Woody1000

Well then, let’s give this thread a bump. If the usual suspects want to talk about Ollie Watkins being wasteful, then let’s not let Leon off the hook. He was trash tonight.

Couldn’t finish a puzzle, yet scored a decent header and took his offside ‘goal’ well. There are times to criticise players, but criticism of Ollie Watkins tonight is unfair imo.

It’s almost at the point where I’d rather see one of the outfield players in goal - at least they can pass the thing. I honestly despair at the quality of Swedish goalkeepers if this guy is the best they have. In fairness to him it’s an improvement on his Carabao Cup performance, he actually caught the ball a couple of times tonight.

I know it may sound like a controversial opinion, but some would say that selling Emi and replacing him with Bono would actually be an elevation for the club…

Oh he’s Colombian , I thought he was from Rio?

You might well laugh, but from what Ronaldo was saying they would be pretty jealous of that over at Man United.

You can definitely see the improvements, 1-4 was an extremely harsh score line imo. Some ruthless finishing, as you would expect playing against one of the top sides in the division. We are starting to bridge the gap, but it’s still a massive gap to bridge - 12 months ago the best we could’ve probably hoped for was a 0-0 backs to the wall draw, but we actually troubled their goal several times this afternoon. On another day we get something from that game imo.

27 pass move

Give it time mate

Please don’t disrespect him with this ‘briefly’ stuff, it was over an hour…

Are you just going to ignore his Balon d’Or winning performance against Burnley?…

I’m not sure if you’re using a laptop or not, but I think your ‘s’ key might be broken mate.

I get what you’re saying, and I’m not expecting him to be ‘taught’ how to do things as if he’s being taught from scratch, but if we don’t feel that having a coach like Emery can actually improve our players, then why was there all this clamour for a new coach with the credentials of him in the first place, let’s just buy better players all the time? Everyone noted about the finish in the United cup game, was that something that had been worked on in training or just coincidence? Normally Ollie goes hard and low there and the keeper usually makes the save. I’m not saying that Ollie Watkins is going to become a 25 goal-a-season striker with a bit of work, but if he can show that composure he showed for the United goal in even 25% more of his 1-on-1’s going forward, then his goal return will definitely rise.

Watching that Yo-Yo test video from the official site, you can see why all the managers we have had pick him every week. If Unai can help him improve the elements of his game where he sometimes struggles (touch, finishing) then he will be a very effective player for us in this new era.

I’m at that point of total faith in King Unai that I’m happy with whoever he wants to sign. If it’s who he wants, then it’s who I want.

I’m not usually one to take too much stock in a friendly, but we’ve looked really poor tonight. The result is obviously of no importance, but I feel like the only positive from tonight is the fact that Marvellous Nakamba is still alive.

Where’s that mate?

Yes, and by that logic we should too, but you know as well as I do that VP is the place to visit to get yourself back on track!

I’d take him on a ‘pay as you play’ deal of £1m per performance, and then never actually play him. Think of the shirt sales in Asia?

I feel that our realistic ceiling for this season is 8th. Just behind the Top/SKY 6 and Newcastle (who at 12 points in front are just too far ahead of us to catch imo) in whatever order they finish. I see no reason why we can’t end the season ahead of those other teams, especially now we have the away win monkey off our back (hopefully). This of course depends if we can keep this decent home form going, it’s been too long since we’ve been a difficult team to beat at Villa Park in the PL.

Those are POTS stats for us!

Tbh I do tend to on twitter, but that is more because Big Emi uses more characters. Character count is precious when you waffle as much as I do!

Would I buy from Barca? Of course. Would I sell to Barca? Not a chance. Not with their track record over the last couple of years.