QldVilla

10 hours ago, Don_Simon said:

Indeed. Great is crazy hyperbole though. He essentially did what he was paid to do for an incredibly short period. 

How would you describe McGrath, McGinn, Sid Cowans, etc?

There’s a difference between being a great servant for the club and being a club Great as a player. McGrath is a legend, Cowans a Great and McGinn potentially being a club legend. Language has different meanings depending on how it is used.

49 minutes ago, lexicon said:

Really? Nothing at all?

No nothing at all. I read enough to remember what previous coaches and players said about Jedinak and the leadership role he played while at the club. Maybe just do some more reading….

1 hour ago, foreveryoung said:

I think us fans let Emery and the team down a bit too. VP was like a morgue in the first half, nearly until we scored. Need much more noise when we play at home.

You may be right, but if the players were on it from the start, it may of brought the fans in.

3 hours ago, Don_Simon said:

"Great" is doing some very heavy lifting here.

 He came into the club when we were in a bad situation and he helped behind the scenes with the leadership group as well as on the pitch. He won games for us with his penalty taking and he was part of the reason why we got back in the PL. He then took up a role within the club after being released for several years.

Your opinion has to be more than what you see on the field, it includes what you do off the field and on the training pitch.

The biggest thing that annoyed me with the game against Newcastle, is the players didnt seem up for it. After the first match at the start of the season, you would think they would want to correct things for themselves and the fans.

Emery likes to use the fans for support, but we were let down in the last match.

8 hours ago, lexicon said:

He was pretty good - but I think you're viewing him through koala-tinted glasses tbh 

We were in the championship, he was at the end of his career, still a PL standard DM in his prime. He also helped reset the culture in the club which helped us get promoted.

He gave Villa great service on and off the field.

Being an Aussie has nothing to do with it.

8 hours ago, lexicon said:

Jedi was alright until he was our CB  Bosnich, granted, but that was a long time ago. 

You can’t place a caveat on every player, Jedinak was signed as a DM and gave great service.

41 minutes ago, lexicon said:

After Brett Holman and Chris Herd, let's not be too hasty.

Bosnich, Jedinak..

Good young keeper and great to see an Aussie playing for the Villa again.

5 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

The coaching jobs in Hong Kong, India, Australia, and USA?

They said the same about Postecoglu….

But your right he wasn’t very good in Australia, bang average.

Before his injury in pre-season, thought it was the best I'd seen of him and was excited to see if that form translated into his play this season. Due to the injury, we probably won't see that this season, but looking forward to having him back.

I'm still 50/50 on Zaniolo.

I know what he is capable of, but only seen glimpses of that player so far. I think by the end of the season we will have a fair indication whether he has settled in and suits the Emery system.

I think the result shows the season has caught up with the team, too many players with a lot of minutes (McGinn, Luiz, Watkins, Konsa) and the difference between our best eleven and when 3-4 are missing. We've been lucky with Pau as he has taken over the leadership role in defense from Mings and Konsa doesn't have as much control when at RB.

Not a surprise with Kamara missing the last 2 matches that we haven't looked fluid with the ball in the midfield, while others players like Diaby, Ramsey are out of form. 

The 9 days with Mostar, Brentford, Man City & Arsenal can't be underestimated, the players have come off flat and you can see the drop off in performance.

1 minute ago, will87 said:

He's not world-class for me as some have been suggesting, that's not just based on today's game either, needs another gear.

Or maybe the minutes he's played are starting to show.

We need to give him time, he would be starting on the bench if not for injuries, he had a 5 month layoff, we just need patience, he will come good.

1 minute ago, ChesterDad said:

Exactly right - I’m sure most of us were still concerned at 0-2. Never looked comfortable or in charge all game.

I don’t feel it would have made much difference this evening but another striker would be helpful overall please ( Hee Chan ) would be worth a punt imo 

We are looking tired and the break before our next conference game, could not have come at a better time.

In fairness it could have been 0-3 or 1-3, the keeper made a couple of good saves. My concern was the ball movement in the midfield, slow, passing into players under pressure and not recycling the ball quick enough. We turned the ball over far too much and Manure were able to capitalize on it, doesn't matter how bad a team you're playing, you give them enough opportunities they will eventually take them.

I agree with some of the comments, why Emery didn't make changes earlier surprised me.

9 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

I think if Kamara plays we win comfortably so that stupid red has cost us. Ramsey hasn't looked on it since he's come back. Diaby, Bailey, and Cash got in each others way too often. I think we should have brought on one of the 2 former later in the game to run at tired legs

Agree, just didn’t appear balanced all game, but that REFEREE !!??!?!

I was expecting an easy win last night, the referee was awful in the first half (well the whole game actually, his performance was pedestrian at best) and at least three of their players could have had yellow cards before half time. The second half comes and suddenly he starts giving out cards, no consistency through the game.

His casualness on some big calls was just lazy and if he had made those calls, VAR wouldn’t have overturned them. But don’t get me started on VAR…

Saying all that, just thought the team selection was wrong, I don’t like McGinn playing in that role, there’s no reason Dendoncker couldn’t have played that role, which would have allowed McGinn to play more forward. Tempo was way too slow, no urgency and would have rather seen Zaniolo playing instead of Ramsey.

Maybe some of the players had their mind on Manure, not sure, was just a lazy performance.

Cash has been a good player for the club, but appears he has reached his threshold for the club. It seems to me that the movement he needs to make doesn’t appear natural to him and runs down a few dead ends.

I’m interested to see whether Emery brings in a starting RB to compete with him, or sells Cash.

15 hours ago, Philosopher said:

They will cheat like City, and their 400 Emirates sponsorship deal, when they couldn't even fill their ground. They have so much money,  own stakes in so many huge companies, they practically own the whole Saudi pro league. They have politicians in their pockets. They have many way to circumnavigate ffp!

Well Chelsea spent a billion pound and still a show. You still need the quality manager and buy in from the players.

25 minutes ago, Philosopher said:

There is another couple of aspects to this. 

The first is that the so called top clubs poach players from the group just below them in order to weaken them to prevent themselves from being usurped. They see us as a threat now so they aim to weaken us by taking our best players, and strengthen themselves in the process. They will come for Watkins, Ramsey, Diaby and Kamara too.

Man City did it the other way round by using unspeakable sums of money. But they were an exception. Ironically City poaching Barry and Milner sucked the heart of MON's team out. Then they did it to Arsenal!

The other aspect is that the only teams to break into that top 4-6 is Tottenham, City, and more recently Newcastle. Newcastle and City have huge sums of money so they don't / didn't fear others poaching their players as they can blow anyone out the water in regards to wages. And the players know that the clubs only trajectory is up.

Tottenham are the only club to break into what was then a top four, organically. They did it through fighting tooth and nail to keep their best players at the club and when that wasn't possible extorting (with unheard of valuations) the interested clubs, and selling to foreign teams if possible. They didn't want to strengthen Man U so they sold Kane to Bayern, they did the same with Bale to Madrid.

History tells us selling your best players to fund a push up the table rarely works out. The only exception to this is when you can go out an buy an equally good player for the same money or less. But if there is such a player, with our standing we can't compete with the top clubs who will surely snap him up. That's the unfair situation ANY team trying to change the status quo has to overcome.

What we need to do is sell the players performing well, that are at their limit (in terms of capability) for inflated fees (more than they are worth). And keep the players that are genuine top class. And also keep the players performing well that still have room for growth.

Selling Doug (as he is emerging as a genuine top class player) is not going to progress us. On the flipside while I absolutely love McGinn at his age he hasn't really got much room for improvement. So for me, if we could get 50 million for him I'd take it. Selling Digne, when he is 30 and a high earner makes sense if a viable offer came. Selling Ramsey would be utter stupidness.

We need to sell on our terms. Nobody else's!

 

I’m not sure I agree with this 100% in regards to Newcastle. They may have all the money in the world, but they are restricted to FFP. They were lucky in the fact that for all the complaining about the previous owner, the club was run well financially and they were able to go and spend money initially and getting CL football has strengthened this. But they need to continue to get CL football to grow and like Chelsea currently, 1,2,3 seasons without CL football FFP will come knocking.

Im not convinced Howe can consistently keep Newcastle in the CL positions, time will tell. But that will allow other clubs to seize on those opportunities, as with the inconsistency with Spurs, Manure and Chelsea.

1 hour ago, Kiwivillan said:

That just emphasizes my point how important he is. If City lost Rodri I would write them off for the title and you can't easily cover that. Some players just need to play bulk minutes and you cross fingers they stay fit and healthy

The difference with Rodri is that he has built up that minute loading over several seasons, we’re asking Dougie to make a significant interest in one season, that can lead to overuse injuries.

I just believe we need some depth there.

5 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

Why? He's no different from a player like Rodri at City who played 4476 mins all comps last season equivalent 50 x 90 min games. He plays when avaliable because he's so good. I'm sure likes of Salah and Son etc etc play big mins across all comps. Probably miss meaningless rubbish like Carabao Cup

Every player is different. I don’t have a problem with him playing big minutes, but I’m concerned when he’s playing nearly every minute. Look at the Alkmaar game, he had to come on in the second half to change the game.

Hes an important player, he’s one yellow card away from suspension and will have an impact on the team. Emery doesn’t appear to trust Dendonker or want to play Tielemans there either. It makes sense to me that we need a player who can cover for either, but as I said, would be very difficult to do in January window.

Id also be a lot more comfortable with their minutes if both players were taken off earlier, when we’re 3-4-5 up against teams at home.

I agree with the right back, but although we have Tielemans, I believe we need another players to compete with Kamara and Dougie, but will be hard to get in the Jan transfer window. Dougie’s minutes worry me.