sparrow1988

Just now, Zatman said:

Interesting one of the podcasts last week said on paper this is the most talented squad in Villa history which I agree with

 

I really hope they said recent history.

1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Probably @sir_gary_cahill predicting an " outstanding" season.

Hey, stop picking on the easy targets

6 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

Thought it might have been. I'm too lazy to go back through the thread that much. 

Absolutely, must start, he looked excellent against Rennes (and Utd). 

I don't think "all" the people who suggested that he was slow have retracted their statements to be fair. I expect apology statements from those people in the style of Tiger Woods when he got caught cheating that time.

10 minutes ago, YouUnastanFren said:

Piastri is Alpine's reserve driver, the reigning F2 champion and one of the few to win F3 and F2 back to back at the first attempt for each.

The others to do it IIRC are Hamilton, Leclerc and Russell so illustrious company. Its already a big shame he hasn't got a seat this year, if he doesn't get that seat someone will steal him.

Alpine being French, might go big for an all French lineup of Gasly and Ocon and still loan out Piastri.

On 31/07/2022 at 11:36, Tomaszk said:

He was pretty embarrassing when he came on yesterday. Played like a 40 year old with shot knees. Couldn't move at all.

I reckon he's fit, this is just the level he is.

I think I'd still start him at Bournemouth incredibly.

Or maybe like a 30 year old with shot knees? That might not be an all too inaccurate description.

On 31/07/2022 at 13:43, Tom13 said:

Sanson bulked up...wouldn't that be Ant Middleton?

Sanson is hardly as much of a -end as that lad.

7 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

Come on man, he scuffed that shot and somehow it went in. Pure fluke. The goal against United wasn’t though, that was superb. 

If you think that he has scuffed that shot then you are either thinking of another goal or your dislike of Traore is just completely and totallly irrational. He clearly wanted to put it in that part of the goal. He got a bit lucky that it went in off the bar but he definitely didn't scuff it.

I've timestamped it for you so that you don't have to suffer through the rest of the video.

8 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

What’s the latest on Sangare mate?

7 hours ago, roonst83 said:

Excited to see Boo Boo in the Prem. Am confident in what I’ve seen already that he’ll grow and develop as the season progresses. 

5 hours ago, Jas10 said:

Just now, a m ole said:

Which centre forward outside the top 6 would you swap him for and show the statistical comparison.

Antonio (32) and Vardy (35) had good seasons.

Maupay

2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Salah does miss big chances but that’s because pretty much every striker in the world does!  I mean look at Haalands miss the other day.

Sums it up really

52 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Is it really? A lot of Liverpool fans wanted to keep Mane over Salah for that reason

Salah XG is worse than Watkins and he is taking nearly 3 shots more a game including penalties

If we watched Salah or Tammy every game we would be complaining like we are with Watkins 

No it's not. Salah's xG is 0.71 per 90 (99th percentile or top 1% of all positional peers in the "big 5" leagues). Ollie's is 0.37 per 90 (48th percentile - so in the bottom half of all positional peers in the "big 5" leagues). Their goals - xG are not that different (Salah: + 0.03 per 90, Ollie: -0.04 per 90). That amounts to about 3 goals over a season so not much. However Salah is still in the top 40% in this metric, whereas Ollie is in the bottom 40%. Roughly the same when penalties are taken out.

I have a feeling your negativity towards Liverpool is clouding your judgement here.

EDIT: Stats from FbRef

2 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

No.. it really is. It's the only thing they bake on site. Obviously some of the bread has herbs and spices and stuff on so it's the smell of that all baking. But that's it.

I mean what else could it be? They don't cook anything else

Ireland's food safety authority deemed Subway couldn't call it "bread" due to the sugar content of the stuff. Not sure what the outcome was, if they've since called it something else or changed the recipe.

On 25/07/2022 at 21:31, sne said:

Something, something Pope, silly hat.

I knew I'd seen that guy in the middle at the back somewhere before

Just now, Follyfoot said:

Top Gear will be correct crap mind 

No change there then

31 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

Looks like a great opportunity to enjoy some quality Dad and Daughter time, where you show her the basic skills, like trapping the ball, and which part of the foot to shoot and pass with.

I hope Dad's keepy-uppy is up to scratch.

 

Going on the fact that @pas5898's daughter was conceived, it looks like his keepy-uppy was more than up to scratch.

27 minutes ago, Risso said:

Ollie Watkins can't and won't 'easily' or even with difficulty, score 20 goals a season. Uh uh, ain't happening.

Not a hope. However, the majority of strikers/players that play in the Salah/Son position will not score 20 goals. There will be about three or four players that will score 20 goals next season, at a push 5. There have been two seasons in the last 20 years (didn't bother going back any further) where 5 players have scored more than 20 goals in the league. The 20 goal a season striker is a myth, especially among mid to lower placed sides in the league. With our chance creation and overall scoring rate, anything above a 15 goal season would be fantastic for either of our strikers. And even that would be assuming that player plays almost all the minutes available, which I don't see happening. Unless of course, one of them goes on an amazing hot streak. 

17 minutes ago, YouUnastanFren said:

Good that Piastri finally gets a seat but I think Williams might ditch Latifi for someone who is good (probably Sergeant) and make the most of the fact that they are actually in touching distance of the midfield in some races.

Yeah, I think that Latifi is gone too if I'm honest. And let's face it he's just not good enough.

1 hour ago, DCJonah said:

Alonso to Aston Martin. Where did that come from?

F1 in August always throws out a surprise or two with regards to the driver's market. He was touted as a replacement for Vettel when his retirement was announced. His contract is up at the end of this season with Alpine and they hadn't agreed a new one yet. Not a massive surprise that he has gone. It is a bit surprising that he has gone to a team who seem to be struggling as opposed to Alpine who are doing quite well this year.

Good news out of this though. Piastri likely gets a chance in a competitive car to show his stuff.

Potentially fantastic news. Latifi stays with Williams to ensure the possibility of a random safety car at all times during all races.

8 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

3 more goals?? There is no chance on earth that is accurate if tahts the acse any villa fan who watched us can see watkins missed more than 3 "goal opportunities" last season!

 

Yes, but as I said, he also scored goals that he shouldn't have (e.g. Brighton at home). A goal like that would level out the stats against the chances he's missed. As I said in my edited answer to your post. He missed 10 big chances. Those 10 big chances wouldn't have had an xG of 1.0, more likely between 0.3 - 0.7 if you look at the picture below. So take an average of 0.5 xG per chance and those 10 big chances add up to 5 xG, now we're a lot closer to the 3 goals that the stat suggests. 

Again that Brighton goal had an xG of 0.1 or so. That improves his goal to xG balance.

2 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Yeah and i bet that stat doesnt include how many misses he makes which is absolute ridiculous amount

It literally does state how many more goals he should have had. It provides his xG tally. He should have had 3 more goals.

EDIT: If you count big chances missed then he's joint 11th in the league (10th for strikers only) with 10 chances. For context, Kane missed 18 and Salah missed 17. Conversely he shouldn't have scored that goal at home to Brighton where he ran the length of the pitch and stuck it in the top corner.

I'm not saying he is perfect. He could definitely be better. However, calling him "useless" (not you) when he clearly has his uses, and using the 'he misses a ridiculous amount of chances' when most strikers miss a bagful of chances makes no sense. I think the problem is that we create so few chances, that when one is missed it's even more frustrating because you know the next one will be a while (sometimes not even in the same game) coming.

2 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

That's where I'm at, if he stays fit and plays he will get 15 goals 

You'll have some say that's still not good enough he needs 20+ goals... We haven't had a 20 league goal striker in 40 years

He's had 2 season here and been top scorer each year, if he plays he will be top scorer again, if he gets to 15 goals then he would have been top scorer in all but 3 of our PL seasons - we have a depressing history of top goalscorers - Ollie is not doing bad in comparison to a lot of them, Carew for example had seasons or half seasons of 3,13,11,10 and 0, Ollie needs needs 12 goals this season to score more in 3 years than Carew did in 4 but Carew had a better chant from the holte so he's well thought of whereas Ollie is somehow shit 

These 20 goals a season strikers outside of the top 5/6 clubs are a myth in any case . Defoe for example held up as some sort of lethal finisher, and never scored 20 goals a season. In fact, in Ings, we have one of the few strikers outside of the top 6 that has scored more than 20 goals a season in the last 10 years.

If we're going with 2 10's again, I'd like to see Ramsey tried as one of them for a few games. Coutinho/Buendia as the creative force. Ramsey as the athletic, pressing, bursting, beyond the defence type. I have a feeling that he would run riot when running on to through balls from either of those two.

6 hours ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Probably just some standard missiles with go faster stripes painted on them and a spoiler at the back.

I here they've also got underbody neon lights. If that's true then Ukraine are in big trouble.