VillaChris

10 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

How do Norwich score goals? They're woeful in the final 3rd.

Sara got 13 goals and similar number of assists but says it all they've had 70% of possession for spells and he's touched the ball 3-4 times.

I was expecting them to be constantly rolling it into him from defence so bit bemused all they seem to be doing is a long diagonal for a wide player to chase into the corner. Hilarious if Leeds or Southampton can't beat them over two legs as they're not great v pace on the counter attack either with a slow backline.

Problem aswell with Hull losing is they'll have little desire to up the tempo second half so unless SHA make a bad error and gift them a goal they still should be winning this so all on the Blackburn and Hull games and can they hold onto their respective results?

2 minutes ago, villarule123 said:

Staying up in place of Eustace's Blackburn, you just know it's going to happen. 

I was thinking that. They constantly go on about us being "jammy" but that would take the biscuit....

Needlessly sacking a manager who collected enough points in his 10 games at start of season to give them a chance of staying up today and he wins two in about 15 in Blackburn.

Norwich would get about 10 points in the Premier league with Shane Duffy and Ben Gibson as their ball playing CBs. Stansfield half presses him and Duffy just boots the ball out of play.

Utterly pointless them coming up yet again.

11 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Norwich look like they have nothing in the final 3rd.

Sargant is very good actually. Just been given terrible balls to run onto. 

Didn't realise Ashley Barnes is injured, they're missing him holding the ball up and winning cheap free kicks.

Norwich properly on the beach aren't they?

Taking about ten minutes to just get up the halfway line and then 2-3 passes and it just goes out of play. I thought this Sara guy was one of the best playmakers at this level?

We aren't throwing in a rookie 19 year old LB for this type of game.

27 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Pretty sure our record against Liverpool is better than other scum 6 teams. 

We've lost plenty but most of them have actually been fairly tight that they've won late on.

One thing's for sure though we can't be playing Lenglet against them as his lack of pace will be brutally exposed against their forwards.

14 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

He doesn't keep the attack alive that well. He very rarely spots/executes a penetrative pass (Kenneth). He did make one last night though so fair play. Ashley Young used to make them all the time though.

In the Chelsea game he should've had two assists. Passed to Rogers for his goal with the decisive run. Then late on he set up Ollie perfectly with a cross from the right but he blazed over wastefully.

Was also the same in the Man. United home game. Look here at 0:35. Cash looks like he has nowhere to go but digs out a fantastic cross and Ollie simply has to score that from the position he's in:

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS | Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester United (youtube.com)

Seems to be a perception that all Cash does is rampage forward at 100mphs and overhit crosses constantly. He did that under Gerrard. Less so under this manager.

If people think the next big RB signing is going to lay on five inch perfect crosses every single game for the forwards then I think that's setting yourselves up to be massively disappointed. We're simply not at the point yet where we can sign one of the best FBs in World football.

14 hours ago, Pinebro said:

I don't like our left back options

I actually wonder now if the plan is to sell Moreno now.

We got a good six months out of him and he helped us get 7th so for that alone the signing was a success.

Been a write off season for him this time and he really hasn't been great at all in the games he's played, poor defensively and only average going forward. Looks to have lost a yard of acceleration from the hamstring injury so I'd say that's a significant problem given he's 31 in June.

He won't be on wages like Digne is but we'd have still given him a decent amount to move away from Spain at this stage of his career. With CL imminent also feels like Digne's top level experience is more essential to hang onto so keeping him for one more year, sell Moreno back to a club in Spain and bring in younger understudy feels like the way to go. 

We'll see if Monchi agrees on that. We got away with one last August when the plan seemingly was to sell Digne and replace him with Marcos Acuna who's older and also had an injury hit season at Sevilla.

3 hours ago, Farlz said:

We're a bit up and down lately but there can't be any excuses for not beating these 

 

Pascal Gross can play anywhere but their midfield is a real downgrade on what they had 12 months ago. Guessing it will be Gilmour, Baleba and Gross so pretty lightweight.

2 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I actually think the players could do with a game away from Villa Park. They seem to be struggling a little with the pressure and expectancy from fans to win the game. That mixed in with fatigue and players seem anxious.  Massive contrast to how well they played with the ball against Arsenal.
 

Interested to see how they get on against Brighton. 
 

edit: 6 game form table backs this up. 11th at home and 3rd away. 

Remember when everyone was rubbishing our away form in the Autumn/Winter period on here.

8 wins with still Brighton and Palace to come is a very good return and not far off what the title chasers have done.

I said in September when we won 1-0 at Chelsea that would be a very good result as the season went on. Since then Chelsea have beaten all of Newcastle, Brighton, Man. United and Spurs at home.

People were quick to jump on us when Newcastle and Liverpool were turning us over in the early part but again I said let's wait and see what Spurs do when they go to these venues. 4-0 at Newcastle and Liverpool could easily stick 3-4 past them aswell.

7 hours ago, Tayls said:

With spurs having lost 3 in a row (is it?) the likelihood of them losing 4 is quite low - so I’m going to assume they will pick up at least a point this weekend against Liverpool. Then they play Burnley, so we should expect a win for Spurs, followed by City and then Sheff Utd - where a minimum of 3 points is expected. So I make that 67 at least - all we have to do then is hope they fail to pull off a victory against Liverpool and/or City. 

In that scenario they'd still finish below us if they beat Burnley by a goal and Sheffield United by three goals. Leaves them with a GD of best case of -16 so we could actually get away with losing two of the games by a two goal margin.

If they don't beat Liverpool they've got a very remote chance of finishing above us regardless of what we do at Brighton.

4 hours ago, abdulaziz1 said:

Has to start against Brighton, instead one of the forward 4, not sure how to drop Diaby after a goal and assist but it’s either him or Rogers. 

Think Bailey will be rested but then Zaniolo probably gets a start. Similar to Arsenal away.

1 minute ago, OutByEaster? said:

But they have dropped since then and are recovering, plus the Premier league is a whole different world since Abramovich was here - it's getting harder every year and the days of almost any team outside of City going into a season feeling top four is guaranteed are just about over I think.

They've dropped because they sacked Tuchel within a few months of taking over and then had a whole year of completely illogical transfers.

Improved but ultimately this is still Chelsea 8th with four games left and no guarantee they'll finish higher than that.

If we finish 8th next season you can only imagine the reaction on the main forum.

One thing's for sure, their backline can't handle Ollie at all. He has a ridiculous scoring record v them and always gives Dunk and co the run around.

The sole tactic I think will be SJM and others hitting quick passes into the corner for him to run onto and make things happen. Surely the game where we finally have a Villa striker scoring 20 league goals in the top flight.

8 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

There are signs they are getting their act together - if they do, and they can sell off a load of their deadwood in the summer and bring in a goalscorer and a leader, they'll be a real top four prospect next time around.

That's surely the bare minimum?

People acting like they were a midtable side when Clearlake turned up. They'd just finished 3rd very comfortably, lost both cup finals on penalties and had won the CL a year previously.

18 hours ago, duke313 said:

Conte linked with a return, he'd certainly have them in contention for CL places again.

Him under their ownership would last about two months.

55 minutes ago, Tayls said:

People jumping the gun a tad here, I feel. This is by no means done. We have to win a game, and the three games we have are all really really difficult. 

Spurs have to win three games realistically. Two of those are even more difficult than we have.

Again from a few posters on here it's bizarre logic to think Spurs will get something at Liverpool....and yet they'll roll us over with no questions asked at VP.

Doesn't really make sense with how both teams are playing currently and indeed what Liverpool are doing home and away.

If we draw two of our last three and Spurs win three of the last four then they also have to make up 8 goal swing on the GD (if we both lose one game by a goal).

I think we could've done it already with 67 points. I certainly think we'll get 4th without even winning another game from the three left.

39 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

I think it’s fair to say the standard of reffing in the conference league is even worse than the prem, and that’s saying something.

Thought he got the pen calls right but in general play he was staggeringly abysmal with his interpretations.

1 hour ago, villarule123 said:

Wow, I had no idea of the hate they have for Ange. Quite staggered really.

They really want him gone!

Just a few keyboard warriors surely. Most have enjoyed this season up to the last month and 5th is still a good finish for them compared to the expectations in August.

Like us they need more depth. Bringing on Bryan Gil with 20 minutes left when he's made little impact in the prem and they've been trying to sell him for last 18 months.

1 hour ago, omariqy said:

Free wins? Are we talking about the same Spurs? The one that has lost the last 3 games and looked absolutely awful against a sewn together Chelsea side.

Burnley at home is far from a cert anymore. If Spurs win that it will be a scrappy 2-1 imo rather than 3-4 nil.

I can't see them making up the GD either. One of Man. City/Liverpool will stick 2-3 past them and they haven't good enough about them to go to a Sheffield United and win 7 or 8 nil either.

They basically blew it when they lost 4-0 at Newcastle. Win that and they'd have been three clear of us with a game in hand and would've put huge pressure on us at Arsenal. That was the weekend we turned things around and I've been confident since and their results are getting worse.

19 minutes ago, spiezels said:

Martinez saves 2 of those. 

Yes. I don't quite subscribe to the standard view every goal Olsen lets in Emi could save in his sleep. However the second would be textbook Martinez save on a one on one I think, just getting his body to block the shot and keep it out. Fourth took a horrible deflection but it was still very close to Olsen and you feel Emi would've twisted his body quicker and deflected it away.

Goal and assist but for the positions he gets in his vision and passing isn't really that great.

Would prefer him being more in the role Bailey's had this season of cutting in from out wide and getting shots away.

1 minute ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Beat Brighton and palace somehow. We all know Liverpool will beat us. That's inevitable. 

"Somehow" I love words like that used. How on earth have we already accumulated 67 points this season.... We beat Bournemouth "somehow" 11 days ago. They're in far better form than Brighton currently.

Think Zaniolo will start this, need to be resting Bailey for the second leg.

Goes without saying Pau returns and possibly Emi aswell.

That happens and worst we do is score draw as Brighton just want the season to end currently and morphed back to their Potter days of barely scoring.

It probably isn't the worst game to give Tim a start as their midfield v Bournemouth was Gilmour, Pascal Gross and Joao Pedro as the 10 so massive downgrade on what they were putting out 12 months ago. Not sure UE will do this though.

1-1 and we're all but in CL with Spurs losing 3-1 at Liverpool.