villanmac

I'm sorry but thats unforgivable from Nakamba, what a liability

Yep Nakamba has been shocking.

Im betting grealish is playing then (haven't looked honest)

*Life

Thought he did ok considering the oppo and the fact he only had tight areas to work in. Actually reminds me of Buendia's early days in that things aren't quite coming off but he is showing quality.

Has half the crowd **** off for a pint? It's dead.

Nakamba looks rusty positionally

Mings has carried every centre half he's been next to, Konsa, Engels,Tuanzebe...yet all at some point in time were proclaimed to be better than him (before it became clear they weren't).

Chuk is a footballer

Konsa is gone

Love a Douglas Luiz freekick me

Bloody hell, 170 pages on a player who's played 9 minuites. Villatalk eat your heart out.

Fair enough. I have no clue of what the KPIs and targets a U23 coach has and whether or not he met them. Even watching the U23s games hard to gauge due to the extenuating circumstances of player turnover/loans etc. Being a ex Villa player doesn't come into it when the owners are ploughing money into the youth setup the way they are. Its that kind of mentality that still holds a lot of clubs back imo. If they can get better, get rid.

This 50/60 talk is the same madness as the people saying we should get 15 mill for El Ghazi cos he scored a load of pens. We're lucky an anti football side exists with enough money to be interested in him.

Great result for football. Keeps the pantheon of European Cup winning clubs untouched, untarnished. **** city, theyll never join the club.

City were 2 up and coasting before he came on...just saying. Should have stopped that cross too

In a similar vein, his chip to Ings was brilliant as well and goes against the argument I make about out his link up play so it's worth pointing out too in fairness.

I don't like that Buendia is not playing, but the jury is still out on Coutinho for me so i want to see him until the end of the season. If Coutinho would of stepped up with top class performances in the next few games (I doubt it based on what I've seen) and we don't know because he's on the bench that could be a massive miss to Aston Villa. So it's a case of bigger picture for me, because I know Buendia is class and we have him next season. Not saying that's right, I'm similar with Ings and Bailey, I want them to have opportunities to show us they can do it. Whether a manager is able to articulate that in some way to Emi with it being palatable to him I don't know.

Watkins is not at the level of those players when it comes to his all-round game though. Not even close. Chasing balls into the wing, pressing defenders no problems, he's great. I know some people see it as a service issue but I dont I think more technical play, passes into feet exposes his limitations more. I just don't agree that you could play off him in any of those top sides (bar Wolves) at the level they play and against the defensive setups they come up against which is totally different to us. I'm excluding West Ham / Antonio imo as they are such an exception in style.

After that brilliant chip to Ings earlier on I thought finally Watkins had got the memo about passing the ball to a team mate. But no.

Hopefully we can get our first choices. Obviously no one knows who we are after but the player we were linked to loudest last year who we didn't get have all kicked on massively this season. The likes of Alvarez, Hickey, Ward Prowse, Abraham, (I'd even tentatively throw Betancour in there based on how he has started). Some transformation players there based on their performances. Rob MacKenzie talks about anticipating spikes in a players potential based on data and analytics and they would of all fitted that. My guess is that last year Ings was Purslow, Buendia (Smith), Bailey (Lange/recruitment). Since then Digne & Coutinho (Gerrard). If thats the case, that's 4 out of the last 5 that werent Lange/MacKenzie. Tbf Sanson's performances probably dented the amount of credit they have in the bank and Bailey so far hasn't helped that either.

See what happens in the summer when the centre midfield is sorted out and get a proper holding midfielder in who can retain possession and put a foot in. Without that it's futile imo. Even the top teams have a couple of proper holding mids in the lineup every game regardless of how weak the oppo is: Rodri Fernandinho Henderson, Fabinho Jorginho, Kante Bentancur, Hoijberg Leicester yesterday have Tielemans and Ndidi usually. We are **** about with Luiz, Mcginn and Ramsey, Nakamba who can MAYBE do one thing ok but not the other but essentially can't control the middle of the park. Give him a chance to sort that out, if he does and we are still shite then you can write off Gerrard, Coutinho, Bailey etc imo.

We're only one game away from everything going through him at Spurs in a brilliant 1st half performance. The away from home thing sorts itself out when we sort the midfield out next season (hopefully).

Shite. Tbf they needed a clean sheet and to stop the rot. But Shite.

That summed Watkins up as a footballer. And yes, Bailey is slow [cry]