KangarooVillan

Just now, Philosopher said:

If this is true, then that's sounds quite tantalising if he is in between Jack and Emi!

2 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

2nd clip, that take down,.shot and goal is outstanding. 

That looked like Ollie re-incarnate 

1 minute ago, Awol said:

Everyone can play everywhere. We’re inventing Sun Tzu football. 

I just coughed/laughed tea all down my front

bravo

26 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

We aren't (allegedly, potentially) spending £32m+ on ESR for him to play backup.

If we somehow pull that off it'll be

Grealish - ESR - Buendia

With Traore now a backup to Buendia

Less backup - more a rotational option who still plays decent minutes. He will start some games but probably not most.

Smith, for the most part, wants to play inverted wingers. There will be times you will see the formation you have shown above, but as a starting point it will be Grealish — Buendia — Traore.

Right now, Traore is better than ESR anyway...

38 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

There is not a chance that ESR would provide cover for Traore. He’d go straight into the team as the 10 with Buendia on the right. 

Where did I say ESR would provide cover for Traore???

10 hours ago, HalfTimePost said:

No I really don't think they will.

Buendia didn't play a single game at CAM last year. His defensive work rate is why he is so valuable. It's make believe by our fans that he suddenly goes central next year.

Dean could easily have spent the considerable fee from Barkley on a LW to put Jack central last year but he's been quoted by Jack to say that he gets all his goals and assists on the wing (Jack blamed his FIFA stats on Dean playing him left last year). Jack will be on the left and Buendia will be on the right.

Ramsey made more appearances central than Jack (9) and Buendia (0) combined last year. 16 sub appearances and 5 starts. We can debate as to whether he was played as an 8 or a 10 in those but it was more than both centrally either way. 

Carneys one or two appearances were both central and he's a natural CM / CAM. I think he'll play central more than Buendia next year even if Emi is positioned there in a couple of games

People seem to forget as well Smith likes having the inverted wingers.

Buendia is right footed - I acknowledge he is good on his left but he still scored more than 2/3’s of his goals for  Norwich on his right peg. 

I have no doubt he will play out right at times, but at this stage the line will be:

Grealish — Buendia — Traore

ESR would provide cover on the left and centrally. Alvarez is also right footed so not sure where he would slot in.

40 minutes ago, QldVilla said:

Yes but if you have a Fetch box you can watch on TV. $14.95 each month is pretty good to watch every match each weekend. It used to be free on FOX sports but how often did you get a Villa game live?? only against the top teams, so far better than before.

Yeah their browser web application sucks - on mobile it’s okay but they also have an Xbox app which I use

12 hours ago, LondonLax said:

Except the games are on at 3am. I suspect they would struggle to find buyers if they charged any more. 

In Australia you get all the Premier League matches for free with your phone contract

Only your on an Optus plan, but they’re an overpriced garbage telco. You can pay a subscription with them though for $15 AUD/month or $99 for the year.

I just finished the England Scotland game - as a neutral fan it was dour - found myself regularly in and out of paying attention.

Prompted a question though. In local sports here, there a general belief that if play a brand that’s good to watch, you will generally be rewarded. I have seen a bit of Belgium and they seem to have a nice mix of defence and flair which is easy on the eye. Is attractive and exciting football generally seen to be a component of a successful team though?

16 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Luiz is still here, with agreement expired, so I never understood this " glorified loan " jibe.

At the end of a loan, the player HAS to go back to their parent club.

Correct, glorified loan intends to acknowledge the fact that it is more than a loan, as you have described, but you are from having 100% ownership of that player. In the case of Luiz, if Man City wanted him before the date, he would be a Man City player right now. 

Similarly, Isak will most likely end up being a Dortmund player again if his form continues. There also doesn’t appear to be an expiry on Dortmund’s buy back clause.

57 minutes ago, paul514 said:

For less than 10m? Doubt it.

Personally I think there’s better opportunities elsewhere. It’s always going to be difficult to develop and provide support with so much time spent on the sidelines.

57 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

In his two years with Real Sociedad he's contributed double figures both seasons and they've finished 6th and 5th and won Copa Del Rey. Also made last 16 of europa.

I could certainly live with that type of glorified loan contribution from someone in next two seasons! Miles better than the hyped loans of Drinkwater and Barkley which added very little.

Fair enough - can’t argue with that.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing 

5 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

We should've looked at him in summer 2019. That's when he signed for Real Sociedad for 7m while we got Wesley in for 20 odd million.

He is now first choice for a team who's finished 5th in La Liga so will be playing europa next year again and they won Copa Del Rey this season aswell so can't quite see him leaving all that just to be Ollie's backup here.

Buy back clause though for Dortmund.

Basically a glorified loan - like what we did with Luiz.

2 hours ago, Jas10 said:

I meant more in terms of talent than stats (impressive) but he’s clearly a good player… the kind of move we should make ahead of other teams… I would like it if we picked up potential stars and beat other clubs to the punch. Again, I hope we’re not restricting ourselves to the British market… would end up missing out on these kinds of players…

Bringing in a popular Japanese player would help on the commercial front too…

Wait, he score against Emi??? Get him in!

As @MaVilla stated below - it’s hard to compare considering where they’re both at in their retrospective careers. If I had to choose one right now though it would be Kamada hands down. He’s quality now with lots of room to be even better.

Kubo has the higher pedigree (Real Madrid) but is more speculative at this point. 

I hope you’re right regarding not restricting ourselves to British market. It has served us very well in the past, but Leicester has shown in the past how successful the right players from abroad can be at competitively discounted prices.

42 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

Looks a real talent, ice cool isn’t he? My favourite kind of player…

Better than Kubo?

He is, even put two magnificent goals past Emi against Arsenal in 2019/20.

More prolific than Kubo at this stage in terms of goals and assists and expected goals and assists. For these numbers he’s basically on par with Grealish (see below).

Different to Kubo and Grealish in that he doesn’t carry the ball as much (although when he does it’s wonderful to watch) - his game seems to be more ball retention and passing. Grealish also makes more key passes.

To me, this just says he’s very efficient at what he does to generate score involvements.

His defensive numbers are off the charts compared to the other two.

5 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

I’m all for it, I would still love De Arrascaeta.

@Villan4Life rates Kamada highly so

2 hours ago, paul514 said:

Cheap, easy to get and an instant improvement on Engels.

Thats it.

The question would be is he the best option available for the price?

If he’s coming in as backup/to challenge for a spot, surely one of the key criteria would be that he is available when required.

Considering he’s been injured for 97 days or more in each of the last 3 seasons that would be no from me.

Surely there is better out there?

On 18/06/2021 at 07:30, HalfTimePost said:

The talk about Buendia as a CAM has meant the reality that Trez's time here is already done has gone under the radar.

Trez played RW for us more often than not. Buendia starts on the right, Traore backs up. JPB is the young option off the bench. 

Maybe Traore goes central, then there might be room for Trez as backup to Buendia. But can't see it. His time here is done..

Buendia may very well start on the right.

The fact that that is guarantee is a bit of an unknown though. As a right footer he’d be more likely to play on the left. I also have a feeling we will play him centrally and rotate through those wing positions due to the attributes he brings - good passing, good ball retention, good long shot and good defensive attributes.

34 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

I really hope we aren’t restricting ourselves by overly adhering to the British based players approach… there’s many exciting moves out there to be made, potential stars we could bring in… plenty of time left and I’m still excited to see who and how many we bring in. I think we really mean business…

chuffed with Buendia but I am greedy

Kamada would mean we would have 4 players (Jack, Buendia, Kamada, Traore) who could comfortably play across LW RW and CAM and all offer something a bit different.

If this £25M bid for Smith-Rowe is legit, Kamada would be £5M cheaper, more prolific and better at defending. Between him and Buendia we would have two of the best creative players who also do the defensive work in the league.

Apparently Spurs low-balled Frankfurt with €5M offer for Daichi Kamada - Frankfurt want €25M. Sevilla also interested.

On 15/06/2021 at 20:00, Zhan_Zhuang said:

That is indeed an ethical handgrenade: "here, catch!"

1 hour ago, MotoMkali said:

I'd love if we signed him and Anguissa for a combined 40 mil or thereabouts and sold nakamba and maybe mcginn.

I think that could be realistic and Anguissa would provide steel in the middle of the park and sarr would give us a bunch of upside. 

If we sign Anguissa I’ll eat my own face.

17 hours ago, MrBlack said:

Oh wait, different pivot... as you were. 

Pivotally, the pivotman was pivotal to pivoting the deep-lying playmaker’s pivot.

1 hour ago, Adam2003 said:

Do you know I thought to myself today: if Martinez has another stellar season, and is Argentina’s goalkeeper at the World Cup, someone like Real Madrid might throw a fortune at him. I have been thinking “here’s our goalkeeper for 7-8 years” but that’s not how it works - need to make sure we have a talent pathway and backup plans in place for all our stars even while trying to keep them.

If we keep improving, something tells me Emi might be reticent to accept anything but the #1 position at a huge club. Unlikely Real Madrid or equivalent will be able to offer him that.

Question for us will be, do we want the cash or do we want Emi Martinez?

1 minute ago, Kiwivillan said:

This is hilarious. You've been posting the 12 man squad shit about me repeatedly for days.

Exactly this.

Can obviously dish it but can’t...