thunderball

10 hours ago, Made In Aston said:

As long as we keep averaging 2pts a game that is good enough to get top 4. It is definitely realistic given the last 34 games under Emery. Finishing in the top 2 is not at this stage. 

That’s the sensible view, but it’s possible, and we are still improving with players to come back who improve us. We could be Emerys best team yet so who knows.?

Wow @TRO you nearly had page 9 all to yourself

7 minutes ago, smg said:

After tonight’s games we are shown on BBC as being second in the group. Out goal difference and goals scored are better than Legia. Is it because they beat us ?

……It’s just more of the media bias against us

Really feels like we have emerged as a team, we’ve clicked. On Sunday we will see if we have Hit our stride, but we look really well drilled and dangerous, fringe players now up to speed. Exciting times, anything is possible at this rate.

1 hour ago, Delphinho123 said:

Ok. Nothing special tbh. People praising simple passes and ignoring the risky ones that will be punished.

Mings played much better and received less praise. 

This is nonsense? Mings is indeed a very decent player who has improved under Emery and is the best stopper, but Torres has more range and given we aim to control games rather having to rely on stoppers, him being here totally makes sense. He has already scored and had assists. His range of passing gives us depth and its like having another midfielder on the pitch. For me Konsa has improved this season, whether that’s due to the new dynamic who knows?

Wow, we are really developing something special. Getting better every game, Watkins looking very dangerous but importantly confident. Only Newcastle has scored more goals than us. Perversely, again, the score didn’t flatter us, quite the opposite, we could have scored a couple more and WHU were fortunate with theirs.

Glad to see Tielemans with a smile on his face, if him, Zaniolo and Bailey can starting chipping in, and players coming back, who knows….?

We should win and we really need to win to underline our intention and demonstrate what we are capable of. Win today and we are two points off the top, that’s pretty impressive, especially with the run of games in November. Its not inconceivable that we could win all those games and if we round off with a win against Spurs, who knows where we will be but 3rd is a very reasonable assumption.

15 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

To be fair Doku has done ok for them.

I do like Zaniolo though, as others have said, I feel he has all the ingredients to be a very good PL player.

Just needs one of his rockets to go in.

It’s not a criticism of Doku, I wanted him here and have followed him with interest at city. The point is for the hype and £55m there’s not much between them. Yes Doku has scored, but at less than £30m (option) Zaniolo looks good value and suited to this league every bit as much as Doku.

[double post]

Has anyone watched Doku at Man City who we all wanted here? I would say that Zaniolo is the better buy. Of course time will tell….

On balance fair. A win, after other results today, would have been outstanding but a draw is fair and keeps us in the pack.

A bogey fixture could have been worse, But another away game behind us.

Happy enough with the point.

Winning this shows we are definitely a different prospect. We are where we are this season because we are winning the games we should be winning, that hasn’t been the case for a very long time, and Wolves is a bogey team for us. 6 wins from eight, including Wolves away would be very significant.

Few players are more entertaining or have as good a highlights reel as Bertie. Bailey was meant to be an upgrade, but would be interested in their stats, I’ll bet there’s not much in it. Can’t but help think we wanted Nico Williams there ahead of both, and if he arrived both would be sold.

Nope.  It’s monstrously embarrassing, how does this relate to the club (and please don’t cite ‘villan’)? Its unnecessarily adding a layer of narrative that doesn’t exist. Why would we want a guy fawkes-a-like representing the club?

Heck would absolutely hate this.

Good news, a very good forward and an important component of how we play. It’s good for the club to secure these guys (Mings, McGinn, Konsa, Luiz, Watkins) on long term deals, it shows confidence the players have in the project, trajectory and management, but also shows we are a serious club and the tail isn’t wagging the dog and we have some clout.

However, as a VILLA fan not sure I wholly warm to the “that’s why I stayed” and “Emery is the reason I re-signed”, I would have hoped for more Club respect. Maybe being too prickly!

54 minutes ago, rodders129 said:

Why’s everyone hating on Gabby? Just curious

I have no fondness for Gabby so can understand. Thought his relegation season tainted any positives.

Thought we were OK, doing everything more or less right but struggled past their parked bus. In fairness the stats backed up our utter dominance. Dont let the anxiety of the occasion leave you with a false memory of a poor performance. A telling stat is offsides - shows they didnt try and attack us, nor was there any space behind them at any point. Their keeper had a great game too. If half our chances went in we could have finished 4 or 5 ahead and I reckon we wouldn't have questioned the performance.

Konsa is a great recovery defender, was quick and alert, however his distribution is ponderous, he seemed to stand with the ball for 5-10 seconds considering his options. Once Luiz cam on that midfield urgency that we have become accustomed to, returned. There is no doubt, our bite centres around the smart interplay of Kamara/Luiz and the energy of Diaby and Watkins. Without them (probably £300m worth of players) we are a little more blunt and laboured.

FWIW, there is an unfair weight of expectation in this B side on Duran, he is only 19 and its totally different slotting into our A team than carrying the responsibility while those around him are making heavy work of things.

Zaniolo is still bedding in and finding his place in this team, but I am more concerned at Tielemans and Bailey who look very average and a shadow what they are capable of.

There is a rumour that we are going to try for Dani Cabellos again in Jan which you have to assume is because Tielemans hasnt met expectations.

With Ramsey and Buendia to come back, I would not be upset if Dendonker left in January. I hope we buy Zaniolo.

Not easy out there, they’ve come to defend. 

We need a bit more speed and urgency. I’d be tempted to take off Langlet for Pau, Doug or even Watkins 

2 hours ago, Mazrim said:

Olsen (I know but, **** it)
Chambers, Carlos, Lenglet, Moreno.
McGinn, Tielemans, Dendoncker.
Traore, Duran, Bailey.

3-1.

Traore. Wow, how quickly I had forgotten about him!

I think we will get Bailey and Zaniolo out wide.

Complacency could kill us, we have to win our home games. My priority is the PL first and foremost and seeing as we have an important match on Sunday I wont be too harsh.

I just have this feeling we are going to finish 3rd.

Considering we’ve won 5 of 7 played, and already played Brighton, and away games at Newcastle, Liverpool and Chelsea, that’s pretty exceptional. 

If we at least win the games we should win, that’s a big improvement. If we can avoid losing against Arsenal, Spurs and Man Utd when we first meet them, or do better than that, I reckon we are onto something big. We are only going to improve as the season develops too.

TBH, I think if McGinn is off his game we dont play as well, but more over I think we really miss Ramsey. I think when he gets back in the fold he has the energy, pace, passing ability, ball carrrying ability and his decision making is excellent, he also carries goal threat and is a great finisher. I think he enables Kamara and Luiz to stay and anchor play, offering the link to the forwards.

I was really impressed by his come back cameo, I thought he was excellent. I think him on the left and a settled Zaniolo on the right (with Diaby floating in the #10/false 9) we will be cooking. Cant wait for the second half of the season.

2 hours ago, delboy54 said:

So what are are priorities this season for our football club?

Stay in the premier league ?

Stay in the premier league ?

Stay in the premier league ?

Stay in the premier league ?

Qualify for European place ?

Get out of League cup at earliest opportunity ?

Get out of European football at earliest opportunity ?

Get out of the FA cup at the earliest opportunity ?

 

I do agree with some of what you say though...

 

Finishing higher than we did last season is #1, ultimately getting into the top 5 (Champions League qualification).

That is the marker of progress; that demonstrates positive and continuous momentum; it is the route to higher income; it offers better players a more attractive destination. Champions League is our medium term objective at the expense of all others.

I would suggest Europe is #2, but not at the expense of the league. FA Cup is #3. League cup a distant #4.

we cannot compete seriously for cups until we sort out our league form and build a quality squad which will take time and success in the league. Once we have a strong squad we can compete in multiple fronts over 60ish games a season. We are a long , long way from that, let’s be serious?

3 hours ago, striker said:

Will he?

I’ve had my doubts about his appointment. His selection tonight didn’t help but I think if you go back to the transfer window many on here including myself were concerned that Villa hadn’t signed enough quality to add more depth to the squad. Moreover, selling younger players who were better than those selected tonight didn’t help either.

Really flies in the face against Emery’s statement that he wanted Villa to do better in cup games.

Everton deserved to win tonight as they played like the competition meant something to them.

This is a crazy take.

He has to rotate the squad, we can’t play the same team every minute of every game. We (he) has suffered key injuries. 

We did add quality in the summer, perhaps more so than any other window? 

Are you suggesting that Archer is better than Watkins or Duran? Philogene and Ramsey wanted to leave, we had to sell or they would walk for free at the seasons end. And who are they better than?

We didn’t play well, but for the third game already this season we lose a key senior player in the first 20 minutes. Statistically we were better and we gifted them the second goal through an error, so at 1-1 this same performance takes on a different look, still out of sorts but given context, not as bad. 

TBH on balance I am glad we are out of this cup, we have bigger priorities.

2 minutes ago, Zero7 said:

Play McGinn at LB and we deserve to lose, again, this is on Unai 

We didn’t lose because of that!