TomC

Just now, AshVilla said:

Zero composure from Luiz there.

He did what he should have. 99% of the time that goes in. That save reminded me of Banks on Pele.

13 minutes ago, UpTheVilla26 said:

Konsa needs dropping. He's doing my head in, it's almost like since the England games he's got a massive ego on and plays half arsed. 

He and Pau have been our best defensive pairing this year.

You can't blame either goal tonight on him. First was Digne's fault for not seeing the player who scored behind him. Second was Cash misjudging the ball's flight by about 6 inches.

11 minutes ago, birdman said:

Cash makes me so nervous. Never ever looks over his shoulder to check attacking player behind him.

Far post runs behind him have been a weakness for a long time.

I don't know if we'll score, but if we get one, I'm pretty confident we'll get two.

We're having trouble progressing the ball. That's something that tactical changes should fix. It's Unai time.

23 hours ago, TRO said:

I ask the question.....are we  really ready for champions league football, are we really, honestly?

The game is played differently on the continent, and I think that the Conference League has been, and will continue to be, good training for the CL. The first Legia Warsaw match was an education in itself.

Even if we qualify for the CL, I don't expect to win it the first (recent) time. Let's get there and get some experience.

4 hours ago, TRO said:

You say we are a possession based team, yes, when no one is near us... In the final third we lose the ball regularly. possession based teams in the true sense of the word, keep the ball and when challenged often stay on it......we lose the ball too often and too easily, when challenged.

I disagree with this. On Saturday, we passed the ball into tight spaces in the box and, when the player realized he wasn't going to get a good shot, we recycled the ball back out.

More to the point, once you get in the final third, I see nothing wrong with taking chances and losing the ball. Clear-cut opportunities are rare in this game. Sometimes you have to take chances.

The reason Man City are so fearsome isn't that they never lose the ball; they do so in the final third rather often (not so much in midfield). It's just that they press so well when they do lose it. When Guardiola came to England, he added a Klopp-style high press to his system.

On 07/04/2024 at 03:46, briny_ear said:

That was a great read. So sorry for you that you saw such a clueless performance on your pilgrimage.

Glad you liked Birmingham. You don’t by any chance have a spare $billion or two to help the city become solvent again? 
 

Sounds familiar. I'm a Detroiter. We live in the suburbs, but the city proper went through bankruptcy proceedings (what you would call administration) about seven years ago because the city government could no longer pay its debts. It was a mess. The city owned the art museum and some creditors wanted to liquidate the entire art collection, Van Goghs, Rembrandts, and all, to collect their money. Fortunately, that part didn't happen and the museum has now been spun off as independent so it doesn't happen again.

Three things made the difference...

1. The City possession machine was in full bloom and we couldn't win the ball.

2. As everyone already said, we had a team full of second choice players. (Related to #1...City would not have had quite so much of the ball if McGinn and Kamara were playing.)

3. Foden was outstanding.

So, what do I take from our two matches against City this season? Villa at our best are good enough to dominate an off-day City (which would not have been the case even two years ago) but our second choice players are not good enough to hang with peak City (which is no surprise). Put another way, we've progressed, but we need a Foden or two and more depth before we can contend for the title.

Looking forward to Brentford at Villa Park on Saturday.

26 minutes ago, il_serpente said:

And we then had to listen to Peter Drury suck Foden's c*ck over a poor free kick that by all rights should have been straight into the wall at chest level.

Knowing Guardiola's attention to detail, you have to wonder if he saw some old video of Zaniolo turning on a free kick and told Foden to aim it right at him.

48 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

I will forgive him tonight if we beat Brentford. If we don’t I’ll be fuming. We’ve effectively thrown tonight’s game to focus on Saturday, which is fine if we win that match but absolutely not fine if we don’t win it.

I hope that this won't turn into O'Neill and CSKA Moscow. But I doubt that it will.

On 30/03/2024 at 17:36, limpid said:

It is, sorry. I was mixing it up  with Bournemouth

You had me worried there for a second. I'm in Brum making the pilgrimage for the match and I'm flying back to the states on Sunday, so I would have been screwed.

Just now, daggy_333 said:

Cash being out will probably mean we don't see Pau and Konsa as a CB partnership for a while.

Agreed...I edited my post just before you posted yours...

The Guardian figured out the most common centre back partnership for each club in the PL this season.

The good news is that Konsa-Pau is the most successful of the partnerships, winning 7 of 8 for 87.5%.

The bad news is that 8 matches together is towards the bottom of the list...three teams have had their most common partnership start only 6 matches, while Arsenal and Everton have had the same partnership for 24 matches.

Let's hope to see a health Konsa and Pau at CB for the rest of the season. With Cash hurt, though, we will probably see Konsa at RB.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/27/central-defence-premier-league-arsenal-manchester-united

On 19/03/2024 at 18:16, Hornso said:

Well for the record:

Emi - 150 appearances, 1.23 Conceded Per Game
Schmeichel - 36 apps, 1.22
Sorensen - 158 apps, 1.22
Enckelman - 67 apps, 1.09
James - 84 apps, 0.99
Bosnich - 227 apps, 0.94

Spink would be in there too, but I don't have his pre-1992 stats. Since then he was 71 apps, 1.06.

 

Scoring is up the past few years...

Emi has been here since 2020-21. That year, average goals per game was 2.69, in the typical range for the PL era. But the last three years in a row have set PL-era records. From a previous record of 2.80 in 2011-12, the last three years have been 2.81, 2.82, and this year so far, a record-obliterating 3.24 (highest since 1952-53 in the old league). That helps explain the difference from Bosnich.

Not to mention that Bosnich had Paul McGrath in front of him most of his time here.

And, while it's not a fair comparison because goalkeepers weren't expected to do such things back then, none of the other candidates have Emi's sweeper-keeper and passing-in-back abilities.

Bosnich was good, but I'd still take Emi any day of the week.

Just now, Tom13 said:

His passing is quite underrated IMO.

Fair enough. He hasn't played all that much, so maybe I just don't appreciate it.

On 19/03/2024 at 03:32, tomav84 said:

scary how much muscle he's lost on his right leg

Fortunately, if you've had it before, it comes back much quicker than building it in the first place.

It does sound like he's behind Buendia in the process.

24 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

Thought this was interesting. No Pau is a surprise!

Diego Carlos is more of a surprise!

I wouldn't want to predict further out than five years because the situation in European football as a whole is unstable and much could change. But assuming the current system stays in place...

We're in a good position to finish in the PL top 8 every year and occasionally in the top 4. Success starts at the top and we have good owners. We have a great manager. We will have our occasional setbacks, but I have no reason to doubt that we will achieve the maximum that our revenue allows us to achieve.

The Sky 6 still blow us away in revenue. As long as the current FFP stays in place, that means that, no matter how much NSWE want to put in the club, the Sky 6 can outspend us. FFP was designed to protect the already-big clubs. Unfortunately, in the early PL days, Deadly Doug did not see that things were changing and did not do what was necessary for us to join the elite, even though we were in a position to do so. Manchester City were likely the last club to be able to spend their way in the door with outside-the-game money; the oil money did enough to raise their profile before FFP got strict, and now they're inside the elite and protected. (Not to mention that they are probably circumventing the rules right now, but that's another topic.)

Outspending us does not mean outperforming. Manchester United have fallen apart with the Glazers and without Ferguson. Chelsea have fallen apart under Boehly. Spurs have enigmatic leadership. American sport can provide dozens of other examples where wealthy clubs have not been well run. The Sky 6 will make their mistakes and, other than Newcastle, no other club is better positioned to take advantage than we are. That's why I think that it's realistic to challenge for the top 4 on occasion, as we are doing now.

Ideally, though, we want to have good leadership and good revenues. How do we increase our revenue? I have never seen a breakdown of revenues for PL clubs by UK vs. the rest of the world, but to speculate: In the UK, we're the biggest club in the second biggest city. Our domestic base is probably solid. My guess is that the Sky 6 are far ahead because of foreign revenue. Most people outside the UK, with no local club to support, are going to gravitate towards the big name clubs. Also, PL prize money and European competition money probably also contribute.

We need to build slowly and carefully. Sustained success on the pitch will mean more prize money; it will also improve our exposure abroad, attract more supporters, and attract more revenue. You don't want to overspend or go too fast, which is how Leeds ended up in the wilderness for over a decade and arguably how Everton and Leicester have gotten themselves into trouble. (If I see any dark cloud on the horizon, it's that we may be pushing the FFP limits already.) Keep finishing top 8 and occasionally in the top 4 and we will build our support. It may take 5-10 years to challenge for the title and be a true elite club, but never say never.

In short, I'm an optimist tinged with a necessary bit of patience.

The problem with Watkins is that you want your penalties to be hit hard and he really isn't a good driver of the ball. He has succeeded this year because he gets into good positions that enable him to score without power. In past years, when he has tried to drive shots, he has often ended up shooting straight at the keeper.

For me, preferred takers (not necessarily in order) would be Doug, Bailey, Digne, Tielemans, JJ,  Diaby, Emi1. I gave more than 5 because some might not be on the pitch at the end.

I really like the idea of Emi1. Penalties are a mind game as much as anything. You know he's not going to lose his nerve. The only problem is, if he does miss, he still has a job to do and you would wonder if it would get in his head.  I'd rather put him in there if we're kicking second and would put him in 5th round or later.

If they weren't injured, Buendia and Kamara would be up there.

On 12/03/2024 at 12:37, DJBOB said:

That's always the argument on the 532 but it's hardly ever the case and requires exceptional wingbacks. That's why you'll only really see it in some Italian sides where the pace of the game isn't so outrageous.

It's the same arguments when Lambert did the 532. When Deano did the 532. It never bears out in the prem. Tuchel and Conte both tried to go with a heavily wingback formation 352 and were run out of the prem because they do not have the elite wingbacks with absurd stamina to make it possible.

If I remember correctly, we ran the 5-3-2/3-5-2 fairly successfully under Brain Little and John Gregory. You can't say Alan Wright and Gary Charles/Fernando Nelson were elite level. That said, it was new to England at the time, so maybe we did well simply because of the novelty.

It was Brazil 2002 that really popularized the 5-3-2/3-5-2 with Cafu and Roberto Carlos. Very few teams have players anywhere near that.

According to this calculation, we have the second most difficult run-in...

That said, Spurs don't exactly have an easy run-in.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/16/premier-league-teams-toughest-run-ins-arsenal-villa-luton