VillaChris

10 hours ago, lexicon said:

Curious to see what the future holds for him.

Wouldn't surprise me to see him sold in the summer because I feel that given the CM issues we've had, we would have seen more of him if Emery rated him. 

I expect him to be sold tbh.

Had a token start at Man. City in the write off game so Ajax was his big audition and simply didn't impress Unai on the night.

He's not some 18 year old kid anymore. He made his league debut for us two years ago this month and played 40 odd games in the championship last year so judging by Unai's comments in March he doesn't think his mentality is quite there.

Not looking good his struggle for minutes with Donk loaned out and Kamara injured. SJM and Luiz also missing games in last month through suspension. We will sign another CM in the summer so think we'll sell him and Donk to cover that signing.

2 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Unlucky more like. Just look at how many Premier League games they have to play in a very short space of time not to mention the teams they play.  I’ve said it before but if they get top 4 after that then hats off to them. They deserve it. 

Liverpool also now have a free week to prepare to play them at Anfield whereas they have the Chelsea game on the Thursday so very little recovery time and like the one in November they might pick up injuries and suspensions.

We pick up just 4 points from Bournemouth, Chelsea and Brighton and that will still be a six point lead over them if they lose to Livepool and Arsenal and draw at Chelsea so that shows how close we are to 4th.

5 hours ago, ben1505 said:

They have a lot of fixtures congested at the end of the season.. we can get points on the board 

I honestly think if we can get 9 points ahead of them it will just be too much for them psychologically. Just like surprise surprise Man. United couldn't just pull back a 10 point gap in a week as so many were predicting.

Yes it still would be mathematical and all that but realistically with so few games remaining now I think teams would quietly concede it's not going to happen.

We can get 9 points up on Spurs by winning the two home games. Or if we don't then we play Brighton away before they play Liverpool.

In that scenario Spurs would have to beat one of Arsenal, Liverpool or Man. City to finish above us so would really pile the pressure on.

What a night the Olympiakos first leg will be, Spurs will be playing Chelsea at the same time!

29 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I can’t remember this !!

Southgate missed the 5th one.

West Ham put on a player right at the end who'd played for Gillingham in a previous round so it was replayed early in 2000 and we won 3-1 (think Taylor scored in that game aswell).

4 hours ago, omariqy said:

Semenyo is available. Sinistera is out. 

Semenyo-Solanke-Kluivert.

Tricky. Clean sheet is a big ask here.

From the away fixture they were constantly backing off Bailey so he's a cert to start and was a great header from Ollie at the end, think Diaby assisted that one.

Just thinking of our general shoot out record. Am I right in thinking the only serious shoot out we've lost in last 30 years was 1999 against West Ham? And that match got replayed in the end because they put on an ineligible player.

We've had the shoot out wins v Tranmere, Inter Milan, Bolton, Sunderland and West Brom before last night so a very good record indeed compared to most clubs.

Think it's due to the keepers we had at the time being great presences for those occasions. Bosnich, James had that Emi type presence facing penalties and Guzan and Steer also did well in the more recent ones. Also usually have a core of experienced penalty takers which helps aswell.

When Unai last won a european trophy every single player in his team scored a penalty that night.

We'll all be ready for the next one. Digne, Konsa and Pau could've all taken them if we'd had different players on the pitch.

1 hour ago, NorthEastVillan said:

Am I right in thinking the Brighton game will have to be moved for the semi finals? What about Liverpool will that just remain as is?

Liverpool going to the Monday night is good now. Got an extra 30 hours to recover from the SF (although I think we'll be far more comfortable in this one as Olympiakos aren't as good as Lille imo).

1 hour ago, sheepyvillian said:

The penalty he took last night was as good as any penalty you'll see.

Was very close to double kicking it. There's always drama with Ollie and penalties. I have to give him credit for scoring given it was a ridiculous delay with Emi and then the other ball being thrown on the pitch but I just never feel confident when he's running up. Compare to Tielemans and Luiz who are just ice cold and side foot into corners.

29 minutes ago, omariqy said:

We could do with Sinisterra and Semenyo being out. Along with Solanke, they are their biggest threat. Kluivert is hot and cold. Lewis Cook and Christie make everything tick. Their defence can be got at. Will be tough no doubt. 

Kluivert went off with a hamstring in the Man. United game so not sure if he's going to be involved.

41 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

This will be hard as ****. Team is knackered, hardly any rotation possible. Injuries everywhere. 

Bournemouth rested and on form.

Bournemouth have injuries aswell luckily.

I think we'll see Diego Carlos back in. Maybe Konsa to RB to give Cashy a breather as it was 120 minutes after a hamstring so have to be careful.

Digne could do with a breather so annoying that Moreno is out again for a few weeks.

Going to be tough for Tielemans aswell so I'd like to see Tim come in for this to give him less ground to cover as Bournemouth do press a fair bit.

Zaniolo out aswell so really if we stick with 4-2-3-1 we won't really have anyone bar Duran to come on and change things with 20 minutes left.

Feels like a bit of a 1-1 to me. I agree with the above we're really going to need the Holte End on good form to drag us through if we're 1-0 up with 15 minutes left. I'll be in the Holte for this game so will play my part.

At least we have clarity about 4th now with 5 games left as opposed to the middle of May.

All up to us. Three wins will certainly be enough, perhaps even 70 points.

13 minutes ago, useless said:

They've already spent quite a bit of money, bought the club, have refurbishd their training ground after it burnt down, and have also done up the stadium somewhat, as well as having bought the wheels site, they've apparently bought a bunch of other land besids that, 60 acres in total was the quote I saw. What I though was strange was the plans they've announced for their current ground, they're building two fan parks, and a bar in the stadium called 'the box to box' that stretches from one end of the pitch to the other, they're also expanding and 'reorientating' their club shop, all this going to cost tens of millions, not sure why they'd do all that if they're moving, their fans rationalizing it as the owners wanting to see what works and what doesn't for new stadium*

Will take 5 years to build the new ground you'd assume. Only logic is they open it when the HS2 station opens in Brum which is around 2030 I think.

Plot twist....Steve Evans going back to Rotherham!

Beat us at VP in the cup last season and he's exactly the sort who'll want a response in their last three games so that isn't too badly actually, they'll put in a far more lively performance now.

On 15/04/2024 at 17:33, Zatman said:

Not a player but Lambert is on Under the Cosh this week, I wonder will he say much about his Villa times

Thanks, always enjoy listening to that podcast. Lambert is actually doing a Q&A with FourFourTwo Magazine so that will be out in a month or two. Actually sent him a question about whether he regrets the Villa move.

Of course I guess at the time he felt it was too good to turn down but what he was doing was working at Norwich so sometimes you don't realise the opportunity you presently have and that was the start of the slow death of his managerial career.

Interested what his response will be to all that.

12 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Does it make any difference really? They've been rubbish with him in charge, maybe the combination of relegation confirmed and rubbish manager gone will free them up. 

If there's any club that might struggle against them it's Birmingham, although I don't think Rotherham stood a chance with Richardson, and not sure it makes much of a difference without him. 

Think it's more a case of some of the squad playing for contracts if he was confirmed for next season to lead the league 1 promotion charge. Now they'll just all want to go on holiday under whoever is their caretaker for the final three games.

It's a strange one. They were as good as down when he took over and he has a promotion from league 1 with Wigan. Guess fans haven't taken to his style of Football?

Rotherham sacked Leam Richardson so think we can rule out them taking anything v SHA. 

Just now, HeyAnty said:

No it wasn’t that.  It was 4th to get CL.  I don’t really care about a 3rd rate euro cup if im being honest.  And i hate FA cup as well.

I'd take winning an FA cup over three successive seasons of CL.

Winning it would be our biggest day and moment since 1982.

1 hour ago, LondonLax said:

It’s worth considering that the nations which get the two extra Champions League places this year will then have a disadvantage when competing for who gets gets the two extra spots next year as their coefficient will be divided by an extra team in Europe. 

Really interesting point that. 5th will be more important next season I think as we're more likely to be in the chasing pack with the extra games (potentially 8 CL games before January finishes) so could work out better in the long run if it's just 4th this year.

2 hours ago, Pinebro said:

I do think Spurs will come up with a surprise result.

They are an unpredictable team.

They need two. Just beating Chelsea away likely won't be enough now, they probably need to beat Arsenal also. Can't see them getting anything v Liverpool or Man. City so they're effectively got four games now to get minimum of 10 points and put some pressure on us given the GD swing.

12 hours ago, ender4 said:

I didn’t mean second in terms of priority. I mean we have two LB’s both around the age of 30.  Really we need one at that age and one understudy who is younger. 
 

 

Have to see how Lino Sousa comes on in next two years. Probably at this moment in time Ben Chrisene is more advanced, did a decent job coming on for Blackburn in the last 10 minutes and seeing out the Leeds win.

So we do have options although of course way off the level we're going to play next season. I think the plan will just be to sign a CB with experience of playing LB, that was clearly the plan with Pau but Mings season ending injury changed everything there.

4 minutes ago, omariqy said:

We just need to win the next 3 games. Forget about anything else. 

7 points and Spurs would be 9 points off us if they lose v Arsenal and draw at Chelsea. Would basically be all over for them if they then lose at Anfield.

It's there for us it really is. Even 4 points off Bournemouth-Chelsea isn't too bad as 7 point lead isn't easy to overturn with 6 games left and Spurs will lose a couple more in the run in I think we can be fairly certain of that with how they defended at Newcastle.

48 minutes ago, Tayls said:

It’s not really about that currently because 4th is something we can sort of control. It’s more the fact that the PL is now unlikely to get another champs league spot based on results from tonight’s Dortmund v Atleti game. 

Are we more or less likely to win three more games in the league this season based on the Arsenal result? And are Spurs more or less likely to win four more games based on losing at Newcastle 4-0.

If we ride the momentum all these permutations about 5th won't matter in the slightest for us.