Indigo

I'm not sure Everton will be that arsed themselves. Staying up is obviously their priority and I'm not sure how much they fancy their chances of having a go at trying to win something this season. They were fortunate to get past a lowly Doncaster in the last round.

It's actually quite a nice round of fixtures for Villa. Get through and you're already in the last 16, and with other games including the likes of City-Newcastle, Arsenal-Brentford, Chelsea-Brighton etc happening there'll be a few potentially tricky teams already out of the running.

Obvious caveat that Transfermarkt valuations can be a bit wayward, but interesting all the same.

Real lack of cover at the back as things stand, this kind of fixture run at the moment makes it feel like it would have been handy to hang onto Young. Out of everyone it feels like Konsa and Digne would be most in need of a rest given they've played nearly every minute so far this season, so I'd be interested in seeing something like:

Olsen

Cash-Chambers-Lenglet-Torres

Bailey-Dendoncker-Tielemans-Ramsey

Zaniolo-Duran

Would be a chance to move Chambers in-field after how uncomfortable he looked vs Legia at right back and another chance to experiment with Torres playing on the left side as he did once or twice in pre-season. Think Dendoncker and Tielemans are good midfield rotation for games like this and it's an ideal way to get more minutes into the legs of Ramsey and Zaniolo.

27 minutes ago, TheMelvillan said:

Me when we have to travel to the Etihad Stadium

A Freudian slip if ever there was one there 

Re: folk asking about the away shits, the article said the players had the same concerns about that one as well as the home. Obviously it must be a case of it not looking as egregious to people visually as it's a lighter colour, but the same issues exist.

1 minute ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I must have misread your post then if that's not what you were meaning.

It's not about anyone having an opinion and must agree with it, as it's just my own opinion after all. It's certain posters that appear to jump onto others (not referring to you) when you voice an opinion when the player is going through a frustrating patch.

Again my apologies if I've taken your post the wrong way.

 

All good mate. I intended on editing it but I only noticed my error after the post was quoted so thought it was too late to bother. So yeah definitely not targeted at anyone in particular. I don’t think Watkins has been at the races at all this season personally (although I thought he was good against Palace) but at the same time just think including games played about 4 months ago along with ones from this season as though it's part of one run of form is a bit off as a form of criticism.

14 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

It's no false equivalence, it's the same stat, it is you choosing to make a meal out of it to suit your argument my friend.

And based on this, are you saying constructive criticism of players isn't allowed?

 

I have no idea what you're talking about mate. I've literally posted this season saying that he hasn't played well at times, how I thought he hasn't at times in previous seasons etc when others have felt the opposite. Despite this I merely said I don't like a stat being used largely out of context as it's bit misleading and comes across as going out of one's way to be critical in about a sentence, not really making a meal out of it. I actually meant to include the "1 in 13" or whatever it is posts but mis-typed, so I'm not sure if you've taken it personally but it wasn't my intention.

For what it's worth though it is indeed a false equivalence, because the BBC were listing a stat in a piece that presents stats, I was referring to people using this stat as a means of criticising Watkins' contributions so far this season, not literally saying that any mention of these numbers is a desperate attempt at slating him and thus hurting my little feelings.

How very VillaTalk of you to pull the "am I not allowed an opinion because you disagree with me" line though, feels like the Smith era all over again. 

7 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

The build up to the game yesterday before kick off, the BBC also had the same stat in their head to head section too.

I guess they also must be cherry picking the numbers in order to also be as critical as possible against him.  

 

Bit of a false equivalence, but if they were also doing so in the context of criticising his contributions so far this season then I'd probably say so, yeah.

I don't think he's been poor or anything (aside from the Legia game), but he has kind of fluctuated between mostly extremely quiet with bursts in games of being absolutely brilliant (thought he essentially won the game when he came to life vs Burnley despite not scoring or assisting). Do wonder if when Ramsey and Zaniolo are both fully up to speed they might play on the left and right respectively and displace McGinn for a period, which isn't a criticism of him at all but more so reflective of the quality in the squad now.

If it makes sense, even when he isn't necessarily the MOTM in games I still feel as though he looks like our best player in them. Always been an enormous fan since he signed but the level of consistency and comfortability in his current role has him playing to an incredible standard now.

I'm loathe to criticise referees even when it's arguable that they may have cost us a game, but the officiating really was horrendous today. So many odd decisions. 

Weird performance on the whole. Kind of managed the game well at times but frustrated in equal measure. Take the win and move on.

Pau Torres not looking that bad now eh?

Fun stuff so far, think it's notable how unathletic this team is at the back and in midfield, which makes them much easier to get at in situations like the second goal where they're getting nowhere near the loose ball and Legia have gone from back to front in a matter of seconds.

Kamara has been worryingly off form so far this season. Been poor so far here.

Only took a couple of players to return to make the squad look quite strong on paper, after some of the worry over how thin the bench look against Hibs etc.

16 hours ago, Tom13 said:

Well, look at the table. It's the lowest xG out of all the other true number 9s.

Agreed re Steven.

Well it's higher than Mitrovic's and Jesus' (folk saying he isn't a proper 9 but that's where he plays for Arsenal). Additionally, his non-penalty xG per 90 (so even accounting for discrepancies in minutes) for last season was actually higher than Mitrovic's, Toney's, and even Harry Kane's as well and is in something like the top 20% of strikers in Europe's top five leagues. It's a metric that works in his favour if anything as he's generally only getting bettered by it by strikers from more dominant teams.

Apparently it's been in excess of 500 days since they've beaten a team in the top half of the table at the time of playing them.

Doing my best to battle intrusive, inherently-pessimistic Villa fan thoughts since I've heard that one.

I'd guess the approach will be to respect the fact they're a good side that can't be walked over by making completely wholesale changes, but to also utilise the fact that we've assembled a squad of well-paid, experienced players this season to be able to rotate and deal with the increased number of games.

I'd imagine Lenglet and Tielemans are absolutely guaranteed to start, I'd personally like to see Dendoncker get a chance as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see any of Olsen, Chambers,  Moreno, Bailey, Zaniolo, Duran etc starting in any combination either.

5 hours ago, Keyblade said:

This is supposed to be a poor game from him lol

Yeah, have to say I thought he generally linked the play quite well on Saturday and of all games it wasn't really the one to criticise that aspect of his game. Didn't lose the ball much at all, put up a good passing percentage etc.

Funnily enough I remember in his first season I had a few disagreements with people where I thought that part of his game was lacking, but obviously he was a net positive for what he brought to the team as a whole. For me he's come on leaps and bounds since then, he remains a streaky scorer but he's better as an all-round player than he's ever been. He's not a particularly technical or flashy player so when he has an off day it looks worse than a lot of players can, but on the whole he's an extremely functional, efficient player that we'd be doing extraordinarily well to replace with better.

After how he finished the season and then performed for the U21s he just seemed primed to really hit his stride this season, was so frustrating that he got that injury but his return feels like such a bonus now that Villa have started well thus far in his absence. 

Don't think it'll be long once he's back in the starting XI once he's at full fitness. All of McGinn, Zaniolo and Bailey are more natural off the right in this formation anyway so it feels like Ramsey's place to lose in that sense.

Yeah I've never really mentioned him because it just seems unrealistic for varying reasons but I'd love Eze, as good as so many of Villa's attacking players are he's a different type of player. Contract is up in 2025 mind so by the time next summer comes around who knows.

Always liked Rakitic.