cheltenham_villa

It feels like he could add some quality at 6,8 or 10 but maybe not the starter in those positions. I've seen no where near enough to be sure.

Doesn't worry me anywhere near as much as it would have 1 year ago. If true then Watkins, barkley, mcginn, traore, Sanson all capable of stepping up.

I think Anwar is a great option from the bench and to bolster our squad when needed. Good sign that weve now moved beyond him being a regular starter. We cant change everything overnight, I'd expect the likes on Anwar to be around for a while as our team and squad improves every year

Not, not positive (I think I might be the only person who still supports Barkley). Just having the debate. Elmo is a big step down, a success story in a way of how far and how quickly weve progressed. Hope he does well.

But then you need to start making the same adjustments for Barkley. Gets an assist if Traore could finish against arsenal off the top of my head. Goals and assists arent everything, my feeling is that when Barkley is on the pitch, he gets closer to Watkins than anyone else and takes more forward positions. This seems missing for me when he is not on the pitch. If he gets replace, he gets replaced. Either way I like a number 10 playing in advanced positions and dont want to see another defensive midfielder in the team when we are struggling to create and score goals. If Sanson plays, I hope he isn't constantly tracking back and isolating Watkins.

Unfortunately I think hes a huge downgrade for our aspirations. Hes a botton half prem player at best who's now at the end of his career. His service to villa is excellent but unfortunately he is a long way from cash.

Interesting, hadnt seen the stats but support getting a better balance. What are your thoughts on Watkins, his goal scoring runs seem to correlate with Barkley playing at 10. I agree that we dont see the dynamism from Barkley but I do think his positioning helps those around him, in particular Watkins and Grealish. If we bring in a replacement, I wouldnt want to see another box to box midfielder, people need to support Watkins.

I think given our level of investment especially stacked up against how little investment others have made then 12th is the bare minimum we need to achieve. Add in the fact that we have Jack who is arguably one of the top players in his position in the league we really need to achieve top 10. Overlay that with our start to the season, anything outside top 8 will probably feel like a failure.

Struggling to stack this up with recent results. Since our covid break weve kept about 4 clean sheets in 7 games I think. Weve scored about 7 goals during that time. This is with Barkley in the team. This does suggest the balance between attack and defence isnt quite right but to me suggests we need to do more to support the front 4 not the defensive 7. I'd say defensively we have been strong and the stats support that. Weve not creating enough though, this is where Barkley needs to input more, I dont get the argument for him to support defensively.

I'd be against wholesale changes, one of our strengths has been the understanding and trust the starting 11 has. This is particularly evident in the 12 clean sheets weve kept. I'd swap a Barkley or Traore but only one of them not both. Both can be a bit of luxury and blow how and cold. We cant really afford both blowing cold. Any changes need to bring goals or assists to the team, that's where we are struggling.

We need someone who's going to score or create a goal, I'm not sure that's Trez.

The worry is where do the other options come from. Weve stopped scoring goals, only 7 since our break. Would probably consider grealish into the middle and AEG back on the wing. Weve been playing Luiz and McGinn as a holding 2 and the only we changed from that West Ham took us apart. I'm not worrying about Barkley, I think his form will return, I'd like so seen Deano give us something that creates chances.

Barkleys got to do better there at tracking the guy that Cash has let go for a free header

same way as everyone else?

which games? maybe against certain teams it works better but ive not seen many better performances than Liverpool, Arsenal and Leicester

Plus pocket the 35m or whatever the fee is now. In this covid world that feels like a very large transfer fee and could by a more than adequate replacement.

I think the same, I speak to friends who cant believe he is in the england squad. Wheres the competition though? Maguire not great, Stones patchy form, Michael Keane and Gomez? 10/15 years ago we had great centre halves but they were also supported by full backs who didnt cross the half way line.

I think Dean answered a question about Barkley as opposed to calling him out. I highly doubt any of that first team were training, not all of them were coming off the back on an injury though. Team morale looks very strong, Barkley looks a good fit, I think hes helping to drive a higher standard and increased expectation.

Also my view, his tracking back is ok but his defensive organisation is poor. I'm just not convinced he naturally knows where to be. My expectations defensively are much lower than others. We signed him to play in a front 3 or as a second striker. We play with a back 4 and generally 2 defensive midfielders. I'm not sure why he needs to be constantly stood next to Matt Cash.

I think those judging wes on previous form forget how different we now play. I cant wait to see him fit and firing against a tired defence with Jack, Traore and Barkley all getting the ball into his feet. We are a completely different proposition to the team that Wes played in.

Nope, deano has given them the day off. Appreciate the sentiment though.

But we kept clean sheets in one of them. Start making major changes to that midfield and you will invite more pressure. For me we now have the best balance of attack and defence.

Not sure, looking at last year, Leicester, spurs and arsenal probably have a greater pull then wolves, sheffield united and burnley.

I think it's a huge attraction that we belittle. Watching that spurs doc on amazon, the likes of Kane and others were desperate for europa qualification. Theyve got Wolfsburg next, just gone past Antwerp and are 4 games away from the champions league (or maybe 5). Something like that could be a huge factor in keeping the likes of grealish. Its shows consistent improvement.

From comments it looks like Sanson is a summer purchase brought forwards. As usual, a lot is probably determined by whether we lose Grealish/Luiz.