OxfordVillan

Good post, very interesting clip. It shows that he’s got more in his locker than I’d remembered. He’s got the size, he’s got power, he’s got pace, he’s got a trick, he’s got vision. He is 100% an asset to our team if he can stay fit and get a run of games. We must persevere with Keinan Davis. UTV

I thought exactly the same! Looks like he might have given Wes Morgan and Ndidi a hard time, he looks so powerful. It might be interesting to note that Leicesters 1st choice CB pairing played at Villa Park and kept a clean sheet (allegedly?). From the pictures I’ve seen we can definitely see that Davis, Targett, Vassilev, Drinky, Nyland, Elmo, Hourihane, & Trezeguet all played at the King Power for Villa. Leicester players at the King Power included Morgan, Matty James, Vardy, Praet, & Ndidi. Villa players who played at Villa Park include ElGhazi, McGinn, Samatta, Luiz, and I assume Reina? Leicester players at Villa Park included Evans, Soyuncu, & Maddison. That’s as much as I could see. Anybody know which game Grealish played at?

...............................Nyland............................ Guilbert..........Engels.......Mings........Targett McGinn.......Nakamba......Drinky.......Grealish .................Davis...............Samatta.................. Bench; Reina, Elmo, Hause, Konsa, Ramsey, Vassilev, Luiz, ElGhazi, Trezeguet. 4-4-2. Disciplined back 4, FBs instructed that first duty is to defend. We have the forward players to win the game if we don’t leave ourselves exposed and needing to score 3 or more to win it. I’m convinced that with Grealish, McGinn, Samatta, and Davis in the lineup we will cause problems and score. This game should present a great opportunity for Drinkwater to finally step up, no excuses about being behind with fitness now. If he fails to show then we’re down to Luiz, and he just doesn’t have the experience or grit that we require at the moment, imo.

Fair comment, I think. McGinn had been struggling in one or two games prior to the injury, his form had definitely dipped. The rest will have done him no harm. Let’s hope for a reinvigorated John McGinn. UTV

The problem, for me, is that not one other single player has thus far been able to step up and put any sort of decent performance in. We know Grealish & McGinn are good, and that if you put the resources in to nullify them then you stop much of Aston Villa. Losing McGinn for 3months made it easier for opponents. But that wouldn’t have been so glaringly obvious if just one other player from ElGhazi, Trezeguet, Luiz, Hourihane, Wesley, Drinkwater, or Jota, would have put in a performance or two that was worthy of the Premier League. Unfortunately for us we’ve not really had a tune out of anyone else, not even close. The opposition I’m sure look at that group, thus far, and think “**** all to worry about there”. Big problem. We have two players that opposing teams would be concerned about, thereafter nobody. I think Samatta is a very decent addition who opposing teams can’t disregard, and I think Davis is someone that opposing teams couldn’t disregard because of his attributes. I expected more from ElGhazi, very disappointed with his Premier League performance thus far, he was the one I thought should be occupying the thoughts of the opposition in the absence of either Grealish or McGinn. If everyone can remain in good shape then for me we’d go into the Sheffield Utd game with 4 players that Sheffield Utd would have concerns about; Grealish, McGinn, Samatta, Davis. That’s double the amount of players the opposition would be concerned about earlier in the season. If we have to alter our set up to accommodate those 4 then so be it.

I wish Keinan all the best. I hope he now gets an extended injury free run where he can start to showcase his abilities. He has made a difference to Villa when he’s played, he makes the TEAM better imo. The next two months with a fully fit Keinan Davis will make Villa better. Go on Keinan, son, go and ram your talents down some peoples necks! UTV

Villa 3-1.

ElGhazi has 4 goals and 4 assists in the Premier League this season, 2 of those assists coming in a 5-1 away win at Norwich, and one of the goals being the late consolation in a 6-1 home defeat against Man City. Context is important. So when you take the Norwich game out of the equation ElGhazi has two assists all season. That’s clearly nowhere near good enough for the position and role he has played. I thought he’d be much better than he has proven to be thus far. Also worth noting that the consolation goal against ManCity in mid January is his only goal or assist in the league since the ManUtd game on December 1st. Maybe he’s a fair weather player? If so then we might see much improved stats during these forthcoming summer games?

O’Hare is 22, was not consistently making the starting 11 for Coventry in League 1. When is this potential that I see people writing about going to become reality? We all wanted him to make it for us, but whatever the reasons it isn’t happening.

I don’t think we’ve got good enough players to play with out & out “wide men”. Neither ElGhazi or Trezeguet have looked remotely capable of producing either enough crosses or goals in the Premier League. For me we have to try something different, and that would be trying to utilise Keinan Davis as the focal point up front with Samatta playing off him. So something more 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1. Whichever, ive convinced myself we have to go with a midfield 4 of Grealish, McGinn, Nakamba, Drinkwater. Disciplined midfield. Yes it looks a narrower midfield on paper, but we were getting nowhere near enough wide service from ElGhazi or Trezeguet, either going forwards or backwards. I think that with Nakamba & Drinkwater sitting more disciplined, we could get our fullbacks moving forward at the right times. My focus upon restart would be to win more possession of the ball and concede noticeably less chances per game than we were doing.

100% there has only been two good teams this season, Liverpool & ManCity. Every other team is definitely beatable on any given day.

NowTV is probably the answer? I believe you can pay to watch individual games, or you can buy a pass for a week or a month......I think? I’ll buy a month pass!

I salute Tyrone Mings for what he is doing and has done. He definitely seems to be carving out an iconic status, I hope he can take it in his stride and it doesn’t affect his football. I hope he has adjusted and continues evolving, because his form noticeably dropped off after his England venture. We just have to hope he can carry it well. UTV

Well done girls, they’re going up to WSL in place of the bin dippers! UTV

Provisional fixture list for restart has us playing 3 of the first 4 games at “home”. Sheffield Utd, Chelsea, Wolves. An “away” tie at Newcastle. We’ve got to be quite happy with that, haven’t we?! I particularly fancy us to beat Newcastle early into the restart. If we get ourselves 100% as ready as is humanly possible for the restart, we could go a long way to safety within 8 days of the restart. Honestly think there’s wins in these opening few games if lessons have been learned. UTV

IF the stories about him wanting to leave upon relegation have any truth to them, then for me we consider every offer that might come in for him. Furthermore, I wouldn’t particularly want that type of attitude around my 1st team squad, I’d sooner go with Vassilev.

At 37 Reina is a few years past his physical peak, thats the reality, and I think that’s shown in some of the games. He still has some good attributes, but the mistakes he’s made tell me that his brain hasn’t adjusted to the physical attributes he’s lost, he still thinks like the 28yr old Pepe Reina from what I’ve seen. Nyland, at 29, is in his peak years. He has displayed enough in his performances this season to get the nod from me, and we should show him support and grow his confidence. Reina is fine as back up whilst our other GKs recover from injuries, but backup is as good as it gets for me. He’s off soon anyway, we need to put our confidence into those who are tied to the club.

I think Sheffield Utd are probably the best team in the league playing three at the back, very well drilled in what they do and they’ve been doing it for a long time. I think the onus is on us to come up with a system that can can go some way to countering the main strengths of what they do. For me that would require Villa to play with two front men, with Keinan Davis being tasked to disrupt that back 3 as much as possible, stick amongst them like glue. If Samatta plays off of Davis then he should get chances. Grealish & McGinn can push up and leave two deeper laying midfielders, I’d go with Nakamba and Drinkwater. I go with drinkwater because we don’t really have any other options as a sitting CM, Hourihane definitely not someone who can do that. Luiz can replace Drinkwater if/when he blows up.

From what I’ve seen of Vassilev, he reminds me a little of Weimann. Vassilev would be on the bench for me, as would Ramsey. Their youthful exuberance and energy would help us, I’m sure. Also gives us a couple of wildcards that the opposition aren’t too aware of. Without crowds in stadiums this is as good a time as any to get them involved

Reina had 2 or 3 poor games, cost us goals. I much prefer his distribution over Nyland, but we have to somehow negate individual errors as much as possible. Both GKs have their faults, I just think Nyland has/was solid in the cup final and other games he played, the City defeat aside.

Samatta definitely isn’t a wide forward, not for me. I don’t think we have good enough wide forwards to go with 3 at the top. I think we need to alter our attacking mindset and be more solid in the middle and up front. That eases the pressure on an overburdened backline. We have players capable of winning games in Grealish and McGinn, keep it solid around them and we can nick goals and games. We have to build on some clean sheets IMO. Too often we’ve steamed in and found ourselves a goal or two down in the 1st half, we must create a focus on firstly being hard to beat. That requires a coaching alteration to our tactics and personnel.

My thinking is that the ball sticks with Keinan Davis, and therefore we are able to retain possession higher up the pitch, for longer. That in itself is a better form of defence. We know Samatta can nick goals, we know Grealish and McGinn can score the spectacular. If we keep things tight without over committing going forward, we do have the ability to score good/spectacular goals to nick wins. With ElGhazi and Trezeguet in the starting lineup we get neither enough chances created or possession of the ball, it’s not like they’ve been shown to be capable of consistently delivering either crosses or goals, unfortunately thus far. The ball comes back at us far too quickly. I just don’t think we have the personnel to play front foot 4-3-3. There is a role for ElGhazi on the left, as per the Wembley games he’s played in, but for me that’d be from the bench at the moment. I think we just have to be more pragmatic with our tactics to deal with differing other teams. And with Sheffield Utd playing a back 3 I’d go with two front men in the middle rather than one. Against other opposition that might/should change. We’ve got to get smarter, show a bit more savvy.

I think reducing the amount of goals conceded has to come from tweaking the style of play. For me we might have to play what might look narrower, because in ElGhazi and Trezeguet we’ve not been good enough. I’d be looking to utilise Keinan Davis up front with Samatta in around him, because with midfielders such as McGinn and Grealish in the team we are capable of the brilliant. Id have a bench that would include Vassilev and Ramsey, as I think fitness and energy could be the difference in a 10 game sprint finish. As things stand I’d line up against Sheffield Utd as follows; ................................Nyland............................. Guilbert..........Engels........Mings.........Targett McGinn.....Nakamba.....Drinkwater...Grealish ....................Samatta........Davis........................

Any chance of just talking about football? It’s starting again no matter what anyone thinks and it’s gotten more than tedious to keep seeing covid figures trotted out. Let’s get talking about the Premier League and what we do to drag ourselves up. Let’s look forward, not back.

Given what lays ahead of us if we don’t get wins, why don’t we get behind EVERY player in the squad and just see where that takes us?