ejs1111

Taken from Wiki... but here is some info about Lucien Favre and his style, etc etc. Favre's teams play a dynamic, quick and attacking-minded football where ball possession and change of tempo alternate. This attractive style of play has brought results in every club he has managed. Furthermore, Favre is very skillful tactically, leaving his opponents struggling to penetrate his well-organized sides. His teams tend to shoot less than others but have a high conversion rate, also with shots coming from outside the box. Favre likes the opponents conversion rate to be on the low end. His teams stick out at the wrong end of expected goals statistics. Favre has a reputation of predicting well how opposing teams, coaches or players tend to react in certain situations. To play this style Favre pays attention to details and technique especially one-to-one. Favre is also well known for his ability to develop talented young players and introduce them into the first team. Under his leadership, Blerim Džemaili, Almen Abdi, Steve von Bergen and Gökhan Inler all made their debut with the Switzerland national team before signing for foreign clubs. In 2007, Zürich became Swiss champions with an average age of 21.5 years. He is also credited with raising the game of German starlet Marco Reus, whose fine performances procured a call up to the Germany national team and a high-priced move to league champions Borussia Dortmund; Marc-André ter Stegen, who eventually joined Barcelona; and Christoph Kramer. Another example of his ability to develop youngsters into widely sought after, talented players is seen in Granit Xhaka, who initially struggled when he joined Gladbach but, under Favre's tutelage, eventually thrived, becoming one of the best central midfielders in Germany and sealing a move to Arsenal for a fee reported to be in excess of €30 million.

Favre is my choice hands down. I don't care how old he is. He was a great quarterback for the Green Bay Packers in his prime.

i'd say its 50/50

Can't be Xia's. The amusement park is nowhere to be found.

I understand the desire to get 'all' of our new players on the pitch at the same time. But honestly I don't think that is the best answer. Putting all of our best attackers on the pitch means we sacrifice a midfielder, and frankly we need 3 midfielders or we get overrun. Putting an attacker in place of a defender out wide weakens our defense, so that is a non-starter imo... I know we did that vs Everton- but our formation allowed for it. I don't see it happening often- unless we are chasing a game. Villa now have more quality depth than we've had in the past decade. I'm of the opinion that we will have a solid back 4/5 every game (formation dependent)- which we have so far (MC, EK, TM, MT). We have 3 players to provide depth on that backline with AT, KH and AY. We have also shown how solid we are with a midfield 3- I'm confident that will remain as well. 6 players can compete with eachother for those 3 spots (DL, SJM, JJ, CC, MN, MS). That leaves 3 spots typically for attacking. Players will sit. Players will be rotated. This will be a good thing. We won't need to rely on the same 11 the whole season and get burned out. 3 spots for 6 players (DI, OW, LB, EB, BT, AEG). Nearly every match this season we are able to look at the bench and see players who could be in the 1st11. It made the difference against Everton. That deeper bench will earn us many points this season. UTV!

I'd say its more 50/50. I'll get my coat.

tomato... tomahto. but yes I meant head coach.

Given all the conflicting opinions about DS as a manager. Maybe we should lock the thread and make two NEW threads: Dean Smith IN Dean Smith OUT Then ppl can go to their respective threads and vent accordingly. Thread with the most pages at the end of the season wins!

I'm not convinced until I see a VENN diagram with Axel in it.

Elphick?

They are in the EUCL playoffs and already lost 1-0. They play today at 14:45pm at home. If they lose they are out.

according to the All Powerful, All Knowing VENN DIAGRAM, Doucoure is a better player anyway.

in before the lock!

Welp. Cancel the season. Lets just give up Europe aspirations with 36 matches left. VT... aka Nostradamus has determined its a bridge too far. It seems every team above us is capable of signing players or improving existing players EXCEPT Aston Villa.

Given our improved squad depth, this team is very capable of challenging for European places this season. Despite the loss of one player, no one can deny our offensive firepower has been improved this offseason overall. Our back 5 was already solid, and adding Young was very a shrewd addition as well. I understand the VT concern with midfield and apparent lack of signings etc etc. However, that does not take into account the fact that existing players improve as well. McGinn has improved (as seen Saturday), Nakamba even (compared to last season), Luiz played well in his first game back with little training, etc etc. Ramsey played very well. I am of the opinion that our midfield will naturally play better than last season given they are a year older, 1 more year experience playing together, 1 more year experience playing in the Premier League, etc. 6th-9th is achievable this season for AVFC. However, I really believe Villa can and will win ONE of the cups this season. We have better depth this season. I think a cup win is how we get to Europe personally. And that is OK with me!

looks about 50/50

He's actually Hindi, just like Hourihanne.

Ings... sounds like wings... winger... Left winger. Sorted.

That system is similar to Major League Baseball in the States. Its not perfect, but frankly its the best of the bunch imo. I'm not a fan of a hard salary cap- the main problem with a hard cap is it limits earning power of players, and frankly just makes the owners more wealthy...because the vast wealth of the league has to go somewhere. That is what happens in the NBA and NFL in a nutshell. MLB have a soft cap with a luxury tax penalty. Basically any team can exceed the cap but you are taxed heavily for exceeding said cap. All the taxes collected go into a big fund and are distributed to the teams evenly that did NOT exceed the cap. I'm simplifying it obviously- but that is the general idea. The luxury tax is not fixed either in MLB. Exceeding it in year 1 is a fixed %, then it increases if you exceed it a 2nd year in a row, culminating in a 50% tax on year 3. If you move below the cap in any year the tax resets. I've read that the soft cap in MLB is an average of the 5th-6th place teams in the league, so not the top... more like top 20%. For example, since this system has been in place- the NY Yankees have paid over $300 million in luxury taxes. Having a system like this in the Premier League would be a great way to provide additional funding to the football pyramid. Imagine taking the average of teams finishing in the European places (5-7) and setting that as the Premier League soft cap. Any team going over that starts paying a luxury tax into a general fund every year. A portion gets distributed thru the football pyramid, the remainder gets distributed to the remaining Premier League teams that stayed below the soft cap. Imagine how much Citeh, Manc, etc would pay in luxury tax. They would either keep paying to help fund everyone else (and improve other teams), or they would start dialing it back to avoid paying taxes...which would in turn help level the playing field.

oh stop. obviously AVFC found out RoK is Pakistani like Hourihane. Which meant he lied on his CV. Either quit or be sacked.

until I see something from that 'beacon of truth' Villareport i'm not going to speculate

you missed all of my Venn diagram jokes earlier. I was being punny. I thought the gave it away

All I see are a jumble of numbers. I don't speak this Vennacular

didn't you see the Venn?!? THE VENN DOESN'T LIE

He who not be named wanted to play CAM too didn't he?