Keener window-cleaner

And having said that, i still don't think we should have signed him in the first place as I don't think he is a good enough no 2 or 3 for where we want to be, and will have problems coping with the physicality of the PL on crosses etc.

He is a great shot stopper, made several really good saves. At the same time he is a liability with his feet, we are many who have been saying this for a long time, what is surprising is that we persisted with passing back to him. With Olsen in goal we cannot play out from the back as with Martinez. Comparing Olsen with Nyland or Bunn is not serious, as said he is a really good shot stopper, but should have the ball at his feet as little as possible.

Who did the fans just sing about when singing "he is one of our own"?

I'll continue to contest this. That was villalads interpretation of what "the Lyon fans" thought about him, referring to one or two. At the time I scoured through quite many Lyon forums and the picture was certainly more nuanced and many loved him. From reading this thread it would be quite difficult to give an unambiguous oneliner of "what the Villa fans" think about Traore. On top of that he is a bit of an enigma that divides opinion.

His role has been unclear to me, at times both under Smith and Gerrard he was one of the more active on the side line during the games, barking out orders and giving instructions, clearly not just to the goal keeper. I think it's good with stability and to have some supporting staff that stay no matter of who is the manager, but the ones closest to the manager needs to go when a change is made and the new manager must be able to decide who should be in his team of coaches.

Why on earth should we go for Marina Granovskaia? Chelsea have built their success on laundring dirty money and breaching rules. Their footballing decisions have on many occations been appaling, for example letting players like Salah and De Bruyne go for little money, letting Lukaku go, then buy him back a couple of years later for £100M, and then loaning him out the season after. Changing managers every year and wanting to join the Super League. She obviously has ties to Abramovich and the Londongrad community. I want our Villa to stay as far away as possible from Russian oligarchs, or Middle Eastern oil-states for that sake. It would not be a superb replacement for Purslow, it would be a catastrophe.

The more I look him up the more a warm to him, much rather have him than Tuchel, and my feeling right now is rather than Poch as well! Go Unai!

Of the names being thrown around he was my first choice. I hope Danks stays on and becomes his assistant. Emery seems like a very good coach, and should be regarded as a bit of a coup for us. Only hesitation is that my strongest memory of him at Arsenal was that he didn't speak English very well, he sounded like Manuel in Fawlty Towers perhaps it's better now!

Hope he becomes the no 2 and explains to Emery how the team is best set up!

I thought he was key to how we played today, a specialist defensive midfielder who stood his ground and mopped up the midfield together with Luiz, defended the back four and played it simple. Calm and assured. Perfect to have him and Luiz as the two holding midfielders, big Donc taking some more defensive responsibility and winning everything in the air and Luiz being a bit more the playmaker. He is exactly what we needed, an upgrade on Nakamba, someone who is a decent passer and who is strong and good in the air.

Thanks Danks for giving me my Villa back, even if it only was for one game. It was not only the performence, but as much the atmosphere and the positivity. There are few things I enjoy as much as a competent administrator going about his business quietly and efficiently.

That's the spirit!

Praise and a big thanks to our great fans at the ground chanting get out of our club!

I think they do, but it often looks this way when a manager doesn't manage to get his ideas across, or don't have any ideas, or the players just realise that the instructions given them arent working, but try to carry it out anyway.

I loved hearing the chants of "sacked in the morning" and "get out of our club, get out of our club, Steeeven Geeerrard, get our of our club". The highlights of the game!

I think I'm going to buy myself a cake, put the home kit on, then just breathe, eat slowly and enjoy the moment.

he a very good player, but in a team that sets up in a way that he gets absolutely no quality passes or chances created for him there is not much he can do.

sounded like that also a couple of sacked in the morning, but don't know what set of fans who sang that

Great game plan.

I know how it feels... I think it’s only McLeish that I have disliked more. Or actually I didn’t dislike the person McLeish as much as I dislike Gerrard.

Could it be that they are buying out Purslow’s shares in some way?

I dont doubt that he is a top class manager, but the video says masterclass and when watching it, it’s nothing at all.

What was impressive with this? He spends a good 13 mins saying both teams played 4-2-3-1 and describing the game. Then they went slightly more direct in second half. At the end Liverpool threw in two tall strikers in Benteke and Origi, so they played more 4-4-2 and more defensively in the last minutes. It gave me as much as when Thierry Henry stood in a suit in the Sky Sports studio explaining vividly the super intelligent tactics of playing a through ball behind the defence and having a striker run for it.

Yes, and an interesting thing is that when Barca bought him, and how they justified his big price tag, was that he would be the long term replacement for Iniesta, who played centrally and further down the pitch. That's where I'd like to see us try to play him, or as a no 10.

I think he has been hung out to dry playing him as a wide forward, he never was fast, and certainly isn't now, his work rate is low and he looks tired everytime he makes a longer run, he is getting very exposed as a wide forward. He still has a lot of football in him and has still both top class technique and passing ability. It would be perfect for him to play as a 10 in a 4-2-3-1 (would also be perfect for most of our other players bar McGinn). I wonder if we even could do like Man U and Ten Hag has done with Eriksen, play him as one of the two holding midfielders to improve the passing and possession. Against the mid table and lower table teams we could play with Coutinho and Luiz there and boss the game with their passing, against the top 6 we could have big Donk and and Nakamba there to destroy the game, even replacing the no 10 with a midfielder like Luiz to swamp the midfield fully.