KangarooVillan

2 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Other than Martinez I can't honestly say anyone else is top 4 standard. Konsa is a very good defender but is a little bit overrated on here as he also makes mistakes. 

I mean what’s the goal here? The only CBs I can think of in the top 6 who aren’t good for a mistake time to time are Thiago and Diaz. Maybe Rudiger and haven’t seen enough of Varane.

The rest of them, including Maguire and Virgil are well capable of a mistake.

Would still love to see Ings and Watkins swaps roles with Ings dropping into the deeper role last night.

It’s easy to whinge out of context. Outside of ManU/City/Chelsea/Liverpool team there’s not many other players I’d swap him for in that AM/wing role:

Saka

ESR

Son

Neto

Eze maybe

Thats about it off the top of my head

4 hours ago, mikeyjavfc said:

The new strain is super transmissible so this will be hitting a few squads soon. I sincerely hope the players and staff are testing daily now as it’s the only way to have any chance of staying covid free going forward. 

Literally no conclusive evidence of this from any trustworthy source.

On 08/12/2021 at 19:37, nick76 said:

We don’t really know if they can play together.  Ollie was injured early in the season and then well out of form, meanwhile the team were playing poorly, losing 5 games on the trot.  

They have probably only played a combined less than 6 games together, in a poor performing team, one player post injury and out of form and the other just joined another team.  

Too early to make a determination.

That’s why all along I’ve said if they can’t play together…

On 05/12/2021 at 22:13, nick76 said:

So make the team/squad weaker? I’m not sure that makes sense.

Why do we need sell Ings? Are we broke or something? Yes he earns a very good wage but if we are serious about a top half of the table push why would we sell a proven PL striker for a young unknown? Plus aren’t we hoping the “young” is the likes of Archer and co.

 

I think you answered your own question here:

On 05/12/2021 at 22:20, nick76 said:

They have players that score goals whether they are defined as attackers, strikers, wingers, attacking midfield….whatever!

Liverpool have Salah, Mane, Firminio, Jota and Origi…all players that can score plenty of goals in forward positions.  Who are our players that could score plenty of goals?  Ollie, Ings and maybe Bailey.  El Ghazi could but won’t get much game time, but the likes of Buendia are unlikely to be massive contributors to goals.

This focus on the word “striker” is just silly in modern analysis because the Liverpool 5 for example (mainly 4) all score goals in traditional striker areas but technically are classified as a different position.  They are just forwards

I didn’t say anything about making the team weaker. The problem is all those players you mentioned above can play together. If Watkins and Ings can’t play in the same team then we should sell Ings and find a player who can without weakening the squad. 

IF Ings and Watkins can play in the same team (would still be keen to see Ings play in the AM midfield role off the left of Watkins) then keep.

If not, would definitely sell. I understand the concern around who fills in if Watkins is injured, but ultimately we could get a younger up and comer to deputise Watkins. The current top 4 hardly have 1 striker let alone 2 (Man City, Liverpool, West Ham). Chelsea kind of has 2 but I’m still not sure if Havertz is an actual striker.

I don’t think people really know what they want and are too happy to criticise Doug for not being it.

Thought our midfield looked a lot better with him there today and thought he had a decent outing.

6 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

Yawn. You paying me rent living up there in your head? 

I should be paying you, smile across my face was priceless when a lot of what you’ve spouted on here over the last week came undone in 90 minutes.

On 16/08/2021 at 17:43, Delphinho123 said:

I do really like him. He always seems to be better when he comes on as a sub though is my only issue. 

I genuinely think a full season on loan in the championship would really help him. But, because we’ve neglected the central midfield area in this transfer window, I don’t actually think he can leave. 

May have done enough to start against Newcastle in a 4-3-3. Can’t see him starting in a 4-2-3-1. 

Lol

Martinez - not himself but he hasn’t become a bad keeper overnight

Young - was fantastic

Mings - captains performance - was awesome

Konsa - seemed quiet but that’s not a bad thing from a CB

Cash - awesome throw in and made good runs, otherwise fairly low-key but solid performance

Luiz - thought he was brilliant in his return game

McGinn - was back to his fantastic bustling self

El Ghazi - limited performance but great penalty

Ramsey - MOTM for me

Buendia - showing us all how good he will be after a less than inspiring first game

Ings - worth every penny

El Ghazi has been a great servant for this club, but Ramsay keeps passing to him and running in for the give and go and he never gives the pass.

1 minute ago, Delphinho123 said:

I know. I’ve seen nothing from him to suggest he’s a 25m striker. Forget his reputation for a minute, he’s been poor since joining. 

131 minutes in……

Buendia and Luiz playing very well

5 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

Grealish goal literally just hit him

There has been babies conceived in a moment of drunken lust in the back of station wagon that had more intention than that goal.

2 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

3.5million euros? That seems crazy low for any senior player we would want.

I know what you mean, I don’t like the idea that we measure footballers ability in terms of how much they cost though. There’s answers for an against this btw.

In the video he looks like a pacier version of Hojbjerg - in saying that though Sqenf Foot sounds more like a bacterial disease than a serious footballing publication.

26 minutes ago, hippo said:

People go on line when they want to moan ! Hence poor feedback for example has to be taken in context that people who are happy often don't bother with a review.

Obviously massive strides in the past 3 years - and another mid table finish would be fine by me.

My concern, anxiety, Stockholm thingy , fear call it whatever is that from now on - the money invested will yield much smaller gains and people may think we'll what's point throwing another £100m at players to only get 7th (for example) 

I think know it maybe a waiting game until some of the youth prospects bloom into the real deal.

I appreciate your response and I understand that people are a little bit tetchy after a somewhat tumultuous summer.

The only thing I would like to highlight is that people don’t have to moan when they go online - that’s a choice that people make.

UTV.

3 hours ago, KAZZAM said:

If we don't exploit the French league Market for atleast one player I'm gonna be deeply disappointed. 

We already did

48 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

As each press conference passes, I get more and more nervous about our transfer business and how well we’ll do this season. 

We’ve improved the squad, but I’m not sure our first XI is any better. We desperately need at least one more central midfielder. If they don’t bring anybody else in, I’ll have to question the wisdom of whoever thinks our midfield isn’t atrocious. 

Sleepwalking into a bit of a disaster. 

Your posts for the last couple of weeks have read very similarly to editorials from the Daily Mail about immigration and the corrosion of family values. 

22 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Exhibit A. We all know Nakamba is horrible on the ball, yet somehow his short/medium range passing isn't half as atrocious statistically as you would think. How we go about interpreting that data and amalgamating it with the eye test is where the magic happens.

We also know that people are subject to bias or prevailing narratives based on what they read on here.

Nakamba isn’t horrible on the ball - his passing stats are fine and he rarely gets dispossessed (Ndidi, Bissouma, Doucoure all get dispossessed more).

He is limited on the ball though, with his passing range very limited and his ability to dribble the ball forward also fairly poor.

8 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

 

He attempts signifcantly more passes than McGinn/Luiz do. He also attempts many progressive passes (ie those into penalty box or 10 yards further forward than the last 6 passes). these have more risk / reward, McGinn does lots of these too and that impacts his completed passes stats. 

I don’t really know what your point is about him attempting significantly more passes other than he gets more touches? Especially considering these stats are averaged over a year.

His progressive passes would mostly be his free kicks and corners that are successful...

19 minutes ago, MessiWillSignForVilla said:

That's because FBRef count crosses and set pieces in their pass completion %, stats where a completion stat of 25%+ is very good, and JWP has the most dead ball passes in the league, so naturally his total % is going to be dragged down a bit. His short and medium pass % are both around 90.3% which is pretty good.

Even if we take that stat at face value, it's still better than McGinn's 77%.

I see your point, but both Nakamba and Dougie have %’s for short and medium passes basically at 90% and that doesn’t stop a fair chunk of this forum moaning about it...

I mean, to everyone who says he will improve our ball retention and complains about the passing of our existing midfield...