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TomC

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Everything posted by TomC

  1. TomC
    I'm not sure if we let him go because he wanted playing time or if it was because of FFP, but if it was a charity case because he wanted playing time, it has come back to haunt us. We really could use him right now. [Edit: And it's come back to haunt him, because I guarantee that he would have gotten more than 21 minutes here.] If it's FFP, well, we did what we had to. Rogers is more important in the long run than Dendoncker.
  2. TomC
    This. Tielemans and Rogers were the straws that broke the camel's back. Now we're down to two true midfielders. End of story.
  3. TomC
    I'll reserve judgment because I haven't seen him play that role. If he can do it, great, that's one less thing to spend limited funds on.
  4. TomC
    Except that Rogers has many of the same attributes as JJ...
  5. TomC
    Maybe they think Nedjelkovic is ready, however unlikely that seems.
  6. TomC
    I'm not so sure. He wants to attack with at least 7. At first, that meant leaving the RB at home and advancing the LB while both Doug and Kamara joined the attack. That said, at times we've seen him keep Kamara in the back 3 while both fullbacks advance. He's not completely closed-minded to a "pure" DM.
  7. TomC
    If you're an overseas fan and you've been thinking about doing a pilgrimage, do it! I should have done it much, much sooner. It was a wonderful experience. I will get into specifics in a later post, but first let me talk about Birmingham in general. The whole family liked it. As a tourist, there's plenty to do and we found it pleasant. I can't tell you what it's like to to live there, but some of you Brummies shouldn't be so down about your city. I've been to just about every major city in the US and Brum compares quite well. Cities have a way of giving off a vibe, and Brum seemed pretty energetic to me. I had read that Brum is known for having some awful modernist architecture after so many buildings were bombed during WWII, but we found it anything but ugly. Plenty of beautiful buildings are still around, and most of the modern stuff is no worse than the cookie-cutter concrete and glass structures you find all over American cities. (OK, the library wasn't quite my taste, but that's only one building.) So when you do a Villa pilgrimage, don't spend most of your time in London. I'd allow at least four days in Brum. We stayed four days in London and four in Brum (from which we did a day trip to Stratford-on-Avon) and we didn't get to see everything in Brum, plus we were rushed in some other things.
  8. TomC
    I've been back from my Villa pilgrimage for almost a month. Given how much good advice I got from other pilgrimage threads, I feel obligated to give my impressions and some advice of my own. That said, I've been procrastinating. Rather than do one long post, I'm going to break it up into a bunch of smaller posts so it doesn't seem so daunting. The moderators have created a pilgrimage tag for threads like this. So far only three threads have it. I recommend that anyone doing a pilgrimage start with this one... Unfortunately, because it's in an old match thread, it's closed for more posts, but it's full of good advice. A couple other threads that I found useful but that don't have the pilgrimage tag are...
  9. TomC
    My shopping list is short: Defensive midfield: #1 priority. Kamara won't be back until at least November, probably January, and we miss him. I don't think Doug will be back to full form until we have a proper DM with him again. Unai doesn't think Tim is ready. The only question is, buy 1 or buy 2? Right back: We need a true RB as cover for or to move ahead of Cash. The question is whether Nedjelkovic will be ready (he's only 18, plus hurt his knee this year). If so, this isn't as high a priority, but Unai seems to be cautious in bringing youth up, so we could use someone for 2-3 years until he is ready. Backup striker: We're screwed if Ollie gets hurt. Duran is still raw, and Bailey and Diaby are not true strikers. Sure, we have other positions where we could upgrade, but it would have to be a true world class player. I see no point in buying just to buy.
  10. TomC
    I'd rate Emi, Ollie, and Mings ahead of him. But he's also younger than those 3 and will be at least at the Ollie/Mings level soon. (Emi level is best at his position in the world...not sure if Kamara has that much upside.)
  11. TomC
    No club has ever won 4 in a row in England, and something about the idea of an oil club being the first one just plain bothers me.
  12. TomC
    Liverpool should have buried Spurs further in goal difference to give us a little more comfort, but I really don't see Spurs overturning the difference. So, realistically, we need them to drop just 2 points and we're set. A City-Spurs draw would be ideal...no title for City, we make the the CL. Of course, we could take care of business next weekend ourselves if we still have 11 fit players at the club by then.
  13. TomC
    You have to wonder if Klopp got the changes wrong. The match has turned since the subs.
  14. TomC
    No more football than this season. Higher level, yes, but the rest periods are the same.
  15. TomC
    While, on the whole, I think that you're being too negative, you have a good point here. It's not like we lost to a full strength Brighton.
  16. TomC
    From that angle it looks like he pulled his right foot back to kick the ball and clipped Konsa by his own act. Although it looks inconsequential, Konsa didn't help himself the way he flings his arm out, which may have looked like a push to the ref.
  17. TomC
    I was really hoping that we could wrap up our CL spot today so I could support Spurs to derail City's title bid...looks like I have to hope for a City win now.
  18. TomC
    Off to the beach? Not fair at all. You think they don't want to make the CL and win the ECL?
  19. TomC
    They're going to be a problem next season, aren't they...
  20. TomC
    The good news is that we have only 3 or 4 matches after today. They don't have to last long to get us over the finish line. But it's not going to be easy given the injury count.
  21. TomC
    Agreed. We're down to two established midfielders. Maybe you can get away with playing one player out of position, but not two. At some point, you have to go with what you have.
  22. TomC
    Exactly...you said it clearer than I did...
  23. TomC
    I've defended Olsen's shot-stopping, but Jacob Tanswell made a good point in the Athletic...one of the things that we really missed about Emi last night was his sweeper-keeper ability. They played a lot of early balls to the front runners. (Ironic, the Greek team looked more like an English team and the English team looked more like a continental team.)
  24. TomC
    We've proven that we can handle Europe. Whether we win, lose the final, or lose in the semis, we've made it most of the season and finished 4th in the PL. We're not West Ham (though we could use some more depth).
  25. TomC
    Legia in Warsaw was pretty hostile. (Or even Legia at VP, LOL.)
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