Stratvillan

It's so nice not worrying whenever a ball is crossed.

We've been blessed with some great keepers. Emi is up there with the best of them.

Best performance for ages.

Thought Bielsa was great. Even in defeat Leeds were like watching the Dutch in the 70s. 

Oh, Villa played as well.

Quite like Leeds, hate the obsession of the commentators 

We should start a pre match poll on the team selection. Weve 6 midfielders, everyone wants barkeley dropped, he is.

We have to use 3 out of 5. Apparently everyone is ok with ramsey and nakamba, now smith is a muppet for preferring McGinn over luiz.

Aaarrrggghhhh!!!!

I think this is where transfer windows become difficult. We are no longer replacing rubbish. We are trying to upgrade all over.

Wingers

Cdm

Additional striker

Additional centre half.

It wont be cheap.

It's never been Smith's strategy to bawl out players in public. I genuinely don't understand why people are surprised that he is defending Barkley.

This idea that hes stubborn etc is weird. We saw last year with our summer 2019 signings, it takes time to bed in.

Does anyone genuinely believe that hes going to start ramsey, (1 start), Samson (no starts) and nakamba (1 good game), against Leeds.

Tge problem is the lack of a genuine quality DM. We dont have 1. 

I would rest Barkeley for Sanson, but having said that I'd play 442 today!!!

On 20/02/2021 at 21:28, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

 

Randomly decided to Google Alan Smith the other day for some reason.

Of all the people and things to google, why would you choose Alan Smith?

I think we could raise the capacity to 50 and sell it out.

One of the problems is where it is. It's in one of the poorest parts of the midlands. We would have to redevelop the whole area not just VP.

1 minute ago, villalad21 said:

You might get a severe wake up call and how relient we are on Jack

He is our inspirating

He is our driving force and engine

Everything goes through Jack

That implies I dont know how good he is. I'm not going to give up hope because he is injured. Of course we'll miss him. I dont think crying about it is going to change anything. 

7 hours ago, YouUnastanFren said:

In a world of shit, lazy pundits who offer absolutely no insight whatsoever, phone it in week after week just taking a cheque, Garth Crooks is the worst imho.

I reckon I could pick his team of the week purely from looking at the scores and scorers from that round without watching a second, mainly because I'm pretty sure that's how he picks it.

I'm sure there was a poster who suggested his son does it? I'm sure he picked someone who didnt play one week.

Theres almost this belief that it's the role of villa, west ham WTC to act as nursery clubs for the supposed big 4.

Palace haven't sold zaha, west ham haven't sold rice, we haven't sold jack. The worlds changing, theres so much money clubs arent under the same pressure as we were with Milner etc.

Obviously if the player wants to go......

But Emi, to mancity /pool I dont think so. 

2 minutes ago, flashingqwerty said:

Is that what happened in the other matches where Barkley was taken off too?  It must just be a coincidence that we control games more when hes not on the pitch

Go on. Dazzle me with the stats.

I'll say again  I dont rate Barkley, I wouldnt sign him.

I just love the general notion of stating things based on 10ish games. I dont even know how many games hes played, and I dont care.

I love all of VT btw.

Just now, flashingqwerty said:

Villa, Brentford and Walsall.

In all 3 positions he has had a tendancy to not use his subs, and when he does, they tend to be very late in a game.

Its rare he makes changes early in games, and even rarer that he makes subs that are not like for like replacements.

All managers use subs late. How many sub at half time?

You have a superior knowledge of ds than me if you've followed his subs, pre villa.

Just now, flashingqwerty said:

I haven't said that.  What I have said, is our midfield would have not been so easy to play through if he were not on the pitch.

Evinced by that actually happening when he went off.

Or brighton tired and ran out of ideas? I'm not disagreeing but there are alternative explanations.

1 minute ago, flashingqwerty said:

.  But for whatever reason, he is not doing it, and these clear and obvious things have been a feature of his career.

Where?

17 minutes ago, flashingqwerty said:

Nakamba was our best player in the 2 games he played and got dropped.

Barkley, goal aside, has done less than nothing in 7 games.

This one change would have meant a completely different game dynamic where our midfield was not constantly overrun.

Its no coincidence that as soon as Barkley went off Brighton were suddenly much less threatening.  Also no coincidence that our best performances have been games where Nakamba has played as he helps us control midfield areas.

Barkley is a luxury player, and as we are in such bad form, we cannot afford to keep him in the starting 11.  Pretty simple.

I'd agree on Barkley, I'm not a fan. Are you genuinely saying we would have won tonight if we swapped nakamba and Barkley?

Just now, flashingqwerty said:

Leeway on not making changes when its clearly not working?

Leeway on playing someone who is a complete liability and offering nothing for 7 games?

Leeway when Nakamba keeps getting left out despite clearly being in the best cm in the games he has played?

Leeway in not rotating players when playing 6 games in 18 days despite players clearly looking fatigued?

Not making subs when playing poorly?

2 years of the same issues, sorry, I'm all out of leeway.

For every one of these complaints tgeres an answer, but not necessarily a better team.

Our subs bench was worse than Brighton's. Yeats where we are. I agree we could start nakamba  or swap Barkley, but it is much of a much ness .

Put pep in charge of that team, honestly what would be different. 

Thought emi was excellent clean sheet 12, 1 behind man city.

Thought back 4 were good.

I'm not a fan of Luiz, but thought he was the better of the deep 2. Do we need a deep 2?

Thought the front 4 didn't see enough of the ball to make a judgement.

To me playing Barkley and Traore causes us problems.

Like a pre lockdown performance, with a better defence.

Just now, penguin said:

0.03 expected goals 

Time to crack out the whiskey

I read that quickly and thought you said wesley!

Just now, Stratvillan said:

I agree, it's not that Barkley is having a mate, it's the formation isnt allowing us time on the ball. Sanson or nakamba would help.

Mare not mate.

Just now, alreadyexists said:

Hmm... I think their high press is killing us at the moment and they aren’t giving us a second on the ball. I also think that Luiz and McGinn are getting outnumbered too easily in midfield. I think I would take off Barkley and put on Sanson and play more of a midfield 3 with Grealish, Ollie and Traore as a front three in possession and a five man mid when out of possession

I agree, it's not that Barkley is having a mate, it's the formation isnt allowing us time on the ball. Sanson or nakamba would help.

Could we drop Ross, and play Dougie, SJM and marvellous.

One of our few week stats is shots conceded. Playing a number 10 like Ross (not blaming him), but it leaves us open. Marvellous sitting and the other 2 taking it in turns to go forward?

Let's face it, we can argue about team selections etc, but realistically 7 of the team pick itself, back 5 and jack and ollie. 

This means theres only ever 3 mid and 1 winger up for grabs.

We've 3 wingers, traore is probably better than trez and el ghazi, but rotation will happen.

In midfield there's luiz, mcginn nakamba, ramsey Sanson, barkley.

Sanson needs to settle in, ramsey needs sub time, so it's really 2 out of the first 3. I really dont get how people can be so up in arms when 1 gets dropped - I don't there's much difference between the three of them tbh.

The one that surprises me is Barkley, ive not been massively impressed of late. I think we'll find he had covid, and had it bad. He looked like a bloke playing 5 a side on a stag do weekend, in the West Ham game. I wouldnt have started him today.

1 minute ago, Michelsen said:

Well, that was crap. Not as angry about this one as I was about Burnley, but certainly deflated and a bit puzzled. It was just so far, far, faaaar below the (very high) standards we’ve set for ourselves, you just don’t expect such a mediocre, lacklustre performance from this Villa team anymore. Passing was sloppy, tracking was sloppy, we didn’t really find our shape. We just looked like we were collectively all out of sorts. West Ham played well, and pretty much succeeded at everything they tried. Fair play to them. We wasted most of our good chances trying backheel dummy passes when better, easier options were on. We’re usually quite direct and assertive in our play, today we looked far too cute on the ball and almost hesitant in our decision making. Sometimes, as a fan, you have to throw your hands up and say ‘we’re better than this, but sometimes you have a bad day and this was one of them’. Maybe the energy levels, tension levels, whatever weren’t right. I don’t know. We’ll be back on form again soon, I’m sure. 

Good balanced post. A voice of sanity in what I'll imagine will be a sea of crazy.