thunderball

Bit casual in the middle and playing out, seem to be going long more often than usual. Movement isn’t great, Ramsey still rusty. Given it’s a bit make shift we are doing ok, still in second gear, when we needed to we went through the gears and got what we wanted.

Would like to see Zaniolo and Diaby, would also like to see Moreno.

8 hours ago, KentVillan said:

Thought he was fine. Not a starter but excellent squad player if he’s happy with that.

With Mings back, not sure many teams (in the world) could boast a stronger CD squad of Mings, Konsa, Torres, Carlos, and Lenglet to rotate from?

8 hours ago, Zatman said:

He is on 12 million a year at Barcelona. We wont be buying him

I am aware of that and I am sure he knows he’s had his payday, there’s got to be a deal, there usually is?

Don’t want to bleat because we heard the less classy clubs complain. We had three wrong decisions tonight that would have changed the result, but we have to now be prepared for teams parking the bus, this is what will define our season, not VAR.

We did enough to win, we played well enough, but we have to dig deep and find ourselves. Coming from behind shows we are not far off finding it.

Good outing, didn’t look out of place, good range of passing and looked safe. If he is available for £15m as suggested we should buy

lol, don’t think I’ll be coming back in here in a hurry!

15 minutes ago, Risso said:

10,000 extra fans will make a huge difference, especially with upgraded hospitality facilities which are unbelievably shite in the North. The stand is terrible, and it needs replacing. What would the bigger vision be exactly? Heck hasn't got a single thing right since he walked through the door. I thought Tom Fox's communication skills were poor, but this imbecile really takes the biscuit.

Wow?

10,000 seats doesn’t really move the dial. Even more so if you want more than 50,000 seats eventually. This type of development is a compromise. If we make CL, become regulars in Europe and competing in the PL, our ambitious owners will want 60-75K. They will need revenue like Arsenal and Spurs. VP won’t provide that.

10,000 x £1,000/seat = +£10m/season revenue, but it will cost over £100m before interest, plus loss of revenue for the 7,000 seats you lose for two seasons. You only get payback after about 12-15 years. And they will want a much bigger capacity than 50K. VP commercial revenue is very poor compared with Arsenal and Spurs as their state of the art stadiums are set up to exploit corporate customers who pay though the nose, so we will always be behind them commercially whilst at a compromised VP.

1 minute ago, Risso said:

 

How does that make any sense at all? Build it now, and then when we're firmly established in the Top 4 every year, we'll have 10,000 more paying custmers and hugely better hospitality massively increasing our bottom line. The North Stand has needed demoslishing for the last 20 years or more, not doing so makes no sense whatsoever. It's an eyesore, with terrible facilities.

Because maybe the new development was a compromise to finish for the Euros. Maybe they have a bigger vision. Maybe they do actually want  and value the home support while we are breaking through. I don’t know? Adding 10K won’t make much material difference to overall revenue, especially when compared with the cost in delivering it so may as well make the right decision. Maybe they are unpicking some Purslow decisions?

I trust them to make the right decisions. 

Thought it was a good interview, thought he made some interesting points however gave little away about much.

We stay at Villa Park, pause the +10K expansion, develop the warehouse thing and review/consider development options after the Euros, all framed around “keeping fans in the ground while we are doing well” and “we have a transport problem already which will be made worse by adding another 25% more spectators”.

Our world view/prospects might be seriously elevated in 18months time - make the big decisions then.

Having rewatched the footage of Kamara sending off, I can’t see a red card offence, he is trying to restrain the Brentford player who confronted Martinez and shoved Martinez with both hands? I don’t see any raised hands by Kamara? 

2 minutes ago, AVFCDAN said:

I was calling for Ramsey and Moreno to come back but they both look like players who’ve not played for 3 months.

They have to start somewhere

It’s like the enormity of going top is a psychological barrier. 

Yet again we struggle with the block, we look open in the middle too. It’s a pity we don’t have Tielemans, but definitely missing Dougie as the midfield general.

Bailey might change the script second half, hopefully Unai can see the problem….

I am not falling into the hype, but don’t underestimate how good we actually are. We are very organised and drilled, we are also the one side in the league that has and is steadily climbing, our points per game avg has improved s the season progressed, we have the momentum.

We also have just integrated Tielemans in to the starting 11, he is like a new signing, and we also have Ramsey and Moreno in similar situations, ready to integrate and bolster us - that’s better than new January signings as they are already familiar with their role, their teammates and the tempo of the league.

Both Newcastle and Man Utd may have new managers in the New Year, that could be good or bad.

I thought McGinn had been a disappointment in the Premier League, he looked like he couldn’t find time and space at this level to bring his game, and with the added burden of Captaincy I expected him to fall into a Dendonker style substitute role or to be sold. But credit to Emery and himself, he has emerged as a Captain by example and upped his game to a new and higher level. That’s some feat and credit to him. His stats are terrific this season, he found his shooting boots too.

We have suddenly had a tidal wave of attention by a lot of serious football media and content producers (except Sky and their pundits), that suggest we do need to be taken seriously, and speculating that Emery is in fact a genius.

I guess this is where it all starts to go wrong….!

55 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

To be fair we were going well in terms of our play and attacks until they got their 4th goal. Up until then we were behind 1.86 to 1.56 in terms of xG. They scored from a Konsa error and Cash missed a sitter. It was really a 3-2 loss in terms of how the game went, especially losing Mings to such a bad injury so early too.

 

I rewatched this game a week following the match and it seemed a different encounter from the live viewing. We were really good until the third goal went in, we were showing character even in that hostile environment and in the adversity of losing Mings and blooding Torres. 

We are much more familiar with our patterns of play and individual responsibilities now, it was a freak result. I would suggest that doesn’t happen today.

I thought Fergie was trolling his old adversary at the time, but he clearly has a genius eye for formation, patterns and intent, after all he is one of the great managers.

Can’t see City letting him go to a top 4 rival in the same season, especially when we are above them? He is finished there though.

Posting melancholy Instas of him in Turkey. Maybe his time will be up shortly….

I’m going to have to mute Carragher

3 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

And then what play with no RB? 

Yeah, maybe I didn’t think that through…

To uphold my my post, maybe McGinn covers?

Not quite working for me, not quite winning the midfield battle, we look a man short. Maybe Carlos comes off for Ramsey.

Overplaying and sloppy tonight, not quite clicking. Not keen on Martinez’s long kicks, we haven’t collected many.

12 hours ago, TRO said:

I'm not so sure, after watching a defensive master class against city....The back 3 was impeccable.

All the things I have been sceptical about, they proved they can do it.....The combativeness, intensity and urgency, I have doubted.................was there.

Mings is a huge miss, but Carlos's strength, not to mention his ball skill, was immense.

I think this team still have more improvement in it....its scary.

It will be interesting if he persists with Konsa, Carlos and Pau as to how good they can be, you get the sense it could be awesome, especially as Ezri is developing into Van Dijk.