GeordieVillan

I took my wife and 8 year old daughter to the match today, and we sat in Fulham end near the dugouts. They have only been to a couple of games each and don’t really follow the Villa properly (yet), but they really enjoyed today, even though we couldn’t celebrate.

Half way through the second half, they were chatting to eachother and they turned and asked me “who is the guy with the big bum again?”

I said - “that’s my captain”.

I don’t think we will be re-inventing the wheel. Until Konsa returns, Cash will be RB, Digne/Moreno at LB, and Carlos with Torres/Lenglet in the middle.

In midfield, McGinn will play in the pivot with Luiz, and we will just rely on him being responsible in the role.

Ramsey is returning to fitness at the perfect time to keep playing left side, with Bailey right side, and Teilemans will most likely start as the “second striker” with Watkins.

That gives us Diaby as an option off the bench to go more attacking, along with Rogers and Zaniolo.

I don’t think Emery will want to have too many players in unfamiliar positions, and in this scenario I think everyone is fine, and only McGinn is being compromised by having to play from deeper.

Any more injuries and we are in the scenario of starting to have more people out of position or having an imbalance of attacking players over defensive players. I don’t think we are the stage where that is an issue yet.

UTV

I think we can still do it. I watched Spurs - Brighton and they were lucky to win that, likewise Man Utd were lucky to beat us. Between now and the end of the season, we will get lucky and win some games we don’t deserve to as well.

Key for us is that we need to start winning away from home regularly to offset the dip in home form, starting at Fulham on Saturday.

Ramsey is a game changer for us, him and Bailey have to start every game as they give us the pace and dynamism in a way that noone else in our squad does. They were both great yesterday, as it’s very difficult to stop both of them.

If we can get Torres back this weekend as well, I think we will see a return to our early season form and results. 

Tempted to say he should start on Saturday, especially if Bailey isn’t fit to start.

It might feel desperate, but we need something to ignite us.

20 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

ye, but he is rubbish aint he.

I don’t think he’s rubbish. I think he’s going to be a part of this squad for the foreseeable future and will improve under Emery in the next 12-24 months.

Sadly I think he’s becoming a bit of a scapegoat. He was getting dogs abuse around me in the Holte End, I had to tell a couple of guys behind me to get off his back.

Diaby is the only player last night who stood out as really off his game. All the rest of our team were much of a muchness, Cash included, Bailey was the only one who played to his potential, everyone else was off their game.

Singling out Cash as the weak link is incorrect and unfair on the lad. We have been struggling for weeks and Cash hasn’t even been playing every game. It can’t be his fault when he isn’t on the pitch!

We have 2 issues at the minute that has led to our downturn. The first issue is the absence of Pau Torres. The second is the form of Diaby. We can’t do anything about the first until Torres is fit, but we need to take Diaby out of the firing line at least. His confidence is totally shot and he’s a passenger at the moment. His drop in form is actually affecting Ollie Watkins.

Im not giving up on him, but picking him and hoping he plays himself into some form is going to cost us games and points.

Very expensive as corporate, too rich for me, now showing as “retricted” for general tickets. I would guess limited to members etc at the moment, and then any remaining tickets on general sale nearer the time perhaps.

Has anyone ever sat in a restricted view seat in one of the stands with the pillars? Is it as bad as the name suggests?!

I’m trying to get 3 tickets for this as it’s by bday weekend and I fancy going down to London for the match! Does anyone know how easy it is to get tickets in the home end through general sale at Fulham?

Im tempted to go undercover and just sit on my hands for the duration of the match!

Like most/all clubs, we have to sell the buy. I would rather not lose Ramsey, but it might make good business sense and give us more wiggle room to invest in other areas.

Especially if we already have Rogers lined up at a fraction of the cost.

Hopefully we don’t need to sell him though, and he stays for the long term!

Huge game tomorrow. Every game has a “must win” feeling to it at the moment. 
 

If we can win, it puts a bit of pressure on Spurs before they play on Thursday, and just keeps us level with Arsenal.

5 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

What do we reckon, 7th Feb, 8th Feb?

 

Hmm, not ideal before Man Utd on the 11th.

All of a sudden it’s going to be 4 tough games in 12 days!

Big window for us for 2 reasons.

1) a couple of shrewd additions might just help to secure Top 4/5 at least.

2) where we are in the table, we are probably quite attractive to a higher level of player, certainly more attractive than we were 6 or 12 months ago. 

I think we should “twist” and go for 2-3 players, if we can get them, at least as good as what we have in the first team.
not necessarily for  money, but hopefully in the mould of Moreno. So not just back ups, players that can genuinely compete.

Worst case, even if we do collapse second half of the season, we will be in a good place to have another go next year. 

Tbh, without looking at the stats, I think you would struggle to find a better impact sub at any other premier league team.

Any game he has come on, he has caused problems for the opposition, either by directly producing something positive, or by indirectly unsettling opposition players.

Rough around the edges for sure, and frustrating at times, but I think he is ideal as a sub.

The question is could we rely on him for 4-5 games if he had to start if Ollie is injured. I’m not sure about that. It may be that if Ollie got injured, we would see Diaby playing the Ollie role, and Duran would still be on the bench.

There is no point in looking too far ahead, we just have to stay in it week by week, as we have been doing in the last couple of months. If we can keep picking up wins and avoiding defeat where possible, and take advantage when our rivals slip up and when they play eachother, then we should be able to stay top 4/5 at least. 
 

Only concern now is an injury to Martinez, Torres, Luiz, Kamara or Watkins. Missing any of those for a sustained period will hurt us. You could add McGinn and Bailey to that list as well! We need a bit of luck with injuries.

I have come to terms with the fact that we are going to play this high line no matter, and we will concede some chances (and probably goals) in every game we play, even against a lower placed team and/or 10 men as we did yesterday. It’s uncomfortable viewing at times, but it’s better than watching us sit back and be under pressure for the whole game and just trying to play on the counter attack.

As long as we are creating enough at the other end and generally outscoring the opposition, it’s acceptable. Again, like yesterday. We may have got lucky with the pen, but the system allows us to get players forward and create all those chances which we missed.

Those who are calling a for a low block at times or a more pragmatic approach, look at the season we are having and where are in the table. It’s amazing, and the high line is one of the main reasons for it.

Yes we will have bad results, but again - as long as the good results outweigh it, then it’s acceptable.

We have been a club that has played “back-foot” football for years, and it’s nice that we finally have a manager that wants us to try win every game, even if it does go wrong sometimes.

If we can get Torres and Kamara back in, and strengthen and right back, it will give us a much more solid base to the high line for the remainder of the season.

Tough night, but a win against Burnley will be a good reset for us. Huge game that one now.

We are still in the race, but the last week has shown that we probably need to 2-3 good signings in January to fill in the gaps in the squad - a first choice right back, a back up centre mid and back up centre forward. I think that is do-able without breaking the bank, and it might just give the squad a boost and some fresh legs and energy for the second half of the season.

No need to panic yet, whatever Unai is saying, he and the owners will know that this is a big chance to break the top 4/5 and they won’t want to blow it.

We aren’t at the stage where we can be without a Pau (and Mings) and Kamara (and Teilemans) and not notice drop off.

We surrendered the initiative after the second goal, for what reason, it’s hard to know.

I do think the high line played a role again, as it has in our other 3 league defeats this year. It brings a lot of benefits that helps us win more games, but it also means we are susceptible to allowing the opponents to make chances and regain a foothold in the game. I like that we didn’t drop into a low block when we got 2-0 up, but obviously it’s natural to question that when you lose in the way we did.

Burnley is huge now, if we win that then we should probably still be in the top 4 going into 2024, and it will just restore a little bit of confidence and pride, and also just press reset a little bit.

We look like we need 3 players in January if we really want to stay in that top 4 - right back, centre-mid and centre forward. Let’s see how serious we are about this!

Very interesting debate/speculation in this thread which has become more reasoned as the day has gone on…I think there is a few fundamental points that may be at work - 

1) cost vs benefit - the construction costs are so much higher now than when the project was originally floated, and the ROI just may not be anywhere near what was originally envisaged.

2) couple that with the ability to create more hospitality areas to boost existing revenues, and they may be able to bridge the gap without having to do too construction work.

3) the new TV deal may bring in a level of income beyond what was initially expected, so they can delay a stadium extension.

4) maybe there is a genuine feeling that if we make the champions league this season, which I don’t think was in our original plan, then it would be a shame if the stadium isn’t full capacity for the experience, and it may affect the team performance? At least in the first season of the champions league anyway. And also affect how the stadium is viewed on the big stage in big matches?

5)  even though the North Stand is outdated, maybe part of the “fortress” is retaining its current feel, and avoiding the “gentrification” of it?

6) transport issues as per other posts.

Fundamentally, the club and the owners have my faith right now, possibly more than any other owner ever before. I trust that if the stadium development has been shelved now, then it must be for the right reasons. I can’t fathom that they would get things so right on the pitch with Unai and this squad, and implement the background structure for the team so well, and then make a major miscalculation like this off the pitch like this. It just wouldn’t make sense. I’m very relaxed about this.

He wasn’t great at right wing, but tbh when Diaby was going there he was doing exactly the same the thing. I wonder if they had instructions to just keep recycling the ball on that side as it would have been difficult to find a route past Brentford 3 centrebacks with a cross. Obviously that changed when Mee was sent off.

1 minute ago, villaglint said:

Is it 3 games? 

Yeah the next 3 - he would have played all 3, so he will definitely be a miss, but he at least should be fresh for the FA Cup and Everton away…

I’m confident he will make sure they learn from this. Even the most experienced teams and players have their moments. 
Brentford away is one of those games we have never coped well with, and I think in previous years we might have crumbled under the physical pressure and gamesmanship they were trying. But we are made of sterner stuff now, and I think we gave as good as we got.

That won’t get overturned, VAR already looked at it at the time.

It’s probably not an awful set of games for him to miss, but you just don’t know what impact it might have. Hopefully we have Teilemans back.

He will get an extra rest at least.