very difficult situation to balance, at some point it looks like we maybe paying Ollie Watkins c150k per week at the age of 32.

Henry Lansbury was recently on Ben Foster pod cast and spoke a bit about Johan. If you ignore the poor form then Henry comes across as very likeable and professional. He mentions Johan as the one who put him out of the 25 man squad and then made him train with the reserves. Seemingly Johan was pulling a number of these strings over Dean himself. 

None of it surprises me, it's the cut throat nature of football but I often wondered him much power these footballers have and how much they continue to have over the manager. 

10 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

I know we are all basically hate the kits, but does anyone know where the origins of the sound waves printed on the kit was? Did that come from somebody at Villa? Does anyone know who that was? I actually find it fascinating, but not necessarily on a kit, but just the idea of using voices visually like that, and I wonder if we know how to idea originated for our particular kit?

I quite like the kit, not the sweaty part but the design has really grown on me, like it does every year. 

i hadnt realised but under 14s get in for free. If i compare it to a couple of hours in the fan zone it starts to become much more attractive. I think the biggest issue here is the loss of an area for season ticket holders. I think if this was brand new in a brand new space it would be much more accepted.

5 hours ago, Ponky said:

He's developing an excellent relationship with Diaby. As they start to really click it's going to cause some teams some real headaches. Genuine pace and ball carrying ability, with the likes of Ramsey and Zaniolo following them into the box.

one of my favourite things yesterday was the kicking from Emi into Zaniolo down the villa left. Zaniolo left so many for Watkins to run into just behind him, constantly dragging Dunk and the other lad out of position and creating space in the middle.

A tactical masterclass, it played perfectly to Ollies strengths and showed his growing relationship with Zaniolo.

5 hours ago, ChicagoVillan1983 said:

This. Our league cup win and the first part of MON was the highlights of my Villa life so far.

Unai has trumped that by miles.

 

Really? I love Unai but the league cup win was one of the best days of my life and MON had us so close to top 4.

Let's give him time and hopefully he delivers silverware. 

Imagine if Southgate doesn't pick him

Excellent today and also the captain we needed. Konsa looked certain to me to get a second yellow for his shove late on. JM was straight onto the ref after being alerted by Emi and managed to calm him. Also noticed him so vocal. On the right, him and cash really shut down a very dangerous Brighton left side. 

We looks so balance with him on the left, bring back Moreno as well and they will do so well. 

i like Cash but its also clearly a position we can upgrade upon. Its all part of the journey though. I wonder if we would have seen an upgrade this summer if the money wasnt needed for Mings and Emi cover?

disappointing result but like others have said, the manner of performance is most worrying. Its easy to blame rotation but in reality, nearly everyone that appeared last night will need to play a role this season. The less involvement our fringe players have, the bigger them impact (negatively) when they play. I think teams typically use about 20 players across a season (villa actually had 20 players making at least 5 appearances last season), for me the answer is to find away to involve these players more and not less.

18 hours ago, Davkaus said:

Assuming they keep the current design but fix the faulty materials for the players' kit, that's fine for the replica, but I'd not be happy if I've spent £115+ on a "pro" shirt that is apparently not first for purpose.

it would be interesting to know if the "pro" shirts are actually the same as the club pro shirts and therefor carry the same issue.

We need a couple of weatlhy VTers to put themselves through a full 90 minutes (actually 20 minutes should do it).

Missed opportunity tonight for John. 

6 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

What was Ollies yellow for?

Watch him get sent off as well knowing our luck ffs

Disent. He was well off, he knew he was as well by the way he stopped running and then tried a shot. Silly. 

3 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

There’s not actually that many of our second string playing.

That's what I keep thinking, pretty much everyone on the pitch will need to start games this season. Its not like we've thrown the kids out. 

1 minute ago, andym said:

He's made a couple of really good saves, but i'm finding it hard to believe it's just an unlucky coincidence that we look a shambles basically every time he plays.

Generally when he plays its with a weakened side. When he played last year in the spurs win and this year in was it the Burnley win, I don't remember us looking a shambles. He's a massive drop off from our world cup winning keeper, just don't think he's recently been as bad. 

I hope he doesn't prove me wrong now. 

12 minutes ago, Amed said:

We look exhausted and it’s still only September! Not even sure what could fix this right now. 

Unlimited food and drink in the holte suite? 

4 minutes ago, AshVilla said:

He gets beat at his near post for the goal and may as well be wearing clown shoes based on some of his passing out from the back.  

How much more convincing do you need?

Beat by a good finish after a **** up by the defence and midfield. Just don't think he's the first in line for blame. Saved well from dcl. I'm not olsens biggest fan but I just don't think he's been our biggest problem. 

Is he the problem tonight, not convinced.