1 minute ago, villalad21 said:

Didn't do much wrong.

I think he is an average Championship keeper though.

Agreed...  Looked much more reliable than Nyland, though.

Solid defensively.  Didn't offer much going forward, but Albert played well in front of him in the first half, probably because he had a fullback he could rely on behind him.  Needs to keep starting.

Hutton:

What he is - An ok backup right back for the Championship, who is a bit of a meme to Villa fans because he'll occasionally score Maradona-like goals from the Villa half.  Realistically, he shouldn't be starting and this should be his last season for us.

What he is not - A starting Championship left back.  QPR specifically targeted him the entire game.  He takes too long on the ball, can't pass with his left foot, and get's caught out of position a lot.  Need a LB this month.

3 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

Stop playing someone who doesn"t block, tackle or intercept at defensive midfield. It's **** basic and we learnt this a month ago against Forest.

The most important attribute needed in this system is for the DM to be a great passer of the ball, which is why he keeps trying to play Hourihane there.  He's not good enough, I'm afraid, which is why we're going after a new DM this month.  

Legend.  Did the work of 3 central midfielders in the 2nd half today.  Never stops running.   

I thought he was excellent first half, but didn't provide much in the 2nd.  Need Jacky boy back soon.

Out of position the entire 2nd half.  Most of his teammates were screaming at him to mark up or come for the ball.  Whelan came on for him because it looked like Deano finally had enough.

He is our best free kick taker, but he doesn't have much else.

28 minutes ago, Digavilla said:

I think there some confusion , Pulisic is indeed a winger/inner forward ( widely refer as a False 9) wherelse Tammy is out & out striker (a Number 9). That why I am saying we will Tammy will be with us as Sarri prefer False 9 type rather than number 9.  

On the another note , Pulisic is an exciting prospect. Hope DS can unearth some False 9 type players for us , as to survive if we go up , we need to play more of the False 9 style. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all Villa Fans !

 

Two completely different types of players & roles.  Wikipedia does a great job explaining the difference - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_(association_football)

Inside Forward - Usually two play "In the Hole" behind a more advanced central striker (a traditional number 9).  "The inside forwards would support the centre-forward, running and making space in the opposition defence, and, as the passing game developed, supporting him or her with passes. The role is broadly analogous to the "hole" or second striker position in the modern game, although here there were two such players, known as inside right and inside left."

False 9 - Messi was the one who popularized this for a bit at Barcelona.  His job is to sit "In the Hole" without a central striker ahead of him and to drop back and draw CBs out of position for the inside forwards to exploit the new space created by his movement. "The false 9, in some ways similar to a more advanced attacking midfielder/playmaker role, is an unconventional lone striker or centre-forward, who drops deep into midfield. The purpose of this is that it creates a problem for opposing centre-backs who can either follow the false 9, leaving space behind them for onrushing midfielders, forwards or wingers to exploit, or leaving the false 9 to have time and space to dribble or pick out a pass."

 False 9s are rarely deployed now, since teams figured out how to counter the formation.  They'll purposefully have the CBs ignore the F9 all together and assign 1-2 Defensive Midfielders to mark the False 9 out of the game and prevent the ball from being passed to him to start the attacks.  

Anyway, I get what you're trying to say.  CP is a great prospect and can possibly be the superstar player the USA needs to finally embrace football once and for all.

Can we sign McCormick's front gate to be our goalkeeper tomorrow?  It did a fine job at keeping a striker out of our training ground...

9 minutes ago, TRO said:

I feel underwhelmed already.....wba sign Holgate @ 6'2 and we are supposedly linked with Browning 5'11......will we ever learn.

I know its not the be all and end all......but yes it is.

too small for centre back......needs to be exceptional.

ps....no more small centre backs.

Browning paired with Elphick will be like two hobbits in the center of our defense... 

23 minutes ago, Digavilla said:

So you reckon Sarri would recall him ?Tammy is a proper no 9 so should back up Morata nicely since Giroud supposedly injured & Morata is not performing.

Just don’t think any of the top 4-5 teams play with no 9 regularly anymore . Also , if report is true they just signed a US striker Pulisic, which is another false 9 in the Pedro mold. So Tammy should be with us till end of season. 

I'm an American...  Pulisic isn't a Number 9 at all, he's a winger/inside forward that can play as a 10 if needed.  He is Chelsea's replacement for Hazard in the Summer.

I don't see Chelsea recalling Tammy this January, unless Giroud/Morata pick up a long term injury this month.  Pretty sure Tammy is loving playing for us right now and won't ask Chelsea to recall him to find a struggling Premier League side to play for.  The only way he'll go back is if he is going to get some game time for the Chelsea 1st team.

8 hours ago, Digavilla said:

Think we are safe as Tammy’s not Sarri kind of player ,  if you see his playing style in Napoli. He favors nimble false 9 type like Pedro/Hazard etc , even their first choice No.9 type like Giroud / Morata hardly features.

I disagree.  Sarri has tried both of them in the starting lineup for months, but neither has produced anything of note.  Recently, he's started to play Pedro/Hazard as a false 9, BECAUSE Giroud/Morata have been so shit this season.  He would have continued to play a striker up top, if they were actually producing.  

4 hours ago, AntrimBlack said:

The loan system is so much more beneficial for young players than playing for the under 23's.

Didn't Redknapp do away with his entire Spuds U23 team and send out all the players on loan when he was their manager?  Might be worth us doing the same thing, if we can pull it off.

On the other hand, Brentford decided to shut down their academy, as it wasn't cost effective and all of their most promising prospects ended up signing for other clubs youth teams before they hit 16.  They now use their reserve team as a 2nd first team, for players to put themselves in contention for 1st team spots when players are sold on.  Even with selling on ~50% of the players that graduate from our academy for peanuts, the program might end up still turning a profit for Villa, so this might not be a viable strategy for us.  

I do agree that we have let a lot of promising players go who our managers have deemed not good enough for us.  Cahill, Albrighton, and Baker still leave me a bit frustrated.  They all got a lot of first team exposure, weren't favored by our managers at the time, and replaced them all with shittier players.  On top of that, there are several players we let go that are now plying their trade in Championship who would slot into our squad, but we never even let a look in the first team.  Hopefully Suso & Smith will sort this out over the next few years.

8 minutes ago, Zatman said:

We have from tomorrow 5 senior goalkeepers on the books now, I thought 4 right backs was bad

pity we cant play all the goalkeepers at once

Unfortunately, if we ended up playing several of them in goal at the same time, we would still concede a lot of goals...

22 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

Id say as otbers do, strategy in calling his loan off and bringing him back could pee  of Gardner, but pee off city to no end.

Our loan off Gardner ending at city could spell trouble for them if we recall,  I'm in favour of it.

Didn't Gardner throw it out he was a city fan when he got there, I also seem to remember some fans on here saying he would never be welcomed back to villa, yet here we are talking of recalling.

I don't think he did that officially.  I think several fans, myself included, made the joke that if he did the same thing as Craig did and claimed he was a childhood Villa, no Blues, no Sunderland, no Baggies, nevermind, I got it right with Blues supporter, we would be pissed off.

8 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

If a player with over a 100 appearances in the top flight of arguably one of the strongest leagues in Europe this century is not deemed skullfull enough for  a work permit to play in the second tier of English football due to number of international caps then the whole system is bollocks.  

Unless ive misunderstood the whole point of work permits?

It's designed to force clubs to "develop" English players.  It's all political BS...

2 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

You have to laugh at Moriera. Signed for Atletico Madrid as an apparently promising prospect, and here he is a few years later, now the 5th keeper on loan at a Championship club.

When you see how much money these guys are making just sitting on the bench as a 5th choice keeper, it's not a laughing matter. 

What happened to Gardner?  He was touted as being the next Gerrard and there was even more hype around him in our youth team than there ever was for Grealish.  Was it all the injuries he picked up over the years that set him back, or was he a case of another over-hyped player our supporters have been dying to see come good?

11 minutes ago, daggy_333 said:

Wonder how Bunn and Moreira feel knowing that they're so bad that we've chosen to recall Steer effectively for one match before Kalinic joins 

I really don't think Bunn cares at this point.  He's been just collecting a paycheck from us for years.

2 hours ago, Villaphan04 said:

Agreed, but I feel like we should've known he wouldn't be getting a work permit before the links with him. 

Don't players go to a group of lawyers to review and approve/deny work permits for players?  Pretty sure there was some controversy about the last time we tried to sign Kalinic, there was a lawyer with ties to other clubs who led the denial for our application.

Anyone know anything about this guy?

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/12/30/report-aston-villa-close-to-signing-cheick-doukoure/

Quote

Report: Aston Villa close to signing Cheick Doukoure

Aston Villa are reportedly closing in on a deal to sign midfielder Cheick Doukoure on loan.

Aston Villa are close to completing a deal to sign Cheick Doukoure on loan, according to a report from the Sunday Mirror (30/12; page 73), with the Levante midfielder's agent arriving in Birmingham at the weekend.

Dean Smith is gearing up for his first transfer window as Villans boss. The club have made a bright start under the new boss, but clearly do need additions in the January window, having won just one of their last five fixtures.

And perhaps Doukoure could prove to be one of those signings. The Sunday Mirror (30/12; page 73) reports that the 26-year-old is close to joining Villa, despite interest from Rayo Vallecano.

His agent has reportedly come to England as the Villans look to agree a loan deal for the Ivory Coast international. 

The holding midfielder has made five appearances in La Liga this term, including two starts, but he has not played for Levante since early November, so it is little surprise that he appears to be available.

Villa are certainly not short of options in the middle of the park. And it was Glenn Whelan who provided the assist for Tammy Abraham's goal in their 1-1 draw with Preston North End on Saturday. 

But there are probably plenty of supporters who would argue that they need more quality just in front of the defence. And Smith is seemingly hoping that Doukoure will provide that.

I honestly don't see us raiding Brentford for players.  Maybe 1 or 2, if the price is right and Deano 100% believes they're Premier League quality and great characters.  I honestly think we're going to surprise a lot of people with the signings we make going forward.  We just signed the Croatian national team's keeper and it sounds like we're wrapping up a deal for the next Matic, who has 100+ games of La Liga experience.  No disrespect to Brentford, but we're Aston Villa, have rich owners, and a Director of Football who did the same job at Athletico Madrid and Valencia.  

2 hours ago, Dave-R said:

If snoddy wasn't playing for west ham I'd say try and bring him to villa, try a cheeky bid for him anyway, he did play last week against Southampton though.

The answer from west ham ca  only be one of two, if the price is rite I don't see why a snoddy sale can't be done.

He's been playing very well for them lately.  He's a nailed on starter in their squad right now.  Takes all their set pieces and has several goals/assists in December.  They'll want too much for him in January at this point.  Need to find the next up and coming player like Snoddy, at this point.

Bomb Squad Redemption: Episode 2

Guest Starring - Alan Hutton

4 hours ago, MaVilla said:

Are villareport a reliable source normally?

100% Yes.  Basically the only legit ITK left around.  Breaks all our transfer targets first, before anyone else, and is very reliable.  I think it's either someone at the club's medical office or close to someone who is.