VillaFaninLondon

I'm not gonna bother watching us against Everton. Fed up watching this turgid shite every week. Even when we play well we don't create anything. May as well throw on Coutinho at HT, it can't get any worse.

Our worst performance of the season so far which says it all as there have been quite a few bad ones already.

We're making a team with Matic, Lindelof, Telles, Dalot and a raw Elanga in it look like world beaters. Shameful.

What the f*** pass is that by Luiz. Most of our players are just brainless.

What a howler by Emi, what on earth was he doing. We are terrible and I cannot understand all the optimism around the place because our form is absolutely diabolical. Another defeat incoming.

If we were to get this guy, or someone else of his pedigree, it would be our best signing of the whole window IMO.

Not true. Coutinho started for Barca and played an hour against Betis in early December so around 6 weeks ago. He's also come off the bench a couple of times since then. Digne started against Plop in early December so probably about 6 weeks too. I think they are both able to start against Manure and then maybe take them off after 60 mins.

Mediocre teams like Burnley and Watford have managed to beat them at least twice in the past 3-4 years alone. We have managed one solitary win against them in 12 years. Being better than us you'd expect them to beat us more than we've beaten them, but to have a record of 4 wins and 37 defeats in 30 years of PL football is astounding. They were top dogs for a long time under Fergie, but we were finishing top 6 in quite a few of those seasons too so should have beaten them more. Without coming across as dramatic, we really must get something out of this game. Our form has tailed off and if we lose on Saturday that's four straight defeats and the sort of horrible runs Smith was overseeing when he was in charge. I'd throw both Coutinho and Digne (once confirmed) into the starting 11 if available and ready - we need improvements in straight away.

Embarrassing that we lost to Brentford quite frankly. Then again, so were the Watford, Southampton and Wolves defeats.

I just don't get all the praise for us. Yes we had them on the backfoot for large periods and were largely the better team, but still barely troubled De Gea. And we lost of course. That's what matters and that's another cup run over before it's even started. Everyone said United needed the result tonight, but we needed it too. Losses to Chelsea, Brentford and now Manure. Three losses in a row and we really have to make sure that's not four by losing to these bastards again on Saturday. At least these games are showing that the likes of Targett and Luiz (as a CDM at least) aren't good enough. We really have to add more quality this month and hope that Coutinho can find his old magic.

The narrative will be the ref lost us the game and the decision not to give a goal was a disgrace, but we're still largely awful going forward, give the ball away far too much, and make basic errors like we did for the goal. At the minimum today we should be taking that game to pens but we go out to a poor Man U team who both Newcastle and Wolves got the better of. It's another loss, we're out at the third round of this competition yet again and it's just another downside of a very disappointing season. I'll back Gerrard but his great start has largely faded now and it's now three defeats in a row. Man U at home on Saturday is winnable, they really look bad, but another loss and I could see the positive atmosphere start to change.

Just fed up of losing all the time. Man U are cr*p. Yes we've been cheated but it still doesn't take away from the fact we gave away a rubbish goal, were poor in the final third again, and going out of the third round of this cup for the 6th bloody year.

And our own failures in front of goal as per usual.

Don't really care that we've been the better team for large parts, this team needs to stop losing so easily. 13th defeat of the season if we lose this one. That's pathetic.

We've been cheated out of a goal but equally been so wasteful. Had more than enough chances and territory to have scored at least once.

What a surprise. Decision goes for Manure as usual. Jammiest team I've ever known. Hate them.

Buendia and Watkins have at least looked dangerous even if they have cocked up at times. Ings has just been totally anonymous. Bissouma and Digne would improve this side massively as CM and LB are the two weak links of the team. Though to buy both would cost around 80m.

Watkins should have scored.

Wolves absolutely outplayed Manure a week or so back and made them look muck, but of course we make them look like world beaters. I'd actually rather win the league game than this one anyway. Although probably lose both knowing us.

Absolutely shocking defending.

The worry over the age of these signings is fair, but we have the 6th youngest squad in the PL at 25.5 years: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/altersschnitt/wettbewerb/GB1 14 players of the squad of 24 is 26 or younger. Only one player is over 30 (Young) and he'll be gone in the summer. MON did go down the short term route which ruined us, but that's because he was buying bang average players. He failed in attracting top players like Sneijder. I still would like us to buy young players but a mix of a few high quality older players in no bad thing if they are better than what we have.

Both RB and LB has been a truly terrible position for us over the years. Even when we were finishing 6th under O'Neill our FBs were Cuellar and Luke Young, both average and not even playing in their natural positions. I think Mellberg was even put at RB before that because our RBs were so sh**. The one quality LB we did sign was Amavi who really should have gone on to be a top FB. Injury and playing for a really sh** Villa team screwed up his career. Digne will be the first FB we have signed that I am genuinely excited about. So many poor buys in this position over the years.

I'd like him to stick around as a decent squad player but if he does want to go then that will be that. I'm sure we'll get back what we paid for him anyhow.

I'm very happy with this one. Digne hasn't had a great season due to falling out with Rafa but there's no question he's an upgrade on Targett and if Gerrard can get him back to his best he's up there as one of the best LBs in the league. I like Targett's attitude, he's a good professional and he did very well for us last season and always gives his best, but he has some major weaknesses which is why he'll never be a top FB. He's slow and not athletic enough, his crossing generally isn't good enough and rarely beats the first man, and his positioning when defending is questionable. When we signed Targett we were newly promoted out of the Championship, in fact when we signed all of our defenders except for Cash we were, it's now time we started aiming higher. LB is our most vulnerable position IMO, Targett was shown up by both Chelsea and Brentford in the last 2 games, and I think we have seen Digne's position at Everton as an opportunity we have to exploit. We've got to remember that Targett was 23/24 when we signed him and couldn't even get in Southampton's team. He was always a bit limited in quality. I think he has improved since he's been with us by playing regularly and learning but out of all our back 4 I think he's the weakest link (people go on about Mings but he's still a hugely important defender for us even if he does make some errors). I do think a CB will be on the radar too though. There's no doubt Digne is better going forward than defensively, but up until this season Digne's defensive stats were also very, very good. I think his defending can definitely be worked on. He's also a great free kick taker as is Coutinho which will finally give us some threat when we have a free kick just outside the box. If this gets done, I wonder what that will mean for Targett. I think he's a very useful squad player but 100% Digne will be ahead of him. Targett will play in the cups or in games when Digne is injured or suspended. I could see us moving him on in summer if he wants to play regularly and bringing in Hickey as understudy to Digne with a view to him being our LB in the long term.

I imagine the front 6 could look like this when everyone is fit: ..................New DM.................. .........McGinn........Luiz............. Bailey........................Coutinho ..................Watkins................. Then Ings, Buendia, Ramsey, Carney and Bert to rotate based on form/fitness. I imagine we'll be looking to offload AEG and Trez in the summer. If that isn't enough to massively trouble the majority of teams in this league then I don't know what will.