MarkLillis

16 minutes ago, wishywashy said:

He'll do great there.

And he can continue scoring against us in in his usual fashion…

44 minutes ago, Czarnikjak said:

The competitiveness of most  teams in Premier League has increased massively due to the influx of money. Even lesser clubs can now afford to sign very good players from any other European league. As Leicester showed You can have one bad season and get relegated. Look at us under Gerrard as well , the same squad as under Emery and we struggled as hell.

By any objective metric (wages and squad cost) Leicester had comparative squad to Newcastle this season. They just massively underperformed  while Newcastle over performed. The same can happen to us next season.
 

Obviously us finishing 8th is much more likely than 18th, but both outcomes are still realistic possibilities.

I can agree with this.

Leicester(18th) came to Villa Park and made us look very ordinary.

Newcastle(4th) came to Villa Park and we made them look very ordinary.

The premier league is a very competitive difficult competition.Long gone are the days when the bottom three were there because they were crap!

On 23/05/2023 at 23:01, El-Reacho said:

Great thread! Imagine we'd beaten United in that inaugural Premier League season. We were well matched clubs with a very similar history and pedigree. Look where they went to on the back of that title and look where we've been ever since.... 

with all due respect to the above…

Doug was running the show…..we would have gone back to mid-table nothingness quicker than you could say “balance the books”

A couple of years a go this guy was considered one of the best young players in the Premier League.

Many pundits thought his next move from Leicester would be to a Champions league club.

That player is still there…..he can be found again.

Unai can find him.

16 minutes ago, TRO said:

would Gyokeres be a good move for us?.....with a hit rate of 2.36 in the last 2 seasons.....it could be a smart gamble.

Ivan Toney made a good step up...as did Jamie Vardy.

I think he could he looks like a player to me.

However we already own one of the Championships hottest strikers in Cameron Archer but I’m all for smart moves like this…

13 minutes ago, lexicon said:

I've no idea why people think Newcastle are definitely going to be an absolute powerhouse. I don't see it. 

Purely based on the evidence Man City and PSG have shown us.

The Saudis don’t do second 

Man City - enough said we can have a conversation when Pep moves on.

Arsenal are close to peak (if they haven’t already).Not sure yet if they can dominate or be as consistent as Wengers sides.

Liverpool and Chelsea are in transition.They are big clubs so it will happen faster then at most clubs

Newcastle ahead of schedule and not even close to their inevitable peak which will most probably see them win everything.I think there will be a few peaks and troughs along the way.

Spurs look like mid table without Kane.They require a complete rebuild.Sooner rather than later they will come again.

Man Utd behind Citeh but not as far behind Arsenal as people think.Their future depends on Ten Haag and the clubs ability to bring him the top level signings he needs.

Brighton really well set up to stay in the top 8 for now,however they openly admit that they will sell their best players each year.This means also that DeZerbi will go sooner rather than later.I just don’t think they can keep picking the right players / managers. This type of style based on on consistent almost faultless recruitment is difficult to maintain re Southampton or Swansea or Leicester.

These clubs will be as Brucey might put it “there or thereabouts”.However in my opinion as they are all in different stages of evolution there are chances for us to take advantage when some of them are not firing on all cylinders.

Its not as straightforward as they were shit this year so they must get better or they are good this year so it must continue….

2 minutes ago, est1874 said:

Kyle Walker could be a very clever shout / bit of business now that Young is out. 33, still pacy (for now), can defend and attack.

I’ve heard the name mentioned few times.He’s a starter at Citeh so is it even remotely possible?

15 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

Still it's not success.

There's a difference between a good season and a successful season.

Celebrate all you won't but I wouldn't.

But too each their own.

To fall away in the race for the title does not feel like success.

I can remember how it felt both times I. The early nineties.

when we fell away in the battle against Liverpool there seemed to be an overwhelming sense of pride from the fan base.

In the race against Utd it felt a little disappointing as I remember kind of like a numb feeling that we had genuinely lost something within our grasp.

We did celebrate the 1990 team at Goodson on one of the Great Villa away days!

I think there was a great day out a QPR after the 1993 team fell away.

I guess the point I’m making is while losing is definitely not something to celebrate you have to put things into context and appreciate good seasons  as we know they don’t come round often.

There’s no way we don’t win this. UTV!

On 16/05/2023 at 18:39, LondonLax said:

Yeah they’ve hardly spent anything compared with the ‘big 6’ teams they are finishing above. They have done very well. 

Its true.

I want to dislike them, but the footabll fan inside me says "fair play"!

Does anyone know the reason why they boo the Champions league anthem?

I'm sure I've seen an explanation before but i cant remember it.....

It was certainly strange to see them booing at the start of a game that clearly means so much to them.

19 hours ago, blandy said:

I watched it. It was a big strong experienced Luton side against a team of what seemed like youths (due to Sunderland’s injury list). The reason Luton won was in essence down to physical size and strength. Both teams put in 100% effort, worked their socks off, chased, tackled, closed down and all that. The standard of play was poor, neither side strung more than a few passes together and both were miles off prem standard. It was a typical lower league game and not really reflective of the league that Villa are in at all. I’m not sure there’s much read across at all to this discussion of our tactics and selections 

My point was that both sides ability was pretty much even.

Albeit standard was lower the teams were even and had similar styles in fact you could argue Sunderland had more flair/ creativity…

However Luton won because they were physically more able/had more desire than Sunderland.

Which ties up with the point I thought you had made about teams not applying the basics(desire,belief,willingness etc) getting turned over.

Much rather these than Coventry.

Another midlands club that care far to much about us….

Promotion will only make them think the are in some way relevant and when we play them they will all be foaming at the mouth fists clenched at the first corner!

IMO they have helped to elevate the standard of PL football to the highest I’ve seen in my lifetime.

If the best team in the league is this good then the others (or at the least the ones with aspirations) just have to find a way to compete.

Liverpool in the past few seasons are an example now we will see if Arsenal can rise to the challenge or maybe the Geordies.

The Premier League benefits massively by having Citeh set the standard.

3 hours ago, TRO said:

I see games where there is a clear disparity in physical application, despite the fitness, of the players......you are right, desire, belief, willingness to fight for the ball, is STILL paramount.....and if it is not applied, teams can use it to over power you.

 

 

Clear example in last nights Luton v Sunderland match. Luton simply overpowered Sunderland all over the pitch restricting there most effective players like Diallo and Clarke to just bit parts in the game and they dominated in both penalty boxes.

Cant say that i though the Luton players were particulary talented at all, so that was definitely a case of physical application winning out IMO.

4 hours ago, villa89 said:

He's really playing well but still has two issues stopping him becoming really elite. He nearly always looks for the pass, a lot of the time when he should be shooting. Second one is he's always trying to cut inside. Very rarely is able to beat someone down the line. He'll be a very good player for them for the next 3 or 4 years though. His defensive work has improved at City too. 

I always think he looks for a pass because he’s not confident of finding the net with his shots.

I also think he’s the same when it comes to long passes.

Jack is an intelligent footballer who always wants his side to keep possession.

He knows that a shot or pass is to some extent a gamble which is why he would rather run with the ball and make a short pass to a player in a better position to him.

Disagree with the byline point he often gets there and then cuts inside.Again I think this is because a cross is also something of a gamble and he prefers to play a short low pass.

I think Phillip Billing at Bournemouth is coming into the right time of his career to step up.

Im not sure what role he performs for them at the moment but he always looks decent to me.

Would he work for us?

Everton don’t get relegated everyone knows this….

Tick tok 

3 minutes ago, Dodgyknees said:

Yeah I’ve found that with the them. I found myself in a conversation with a Leicester fan at the end of last year, he was aggressive- and kept saying “but you’ll never win the league will you, we have”. Ok mate.

I wonder if it’s because they know they’ve peaked and the good times aren’t likely to ever be that good again?

It’s true things go in cycles.

It looks like Leicester are on a downward trend after a few good years on an upward trajectory.

They have had some great days I’m sure…. and reached highs that only a certain vintage of Villa fans can relate to.

However on the odd occasion I’ve met and chatted to their fans I’ve found them to be oddly aggressive and a little (maybe understandably) arrogant.

so for that reason I would be happy to see them drop!

Although I like Everton as a club I would like to see how they cope with the Championship.

They would add an extra dimension to the competition.

33 minutes ago, Beastmix said:

The sooner we realise booing, jeering, and having a moan is counter-productive to players upping their game, the better. It makes them more prone to errors which, ultimately, can cost us games.

We also need to stop having these reactions to back and side passes. This seems to happen quite a lot. Sometimes you need to pass back to pass forward.

All of this is pretty impossible to stop.Fans are individuals and will react according to how a certain situation makes them feel.Some fans will follow their lead but generally you can’t make people think or behave differently they will do what they want.

The only way to stop negativity in the crowd is positivity on the pitch.

Ive said it before and I will say it again.

All supporters behave this way.

it’s isn’t a problem and it doesn’t need fixing…it is what it is!

I think Villa fans are affected more than most clubs by the amount of other teams in the area.

Hear me out on this one.

We have been awful for approximately 15 years in that time we have seen the rise (and fall) of the Baggies,Wolves,Stoke and Leicester.

The fan bases of these clubs immediately focus there attention on us as we are the biggest club in the area.

Inevitably as we are the biggest club there is always someone ready at work to tell you how great their team is in comparison to Villa because we are the benchmark.

Hence the frustration of the fanbase who have generally suffered at the hands of fans of these fly by night form teams….

We just want our days in the sun to come back!