BG_Villa_Fan

He's a good player but IMO he's a luxury player for bottom dwelling teams. He's not good at covering the defence and he's not particularly creative either. He could do a job in a formation that has a proper defensive midfielder as a deep lying playmaker, a sort of a homeless man's Carrick.

How could we score first when we get about 25-30% possession in the first 30 mins of all games?

He can't do this. He doesn't have the players for it. We don't have a single midfielder who can play even passably well in a 2-man central midfield and we don't have proper LMs and RMs who can protect their fullbacks too. Also, as we know, no one who has proven to be able to be a 10. Thus all of his options include playing 3 central midfielders, who generally sit way too deep isolating the striker(s). Every time he tries playing 4-4-2 it fails miserably, even when he does that for parts of a game only - Liverpool first 35 mins and Newcastle last 20 mins. He really has zero options to play with the formation as he doesn't have the players for it. I've no idea why he hasn't tried to improve the midfield.

Pretty sure Villa's fewer home than away goals is an anomaly. Check other teams with really big pitches and the trend is exactly the opposite - Barcelona, Man U, Real Madrid. Of course really strong teams ( who normally have bigger pitches ) are more likely to give someone a thumping at home than away.

Exactly. Villa Park's way too wide for the manner in which we play. Make it as narrow as possible and we may even have some success utilizing a 2-man central midfield.

I don't think that's exactly true because these Belgium players get the chance to play regularly for their teams, albeit weaker than Prem league teams, and show what they can do before they're bought. And in a lot of the cases they move to some other country and club before they get to the top 4/5 leagues. English players rarely get the chance to play consistently even for weaker teams. Even if they do, at the first glance of real talent they get bought immediately by some of the top 4 teams and begin rotting on their benches, see Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair and others.

Agree, BOF, but the bigger sides would still get advantage if they have a pot for group leaders. I don't think the current model is even commercially successful as most groups aren't competitive in the slightest. Out of 20 or so games in a day for all groups only 2 or 3 are actually interesting to the neutral observer. I can't imagine TVs would pay too much for the right to show Ukraine play San Marino or Germany the Faroe Islands. If they allow for some sort of an actual draw they might actually get some very decent and competitive groups that would draw interest and commercial income. Most of the people I know find these international weekends extremely boring, and with good reason.

A huge part of the problem is that it is very difficult for a team to jump up from one pot to the above as they keep being drawn against strong opponents. That is unless they have a proper golden generation, like Belgium does right now. I don't think there should be 6 pots for the draw. There should be only two - one for the group leaders and all other teams should be in a single pot. So what if Malta, San Marino and the Faroe get drawn in the same group? Let them earn some points fair and square.

Kozak was totally invisible until around the 87th minute. Had a proper mare.

We have two problems .. The first one is that our wingers are actually striker so they couldn't play in a midfield 4 .. well Gabby might .. I'm not sure if Tonev would or not .. We could play Bacuna anyway .. The second one is that we haven't try a midfield of KEA and Sylla I think they could do a good job Defensively .. A midfield duo of KEA and Sylla would probably sit way too deep, opening an enormous hole between them and Benteke - it would invite teams deep into our half. That's also a problem with the current midfield setting, but it would be even more exaggerated if we try KEA and Sylla in a 4-4-2. In my opinion our midfield options are extremely limited tactically.

Yes destroy, I think they'll be that good. They're nothing like our midfield 3 at all and they all have the advantage of being able to play in a 2-man central midfield, unlike any combination of Villa midfielders, as has been on display against Lpool yet again.

Everton have done really well IMO. A midfield three of Barkley - Barry - McCarthy will destroy most teams outside of the top 5-6. And Lukaku will score. I don't think they'll miss Fellaini that much. And on top of it all they're like 10 mil in the plus. Damn good job by Martinez.

We were playing 4-4-2 for most of the half. Delph and Westwood got destroyed unfortunately.

Hmmm And then they'll make lots and lots of money from betting.

Apparently they're after another winger - Todor Nedelev.

I'm yet to see fans on the stands with 'You're spending too much' signs. Wonder how Southampton fans feel right now, I bet they're pretty happy.

I think Berbatov might be on his way to Turkey soon.

Am I the only one who doesn't think a loan deal is that bad ( assuming they take on his wages )? He's at the lowest low of his market value right now. If he has a good season then his value might go up and thus Villa would be able to get a better offer than what has been on the table this summer.

Yea, tbh I put them in terms of my own preference, as in who I'd take for Villa. Obviously in terms of personal accolades and CVs our Lambo is being helped by the inner homer in me

Tier 1: 1. Jose Mourinho (Chelsea) 2. Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) Tier 2: 3. Andre Villas Boas (Tottenham) 4. Pelegrini (Man City) 5. David Moyes (Man Utd) 6. Paul Lambert (Aston Villa) 7. Michael Laudrup (Swansea) Tier 3: 8. Martin Jol (Fulham) 9. Roberto Martinez (Everton) 10. Steve Clarke (West Brom) 11.Brendan Rodgers (Liverpool) Tier 4: 12. Sam Allardyce (West Ham) 13. Mark Hughes (Stoke) 14. Mauricio Pochettino (Southampton) 15. Chris Houghton (Norwich) 16. Malky McKay (Cardiff) 17. Alan Pardew (Newcastle) 18.Ian Holloway (Crystal Palace) 19. Steve Bruce (Hull) 20. Paulo Di Canio (Sunderland)

James McCarthy would be a great addition to solidify the midfield.

That's not really how it works though - there are transfer budgets and there are wage budgets. Just because we would be paying that much off across four years doesn't mean that our present transfer budget would be affected as a result. Is this a guess or an assumption?

Meh. Expected and not too bothered by this. If Villa can negotiate a good fee and reinvest in 2 or 3 good players the club would be in a better state. Realistically what would have been the alternative? Either him staying, scoring some goals and Villa finishing 8th-12th, thus his price being pretty much the same as now, or he could flop and his price would plummet. ~25m is the best Villa would get for him, whether it is this summer or next. What's important is reinvesting wisely.

Why do they even let him talk to the press at all? Don't they have any sort of PR department? FFS

Wouldn't want any of the promoted clubs. Better to play them around christmas time. At home to some mid-table team would be great - West Brom, Fulham, Norwich, etc - would give the guys a chance to start positively and build their confidence which is so important for young teams. Worst case scenarios - away to Cardiff, Man U, Chelsea or similar.