Mjvilla

Exactly the reason I can't like it. We all know Doctor Brown Bear would be the man for the job. He attends the most basic of ailments, such as a cough or the like. I'd you're going to do a picture like this, get it right.

We put 7 past them WITH Van Dijk. It's football, it happens. I'm not saying we will do it again or even come close, just that these sort of comments are ridiculous. Any team that loses all 3 of its main defenders would struggle, with no exception. My opinion, you are just setting us up for the fall so you can take digs if we lose on Saturday. I fully expect us to lose, they are still Liverpool. Still world class internationals all over the pitch. Anything from this game is a bonus.

I cant find anything online to confirm this, just a couple of dodgy sites reporting it as rumours. So, apart from Inter Milan (I can only find confirmation of him turning it down once over 10 years ago), and rumours (unconfirmed) 6 months later where moratti, who was inters president during both these times, said he was one name amongst many others considered. Barcelona, he had backers I've no doubt. But he wasn't selected and never considered where it matters. Why? I think you'd be absolutely daft not to think that his managerial career has been held back because of the way he is. It's not a myth when you consider what he's achieved. He has won hardly anything really. There's a reason for that. He's never managed right at the top. There's a reason for that. Is he good enough? You'd probably think he is when you read everything about him. Does he have the right attitude and personality, then no. I think that's quite clear and is what held him back. To not consider this is blind faith, in my opinion.

Really? It's a team full of internationals or players close to international football. A team that's been together for years in the main (Sheffield United showed how important that can be) knows their job and has been having coaching from a well renowned coach for a few years now. Bielsa has clearly done a good job, clearly developed a number of those players. To say he hasn't would just be bitter. But to say it's a 'bang average squad' is a bit false in my opinion. It's a decent squad.

Insert Kenneth GIF.

I don't think Keinan has ever or will ever play in goal.

Of course, the player has to want it and earn it when it comes to making it I'm this game. My point was more that he came from biggleswade town (I think) so perhaps has lot to learn in comparison to most other strikers who have played/trained alongside seasoned professional players. He may be a late bloomer as a result. I.e Vardy or even our very own Watkins. I think we can all agree he probably deserves the chance to continue within our squad, developing and playing around better players.

This exactly. If he played week in/week out like he did in that cameo yesterday, he'd be pushing for regular starter. We just don't see it anywhere near enough. He's extremely inconsistent, alike the rest of our developing squad. We picked him up from the footballing scrapheap really. If he can develop into someone who puts yesterday's performances out more regularly then it's brilliant business. That's the challenge for our coaching staff.

We'd be a long way from being able to do anything of that nature with the current squad I'd my understanding is correct. You can only cross one ball at a time is very true, but the opposite winger has a job to do when the ball is on the other side. The back post. You are a huge advocate of back post prudency so surely missing something here? Also, in the times where the high press is becoming more and more prevalent (something I don't think we do well enough), having 1 winger just gives the keeper/centre backs of the opposition an easy out ball. The opposite side to the one in which the winger is. Does a central midfielder come out to close the full back and leave holes in the midfield against our opponents who break so quick usually (Something we tend to do anyway) Does our full back push forward to stop the attack high up thus leaving space in behind? Is one of the 2 strikers (who should both be in the box) supposed to hold off attacking and defend the potential counter leaving us in our original position (and current problematic position) of having one striker and 2 wingers so problem isn't solved? I don't know, there's obviously a number of flaws with every formation / style of play. Otherwise every team would play 1 way and 1 way only. Because we are still such a squad in development, it limits what we can do. For sure, in my eyes. Another huge summer upcoming, will be fascinating to see what we do. I hope we all get a little bit of what we want.

Can you explain this 'one winger' approach to me please? It's a concept I've not heard of before. I've seen you mention it a few times now and Morley played the role. Morley was before my time, unfortunately. Although I have had the privilege of meeting him a large number of times. Do you have a winger who plays on one side? Or both sides? Or is it more like a '10' who drifts around that whole area behind the front 2? I presume this winger comes from the '3' in that formation and you play with 2 up top? I think we need to explore a way of getting 2 up top whilst Grealish is out.

Also: Smith criticised when we win for not making subs.. Smith criticised when we lose for not making subs.. Smith criticised when we lose for making subs.. Smith has sarcastic comments made for making subs that see his side turn the tide and win the game. Literally, he can't win.

Here's the problem as I see it, however. Yes, he made good subs which changed the game positively. We've seen trezeguet score a brace, 2 excellent finishes. Keinan Davis, we all know he is capable of bullying defenders, but he doesn't show it enough. He does today and creates a goal. Traore, sets up the third with a brilliant bit of skill to take 2 defenders out the game. Again, we know he is capable of that but doesn't show it enough. El ghazi is capable of fantastic goals but showed so, so little today. Next week, we could start trez and drop el ghazi and trez would probably do sod all. Is this all just showing how inconsistent our squad is? These same players could probably play the same game tomorrow and do absolutely nothing for 90 minutes, all of them. For me, that game yesterday was where we are at in a nutshell, inconsistent but players who are capable of producing brilliant moments but don't do it nearly enough. Could you blame the manager? If you choose, of course. Could he get these magic moments out of them more often, that's the difficult question. Could you blame a whole squad rebuild meaning we are starting to outgrow a number of these players who were bought on a budget? Yes, I think you'd be very daft to not consider this. Could you blame these players just not being good enough quality? Or one or two of them settling into the squad and needing a bit more time (traore, Sanson) I know what I think and it's makes me happy watching the development of this squad. To just dismiss the last 2 and a half years because someone isn't happy with the performances the last couple of months. Bizarre. By the way @Big Salad, I started the post because I wanted to use it as a reason for our inconsistency. It became longer the more I thought and it in no way reflects on you.

Perhaps a little harsh, if we had wasted the money that almost every other premier league club had wastedbon their squad builds, we would almost certainly be a championship club right now. We haven't been perfect but we've been better than most.

These sides always step it up a gear at tournaments, or at least a few of them will and will win a tournament. We don't.

I think we see the attacking options we have at international level, and get frustrated with the poor attacking performance we put in. We've pressed well, and nothing else. We will win, 1 or 2-0 against an extremely disappointing side. When we come up against the better sides, we get found out. It's the same old story. This is england, not villa. Expectations are different.

You're going to have to remind me of these? We were given a seriously dodgy penalty? I remember sterling and foden breaking through 2 against 1 in which we should've come away with a goalscoring opportunity at least. Kane shot from 20 yards which was a simple save for the keeper?

Have we? We've created very, very little against what looks like a very below average Poland side. I'm bored out my mind, only watching because I'm at work. We've pressed well at times, what else have we done well?

This needs to come up as a prompt every time we enter this thread, before we start getting the 'just put him in, he can't be any worse than (insert any of the villa midfield here)'

Yep. Which would be the exact correct thing to do.

Not necessarily. Would Lee Buchanan cost £10m to £20m? Probably not. In fact, almost certainly not. Does he have the potential to be better than targett, then absolutely why not? Derby rate him very highly. 30 appearances this season and just turned 20. The idea is in 4/5 years time when targett starts to get a bit older... Then we have Buchanan/someone else hitting his prime and chrisene (for example) as the heir to the throne then. How much did Hickey cost last year? So long as we get our scouting correct, it's certainly achievable. This is the type of signing I expect us to make. We could probably spend almost our entire budget on attacking players this summer. We have to be shrewd when we are buying players in positions where the first choice is of a very good standard. It's easier said than done, of course.

My opinion is he will be visiting loan players, making sure they are happy and doing well with training, games and the like. Also, could be someone who finds the best clubs for these loan players but mainly looks after them when they are there. It's inportant role in my opinion and having a genuine model professional in the role will hopefully provide these youngsters with someone to look up to and admire.

Which is not what I was suggesting at all. The suggestion I made, or a player along these lines, would fit into the categories in your final paragraph. (Someone to develop into a better player than targett) So, based on this, I'm not sure why you felt the need to quote me saying you wanted something different?

The first thing that came to my head when I saw this thread (I've never seen it before), was this song. Have to wear a baseball style bump cap for work and I bloody hate it. Never, ever wear one away from that. Not even on the golf course, wear they seem rife.

Yes, we all want someone to provide 'stiff competition', of course. We all want someone on a si ilar level to Targett. However, that's going to cost us £15m-£20m realistically. Are we in a position to go spending huge amounts on backups? Do many clubs spend such huge amounts on backups/competition? In our position? Our squad still needs huge work, spending large amounts on backups/competition isn't feasible. Signing a young, upcoming back up/competition is what we will do and what I'd expect us to do and want us to do. The big money can go on improving the first team in the areas we all know need it.

I do agree with your points, and you'd certainly expect Wes to be better in the air. Hopefully it's something they were / are working on. But the bolded bit just reminds me of Crouch. He was pretty hopeless in the air really. (although I seem to remember him scoring a debut goal with his head for us, Graham Taylor's first game - second stint? I was there but may be completely wrong however). Despite being 6'6 or whatever he was and a striker, he was shit in the air but actually really good on the deck. Couldn't be more opposite to what you'd expect. Always just makes me smile.