KMitch

Great pressing by the boys there! Almost had a goal out of that poor Reina clearance.

OMG Ollie... We really need a more clinical forward in order to challenge for Europe.

Some of the best footy we've played this season. Bring on the 2nd half!

Yeah, Watkins & McGinn have stood out like sore thumbs tonight. Replacing the two of them with a new forward and JJ and this team looks very dangerous.

Wow... McGinn could have gone down and gotten a stonewall, but managed to pass it into Bailey for a shot that hit the woodwork... Really loving our attacking movement...

Good build up play leading to another good Ollie shot on target. We look much much better building an attack in this game. On the other hand, Villarreal aren't pressing like a Premier League team. Getting slightly more time on the ball that we would get against regular opposition. That said, you can really see the progress we're making tactically. Everyone looks up for this game as well.

It's even more crazy to think that he just turned 23 as well.

To be fair, they have quite a few starters on their bench... Torres, Jackson, Pino, etc. They're starting the players who didn't have World Cup duty.

Been a good game so far... Both teams look dangerous at times and passing the ball around well.

Weren't we linked with Tagliafico pretty heavily before signing Augustinsson? He's been having a blinder of a tournament.

Stunning to see Messi still pulling this off at 35... Unreal...

You can see what Emery is trying to set up here... We have several very good pieces for his style but some players frankly just aren't going to be good enough to fill the roles they need to play. For example, Watkins has elite work rate and fitness but his footballing IQ and touch let him down more often than not. Will be interesting to see who we target in January to bring in.

Most of his mistakes are due to the pace of the match being a lot faster than he is used to, but he has also shown his quality at times throughout as well. The fans already writing him off are hilarious...

Jack Woodward...

We were interested a few seasons back before JJ broke through into the first team... He's very McGinn like in style. Lots of energy and more of a Jack of all Trades, master of none type of CM. Not sure he's a good fit for Emeryball, but would have excelled under Smith.

This... We would all hate him if he wasn't our goalkeeper, but he's ours so he is the GOAT...

TBH, I think our backline can play this way, but they may never have been taught exactly how to play out the back at a high level before... Tyrone only started playing CB under Dean Smith and was a LB for most of his career before that. In the interview the Villa website posted with him yesterday he said the training sessions were very intense and require the players to really be switched on because they're giving them a lot of information. He also said he's being asked to play a completely different role than he has ever played before and was eager to learn, which I'm guessing he's referring to being an actual ball playing defender instead of hoofing it up into the channel every time he gets pressed. Will be interesting to see who can adapt this season and who cannot.

Pretty much... Ashley Preece and Gregg Evans are the most clueless Villa sources out there... No idea how you can report on a club for as long as they have and still have ZERO credible inside sources for transfers. Both have yet to break a transfer story before Percy has.

But he'll roast the opposition's central defenders, though!

I mean, we all loved Grealish and he gets further under the skin of the opposition's fans than Bruno does...

Same feeling that I have... Speculating that Guilbert has burnt his bridge with the club to the point where Emery can't even have him train with the rest of the squad. I doubt a contract raise clause per appearances is the reason why, considering we signed him when we were in the Championship, but who really knows.

This... Screams like the type of signing both of those clubs would make just to have him sit on the bench.

Because they threw an insane amount of money at him... It wasn't because it was an "interesting project" or he would get playing time there...

We could sign Haaland and Mbappe and some would still say they weren't good enough for Villa... Joao Felix would be the biggest meltdown signing of all time for Villa, even more so than Coutinho on loan last January.