Stuartc445

On 13/11/2019 at 15:41, Keyblade said:

Here in Canada a famous hockey presenter was recently fired for criticizing "immigrants" for not wearing/buying poppies. What a weird thing to get mad about. I don't get why people have to out-patriot each other.

This is what annoys me you get people having a moan about people not wearing a poppy, you even had the Sun a few years ago shaming clubs that didn't put a poppy on their shirt. Then acting triumphantly when they had one the next time because they had managed to shame them into wearing one, what these people and tabloids don't seem to realise is that by forcing people to wear a poppy disrespects the people that the poppy represents as they fought for freedom which means people are free to choose whether they want to wear a poppy or not. 

15 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Yes, I think Swansea away around Christmas time.

It's was Preston away where he pulled off an unbelievable save then tried to throw it into his own next for the rest of the game. 

His distribution is excellent all his kicks are pin point accuracy but when it comes to being a keeper he's hopeless, he'd make a great midfielder with the quality of his passing. 

20 hours ago, VillaChris said:

SHA fans cling onto that to apparently show they're the club of the city e.g. we don't care about it while they have Peaky away fancy dresses so we're all out of towners with no connection to Brum while they're promoting the city with the Redditch blues dressing up (even though I think large parts of it are filmed in Liverpool).

Never watched the show anyway.

I've seen 2 episodes 1 in the 1st series and then again the latest one and I just can't watch the accents are painful some are more scouse than Brummie and the one this series I heard it the matter of a few sentences he went through all the dialects I'm Birmingham. It drives me mad so for blues the big it up so much when the show have clearly made no attempt to get the accents correct is quite strange. But then again this is Small Heath so it's no surprise really. 

On 23/10/2019 at 23:17, Zatman said:

Nobody said any of that, maybe you should try dumb your arguments down as usual for us less intellectual

I'll easily dumb it down for you. Points are what are used in football to decide where a team finishes at the end of a season. The team that wins the league does so because they have picked up more points than everyother team. If we stay up we will have done so by getting more points than 3 other teams. To say points are irrelevant is the most ridiculous comment I have ever seen on here it's like some people have forgotten how football works. 

Also no doubt if we were to win the league playing terrible football people here would refuse to celebrate it because of that terrible football. That's fine but I will be celebrating so hard I won't sober up for at least a week. 

4 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

I mean, this isn't even necessarily about Bruce. It's about a lack of ambition, and that comes from the top down. Bruce is just a symptom of this. It's no surprise that we started our slide through the league when Randy Lerner lost all his ambition for the club. The managerial appointments like McLeish ultimately reflected that ambition. When your ambition is just to stay in the league and rake in the TV money, it's reflected on the pitch too.

You're right I'll accept nothing less than Europa League this season anything less and I'll demand Smith loses his job. 

It's called taking small steps this season is survival, next season mid table and so on.  Its crazy that this kind of thinking is seen as wanting to scrape survival every season but hey ho 

3 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Ah yes, the fairly common Leicester scenario. Ignoring the small fact that they changed managers between seasons that completely vindicates my argument, it's such an outlier it's not even worth bringing up.

So we scrape survival this season, does that mean we'll be doing it every season thereafter does it?  

I'm so glad you cleared that up. 

1 minute ago, villa4europe said:

that's why I asked if you has a season ticket

im not questioning supporting the team or being a fan obviously we all want us to be successful, im questioning committing the amount of money and time required to go watch your club every week if the football is shit

 

Yes i have and have had one for 20+ seasons now, over 10 of those seasons home and away

3 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

And even if you manage to stay up by the skin of your teeth, all you're doing is delaying the inevitable unless you make some changes. Brighton are a good example. If Hughton stayed I would have had them as relegation certs, but they've given themselves a chance now playing attacking football. It still might not work out, but at least they're working towards something. If you try to grind out survival every year, you'll eventually drop as shown by us, Sunderland, West Brom, Stoke etc.

what rubbish, Leicester stayed up by the skin of their teeth the season before they won the league and now look at them.

3 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

not sure if you are reading the posts properly...

even if we get relegated this year the football we are playing and the players we have will make this season more enjoyable than the years we had under say McLeish, some of the lambert years even though we stayed up, definitely the Sherwood and Garde year, that's not hard to understand, watching shit football in a ground full of apathy with an owner who doesn't want to be there as we inevitably slip further and further towards being embarrassingly bad but staying up by the skin of our teeth was not enjoyable, not even slightly

and like I said before we had a higher attendance last year than we had in the lambert and Sherwood / garde year so the premier league effect doesn't stand up to that

I would rather get relegated watching smith's villa than stay up watching bruce's newcastle

What a strange world we live in Relegation is failure doesn't matter how you dress it up it's Failure, I hate failure and i MEAN Hate it i can't even contemplate Enjoying it,  I am well and truly lost for words.  

22 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Poppycock sir. Rubbish product?

1) We'll see how things progress, but even if we go down I'm fairly sure I'll have enjoyed the season more than any of the last 8 or 9 years before Smith joined.

2) The record breaking attendances and waiting lists seem to indicate it it's not just me who is also enjoying the football.

Thank God Steve Bruce is at Newcastle and away from choking the life out of this club.

1) Enjoyed getting relegation wow i have no words for that.

2) Think you'll find that it the Premier League effect as i very much doubt we'd be having waiting lists in the championship regardless of the style of football.

11 minutes ago, Sam-AVFC said:

I’m interested to know when you think we were playing good football without points?

Not saying I have an issue with the overall point, I just can’t think of a time this would relate to!

Can’t argue that a balance is always likely to attract the biggest crowds as (this thread shows well) everyone has differing motives and priorities when deciding whether to go to games.

We were playing some lovely stuff under RDM but won only 1 game against that seasons championship whipping boys.  It could also be argued that at the start of our relegation season the football wasn't terrible but the results were and then it everything went to sh*t

If we were to become successful it wouldn't matter 1 little bit the quality of football the ground would be sold out every game,  Look at the MON years the football wasn't always brilliant but the ground was sold out more often than not.

16 minutes ago, Sam-AVFC said:

No it isn’t, it just means people have a different thought process than you when deciding whether or not to buy the product. What is ridiculous is assuming everyone has to think the same way as you.

So you are telling me that people have a thought process of a team that finished 5th in the championship last season don't see survival in the Premier League this season as a success, that's madness. 

3 hours ago, villa4europe said:

@Sam-AVFC

yep my thoughts exactly

if you want to spend £2000+ a year and lose a day of your week watching your team have 30% possession and 2 shots per game but scraping enough points to survive then that's up to you, personally based on my experience of following villa home and away during our 5 year decline and eventual drop I can categorically say that I don't 

the PL is not the be all and end all it is made out to be, I want to see villa do well and play good football not just accept our lot and join the happy to be there brigade that plagues the PL, fortunately with our current owners and set up that's not a problem we have, Newcastle on the other hand have blatantly adopted a stay up at all cost approach this season, if I was a Newcastle fan then I would not be parting with my money to watch it every week (id watch it on TV still obviously, there's a difference between being a fan and that level of commitment)

End of the day for the realist this season is about survival, next season is about mid table and so on.  Personally i want us to be successful if we play good football whilst doing it then great but how we go about being successful i don't care.

Also if you think our owners don't have the default setting of just staying up then i think you're very much mistaken these are successful businessmen they will want to stay where the money is, you've got to remember they aren't fans. They'll say all the words we want to hear but when push comes to shove it'll be about staying up.

3 hours ago, Sam-AVFC said:

No it isn't. It's points that decide whether or not you will be playing in a particular division in the future. People are only paying for the existing season's product.

Do you really think it's ridiculous to suggest the only real consideration in the here and now on whether or not to buy a season ticket is enjoyment? Considering football is an entertainment product that seems pretty blatant to me. Now, obviously a lot of people's enjoyment will be swayed by points and/or league position.

You seem to be trying to argue a different point to the post you quoted...

 

Yes and if this season we don't get enough points it'll be relegation which will mean its a rubbish product because it'd have ended up in failure. It's simple as that really. 

This season is about staying up and points is what will achieve that so saying they are irrelevant is ridiculous. 

On 21/10/2019 at 13:47, villa4europe said:

the point was that points on the board is irrelevant when you are asking the question over whether or not you are willing to spunk north of £500 a season on a ST and £100 per away game

when we had Bruce I wasn't, 12 hour round trip to not have a shot on target and 28% possession I don't think I would be if I was a toon fan either

they'll snatch points here and there and do enough to stay up but that's still poor

Points in the board are irrelevant? 

This is probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard when it's points that will decide whether you'll be asked to spend North of £500 for games in the top flight or 2nd tier. Points are pretty much the most relevant things in league football when you consider without them we'll just slide straight down the leagues. 

On 11/10/2019 at 20:12, avfcDJ said:

England reminding me of Villa under Bruce

Don't think so Villa under Bruce could defend.

How Mings isn't getting into the starting line up is a disgrace he is better than all of that defence. Maguire is just showing Man Utd are easily mugged in the transfer market we'd probably be able to get them to pay us 50 million for Taylor in January 

8 hours ago, briny_ear said:

So really you’re saying defence is the best form of defence...

You've lost me. 

You said Norwich showed that attack isn't the best form of attack. 

I'll say again Norwich don't have Mings, Engels and Nakamba so I'm confident we'd be able to play 2 up front and still cope. 

Anyway when did putting 2 up front become all out attack. 

8 hours ago, briny_ear said:

I think Norwich gave the lie to that idea on Saturday.

Yeah but unlike them we have Mings and Engels in defence with Nakamba infront of them so we have a better chance of coping 

13 minutes ago, sne said:

You think the squad has been training with a 4-4-2 or been focusing on getting this current tactic to stick?

If not do you see any issues with swapping?

Also who would you drop?

Hopefully it doesn't need to change hopefully Norwich was just the start.

But what do you suggest if we don't go from strength to strength just stay with the same formation and hope that it works before it's to late.  I don't think Smiths like that to be honest if Smith is as good as we all think / hope he is then he should be training the team in more than one formation.

If it's not working then it'll have to be the weakest performing midfielder whoever that maybe or there is another way, we could always try to move McGinn further forward and put him alongside Wesley and be more fluid with our formation where he drops back into midfield when defending and goes up front when on the attack.

Just now, sne said:

I think we've finally found a selection and formation that will work, to a point.

You want to change this for a 4-4-2 or whatever, fine. I think that would be a terrible idea.

Also don't think that and extra striker instead of a midfielder will help us keep the ball in dangerous areas more, but it will make us more vulnerable 

We are still a newly promoted team trying to gel and most days we'll not come up against a side with an injury crisis like we did against Norwich but I still think this is the way to go, not swapping formations.

By all means throw another striker on towards the end if we are chasing a goal.

 

1) As i have already pointed out I don't want to change as that'd be stupid after winning 5:1 but if it turns out to be a one off because Norwich were awful putting someone up with Wesley is worth a try.

2) Again the idea we will ship goals the moment we have 2 upfront is ridiculous. Yes we shouldn't do that against the big boys in this league as that would be suicide. But i have faith in our midfield and defence that it could cope vs the teams around us with 1 less player in the midfield. 

1 hour ago, sne said:

It's a nice cliché if nothing else.

Granted with Dunne gone we won't concede while we have the ball, but to think we could Barcelona or Man City us through the league is IMO very naive.

Even Man City are unable to do it atm.

What? so only Barcalona and Man City can try and make the ball stick up front.

So what shall we do if Wesley doesn't replicate what happened at Norwich just drop him for Davis or Kodjia and hope they work better instead of trying to find a way to get the best out of Wesley. Personally i'd prefer us to at least try other things with him before give up on him.  

of course we are going to come unstuck in some games that's the nature of football but the idea that if we try putting someone upfront with Wesley will lead us letting in goals for fun is ridiculous.

4 hours ago, sne said:

we'd also be conceding for fun if we weaken the midfield.

Not necessarily as the best form of defence is attack. If we are able to make the ball stick upfront then that'll protect our defence. 

7 minutes ago, sne said:

Which midfielder would you drop and why?

No way are we swapping to 4-4-2 or anything like it, would be utterly bonkers.

we finally have a really strong midfield.

After the Norwich game the team can't be changed. But if Wesley goes back to struggling it'd be worth a go trying him with someone alongside him. Wesley up top with someone like Grabban and we'd be scoring for fun imo

People claiming him to be rubbish are plain wrong though there definitely is a good player there it's just I don't think we are deploying him correctly. 

On 05/10/2019 at 22:30, KentVillan said:

You absolutely can say it, because he absolutely has had a fair crack.

He has something like 50 competitive appearances for Villa (including plenty of starts), mostly at a lower level (Championship and League Cup) and he has returned a grand total of 4 goals (one of which in a 6-1 drubbing of Crewe in the League Cup).

I'm not doubting that he could be a useful player for us, and he could definitely improve his goal return to a more respectable level. But he is never in a million years going to be a reliable goalscorer.

Wesley isn't perfect, but he's our best option for now, and Keinan or Kodj will have to do something amazing off the bench to displace him.

Everyone seems to be going on about replacing Wesley with Davis, I'd go a different route tbh and try Davis alongside Wesley. For me that might work as I don't see Wesley as a lone striker he's like a much better version of Weimann who can score but will make the runs that will create space for a target man type striker. Like Weimann did with Benteke. 

13 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Well he's at Newcastle now so this thread is basically an auxillary Newcastle thread. I care about what he's doing now because he's managing a relegation rival and I couldn't be gladder. His time with us thankfully seems eons ago.

No it doesn't we already have a Newcastle United thread called lets all laugh at Newcastle (again). 

To be fair I can see how you'd struggle to find it because it's not like it has Newcastle in the title....

10 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Found Alex Bruce's account.,

Nice just because I am not prepared to ignore the good Bruce did and I refuse to slag him off because I have moved on I must be Alex Bruce. 

It'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic