MrBlack

You are right about being fair to him, but you aren't being fair. You were being overly generous. As another poster pointed out, their Mrs saw the attitude of Gareth change when he was asked about Jack. I was curious, and asked my Mrs to watch the interview and ask her if anything stood out... she immediately said (having not seen the game) "did Jack not do very well?". He is, either by design or accident, trying to play down Jack Grealish in every way he can. Maybe he's bizarrely trying to protect him from the limelight until he unleashes him full force at the next tournament... Maybe he takes exception to the fact Jack went out drinking and inhaling nitrous oxide as a teenager in the England setup. Who knows why, but he definitely has an aversion to recognising Jack's ability and performances.

**** marvellous. Jack, you've made a mistake here, brought about by Southgate being a total dick and making you think you have to play otherwise you'll never get another chance. Should have been withdrawn from the squad. Amusing that he still looks the most creative player on the pitch

If we dont get any major injuries to anyone, if we maintain the average performance level of our first 3 games, if we continue to get favoruable (or at least neutral) decisions from VAR, and if Liverpool and Man City don't up their game....the title is ours.

Southgate Asked what he'd seen from Jack, answered it by saying that he wants him to do what he does for his club. In the areas that can hurt the opposition. That he's got his opportunity because he's been playing well for his club. Totally scripted but at least he's not lying for a change

honestly I'd prefer he wasn't in, and started against Belgium. I can't see him starting both games and this one means nothing

True, I meant if he implied "you're starting unless you're injured" with the 99% , but yes, he was absolutely right to leave given the lack of assurance. And I could not be happier that we've benefited from it

I am very open minded at the moment. We could avoid injuries or, at least relatively to other teams, get more lucky with them given most of our team are in an age bracket where they should be in or close to their physical prime. That said, Mings and McGinn have both had recent injury layoffs, and I would be surprised if they avoided them all season. If we avoid injuries and play like we did against Liverpool every week, we could win the league. It almost certainly won't happen, but it could do. Now that we've demonstrated we are capable of this it is slightly less unlikely than it was before the season started but still extremely unlikely. If we accept then, a drop in performance is likely here and there (and repeating the Liverpool performance likely impossible), that we'll get the odd injury to a key player, and that occasionally we'll face a team that's having their best day off the season, you begin to accept that any finish in the top half would be a great achievement. We'll have to revise this view every week as we get more evidence and more information about whether what has taken place so far is a blip or the new norm. I'm optimistic that we'll be top half, and if everything goes our way but we don't achieve this I might be disappointed, but realistically I'll accept any improvement on position last year and signs that the improvement will continue.

I'm so effing glad that Arteta said 95, and not 99 or 100. Genuinely think he'd still be there if he'd said that, even if Arteta had been lying about it.

The whole team gives me that reaction, it's like it's a reserves/ youth game, with a smattering of experience to give a couple a run out having missed the last game. Jack should be the exception, but it's clear Southgate sees him as a backup to be used only when everyone else is f**ked.

talksport has a similar none pay walled article, I assume from the same source... https://talksport.com/football/771055/calvert-lewin-saka-barnes-grealish-england-line-up-wales/ Suggests the following lineup

Finally gets called up, and started, and it's for a meaningless friendly 3 days before a competitive game. Surely just confirms that Southgate has no intention of starting him against Belgium, especially given the other names being proposed to start this match. Kinda hope he only plays 60 minutes.

He really is... Also, slim and none? Bob and No surely...

Waiting until January makes sense. If we only need cover, well we do already have it across the pitch. Spending money on cover now limits what we can spend in Jan. Any more than 2 first teamers being out at the same time is arguably a situation noone can account for, so go with the cover we have for now, then if we are desperately short in a specific area come January we can make a first team signing for the area then, rather than a back up level quality signing now. It also means we target exactly what we need, rather than having to make do. Yes, we'd have to make do until the window opens, but given its only about 10-12 games it's better to make do for that, than make do for the entire season if we blow our whole budget now.

I do still have a lingering fear that if/when his court case finally happens they might try and make an example of him... i assume he was drink driving, and whilst there's no proof, do they just assume it is worst case scenario when you leave the scene of an accident under such circumstances? Honestly, I don't see that being enough to see him getting given the maximum sentence of imprisonment, but sure Southgate could use it against him to drop him from the England team for a while. Hopefully I'm worrying over nothing, but it is a slight concern i have.

Turns out we were not very well prepared at all. Amazing what has been achieved in the last 1.5 years.

Obviously only against the top teams as you say. Then as the game is closing out you can make changes to suit...if we're ahead and Cash is looking tired you can bring on elmo to see out the last 30 mins. If we're behind and need to push for something you go offensive and shove Traore on. The excessive number of usable right backs we have, is really just a good level of cover. The same can't be said for the left side sadly. After Targett, I rate Taylor very lowly. Losing Grealish (perish the thought) would probably mean Trez moving over to the left, which is fine defensively, but we'd be crippled going forwards on both wings then, unless Traore proves to be a good signing.

Sounds like a role for Elmo, although I don't think he'd last more than 60 mins doing that. Tbh, I'd probably play Cash as the further forward option, and Guilbert at right back. Nice to have options hey!

Great window so far. I didnt want mass overhaul, as despite performances last year, squad morale was clearly very good. Major changes were just as likely to upset the balance on morale, as they were to improve us. The improvement we've got from the relatively low turnover is, on evidence so far, immense. Happy if we get one more in, happy if we don't.

Nice, with fans out of stadiums their direct interactions with fans are going to be limited. So, one dickhead in such a situation could cause relatively more harm than normal.

Very much getting there. If he wins a cup or gets us back into europe then definitely as that's all we've achieved in recent decades, and to equal it from where we were would be legendary. You can definitely argue that even without achieving either of those, he is already. Proud i didn't join those calling for his sacking, even more glad that the owners stood by him and have backed him.

Jeez, that string of names really does show how bad we've had it on the keeper front. Johnstone had potential but was never ours, Given was ok but way past his best, same for Reina. Bleak times indeed. We've come a long way in all departments, but GK especially so

For all the moments where he lost the ball whilst running with it, or picked the wrong option (I think it was 3/4 times), there were at least as many moments where he picked the right choice and delivered a spectacular ball, not to mention the 2 times he was open and almost certainly would have scored if a simple pass has been played to him by another player. I honestly think overall, he wasn't the weak link against Liverpool and not at all convinced we'd have scored more with someone else in his position. Very few in the world would have picked out the ball on to Watkins head with their weaker foot first time the way he did. Agree with the sentiment generally, he does have a long way to go, but on the evidence of that one game against Liverpool, he keeps his place comfortably.

Possibly, but aren't most of ours 18years of age or under? I know it's a cliché but 2 years, even a years, development at that age bracket can make a big difference. Its 10% of their life, even more as a ratio of the time they've been playing football for. If I'm mistaken on the age thing, it sounds like we got off to a crap start before realising we had to actually play. Maybe a psychological learning curve for them, thinking they had it in the bag before they kicked a ball.

I was upset at signing him when we had Guilbert, who I rated more than the average it seems. I thought we'd have been better served getting a new, and better, left back and having Guilbert at right back. I'm happy to retract those comments. If we'd missed out on this guy, and he was delivering those stats for someone else there is no way he'd ever have put a villa shirt on in the future and we'd be a lot worse off for it. Fair play to our owners, Dean, our DoF, and anyone else who had a hand in this. I won't question your logic again... probably. Also, conversely to the trend of other teams' fans who think we were crazy spunking so much on championship players, it makes me happy that we've both shared our premier league millions further down the league table, and also that we've predominantly bought English talent that will serve the country well in years to come (despite my best efforts I do still care how England do on the world/European international stage).

He really is a spectacular keeper. Arsenal are mad. He seems to be a real character too, in a good way. Its just so easy to warm to him, without him seemingly doing anything beyond being a very good player. If he keeps this form up then we have a top half finish comfortably within our grasp.