smokingzen

I find it odd that you don't see that the answer to your first sentence is provided by your following 5 sentences.

I'd say you've got a point if we didn't get a point, but we did get a point so you don't have a point. Just thought I'd point that out.

I prefer Konsa too, but Lenglet played over 100 games for Barcelona, played at the Euros for France, and played 25 games for Spurs last season. I'd suggest to say he's "average enough" and doesn't come "within throwing distance" of Konsa is a little bit deluded.

Well it all starts from the back with Emery's system, and Pau and Digne have been our best outlets in most games. For pau in particular, if you look at most of the tactical analysis videos done on us this season and our system, that ranged quick ball from the centre back into the midfield is pivotal to it. We've missed that recently which means we're too slow to transition and break the lines.

I'm not sure that comes from not being arsed though, I think if your passing is going awry and you can't get any kind of cohesion or momentum going, then even if you are arsed it sometimes looks as though you're not.

It doesn't matter how much of a shift you put in if you can't pass the ball 10 yards to a team mate. That was our main issue last night, it started with Kamara and then spread across much of the team, because of that we had no cohesion and kept losing the ball and inviting pressure on ourselves.

Or is it the other way around? Whilst he can occasionally create something from nothing, i.e. a couple of goals he's created and scored through pressing and positioning to steal the ball off of defenders, like every striker he needs good service.

The difference in revenues is quite significant, we'd have to win the ECL to get the same revenue we'd receive for getting into the group stages of the CL. If things are tight around FFP then i can see why we won't be doing much business until the summer when we have a better understanding of what our potential revenue is next season. Champions League Europa League Europa Conference League Group stage €15.64m ($17.17m) €3.63m ($3.98m) €2.94m ($3.23m) Round of 16 €9.6m ($10.54m) €1.2m ($1.32m) €600,000 ($658,530) Quarter-finals €10.6m ($11.63m) €1.8m ($1.98m) €1m ($1.1m) Semi-finals €12.5m ($13.72m) €2.8m ($3.07m) €2m ($2.2m) Final €15.5m ($17.01m) €4.6m ($5.05m) €3m ($3.29m) Winners €20m ($21.95m) €8.6m ($9.44m) €5m ($5.49m)

First off, Everton certainly let you know you've been in a game of football, without actually playing any football. Martinez made a couple of top drawer saves, thought most of the defense played well, with Lenglet and Moreno the stand outs. Konsa is almost always good but definitely preferred it when he moved back to the centre and Cash came on. Kamara played well defensively but offensively for the most part we were disjointed. I was disappointed with most of our midfield and attack, with consistent bad decision making throughout the game. McGinn couldn't keep the ball or string a pass together first half, but got better second half. Luis was disappointing most of the game, slow and tentative and almost always taking one touch too many. Was pushing his luck a few times with shirt pulls etc. Bailey and Diaby again made consistently bad decisions and struggled to beat a man. Watkins wasn't any better. Thought Tielemens improved us, and Duran gave us a little more threat, Zaniolo likewise, but still not enough. Everton certainly made it difficult for us, getting tight to us and getting a lot of niggly tackles in to disrupt our flow and the game, quite a few of those should have been fouls, but when it wasn't clamped down on by the ref, they were emboldened to carry on with it and it got worse. A point away at the end of the day, but as others have said performances since Man City haven't been great. That said we're still picking up points and in the top 4. Strange to say, but having Pau and Digne out, 2 defenders, affects our attacking capability quite a lot. So will be good to have them both back.

Don't forget Coutinho In all seriousness though, IMO the 3 best players we have for speed of thought and quick one touch football that can break through low blocks are Coutinho, Buendia and Tielemens. Coutinho is by far the best with his speed, vision and execution, but obviously is not here anymore and doesn't have the other physical attributes that are needed for the PL. Buendia is obviously injured, but again his ability to quickly move the ball was really important to us last year, and why despite maybe losing the ball more than he should, Emery thought he was a big miss for us this season. Tielemens was also out for our last game, but he's been starting to get up to pace recently and his quick 1 touch passing has been key for a few goals we've had recently, either as a direct assist or in the prior build up play. So we have 3 players that excel in that capability, but none were available for Sheffield Utd. I think if we would have been able to bring those 3 on in that match, or one or a combination of, we'd have won. Now of course you can't keep a player like Coutinho around taking high wages and a place in the squad just for the odd super sub appearance. But a player of that calibre is what we need. Buendia will be back next season, and Tielemans in a couple of weeks. I think the latter 2 will make a good pairing for those type of games next season if they can get on the same wavelength.

Agree, so that's where sometimes you need to bypass midfield and utlise pace in the space behind.

But it didn't though did it, it wen't down hill in the 2nd half and in the 59th or 71st minutes. Yes from the 30th minute to the end of the first half Man U started to get on top of us with the high press and that should have been the catalyst for us to change things tactically for the 2nd half.

When are people going to realise overly simplistic comparisons or "analysis" don't really enlighten us on a subject. Emery has a core style of play he likes to predominantly utilise, he has however by his own admission not only tweaked this on many occasions but also played some quite different formations, stlyes and tactics dependant on the opposition and which players we have available. Last night was one of those times he didn't (or at least if he tried to it didn't work) and we lost a 2 - 0 lead in the 2nd half when IMO the writing was on the wall by the end of the first half that we were going to suffer if we didn't change tactics, because we we suffering against the high press. Emery is a great manager and we're very lucky to have him, but that doesn't mean he doesn't make mistakes, all managers do, even Pep or Klopp.

Overall I think our performance and the result last night was on Emery. First 25 minutes was relatively good, but towards the latter part of the first half Man U got their high press working and we struggled to progress the ball out of our half. We played a lot across the back line and nice little intricate triangles near the corner flags and trying to progress up the wings in the same manner but it always broke down under pressure. Credit to Man U last night but they had our number, and the writing was on the wall for the second half if something didn't change. Maybe if we had some of our more regular players playing we would have had better out balls and transitions, but we didn't. Ramsey is no where near up to speed yet, and whilst Lenglet and Dendonker played generally well IMO from a defensive perspective, and for the goal, I'm not sure they've got quite the same cohesion or skills to progress the ball out. I would have thought after maybe the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half Emery would have switched our tactics, as whatever was said at half time didn't seem to have changed much, but he didn't and it seemed even when he brought the subs on we kept on trying to play the same way just with different players. IMO last night, having watched us struggle to play out, we could have switched to quicker long balls over the top bypassing the midfield a little more, stretching their back line and giving them more to think about defensively. We had pace with Watkins, Bailey and later on Diaby, but I don't feel we utilised it. Watkins especially put in a good defensive shift but hardly had any good service. Obviously Emery has a preferred way of playing, and it's brought us a lot of success, but if the players you have available can't carry that off, and the other team is nullifying that 'way', I think it's time to switch in a game. Dare I say it, but I genuinely think had we switched to a bit of Bruce ball in the second half, playing a more compact lower block in defense and then long balls over the top, we'd have won that game. Man U were 2 down and had to come at us, they still might have got a couple of goals but I believe we'd have got a couple more on the counter. Principles are great and having an identity and a way of playing, but IMO sometimes you have to switch that up, be pragmatic and close a game out.

IMO the system we were playing needed to be changed not just the players. 2 subs, but same system same outcome.

Watkins is an exceptional athlete but only a goodish striker.

I think this is a good signing, looks a good technical defender, good in the air, and good on the ball with nice distribution skills. Think he'll fit in to Emery's structure and style of playing well. I don't think of myself as an amateur villa accountant that knows the club's finances better than the club, so couldn't comment on his supposed wages.

Have they though? Was watching the Simon Jordan clip yesterday on Talk Sport where he was saying because of sales, amortisation and long contract lengths they're still £65m within. Might catch up with them in a couple of years but at the moment it appears they're fine. (unfortunately)

Of course not, but I'd wager there's a significant probability he'd get less wrong than most Internet armchair football managers. Which is why he is where he is and they are where they are. Given his track record, if he (and his staff) have had significant time working with a player, and they are happy to work with that player gong forwards, and don’t deem replacing them a priority going into next season, I'll trust that judgement.

To be fair I think Emery has eyes too... plus he has the bonus of them being attached to an intelligent footballing brain.

It's strange that you can see this but Emery can't

That's not how it works though is it, it's about whether a player is a good fit for a team/squad and has the capabilities or potential to improve it. Your "rationale" makes no sense. You seem like the kind of person that doesn't want to sign someone from a team below us, because they're not good enough because they're in a team below us, and doesn't want to sign someone from a team above us if the team above us doesn't want them. Which means we should only be trying to sign players from teams above us who don't want to leave the team above us. Makes perfect sense.

If this is the determining reason strange then that he left Barcelona where he had more reasons 'to be at peace with himself' to come to Villa. It's almost as though it might not be about the money. Maybe he didn't like the cold Barcelona weather

Unusual to have such hyperbolic exaggeration on here. It isn't though really, do you think Emery would be looking to get him back in the squad if that were the case? He has a few moments, but then again most players do, especially creative wingers. That's often the cost of creativity and trying to make that moment of magic happen that's going to create a goal or goal scoring chance.

"What if's" are about planning for the future and things that can possibly and are likely to happen. The more contingencies you cover in your planning the better prepared you are and the more likely you are to have better outcomes. This is what seperates humans from animals, and successful people from others. I actually stated about 2 pages before your post that Emery will have thought about a back up plan and will be looking for the midfielders to score more goals with the style of play he is trying to implement. Still doesn't mean it's not a risk. Plus this isn't about wanting transfers, it was about not wanting this one, at least until we had another forward.