DRAGONZ_RULE

Unbelievable how much negative hyperbole there is from a certain few about this guy, despite others posting factual evidence showing he is in fact one of the best performers in the team I'm sure I even saw someone say a few pages ago that he's too slow to start for any top half team in the league. Arsenal currently destroying the league with Odegaard at 10, he might be the slowest player in the league! City have Bernardo Silva, Grealish and Foden, none of whom would be much quicker than Buendia, if at all. Buendia's success or otherwise in this league will not come down to his pace, fmd. Put him in Arsenal's team instead of Odegaard and I don't know how much worse he would perform than their captain - I'm sure not quite as well given the latter is a Real Madrid starlet, but nevertheless I'm also confident he would be doing just fine. Lastly, Villa fans seriously have to calm down with this obsession about being a European team. You are still a long way off that level, and Buendia certainly won't be the first player to be replaced on your way to getting there. Your entire backline, your whole central midfield excluding Kamara, and your striker are all positions that would need upgrading before Buendia.

Without his pass the first goal doesn't happen. Without his header the second goal doesn't happen. But yeah "6/10" and "not convinced" and "wasteful with the ball" apparently sum up his match, when in reality without him Villa lose that game... No pleasing some

Yeah, it is funny how you see it when you have a negative opinion of the player so you are already biased towards the negative from the outset. Every time he lost the ball would have stuck in your mind as justification for your opinion, all the great work would have been glossed over. I have been saying on this thread for 18 months now that he is going to be Villas best player, and he will be (if he is not already anyway). So many people who will be eating so much humble pie provided he has a manager who trusts him and builds the lineup around his best attributes.

Now we cook.

Some people digging out the guy who was clearly the best of the front 6 tonight... Weird. Anyway Gerrard will probably give him next week against a top 4 team, Villa will get battered, and he'll say "I gave him 2 starts and he hasn't produced moments of magic, whereas Phil has had a really good week in training." ... We all know the story.

Chucked in against Arsenal wide left with McGinn and Ramsey completely overrun in midfield - Keeps his spot against Man City on the weekend - Dropped for the easier games after that -

I'm not sure they would describe as luck signing a bloke for 140m that they sold a couple of years later for 20m, in the meantime causing them to go bankrupt!

Yep, you can almost tell he will chuck Buendia in against Arsenal and Man City, Villa will get battered, and he'll use that as a reason in his head for why Buendia doesn't deserve to start against teams Villa are actually a chance of beating. Coutinho will come back in for the good run of fixtures after that (Leicester, Southampton, Leeds, Forest). Buendia producing more off the bench in less minutes will lead to another clamour for him to start, so he'll get chucked in for the Chelsea match. Villa will get pumped, so Coutinho will be straight back in for Fulham and Brentford. You can just see it.

Except Coutinho is expected to be fit per the latest medical update, what a relief for SlippyG!!

I'll put it more bluntly. Aston Villa have a 30 man first team squad. Buendia deserves to start ahead of all 29 other players in that squad.

The fault that keeps him out of the starting lineup is that he didn't share a change room and the pitch with his manager for 5 years. Guys above saying he hasn't shown the ability to dominate at Premier League level... And yet both seasons he's played in the Premier League he has been right at the top of the league for chances created per 90 minutes. Even last season I think he was 3rd or thereabouts in the entire league for non-set piece chances created per 90. His underlying stats last season both offensively and defensively were better than Coutinho.

Coutinho got 3 goals and 3 assists in 3 games against Leeds (x2) and Southampton ... the teams that ran 19th and 17th for goals conceded last season. The other 16 games he played, he got 2 goals and 0 assists, 1 of which was in his very first game back when he came off the bench (which was actually created by Buendia with the excellent defence-splitting through ball for Ramsey to simply play across the box to PC). In terms of underlying playmaking stats last season (stats per Opta, the company which Premier League officially use for stats): Buendia 2.31 key passes per 90 Coutinho 1.70 key passes per 90 Buendia 0.38 big chances created per 90 Coutinho 0.34 big chances created per 90 And in terms of defensive stats last season: Buendia 3.32 tackles + interceptions per 90 Coutinho 1.89 tackles + interceptions per 90 Buendia 0.14 blocked shots per 90 Coutinho 0.07 blocked shots per 90 So Buendia outperformed Coutinho on per 90 stats in playmaking and defending. The only area he was behind Coutinho was goal-scoring specifically, and if you go back and look at Coutinho's goals last season 2 of his 5 goals came from massive deflections off defenders anyway (Leeds + Southampton). If it's purely a question of playing one of the two, Buendia's underlying stats were clearly superior to Coutinho's last season ... and he has easily outperformed him in pre-season so far as well. Ultimately, Gerrard should be finding a way to play both of them, as they are Villa's two best players.

Another poor performance tonight, I can see why he doesn't get picked to start ahead of a magician like Coutinho and a pair of rapid and devastatingly clinical strikers in Ings and Watkins. Oh wait.

Benched again. #sackgerrard

Any lineup without Buendia in it is not the best possible lineup for Villa. It really is that simple.

Buendia has been head and shoulders above anyone else on the pitch. KKH probably next in line.

Created two good chances already.

Bump

He starts ahead of every other player in the squad for me haha, why he isn't the first name on the team sheet baffles me.

So 2 games in, Buendia benched both times. Guess Gerrard really doesn't see him as part of his best XI.

Buendia on the field for 30 seconds and already plays the best pass of the day. If Gerrard doesn't see this guy as part of his best 11 he is more clueless than I thought.

Simple solution. 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 with Buendia and Coutinho as the wide players. Coutinho wide left as he did so often for Liverpool, Buendia wide right as he did so often for Norwich. It really isn't rocket science. Alternatively, sack Coutinho off because he's a luxury player and build around the guy who was the club record signing and was player of the month before Coutinho rocked up and caused him to be benched

Looking forward to digging through the thread for some of the best quotes through the opening months. And like I've consistently been saying, just wait until next Christmas until you truly see how special this guy is, with another off season under his belt.

I take offence to that haha! Nothing wrong with supporting Leeds! Buendia is slowly starting to settle. It will continue to take time. He can do things that no other player in the Villa squad can do. Ings is a much better fit for Buendia than Watkins. Watkins is a pretty "dumb" footballer, he never makes the right runs or plays the right pass, he's a bull in a china shop type of CF (who will score his goals, no doubt). In contrast, Ings has the intelligence to see the runs he should be making when Emi gets the ball, they link up far better as a pair.