OxfordVillan

I think most posters who mention this are probably really saying that we need a bit more athleticism in midfield, a bit more power. And I think we do. And that extra athleticism and power doesn’t have to come at the cost of ability. Look at our regular midfield 3……Luiz, McGinn, Barkley…..for me that’s not enough when it comes to the very top sides. Not enough power, not enough pace, not big enough physically. I mentioned Ndombele in an earlier post, if he was an option in our midfield then we’d have won some games that we lost this season, notably the two games against Utd, with OGS seemingly sussed out that a powerful and athletic midfield beats Villa…..which it does in those games against the top sides. A good big’un always beats a good lit’lun, as they say. Villa need one or two good big’uns.

Ollie Watkins getting a yellow card for simulation which meant a sending off was just the icing on the cake of a biased (bent) and awful officiating performance. The referee couldn’t wait to point to the spot for the Man Utd penalty, and he was just as keen to not only wave away a valid penalty appeal, but to book the player for simulation……just to rub salt into the wounds.

I’m sure many will say it’s unrealistic, but if it were my choice I’d make a move for Ndombele at Spurs. I think he’s exactly what we need in CM. Spurs are in a bit of turmoil, and I think Ndombele has been caught up in a club/team that’s disjointed. He’s still only 24yrs old and I’m certain has a much higher level to reach than we’ve seen so far at Spurs. Something around £50m I would imagine. Would be one hell of a statement signing

Compare and contrast; Pogba goes down and wins a penalty, Watkins goes down and gets sent off. You need look no further for why Villa can’t buy a win.

Not for me. Dreadful finisher, really wasteful in front of goal. Has the ability to get into great positions but is generally then poor at either picking out a pass or scoring the goal. Had his purple patch a season or so ago.

Looks to me like this is another one of those accounts that just trawl through Internet forums (such as this) and other news articles and recycle. They’re neither ITK or news, it’s more copy and paste bollox. Ignore them and they’ll disappear, keep clicking through to their shit and they’ll ramp the shit up.

Guilbert coming back into the squad next season is a no brainer for me. He’s clearly a competitor who is up for a challenge, and Cash will require pushing to keep his levels up. It’s one less replacement we need to worry about with Elmo’s time coming to an end.

It’s an integral position in how teams play, if City do activate the buy-back option then Villa will be forced to use every single penny of the purported £35m fee, and then some, to get a replacement. I don’t know how ppl can’t see how vital the position is, or how integral Luiz has been. Luiz leaving would leave a huge void to fill.

Knowing how Citeh operate they’ll activate the buy-back option this summer, or at the very least they’ll attempt use it as leverage in a move for Grealish. I do think Pep/City view Villa as an emerging threat, and so one way or another they could disrupt us a bit this summer if they so choose. On balance I’d say they probably will, given that Luiz is only 22 and has shown enough to suggest he can go to a much higher ceiling. I wouldn’t expect anything less from Villa if the roles were reversed. So I think we’ll be shopping for a new CDM in the summer, unfortunately.

No

No, no, no. Why the hell would anyone want to remove Ollie Watkins from the CF position and shunt him out left, and replace him with a player of lesser ability at CF? Utterly ridiculous. There has been talk of Liverpool looking at Watkins to replace Firminho, that’s the level our current CF is at. We keep Watkins at CF and improve the supply line into him, and he goes to the next level of 20+ goals a season. We need a next level defensive midfielder, left sided forward......as 1st priority. We can then think about bringing Grealish in at No.10. I’d say we’d be better served spending our summer budget (I’m assuming around (£120m) on 3 top notch players who go straight into 1st team, no question. I honestly think our back 4 are good enough to go next level, we just need to get in decent back up to replace the outgoing Taylor and Elmo, probably Engels also. Depending upon circumstance and the sums involved, I’d be prepared to mull over offers for JMcG if it meant giving us more ammunition to land one or two top targets.

I have to agree we approached the game like cowards after the opening 5mins. So passive, looked scared to get near them.

I’m not sure why it goes under the radar with many people, but Leeds spent almost £100m last summer..... and they didn’t have almost an entire new 1st team to replace.

As per most managers, he’ll have 10 games next season......depending on who is available

Almost as soon as City go 2-1 up, Stones goes flying through Ramsey and ends up getting sent off. Now I’m not saying we should get men sent off, but in that 1st half we should have been getting properly stuck in to City when we were 1-0 up. Foden should have been properly smashed early in the game, man marked as soon as it became clear he was becoming integral to the game. It’s called being ruthless, game management. We show very little of this. And it’s without doubt a coaching element.

Pathetic. Utterly pathetic. We’ve not laid a glove on them, not got close to them. Even our red card was wasted on a nothing tackle. We’ve literally watched them play all evening. Just not acceptable, and it comes from the coaching.

Well......from what I’m reading all the main federations and leagues are stating they’ll fight this with everything they’ve got......including barring any player who plays in the breakaway from being eligible for international football. The current alleged signatories thus far do not include any German or French clubs, indeed its only 3 from Italy and Spain joining the six from England. And all of those countries league federations have spoken out strongly against the proposed breakaway clubs. As Gary Neville has already said, these clubs must now be heavily sanctioned.

Out of all the U23s, Barry looks like the one who could make the 1st team bench AND do a job with 15-20min of games to go. He looks to have filled out a bit, he’s quick, and he seems to mostly come in off the left.....a role we need filling. Oh, and he clearly knows how to put the ball in the net. I really think we should be seeing him on our bench in the next few weeks.

I’d say it’s integral that the younger players are put on individual strength programmes to make them the best physical specimen they can possibly be. And I’m sure that’s the case with Villa having a shiny and new training facility.

Ikone from Lille or Neres at Ajax to play on Villa’s RW next season. Saint-Maximin to play on the left. Merino into CM. Grealish to play at No.10. Circa £100m outlay, walk into the European places!

I really doubt anyone will be prising Dele Alli away from Spurs and Levy for £20m........REALLY doubt!

Dele Alli is a player that you could reasonably take a punt on. He’s only just turned 25yrs old, and so you’ve comfortably got 2 seasons to get him back to best form........or move him on for a decent fee. If he were obtainable for somewhere in the region of £30-40m then I’d say we should go for it. It’d be nice if he’d just hand in a transfer request to take away a little of Levy’s bargaining position! While we’re at it we may as well get Ashley in on the conversation and offer him similar numbers for Saint-Maximin!

As things stand we’d be fine with a 50k capacity stadium. The North Stand and the Doug Ellis Stand would be the focus for me, much improvement to be gained in and around those.

I think a lot of Villa fans overestimate the form of Barkley in a Villa shirt. I think opinions were inflated by him scoring the winner against Leicester with the last kick of the game, and because he scored in a memorable win over the league champions (a deflected goal!). We can look back now with the benefit of hindsight and see that nearly all of the good performances had Grealish at the heart of them, playing the most instrumental part. Grealish makes a lot of other players look better when he plays.

I think a reality check is on its way for Mr Barkley, or it at least should be. He’s no chance of playing for Chelsea, and It’d take a feckless gamble for anyone to pay anything for him from what we’ve seen of him on the pitch. Chelsea are either going to have to offload him at a whole lot less than the £40m being talked about, or have him sit around for the next 2yrs on £100k every week. I can’t see how Barkley is ever going to see a £100kpw deal ever again, he’s not going to get move to a club in and amongst the top 6-8, and anyone else below that isn’t going to pay a £20-30m transfer and £100k weekly salary to an injury prone 28yr old. Ok, maybe Brucey at Newcastle might. If his price tag was around £10m and his weekly salary demand around £50k then he might attract offers from someone like a Watford, or a Burnley, or a Crystal Palace, or a West Ham. But I’m absolutely certain it shouldn’t be us, even if it was a free transfer. The best teams require work rate, tenacity, application. Barkley doesn’t have any of those, the game has unfortunately left him behind at the top level.