MrBlack

12 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Hasn't forgotten, just not really bothered anymore.

Aside from one or 2 flashes last match he was the same.

Hope he rams those words down my throat now

I do too!

Our marking is atrocious across the pitch.  They have free men everywhere.  Ball watching at its finest o.... omw we scored 

1 minute ago, LxYoungAVFC said:

F*** Mings was in behind and Jack once again releases the ball too late.

Think mings was offside long before Jack had chance to release the ball, but what he did after is no excuse. 

Jack's first pass was absolute trash. So long without the ball in their half and he's forgotten how to play

Nyland 

Every loose ball runs to their players.  We look so half arsed. This is going to be a very long game.

17 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

As expected.

United made 4 changes and didn't change in quality. Actually looked like they improved.

Spurs made 2 changes..they couldn't compete with United's mega squad. Spurs clearly tired and barely hang on.

Those squads will blast through the rest. So f***ing unfair.

That's levy's fault for being a cheap skate and not paying the going rate for players,  whilst spending millions on a white elephant of a stadium (only partially joking)

As for the other clubs in the lower half of the league, you're right, it is extremely unfair to start allowing 5 substitutions against those teams.

1 minute ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

Nah he had to get some power on it as the defenders would have intercepted it easily....then it would have been a poor ball.

There is an argument that hitting it any softer would have meant it got intercepted...or it could have resulted in us winning a corner, or the defender scoring an own goal. Definitely hitting it too hard in front of everyone does no favours to anyone. It had the feeling of a goal about it, looking like hundreds of similar goals that are scored every season,  but it wasn't to be.

Davis maybe could have been sprinting harder,  suspect his lack of poachers instinct didn't help him either. 

22 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

No draw wouldn't have been fair.

They created nothing. We should have scored 2-3 goals if more clinical.

But we werent more clinical,  hence a draw was "fair". They had a definite goal ignored, and we had a penalty (in my eyes) ignored. They cancel each other out.  No one scored. I then bemoaned the fact we played with a non goal scoring striker as a lone striker and probably part explains why we couldn't score. We created a lot but only one shot springs to mind as threatening, which was well saved.

Having more shots is not a precursor to scoring more.  Sheffield were especially poor by their standards,  so maybe we should have won, but on the basis of play that would have been unfair to them

Good result. Draw was fair despite the fact they had a definite goal and we should have had a penalty.

Not a great performance but to be expected in the circumstances. Whatever formation Dean was trying to achieve,  its not going to create much in the way of goals with Davis as a lone striker and Grealish effectively a wing back. Maybe just going defensive with the opposition in mind

7 minutes ago, useless said:

McGinn being ready for the Chelsea game before it was postponed doesn't mean that he will be ready now, back then he will have been in training every day without restrictions, since then he's had months out and won't have been able to train to the same extent so will have lost momentum; that will be the same for all our players but most of them aren't coming back after a long term injury. Or to say it in less words, McGinn might not be as ready now as he was before the Chelse game owing to him having lost momentum in his return to fitness.

We just have to remember that if he can come back and make the difference in one game then that could make all the difference, if he'd have stay fit and made the difference in one of our previous games we wouldn't be in the relegation zone now. Hopefully combination of that and the other players taking stock of the situation and Smith having time work things out, will work in our favour, Davis should help as well, similar to McGinn, if he can help us to win or draw a game that we might other wise have lost then that alone could go along way.

McGinn, and indeed any footballer, should have been able to train and maintain a level of fitness that allows them to reach match fitness when things restart. The fact the Premier league chose to restart before any player can get match fit is a burden to all players, not just McGinn.

I don't buy that he'd be in a worse position now than before the Chelsea game at all. Unless he had a recurrence of the injury or some issue directly related to covid-19, he should have been in a better position injury wise when we re-started training, and now be as up to speed as any other player in the team. 

Assume the massive sheets serve a dual purpose of looking good and having the ball rolling back to the front of the stand. Limited ball boys and no fans to throw them back could see us out of supplies after 5 minutes, particularly given our wayward passing!

Looks lovely though, hopefully the fans on the video screen give the boys enough of a morale boost to give us something like a home advantage.

23 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Hearts are suing the SPFL over relegation

 

Rightly so. You can't change the rules of engagement  after everyone has started using them without agreement from everyone it affects.  A farce to end the season early for anyone. A farce to carry on under different conditions and laws.  What's the rush.... oh yeah, money

1 hour ago, MotoMkali said:

It is very hard for a winger to be consistent if el ghazi could play at his best every game we wouldn't have had a hope in signing him because he would be a 15 and 15 player.

I think he struggles with defending because before coming to villa he played for ajax so he wouldnt have had to defend and played for lille in ligue 1 which isn't exactly the best league in the world either. It isn't that he doesn't work hard because when he loses the ball he tracks back but he seems to drift off an lose his man very easily. It is likely something that will come with time. But it also makes me wonder whether he should be the one to stay high up the pitch instead of our striker and have them track back so we are a bigger threat on the counter attack. 

He also gets regular little injuries which certainly doesn't help as they break up his good run of form. He will have 3 or 4 great games and get injured and be back to not doing much for a while. 

I get the feeling that the fact he puts in a half hearted attempt to defend is what makes him blow up like he did against Mings. In his mind he's doing his best and trying to defend, but not being a natural defender and (as you pointed out) probably having never had to do it consistently before in his career, means he's not very good at it.

Being not very good at it,  he will subconsciously be putting in less effort than when he goes forward.

With decent actual coaching and a bit of time, he could be exceptional in my opinion.  He does need to work on his mentality for when things aren't going his way and the club should recognise this

On 10/06/2020 at 21:44, useless said:

Interestng that we won the away game but lost the home game. Only a small example but makes you wonder if in a small way it suggests that home advantage might be lost without a crowd.

This has very much been the case in Germany.  In fact, after the first couple of rounds of fixtures, away teams were actually more successful than home teams, with home teams only winning 20% of the matches. 

Looks like the trend continued, so home advantage is definitely weakened,  if not removed.

  Which makes a further farce of the plan to restart in these conditions but, hey,  integrity and overflowing wallets etc

6 hours ago, John said:

I really don't think that Villa fans would head to the city centre. We wouldn't have won anything and we know the difference, as Villa fans, I think it would be more of a feeling of relief for us. 

I agree with your other points although I don't think Liverpool celebrations would be confined to Liverpool and Southampton, what about London and sadly Birmingham? 

Maybe not en masse,  but I do think there would be enough of a gathering for it to be newsworthy, primarily of the younger parts of our fan base, just as an excuse if nothing else.

As for liverpool fan celebrations around the country, you're probably right. It's definitely a matter of time  before we find that out

Let's hope we stay up and get to find out what our fans will do!

5 hours ago, tomav84 said:

depends on the context. a last minute winner at west ham last game of the season to clinch safety? then maybe...but personally i don't see us doing it. we'd be ridiculed by everyone and the vast majority of our fanbase know that

I hope you're right!

I actually don't see the season getting "finished" anyway.  If a game has already been called off because a manager has covid, it won't be the last time that happens. And the second wave incoming from the protestors that ignored distancing advice will probably mean restrictions can be expected in ~2 weeks time.

Maybe I just see everything negatively now. 

1 hour ago, John said:

I see Broadgate Square in Coventry city centre, was packed with Coventry City supporters, who were celebrating their being promoted as champions last night, despite the club having urged fans not to congregate. Flares and no social distancing, multiply that by around a hundred, when Liverpool and then Leeds, get what they want!

Reckon there won't be a gathering of villa fans if we avoid relegation?

Sounds small minded but I'm convinced there would definitely be easily a hundred or more of our fan base that wouldn't be able to help themselves. Same with any club achieving anything. Increase/ decrease the number gathering based on the size of the achievement, the size of the fan base, and the general intelligence of the fans.

A liverpool title decider being played in southampton won't stop their fans gathering in huge numbers, it will just mean they'll be doing it in liverpool and Southampton 

You should probably discuss implications with your employer before doing something that is against the law and likely to hinder your ability to do your job/put others in your job at risk down the line.

Whilst the context of Mings' actions would make what he did acceptable in my view, if he didnt consider the people that pay his wages and the safety of the people he works with in his actions then that would warrant a response from the club. 

Who's to say he didnt get the all clear from them anyway?

2 hours ago, tezzaleed said:

Him ahead of el ghazi or trez any day for me.  doesn't matter he's not a winger he's effective on the ball and helps the team move up the pitch. As long as he's not injured, which is the problem.

Agree entirely with this. The short stints ive seen of him show he has an excellent first touch, the ability to hold up the ball, and the ability to find another player. That all sounds incredibly basic, but comparing directly to what was on the pitch before him on those rare occasions he was a class apart.

If he can avoid injury, which sadly seems incredibly unlikely, he could be very good. If he is showing promise in training and is fit, I'd start him. 

Something I never thought I'd hear myself say...I'd start Elmo for this game.  Did a cracking job on the final and with Samatta's apparent heading ability I think an elmo cross is our best chance of scoring from open play.

Would consider the same team that started the final, as it gives us options from the bench to change shape or bring on more offensively minded players if needed. I think Grealish getting silenced against City is less likely to happen against Leicester, but if it does can just switch him out wide.

Feeling optimistic for some reason, possibly the length of time without a league game making me forget how poor we've looked lately, but I'll take it.  A draw would be a great result,  a loss is not a disaster but piles the pressure on even more. 

1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

If i'm honest, i've noticed in the biggest games, he is usually quiet. 

Even in our Playoff final, he was relatively quiet.

Not sure if this is due to the opposition or tactics but it's an observation.

I've thought this for some time too,and lexicon hit the nail on the head with my view. The pressure to perform is already massive, and when you throw in how much the game must mean to him as a fan as well as a player and I think those games are the ones Jack struggles in. Relatively speaking, of course, when compared with his usual exceptional standards

14 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

1. Go 2 up top - Davis and Samatta. Get it long quickly - not pretty/don’t care.

2. If win ball. Build from there. Give it to Grealish/McGinn. 

3. Get balls in box for Samatta and Davis early. 

4. Pray. 

 

I'd love to see this tried, just out of curiosity. Clearly what we're doing at the moment doesn't work. Unless we miraculously take the fight from our league cup final into our league matches something definitely has to change.

6 minutes ago, Michelsen said:

One could argue it would be madness to limit your best defender to marking one player, when he could be marking the most dangerous zone instead. 
 

I’m not saying zonal marking is always better, just to be clear. But let’s not pretend it’s a no-brainer.

There is every chance we'd have lost by even more with man to man marking, but we'll never know!

Keinan looks like such a good player. It's a travesty that he cant stay fit.