Pongo's Socks

Still the odd moans and groans when we passed it backwards/sideways. One lad a couple of rows in front of me couldn't understand how we managed to go from the edge of the Palace box back to Mings a couple of times, and was very vocal in his frustrations. 'FORWARD, THEYRE DOWN TO TEN MEN!' And 'HIT IT LONG!'

Surely people must realise that ball retention is Unais plan? 

I bit and countered him with a very loud 'NICE VILLA, NIIICCEEE! KEEP THE BALL!' every time we did it. But I'm sad like that

22 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

 

Surely it's hard to see the difference?

2 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

As good as he was yesterday, and he was very good. You are absolutely spot on in regards to the costly errors in his game. Without them errors, he would one of the best centre- half's around. 

But does he make that many more than centre halves from other teams? Genuine question as I don't watch that much of other players apart from when we play them. I just think it may be a case of  'familiarity breeds contempt'.

All I know is we win more games with him in the team and leak less goals.

2 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

I was watching on tv and villa park was really quiet. 1st half especially.  

Didnt think it was good at all to be honest

Nope. One of the best this season, which surprised me due to KO time. Was proud yesterday 

1 hour ago, TomC said:

No matter how much you believe in a particular way of playing, if you don't have the players, it isn't going to work. Sometimes you have to make compromises based on your personnel, and maybe Unai needs to be a little less doctrinaire. That said, we aren't getting relegated, and we aren't making Europe, so this system is best used as a learning experience, both for the players to learn his way, and for him to learn who can play his way.

 

I think we (kind of?) did that yesterday? Seemed we played it long/mid range from goal kicks/keepers kicks a bit more?  Definitely needs a change in personnel to implement Emerys preferred style

40 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I thought it was good yesterday in the ground and others have commented similar. I do wonder where the tv companies put the mic’s depending on the team…but maybe that’s just a bit too conspiracy theory territory.

 

I'm sure the mics are in a set place every game. But they could easily edit the sound afterwards to make certain things sound louder to the viewers. Anyway, just off to watch some JFK assassination videos 

Really good yesterday I thought. One thing that stood out to me, and I don't know if it was a conscious thing after some of the things that have been said, but there were no (or very few) moans and groans if we passed it sideways/backwards. Or are people getting used to the fact we're not just going to hoof it any more and try to keep possession?

Proud to be a fan yesterday 

48 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

I agree with you on delayed celebrations but think people are forgetting how big the injustices used to be pre VAR.

Vidic not getting sent off in the 2010 league cup final. De Jong staying on the pitch in the 2010 WC final.

Maradona’s hand of god, Henry’s hand ball vs Ireland.

Ghost goals.

VAR mistakes are frustrating because it’s so hard to understand how they’ve happened, but much worse mistakes used to be made routinely before it came in. Massively wrong offside calls, big fouls missed, etc.

I think we should keep VAR but have specialist video referees who aren’t drawn from the match referee pool, and aren’t mates with the match referees.

And by the way, I still blame Dunne pissing around for their first goal more than Vidic not getting a red

21 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

I agree with you on delayed celebrations but think people are forgetting how big the injustices used to be pre VAR.

Vidic not getting sent off in the 2010 league cup final. De Jong staying on the pitch in the 2010 WC final.

Maradona’s hand of god, Henry’s hand ball vs Ireland.

Ghost goals.

VAR mistakes are frustrating because it’s so hard to understand how they’ve happened, but much worse mistakes used to be made routinely before it came in. Massively wrong offside calls, big fouls missed, etc.

I think we should keep VAR but have specialist video referees who aren’t drawn from the match referee pool, and aren’t mates with the match referees.

I get that, I really do. But it actually seems like we spend more time discussing VAR than those dodgy decisions. I just can't see how you implement it without changing what the game is about. People are saying the technology is fine, it's the clowns interpretation of the rules that's the problem. So let's say the VAR, whoever he/she is, gets every call 100% correct every time. We're still stopping the game/delaying kick off after most goals, delaying set pieces, checking for previous breaches etc. It's that delay, that doubt whether you can celebrate, that reliance on the technology that's detracting from the game.

Of course, all in my opinion 

1 minute ago, Tayls said:

No it does. No team should be allowed to lift a trophy, or be relegated because of a human error where, for example, an offside isn't called. Its the people operating that needs to change. The tech itself is exactly where it needs to be. 

But you're changing the fundamentals of the whole game for something that rarely happens. You don't get relegated for a bad decision, it's because your shite for 38 games. And trophys may have been won where a goal should've been disallowed (can't think of a specific example to be honest), but to change the entire beautiful game, by effectively pressing the pause button while they go back to check for offsides, fouls, etc, is detrimental to the game as a whole. There's more to football than absolutes, it's a living, breathing entity, that's slowly being choked to death

I've said it before and I'll say it again. VAR has absolutely NO place in football. Its sucking the life out of the game. The spontaneity has gone, players and fans alike are reluctant to celebrate. It's a game played by humans, watched by humans and officiated by humans. I've seen players and managers make far more game-changing mistakes than refs ever did, but they don't get the chance to reverse their decisions. Everything that made football so captivating is slowly being eroded. 

And to top it off, it doesn't even work. Please, just give us our game back

7 hours ago, MaVilla said:

Toney also did the Zulu sign to the Villa crowd a while back, then went on record in an interview saying how much he loved doing one over on us because his agent is an SHA fan.

I really dont think it would go well for him here, and tbh, he's clearly thick as two short planks to promote a group of thugs in a goal celebration (Zulu's), add that to his "alleged" illegal betting, he's not exactly high on the IQ scale i dont think.

He is a good player, but i just dont see it.

Wasn't suggesting we make a move for him, if that's how my question came across. 

8 hours ago, Zatman said:

Joey Barton got a long ban for gambling. Trippier got one for telling his mates he was moving to Madrid

He is definitely getting banned here

I could've worded my question better. What I'm getting at, is if gambling is seen as an addiction which can be triggered by mental issues, should the reaction be more along the lines of rehabilitation rather than punishment? I'm lucky not to have been affected by it, but when you hear stories from the likes of Merson, it makes you think.

Genuine question here. Given the (mostly) negative feedback on bookies shirt sponsorship and the questionable place of gambling in sport, could we give Toney a break if he's a gambling victim/addict?

Just like substance abuse and mental health issues, are footballers just as likely to be affected as the rest of us? As far as I know there's no question of match fixing, just looks like he loves a bet.

1 hour ago, CVByrne said:

It's hilarious because if we don't want to sell him why would we? Kane has wanted to leave Spurs and where does he currently play football? If we want to keep him he stays. It's really really simple

Soz double post

1 hour ago, CVByrne said:

It's hilarious because if we don't want to sell him why would we? Kane has wanted to leave Spurs and where does he currently play football? If we want to keep him he stays. It's really really simple

I think Kanes only still at Spuds because nobody made a sensible offer to be honest. Wasn't it him or Grealish to Citeh that summer, but not both?

If someone made a sensible offer for Emi he's gone in my opinion. Not saying we'd be looking to sell, but everyone has a price, and if that coincides with the player wanting to move, there's little to stop it unfortunately. 

22 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

Do people still buy the News and Record? You can get most of the same information for free on the website. I know for smaller clubs in League Two and non league most of the time it costs more to produce the match day programme than the revenue they get back from it.

Hadn't bought one for ages, I always offer to get the lad (9 year old) one, he's always declined, more interested in phones or ipads. But I bought him one at the Leicester game and he loved it. Filled in the teamsheets etc, then kept him quiet on the train back. Definitely get him one again. Regret not getting the Queen memorial one, bet they're 50 quid on ebay now

1 hour ago, Robbie09 said:

Having browsed the Bluemoon forum I can confirm they are now competing with Liverpool for the title of Victim FC.

It’s all a conspiracy fuelled by ManUre and Liverpool apparently.

Yep saw one post saying its clearly an anti-Muslim agenda by rival American owners because hating Muslims is in the American DNA

My lads just been watching a YouTube video of all of Villa's goals in 2022. Coutinho involved in loads of them early on. Would love to see him find some of that form again 

2 minutes ago, TRO said:

according to Statto.....Leicester have scored against us in the last 13 visits.

They always feel like a bogey team to me, doesn't help that my in laws are Leicester, seems they've usually got the bragging rights

Another two weeks for Emery to have worked with the players, I'm optimistic that we'll see improvements. We need to boss that midfield as I think that's the main area where Leicester can hurt us. Win that battle and I think we can hurt them going forward

I'm sure I've seen a film with the same title as this thread

Based on absolutely nothing, I have a sneaky feeling he might be straight in. Could he replace Bailey and start alongside Watkins? Or does that leave us with no 'striker' option from the bench? 

So now we know for sure who our forward options are until the end of the season, how much game time do people see Duran getting? Do people see him just as a bench option or does anyone think he'll be starting many games any time soon? 

Often queuing for the whole of half time, don't know why they don't start pouring beers ten minutes before, it works at Edgbaston for the cricket, they're just lined up on the counters behind the folks serving. We're hardly talking craft ales here, don't think anyone would notice the difference if their pint wasn't fresh out the tap that second. 

Also a pain to use the same bars if your not buying booze. On the games I'm driving I have to queue ages just for a coke. Wonder if they could put vending machines in for soft drinks and choccy bars/crisps? If I'm with the lad we only usually want a bag of crisps and pop but end up waiting in the same queue.