danceoftheshamen

Okay so that's the last time I play any UB40 at any of my gigs.

Very clever Useless, I see exactly what you did there

Well horror show on Sunday aside, we have to take into account that we were missing Kamara who is such an important player in these games against the teams around us. We do much better against the Man U's & Spurs of this World when he is playing and we've missed him badly over the last 5 home games. We are now paying the price for the current disjointed nature of the team with Mcginn having to come back to cover Kamara's absence, Ramsey missing too, which we have coped with before but when coupled with the loss of McGinn in a more attacking role also leaves us lacking creativity. For me this is why Emery erred on the cautious side knowing we were missing the vital pieces of our usual transitional play. Spurs are in a much better shape now with Maddison, Porro & co all back (Typically against us). Ok they were missing Richarlason but hey ho. We are basically a disjointed squad right now with players out of position, injured or regaining form after long layoffs. That coupled with having played on Thursday in Amsterdam & coming up against a fresh Spurs side made us look a very jaded outfit on Sunday. Add into that the slightly questionable sending off of McGinn too which warped the result somewhat. I can forgive that & indeed the last 4/5 home defeats as we are running a bit on empty and have key players out currently. It will inevitably cost us in games against the bigger teams as we are finding out. If we can get 5th or 6th & do well in the Conference League ten the minimum would be Europa League. That is progress whichever way you look at it and that's with missing several key players virtually for the whole season too. Progress on Thursday and find a way to scrap 3 points at West Ham & we're right back on track. Both tough though with our current injuries & bans impacting on both.

I see a loss to Fulham due to the defensive issues (Unless we get some injured like Torres back). Draw with Forest & a draw or close win at Luton, so 2-4 points. Had we had Konsa & Torres I would have said 7 points.

Ah, genuinely didn't hear it or see the message on the big screen. I was too engrossed in the game at that point and was a little fed up of hearing the repeated "Don't do this" or "don't say that" warnings, so I had kind of switched off from the announcements by that point . Still doesn't change the fact they should have updated the traffic alert websites. The A38 closure has become a real pain in the backside as the diversions are frankly a joke and very poorly laid out. I know several people who have gone round in circles for miles & miles trying to get through.

Shows how the Football World has changed when I feel genuinely embarrassed to have that lot do the double over us. How you can get a defeat out of that game is beyond ridiculous. Our defence is the issue however & was the reason I thought we would lose the game prior to KO. We are not good enough squad wise to withstand injuries to Konsa, Torres, Digne & Mings. Both goals were down to the replacements. Despite this we should still have won that game but you cannot be so porous at the back whilst missing absolute sitters at the other end against any Premier League team & expect to win.

Just got back (Burton on Trent). One of the most horrendous journeys I can remember. Took ages to get away from the stadium and after checking the traffic alerts etc It looked like the A38 was again closed near Lichfiel/ Alrewas area where they are still doing Hs2 work most nights. So as no other closures came up I decided to play it safe & go via the M42 up past Tamworth & into Burton along the A444. So I went onto the M6 Southbound and was then hit with nose to tail traffic all the way along to the M42 junction only to find they had completely closed the acces road. So again I had to divert towards Coventry to pick up the A446 which was snared up due to the M42 traffic being diverted onto it. Eventually I got to the Belfry island on the A446 and saw the traffic completely snared up ahead so diverted up the A446 towards Lichfield. I finally reached the A38 at Lichfield only to find it was not closed afterall!! Furious. I literally wasted about an hour & a half and about £10 in fuel all because they can't be arsed to update the traffic websites properly. All in all a nightmare day out at Villa Park especially with throwing away the points like we did against that bunch.

So having absorbed the last 2 "performances" and having calmed down a little now, I think it clearly shows that we are very weak in certain area's still. Especially when losing a few first choice mainstays. Kamara is clearly essential to us, we obviously need another RB too and the Mings injury is coming home to roost right now too. We are also lacking another good option up front so when Watkins is off the boil we have a viable alternative to come in. There is no way, in my view, that we are in a title race as things stand. A few signings in Jan might keep us up there but that's an awful lot of ifs buts & maybe's as firstly any new signing would have to hit the ground running, which of course is never guaranteed. For me our form has dipped alarmingly since Torres & Kamara have been out. Notably since Cash & Ramsey have come back into the team also. We are clearly not working on the right hand side at the moment. I feel both Diaby & Bailey have gone massively off the boil & even Watkins has gone back to the ineffective, annonymous version of himself. Lots of huff & puff with a poor touch. He is the most likely to poach a goal however and with no alternative it makes us very predictable to play against currently. Block us off and allow the ineffective wide players like Cash, Bailey, Diaby & Digne to have the ball and we are powder puff. Surround Watkins and then counter us with rapid wide players making runs from deep & we struggle. Brentford, Sheff Utd & Utd second half all did this and we struggled massively. That Croatian "Mostar" team did the same too & it was like watching a re-run of the game against them against Sheff Utd too. I think we'll be competitive once Torres & Kamara are back but to challenge for top 4 we need new signings. The biggest issue is Duran, he looks a liability when he comes on at the moment and Watkins is looking jaded. Shocking performance that second half at Manure though, it was all self inflicted too from what I was watching constantly just gifting them the ball back giving them more than enough opportunity to break our offside which is clearly the issue as they have players who know how to run onto a simple ball over the top. They always do it against us and yet we keep on givng them chance after chance to have another go at it. Attrocious performance.

So I have only just got chance to post what happened to my daughter & a family friend of mine at the game (I could not go due to having run out of days off at work).... My daughter usually goes with me but as I couldn't go we let her go with a family friend of Polish descent who has supported Villa all his life. They were walking back to the car from the Holte when he heard some Legia "fans" plotting (In Polish in which he is fluent) to steal their scarves. Apparently they like to do this, a bit like English fans did in the 80's, as they can then show it as a badge of honour in some sick minded way. He gave them a right shock when he turned around and spoke to them in fluent Polish letting them know he knew what they were saying!! Thankfully they moved on and decided not to assault my daughter or friend! It's a good job I wasn't there as I would have lost it.

See for me, anyone who has about a dozen poor attempts to put the ball in the box will inevitably have one which sets something up purely as a result of the law of averages. Personally I thought his final ball last night was absolutely woeful, even to the point of making him a bit of a liability as he kept giving posession away which very nearly cost us. The ratio has to be far higher before I start to think the guy has turned a corner. If he can sort that out he'll be a top player. He's trying though i'll give him that.

No chance of top 4. Our away form is too poor for it sadly,

Well I thought Digne was really wasteful today with the ball. Poor crossing and no end product when he had the chance. Back to one of his lacklustre displays from last season for me. Thank goodness Moreno is back.

Not for me, constantly makes wrong decisions when in possession, not shooting when he should, or shooting when he should pass. Flatterrs to deceive. So many times he does the hard bit and then overdoes the easy bit ending up losing possession when he could have made an assist or at least passed to someone. Very expensive with the ball and not productive whatsoever. Whether he'll come good eventually who knows but it simply ain't happening for the guy at the moment.

I thought we were attrocious today to be fair. Powder puff. I thought Luiz should have been sprinting out & blocking the shot for their first instead he waved a leg at it & turned sideways. The second was a bit of a freak but very similar situation to the first. As for in attack I thought Digne wasted a ton of good situations, Cash was nowhere near his best & Watkins was in the pocket of their defender, so largely annonymous. Bailey was back to the old Bailey and needs to learn how to head a ball, Diaby was powder puff too. All round a poor performance for me. Seems to be a pattern emerging in these away performances and it ain't great.

It's the pattern which is what concerns me. I am not just on about Villa btw. I am saying all of those clubs outside of the "breakaway 6" (Notice how quickly that phrase has been forgotten). The breakaway 6 clearly get tons of very poor decisions against the "rest" (some of which but by no means all, have been highlighted above). The odd couple which go against the breakaway 6 are almost always, apart from a very select few, against another breakaway 6 club... as was the case in this instance (Spurs v Liverpool). The London factor definately appears to hold extra sway too though nothing as obvious as when Man Utd are in town. So from what I've seen, over many years of paying close attention to it is that there is a pretty clear general order in which the dodgy decisions go. 1. Man Utd, Arsenal, Spurs, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool 2. The rest (with a slight difference when against London clubs in general) The pattern is especially clear when "group 1" play "group 2" with the opposite also true, as in there are very few dodgy decisions which go for "group 2" teams when playing "group 1" teams. You do occasionally get the very odd one but they are extremely rare when compared to the swathe of decisions which go the other way. There is also a clear pattern that shows that in the vast majority of cases & far too high a percentage to be classed as normal, any dodgy decision which goes against a "group 1" team is almost always against another group 1 team, seldom against a "group 2" team. As for the other London teams, they do appear to get a slightly higher proportion of decisions against "group 1" than the rest of us and indeed the scales clearly tilt towards them when they play the rest of us also. This is far less obvious though & i'm not focussing on these games here. The big issue is group 1 teams vs group 3 teams. I would absolutely love for these to be analysed fully as I think everyone would be shocked by the results. I mean properly looked at over the course of 5 years or something. Maybe one day when I retire and have time i'll go for it . But absolutely it's no coincidence that this Spurs V Liverpool decision falls right into that Group 1 vs Group 1 category.. & look at the stink it's created.

All this situation with Liverpool does is to highlight just how dodgy the whole thing is. They finally get a stinker of a decision go against them (Note as I have stated many times before that it just happened to be against another scummy 6 / big London club, as the chances of one like that going against them against one of the other teams, are virtually zero) and look at the reaction! Threats to sue, demanding a recording of the incident etc etc etc. The media are all over it & they literally all cry like babies over it all! How many times have we been robbed against those teams over the last 10 years with a catalogue of just as dodgy & i'd argue in some cases even worse "decisions"?! The crazy reaction, to what was basically an offside that went against them, just proves how not used to getting a poor decision they actually are. Of course now no doubt they'll get another shed load of dodgy decisions go for them as the FA try to repay them at the expense of the rest of us (But we won't be supposed to say anything about it of course as "It all balances out over a season" & all of that usual tripe).

Common sense would argue that you are right, the only things I would say are the fact they have far fewer games through not being in Europe, which will help them keep fresher than us you'd think & then of course the ridiculous number of decisions they get being one of the "top 6" as well as a big London club! I mean they're even getting outrageous decisions against the likes of Liverpool now too!

There is that much water on those kits after 10 minutes you could even see a fish surviving. It's not pleasant seeing our players Floundering about in them whatsoever.

Well this could easily dampen spirits & weigh heavy on performances. Glad it's on the way to being sorted as the image of sweat sodden players after 10 minutes really is not ideal.

I just cannot get my head around letting AY leave as well as one of the standout players of pre season in Bidace, without any replacement at all! Bizarre.

Sadly losing Mings, along with AY lest we forget... and of course the continued issues with Carlos, is threatening to derail our season. I do not know what the answer is as for me we do not have enough defensively.

Fair play to you Rob, Think I was about 12 when I first went though I had "supported" them since about age 6/7 too. Scary to think back to how long agao I was stood on that Feyenoord Terrace in Rotterdam standing right behind Peter Withe almost missing the goal & most momentous moment in the clubs history! It's also scary to think that there are less & less of us who can say that now eh!

I think it is absolutely correct that he is having to fight for his place in the team. We have some very good players at the club who are certainly good enough to compete with him and who already "had the shirt" from last season so to speak. Add to that the current huge disruption we are having to endure defensively having let AY leave and then losing Mings for the season, on top of already having lost Moreno since last season and also with Diego Carlos being somewhat fragile & still settling in currently. So I totally understand the thinking to try & keep the solid base of Luiz & Kamara just in front of the defence.... for now at least. lets not forget we also lost Buendia & Ramsey too! That is one heck of a lot of disruption to be coping with so few games in to a new season. I think he just has to be patient. The season has barely started & to be creating issues already is frankly poor form in my opinion. He is getting some game time too anyway & we know Emery likes to intorduce new players gradually if at all possible. I'm sure Uri sees himself as good enough to be a first choice and wants to play but in all honesty he ain't been all that when he's come on anyway. A lot of defensive lapses and being loose with the ball is what i've seen from him thus far although there is obvious quality there too. A bit of patience is required from him here.

Yes a good point, the only thing I can think of is that there was literally nobody available at such short notice? I guess the thinking on Lenglet was that if we're going to play in a new way, now that Torres is a fixture so to speak, then we needed a back up to him rather than trying to bring in yet another different type of player and having to bed in too many different types at the same time thus causing confusion?? If that makes any sense whatsoever? Afterall we are clearly not right at the back currently, as we try to adapt to the new circumstances minus Mings. Losing Carlos is another new issue to contend with, though will hopefully only be temporary, as yet again we are having to reshuffle and will continue to do so with Moreno still to come back in .....along with Lenglet of course. Let us not forget we are also now without that calming, highly experienced presence that was Ashley Young. He was often our best defensive player last season, along with Mings, and played us out of many a difficult situation. So it really is no surprise that we have shipped goals against the more dangerous attacking sides in Newcastle & Liverpool. Although we had several shovel fulls of misfortune in both games to contend with, as well as losing key defenders and having to reshuffle early on in both. That of course is never a good recipe and it showed. We need to get settled at the back ASAP, though it will be a while yet and I think it's obvious we will concede a few, especially against the better teams, until it does settle a bit. Unfortunately amidst all of this we have also been missing a lot of good chances too, thus the heavy defeats. I fear not keeping Ashley Young was a mistake too. Somehow I think he would still be here had we known Mings would be out for the season. Not to replace him obviously but for the know how / experience at the back. We are effectively playing with an untried & tested defence.

Must admit I said, at the moment Mings got injured against Newcastle, to my daughter, that we were now shafted for the season defensively. What I meant was against the better sides, especially those good at set pieces like Liverpool and maybe a few of the teams who lump it forward to big physical men in the box, that we would struggle and concede lots of goals. Sadly it looks like this will be our achilles heel this season, unless Lenglet suddenly rocks up and is that guy (which I am pretty sure he is not btw). I'm not too worried about us attacking wise (apart from Watkins & Bailey continuing to disappoint). Midfield we got owned at Anfield but that is quite unusual and we did still create a few chances. I just cannot see a way around these issues with our current crop as we simply have no replacement for Mings's aerial prowess and we continue to persist with a couple of duds up top. If Emery can sort this out he really is a master.