Monkeypuzzle

In his last post match interview Pep basically hung Grealish out to dry and put him on the transfer list. Now I wouldn't want to pay anywhere near what they paid for him, but if a fee could be agreed, would people want him back? Personally, if the money is right, I think he would fit in to that LM role perfectly in our system.

Ok, so I did some maths. I was curious about just how consistent Villa have been under Unai, since he took over. I don't like looking at win percentage stats as they ignore those oh so precious points that you get from a draw. It makes them look like losses. Anyway, last season, under Unai, we earned 15 wins and 4 draws out of 25 league games. That's 49 out of 75 points - 65% with a total goal ratio of 40:26 In the cups we did poorly, losing both games. 0% Using the same points system for cups as the league, that means 49 out of 81 points for the whole season - 60% That's mighty impressive in your first season, taking over just before Christmas. So how does this season compare? So far this season we have earned 18 wins and 5 draws from 30 league games. That's 59 out of 90 points - 66% with a total goal ratio of 62:42 (scaled down to compare to last season, that would be a total goal ratio of 52:35) We are in 3 cup competitions this season and have won 8 and drawn 3 out of 14 games. That's the equivalent of 27 out of 42 points - 64% In total, this season so far, we have won 26 and drawn 8 out of 44 games. That's the equivalent of 86 out of 132 points - 65% So in conclusion, last season, with the exception of 2 cup games, Unai and Villa earned 65% of the available points. This season we have again earned 65% of the available points. The main difference is that we are both scoring and conceding more goals this season (30% more goals scored and 35% more conceded in the same number of games). Therefore I would predict we earn 65% of the points from our last 8 games in the league, which would be another 15-16 points. If nothing else, it shows how consistently successful we have been under Unai's guidance.

Does anyone know how our form this season compares to last season (just under Unai). Obviously the Stevie G drag factor had an effect at the start of last season, but under Unai we shot up the table. Have we maintained a similar win percentage this season? Or has it improved or dipped slightly? I'm curious to know how consistent we have been under his leadership.

If they can keep the Victorian red brick aesthetic, as in some of the designs I have seen, I think it would be the best looking modern stadium in the world. I think they were shown as theoretical designs on the Holy Trinity show.

So how does he compare to the likes Seb Revan and Ben Chrisene?

Somehow, reading that in Stewie Griffin's voice works really well.

Yeah, wording like that is similar to "I'm not racist, but..." Never going to be a good debate after that, so I just won't engage.

Is there a player in his position that is better than Douglas Luiz, who would come to Villa, or who would cost less than £120 million? I don't think there is. So selling him for any amount would leave us worse off. I don't think we are that desperate for money that we need to sell our best players. Usually a club can sell their best player for a huge sum and reinvest that money in players that improve the whole team. Liverpool did that when they sold Coutinho. Sometimes this strategy can go wrong though and the new players don't lift the team enough to recover from the loss. This happened to Spurs when they sold Bale and us when we sold Grealish. Aston Villa this season are in a slightly different situation now though. If we sold our best players there simply aren't good enough replacements available and the overall strength of the starting eleven is too good to strengthen other areas enough to make up for the loss. If we sold Martinez we are losing the world's best goalkeeper who is also a vital personality in the dressing room. The only comparible keepers are at Liverpool and Man City, who wouldn't sell to us and even then wouldn't have the same effect on the dressing room. If we sold Douglas Luiz I can't think of any player in the world who would influence our midfield in quite the same way. He could quite easily start for Man City, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid. If there are players capable of what he does then they already play for a top Champions League team and again, they won't sell them to us. Even players like Haaland and Kane wouldn't contribute as much to the team as Ollie Watkins does at the moment. They are better goal scorers but they don't contribute as much in other ways. What we would lose by selling our best would outweigh what we might gain by upgrading in positions like Matty Cash's, John McGinn's or Jacob Ramsey's. We need to sell off expendable players, quality youngsters and take advantage of special circumstances (Dybala's contract for example and free transfers) to improve our weakest positions. Weakest being a relative term. We are, after all, second in the Premier League, over half way through an injury riddled season. It is much harder to improve now than it was even a year ago.

Have they though? Who is Man City's quality back up to Rodri? Who do Liverpool have now that Fabinho has gone? Who do Man Utd have backing up Cassimeiro? Who is backing up Rice at Arsenal? Partey was rumoured to leave before he got moved to right back and then got injured. The big clubs do NOT have answers to this problem. Having injuries to your best players and first choice eleven affects any squad. Teams have their most successful seasons when they are lucky enough to have very few injuries to their first eleven. Otherwise they just do the best they can without a perfect replacement.

Is there a reason that Bogarde never seems to play? Their manager, Joey Barton, was raving about him last season. Is he just not deemed good enough this season?

If we accept a bid anywhere near as low as £80 million for Dougie I will truly despair. In today's market he is worth at least £120 million! He contributes more than Rice @ £105 million and is miles better than Calceido @ £115 million.

Maybe we release Lenglet, sell Chambers and reinstate Hause to become our secret LCB cover secret weapon?! No? Oh well, poor guy.

GK - Martinez, Olsen RB - Cash, ??? CB - Konsa, Carlos CB - Mings, Torres LB - Moreno, Digne DM - Kamara, Dendoncker CM - Luiz, Tielemans RAM - McGinn, Bailey LAM - Ramsey, Buendia CF - Diaby, Zaniolo ST - Watkins, Duran Who are you selling to replace in this squad? RB is the only spot with a vacancy. There are also a few senior players to sell who don't make the two players per position idea. For me, as well as Chambers, Hause and Traore going when possible, we could look at someone like Frimpong or Dumfries coming in for right back competition. Someone like Ferran Torres may come in whilst Buendia is still out, Ramsey is getting up to speed and Zaniolo has not made quite the impact they may have been hoping for. Or we may sign no one. That is a very strong squad that might even be leading the Premier League at Christmas, so who knows?

Oh I didn't mean that we have no long term plans for Zaniolo. Just not in the left midfield position. I'm pretty sure we brought him in with either a Bailey replacement (that viewpoint might have changed now with his improvement) or Diaby competition role in mind for him. With Buendia and Ramsey out for twelve and six months, he has had to play a different role to the one originally planned.

You mean someone like Ramsey? With him and Buendia, we have our left side. Zaniolo is just covering that position whilst both were out injured.