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VillaFaninLondon

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    Match Thread: Bournemouth v Villa

    in PL: Bournemouth a

    Posted

    Bournemouth are a Championship team all over the park in all fairness. That isn't being rude to them, it's just a fact. 

     

    Nothing seems to have changed from last season and it was obvious we hadn't done enough in the transfer market. McGinn and Ramsey once again busy but without much quality, Coutinho once again poor and anonymous, Bailey brilliant in preseason but as with last season he hasn't done much today although his pace has caused a few problems. Ings not really done much and I'd have played Watkins. And what a silly thing to do dropping Mings for Konsa. For Chambers I could understand given his preseason form but not for our 4th best CB. 

     

    Surely he has to make changes soon if not at HT. I don't want to watch the same rubbish in the 2nd half and Gerrard not do anything until the 75th minute. 

     

    We did seem to play in halves last season so there is a chance we come out in the 2nd half and improve, that's all we can hope for at this stage. 

    Pre match thread

    in PL: Bournemouth a

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

    Konsa, Ramsey and Ings get the nods.

    He tried Ings several times last season and it didn't work. Not convinced at all but let's see. Konsa over Chambers or Mings is another odd one, he'e liable to do something daft like give the ball away which leads to a goal. I'd have gone with Luiz over Ramsey too probably but was half expecting that one.

    Summer Transfer Window 2022

    in Villa Talk

    Posted

    8 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

    So basically win more and lose less. Solid advice.

    Well yes that is generally how it works if you want to get more points than the previous season. I'd hardly be suggesting how we can lose more and win less would I.

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    Summer Transfer Window 2022

    in Villa Talk

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, thunderball said:

    We have been poor since Lerner lost interest and sold all our assets, we were top 6 at that point. It’s a hard battle back and we have done well. I have never seen this division as competitive as it is now, the top 8 are all more established, and as perspective, we nearly went bust four years ago, had to sell the ground and had to build a new team from scratch under FFP. Plus the season we went down, the Sky money went crazy and we missed out on 3 years of huge money. When we came back up it was a different Premier League, even Bournemouth and Brighton had strong squads with coveted players.

    Last season was serious under achievement, this season is the litmus test. But having watched Palace v Arsenal last night you can see just how competitive it is, and how hard top 10 will be. Gerrard needs to cut out the mistakes (think Mings), improve ball retention and our competitiveness in the middle, improve competition for places, and give the forwards a platform to thrive because they should be good enough. I do think Gerrard and the club is working towards all these, it’s going to take time.

    In all honesty the players have to step up, for me it’s on them, they are good enough and generally underperformed almost to a man last season. For me we still lack a very good #8, although I like McGinn, Luiz, Sanson, JJ and Nakamba, I am not convinced we can rely on them for the standard our ambition requires. I hope one of them steps up.

    Oh sure, we have come a long way. No denying that at all and we've great owners to thank for that for their investment. But all those other clubs have had dark days too, even the so-called 'top' clubs have, Chelsea were in big trouble when Abramovich left last season and also when he first took over they had huge debts, unfortunately they always seem to come out of these situations smelling of roses.

     

    For me we have to do a few things this season to have a decent season:

    • Improve our home form - winning six times at home was terrible last season, it wasn't much better the season before (albeit without fans), we need to be targeting a minimum of 10 wins at home this season
    • Be more consistent - goes without saying, that means having fairly standard form throughout the campaign, of course winning runs are great, but when you win 2 or 3 in a row then go on and lose your next 4 or 5 you're not going to have a good season, it has to stop
    • Be harder to beat - 19 defeats last season was really bad, it was even more than Burnley I think, we need to turn more defeats into draws especially against the bigger teams and more draws against weaker teams into wins, even if we only won a couple more than last season but turned at least 5 of those defeats into draws, we'd be 9-10 points better off and easily top half
    • Do better against the top 7 teams - we lost twice to 6 of the top 7 last season, that's 12 defeats, simply ain't good enough
    • Do better against the bottom teams - kind of a contradiction to the point above but I don't want us to be losing twice to teams like Watford again, teams we should be beating comfortably. That's why we need to start well today because our record against newly promoted clubs last season was dog sh*t
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    Summer Transfer Window 2022

    in Villa Talk

    Posted

    2 hours ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

    I think that is quite a negative outlook to have, Gerrard is still fairly new to the job, he has only been in charge for 9 months. This is his first full season, he has only just completed his first full pre-season. It is still too early to judge him,  just give him time, I know it is difficult. Gerrard is very young and inexperienced in management, he is learning on the job. I think fans expectations generally of managers and players these days are too high, they aren’t miracle workers. Gerrard was an excellent player, I think he will go on to be an excellent manager, whether it is with us or someone else. I can’t predict the future, I can just watch and enjoy the ride 

    I think 9 months is long enough for Gerrard to be properly judged this season. We're not expecting Europe even though it would be nice, but a significant improvement on last season for sure. He's had two transfer windows, and four of his likely first 11 will be his players (Carlos, Digne, Kamara, Coutinho). I personally thought he would be backed more this summer especially given Purslow is talking about top 7 but there is rumour that he is still after a starting 11 CM at the minimum. 

     

    It's all well and good being eternally optimistic but now it's time to sh*t or get off the pot. We seem to continually underperform as a club despite having a first 11 and team full of players who have performed at the highest level at international level and also for their former clubs: Coutinho, Bailey, Kamara, Carlos, Martinez, Digne to name a few. Our team isn't perfect, that's why many including myself would like to see more players coming in, but there is enough there to improve on what was a very poor season last time out and break into the top half. The league is competitive, you're not wrong, but with all the investment these owners have put in over the years they want to see progress, it's not unrealistic expectations to want to achieve that. Top half should be a minimum expectation with the squad we have in place in spite of Gerrard's inexperience at this level, and potential top managers learn quickly anyhow. 

     

    You like to mention we were in the Championship a few seasons ago, well so were Wolves, Leicester, Newcastle, even West Ham have been down there fairly recently and three of those four teams have since qualified for Europe (in Wolves and Leicester case within 2 seasons of promotion). It's not an excuse because it actually gave us a chance to reset and we now have a completely different team to the one we had then. If we want to talk about the past, between 2000 and 2011 we finished in the top 10 eight times so maybe we should be using that as a benchmark for our success rather than the last decade. We can nitpick all we want. Anyhow, we need to start off well by beating Bournemouth today. We have a fully fit squad to choose from and our preseason seems to have gone reasonably decent, so no excuses for me. 

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    Pre match thread

    in PL: Bournemouth a

    Posted

    Reckon it will be something like below with Chambers or Mings partnering Carlos and Luiz or Ramsey battling for that other CM spot, personally I'd go with Chambers and Luiz:

    Martinez

    Cash

    Mings/Chambers

    Carlos

    Digne

    Kamara

    Luiz/Ramsey

    McGinn

    Bailey

    Coutinho

    Watkins

    Summer Transfer Window 2022

    in Villa Talk

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Peter Griffin said:

    I disagree with that. Our goal should be to invest in the right players at Villa to bring Villa forward. We got Kamara on a free and they are signing Onana for 33.5m, I much prefer Kamara to Onana

    I agree with this, but I also think the fact we got Kamara on a free and Coutinho and Carlos so cheap (below their market values) means there should be plenty of money for us to go and strengthen further.

     

    Anyway the article in the Telegraph by Percy seems quite encouraging that at least one other player may be coming in so let's wait and see. 

    Summer Transfer Window 2022

    in Villa Talk

    Posted

    13 minutes ago, romavillan said:

    Yep big reason Smith got the boot was after that run it was deemed no chance for top 8 now, underperforming with a good enough squad etc.

    If Gerrard benefits from some more realistic expectations and the result is stable management and progress up the table then that's a good thing for us now. Harsh on Smith that it didn't happen in time for him but still, if we've got hopes more in line with reality we'll be a lot happier...

    Not really harsh on Smith given he was averaging a point a game for something stupid like 35 games. And  Gerrard will likewise be judged on results, there's no favoritism.

    • Like 2

    Summer Transfer Window 2022

    in Villa Talk

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Peter Griffin said:

    We haven't finished as high as 10th in the PL since 2009/10. We are not drifting around 10th, it is an aspiration to break into the top 10 

    2010/11 actually. And that is an epic failure on our part, this club used to finish top 10 virtually every season before 2011, if we didn't it usually ended in a manager's dismissal. Think of all the clubs that have finished in the top 10 since 2011 - Swansea, Stoke, Sheff U, Burnley, Southampton, Brighton, even Wet Bum finished top 10 twice in that time. It's ridiculous we've not been top 10 for so long at the expense of those clubs. I've supported this club since the mid 90s and every season for 15 years our aim was to finish in Europe (not just top 10) and most seasons we did finish around 6th, 7th, 8th. So yes top 10 will be an achievement of sorts I guess, but the investment is currently only enough to sneak top 10 in my view. If anything bad happens - injuries, Gerrard getting things wrong, Covid, signings not hitting top form immediately, etc - we could easily miss out again and finish bottom half. Surely the goal should be to invest at the very minimum what West Ham are investing if we want to get close to them and so far we haven't, their net spend this summer is around 100m whereas ours is 5m (or 30m if you include January). 

    Summer Transfer Window 2022

    in Villa Talk

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

    I agree with the point on loans becoming permanent.

    I suspect like most fans I would like to see more quality signings. But every year it is the same, we just need one or two more to make the next step up. The fan in me wants to see us sign Sangare and a striker and another attacking midfield. However, I try to keep my self in the real world and take each window as a gradual improvement. When I look back year on year since NSWE bought us I am very very happy with what is happen to our squad 

    I am very happy with NSWE and the progress we have made but I just always feel we don't quite do enough. Yes we are in a miles better position than most clubs and that is something to be proud of but I also wish we would just go for it and really show the ambition we need to mix it up with the top 7. 

     

    I just feel it's a journey that is taking a while and I'm unsure if we'll ever make the destination if we just keep making minimum progress. 

    Summer Transfer Window 2022

    in Villa Talk

    Posted

    13 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

    Why are people convinced West Ham have had a better window than us?

    New starting striker, new starting CB, new CM who will definitely play quite a few games and offer stiff competition. All signings at a good age too and not yet hit their peak. 

     

    Definitely done better than us I feel and were already ahead of us given they've finished several places ahead of us the last 2 seasons. Funny why a lot of their fans were slagging off the owners as they seem to be investing a fair bit of money down there season after season.

    Summer Transfer Window 2022

    in Villa Talk

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

    I think the underwhelmed feeling is down to timing. If we signed Coutinho, Carlos, Kamara, Augustinssson and Olsen in the last 3 weeks this place would be buzzing. But of course, there would be people moaning that we left it too late to do our business and now the players have missed the all important pre season 😂

    Probably right to an extent. But I can't stress this enough, Coutinho and Olsen were loans made permanent. They are signings but technically they don't improve us as they were here last season. People don't seem to get that. We have made three signings, two of which will go into our first 11 and one will be backup to Digne. It's not enough for a team that drastically let us down last season, we arguably needed 3 or even 4 new starting 11 players. 

     

    There were so many discussions last season about how McGinn and Watkins were not consistent or good enough if we wanted to move forward and challenge the top 6/7 teams and guess what? they'll still be starting every game next season for us. That's why it feels a bit disappointing, I don't think it's entitled to feel that. 

     

    I understand that owners might want to look for evolution rather than revolution but this insistence of signing a couple of marquee players then ignoring other gaps in the squad is totally frustrating and seems to be a recurring theme with us every summer. But it's ok because 'incremental' progress is better than no progress (despite the fact that most teams in the league are improving at the very least marginally each season).

    • Like 3

    Summer Transfer Window 2022

    in Villa Talk

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

    And that would be progress. 

    It would but you can see why people are feeling a bit underwhelmed about the season. Big plans, big ambitions apparently, but not enough progress this season to get close to 7th realistically and with Newcastle's wealth will there be another opportunity to break the top 7. Who knows.

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