TomC

1 minute ago, AVTuco said:

JJ's been pretty shit.

I can't agree. He's been pretty good in the buildup.

JJ showing some rust there...

This match will be good to get him and Moreno back into things. Need the 3 points though.

1 minute ago, HalfTimePost said:

Moreno and JJ really give us another dimension.

There's some chemistry between those two. Contrast Cash and Diaby, who get in each other's way. It's no surprise we look more threatening from the left today.

Moreno is starting to shake off the rust...he's getting into good positions. Now he needs to get the finishing touch back.

Ball watching from Diego there...

14 hours ago, rodders0223 said:

Doesn't really matter but I thought the defending for the goal was absolutely disgusting, I'm so disappointed with him.

I didn't think it was his fault at all. We run a zonal defence. He was with his mark who was moving laterally across the box. He passed his mark off to Donck when his mark left his zone. That's how it's supposed to work. He was playing right back and it wasn't his job to follow into the middle. Donck picked the mark up and then let him get away.

I also don't blame Chambers or the miscue where Marschall kicked the ball into him. He was facing our goal and it made more sense to let Marschall, who was facing forward, play the ball. He shielded the ball until it was playable for Marschall. That was smart. If Marschall wasn't confident that he could lift the ball over the two players in front of him, he should have played it to the wings, even if that meant kicking it into touch.

I don't pretend that he has much of a future in our side, and he's certainly made some bad mistakes in the past, but let's not blame him when blame isn't due.

38 minutes ago, useless said:

I thought he did well, not sure that moment where the ball deflected over him was even his fault, Chambers should have got out of the way

I can't blame Chambers for that one. He was facing his own goal. It would have been stupid to play the ball. Better to leave it for Marschall who can see what's going on, so he shielded the ball for Marschall to play it. Marschall should have played it up the wing instead of up the middle where two players were in his way.

In the end, no big deal. It didn't cost us.

35 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

Probably a case of trying too hard but he looked really poor tonight. You can see why Unai has his reservations. He’s a useful player to have in the squad but I think he lacks the quality to be starting every week.

He has the quality to start, but has definitely been trying too hard lately. He's the sort of player that competition hurts rather than helps.

You can see why the current PL starters are the starters.

McGinn MOTM because he gave us a burst of energy and set up the goal...the scourge of Zrinjski. As for the others...

Donck was Donck...looks competent 95% of the time then makes a mistake that leaves you shaking your head. At fault for the goal (which, to be fair, was a great finish).

I usually defend Cash, but he was not very good tonight. It looked like he was trying to do too much to win his starting place back.

Zaniolo showed some progress...apart from the goal, he made a few nice passes. He still dribbles into cul-de-sacs too often, but there's hope.

Diaby seemed disinterested.

JJ seemed rusty though, to be fair, we attacked on the right far more often than the left first half, so he didn't see much of the ball.

Ditto Moreno, thought he wasn't quite as rusty as JJ.

Marschall was good except for a couple mistakes at the end. The ball he kicked off Chambers backside should have gone to the side instead of straight up the middle. Not at fault for the goal.

Konsa, Pau, and Doug all played well enough. We missed Pau after he went off.

I'm probably going to be in England in late March/early April and, of course, want to make the pilgrimage to Villa Park. Can somebody explain how ticketing works? How do you buy directly from the club? Can you buy tickets second hand? How far in advance to single game tickets go on sale? My travel plans are going to depend on which match I get tickets for, so I'm hoping to have everything secured before I come. From what little I know, things work very differently there than they do in America, so I'm almost clueless.

Sorry if there's already a topic on this, but when I tried searching based on "tickets," I got threads related to individual games rather than an overview of the process.

Thanks!

3 hours ago, Pinebro said:

Problem is we all know when KDB returns they have it in them to go on a 20 game winning run

He's a winner. I will never forget the way he (and Gundogan) put the team on their back when they came from behind to beat us on the last day of the season. One of my favorite non-Villa players of recent years.

19 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

To win the title, we’ll need to get better at going to teams that other title contenders almost always beat.

Forest, Bournemouth, Wolves, Brentford etc.

Forest is the one that may come back to haunt us.

With Bournemouth, at least we got a point, and they are probably the most in-form mid-table team at the moment (look at what they did to Man U on Saturday). Title winners occasionally have draws in those situations. Losing to Forest when they were about to slip into a tailspin (I think that they're winless since) hurts.

18 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

The pedigree of Villa compared to Leicester in 2016 or even Blackburn in 1995 is night and day.

Interesting that you bring up Blackburn. I was relatively new to English football at the time, and the Internet wasn't what it is today, but I don't remember their title being greeted with anywhere near the astonishment that Leicester's was. The gap between the rich and poor was not as big as it is now. Furthermore, they were often regarded as buying their success because Jack Walker invested lots of money into the club. It goes to show how the game has changed...today, you need a petrostate backing you to outspend everyone. Back then, you just needed a local businessman willing to spend a relatively modest sum of money as long as it was more than the local businessmen backing other clubs (cough cough Doug Ellis).

8 hours ago, Tommo_b said:

Buzzing as I am, I do feel sad for Mings and Buendia to be missing out on all this from a player’s perspective. 

Has anyone heard anything more recent about how Mings is doing? We've seen Buendia hanging out with the team for the past couple matches but I don't think I've seen any video of Mings at a match in months.

3 hours ago, Captain_Townsend said:

We are a big club with a big history. Us being in this position is not like Leicester at all. Maybe it is a generation thing but I seem to see it differently to some 

I agree. To repeat what I just said in the post-match thread (sorry to those reading it a second time): The title would be magical to us as Villans but I doubt that it will ever capture the popular imagination like they did. It's not just that they were a traditional yo-yo club that had never won the league...they were relegation favorites with 5,000 to 1 odds for the title that year. We're the biggest club in the second biggest city in England with a glorious-if-inconsistent history and at the start of the season we were being talked about as top 6 contenders at least.

7 hours ago, Chicago Villan 1974 said:

Do we believe in miracles yet ? Leicester 2.0?  

Not really a fair comparison. The title would be magical to us as Villans but I doubt that it will ever capture the popular imagination like they did. It's not just that they were a traditional yo-yo club that had never won the league...they were relegation favorites with 5,000 to 1 odds for the title that year. We're the biggest club in the second biggest city in England with a glorious-if-inconsistent history and at the start of the season we were being talked about as top 6 contenders at least.

19 hours ago, maqroll said:

Would you bet against us?

I've no doubt we can beat Arsenal as well, but my concern is twofold-  they are currently better than Man City and our players just completely emptied the tank tonight. Can we apply ourselves just as intensely 3 days from now? 

There's going to be some changes to the starting 11, surely.

I'm guessing Diaby for Bailey, Moreno for Digne, Cash back in at RB and Konsa sits. 

Konsa got his rest against Bournemouth. I'm guessing Cash at RB and Konsa back to CB for Diego.

Hard to sit Bailey after the City match, but he looked pretty fatigued at the end, so I agree with you on that one.

Digne needs the rest so I probably agree that Unai will go with Moreno, but given the Saka threat, you can't rule out that he goes with Digne who doesn't go forward as far.

1 hour ago, DJBOB said:

Love Ty and think he would be immense in certain matches, but Pau's passing from the back is outrageous.

No point in comparing them. If Ty were healthy, I think we'd see a lot of them together as CBs with Konsa at right back.

I also think that Unai knew that we needed another top-class CB in case someone got hurt. And someone got hurt.

As much as I like Diaby and Tielemans, right now Pau is the most important of our summer transfers.

2 hours ago, HKP90 said:

No that can't be. I remember a Pau header that went wide of the far post. 

Maybe "creating" meant with a pass. But still, given his passing, it strikes me as surprising if he didn't create any chances.

6 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

 

Every outfield starter except, strangely, Pau.

1 hour ago, maqroll said:

I worry that we might have emptied the tank. They rested a few regulars vs Luton and will be fresher than us. But I still back us to win because Emery has captured lightning in a bottle.

We can bring Cash, JJ, Moreno, Diaby, even Lenglet off our bench. No worries.

I'm too happy to analyze this one right now.

The best Villa win of recent years. Sure, we've had some big wins, but they were upsets. This feels like we've arrived.

Bailey MOTM by a whisker over Kamara. But everyone, everyone played well tonight.

Leon deserved that!

Right now we're dominating midfield. Kamara has been absolute class, helped by McGinn and others. Who's their ball winner without Rodri? Stones? He doesn't look fully fit and isn't a pure midfielder in the first place.

I will be curious what tactical changes Guardiola makes to shore up midfield. He doesn't have a full slate of options. Might he give Phillips a chance?

Bailey has also been outstanding. He and Kamara are leading candidates for MOTM. Can't say that anyone in the side is playing poorly.