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 

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.

On 31/08/2022 at 07:25, DRAGONZ_RULE said:

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.

 

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 - 

10 hours ago, Tom13 said:

We have. Bet Barca couldn't believe their luck.

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!

8 hours ago, jackbauer24 said:

Put Coutinho on against the poorer sides and he plays at best average every week til the clamour for Buendia gets too hard to ignore based on his cameos.

Wait for a game against a big side, set up poorly and play Buendia instead. He can't get involved. Drop him instantly for the next run of games against the poorer teams.

The Gerrard blueprint.

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.

7 hours ago, VillaParkAvenue said:

Well with Coutinho injured at least Buendia will play now, as long as it lasts.

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

1 hour ago, Anything11 said:

I can't help but think that Emis all action movement works against him. He will often run all over the place looking for the ball (I remember we had him on the right one of his early games and ended up on the left standing next to the LM at one point). In addition, he does give the ball away at times trying things. These are the only two points I can find the fault him on that may be keeping him out of the starting lineup.

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.

On 24/07/2022 at 00:39, WHY said:

Emi is definitely talented but let’s look at the facts, he’s our record signing, some fans seem to forget this. At the moment I don’t believe he has justified his fee. When he plays fans say he isn’t playing in his best position, what is his best position, I genuinely have no idea. Does alright wherever he plays but hasn’t mastered one of them. He got 4 goals and 6 assists last season, again not great. Coutinho got 5 goals and 3 assists in a lot less game. Fans demanding he starts and saying he’s our best player need a reality check. I think he will prove his worth to the team but atm he’s in a fight with another 6/7 for a starting spot and rightly so. 

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

56 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Yep. Agreed. I’m more interested in the formation.

Personally, I think it will be a 4-3-2-1 with Bailey and Coutinho behind Watkins. McGinn, Ramsey and Kamara as the 3. Bailey and Coutinho might play slightly wider, not sure. That would be my guess anyway.

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.

2 minutes ago, It's Your Round said:

Is Buendia already making anything happen? What’s the score? 
 

I had work to do 

Created two good chances already.

39 minutes ago, DRAGONZ_RULE said:

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.

Bump

9 minutes ago, Reivax_Villa said:

Buendia starts ahead of Bailey for me

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.

8 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

I don’t think he knows how to play them both and in what system. Therein lies the problem. 

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

On 01/11/2021 at 15:47, DRAGONZ_RULE said:

Bowen is also in his 3rd season at West Ham now, and last season he lost his spot in their team at different parts. He now has more than 60 Premier League games for the Hammers and is looking class in a team that is absolutely flying with a solid defence, one of the best central midfield pairings in the league, and a quick, fluid attack full of confidence.

Name a forward at any club in the league who was newly signed in the summer and has hit the ground running... I can think of Andros Townsend and Demarai Gray for Everton, both of whom are long-term PL players who know the league. Ronaldo in the same bucket, and he's also a top 5 player in the entire history of football so... the only completely new to the Prem signings who have done OK are Hwang at Wolves and Edouard at Palace.

Here's a list of forwards, many of whom are much bigger names and cost a hell of a lot more than Buendia, who have signed and not performed:

• Romelu Lukaku, 100m, started with a bang but completely cooled off and now injured
• Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, 120m between them, playing for the European champions and still struggling in their 2nd season. Hakim Ziyech the same, 40m and he doesn't even play.
• Jack Grealish, 100m, getting slated by their fans
• Jadon Sancho, 75m, doesn't even play after coming from Germany as an elite player
• Nikola Vlasic, 30m, doesn't even play after coming from winning the Russian league's player of the season award
• Bryan Gil, 25m, doesn't even play
• Patson Daka, 40m, only plays off the bench or in Europa League
• Adam Armstrong, 15m, struggling big time and been dropped multiple times already
• Literally every signing at Norwich, who broke their club transfer fee record multiple times in the summer

So many fans think that just because you sign a player for big money from a club or a league where they were dominating, they will come into a new environment and immediately deliver those performances. It's not FIFA on your PlayStation, bloody hell. FIFA on your PlayStation even includes the concept of "Team Chemistry", showing that even they understand that new signings from other clubs, leagues, nationalities, languages etc don't immediately gel together and it takes time to build understanding and, well, chemistry. 

How about some of you look in the mirror and think about what happens when you move to a new company for work... they offer you increased pay so you make the move, it's the same industry and a similar role ... but does that company expect you to be delivering at 100% of your output from Day 1? Or do they realise that you need to be trained on how the company works, you need to meet people and learn how they do things here etc etc, and you get given time to get up to speed?

The funniest part to watch will be once Villa sort their shit out, get some consistency in lineups, the new signings start to gel with the team and so on, and Buendia shows his quality and proves to be a critical player, 3/4s of the blokes abusing him now will pretend they never did ... "Oh it's like I always say, you have to give a new signing a season and a proper off-season to bed in," they will say, before nevertheless ripping into next summer's big money signing after a slow start 2 months into their Villa career.

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.

15 hours ago, calcifer said:

This is the issue with this forum, there is so much negativity towards our players, they have a good game and oh they are still crap. There are about 30% of people on here that just troll, go support se some shite team like Leeds or SHA... 

I know it is a forum and everyone is entitled to an opinion but FFS when give the bloke a break. He played well, give some credit where it is due... 

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.