MotoMkali

9 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Nouse

48 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

4 assists and 3 goals in 13 games is a lot. How will we replace that?

AEG might be as big of a loss as Jack

As I said in the wesley thread our 3 attacking outlets are grealish, mcginn and Anwar. If we are missing one we are missing a lot of end product especially if one isn't firing like mcginn lately. Hopefully the injury won't knock his confidence which must be huge after the last few games. Anwars potential is huge and by the end of the year could have 10 goals and assists, and played himself into contention for team of the season.

Only really needs 3 things now, defensive mouse, consistency and being able to beat players without pace. Needs to learn from Jack. 

3 hours ago, punkiller1981 said:

It’s about perception as much as anything, he is our best player by a country mile and he is our only player including mcginn that is irreplaceable. A huge contract shows ambition to keep our best player, makes him even more expensive for other clubs and actually rewards him for his performance in the premier league. 

Im sure his contract was a fantastic championship contract and I imagine he was easily the highest paid player but this is the premier league and he deserves the best deal we can offer. As for the other players then it’s simple, match his skill and influence and similar money will follow until then you get what your worth. 
 

I believe Barca renegotiate with Messi almost every year so why wouldn’t we do what we can to make our best player happy. (And no I’m not saying he is as good as Messi)

He had a clause in his contract that boosted his wages like I'm sure kodjia and Chester had as well. I'm pretty sure he is on 100k a week currently and if we gave him much more we would have to give all our other starters 10-20k

7 minutes ago, sne said:

Since the Norwich game (or in his last 6) he has 0 goals and 0 assists.

With him having played 500 out of those 540 minute you'd really expect a bit more. That much time up front you should get the odd tap in or flick on even if you are not playing well.

He does appear to put himself about a bit more but once again that's the bare minimum you should expect from a young attacker in a new club and league.

He looks OK-ish, to me he doesn't look like a natural footballer. He's big and he's not terrible, but the best I can see in him is that there is a lot of room for improvement.

Confidence is huge with strikers, a few goals will perhaps get him to try more things. Now he's just doing basic stuff.

ATM he's certainly not the focal point of our attack.

Of course wesley isn't the focal point he is currently a cog. Our 3 best attacking outlets as I'm sure everyone knows are grealish, mcginn and el ghazi which is why over the last 3 or 4 games everything has gone through them. But when we are missing one you can see we struggle to create like when el ghazi was goje against united. We certainly could have done with him playing the full game although trez wasn't that poor. 

5 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

What is Wesley's job then if it isnt to rely on him to score goals?  He lacks strength, doesn't really compete in the air, his first touch is poor and doesnt have blistering pace. 

I would say his job is predominately to score goals, 

His job is to receive the ball to feet and fin the right pass for us to get pass the next defender. He did this excellently against Newcastle and quite a few times against united especially for trez. I think if el ghazi was playing we would have won the game and that injury really hampered us despite that trez's goal was unlucky to be ruled out. 

13 hours ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Thing is statistics often tells you what you're looking for. The huge difference between Wesley and lots of stat wise comperable players is that they are a lot more mobile. Wes is pretty decent defensively at times, but so incredibly static in the attacking play. Firminho might not have scored 15 goals so far, but his off ball movement, intelligence and what not is on another planet than Wes. 

Wes has definitely improved in some areas like work rate and coming deep to link up, but there's so much else missing. He's one of the least dangerous attacking threats I've ever seen. He simply doesn't have it yet. And he both directly and indirectly makes our attacking play a bit impotent. 

Yeah but the point is Wesley isn't as bad as people say. He should be on 5/6 goals (missed pen +Newcastle sitter) and 2 assists (our disallowed goal) which isn't so bad Compared to one of the best players in the league and probably Liverpools most important player.

Aside from that our entire team including wesley need to gamble on balls more and it certainly hurts us. Like with targets ball across goal against Newcastle one of our players should have been running front post for an easy finish but no one was. This isn't just a wesley problem it is a villa problem and we need to improve our off ball movement both on and off the ball. 

13 hours ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Firmino's also assissted 2 more and is not relied on to be the main goal scorer for his team. Wesley is.

Wesley isn't relied on to be the main scorer. In case you hadn't noticed the team is built to get goals out of multiple players with wesley on 4, grealish, mcginn, el ghazi on 3, Hourihane, trez and Luiz on 2 and mcginn and targett on 1. Trez and El ghazi could be both be on more same with hourihane and Jack.

Wesley could score more but he is doing alright and should really be in 2 assists after today's game (if grealish left the ball for Luiz) 

13 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

The bottom line is we're not going to stay up if all of our goals have to come from midfielders. One way or another, he needs to offer more of a threat, and in the expectation that that won't happen before January, we need to fix this position as a matter of priority.

As a general rule you only need 40 goals to stay up you may need more this year as there are so many points and goal sieves at the top of the table. We are currently on track for 57 goals. On top of that wesley would have had an assist if grealish wasn't offside.

Where he is at now may not quite be good enough but I am confident that against weaker teams he will be able to score and help us win which at the minute is what is most important. 

11 hours ago, thunderball said:

Excellent today. Very much an integral part of our offensive game, very tidy and smart in his use of the ball, finds good positions too. 
 

You heard it here first but he could get a call up if he keeps playing like this.

Woah, I said it first a couple of weeks ago. Said he is better than that waster Rose and he is better than Bertrand so unless Shaw gets fit targett should really be England's back up left back. 

Made the right choice for our disallowed goal but I didn't see a huge amount of the game. Sounds like a bit of mixed bag. Once again it didn't seem like he really had the opportunity to shoot whether that is on him or us has yet to be determined. Had some good cross play passes but I think was hampered by the fact El Ghazi was injured. 

37 minutes ago, Delphouneso said:

I'd assume that's cause the encroaching players become 'active' if there's a rebound.

Problem is that if an opposing player is in the box he is distracting the keeper and in my opinion it should be retaken

1 hour ago, zab6359 said:

1st point - no he didn't lol he's on a good wage he's happy to see out his contract he will never earn that sort of money again.

2nd point - rubbish no one joins a team because of there compassion!

 

If you are comparing similar level clubs you will look at who takes care of injured players and doesn't though them out with the wolves.

If chester remained fit after this contract he could have easily got a 3 or 4 year contract for a near playoff team like Derby and gotten payed quite handsomely. It isn't as if he is some mug and when fit was probably a top 6 or 7 cb in the championship. 

1 hour ago, zab6359 said:

What player should risk there body for a game? It's football not Afganistan, he's played through an injury not lost a limb! JC has been very well paid compared to his ability over the years I'm quietly confident he'll be financially secure in the years to come. 

Yes but he sacrificed his earning future and his international career for the success of a team that looked like it was going to finish mid table. You have to take care of players otherwise others won't want to join. 

1 hour ago, It's Your Round said:

Looks an exciting player, fast, skilful can finish and hold the ball up. 
 

The only caveat is some of the defending in that video is truly awful. 

That is my worry with any ligue 1 signings, the defending is poor it is unbelievable. Depay is unstoppable over there in the prem he was a waste of skin. Same with Pepe as well. I would also be wary of signing players from lille as I suspect similar to Brentford offensive players thrive in their system and may not be able to replicate it elsewhere. 

1 hour ago, zab6359 said:

milwaukee bucks play basketball not football?

Just seen someone has already pulled you up for that one.

What he said was a major league team not a team that plays in the mls. Major league refers to any of the 4 big sports in America football, baseball, basketball and crap rugby. MLS is major league soccer. 

9 hours ago, zab6359 said:

Should we play him if he asks too? 

Not if it hinders our chance of winning. But if we discard Chester what player will risk their bodies by playing through injury for is is we through them away and don't take care of them. Plus without him we wouldn't be OK the prem. 

Aside from Jack he has the most potential of all our players. If he can put it all together he could become a slightly worse Ronaldo who passes the ball and gets assists. I wouldn't be surprised if next season he finishes with 15 and 15 and is sold for 100+ million. I honestly think he has that much potential. 8 mil for him was crazy cheap and we absolutely robbed lille their. I suspect he will be on bargain lists at the end of the season. 

4 hours ago, useless said:

Milwaukee Bucks are are Basketball team, they thought about buying a US Soccer team but decided against it because that didn't offer the opportunity of champions league football.

Sorry I misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you just meant a major league sport. 

5 hours ago, useless said:

Smith's playing down expectations with his talk of top six, our owners want champions league football which is one of the reasons that they bought us instead of a US Major league team. It's easier said that done, but if you're prepared to spend the money, make good decisions, and have a bit of luck then it's not impossible.

Wes Edens already owns the milwaukee bucks. 

12 minutes ago, TRO said:

Not for me.

way before the injury and during the period he was revered by most fans.

I have never felt he was dominating enough, particularly in the air.

I have always felt he was suseptible to the bully too....not sufficiently physical enough for me.

John Terry alongside him was in his later years too...not quite as dominant as in his youth.

I think we are more capable now.....The signings of Mings and Hause,enhanced my cofidence and subsequently, we gained promotion.

but each to their own....i think he is a bit small for a centre back and you have to be exceptional if you are.....I don't think he is.

Good pro though, good character, which is important too.

Chester was great in the air. He had a hell of a leap on him. His injury hampered that and made him look much worse. The signings of mings and Hause were necessary because of how badly injured he was.

As a club taking care of Chester should now be our first priority with him. If he wants a contract extension we should give it and if he wants to be sold we should let him. However he won us 170 million by basically ending his career the least we can do is give him a tiny portion of that until what would be a natural retirement period. 

8 hours ago, villa4europe said:

with the current squad you'd say our place in the premier league...plus then player wise the majority of the clubs marketability, with how many years left on his contract?

is he "worth" £100m to another club because of what he does on the football pitch? of course not, is he worth £100m to aston villa? easily

football economics and player value goes way beyond the players ability to kick a football, hence Pogba's transfer value and worth, you're paying for his insta followers

Pogba is an elite jack of all trades he would be much better in a side with a quality defensive midfielder and creator the problem is united rely on him to do both which is basically impossible. He is basically mcginn with more talent and less energy. 

2 hours ago, TRO said:

I have no axe to grind with him....but felt when he was in his pomp with us, he was not good enough.

Problem is, when you win 24 games in a season, its hard to prove.

Aside from Jack he was Comfortably our best player the season before last. He picked up a devastating injury and wasn't himself before he was ruled out for the rest of the season. We would not have gone up without his commitment and we need to honour that commitment and let him stay with us for a reasonable amount of time probably till he is 34 (when most centre halves stop being good enough) and take care of a man who should be a villa hero. 

1 hour ago, Enda said:

Dean Smith knows more about football than I do. But so does Steve Bruce.

Fact of the matter is we’re top 10 based on the first 45 mins of matches, and rock bottom based on the second half.

We are third behind united (maybe 2nd after New castle game) and Liverpool. It is the last 30 that really undoes us though. I think a lot of it is conditioning though and it seems as though we have improved it but not enough as evidenced by the city and Liverpool games. 

I think wes dropping deeper when he have had the ball has really opened a huge amount of space Anwar is now exploiting. The gap between the Newcastle Centre halves was huge and Anwar kept running in to it but no one picked him up. But Jack and John didn't pick him out. We definitely need to use our players runs more effectively because eventually the runs will stop and we won't have any options. 

9 hours ago, Laughable Chimp said:

What kind of similar signing to current Benteke did we even make the season we got relegated? If I remember correctly we mostly signed lots of young French players that year who never played in the PL before, the kind of signings the current board seems to be looking at.

Edit: Not just the French, but most of our money went to just young players in general who've never really played in the PL before that year.

First of all, the foreign players we have signed have all gone on to reasonably well. A lot of them are starting for teams in Europe a competitions. The problem was we also signed Richards and Lescott to be our centre halves. We rightfully got slaughtered every game and because we couldn't win the ball back none of our decent players could do anything with it. We still may not have stayed up but at least it wouldn't have been so embarrassing.

The morale of the story don't rely on washed up has beens not all of them are as good as Terry was.