tom_avfc

I think this is a bit of a simplistic way of looking at things. Mings covers for a lot of mistakes made by other players whereas it seems every minor mistake that Mings makes leads to goals. Now that's probably more likely to be the case with a centre back but I think Konsa gets away with a lot because of Mings covering. Even just looking at last nights game there's three incidents which stand out. The first Leeds goal Mings has made a slight miscontrol (I think its harsh to even call this an error but it happened). Dan James is then in a one on one with Konsa who he turns this way and that before shooting the ball through his legs. I'd argue that if the roles were reversed we'd be more likely to see Mings get a block or a tackle in to cover for the initial "mistake". Secondly someone loses their man completely from a corner giving them a free header which Mings clears off the line quite impressively. Another mistake that someone (I believe it was Konsa again) has got away with because of Mings. From the next corner yet again a Leeds player has a free header on goal. Mings is back in position to cover again and makes an off balance clearance which falls to a Leeds player. The ball could have gone anywhere and you'd like to think the rest of our defence would be alert enough to help him out but its one that people will put down as a Mings mistake again. This is just from one game but I think there's a pattern in the season whereby Mings covers for other's mistakes and doesn't get much help when he makes one himself. I've seen plenty of comments saying that Mings looked like he was our entire defence last night and it has seemed that way for large parts of the season.

We've scored goals from Mings bringing the ball out from the back. He wasn't doing it because he made a mistake he was doing it because it was working pretty well. His forward runs got us into some dangerous positions at a time when we were struggling to get a foothold in the game. I generally don't have much issue with Mings doing it because it can be effective and he tends to pick the right moments to do it. The one forward run I would question would be the one that Konsa made shortly before their second goal. We were 3-1 up having just had our most dominant spell of the game and I'm not sure Konsa has the ability on the ball to be running out from the back. He gave the ball away and we were immediately under pressure from the Leeds counter attack.

That was up there with the worst individual performances I’ve seen at Villa Park. Mings might have made the headline mistakes but that was a horrific performance for 90 minutes from Konsa capped off with a ridiculous red card.

Yeah right decision in the end. Ridiculous goalkeeping to come for that ball and I’m not sure how he’s managed not to foul him but it wasn’t a foul.

It’s fine to have differing opinions. I think people have more of an issue with the incorrect rubbish that you keep coming out with and claiming to be facts. Then when someone calls it out you seemingly still stick to your factually wrong statements. On the subject of opinions though if your opinion is that you just take the chance of infecting potentially vulnerable people rather than put a mask on for the short period of time that you are in a shop for then I think that’s a dreadful opinion. Making statements like “I haven’t had it so I must be doing something right” isn’t an opinion either. It’s just completely false reasoning and doesn’t really add anything to your argument.

Is this based on anything at all? One of the oddest posts I’ve seen on here. What gave you seen since Gerrard was appointed to suggest this?

Oh I completely agree. My post was a response to someone seemingly trying to claim that he’d shut the people up who say he doesn’t score goals with his one goal against Barnsley. Its a good start for him and hopefully he can get 8+ goals over the remainder of the season and continue to perform well. At that point it’ll be the time to start reassessing his abilities as a goal scorer and as a striker in general.

He's now scored 4 goals in 76 professional appearances. I'm not convinced he'll ever be a prolific goalscorer and one goal for Forest isn't going to change my opinion on that. As with many strikers his game is about more than scoring goals though. Hopefully he can continue to impress at Forest and kick on. Just getting a run of matches without picking up an injury would be a big step for him as he hasn't been able to do this previously in his career.

Mings started the move for one of the goals against Man United by bringing the ball out from the back. He also put Watkins through on goal with a ball over the top against Everton. If you want ball playing centre halves I'd suggest that Konsa would be the player that needed replacing out of the two. As it is I think the balance that we get from both playing at centre half is pretty good and when both are fit along with Martinez we look pretty solid defensively.

That’s a relief. Thought I was going mad thinking Mings was a very good Premier League defender. Glad to have it confirmed that I was right all along!

What does this even mean? I see it all the time but they’re losing to one of the three best teams in the league away from home. I don’t really get it.

Yeah I’ll give this a big no thanks. Kind of agree that having games against West Brom add a bit to the season. The idiots on both sides that games against SHA brings out and the general “nastiness” of games against them adds absolutely nothing to a season. The lower they slide down the divisions, the less likely we have to play them and that suits me just fine. Probably doesn’t help that we’re generally expected to beat them whenever we play them so you’ve also got a bit of a no win situation.

An absolute no mark ranked only 15 places lower than Murray himself in the rankings. In reality I'd have expected Murray to lose in the first round to the 21st seed. The fact that he is even able to play tennis matches let alone win 5 set matches at grand slams is impressive in itself. To expect him to back that up a couple of days later is a pretty tough ask and to call it "shambolic" and "wretched" is pretty silly. If this was an Andy Murray in his prime losing matches like that then I'd kind of get your point. As it is I think your comments are completely devoid of any context. "Man with metal hip struggles after 5 set first round match" shouldn't really be that much of a surprise to anybody.

Yeah I think the decision is correct and the tactic of standing players offside to act as blockers probably shouldn’t be encouraged. The main issue is that it took about 3 minutes for them to even look at that part of the incident and also that I don’t believe the decision would have been the same at the other end of the pitch.

Or could it be that he isn’t being played in his actual position? “Striker doesn’t score as many goals when shunted out to the wing” is hardly a surprise is it?

His main problem is that once he beats a man he still has 2 more to beat and not a single Villa player offering any support. Thankless task for him out on that right wing.

All of that “making a nuisance of himself” and when they bring an actual striker on they go 1-0 up. Arsenal have been there for the taking all game.

Because he slipped over and had no intention of even making a challenge.

This is a bit of an odd post. You won a game of football with a performance that would have seen you well beaten 9 times out of 10. You’re celebrating losing your better players and your manager. Yes you seem to have some weird hold over us which means we can never beat you but again you’re celebrating not even playing Villa for almost 70 years. You seem to be competing for the “finishing above Villa” trophy that the likes of Leeds have won in recent years. All of this and you’re still questioning the “tinpot” comments?

Off topic but this isn’t really the case. Just as the fielding side can appeal so can the batting side. So an umpire can give the decision he feels is right knowing that either side can fall back on an appeal if he’s got it wrong.

He’s third choice at the moment and that is the issue. We’re an injury at centre back away from him becoming a regular. I’m sure that will be rectified this transfer window though as there’s no way we go the rest of the season with 3 centre backs, one of which is Hause.

We’ve signed what we’ve had to sign along the way. We weren’t going to go from the championship to signing multiple top half premier league players in every position. The subs he chose to make today we’re what confused me. We had all the ball and needed some creativity. I’d have thought Carney and El Ghazi we’re more the players we needed than Sanson and Trezeguet. We almost handed them the win with defensive substitutions. If we’d lost that game bringing on attacking players to go for the win I wouldn’t be that bothered. To lose it by handing Brentford the initiative with negative subs is frustrating.

The fact that people were calling for Mings to be dropped for Hause earlier on this season will never fail to amaze me. He wasn’t particularly good at championship level and is completely out of his depth in the premier league.

This is it for me. If a shirt pull is a penalty then I’m fine with that. There’ll be penalties at a large percentage of corners until players get used to this but that’s fine. What isn’t fine is just randomly giving a shirt pull (9 times out of 10 this is for one of the big clubs) while ignoring other shirt pulls. It’s just completely inconsistent and VAR is only exacerbating the issue.

He did go to United and then got found out as not actually being that good. That’s the reason why nobody else has come in for him. Completely agree that he’s a complete tool though. A player who genuinely seems to hate playing football.