MaVilla

A bit like Sanson though, that both need minutes to show they belong at this level.

when i have seen him play for the u23s, i have always thought his touch is sublime, his vision top notch, he seems really composed on the ball, very silky player who seems to have that air of "always seems to have time on the ball" (ie: his technical ability allows him to look like he has time on the ball - where others might panic and look rushed etc). He is a little on the small side, but he is only 18, so plenty of time to bulk up (kind of similar to Grealish when he broke through, in terms of both looking rather skinny/lightweight), get on those weights Tommi boy! I think he has the technical ability to succeed for sure.

tbh, i think Ramsey is the only one of our current midfield 3 (Luiz, McGinn, Ramsey), who either is good enough, or has the potential to be good enough, for a midfield 3 of a team that wants to push for top 8. Just my opinion.

i would like to see a front 3 of Coutinho, Buendia and Bailey. Not sure if it would work, but would like to see it at least once, regardless.

As i have said numerous times, works hard, but if you ever want a team to control the ball and play an intelligent/intricate passing style, Watkins simply cant do that. I dont dislike him, but i really dont think he can play the way we supposedly want to play going forward.

my own opinion, which could ofc be wrong!, is that what Spam tend to have over us in recent years is their midfield. In rice and Soucek they have two very good, very powerful, and very aggressive central midfield players marshalling the team, maybe not so much right now, but certainly our kryptonite since we have been back in the Prem, is our inability to deal with, or compete with very aggressive and powerful midfields of other teams etc. If there is a difference in class between the two teams, i really think its in the Soucek/Rice vs our midfield mirror, i reckon if you put Soucek & Rice in our midfield, it would transform us (obviously completely unrealistic!). Hopefully we will sort this in the summer, as we all know we need something similar in our midfield.

Davis scores a brace. Is this an alternate universe? blimey, well done Keinan!

from my limited knowledge, our finances this summer in terms of income and wages bandwidth etc, will be entirely based on 3 full PL seasons, rather than the previous years which had 1/2/3 season of Champ money in it, depending on the year. However, amortization will still just be over X time period of the player(s) (ie: 1/2/3/4/5 etc), depending on how we amortize, but tbh, not sure that will be an issue, as i doubt we have many expensive, non first team players with super high amortization over multiple years now (excluding players like Wesley), or other players we may offload or release this summer (el Ghazi, Hourihane, Trez etc), will will improve how the wages etc look for future signings. Again, with limited knowledge, factoring in the Jack sale and net positive spend last season, we may have quite a bit of wiggle room this summer, depending on how nuts we want to go in the market.

will be interesting to see what we do with him in the summer. Im sure i saw an interview where Gerrard implied "we have him for 18 months regardless of what the contract situation is", implying we would hold on to him until his contract ends. However, if he really doesnt want to sign an extension, wouldnt it be madness not to cash in on him, for whatever we can get in the summer? (if he doest want to stay). Its ironic really, as he is hindering his own development with these games, as he may have got more minutes and development time if we knew he was staying, also....although he has looked ok when he has come on, he certainly doesnt look "regular starter ready", so im not sure what he is after. Seems like he is being badly advised or something, if so...good luck to him becoming a perennial loan player at a "big club".

I agree he could play the 8 role for sure. "if" we signed Coutinho and another "AM/no.10" to play alognside Coutinho, i have no doubt Buendia would be a terror in the no.8 role.

does "close to the limit", mean we wont have as much of a war chest this summer as some might think?

I still think he would be a very reasonable DM for us. The guy can play.

won 6 of their last 7. insane, thats CL form lol.

He isnt "just a striker" for sure, the lad works hard, can drop off and play a bit also, very well rounded forward imo. That ball to Cash was sublime, added to the pass to Watkins versus Southampton, plus his goals, i cant believe ppl were writing him off, madness.

thought he played very well, very comfortable on the ball.

as i have said a million times, i think he is a very good player, hopefully at some point he might get a run of a few games to really show what he is capable of.

i like that he's not winging high crosses in now (that go out or miles over the players heads), he tries to drive low crosses in, or tries driven low cut backs, which are leading to chances. He has improved a lot over the last few games, keep it up Cashy.

looking a lot better:

Int he 50 minute Martinez/Foster video interview (linked in the martinez thread), Emi said Coutinho was getting fitter, was very tired after games and was cramping in every game, but he said that the recent Brighton game was the first game where he got no cramps and felt great. Its so easy to miss these little things, he hadnt had a run of games for so long, injuries etc, and the recent Brighton game was the one where he finally wasnt overly fatigued etc, just imagine when he is fully up to speed. Lets hope we sign him, he could be our talisman for the next 3 years easy i think.

Interesting that Emi said about Gerrard: He reminds me of Wenger, when Gerrard walks in you get that "wow" feeling, he has prescence, he has the respect of the players. Interestingly, he also said the assistant coach does all the talking, takes nearly all the meetings, does all the training sessions, does all the tactics, he knows so much about football. (talking about Beale). Also a very interesting observation, they were talking about younger players getting nervous as a game gets closer, and Emi said..."yeah, there was a player at Villa, who played amazing during covid...without the fans, but when the fans came back he wasnt as confident, hid from the ball and stuff, i said to him....stop hiding, get the ball and go forward". Interesting, wonder who that was. Emi M also said the south american group have a really close relationship, Emi, Emi 2, Coutinho and Luiz go bowling once a week etc.

full 50min episode.

Yeah, but to be fair, any move he makes next, nobody is going to offer him 400k. Or maybe someone would.....who knows...

then maybe they should play him more..... He has only started 50%, or 4 of the 8 games he has been available for MK Dons (came off the bench for 2, didnt make it off the bench for 2).

tbh, even if you have to pay him 200k a week to keep him, i cant see how we wouldnt want to do it (maybe 150k if we could persuade him ) If you factor in the wages we "might" be able to offload this summer, or can defo offload (El Ghazi, Trezeguet, Hourihane, Kalinic, Davis, Targett, Kalinic, Welsey), that should cover most, if not all of that money!?