smokingzen

Such an outdated concept, the days of playing the same 11 through a season are long gone. It's about having a squad and using horses for courses.

Well that depends on the 'struggle' factor, IF he definitely states he's going to leave at the end of this contract, and we think we'll be no worse off this season without him, then yes take the money now. Personally i think we would be worse off without him this season, and i'm not convinced we could replace him with equal or better either in the remainder of this transfer window, or January's; as such i'd keep as i think the risks and rammifications of losing him are greater than the reward of selling.

Your first sentence is just an assumption on your part and not necessarily true, plus there are wholly different degrees of struggle with potentially different consequences, so to say we'll struggle anyway isn't particularly relevant, if we're struggling a hell of a lot more due to the loss of certain players and that could tip the balance towards relegation. So back you your original statement, "If he’s not going to sign a contract, Villa might as well sell."... no that doesn't follow.

Please tell us some of the other stuff you've made up in your head, it doesn't really have any factual basis but interesting to hear all the same.

I've always understood that bit, but not why France is bacon?

It's the minum entry criteria for being a serial killer, but not going to get you in the record books or significant aclaim. More interestingly... tell us about this puppy kicking of yours, are you a serial puppy kicker, i.e., have you done it 3 or more times? There's usually a pattern involved in such events, in fact psychological analysis has shown there's often a progression which starts with serial puppy kicking and progresses to becoming serial killers!

Nobody seems to have put the full text of the rule up, note the last part in bold italics! "A goalkeeper is considered to be in control of the ball with the hand(s) when: the ball is between the hands or between the hand and any surface (e.g. ground, own body) or by touching it with any part of the hands or arms except if the ball rebounds from the goalkeeper or the goalkeeper has made a save"

Take speculative story, provide speculative joke response if story true, hope people smart enough to understand that without posting "if said speculative is true then..", but forget such hope based upon speculative over estimation of intelligence of certain posters.

I think he should leave, with his attitude he could easily be the next Stefan Moore.

Welcome to the Villa Stevie... we wish you amazing success at this great club, as your success will be our success.

Yep... also Smith likes consistency in team selection, and more importantly, Watkins is integral to the way we play, pressing from the front when we don't have ball, and running in behind and making quick transitions up the pitch, when we get possession. That's not Abraham's forte.

Naah.... the speed and acceleration of the ball far outweighs that of the defenders, a good pass would have given Watkins more than enough time to get a good shot away. Poor decision making.

I'm not sure you were repeating yourself, more explaining what you said before. You have a point in an ideal world if we're playing fantasy football and have unlimited funds. But that's just stating the obvious. In reality we have to balance improving the squad as a whole, whilst balancing the books and the players we can get. A lot of the time, it is more realistic, affordable and actually achievable, to say get an up and coming player to say replace Taylor, who we hope we could then hopefully develop to replace Targett, than to get a replacement for Targett. For sustainable long term improvement, development of players in this way is key along with actually buying better out and out players at any in point in time. Sometimes loans can help in the short term obviously. I think from the purchases we've made this season we've done a good job of balancing that out according to the finances and current pulling power we have.

What do you mean by improve here? Do you mean an on the day "best" starting 11 on paper, or the results across a whole season whilst utilising the whole squad because you won't be able to play that 11 all game and every game?

Yes you do, it's called having a competitive squad who push each other to improve to compete for places. Formally teams don't have "backup players" though obviously some players 'informally' fall into that category. It's also about having as near like for like quality across positions If we get injuries.

Yes he is, maybe the shadow is just the blinkers you're wearing, take them off and no shadow! On a serious note, we're one game into the season, give the guy a bloody chance, he's shown his determination and quality consistently throughout his career. His form last year was winning plaudits left right and centre until he got injured. That'll come back with a good run of games.

Yeah that makes total sense... oh just one thing: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fourfourtwo.com/amp/news/revealed-six-fastest-players-premier-league

For any Villa search on Google add this after your search, I.e., aston villa -site:birminghammail.co.uk It won't bring back any search results for them, i hate that paper so much!

I don't think you'll find many good managers "packing the midfield" these days as a tactic, the game has moved on significantly in the last few years, whilst fans discussion hasn't. Pre lockdown we were looking to be much more expansive, playing on the break, with quick transitions and trying to create overloads in key attacking positions. More often than not with players cutting in from the wings or arriving late from midfield to try and score. Hence why Wesley not scoring a massive amount wasn't an issue, as he was designated as more of a target and link up man in that system for the wingers and midfield. That however meant we were left vulnerable in the space we left behind when they pushed up Defensively, again we didn't look to pack the midfield, but actually packed the edge of the box, with the midfield dropping to just in front of defence, and our wing backs and wingers coming in narrow, allowing space in front and down the wings, but keeping things very tight and congested in the middle. This allowed a lot of shots and crosses to be hit in, but meant most got blocked with little danger. Hence why we had so many shots against last season. With a bit more quality and less mistakes it would have worked better and we'd have been in a better position in the league and wouldn't have changed things during the lockdown break. We needed that Plan B, and I think we'll use it quite a bit next season too, but with the players we are getting in, we should see a bit more of a return to the more expansive game we played earlier last season.

Teams targeted both of our flanks... that's because of the system we played pre lockdown, which left us exposed in those areas when pushing forwards on the overlap.

He was Head & Shoulders above the rest for a while, it all went downhill from there and now he looks all washed out and out of condition.

Given that we seem to get worse when we have more players on the pitch than the opposition, I'm not sure that would be a good idea.

If you have no brains maybe, otherwise taking a more empirical and nuanced approach, you might notice they have very different characteristics, and will be played for different purposes in different situations. Davis is young, powerful and has pace, and can hold the ball up, but lacks goal scoring instinct so far. Borja is experienced, and a skilled, technical goal scorer good at getting into the box, but lacks pace and the ability to hold the ball up. If you could combine the two together as one player they'd be awesome, as it is we will utilise them in different situations to utilise their skill sets dependent on what we need in a game.

I think this is an excellent signing for us... The name fits, Baston for Villa! The price is right... free transfer until the end of the season, essentially taking on his current contract, and I guess an option to extend at the end if he proves himself. From looking at this highlight reels he looks technically good and more to the point knows where to be in the box. Watching the goals he's scored and how they were set up, and having watched us play and the similar type chances we create, I can't help thinking he'll suit our system well. Looking at his overall scoring stats he's actually been a broadly 1 in 2, 1 in 3 striker in seasons when he's had the chance to play consistently, including one season in La Liga. Stats are always difficult to read, because the context behind them means everything, they could be playing in poor teams in good leagues, or even a good team that doesn't play a system that suits and doesn't create opportunities. Looking at his attribute stats though, confirms what i've seen of him, technically good, knows where to be to score goals in the box, but he lacks in pace, defence and overall passing ability, though importantly short pass completion isn't bad. He's 6,1” I think and has good strength stats, but i'd question how that'd translate to the PL and I think he needs to improve in his athleticism. As such then, as with most of our acquisitions in the last year, we're playing money ball, what that means is we can't afford to get players in who have high stats across the board and are the complete or near complete player. We've looked to bring players in with the key high stats that we need for those positions, with the view we can hopefully coach them up to a higher level and bring their overall stats and all round competency levels up. Key attributes like attitude and adaptability also come in to the equation, and he seems to be good here too, Jesus knows him from his Athletico days so has a good idea of his character, and the fact he's been out on loan a fair few times, and adapted quickly and scored goals when he has, is a promising sign. I think he knows that he has an amazing opportunity here, possibly his last, to really hit the heights of his potential and play at the top level. I think the expectations for him all around are relatively low (as evidenced on this forum), and by the 'price', which could be in his favour, as it takes the pressure off. I don't think he'll be a starter, as stats seem to suggest his all around play would weaken us as a team despite the increased goal threat he would give us. (Samatta seems to be better here) The days of out and out strikers, ala Bent, or even Lineker, are gone, few teams can afford from a playing system perspective, players who don't have the broad all round game to contribute fully to the overall team plan. That side can be coached into him more, along with improving his strength and athleticism, but I think he'll be a good impact sub and could nick a few very important goals for us towards the end of matches.

The times he headed it, passed it and scored with it I guess?