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Shaun Teales Moustache

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Everything posted by Shaun Teales Moustache

  1. Shaun Teales Moustache
    James Ward Prowse might be one of the best set piece takers in the Premier League, even in the history of the PL, but it's just not that important of a skill. He has scored 17 free kicks in 11 seasons - 326 games. Conversion rates are so low for everyone, that although scoring the odd screamer is great when it happens, it just doesn't happen enough to factor into a decision about signing a player, especially when we already have two players who have scored direct from set pieces this season. Ward Prowse has also put in 172 crosses this season, but has only been credited with 2 assists. Goal Creating Actions is a far better stat to show how often people are involved in the build up to goals, especially for midfielders, but he has only 5 GCA for the season. McGinn and Luiz both have 7 in significantly less minutes. That just sums Ward Prowse up for me - he's busy without being very effective. As for his leadership, he's led his team to a couple of 9-0 defeats in recent seasons, and maybe more embarrasingly, to a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Steven Gerrard. Pretty sure they've conceded 6 or 7 a couple of times the last few year as well. He's played alongside plenty of decent defenders and midfielders at Southampton, but they've almost always been terrible defensively. Losing 9-0 in the Premier League isn't just bad defending though. It's capitulation, which isn't exactly a sign of good leadership, especially when it happens more than once. I'm not saying he's a bad player - I just think he is what he has been his whole career - a decent bottom to mid-table Premier League level midfielder, with a nice party piece. He would do basically nothing to address any of our problems, and would probably add to them by making us smaller in midfield.
  2. Shaun Teales Moustache
    If it's based on the position I think we can make the most obvious and immediate upgrade to the first team, I'd spend it on a Right Back, who's good defensively, good in the air and composed on the ball. Foyth is the obvious candidate as someone who did that exact role very well. If you take attainability out of the equation and just consider who would be the best 100m player that would suit us, Randal Kolo Muani for the Second Striker. If you just look at all of the players we've been linked to, Mikel Merino is the one I want us to sign most as a creative CM, to play alongside Kamara, Luiz and one of Ramsey, Buendia, Coutinho or Bailey, depending on the opposition. Those are the top 3 positions I'd like us to target in order. Anything beyond that would be gravy.
  3. Shaun Teales Moustache
    The fella there has clearly done some statistical gymnastics there to try and make Thiago look like the best midfielder in the league, but it doesn't match up with the actual statistics. Declan Rice leads the league with 189 recoveries. Ramsey is back in tied 123rd place with 69 (nice). He's only 5th among Villa midfielders even.
  4. Shaun Teales Moustache
  5. Shaun Teales Moustache
    For summer targets, this guy must be worth a look... Owned by the City Group, but has a €20m buy out clause, so should still be attainable. Has played a lot of senior football already for a 19 year old, converted CB, who looks like he has the physicality to play that RCB role. Good aerial stats, and looks very good on the ball. He might still be shit, but the YouTube highlights and stats both look good.
  6. Shaun Teales Moustache
  7. Shaun Teales Moustache
    I thought Saviola was on there, but I was also wondering if he was only 16 or so, so might have just been on the bench. He was still only 18 but already phenomenal. Instead of plunging for him and Aimar along with Angel in the January window, Doug spent 11m on Bosko Balaban and Peter Crouch the following summer. Gregory didn't even highlight Diego Placente there, who was a very good player as well.
  8. Shaun Teales Moustache
    Many thanks!
  9. Shaun Teales Moustache
    Can anyone find the scouting report John Gregory posted on twitter from when he went to watch JPA for River Plate? I know he had 5 stars for Aimar and Mario Yepes, but there were a couple of other guys he highlighted too...
  10. Shaun Teales Moustache
    Seems like we got a worse deal on the Jorge Mendes pawns than most of the other clubs he had dealings with We also had that "Goalkeeper" who seemed to be just a 6'5" guy who had never seen a football before. Although I guess he never stuck us with a £40m bill for a Fabio Silva either. That might be coming after he facilitated the Emery deal.
  11. Shaun Teales Moustache
    Yeh, the main reason Young is in ahead of Cash is that he's so much better on the ball, even though he's not a natural defender. It's hard to know who'd be a good signing for there, because you'd want someone who's good in the air to help with our obvious weakness defending set pieces, but also needs to be quick and agile enough to deal with little wingers like Gnonto, so you can't just stick a CB out there. I don't expect anyone to get excited about the idea, but especially if we sell Chambers, Joel Veltman is out of contract at the end of the season, a very solid defender and good on the ball. He's not going to win any Ballon D'Ors, but I've seen him lock down some quality wingers. Would at least be solid cover at RB and experienced depth at CB. Foyth at Villareal has obviously done that job too and ticks a lot of the boxes, but I wonder if there's an agreement with Villareal not to go after their players for a certain period of time. Haven't seen enough of him to know how good he is anyway.
  12. Shaun Teales Moustache
    GK: Martinez - Olsen - Steer RB: Young - Cash - Konsa - Chambers LB: Moreno - Digne - Young - Mings 2 CBs: Mings - Carlos - Konsa - Chambers - Dendonker - Kamara 2 DMs: Kamara - Luiz - Dendoncker - Nakamba - Chambers - McGinn - Ramsey 2 AMs: Ramsey - McGinn - Buendia - Coutinho - Bailey SS: Bailey - Buendia - Coutinho - Watkins CF: Watkins - Duran We have 19 senior outfield players for 10 positions, and tactical flexibility to deal with injuries to almost everyone (except CF, which is due to the unplanned Ings departure). There's obviously a big drop off in quality for some positions, but considering we're not in Europe or either cup, we don't need to be stashing loads of players, when we have a couple of quality subs who can fill a few positions. Aside from GK and CF (which I think we'll address), we'd need 7-8 injuries, including 3-4 to the same position to really start causing problems. As it is, the squad is just a good size to let Emery work with some of the youth players on the training ground. That might be great news for KKH and Aaron Ramsey (when he gets fit). If we sign a Bednarek\Samatta\Baston quality player, just to fill a spot on the bench, that will just reduce the opportunities for those guys and reduce the budget we have to really improve the team in the summer, when the market will be better.
  13. Shaun Teales Moustache
    The business last summer was obviously partially disrupted because there was conflict between Lange and Gerrard. The Sarr non-deal made that very clear. That signing would have left the squad looking a lot more balanced. Even so, and as much as I think Gerrard was a complete clown, I don't really have a problem with any of the other business last summer. Coutinho looked like he still had quality a level above what we had otherwise last season. There were several flashes of brilliance and he looked like he was just out of form or fitness. Not sure if he's injured or depressed or burnt out or whatever has him looking a shadow of himself now, but as of last summer, the deal we signed him on looked a worthy gamble. He had a spell like this at Inter too that led to Liverpool signing him on the cheap. Hopefully Emery can get him going again. Bednarek was as a direct result of Carlos getting injured. Don't think we blundered into it so much as took what was available at short notice without being tied to a contract long term when Carlos is clearly going to be the eventual starter, and Konsa and Mings were also both capable starters. Augustinsson similar, probably necessitated by outgoing loans. Dendonker was a signing of opportunity with his contract running down and Wolves moving to a different system that would give him less starting opportunities. For 13m, he's great cover for DM and can also cover CB. He has 30-40 caps for one of the top international teams in the world over the last 5 years. He's still young. Seems like he's taking a lot of abuse since that mistake vs Stevenage, but one mistake doesn't define a player. That was really good business imo. Kamara was an incredible signing. Carlos looked like a great addition on paper. The biggest problem was selling all bar one of the wingers, but the "brains" behind that move is no longer at the club.
  14. Shaun Teales Moustache
    If Duran is in first team contention (which I don't think he is), then the squad is about the right size. Emery said he didn't plan for Ings to leave, but the deal clearly made sense from a FFP perspective when he didn't fit in the team. I'm certain that means a striker will come in, and that is the top priority imo. Thuram and Dembele are the names mentioned that make a lot of sense to me, but if they decide to throw bags of money at Juventus and Vlahovic, I won't complain (I know it's not happening, but at least it's ambitious compared to some names thrown out so far). We're obviously short on wingers because Gerrard is a simpleton, but Emery has already played CMs, FBs, playmakers and our one winger in Bailey out wide, so he has shown he can work without two. We need another winger, but unless there's a really good option available, it's probably better to wait til the summer when the market will be better. Don't really like any of the links to wingers so far (taking Thuram as a CF where he's actually played his best football). I don't see a significant difference in the quality of the squad adding Deulofeu when we have Buendia and Coutinho. Quality, skillful, creative players who are physically sub-par. The Sarr move seems to be history, but it was worrying that Watford fans were happy enough for him to go anyway. Nakamba out, Guendouzi in seems like it'll happen and seems to be a pretty good move. I love John McGinn and I think he's been a victim of a lot of undeserved abuse because he had a moron managing him who tried to make him play RB while we were in possession. But if we do sign Guendouzi, I think that's a problem for McGinn. I think McGinn is a better player overall than Ramsey, but Ramsey probably fits better into a midfield alongside Kamara/Luiz/Guendouzi, and they're probably competing for half a role there vs Buendia/Coutinho. Other than Guendouzi and a striker, I'd be surprised if there were any other deals til the summer, and I think that's good for the youth players trying to get time with the first team, and good for targeting actual progress in the summer.
  15. Shaun Teales Moustache
    Pipe dream: Ings +30m for Paqueta - If West Ham are going 2 up top, which they'd almost certainly be with Ings, they're better off with Rice and Soucek as the two in midfield, they have tonnes of wingers, and Paqueta would be be more than ideal for one of the outside midfielders in Emery's formation. Selling Ings for 15m on paper makes total business sense, but in footballing terms, it means we need to sign a new striker in a window where our recent-ish history has been Samatta, Baston and Grant Holt (and Grabban and Hogan when we were setting money on fire in the Championship). We can only do it if we have a player lined up, and the offer is too good to refuse. I don't know if 15m is enough on it's own in the circumstances, even if it makes business sense. For a replacement, Thuram looks like an ideal signing on paper - has played wide and central in the past, so can basically compete for the positions Watkins, Bailey and Buendia have all been filling. Might also be a pipe dream though.
  16. Shaun Teales Moustache
    Who could have known that tactics and instructions were more useful than "challenging certain individuals to step forward and produce moments of magic"? We got 4 goals in the 2 games after Gerrard and before Emery too. Watkins has 2 goals and 3 assists and Ings has 5 goals in the 7 games since Gerrard.
  17. Shaun Teales Moustache
    For last season... Head: 2 shots, 1 goal Left foot: 7 shots, 2 goals Right foot: 27 shots, 1 goal Maybe he's just been using his wrong foot this whole time
  18. Shaun Teales Moustache
    The RB is the primary beneficiary of Gerrard's dumbass system. League One journeyman James Tavernier has hit double figures in goals from RB a couple of times for Rangers. With most of our possession and attacks going down the left, Cash was in some great positions by just putting in the effort to get up and down the pitch. He's never had much quality on the ball though imo. Also he's our third tallest outfield player after Mings and Dendonker, but doesn't even go up for corners, because he's not great in the air. He's not a bad player, but I think he's the weakest starter we have.
  19. Shaun Teales Moustache
    Konsa isn't a good RB either though, even defensively. The only clean sheet we've ever kept with Konsa at RB was thanks to Hawk-Eye vs Sheffield United. My biggest problem with Konsa is that he's always looking to pass off defending to Cash or Mings, and just mop up behind them, so when he plays RB, he's often looking for help behind him that's not there. Konsa would be great in the middle of a back 3, but I think he's too passive to be a top player in any other position.
  20. Shaun Teales Moustache
    Aside from the obvious need for a new winger, I think right back is the next priority. Cash is not really good enough on the ball to play it out from the back the way we've been trying to do. He's terrible at crossing and shooting, so even though you can't fault his effort, he contributes very little going forward. And, he's not good enough defensively to make up for his failings on the ball. Young has been better at RB, but must be nearing 100 years old. KKH might be able to challenge/cover next year, and Chambers can cover if not, so we don't need to hold onto Cash for cover. Would be good to sell (and replace) him now if possible rather than wait until he's been on the bench for a few months losing value.
  21. Shaun Teales Moustache
  22. Shaun Teales Moustache
    Hadn't heard about this til now Hugely important in highlighting the horrendous treatment of indigenous Americans, and also how hypocritical and up it's own arse Hollywood was/continues to be.
  23. Shaun Teales Moustache
    Yeh, exactly... Looking at a full season - hence the Buendia and Coutinho stats being the same, but without different.
  24. Shaun Teales Moustache
    I saw an opinion yesterday that I agreed with, so I went digging for some stats. I'll preface this by saying this is about as relevant as xG is as a "stat", because it looks at some actual stats and draws conclusions without considering a bunch of other relevant factors. Regardless, I thought it was interesting, as it went way against what I previously believed. I want us to play with Buendia and Coutinho behind Watkins, so I looked at games Villa started with all combinations of Buendia, Coutinho, Watkins and Ings to see which was most successful - thinking we were much better with both. I was surprised to find that we were most successful with NEITHER Buendia or Coutinho starting. We played 6 games where neither started, and won 3, so 1.5 points per game - the best 2 combinations we had (Watkins solo and Watkins/Ings). We also played 6 with both starting, and won 1, drew 1, lost 4 - so 0.66 points per game - worst (Ings, Buendia, Coutinho) and 3rd worst (Watkins, Buendia, Coutinho). Even more interesting, the 6 games we played with neither were on paper far tougher than the 6 with both. Every other combination of the 4 players were in between those extremes, and getting into the details there shows how arbitrary these stats are (STILL GIGAWATTS MORE RELEVANT THAN xG). Anyway, I still want us to play both Buendia and Coutinho, so my biased opinion is that if we're going to play two lightweight guys like that, we need to add some more physicality in midfield to balance it out. That's why I don't see the benefit of another skillful whippet like Otavio, when the midfield is already too lightweight. I don't see the benefit if a guy like JWP, who I think is basically in the same tier/style of player as Luiz, Sanson and is at very, very best insignificantly better. He's definitely not going to beef up the midfield. I don't want a Conor Gallagher, even though he and JWP are unboubtedly very good players. I want a big, strong, fast, technical guy, who's good in the air and scores goals. Is that too much to ask for? Also, if we're going for a fancy pants guy, Lucas Paqueta > Otavio.
  25. Shaun Teales Moustache
    Hello! Long time Villa fan. I've been enjoying following the transfer window thread, so want to get involved. I live a long way from Birmingham, but I've seen Steve Staunton score direct from a corner at Villa Park. I've also been holding a grudge against Julian Joachim for close on 30 years for not signing an autograph for me the last time I was at Villa Park.
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