tom_avfc

Just now, est1874 said:

OK. Easy to say that today, but hope you're saying that if we get drubbed at the start of next season we'll see, I guess.

People probably won’t be saying it doesn’t matter as we’ve achieved our seasons goal and can’t do any more in game 1 of a season.

You can like it as much as you want but I’ll take the 5-0 loss and champions league qualification over the alternative where we needed something from the last day.

What a great season! A loss in a dead rubber isn’t going to ruin it for me.

1 minute ago, MaVilla said:

How many first teamer's are we missing today?

Martinez, Moreno, Pau, Kamara, Bailey, Tielemans?

so 55% of the players who would actually start.

maybe more if you include Mings and Buendia.

Missing Rogers and Ramsey, at least one of whom would start. 

2 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

I wonder if he ever regrets the Dendoncker loan at all. It's been completely pointless - has he played even a single minute? - and it feels like we've been left very light in central midfield. Of course no-one could predict Kamara getting a season-ending injury, but it hasn't taken much in the way of injury or suspension to leave us with no fresh options whatsoever. 

It’s only taken a season ending injury to Kamara and a badly timed injury to Tielemans.  The fact that dendoncker can’t get minutes now just about sums it up. He’s no more suitable than Tim to play regular minutes for a top 4 team.

If dendoncker is the answer then the question is definitely not how do you win European tournaments or qualify for the champions league.

Just now, LondonLax said:

They have not been desperate saves from Onana. He’s been pretty comfortable. 

They haven’t hit the target half the time. On another day they’d have scored 6. That day may well be at villa park! 

1 minute ago, LondonLax said:

It’s the way they play. Allow shots from distance then attack on the counter. 

Shots from distance? They’ve had 12 shots from inside the box.

2 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

Ive just remembered I went one other time when John Harley scored for them from about 45 yards out but that game was when they were ground sharing with QPR at Loftus Road.  Basically I’m Jonah.  
 

 

 

 

They should pay for your ticket! 

8 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

 

I’ve been twice. Last season and the one where JPA missed two penalties.  

Don’t go again then!! 

On 04/03/2024 at 09:39, HKP90 said:

Good poem. I wrote a haiku.

"City win the big league.

Critics swoon at cheating heartbreak.

Liverpool eat s**t."

I call it 'Eat sh*t Liverpool'.

 

Edit....ah crap I just realised 'City' is two syllables. Err. Maybe use 'Bitch' instead.

I wanted to include something else but 'representative from Wellingborough' has way too many syllables for a haiku.

You’ve also got 8 syllables in your second line. 1 out of 3 lines of a haiku correct is better than nothing I guess!

Fully agree with the sentiment, just being a pedant! 

1 minute ago, StefanAVFC said:

What are the European permutations? Chelsea get ECL or EL if they win? It 5th is CL are 6th/7th EL and 8th ECL?

Chelsea get ECL with a win. Rest of your placings are right I think.

1 hour ago, VillaJ100 said:

What was so important with our cock up vs. them is that it's totally within the realms of possibility we could go on a crap run of DLDL and they could go WWWW and suddenly there's no gap anymore.

I mean it’s within the realms of possibility but I don’t think they’ve won more than two in a row in the league this season.

I also don’t think we have gone on a winless run of more than 2 this season.

This would suggest that it’s possible but unlikely.

1 minute ago, birdman said:

I also feel we should have embarked on a game management phase when they started to turn the screw. If we can't score another then we have to shore up to protect our lead. 

But what does this game management phase consist of. They were all over us from the half hour mark and with more clinical attacking would have scored 8 or 9. We literally couldn’t keep the ball. You can waste a bit of time but if you then just give the ball back to them it’s not really achieving much.

It was crying out for midfield reinforcements but the only option we had was Iroegbunam who is completely untested and not long back from an injury. When we brought players on we didn’t improve.

Just now, DJBOB said:

He could have played McGinn instead as I thought he would but seems he wanted McGinn further up the pitch to connect us from our half to the final third - which in fairness he did. 
 

But he’s clearly lost a lot of trust in Diaby to do the second striker role and we paid for it by playing Dendoncker in the pivot instead. 

We played McGinn there the other day and it didn’t really work either. We’re one injury/suspension away from losing our shape in far too many positions.

Given Diaby’s recent performances it’s hardly a surprise not to see him starting matches at the moment.

3 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

It’s not all that concerning given what we rolled out. 
 
Maybe more emblematic of a lack of depth in key areas (we need another RB for ****’s sake!)

I will say that his insistence on thinking Dendoncker can be the same as Kamara was our main downfall today. 

But what’s the alternative to playing dendoncker there? We don’t have any other options. Hopefully by the end of January we’ll have a more able backup and won’t need to play dendoncker there.

13 minutes ago, Tayls said:

We’ll follow that pile of crap up with a defeat to Burnley as well. We are in bad form currently. Hope Unai knows how to turn it around. I think we have been poor since the Brentford game, despite winning that one. 

Our bad form consists of 10 points out of a possible 15 including games against Man City and Arsenal. We’ve had a couple of games where we haven’t been at our best. Probably deserved more against Sheffield United and got what we deserved tonight.

Ona separate point the late subs is one of my favourite criticisms of managers at Villa. We’re overachieving and have a load of players nowhere near the level required on the bench. If he brought players on earlier we’d still have lost and then he’d be getting criticism for making the subs.

We desperately need some reinforcements in January but we’re miles ahead of where we thought we’d be. If we want to stay in a champions league hunt then we’re going to need to have far more on the bench and to allow us to refresh things from time to time.

12 hours ago, GlobalVillan said:

Yeah there is something about clubs with "City" in their name that makes them detestable spunktrumpets.

Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester and even Bristol are absolute gobshites.

You can add Coventry and Cardiff to that list too.

Just now, oishiiniku_uk said:

On MOTD tonight Alan Shearer will say 'Schar's been clever there getting himself in the way and going to ground' guaranteed. Never mind that he dived to win a penalty.

At half time he was described as clever. He should be coming away from that with a yellow card and instead he’s got his team a goal and is getting plaudits for his cheating.

Meanwhile players are getting booked for kicking the ball away in the slightest fashion and we’re getting 20 minutes of injury time a game.

Those in charge have their priorities all wrong.

I’m not really sure how that’s been given. What on earth are they watching? 

Just now, OutByEaster? said:

Both yellows, stupid play by Jota, no one to blame but himself.

In the first one he makes contact with the heel and nudges the Spurs players leg which causes him to trip himself - on a yellow to then immediately lunge after a ball that's a long way gone is just dumb.

Liverpool have got real problems with their discipline - and that starts at the top.

Agreed. I thought they were two pretty standard yellow cards. Absolute madness to commit those two fouls within a minute or 2 of each other. Got what he deserved. 

Just now, StefanAVFC said:

Didn't even touch him IMO. Refs need to have some common sense. It's already 11v10 and sending him off for 2 such soft yellows is stupid.

Jota needs to have some common sense. Just been booked and he goes in for a challenge like that. Not much contact but mainly because the spurs player has jumped over his leg. 

2 minutes ago, theboyangel said:

With the Curry incident - I personally think that was a rugby incident.
 

The player is coming down from a leap, Curry has more than attempted to wrap and they collide but not a bad head collision.

it happens. 
 

The Carreras incident is different as he intentionally leaps towards and into the England kicker - far more reckless… 

no surprise - just a yellow

He’s bang upright going into the tackle and it’s direct head on head contact. It’s always going to be a red.

The Argentina one is more stupid but I’m not convinced it’s direct to the head which probably saves him.

How many red cards does it take for England to improve their tackle technique? We’re a red card waiting to happen every match at the moment.

Brilliant catch to get rid of Marsh there. Finish these off quickly now and we’ll have put ourselves into a strong position.