VillanousOne

4 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

The comparison to MON is nonsense.

What MON did was to sacrifice an entire competition to favour the league.

 

Emery hasn't done that at all. He's sacrificed one game, that we probably would have lost anyway, to ensure that we win the next game in the same competition as well as our European tie.

I didn't bring up the MON thing i just responded to it, I pointed out if anything he did the opposite, but neither opinion is credible.

I hope we do win the next game and against Lille and Unai was right.
 

18 minutes ago, omariqy said:

The only one that would have made a difference yesterday was Bailey imo. Pau great on the ball but against City I think we wouldn’t have seen him at his best. Defensively, Lenglet and Pau are similar quality. 

we could have put a beard and glasses on McGinn and sent him out as our new youth prospect McBeard and won easily

1 minute ago, beasley14 said:

3 points dropped away to City, really?!  Even the draw was a tough ask with their record at home.  

I think Unai is taking both as series, he rested players in the away leg v Ajax

A City without a first choice defence who looked vulnerable, a draw would have been be a tough result also, but it was 'possible'.

4 minutes ago, pete101 said:

That performance against city at villa park was best I've seen us play in my lifetime and the effort put into that was ridiculous. Our form after that gamed dipped dramatically (including the arsenal game , which we won but were poor). You have to pick your battles to win a war. And obviously Unai has decided not to take that toll on his team a second time in a season. 

That's fine, i get the sentiment, I appreciate what he was doing. But i don't have to agree with it and i'm entitled to that opinion.

It will be forgotten when we beat Brentford and Lille hopefully

5 minutes ago, Made In Aston said:

Yes three points dropped against the same man city which has only lost one at home in 67 games

That's the spirit. They looked vulnerable every time we ran at them - i doubt we would have beaten them but we could have got a point considering that was nowhere near their first choice defence 

 

4 hours ago, Pinebro said:

Ok.

We can always follow MON's strategy and play our strongest eleven every game and burn out

I'll take short term pain for long term gain thank you.

MON's strategy was to rest players in Europe and go after the Champion's League place, so a reverse Unai in this case. What is more important now? The league or the Euro Conf League competition? No idea. Those 3 points dropped could haunt us if we don't qualify.

and you're welcome.
 

I would rather Unai rested Doug who has played too many games, looks burnt out and walking a disciplinary tight rope.

It's horrible to lose to those plastic cheats, particularly since we beat them before and their defence are rubbish this season, a draw was possible in my opinion. But I trust Unai, but until we know this strategy pays off i'm not going to pretend it's fine as we won't know till later.

1 hour ago, Wainy316 said:

Right decision I think and I'd rather go for it against Brentford and Lille than Arsenal.

I guess it does raise the pressure to win a bit in the games we save the players for though.

yeah if we lose to Brentford or Lille people will be waving their pants in the air.

I guess it depends on who is coming back from injury and when. I would have thought resting Doug might have made more sense, seeing as he has played more games than anyone and is nearing a suspension for cards earned.
 

I trust in the Sultan of Unai, but getting turned over by those plastic financial cheats never feels good, especially when we beat them already and they look so shaky at the back.

1 hour ago, Pinebro said:

Ok.

We can always follow MON's strategy and play our strongest eleven every game and burn out

I'll take short term pain for long term gain thank you.

Isn't it a reverse MON, as MON played a weakened team in Europe in order to push for Champion's League.

MON also had players available just tended not to bother playing them.

and you're very welcome

as many have said we'll see if that result comes back to harm us, only the power of hindsight will tell us.

my opinion is we didn't need to throw the game away before kick off, but there you go, each to their own.
 

3 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

Was very sensible to do what he did last night.

People won't like to hear it but we were very likely to lose regardless if Bailey and Pau started.

It was a free hit and an ideal game to rest some players.

Have to prioritize Brentford.

It's a narrative that makes us feel better, not sure it's really one that works. 

3 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

I probably have to add the caveat again that I really like Tim, I think he's a very promising player with a big future. 

Before people start jumping down my throat about writing a player off who's one of our own etc etc

Big fan also, but he was largely passive and the game passed him by, but considering the opposition and set up it's unfair to judge him on that

why is Rogers still on the pitch? 

why didn't we start Torres, Bailey and Tielemans???

Our C Team against the 1 trillion pound financial doping squad, just baffling

some good attacking moments, but that line up was near suicidal - I would take Rogers off at HT

betting on the madness and unpredictability of Duran and Zaniolo (or Rogers) is fun, as it means we are definitely less predictable.

but it could also just mean both are ineffective and get swapped out pretty quickly. Be interested to see if we would bring Kellyman on in this match as we don't have any senior attacking players left. 

 

16 minutes ago, GlobalVillan said:

Sorry I should have been clear. I think we will get a better replacement for less than what we sell for, which will help with FFP.

Fair play. I hope we don't have to sell JJ to do that. But if we don't get Champ's league football it does look like we will have to sell one of our big names, that's if we have any that aren't injured come the end of the season.

2 hours ago, GlobalVillan said:

I didn't say I wanted to sell him "because he got injured". Why are you making shit up?

I would sell him as I believe we have to move one or two players on in the summer to satisfy FFP and I think Monchi and the recruitment team could do a lot with that £40mil.

Tielemans and Kamara both cost nothing so I imagine we could get a really solid player for thay sort of money.

Don't get me wrong, I like Ramsey, but I don't think he is anything like one of the best players we've had in years and I trust the right people to get a better replacement with the money. 

 

The thrust of your argument seemed to be because of his injury - which seemed to trigger you.

You contradict yourself, if we need to sell Ramsey for FFP what would Monchi be doing with the money? It would be going into our profit margin not spent on a 'better replacement'.

Tielemans and Kamara are costing a huge whack in wages and it isn't every season we can pick up players like that, if we spanked the 40 million you say that we would get for JJ (that is needed for FFP) then we would also have to pay similar wages, but to get someone the same quality as Ramsey - even if it's 'potential' it would cost us a lot more than 40 mil.

When he was on form last season and even at points earlier this season he played, he was being mooted for England and linked to some of big teams.

If he has potential - then we should wait till he realises some more of that potential before we flog him off - at the very least.
 

Again my main point is we haven't yet produced that many academy products (in the last 10 years), so one of the few that is looking good, I personally don't think we should sell, but that is my opinion.

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

Hes nowhere near one of the best players we’ve had in years. Nowhere near at all. 
 

He might BECOME one of the best players we’ve had in years, but it’s mostly potential right now

As one of our own he is, which was the context I was using

9 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

Another option is to bring in Lenglet, Digne and Zaniolo and play a back 5 but it is a bit defensive. Didn't work against Tottenham but might against City away. 

I feel like 90% of the time a back 5 is never the answer, but I am wrong at least 35% of the time.

On 26/03/2024 at 18:41, Follyfoot said:

Why is your girlfriend called Lolz

She's Swedish

It's hard not to have a claret and blue googles on, but the amount of games I see Luiz pulled up for a foul for what seems like very little, yet I see him man handled, grabbed, pushed down and get nothing over and over and over.

he obviously wasn't a bad player but still lolz

and yes the Toney gambling thing now forgotten and forgiven, all good move along.

Back on Ollie, it's pointless taking him if you are not going to play to his strengths which Gaweth won't so rather he just stays back and avoids injury. I really hate supporting England under this twonk.

Watkins is dangerous in wide areas with the ball in front of him, he can hold the ball up, but for England he mainly just sort of waits in central areas for the ball to come to him - too passive.

Gaweth would have jizzed his pants when Betfair scored the penalty

1 minute ago, chappy said:

this was a substitution made for VT

are you fishing for puns?

1 minute ago, beachboys1 said:

i must admit it shouldnt its been dire this half

we are not even slightly competitive against anyone above us it's painful to watch