Cizzler

3 hours ago, The_Steve said:

I agree. He was right to take on the shot. But his back heel nonsense in the first half wasn’t on 

I genuinely don't remember this. I remember Watkins' backheeled one (but I think that was second half) wide, when I think a bit more composure and the pass to (I think it was..) Diaby was on.

Is it just me who thought he was a lot better today then?

Yes, missed a couple of chances - but from really dangerous runs in behind.

Fantastic turn and drive from midfield to set up Duran’s second. 

5 hours ago, Leeroy said:

Palace have made some very astute signings from the Championship - Eze, Olise and Wharton for a combined £40-45m is only slightly more than we paid for Buendia. I actually think they might be one of the best clubs for signing players, Guehi and Anderson were also really clever signings and Munoz their new right back looks good too. 

 

Olise for £8m compared to £50m for Diaby is ridiculous, Olise much more likely to get in that France squad for the Euros than Diaby and he's three years younger too. Given our issues in midfield right now it's such a shame we didn't go for Wharton, Blackburn fans were raving about him 2 years ago. 

Agree with most of this.

Palace have made some great signings. Olise is clearly better value than Diaby. Wharton is looking the real deal.

Championship does have lots of good players. Hopefully we're in for Archie Gray (if Leeds don't go up) - looks even better than Wharton. 

Hackney (Boro), Rowe (Norwich) and Greaves (Hull) would also be astute signings. Young, English players, having strong seasons in the Championship.

On 30/04/2024 at 08:31, chrisp65 said:

I cannot see the argument where we are better off with 32 of the 650 MP’s in Westminster, rather than taking responsibility for ourselves. 

Where do you draw the line here, though. Each constituency is only 1 vote out of 650 - would each be better off taking responsibility for themselves?

Surely there are some economies of scale that comes from collaborating together? Or is Wales' population just the optimum size of a modern nation state.

I wonder why secession/independence is a big issue in the U.K. (Scots, Welsh, N.I all have serious independent movements) but it barely registers in the USA.

Would California, Texas, New York, etc be stronger independently than in the USA? Do States have a greater degree of autonomy/power within the Federal system than our devolved assemblies? Or is there just less emotive baggage/more patriotism.

On 05/11/2023 at 16:49, VillaChris said:

Should stay up but will be a long old way off 6th place.

6 months is a long time in football!

Really only watched enough of us from early 00's to comment.

But Martinez is the best keeper I've seen at Villa. 

I think we've had better full backs than the current incumbents. Even if just that one year of Kyle Walker on loan.

Laursen would be the best CB I've watched us have - but has very different qualities to what Emery seeks in my opinion. Would he have the pace to play the high line, or the ability to pass between the lines. I'm not sure. There's definitely an argument Pau/Ezri is our strongest combination of PL post-90s CBs (I never saw McGrath play). 

Midfield, I would still pick Barry above them all. Even Milner I would say had a higher peak than Dougie, Kamara or McGinn. But it's close. I would put those three above/close to Petrov.

Ashley Young was fantastic in his first stint imo. Still a level above Bailey/Diaby - but maybe I'm being overly sentimental. To be honest, there's an argument for Grealish being the best winger we've had in the PL era. Not that I want him back at all (was excellent business in hindsight to cash in) - but he was brilliant before he went.

Striker - Ollie is definitely in the conversation now. If he gets 20 goals, will be hard to argue against him. I think Benteke was more useful in a worse team - but in this system, I wouldn't swap Watkins for anyone.

Completely pointless, as the dates I started watching Villa are arbitrary for everyone else, but:

-------------------Martinez----------------

Konsa----Laursen---Torres---Bouma

Young-------Barry------Milner------Grealish

------------Watkins-----Benteke-------------

I don't even particularly like Konsa at RB - so a bit shoe-horned.

7 hours ago, Zatman said:

Mourinho has come out and said is some players still at United that he wanted rid of 5 years ago. Am guessing Shaw is one of them, probably Martial

Shows how bad the club has been ran that them two have been at United nearly a decade

Like Shaw isn’t a bad left back at all. Most United fans would say he’s one of their better players.

Injured again this year (he is obviously injury prone) but last year he was very good in my opinion.

He’s England’s best LB - so not sure why it’s a massive issue / a reflection on how bad United have been run.

They’ve clearly been run horrendously - but it’s more their record signings, than being unable to get rid of Shaw/Martial. 

Pogba £105m, Anthony £95m, Maguire £87m, Sancho £85m, Lukaku £85m, Di Maria £75m, Casemiro £70m, Mount £65m…

Of their signings £50m+, only really Bruno (and potentially Hojlund) are worth what they paid.

Compare that to Man City or Liverpool’s ‘big’ signings. Where it is near 80%-90% hit rates.
 

39 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Mbappe, Haaland and Kane score for fun, but they're not bringing the level of all round brilliance that Watkins does. I genuinely 100% would not swap him for any of them.

This is just a mental opinion. He's having a fantastic season - but he's not better than Mbappe.

Haaland is also 5 years younger than him and clearly not recovered properly from his mid-season injury. He scored 36 in 35 games last season in his first PL season as a 22 year old.

The Kane slander (made by a few on here) is also really off. The only thing Ollie has over Kane is the ability to run in behind. Trying to paint the narrative that Kane is just a goal-scorer is bizarre, he's a fantastic passer of the ball. His first touch is a million times better than Watkins. He's scored a lot more (33 goals) and still assisted close (10) vs. Watkins this season, and is in the CL semi-finals. He's a phenomenal player.

1 minute ago, Dodgyknees said:

Cole Palmer is a generational talent 

Not quite sure about generational, but clearly an excellent young player. Must be quite close to starting for England this summer.

I remember a few posters on here claiming he was just “penalties” and crap.

7 minutes ago, Annoyman said:

I didn't see the first half yellow and it seems hard to get a unanimous answer about whether the ball was in play. If there was a case to appeal one of the yellows I wonder whether UEFA might not look on it too favourably because they were obviously trying to clamp down on penalty antics, and will just want to vengefully put down a marker. He already embarrassed FIFA in front of their Qatari blood money buddies by making the WC final all about his shithousing then making sweet love to the golden glove.

If the phantom yellow in the shootout isn't even in the books is it just moot though? Maybe ref just decided not to take his name after he realised the match ball was genuinely suspiciously missing

It was 100% a goal kick. It was only yesterday (and I wasn't drinking!). 

It was a harsh yellow - the game was tied, it was early on and I don't remember a serious previous warning. Crowd baited the ref into it big time. But it was definitely a dead ball.

49 minutes ago, Okonokos said:

This was more because there was no ball though. The delay wasn't really to do with Martinez; Watkins literally didn't have a ball. Pretty sure the crowd were holding onto it or something.

I dunno. Looked like the ref spoke to Martinez for a while, immediately after he'd just shhh'd the crowd after the first pen save.

The ref then walks away, but is clearly distracted by Martinez' shenanigans (not wholly Emi's fault here) and doesn't realise there's no ball in play. Martinez asks for a ball - the ref misjudges this as him winding up the crowd (again) and charges over to book him.

I felt at the time that Ollie's statistically a weak penalty taker - and all this can't have helped. But he nailed then pen - so fair play to him. He's definitely mentally stronger this season. 

50 minutes ago, ender4 said:

That's a really good point. All the focus is on him, the other players can just get on with scoring their penalties. 

It obviously worked, but there was a point before Watkins' penalty where I felt that the whole pantomime could have hindered us.

Watkins had much longer to wait for pressure to build, because Martinez was engaging with the crowd/the ref was trying to assert control. 

Spent four years at Leverkusen... and the year they sell him, they win the title.

Not sure a Conference League winner's medal will mitigate that... but could soften it slightly!

3 minutes ago, tinker said:

Apart from away where Watkins scored,  guy might be quick but he can't turn, he's fell over both times , isak is a top top striker though. Great game BTW 

Agreed that Isak is class.

Tbf, VDW is not having a good game at all. I do still think he’s a good player though. He’s not “signing of the season” as the spurs fans crow - but he’s big, quick, left footed and comfortable on the ball. 

5 minutes ago, Zatman said:

This. Any defender that relies mainly on pace is not a good defender

11 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

The fact that they go on about Van de Ven's pace points toward shit positional play more than anything else.

Spurs play with a really high line.

If you actually watch him play, can we he’s a really good defender, and decent on the ball too.

Managed to keep Watkins pretty quiet.

He’s a really good defender; and both those goals were hardly his fault. Squared up last man, I’m not sure Torres stops either….

Still, great result for Villa if it stays like this.

I’ve been a big critic, but fair play - great cameo.

Good to know he’s got that physicality in him. That’s how you need to be in this league. He saw that if you play with that intensity, the refs are actually a lot more lenient when you do go down under contact.

Some nice touches too.

My Euro 23 man squad would be:

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, Aaron Ramsdale, Nick Pope (if fit)

Defenders: Kyle Walker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Reece James (if fit), Luke Shaw (if fit), Ben Chilwell, John Stones, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa (although would've been Ben White), Levi Colwill

Midfielders: Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo, Jude Bellingham, James Maddison, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon

Forwards: Harry Kane, Ollie Watkins, Ivan Toney

Rogers was such a strange signing, has looked utterly appalling every time I’ve seen him.

Is he really any better than Aaron Ramsey or JBP?

Trampoline touch, scuffed shots, gives the ball away constantly. Had zero faith he’d fashion anything from that opening just before HT.

Why is he playing.

Lenglet, Duran and Rogers would struggle to get in Luton’s team 

Appreciate we have injuries, but Rogers and Duran are just miles off it. Nowhere near good enough for a team trying to challenge for CL. 

On 24/02/2024 at 19:46, Zatman said:

Another Burnley shambles today. Consideting the ridiculous hype they are easily the worst promoted team ever

Was there genuine hype?

They were a decent championship team - but they didn’t manage to keep Tella (went to Leverkusen) and Maatsen (Dortmund). 

Harwood-Bellis also started for them all year, but they didn’t manage to get him back on loan either.

Their first XI clearly went backwards year on year, so was always going to be a struggle for them. It would be like us not managing to keep Mings, El Ghazi, etc the year we went up.

Sheff Utd had a similar problem, losing Ndiaye to Marseille.

5 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

What the ****?  

If a parody account tweeted this it would be criticised for going too far.

Pre-facing this with the fact I've never voted Conservative in my life (and not singling you out - as the overwhelming response on the previous page was one of ridicule/ contempt for the policy - but had to quote one) but just hoping for some fair discourse on immigration, as maybe I'm missing something obvious. 

But, is it truly beneficial [long-term] for the U.K. to allow masses of cheap care workers and their dependents?

Do other major economies allow this? (Genuine question).

Is the benefit (cheap care labour) not outweighed by the cost on the public sector of the dependents? Public spending expenditure p/head in the U.K is approx ~£15k - therefore if you pay less than £15k in tax annually, presume (roughly) you cost, rather than benefit the state. Typically what tax are dependents of care workers paying (is it above or below this threshold)?

I think it's easy to dub 'anti-immigration' policy as right-wing/racist/Tory scum - but with crumbling public services and an ever-increasing population, surely there is some consensus that unless migration is skilled/net benefit to the state - public services will be increasingly stretched. There is only so much more we can be taxed.

Why is the correct solution not to pay care workers more, so current citizens are more willing to do it. Unless I'm missing something, importing cheap labour (and the family that comes with it) just kicks the can down the road. Years down the line, more people end up in care in this country - which means we will have to ship in more cheap labour again?