ejs1111

I honestly think Brighton will tail off at the end of the season. Too many games left and not enough depth. I just looked at the end of April for them... 3 matches in a week. Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday. That packed schedule are two winnable games for them as well- Forest and Wolves. Could easily drop points due to fatigue in that run. Then they have 5 matches in May on the books- but 2 extra games need to be fit in as well. 12 matches over the final 7 weeks for Brighton. That is pretty brutal physically.

I disagree. Brighton for example- their games in hand are Newcastle and ManCity. Those matches have not been rescheduled yet either. They will have to jam them in to an already crowded final 7+ weeks of the season. They will likely lose both games, or draw with Newcastle- since Toon draws with everyone.

I think you would see all the media talking heads spontaneously combust.

around a decade ago we were on equal footing with Spurs. We then made poor managerial hires, acquired poor players, etc...and started our slide down to eventual relegation. Spurs (to their credit) went the opposite direction- climbed the table and consistently challenged and qualified for Champions League. In my opinion we are seeing the beginning of a transition period where Villa are ascending and 1-2 of the big6 sides are going to fall. Everything moves in cycles- my guess is Villa and 1 of Newcastle/Brighton/Fulham/Brentford will ascend with Spurs/Liverpool/Chelsea falling to mid table obscurity for awhile. My money is on Spurs and Chelsea to slide and struggle to claim top7. Spurs are poorly run atm- swapping managers too often and its hurting their ability to build a squad. Chelsea are now run by an owner with a fantasy team mentality, they too will struggle to build and maintain a cohesive squad. Without Europe- eventually both clubs would be forced to have fire sales and rebuild. Are they smart enough/capable of doing it? I don't think so with current upper management staff. We are extremely lucky to have the owners we have and UE managing us. Long may it continue!

I like this option. To the posters concerned with his tracking back and ability to play WB... he won't be asked to do that. UE plays a 442. BT will be slotted in as one of the 2. He's not a midfielder in this setup. He is to compete with Bailey up top. We now have 4 players up top competing for 2 spots (Watkins/Bailey/Traore/Duran). That will be the pecking order I'm guessing for the rest of the season- then we re-evaluate in the summer. Given all the midfielders that have left on loan I think we are 1 short personally. I'm hopeful we bring in 1 for midfield. Loan is fine honestly- just for cover in case of injuries. We only have Kamara/Luiz/SJM/JJ/Donk/Emi/PC. 7 players for 4 spots.

Personally I expect us to bring in Dembele as a backup ST as the Ings replacement- albeit a loan or buy don't know or care. Duran is one for the future- he will likely just play spot minutes. I also fully expect Guendouzi to eventually arrive now that OM have signed a cheaper replacement. Bring in those 2 players and stop. This window will be complete and fantastic. We will have 4 attackers (we play 2 typically in the 442) OW/LB/MD/JD Guendouzi (MG) gives Buendia/JJ direct competition at RM/LM and prolly replaces Emi in the lineup (in my opinion). I would start MG and JJ as the wide mids. You the have EB/SJM/PC fighting for 2 spots. MG arriving gives us 9 MF players (assuming MNakamba is still here). MG can play in the middle too. Carlos will be back in 1-2 months. Villa can hold tight until then with TM/EK/CC until then. We have Donk and Kamara as emergency CBs if needed. My hope for the 2nd half of the season: Emi / Olsen AY / MC DC / EK TM / CC AM / LD JJ / SJM BK / LD DL / MG / LD MG / EB / PC LB / MD OW / JD That looks like a pretty solid team to chase after Europe to me. UTV!

Agreed. He's rapid and has good technical skills at a young age- those are two things you cannot teach. His positioning, etc etc- those are things that can be coached and taught.

I agree with full team comment. Going against Spurs with JJ, Emi in goal, and Cash our squad will look much better. JJ in for McGinn, Emi is obvious, despite the resurgence of Young at FB- Cash is a better defender- I think he will help our back 4. UE typically likes to attack from one side, leave one FB behind to almost have 3 CBs when we attack. Cash can be that 3rd CB better than Young imo. Admittedly Young is a better passer etc.

If the FA would not allow a star above the badge, we could have easily incorporated it into the ring with Aston Villa and 1874. Perhaps 18 and 74 split like the previous poster has it in their mock up- but with the star centered on the bottom within the ring? Then the lion is alone and prominent. I'd like to see a mock up of that.

I think ppl quoting us finishing with around 45pts is complete rubbish. That is what our CURRENT average is. 18pts/15 games = 1.2pts/game x 38 games = 45.6pts There is no way in hell Emery has Villa playing 1.2pts per game the rest of the season. That is barely above SG level ineptitude. Even with SG, Villa have been very good at home this season. With UE- that will certainly continue. As a previous poster pointed out, Villa have been 1.86pts/game at home with SG. I honestly expect that to improve slightly with UE. Call it 2.1pt/game. Away form has been abysmal with SG, UE will rectify that naturally with his counter attacking style. We've already snatched from Brighton. I honestly see 4 potential away wins (Soton, Everton, Brentford, Wolves). We could avg about 1-1.2pts/game away maybe. 12 home games x 2.1pts = 25pts 11 road games x 1.2pts = 13pts 38pts + 18pts = 56pts to finish the season- that would put us in contention for top8- right where we should be frankly. And before people start calling me crazy... That point total is Villa averaging 1.65pts over the remaining 23 games which is not that crazy for Emery. Thats 62-63pts over a full season. I really think Villa is fully capable of this with a REAL coach at the helm finally. UTV!

This was the greatest compilation video of all time. The pony tail guy at the end of every clip was the funniest.

Villa are trimming down spending to get within UEFA rules for our UCL push in 2057.

For other teams badges I went with: Brentford QPR Napoli I like Brentford because it looks alot like what some fans are trying to replicate with our updated badge. Spelled out name, Football Club, Year on the sides, Logo in the middle. Very clean and provides all the info. I really like the simplicity of QPR and Napoli. Napoli especially, you only know what it is if you are a footy fan. I think that is cool myself.

We look creative when we become compact and play in triangles. This allows our flair players to do what they do best: use other players, create space, make incisive passes, etc. Our huge problem that I've been watching this season in the 2nd and final 3rd is our midfield is completely vacated. They are either: spread wide to cover for the FBs which leaves a huge middle hole with only Bouba. Or the two 8s surge forward like strikers and become stagnant, once again leaving a huge hole in the middle with only Bouba. Either scenario forces our no10 to come back into the hole to receive the ball. He then turns and has ZERO options. Our no10s are not gifted with pace and the 1v1 breakaway ability- that is not really their style imo, they need multiple passing options around them to create passing angles, lanes, 1-2s, etc. The 2nd half against Bolton we saw alot of that occuring, and we created many chances- quicker passing, scoring chances, etc. Obviously against lower level- but the whole 2nd half our no10 had TWO midfielders near him at all times. Luiz and another. This is the key for us imo. Luiz MUST be in the 1st 11 as an 8. SJM or JJ has to sit. Personally I'd sit SJM, his form has been poor for a long time, but that won't happen. Better ball control in midfield and another ball control option will also help our defense tremendously playing out of the back. It will help ease the loss of Carlos. The better ball control will also just help our defense overall as well. my 2 cents.

Dont worry... a few weeks with our coaching staff and he'll be cack just like everyone else. Fit right in.

Agreed. He dropped deeper because JJ and SJM kept making forward runs and vacating the midfield. This problem will never be resolved until we have a ball control no8 in the midfield. SG persists with JJ and SJM who are the same type of player, progressive dribbler/runners. We either have to pull our back line up to compress the space (tactical suicide), play Luiz, or sign better version of Luiz and bench one of JJ/SJM. Right now our midfield just doesn't have balance.

I prefer boobs.

Same. I'm sure his tears of sadness stained the fabric of his Range Rover on the way home to his private estate.

I saw this stat on Twitter: playing the diamond everyone here hates Villa averaged 1.54ppg last season. Frankly that is currently our best formation still. Especially now that we have a better CB and DM. SG wants to play narrow anyway. -------------------------------------------Martinez--------------------------------------------- Cash----------------Chambers-------------------Carlos----------------------Digne ------------------------------------------Kamara---------------------------------------------- -----------------Luiz----------------------------------------------SJM------------------------ ----------------------------------------Buendia----------------------------------------------- -----------------Bailey----------------------------------Watkins--------------------------- This is our best lineup imo. One can argue JJ over SJM sure, but stats don't lie. SJM progressive carries are superior. Bailey and Watkins give us pace up top and pressing ability. Chambers is slow, but an excellent passer and more physical than Konsa. One could argue Mings and Carlos as a CB pair against burly opponents of course. We definitely need another no8 CM to challenge the 1st11. What we have in front of Kamara is struggling.

Good post. I'm in agreement with most of this here. Personally I raised an eyebrow with SG hire but was happy and hopeful he would succeed. SG just wasn't my first choice. But I honestly didn't think his record would be nearly equal to DS after 9 months- I expected improvement with different tactics/players/etc. My biggest disappointment with Villa is the apparent LACK OF EFFORT in MANY matches I've watched. Villa are consistently out worked, out hustled, 2nd to nearly every ball, ZERO off ball movement, stagnant, etc. Its very clear the opponent just wants it more. For a professional athlete, 100% effort is the bare minimum standard I expect as a fan, full stop. Your job is to play a game being paid millions of pounds to do. A top effort and desire on that pitch should be demanded every match. The difference in the match should be down to tactics and talent level, it should NEVER be effort level. I think most Villa fans would accept a loss if their club played their hearts out and just got beat by a superior team. But that has not been happening. We are typically beating ourselves, silly mistakes, lazy errors, out worked on the pitch, etc. That is the fault of the players AND the coach. Its the players job to play hard and well. But its also the job of the coach to prepare his team and motivate them. I get the impression that SG struggles to motivate his team, and equally struggles to get them to play well- and that is extremely worrying. DS also struggled with motivation in the end, he was too nice imo. SG appears to be the opposite and its turning players off.

My opinion is SG will run with the diamond this season. We played it often last season with mixed success, we've used it all preseason as well. If this is the case- the real question is getting the right players into this formation. Imo the front 2 should be Watkins and Bailey. Full stop. Both offer PACE which our side desperately needs. Both can run the channels, Bailey has the technical skills Watkins lacks. The diamond tip can rotate between Coutinho/Buendia. I think it should be Emi as 1st choice, but I expect it to be PC in the 1st11. Kamara obviously at the base. Then the sides will be Ramsey/SJM/Luiz/Sanson rotation...or a new no8 if we sign one. Back 4 is deep and strong this season. Cash/Carlos/Digne are certainly starting. Only question is the other CB. I think its a competition between Mings/Konsa/Chambers in that order. Those 3 might rotate depending on form and competition being faced. my 2 cents.

without a corresponding Venn diagram I cannot see how SJM is the obvious choice.

I agree with the sentiment here. SJM is a great character in the clubhouse by all accounts but I never thought of him as leadership material. Perhaps SG is hopeful making him Captain will help him raise his game. The real disappointing thing is: SJM will once again this season be a nailed on 1st11 when in reality AVFC need to be upgrading in this position. SJM needs competition not an armband. This also probably removes the possibility of AVFC signing another top class no8 this window. Also prolly means our hope of Kamara/JJ/Luiz midfield 3 is likely not going to happen either. Just a strange decision that frankly I don't agree with at all.

Counter attack? That would imply we are sitting back. I don't think that will be the case. It will be Bournemouth sitting back and trying to counter us. We will have 60% possession in this match. Bailey suits this game perfectly imo. I just wonder whether SG will use Coutinho or Buendia?

Oh i agree they have played there before. But I don't agree that our midfield is good enough to have just 2 hold the middle of the park. We cannot hold it with 3 now. We still want another no8. No way we change systems and play with zero no8s