samjp26

55 minutes ago, Ingram85 said:

A complete load of bollocks. 

It’s not though, is it? 
 

Adama round 1:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-injury-news-grealish-17233998.amp

Adama round 2:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/aston-villas-survival-bid-takes-22282538.amp
 

Both games against Wolves that season he bottled it early on. He’s a decent defender but he’s got the heart of a tin man. 

15 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

It's hard I know, but I'd be tempted to sit out of the England squad while Southgate is manager if I was jack, or blag a injury. When Southgate was questioned today about how Grealish changed the game, he said it was Sterling and Kane who provided him with the space to get on the ball. Also, as already said, blamed his defensive qualities for not giving him more game time, saying he needs to improve??? I don't see Sterling defend much, an he is most of the time, first name on the team sheet with Kane.

It’s really quite odd to see such poor management on show in public. In any field of work, why on earth would you continually try to put down your best performer? 

He can’t give Jack any credit at all can he, he said it was down to Bowen too (and Sterling and Kane as you mentioned).

I just find it bizarre that it’s not being called out more by pundits and such, it’s really poor treatment. 

Didn’t want to fight for his place in the team, didn’t enjoy playing in front of our fans after COVID, always pretended he was injured when he was against somebody who was ruining him for pace. Complete bottle job and his comments about dressing rooms and leaders speaks volumes about him - pretty sure Emi M said he was soft. Not up for a fight in any aspect, I assume he’ll do the same thing and leave when Newcastle want competition for places in 12 months time. All the best.

I know he’s always been known as a goalscorer but his all round footballing ability is really good, great engine on him too

Looks much better with Ings but didn’t have much of a chance last night being thrown around by VVD and never getting a foul

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

one thing i will say - 

look how quick he reacts to his mistake and gets back in to the game, nakamba stops

would be interesting if martinez's (great) save inadvertently stops mings from clearing it

I’ll be devils advocate here: if Emi didn’t save it, it was going straight to Mane who was offside by a mile. Or at least he was, until Mings charged back and actually played him on. If Emi doesn’t save it and Mane scores you can easily argue that it would be Mings’ fault for charging back and allowing him to be back inside.

Naturally we see emotion and passion or a bursting run and we think positively, but in my opinion it’s Mings’ emotions that hold him back from further progression. 

I do think we need more high level experience through the core of our team. It’s all good wanting to get the younger players in but we have a lack of “older” heads. That experience can be vital on and off the pitch, you can see the respect Young holds, you could see the influence Jedinak, Whelan etc. had in the dressing room.

Gerrard’s comment on maybe bringing in somebody he knows to be captain makes me think we’ll get Hendo in, but Kondogbia is definitely more than good enough to get into our XI.

3 minutes ago, ferguson1 said:

If Digne is out for the season as feared, then we could play five at the back with Young as a wing back? Not great but a tuff time to bring in a youngster like Chrisene. 
 

            Chambers    Mings    Hause

  Cash                                                  Young

Stevie isn’t gonna do that 

Talent levels are a class above but he was puffing out of his arse after 55 minutes. If we want to press hard, he’s not the man for that job. Of course he’s a world class talent and very much one of the best talents we’ve got to witness in claret and blue, but if Stevie G wants to stick with this style of play of pressing and running all game, Coutinho isn’t the right man. 

Meanwhile we have £40m Emi Buendia sitting on the bench willing to run his arse off. Coutinho definitely ran the show the first half but he’s another player that doesn’t suit this style that SG wants to play.

We now have no natural LB in the team until next season. FYI Targett wanted to leave the minute we bought a bit of competition for his place, but we shouldn’t have let him go if we needed him. And if we did, we should have pressed to get Hickey in too, now we have nobody. 

Seemingly another culprit of the “I can’t play as well in front of a full stadium” virus - either that or Smith was just good at getting the best out of him.

For me, Konsa + Targett looked so much better with no fans watching them, the minute we were back in packed stadiums both of them fell off. I like Konsa a lot but Chambers easily should be starting over him after that performance which was arguably his worst of the season so far. Absolutely bullied.

Posted his celebration on Instagram with “SOTC”. Oh yes Keinan, come back home.

Good to see the likes of even Callum O’Hare commenting too, one thing is for sure, we do raise our boys well even if they do fly away from the nest.

What a finish, we need him next season (arguably this season). How similar is that chance to the Watkins misses the other day? And I’m not using him as a stick to beat Watkins with but this guy is clearly our best natural finisher before Ings.  

Tristan Goodridge is in talks with Newcastle

16 hours ago, av1 said:

I’ve read some rubbish on this forum over the years, but the “if our manager spends £60m on Philips when there are players like Bentancur around for £20m he needs sacking” probably tops them all. 

These people do realise that whilst the Phillips stuff is paper talk, we actually tried sign Bentancur don’t they? 

I think we would have got Bentancur if it wasn’t for the fact Spurs were willing to take 2 players off Juventus - those deals coincided - and he’s doing well there. If that’s the calibre of player we’re after then I think the summer should be good. 

2 minutes ago, messi11 said:

okay, I will be back on here on the 01/01/23 at 12:01am
Cya there 

The question is will this thread be in “other football”

Just now, nick76 said:

Yep, I think he’s hinted a few times that many of these players don’t have the right mentality, the winning mentality.  He pointed out that JJ has it though which is encouraging 

Yep, this is why I think we need to give him time. I don’t think Gerrard will take any less than 100% effort, he has to work with what he has right now but I think he’ll do a good job of shipping out those who aren’t up for it 

1 minute ago, nick76 said:

last season, not this season.  This thread is constantly talking about his poor first touch so I think you are on your own on this opinion generally.

There are at least 3 times today where he took the ball well, just nothing came of it. I agree his hold up play was much better last season though

2 minutes ago, nick76 said:

are you kidding, his first touch is one of the worst I've seen for a striker in a long time

Not at all, he often takes balls down really well 

Still think we should try to play him as a striker

If we don’t start him, we’ll end up losing Buendia and he’ll go on to do well. He’s so tenacious off the ball which is what I would have assumed SG would have wanted, but bringing in Coutinho has basically ended Buendia’s run. It’s a no brainer to have them both as the “number 10s” in this system.

He has a great touch, but he isn’t a finisher. He had two great chances today that he completely fluffed, even the penalty was only just in off the post. I’d argue that Ings is the better option when we go for one striker up top.

4 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Saying in interviews how highly he rates him while playing him in every game

It's Crystal Clear he doesn't rate him

 

He clearly rates him but he said no talks have began, he’s been very clear about that. I think he rates him but I also think he wants a different type of player in midfield 

Shame that it seems Stevie G doesn’t seem to have a problem with him leaving - hope we get £25-30m otherwise we’ve shot ourselves in the foot not keeping him.

23 years old, Brazilian full international, Olympic Gold medalist, highly rated. I may be wrong but I think he’s younger than Keinan.

We really need to keep him IMO

8 hours ago, Tom13 said:

Probably get slated but if it was a choice to keep one of the two, I'd rather keep Buendia. The age difference plays a big part, but Buendia's ceiling is also very high IMO.

Coutinho will arguably help increase Buendia’s ceiling though, Thankfully it seems we won’t need to choose!