OxfordVillan

Liverpool having Mane out is a big plus, he’s been doing the business for them almost singlehandedly for a few games. By no means their only threat, but he is the player who has popped up with the important goals more often than not recently. So definitely a bonus that he’s out. I hope our back four have been practicing with the longer ball over to the wings, as I think that’s where you can get at this Liverpool team. You almost have to invite their press up the field, and have your defence try to match them up in terms of effort and intensity. Any dithering in your backline and they’ll punish you. But no doubt their fullbacks do offer you space behind them, and you must have pace and bravery to try and exploit that. We have more pace now. And in Luiz, Grealish, and Barkley we have players capable of picking out a defence splitting pass.

Davis really does need to go out on loan now to a decent championship club and play a full season. I’ve said elsewhere that if we got him on a new deal then he should go out on loan to try and score goals and get a full playing season under his belt, maybe somewhere like Boro under Warnock would be a good fit for him? Whatever, he needs to go and play to try and prove himself.

I’d have to agree that Targett does seem slow, he still doesn’t look like a professional athlete to me. I still think he’s some way short of where he should be in terms of his fitness. Hopefully the club know this and are working to get him into a much improved physical state

Against Liverpool you have to have a backline that are comfortable on the ball and capable of picking out a pass. Liverpool use a relentless press with their front 3, having Taylor at LB wouldn’t be good as he’s not good on the ball. Targett should continue starting, just needs to avoid early yellow cards.

I have to agree that I think this move goes to deadline day. If we can pick up another win at Fulham on Monday night, then the screw gets turned on Bremen a little bit more. I think Bremen have put themselves in a corner.

Call me old fashioned, but if Villa are leading games with 20mins or so to go, what type of fullbacks would you prefer to retain that lead? I’d go with the full blooded commitment of a Freddy type, not scintillating going forward but absolutely relishes the challenge of stopping players going past him. We need a mix of players for different games and different stages of games.

I’d definitely be retaining Freddy, his commitment and desire can make up for other areas. He’s had his 1st season with us in a new league, let’s give him a little while longer to show us if he can keep improving.

We’re into full on poker face now. Whose need is more pressing? Do Villa need the player desperately, or do Werder need the €s more desperately? There’ll be a middle ground to be had, and Rashica will be unveiled Friday morning, 9am!

I’m inclined to agree with those who think that the Sarr story has been put out there to hurry WB. I feel certain that all is agreed with the player, and that WB have been informed by the player of this. If that is the case then WB have had leverage taken away, and their hopes of an auction are gone. Expect Rashica to be unveiled Friday morning, 9am.

I concur. Strengthening our CM is now the priority. Look how the signings of Doucoure and Allan has transformed Everton. We need at least one CM similar to the aforementioned players at Everton to come in for Hourihane or McGinn, neither of which are athletic or physical enough for what’s required these days. Unfortunately we should be looking at those two as decent back up. You only have to see the Crystal Palace pair of CMs at Man Utd at the weekend, they bossed the game and provided the platform for palace to win. Ditto Liverpool with Henderson, Fabinho, Thiago, or Keita. You absolutely have to have a strong middle three to utilise your FBs in the Premier League, which is what I think Villa are looking to achieve. Regrettably, McGinn and Hourihane won’t provide us that.

Konsa is growing in stature with every game, and still some Villa fans call for Tuanzebe. Give yer heads a wobble, we’ve already got Villa and England’s future right here at Villa Park

Ppl aren’t writing McGinn off, I think it’s merely a case of stating the obvious...... that we need better options in CM. We can’t afford too much sentiment if we’re striving for better, we have to keep taking steps to improve. We need a quality alternative in CM to either compliment or replace McGinn & Hourihane when they’re not at it.

Sky have no idea on the Villa budget, much like myself. Or anyone outside of Purslow, Lange, Eden’s, Sawiris, or Smith. Didn’t the FFP expert who podcasts with Jonny Gould say that we could spend £200m+ if we wanted to, as long as it was balanced with £0 next summer? The Sky reports are mostly pure guesswork

I’m not saying we won’t be in for another CF, but you’re forgetting that Traore states his favoured role is striker, and I think his best stats show he’s decent as striker.

Having watched Grealish at Burton Albion on Monday night, is it not feasible that Jack could actually be the box to box midfielder we want? To a large extent a box to box midfielder is almost a “free role” player, no? Jack clearly has the fitness and energy to get up and down the pitch, and there’s no doubting his ability to score goals and open up defences. He’s capable of running with the ball from deep, as well as popping up on the left or right and crossing into the box. We’ve also got used to watching him track back deep into his own half more recently. Obviously he’s not renowned for his tackling, but tackling as we used to know it in the Gerrard/Lampard era has changed. If he took on this type of role it would also help him with a designated role for England, as his immediate challengers would then be the likes of Mason Mount and Ross Barkley......both of whom i would say jack could put to the sword.

I think McNulty is likely wrong when he says that’s us done with spending. I don’t think we’ll be signing another CF, though, as Traoré does mention in his unveiling that he likes to play as a striker. So I’d imagine we go with Watkins as 1st choice, Davis is the immediate replacement, Wesley to return in the new year, Traore can be utilised as CF if needs be. I’ve always had in my mind that we could likely spend the same this transfer window as we did last summer, I still think this is the case. If we get Rashica then I’d still be thinking we have a CM to come.

Well he wasn’t a guarantee of goals after November last season. 10 of his 15 were scored by mid November, 7 coming in 3 consecutive games against Norwich, Sheffield Utd, and Wolves, over a span of 3 weeks. He scored 3 goals in 2020. I’m fully behind what we already have, Ollie Watkins, to prove himself the right option for Aston Villa football club

We have Ollie Watkins, he is a Villa player NOW. That’s my only interest. I’m not bothered about Abraham in any way, and certainly not at £55m. I don’t get why some Villa fans obsess over Abraham and Tuanzebe, they’re history to us and didn’t want to stick around. We HAVE Konsa and Watkins who both look to be coming along nicely.

I don’t rate him in the £55m category, no.

You’d be happy to part with £55m for Tammy?! Chelsea would be laughing, they’d recoup all of their outlay for Werner at that sort of money.

Ndombele or Alli, anyone?

Can’t see how we’d accommodate Watkins and Abraham, it’s one or the other for that CF role. And that’s before we consider Wesley returning in the next few months. No, it’s a CM for me.

I’ve said it before, we should get Keinan on a new 3yr deal, even if only to protect our investment. He has really good attributes, if he finds the confidence to add goals to his skill set then he is an expensive player. But more than that, he’d be a really good player for Aston Villa Football Club. A good finish last night, he had loads of time to think what he was going to do and finished with aplomb.

The jigsaw pieces are falling into place. I think there’s more to come, and I base that on Grealish’s comments surrounding his chat with the owners. I think the owners are targeting top half this season, and so I’m certain there’s more to come after Traore (expected today). With Traore being added I think that takes our outlay thus far to about £72m. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if we still have a further £60-70m earmarked for this window. Grealish looked too excited about it for there not to be some solid promises made! I reckon Rashica is in the bag at around £25m, and then a record transfer CM to top the window off.