brummybloke

In majorca so no doubt all the bin dippers will come out the woodwork today although it's pissing it down.

Wife warned at start of holiday I want 2 hours to watch this so it will have to be on my phone as I'm a terrible person watching.

Hopefully a 2 nil victory for us but anything is possible at the moment.

Another big performance and another clean sheet. Exeter now top on goal difference, sinisalo is to thank for this.

Blackman was decent last season and for exeter a large wage signing. This season they have stepped up a level gk wise and tight games now become winnable.

Exeter always been my 2nd team and having that villa link makes it even better.

Would be good if we link in with them with other youth players as its a great place to live compared to Birmingham ( lived there 1st 30 years of my life in Sutton coldfield and Harborne). Meaning they can concentrate on football with no pressure.

Pleased for archer, ideally will be 4 4 with archer getting a hatrick. Want neither to get 3 points.

He needs to keep developing this season and scoring against everyone bar us.

Best case is he hits 20 goals, Sheffield utd get relegated and we buy him back for the same price which was rumoured to be the deal.

Just got to see if big phil goes, if he does for what we paid or so, it will be a great window financially with us also getting in players the manager wants.

Ok yes another forward player and back up keeper would have been perfect but why waste money on half meh signings to pad things out.

What we have kept will be used, it's been a long time since we were in that situation.

Ok hause being released would be the cherry on the cake, surprised an Arab club doesn't come in for him for a couple million.

Didn't see all of it, there were Russian acrobats doing a show on at the hotel so had to pretend to be watching that while watching the footy on phone.

Bumped into a fellow villa chap at the end of the night in last seasons kit.

Duran nice finish Bailey nice finish cash nice smash.

Pleased with the performance bearing in mind ghe team put out, they all need to learn the emery way.

I better start the hunt for the game. In Spain at the mo and wife is not expecting to be going to a bar to waych footy. Will pop it on my phone at the table and casually stare incessantly at it from 9pm onwards ( spanish time).

God bless iptv while it lasts

Solid addition. When our backroom staff came in I'm sure I recall talk of having to strengthen the team and build from a solid foundation. 

This is helping keep the solid foundation now mings is out.

Barca squad players are on stupid wages so it was never going to be cheap.

Harsh but to me he seems incapable of making a simple pass to his left. Again yesterday,  instead of a very simple pass to torres, he plays it to kamara who plays it back, again he has torres to his left, still waiting for the pass and again olsen kicks it forwards. Happened against hibs a couple times as well as several yesterday.

It's these little things that lose us control, something the rest of the team are instructed to do and work hard on doing.

I have little confidence in him and I'm guessing it's why our entire set up has been changed to accommodate him.

If we can get an early goal then we can set the tempo, once we've got the tempo we should really be getting 3 points.

Just need to be on it from the start as they will be hyped up, fully prepared having had 2 weeks to get ready and will probably try and use simular style as Newcastle did but the lesser players.

Looking forward to seeing zaniolo getting some minutes.

Utv

4 hours ago, KMitch said:

No, that's Connor Hourihane...  Everyone here acts like JWP is Hourihane 2.0.  He's a much better player than anyone wants to admit.  

Yep, hes still got it and was at his peak a couple years ago. people don't realise just  how close we came to signing him a couple years ago. Would have helped massively at the time but a bit of a driving doors moment.

Now, we've moved on as has he.

We need 4 more players, we won't sign that many unless digne and big phil go, but we do need a keeper, a right back, a left midfielder and a forward.

All a juggling act. Sell a couple players now or never and get decent returns which will help for future signings but may weaken us now.

Big phill could go and we have space for pretty good quality young signing on a 5 year deal.

Slim margins but one I trust will be for the benefit of the club. May be right or wrong to offload the players we do but it's ultimately down to whose here at the end of the window to do us proud.

54 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

The biggest thing I've noticed about him is that he's very ponderous on the ball. It's all well and good being able to carry the ball 50 yards and pick a pass. But against good teams we need to play with mroe tempo to break the press and shift the defence to one side then the other to create more space for our wingers and midfielders. 

Hopefully this is more a consequence of him not wanting to make a mistake but imo we look much quicker playing out the back with Carlos in the team because he bypasses the other CB to get it into the full back or wingers feet with a driven pass. 

I can only guess it is either the tactics emery wished to use to wear out the opponents and have more structured build ups or he is still to get used to the players abilities to receive the ball.

However even if he is slow at releasing it, if Carlos plays we then have a long range quick passer and a more methodical passer.

I'm hoping once he has adjusted to the more frantic high pace, he adapts accordingly. Top defenders do that, if they aren't the fastest, their positioning or reading of the game normally gives them that half yard head start.

Should have had a penalty and also got a headed goal.

Ok hibs were not tough opposition but we've messed up enough times against lesser opponents.

Looked decent enough, good to take him off to avoid getting hacked down any further.

1 minute ago, VillaAlex said:

Apparently couldn't play as already played in Europe this season. Oops.

I doubt it unless he's played in the same competition, felix played for Chelsea and Madrid last season in European competition which was allowed as 2 separate competitions.

Controlled performance. This is the sort of performance we will keep getting.

In previous teams when we had the ball in some areas I would expect us to try and get more goals and push forward, however I have no issues with us not doing that unless we have to.

Digne is oddly, looking like the player we thought we were getting when we signed him. Typical as we are off loading him now for a cheaper replacement.

Watkins looked like he wanted it today and should have had 5

Diaby looked off the pace, some nice interplay but no bursting forwards and seems to have borrowed big pills shooting boots tonight.

The game was also played at 1/2 pace most likely to prevent injury and preserve the team for the weekend. 

Oh and I'm loving emery putting out the full 1st team for the first leg, win comfortable 1st leg and then you aren't chasing the game in the second leg.

Would like to see a strong line up for the 2nd leg with zaniolo given a go from the start rather than him playing with a weakend team and if we get 2 goals infront to then put on a few of the second string players

Well done lads

4 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

If we get the purported £18m fee and a buy back it’s a win win situation 

This is what I was saying earlier on this summer, either sell him for 20 million or start playing him.

Let another team gamble on his clearly great potential if we are not using him.

Buy back clause for 10 million more on each player we sell should be fine and for ffp reasons it's a no brainer as it's pure profit selling and buying back is spread over the contract length.

1 hour ago, Cizzler said:

Imagine finding out after their FA Youth Cup win in 2021 that neither Chukwuemeka or A.Ramsey would be at the club in two years time.

Pretty crazy that (as of right now) no one from that successful youth team is remotely close to breaking into our first-team.

 

On the plus side, imagine being told they would be sold for 30 million before either of them between them has played more than a handful of games for the first team.

1 hour ago, The_Steve said:

Should be back in 3 weeks but people keep wanting to convince themselves he’s ‘finished’

I thought he had a dead leg when it happened and was quite suprised by talk of lengthy injury.

Hopefully for once I was right, lad needs to get his smile back by playing good football, for us, if we can't move him on for what we paid.

Price seems to have almost doubled since we were originally linked with him

On 21/08/2023 at 23:23, MotoMkali said:

Again people are acting like he kicked it straight at the keepers chest and pickford jist **** up. 

No he hit hard along the floor where pickford is gathering himself to make a save. It's very very hard to save those as you have to get down so quickly and your legs are only so wide. Odds are even if saved it falls back to him for a 2nd chance as well. 

That's like saying 

Again people thinking he judged the keepers leg positions and balance and nut megged him on purpose.

He didn't, he hit it and it was fortunate to go through the keepers legs bearing in mind he hit it pretty much the only place where the keeper was. It went in, it was a goal, but I find it bizarre anyone would think it was a deliberate brilliant piece of calculated skill to put it between the keepers legs when he had the entire goals to aim at.

As I say I don't care as long as it goes in but be real

He played well, not sure it can successfully be argued he didn't.

Yes his goal when you watch the replays, was fortunate to go through the keepers legs, but it went in from a shot on goal 

I don't care how we score or who scores as long as they count.

He does however still have a fair way to go to showing he is a reliable player. I think some games he is going to look terrible, mainly against fast powerful teams, he doesn't seem to want to know in those games, but normally oddly enough, puts in half decent performances against man ure.

With zaniolo as an option now Leon will have to get more reliable.

He's going to have to share minutes this season. He took a whack when colliding with the post so was probably taken off to protect him.

There needs to be a cut off for contract signing as he clearly isn't at his best at the moment for what ever reason and having his future sorted out for the next 4 years, hopefully will clear his mind a bit.

Dominant performance against a normally physical team.

Once the 4th went in we just played keep ball for the rest of the game. Saves getting any more injuries or putting any more stress on the players.

Mcginn was the instigator for our forward play, but i was an Everton fan, I wouldn't be happy with those goals conceded.

Watkins doing the decent thing and stepping away from taking the penalty, I'm sure if it were 3 nil he would have taken it. Had 2 or 3 great chances but either just wide or just couldn't reach the ball.

Big phil I'm hoping , has a dead leg looking at the replays. However his reaction indicates something far worse.

The only player who looked a bit out of sorts was cash, I'm not saying he played badly, just not as good as the rest I guess ?

Nice to see duran get a goal, in an ideal world, archer would have got 1 as well.

Back to 0 goal difference and 3 points on the board, can't ask for much more than that.

Well done

2 minutes ago, bobzy said:

I know, I'm saying his foul wasn't card worthy.

 

No worries I must have read it wrong

Just now, bobzy said:

I actually think Dougie has been the weakest player on the pitch, despite great penalty.

Pickford's foul wasn't card worthy - I have no idea why you're banging on about it.

Pickford was booked for delaying the penalty.