Indigo

Lenglet is the profile of player that makes sense to sign on loan given Mings is out. Not too enamored with him myself - and am a bit wary of it becoming a habit that Monchi signs previous players - but as cover for Torres/playing in the Conference League or lesser teams in general he'd be fine you'd imagine. I mean he isn't literally crap is he - he's played significant games for Sevilla, Barca and has been capped 15 times by France, as back up players go that's doing pretty well.

Seeing Iheanacho seem so close to going to Palace I can't help but think he's got to be one of the few out there that fits that mould being spoken about on previous pages of a perfect back-up to Watkins. Though £10-15 million might be a bit steep if you're only signing him to play that role, and given the lack of minutes at Leicester he'd possibly prefer to be first choice at Palace anyway.

Monchi really does roll with players he's already signed doesn't he.

22 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

The new athletic guy Jacob is already a massive upgrade on Evans.

He actually seems to put effort in.

22 years old though. Irritatingly young.

7 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Played majority LM on loan to Marseilles where he scored all his 6 goals and no assists. Arsenal lost Timber to ACL first game. Zinchenko coming back from injury, Gabriel benched and still can't get a run. Is he injured or not fancied?

I think Arteta doesn't fancy him but even beyond that he just doesn't fit the way they're trying to play now. Arteta has essentially carbon-copied what Pep did last season and isn't using full backs at all now, or at least not attacking ones, so there's no real place for Tavares anyway.

I think it's more so two goalkeepers + not filling the rest of the bench that people are saying is an indicator that we're a bit short, not simply that there's two keepers there.

If you look at the average positions from today we more or less played the usual shape. Konsa is making up a sort-of back three, but ultimately is wide enough to really be a defensive right back (where Torres and Carlos are positioned as a CB pairing usually would be) while Digne is bombing up the opposite side. McGinn is therefore tucking more into midfield while Cash is holding the width as a wide midfielder on the right.

There was a few occasions today where he was narrowly denied what could have been incredible assists. A couple in particular to Watkins and Diaby respectively where he threaded through balls that a Burnley defender just got their toe onto at the last second.

There's a couple of times where he turns incredibly slowly and I get worried that he's not the same post-injury, but I think that's just my own worst fears about it playing tricks on me because he's otherwise looked great as I always expected him to back when he signed. In a weird way missing last season has meant he's been able to go about his work quietly now as there's no real expectation on him.

He was a bit soft at best for their goal but thought it was a lovely performance otherwise. He's just a pure Rolls Royce of a player and gives us such a new dimension out from the back with his distribution. 

Feel like without having scored or assisted he still essentially won us the game today. He - like the rest of the team - was having a quiet start to the second half but once he came to life just before the hour mark he ran the show and things suddenly felt a lot more comfortable. What a player he's become under Emery.

Not an enormous fan of Cash playing in front of Konsa (assuming that's what is happening!). Feels like we'll be quite limited down that side. Ultimately we should be winning this game though.

It'll be tough considering they were already likely to go down before then proceeding to lose arguably their two best players this window, but really hope it clicks for him and he if nothing else can have a great individual season. If they can get him chances then I've faith he'll score, and then who knows he could end up back at Villa anyway in an ideal world.

As keepers go he does seem to get a few of these niggly kind of injuries where he's at least playing in discomfort if not outright missing games.

22 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Digne is signed until 2026. We don't need to worry about him. The striker thing is nonsense. Duran isn't our back up last resort striker. Diaby can play there. Emery said he can. Man City have no back up striker to Haaland. Alvarez is less of back up striker than Diaby. 

Alvarez has predominantly played as a striker in his career whereas the number of senior appearances Diaby has made there can be counted on one hand.

Ornstein reporting that Chelsea can't get Lukaku out on a permanent deal so are resigned to just loaning him out. I know Dan Bardell said previously that he thought or heard Villa were interested, makes you think...

I don't think it's that bad at all to be honest, third kits generally are a bit wacky and/or based on a template and this ticks both boxes. Nothing to really be up in arms about in either direction.

The state of them on the players during games in ridiculous though. How can a Premier League them be having an issue with a kit soaking through like that.

I think as back-up strikers go Iheanacho is a good shout. His ratio of minutes to goals is actually quite impressive, he's just been stuck for too long behind an increasingly past it Vardy in the pecking order, for which I'd probably blame Leicester for more than him. There's talk of Palace getting him in as a starter for £8-10 million, they could do a lot worse and so could Villa.

16 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Agreed in a sense.

However, if you watch some of Morenos " Best bits " for us, you will realise how important he is at bamboozling opposition from the left with pace and trickery.

If you need a player to force the issue with a stubborn defence, he is that player.

He also made some crucial last ditch tackles to save us points, which his pace also allows him to do.

Against alot of opposition in the PL, crosses get cut out, ala Digne.

Though if he is as pinpoint as he has been recently it doesn't even matter.

Generally agree. I don't think any issue Emery may have with Digne is his quality, more just the type of player that he is. In terms of his technical ability, delivery, ability to take a set-piece etc he's largely better than Moreno, but Moreno is much faster and is a great dribbler from full back which Digne just can't really do. Moreno just suits the role of the marauding full back that almost plays as a winger at times more than Digne does, the gulf between them is more suitability to the system rather than overall ability.

I think he's a quality player and as possible back-ups go when Moreno returns you're not getting much better than him anywhere.  Equally you can't really be of the mind of "I trust Emery" and blame the fans that he might leave because he played great against Hibs. Personally though I'd question letting him go on loan and then paying a fee for a player like Acuña.

5 hours ago, villarule123 said:

The bedwetters were right then? 

On 22/08/2023 at 14:14, The_Steve said:

Can’t wait for his debut tomorrow. Time to shut the bedwetters up. 

 I'm sufficiently soaked here.

Going to be a tough job making a huge impact with this SU side this season but I'd love to see him do it. Much like the Ramsey deal it seems like a good one for all involved, all the best to him and hopefully he'll only end up playing his way back to Villa.

18 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

We wouldn’t get him on the sort of deal that we got for Zaniolo… and he doesn’t have the sort of quality, talent and potential as him. If we get Nico fit, firing and injury free… he’s going to be a major coup for us and could be a real star. But we have set up a deal to be as “risk averse” as possible it seems…

With Tammy, I think we would get fleeced on transfer fee and wages… I never said he has done “nothing”… he has shown he’s a decent CF and can score goals, decent height and strength too…

Again, we’re all going to have different views on him and that’s fine. We can agree to disagree respectfully. Serie A (sadly) is undoubtedly and considerably inferior to PL these days and you make fair points but we can’t discount the fact that in his most recent season he played 54 times and only scored 9 goals!

I’ve just never been convinced by him, not a fan of his “technique”, regularly scuffs shots and misses chances… not very cultured or easy on the eye in his play or style… just my view.

I genuinely see him as a downgrade on Ollie and, at least for the outlay, such a move would not make sense for me.

I think "as if he's done nothing in his career outside of Villa" is along the same lines as he's "crap" and people only like the idea of signing him due to the sentimentality of what he did in the Championship to be fair man  Like I said, it's a moot point with the injury anyway but I personally don't love the idea of signing him for the reasons stated. However some of the stick he gets is way over the top for me, he's shown himself to be capable of being at least a good striker at some of the highest levels of the game so I don't think it's fair to any folk that do or did like the idea of signing him to suggest they can't see past pure sentiment.