DakotaVilla

He has gone MIA because of a number of factors the main one being that he is being asked to perform as a 6 because of the complete and utter lack of faith in Timbo during Tielemans absence. 

We should see an upswing in both McGinn and Luiz’ performances if Tielemans comes back raring to go. 

We then need to get competition for McGinn in the summer if PSR allows. 
 

4 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

The decision to move Philogene, Ramsey and Archer out does not seem so smart now.

I didn’t realise any of them could play as a 6…..

Emery totally shit the bed today. McGinn and Luiz in the double pivot never works. playing cash right wing meaning we had Bailey left. WTAF. 

All he had to do was put a little trust in Timbo and then play everyone else in their proper position.

We are done and now reliant on Liverpool and man city to save us. 

He’s very unlikely to be here at the start of next season. That tells us everything we need to know. Hopefully we won’t need to rely upon him in any further games. 

Spurs won’t beat Liverpool especially after Ange’s interviews after Chelsea saying he needs new players that can play the way he wants. Talk about naive.

They are blatantly waiting until champions league qualification is confirmed to try to minimize the inevitable shitstorm that will follow. 

Emery dropped a bollock by not picking Pau or not bringing him on at half time. But as he’s said very clearly we are prioritizing the league so if we beat Brighton we can’t really complain. 

Yeah, definitely something up with him off the pitch that’s impacting him badly. You can be off form but a player of his quality can’t be this bad for so long. 

Hopefully a game on the bench will help him reset and clear his head. 

1 minute ago, villa4europe said:

We have no one to drop him for, that's the problem 

Play Timbo. Play the tea lady if you have to. 

Luiz was diabolical. Has to be dropped. 
 

McGinn and Diaby summed up the intelligence we showed today by delaying our own penalty that was ultimately missed. Pure stupidity. 
 

Olsen was Olsen but that fourth goal was particularly pathetic.

Cash was Cash playing everyone onside, again. 

All in all. A complete shit the bed performance with the only positives being that spurs lost and that multiple villa relationships have been saved by avoiding the “I’m going to Athens for the final” conversation. 

Let’s not forget that Luiz has been even worse than Olsen in this game if that’s even possible 

He’s 31 now with two years left on his contract earning circa 100k a week. His book value will be 15/16 million euros in the summer.

Milan don’t seem to have an issue paying circa 20m euros for a player and paying circa 80/90k a week for first teamers. 

If the opportunity comes to shift him on for circa 20m and replace with a younger better suited aerially dominant option we’d be fools not to. 

Due to the defensiveness weakness with Martinez and Tielemans missing best to go all out attack here and use our attacking strengths to pin Olympiakos back as much as possible. Any 2 or 3 goal lead would be absolutely fantastic. 

20 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

I know it's crazy but hear me out. 

There is a case to be made for us going into the Europa League on sporting terms (not financial).

1) The Format has changed to be the same as the Champions League, ie 2 extra games in group stages and a 2 leg knockout for those in 9th to 24th. This essentially removes some of the jeopardy for the top teams and increases the prize pool. 

2) No Champions League teams will drop into the Europa League in the new format, plus the 5th best Italian and German sides will also not be in it s they will go into CL. So the 2 teams from the PL who qualify will surely be the top 2 favourites for the competition

3) Having weaker European games for a club at the stage we are (when a European Championship was on in summer) will be a benefit to our Premier League performance and potentially our ability to make a go at the domestic cups.

4) Progression to Semi final or final stage in Europa League would bring good prize money and be close enough to the level we would get from going out in the playoff phase of the Champions League

5) Winning it is the biggest prize we can realistically win under Emery. We can't win the PL or CL and this is the 3rd best title available.

Why can’t we win them?

We would have been well and truly in the title mix this season if not for our horrendous injury list. Underestimate this manager and this team at your peril. 

Joint 16th for assists in the league and joint 46th in the league for goals and all without any set pieces and without having a nailed down spot in the team. He really hasn’t done that badly at all considering it’s his first year etc etc. 

Weakest “strong man” the game has ever known

21 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I still worry we're that team.

We nearly did it for Jackson yesterday. 

And he was still shit so what does that prove?

Olsen did well. First goal was fully on Luiz (who was useless), the second goal was a brilliant finish but complete lack of pressure on Gallagher. He saved an absolute certain goal from Palmer and did well on crosses. 

I don’t know what else people expect from a number 2. Without him we would have lost. 

1 hour ago, May-Z said:

Completely changed how we play. 

We had to go long from all our goal kicks because he lacks confidence with his feet. 

Combine that with Ollie not being able to hold up a thing all night and it meant we could never get out of our half. 

Put Martinez in goal with his calm play form the back and that second half performance is much different.

Even though we did absolutely none of that in the first half?

Very oddly we seem to be better after a mid week tie. It’s almost like the players prefer the rhythm of going game to game. At least the semi final games resume next week. 

He did better than Luiz when he came on and that’s all that could be expected of him. 

Now that we are definitely saying at VP we need to understand the long term plan. Adding 1,500 hospitality seats is meaningful to us at the moment (will be worth multi millions over a year) but in the grand scheme of things is a drop of water in the ocean.

We have to replace the North stand and the Doug Ellis asap as that’s where the huge match day commercial opportunity lies .

If we get that first goal we could smash them. I’d fancy us at home against anyone right now.