tomsky_11

Disagree. The lion is the best bit (and also the more detailed design of the lion on the gaslamp version is way better) and should stand out more, which it does in the gaslamp one. Why do you need it? The whole point of the gaslamp is to represent the founding. No need to add the date as well. Just sticking the date on it, like they’ve done with the circle badge, is lazy.

I’d assume the club foundation is represented by the gaslamp in option one, hence no need for the date. Think I prefer the more subtle reference tbh.

I think all but Ayestaran, who I don't think he's worked with before.

In the role in which we've hired him he is. He was assistant at Liverpool in 2005. He was also previously at Valencia when they won two La Liga and the UEFA cup. It was Guillem Balagué.

Doesn't the Lakers pick go to the Pelicans either way so absolutely no value in them tanking? And if Nets tank too hard might their pick end up with the Rockets?

Honestly doubt the gap is that big. Not enough to be the main issue we had. I imagine lower running stats (assuming you've seen these? I haven't myself) could well be down to the style implemented: higher possession, dropping to back into defensive shape rather than high pressing.

There's a clear balance required here though. You get managers like Bielsa that expect crazy levels from players that seem to work in the short term early season, but then experience big drop offs because the players just burn out.

First half was pretty even. The drop off second half and noticable difference in energy felt to me more a motivation issue. It was a Newcastle side in a good position, having gone ahead at a good time with some luck, up for the game, 2/3/4-0 up vs. a side in the opposite situation being repeatedly exposed due to tactical errors (as Danks himself in the post-match seemed to suggest he made). I think the Brentford game, when we were on the other side of this and still looking fired up and running plenty late on in the game suggests conditioning might be less an issue than where the players' heads are at in the game.

Yeah think I'll have to check it out. I liked the sound of it but initial reviews had put me off, though if improved and that cheap it's definitely worth a go. Fair enough. Same as a lot of reviews seem to be saying. I'll hold off and hope it lands on game pass soon I think. Got FM out soon and also only recently started Disco Elysium which looks like could take a while.

Assume you haven't played CK2? Guessing you've already done the tutorial in CK3? Where do you think you are getting lost with it? I'm feel like I've found EU4 harder than CK, though it's possible I just haven't put in enough hours yet. Most Paradox stuff can be pretty overwhelming at first. Think I did an Ireland start in CK2 that helped learn the game initially. Pretty sure the CK3 tutorial is an Ireland start as well.

Even still worth picking up? As appears to be available for less than £4. Guessing by died you mean they've just stopped releasing dlc for it? How you finding it?

Birmingham: Emery's birthplace: If anything it's not raining enough.

Surely it's better to have two anyway, one for shot stopping and one for handling...

Think that was always likely, but this... ... suggested it might not necessarily be the end of Cutler. Shame if it has negative impact on Emi, hopefully not.

Said it before and will say it again. Emery could literally have the worst 25 game run of his entire, nearly 20 year managerial career and still have us clear of relegation. The squad is basically the same as the one Gerrard fairly comfortably kept us up with last season after a similarly poor start, and better once Kamara and Carlos are back.

Lol

What would we probably need points wise to get top 7? Here's the average, minimum and maximum points achieved by PL final position since 01/02 (first season with 4 CL places and potential for 7 European places to fall to top 7, ignoring Fair Play and Intertoto qualification) as well as for the last 5 and 10 seasons: Looking at the above, 60 points almost guarantees top 7 (in only 3 seasons since 95/96 season has 8th place earned more than 60 points) and might even get us into 6th while as low as 53 points might still give us a chance of top 7 (in 11 of the last 21 seasons 8th place has had 53 points or fewer) So how achievable is this? 60 points and almost guaranteed top 7 would require 48 points (1.85ppg) over our remaining fixtures. As I've posted in the Emery thread, he's achieved this kind of run at every club he's managed apart from Spartak (where he only managed 17 league games in total). So we would appear to have a manager capable of putting together the kind of run we'd need. To give that rate of 1.85ppg some further context: - Dean Smith's best 26 game run in the PL for Villa, from the end of 19/20 until Grealish's injury in early 2021, was at 1.7ppg - Eddie Howe got 44 points from 27 games, or 1.63ppg, for Newcastle last season. So expecting us to fly to 60 points might be asking too much of Emery, especially when, as I've also noted elsewhere on VT, his first 25 games at the likes of Valencia, Sevilla and Villarreal brought between 1.32 and 1.56ppg. But if Emery can achieve a start on the higher end of this range, 1.56ppg would get us to 53 points and perhaps an outside chance of 7th if we are lucky. (Also worth noting at this point that Gerrard last season got around 1.3ppg, so would fully expect Emery to surpass this, especially with hopefully a fully fit squad after the winter break) Who do we play and what points would we potentially need to finish with between 53 and 60? Pre winter break - new MNU bha - 4 to 5 points - At least one win from these feels doable, with Brighton perhaps most likely. At least one or two points from the other games seems feasible if we play as well as we did on Sunday. Post winter break - LIV tot WOL LEE sou LEI mnc ARS - 12 to 15 points - 4 games we should be looking to win, bookended either side by 4 of the 'top 6'. We'll need to be consistently good against the weaker sides and then hopefully pick up the odd point against the stronger sides. The "easiest run of the season" - eve CRY whu BOU che NFO NEW bre FUL (+ lei to be rescheduled) - 18 to 21 points - 4 very winnable home games, plenty of opportunity to pick up points from the others with only Chelsea to play from the 'top 6'. Tricky finish - mnu wol TOT liv BHA - 6 to 8 points - three 'top 6' sides and local derby away from home not the nicest finish. At least Brighton at home final day is a good opportunity for 3 points.

Does anyone else on here ever do network games? I know we did some VT games about ten years ago.

I struggle to get interested in starting with top teams, and rarely even do a Villa start tbh. My regular first solo game has been, like you've done, start with little/no experience/badges and unemployed with about as many leagues loaded as laptop can handle, then see where I end up. Then the plan is normally to move up the leagues as quickly as possible and end up at Villa at some point down the line. Few games back I did Distillery in NI third tier to Premier League (with Newcastle) in 6th season. Could have moved to Prem in 5th season but rejected job as Villa (in Championship) came up, then Villa rejected me lol. Having said that, struggled to get into any solo game on fm22 and mostly played online. Planning for a day one, 3 team online start in League Two with Swindon, Bradford and Wimbledon to see who can get back to PL first. Remembered you asked this back in fm22 thread @daft and never replied. So, basically it's the latter. You don't have to be online, but if the game is live and being progressed and you are not online then your assistant will take over, so better to schedule times when all players can be online at same time. Exceptions to this might be if all agree to progress game through a period without games, eg in summer, international breaks, etc. Or in transfer window we've had occassions where host will load game just for one or two players to do transfer prep without progressing the game.

More stats. For us to finish on 60 points this season, we'd need to pick up another 48 points. Say we lose Saturday and Emery has 25 games left that would be 1.92ppg. He's acheived this in a 25 league game run at least once at every club he has managed (apart from Spartak where he only managed 17 games at 1.71ppg)

Same ppg for Emery as Gerrard last season would seee us finishing on 44-47 points, depending on Newcastle result. Thoughts if we are below this come the end of the season? Absolutely someone I think we need to give time. Here's his ppg for his first 25 games, then his next 38, in La Liga: First 25 games ppg Valencia - 1.56 Sevilla - 1.32 Villarreal - 1.48 Next 38 games ppg Valencia - 1.84 Sevilla - 1.87 Villarreal - 1.58

What are people's expectations for Emery this season? What do we think is a realistic finish this season now? Best case where can we climb to? And what would be an acceptable worst case? Is there a situation that doesn't result in relegation where you'd be questioning him getting a second season? Or does he get a pass however we stay up? For me, a 48-52 point finish this season is probably realistic, with aim to be at the higher end of that. His average ppg in his first 25 La Liga games with Almeria, Valencia, Sevilla and Villareal was 1.45ppg seems a reasonable benchmark from previous jobs and would land us in that 48-52 range by the end of this season. Not sure how I feel about the worst case at the moment as it doesn't feel particularly likely we'll finish below 40 points. It would literally take the worst 25 game run of his entire management career to do this.

A quick Google suggests Emery brought Javi Garcia with him to Arsenal, but also retained Sal Bibbo, who was the GK coach there before Emery arrived.

Nope. Impossible. Should say with him not arriving til 1st Nov he only gets 25 games. His worst ever 25 game run is 30 points, so even if we lose this weekend, he only needs to equal that to get us to 42 points end of season. Btw 1.2ppg, another fun fact about that, the following PL era Villa managers have a lower ppg for their entire tenure here: Taylor (51 games, 1.14ppg) Houllier (30 games, 1.13ppg) McLeish (38 games, 1.00ppg Lambert (101 games, 1.00ppg) Sherwood (23 games, 0.87ppg) Garde (20 games, 0.60ppg) Di Matteo (11 games, 0.91ppg) *in Championship Gerrard (38 games, 1.16ppg) Excluding Championship games you get rid of Di Matteo, but add Smith (87 games, 1.15ppg) We've had 15 permanent managers since '92 before Emery, so over half of them haven't got more ppg than Emery's worst 25 game run.

According to a video posted earlier in this thread, Emery once picked an entire starting XI using dice...