sir_gary_cahill

5 hours ago, romavillan said:

Olsen is a liability for me, the cross for the first goal against City wasn't impossible to get to and the second he should save.

I think it is difficult to judge a player based on just one game. The fact that he has played for Roma and Everton says he’ll be more than able back up for Martinez

1 minute ago, MaVilla said:

i would prefer KKH getting a full year at a championship side to continue his development, rather than bit part backup to Cash, tbh.

He signed a new 5 year contract recently, so he’s clearly in our plans, I think you could be right as regards a loan to The Championship

1 minute ago, MaVilla said:

i would keep Guilbert as backup RB for this season prob, i would prefer we spent our money elsewhere right now (and he can add to the French contingent to help Kamara settle.....).

Or we sell Guilbert and bring a cheapish RB in.

We prob do need a backup left back ur right, but is Young doing another year!?, dunno?

I agree Young isnt ideal, but if he does sign for another year, not sure where else he would be useful, if he doesnt, then yeah, we need another LB.

I think Kessler Hayden could be great back up for Cash

3 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

he's ok, but we havent signed him have we?, so i guess he will be that backup goalkeeper signing? (i was just stating we havent technically signed one yet - Olsen or not).

I forgot it was only a loan, sorry

42 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

Needed:

• Goalkeeper (backup)
• Midfielder (no.8)
• Striker

Anything else is a bonus.

MaVilla, you don’t rate Robin Olsen?

29 minutes ago, Genie said:

Have you been living under a rock?

Clearly

Dakota_Villan, what makes you think he has a lack of professionalism? Edit- just seen your post in the main forum, no-one is perfect, we all have our misdemeanours, I think it is important to focus on the positives. He’s still a fantastic player, I’d take him back in a heartbeat 

1 minute ago, DakotaVilla said:

He will come good…..unless his lack of professionalism gets in the way. With Alvarez and Haaland added to Foden and Mahrez he’s currently 6th choice for 3 spots assuming sterling stays.

What makes you think he has a lack of professionalism?

2 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Jack Grealish last season and we lambasted him for it. He was well ahead of the curve.

Opinions change in life not just football, Grealish is still a fantastic player, the best I’ve seen in a Villa shirt. He hasn’t fitted in straight away at Man City but just give him time, he will show his true capabilities 

11 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

Is he the clinical finisher that we need to take us to the next level and then challenge for Champions League. I think our next striker needs to be that person

I think we are quite far from challenging for the Champion’s League personally but who knows how the new signings that we have made already will fit in?  

2 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Sir Gary, is there any player you don't think is " outstanding " or " excellent " though?

You'd make one of the nicest and most encouraging coaches ever! lol

No, there isn’t, especially with Abraham, his enthusiasm is infectious and it rubs off on his teammates 

I don’t understand the negativity towards Tammy Abraham on here. He’s been before albeit on loan and was excellent, wherever he’s been, he’s scored goals. Yes, he does miss chances but what striker doesn’t? I would be ecstatic if we signed him, I’ve always rated him, he’s a goalscorer. The news of the link today pleases me, I don’t know why Chelsea got rid of him in the first place. It could be another ‘Martinez’ move by us i.e a top 6 club not wanting one of their players and us signing him and him going on to be excellent for us in my opinion 

He was outstanding today, he’s forming a nice little partnership with Mings. He was unfairly dropped in the first place in my opinion. He’s always been a good player, there’s a reason the great Arsene Wenger signed him for Arsenal from Southampton, he could always spot a player. Chambers has had a lot of injuries in his career but he’s always had the talent. Nice little pick up from Gerrard, free transfer, sounds like there’s more where that came from 

As good at City are, we will have to show them respect but they aren’t unbeatable, no-one is. There is quite a lot of negativity in this thread for some reason, we have to believe we have a chance. If we keep it tight at the back, the longer it stays 0-0, we have to believe that we have a chance of winning. We have good players of our own, it is worth remembering that this only our third season back in the Premier League. We have players at both ends of the pitch that can make a difference and cause an upset. On the whole, our squad is inexperienced at this level, the players are learning and growing game by game. Us fans just need to be patient, I see progress in this team, even if no-one else can

3 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

I like Nakamba, he's worth keeping around. His break up play is good. But he also gives it away a lot. His second touch is a tackle too often.

He did a good job Vs Liverpool but also we were all further back so he had more options Round him when he won the ball, he was a touch rusty but that's expected.

Vs Palace he put us under pressure too often, wasn't involved as much and we were more expansive in our positioning (as we should be) he struggled. He made 2 interceptions (actually more than Vs Liverpool) and a couple of tackles but his overall play was back to his Smith era-performances.

We need someone who can do what he did Vs Liverpool but also make simple passes. Ideally they need to be better at progressive carries and progressive passes.

His passing is poor for simple passes. One good thing I will say about it is he lays it off quick if he does get it further up the pitch. He doesn't slow down play and tries to keep the ball moving. But he pretty much will always go sideways, even if the player has only just given him the ball. He shifts the play and the ball quickly but almost as though he's shifting the responsibility (that may be harsh).

In more defensive positions, he doesn't release the ball for the counter, he doesn't carry the ball forwards, his forwards passes often seem to be haphazard and without a target.

As i said, we need someone who can do what he did Vs Liverpool but also move play forwards and be smarter with his possession of the ball. It may be said that as the DM he doesn't need to - but he puts us under pressure too often because of how he is

Final part, he just looks clumsy, refereeing is poor in the Prem and that's not his fault. But he looks clumsy and it gives the ref's decisions to make - they aren't good enough to do that and so we give away too many freekicks in important decisions when he's on the pitch (although the same can be said about Dougie, comes in from behind with his hands up too often)

I think you have phrased that very well, Nakamba is limited but he always gives 100% for the cause, his effort can’t be faulted. If he could get on the ball and spray it around a bit, he’d be a better club than ours but he can’t

2 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

Nakamba is a DM but not a very good one.

Iroegbunam played further forward for much of his youth career but will probably to develop into one.

The comment you replied to (not mine) said 'if only we had a proper DM'. They were right, as no, we did not have a proper DM. We didn't have Nakamba and Iroegbunam is, first of all, a child and second of all, needs to be developed into the DM he'll become.

Why do you think Nakamba isn’t a good player? We only paid £11m for him, for me, it was a bargain. When he’s out inured, there is a definite negative effect on the team

I have only seen Iroegbunam once live but anyone can tell the quality he has within 5 minutes of watching him. He is going to be a top player like Feeney

2 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

Nakamba was out for 6 months of the season and Iroegbunam is 18

You didn’t answer my question 

1 minute ago, CVByrne said:

We have the 7th best defensive record in the League since Gerrard took over and it would be better if we had a proper CDM and Konsa hadn't had as poor a season as he's had.

Aren’t Nakamba and Iroegbunam proper CDMs?

3 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

 

I like Mings, he's a leader on and off the pitch.

In regards to goals conceded this PL season has been one of THE highest for goals scored.

Hence it's difficult to keep clean sheets unless a team has spent over half a billion pounds on their defence (Man S****y).

After a bit of Googling, Oleksandr Zinchenko only cost them £1.7m. It just goes to show that even Man City can find bargains

We only paid £20m for Tyrone Mings, yes he does make mistakes quite regularly but lately he has been playing quite brilliantly for us and he has been minimising the mistakes. In today’s transfer market £20m is peanuts, for me, he has been a bargain

7 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

Villa have spent something like £145m since Jack left and I guess I expected a better return.

The value of Villa's squad puts them into the top half of the Premier League, but whether the club has an ideal balance across the squad, is debatable.

Burnely has the least valuable squad in the division and so it should be a shoo-in for Villa.

 

 

 

 

 

We can’t have that attitude towards Burnley, we should just approach it with caution and not just go gung ho. It won’t be easy, they’ll be up for it. I think it was a mistake to sack Sean Dyche, he did a great job there. It was always going to be a tough task to replace him. Dyche did a great job at Burnley, he turned them in to an established Premier League outfit

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

The Buendia/Coutinho mix is an interesting one - give the way he's performed this season, you'd want Coutinho to play in this game and Buendia the next. Home-Coutinho has been a much better player than away-Coutinho, whereas Buendia has been consistent home or away. The big game nature of next week might suit Coutinho though. Personally, I'd be leaning to Buendia tonight.

Except....

We've only really got two strikers and I don't think it was ever really our intention to play with two - so whether Ings and Watkins can both start in both games presents a problem. Do we drop one of them tonight and play Traore, with the problems that presents in the way it changes our shape, style and pattern? Do we play both then bring in an extra midfielder for Citeh?

It's a peculiar one and if Gerrard doesn't think the two strikers have it in their legs, then there's an opportunity to either play both Buendia and Coutinho together or to start Chukwuemeka in one of those positions - or even to play Luiz, McGinn and Ramsey in front of Nakamba (or Iroegbunam).

In a strange way, our lack of options up front give us an awful lot of options in terms of how we want to set up further back.

One thing I would like tonight is not to lose a centre half - Josh Feeney is an excellent prospect, but I don't want to see him make a full debut away at a Man City who need to win to take the title - that'd be just a little unfair on the young fella.

 

 

Feeney is going to be a top player, there is no doubt in my mind about that. Man United wanted him and he chose us according to the press. I think he’ll be on the bench this evening and wouldn’t be surprised if he made a substitute appearance

2 hours ago, TRO said:

just a bit early for him, for where we want to go.

You could be right, it depends where we want to go, he showed great potential though, no doubt 

44 minutes ago, TRO said:

The defensive midfielder seems to be the position, we are most struggling with, for whatever reasons.

Sorry, I haven’t posted for a while, (it’s probably a good thing) but based on what I’ve seen of Tim Iroegbunam so far, I think that in the long term, we might have that position sussed. I am aware that he is only 18 years old but he looks a fantastic talent. On his debut against Norwich City at Villa Park, he was the best player on the pitch

1 hour ago, Tomaszk said:

If Watkins is out, it's definitely time for Emi and Phil from the off. A back three is the best way to get two 10s onto the pitch.

                                 Martinez

         Chambers        Konsa          Mings

Cash              Doug           McGinn            Digne

                       Buendia      Coutinho

                                    Ings

In my opinion, Ings doesn’t work hard enough to play up front by himself

1 minute ago, duke313 said:

Bet you Inter win.

Isn’t it live? Do you already know the score? I don’t know if you’re pulling my leg or not