MrBlack

31 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Agreed, love him, but as ridiculous as it sounds, we probably could have had even MORE goals if he had a bit more quality and composure.

Sometimes the game just runs away from him ( Control, decision making etc )

It's like he has to be at 1000 percent focus all the time to be on par.

Anyway don't want to slate him because his attitude and work is exemplary. Does a lot of good work.

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.

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Looking at the Fleetword team a lot of the players were 20 years of age or under.  Did our youngsters just get comfortably beaten but theirs? 

 

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. 

Glad he's not leaving.  The little tease. He knew what he was doing posting that.  Hopefully the messages he'll have got saying "wish he was staying" will reassure him he's got something going here he can definitely build on. 

For me,  could not be happier with our options at right back.  It's like the Bruce days all over again, but with better versions of all of the ones we had then. 

My speculative take on it, assuming we don't have an option to buy...

I imagine we definitely asked about an option to buy but suspect we got told that there is no option but an enforced we must buy, at a price beyond what we were prepared to accept given the uncertainty at the start of this season.  Then probably got given the "you can have RLC  with an option..." to which we (rightly) decided that loaning Ross without any ongoing agreement is better than RLC in any shape or form. 

Then it comes down to do we cut our nose off to spite our face by going back on a comment we made under totally different circumstances,  arguably about totally different scenarios (Abraham, Tuanzebe...). Or, do we take advantage of a situation that gets us a top 6 teams player, that will be worth more to us in first team improvement,  than the opportunity cost of having a worse player in his position. Not to mention the benefit our own players get from having an experienced "seen it all" number 8 to learn from.

Great piece of business  that I'm still shocked we managed to pull off.

2 minutes ago, Hornso said:

So for the rest of the window we can do deals with the other EFL clubs but not Premier League to Premier League?

Correct. 

On 04/10/2020 at 23:45, R.Bear said:

Some of the games being mentioned are nowhere near tonight's result.

The Everton 3-2. That wasnt an amazing result, it was just a thrilling game and finish.

Blues 5-1 - Great game for us but they were relegated that season. It's not much better than beating Derby 6-0.

Wimbledon 7-1 - The only notable thing about this result is that we scored 7. If we scored 6 no-one would mention.

Sunderland 6-1 - Important result but again, they were a rubbish side.

Various wins against CL teams - So what? A 1-0 win against Arsenal/Man Utd doesnt compare to this game.

Tonight had everything. Great opposition, record equalling goals scored, complete talent mismatch on paper. Completely outplayed. It's by far the best result. There isnt even an argument for any other.

I've reflected on the game and came to say most of this ^ after reading the suggestions made by others.  This result stands up better than any of those.  There is simply no comparison to beating the best current club team in world football 7-2 amongst those results. 

As for performance,  it is also top for me.  They were made to look as bad as they were, by what our players did. For every lucky deflected goal we scored, there was an unlucky "goal" that we didn't score. So the scoreline accurately reflects how much better than them we were. This, against a team that walked the league last season,  that had won their first 3 games this season, that had 0 excuses for losing the way they did, is an indication it was our performance that did something no other team in the country has been able to do for over a year. Best PL performance by Villa ever....

so far.

38 minutes ago, villan-scott said:

Odd that we are announcing that at 21:30 on deadline day. Freeing up wages for a signing or am I being optimistic?!

Well they did explicitly say that transfers will only come in if we get people out the door. Maybe they don't want to be seen to be lying to the media,  we get enough shit from them as it is. 

Wonder who we're signing in the next 30 minutes...

Just now, TrentVilla said:

Yeah we lack a little class at times with this sort of thing in my opinion, just a little more care should be taken.

It is strange because I'd say that our none Internet related actions are up there with the most respectable clubs going.  A long time ago now, but our Acorns sponsorship gave me great pride in the club I support. Maybe they don't see twitter as a place to be sentimental. 

Shame the club didn't mention any of his standout performances, including getting us to the final with his keeping vs Leicester, but clearly wasn't in the frame for much game time.  All the best Orjan

12 minutes ago, Xela said:

What strikes me there is the togetherness of the players already. A real good team spirit. Barkley, Watkins and Cash look as though they have fitted in an absolute treat already 

Absolutely.  Aside from the actual match moments,  there's so much extra detail in this that just makes me so happy.  Really looks like we have the perfect team spirit.

And, of course,  LONG GRASS. 

5 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Re going for another striker or not. If dean and co are so happy for just Watkins to carry the line then why were we trying to buy Wilson? Do they think Traore could do a job up front if needed?

I think they do. Traore has a solid record playing as a CF, as well as having Davis and a potential return of Wesley.  We don't have the cash available (thanks to FFP) to get someone better than those options without restricting our future business for other more critical areas. 

1 minute ago, TRO said:

so it has some uses?

arguably kept us in the league.  And we seem to like this no fans lack of pressure.. 

14 minutes ago, est1874 said:

Fred Guilbert has just posted this......

Shame,  really liked him. Why couldn't Cash be a left back.

Ends after next year's window based purely on logic.  Signed 1 year ago, during last summer window. 2 year clause, suggests 2 summer windows from when we signed him. 

As I've stated several times, they won't trigger it now, as he won't get a permit for him. There is a slim chance they might try and trigger it in January if hes played most of brazils games in the interim.

4 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

I would like a DM who can cover CB and LB  that type of versatility is so valuable.

I'd prefer a dm that can cover cb (or vice versa). But either would be welcome. I'm very happy with our business.  One more would make it perfect.

7 minutes ago, TRO said:

Its difficult to have cover for your best players......I think we will keep our powder dry until January and re visit things.

Its also difficult to keep all the players happy who are not playing, in light of going out of one cup.

We have had a very decent Window, lets be grateful.

Tbf, the only unhappy players as a result of our Cup departure have only themselves to blame, but this is very accurate. We dont, yet, have the pulling power and current reputation to keep otherwise first team quality players happy, whilst they sit on the bench

12 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Yes, I know. I highlighted the bit that I questioned. 

People travel and do business all over the world, how can anyone claim two locations are unrelated?  

That was my point.  While covid and brexit are going on,  there is less connecting us and Venice than would be the case under normal conditions. I wasn't being entirely serious though, just speculating and trying to make something out of nothing. Passing the time etc. 

On 02/10/2020 at 20:10, MrBlack said:

I'll be extremely shocked if we dont finish 11-17. We've significantly improved the team on last year, both in absolute terms and relative to others around us.

Given the intense fixture list,  everyone will likely struggle with injuries this season,  but obviously we're at risk more than others given anyone that we bring in as a replacement is a large part of the reason we finished 17th. 

With that in mind, moving up a few places is to be expected. Even a few more may be achievable if things go swimmingly. But to go from 17th to 10th would be a massive improvement and is incredibly unlikely.  Still, I won't complain if we do it :).

 

11-17th

Feeling optimistic

Had to change my view.  7-10.. very optimistic

13 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

What? 

 

Long pointless story.. short version... private plane went from Venice to Birmingham earlier.

I know people holiday,  I know businesses exist outside of football,  I know its probably totally unrelated, but it helps to keep things alive, or we accept we're done for the window.

- some wealthy individual returning from a break in Venice (more likely than someone from venice choosing to holiday in brum.. unless they really love canals).. distinctly possible alternative

- I just can't,  In this day and age of brexit and covid, envisage a business trip involving a private jet and two otherwise unlikely destinations,  that isn't football related.

To steal @est1874's thunder from the Rashica thread,  and given it is more likely any other player in the world than Rashica, a private jet landed in Birmingham about 4pm, that set off from Venice.

If anyone can suggest a logical reason why such a fight would be happening if not a footballer i'd love to hear it...

2 minutes ago, est1874 said:

The private jet from Venice landed in Birmingham. Just saying. 

wondered where it had gone. ... very interesting