GeordieVillan

You would think today is a good day to announce price increases. If not today, perhaps they are waiting to see if/when we qualify for champions league. Maybe I’m a sceptic but I think they might try spin the price increase on a day alongside good news.

Realistically, there has been paper talk this week of Isak being linked to Arsenal and now Barcelona. Is Isak better than Watkins? I think there is a couple of scenarios in which Ollie Watkins might leave us this summer - 1) we fail to qualify for the Champions League and either Liverpool / Man City / Arsenal or another Champions League club make a crazy offer. In this scenario I don’t think he would go to any other team in England other than the top 3, but there is a chance he would leave. 2) we qualify for the Champions League, in which case I don’t think he would leave for any other English team, but he may leave if a club like Barcelona come in for him. I know it feels implausible and huge jump to think of Ollie playing for huge European team like that, but I really do think his performance this year and the numbers he is posting would make it a possibility that a club he could not refuse come in for him. We have to accept that we have a handful of players now - Martinez, Torres, Konsa, Luiz, Watkins - that we would love to keep, but they are capable of playing at the very very highest level, and we aren’t quite there yet, and it is plausible that one or two could leave. If they do, I don’t think we should worry, we will get good money and we will use it wisely to strengthen the squad. Liverpool and Spurs have done this over the years and it’s made them stronger, certainly in Liverpool’s case. To be clear, I don’t want Watkins to leave, and I don’t think he will because I feel we will make top 4 now, but I don’t think Percy is wrong to suggest we are making plans for “the unlikely event of Ollie Watkins leaving for a huge transfer fee”. It would be irresponsible if we weren’t doing this!

Watching his highlights reel from Sunday, I was hit with the sudden realisation of who he reminds me of. The way we stands, moves, runs, turns and dribbles, and even the way he finished for his 2 goals against Brentford and Bournemouth. He really reminds me of Collymore. Not sure whether he will end up being a centre forward, and he seems be showing the work ethic that Stan lacked maybe, and hopefully he doesn’t have the issues Stan had, but watching him live and then watching the clips, he has the explosiveness that Collymore had. He’s got the raw natural ability, just needs the attitude and hard work and he could be a star. But on that basis, I would say that he and Ramsey aren’t actually that similar, and in fact they could play in the same team if Rogers is in the no10 role.

Did great tonight. Name a better striker at making an impact off the bench? Maybe Alvarez? Callum Wilson? Not sure either of those or anyone else impacts games in the way Jhon does.

I said to my mate earlier that we need to get through tonight and then win against Bournemouth and Chelsea, but I was worried because it would mean winning 5 games in a row, which is a big ask. Turns out we actually lost tonight, so maybe that means we have a better chance of winning the next 2!

Late goal that saved us and a key penalty in the shootout, hopefully that will keep some people off his back until the end of the season! He looked a different player when Leon came on, they have a good understanding and if we are chasing the game - Cash is the only option at right back.

He takes control of these situations! Becoming a legend for Villa. He’s lucky Watkins was ice cold though, I’m sure he didn’t appreciate having to wait that long to take his pen, although that was more the crowd than Emi…

Anyone else worried about how tired we are going to be on Sunday!

Cash has been fine. I don’t think he will take him off, as if we are chasing the game and need a goal later, we will need someone who can attack from right back.

The Lille press has been excellent. Blocking passes to the 4 players in our box midfield, and also limiting Pau’s ability to release Digne down the left. They did exactly the same in the first leg and it worked well. Unai will have to figure something out, or maybe he’s just waiting to introduce Bailey and hoping for a similar impact to Sunday. Rogers has only been on 20 mins, and he has been the best of our midfield. Could go either way this.

Jamie Carragher just did a great bit of analysis on how Unai did it yesterday - it’s not yet on the Sky sports website but it’s worth a watch if/when they stick on there!

He definitely was a leader and a “talker”, and I definitely want him back and playing. But he too has lapses of concentration in him, and other than the run under Unai at the end of last season, he’s been part of the team over the last few years that has also been vulnerable to in game spells of collapse, or moments at the beginning of first halves and second halves where we give away goals. I certainly don’t think we would be any worse with Mings in the team, just not sure it would solve these current issues. It feels more like a structural thing.

The way I see it, Man Utd are 12 behind and have a much worse goal difference. Even if we only won 1 more game, Man Utd would need to win 5 of their remaining 8 games to be level with us, and then either have the goal difference swing in their favour or pick up another point or win from one of the other 3 games. It’s a huge ask for them, and again that’s on the basis we only win one of our remaining games. Christ if they lose to Liverpool tomorrow, they would need to make up 12/13 points from us in 7 games - we would have to go the rest of the season without gaining a point for that to happen I think. Even today, when we did our very best to lose, we still managed a draw. All those saying this Villa team throw away leads, they ignore the number of times we have come back this season to draw or win. In terms of Spurs, both we and they seem to be doing our very best to let the other have 4th. If we were to pick up 3 more wins (not impossible/unlikely), they would need to win 4 of their remaining 8 games, which I think is achievable for them, although I certainly don’t think it’s easy given their fixtures. It will probably go down to the wire between us and Spurs for 4th/5th.

Wow didn’t know this! I guess the issue this season is that the bottom teams aren’t picking up as many points, so there is a few more points for the top half teams…

Love Ollie and he’s having an amazing season. He has though benefitted this year in part from us playing a slightly more expansive and risky style, which has created more opportunities for him, which he has duly taken advantage of and hopefully he can break the 20 goal barrier. He’s a £100m+ player now for sure, he might finish top scorer in the league, and that’s not even talking about him potentially being top for assists as well! Sadly this style we play also leaves us vulnerable sometimes. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the teams in 4th, 5th and 6th all play quite a gung-ho brand of football which leads to exciting games with lots of goals, and the three teams generally come out of top. Just didn’t happen for us today unfortunately.