DJBOB

Just a dip in form lads. The thing about most of this squad is that they have played very few high leverage matches, relegation dogfights aside. 
 
Luiz will be fine but these are high pressure and there’s still a shakiness in their confidence. It will come back. 

Give the man space to run and he’s electric. By far our best player tonight. 

8 minutes ago, Brumstopdogs said:

I thought he was partly at fault for the second goal the way he went down with the speed of a sloth.

The fourth goal as well looked awful and it certainly looked a shot that should have been saved.

Get rid.

His speed is…shocking to watch and antithetical to the way we play. 
 
Not much to be done for the rest of the season but been clear for a long time he’s terrible. 

A stinker but a player of quality. He will make it right. 

1 minute ago, viivvaa66 said:

I assume everybody is following the Spurs match, but people should have a look at the other match that is played now. It looks like summer vacation has started early in Brighton, hopefully they still are on the beaches next Sunday.

Of course you still have to play hard but the Brighton team on paper is one we should beat easily. 

 
Going to be a race. Hopefully a precaution to make sure he’s available for the 2nd leg. 

 
Not great no matter the severity. Probably why he was so angry. Potentially missing a cup final after so many pivotal wins. 

29 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

This is it for me.. Just back from the game and what is abundantly clear is quick physical teams can take us apart too easily. Newcastle, Spuds, Chelsea. We were very lucky to get anything out of that game tonight. Absolutely atrocious performance just getting bullied all over the park. 

Yes all the teams that have outplayed us are very similar in types of personnel. 
 
The way Unai sets us up to play leaves us on lots of 1v1s all over the pitch. When we’re better, like Bournemouth or Arsenal, we have them for the taking. 
 
But Chelsea, for all their dysfunctions, have a lot of athletic players and hunted us down whenever we tried to escape. 
 
Morgan was part of this plan to help but he is only one player. Maybe a Zaniolo, a Kamara, a Buendia could have helped when the game becomes duels all over the pitch. 
 
But we’re just getting over the line right now. 

He inspires no confidence. That much is clear from the others playing around him. 
 
Its a difficult position to be behind the worlds number 1 and not have any playing time on top of it. 
 
But we need someone with more potential (Gauci) than someone like Olsen. 

United are shit and won’t finish…6th

We’ve already picked up Gauci but Chevalier has impressed in both legs. Can’t see him staying at Lille long. 

1 minute ago, duke313 said:

I don't see how this breaks the new rules.  Bentaleb was nowhere near the ball when Emi lifted it, he was still walking over.  It would have been different if Emi walked over and lifted the ball after the taker had set it down or lifted it.

It doesn’t break the rule. 
 
But Emi knew what he was doing when he took the ball. I’m sure he studied the rule and you can even see in the video, he’s sort of judging if he can get away with it and then does a quick sprint to get to the ball first. 
 
Set the tone, disrupted the routine, game over. 

12 minutes ago, John said:

I thought Benjamin Andre looked a decent defensive midfield addition for us last night. He's 34 in August, so he wouldn't cost a lot, but would offer a decent option in Kamara's absence for next season imo. No re-sale value, I know but might be worth thinking about?

Not sure Andre will ever want to be in the same room as Emi again. 

2 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

The first penalty I thought Lille knew what was coming, the keeper tried to throw the ball away so that martinez couldn't get it first which resulted in a strange looking walk towards the ball with bentaleb broke out in to a jog

It was almost like them trying to stop emi swung it the other way and went more towards the mind games 

Yes and notice how Emi throws the ball to Luiz for the last kick to make sure Chevalier doesn’t try anything. 
 
In fact, Chevalier doesn’t go for any intimidation tactics and I thought our players looked relatively comfortable taking their kicks as a result. 
 
Whereas Emi always had something going on. 

36 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Was very close to double kicking it. There's always drama with Ollie and penalties. I have to give him credit for scoring given it was a ridiculous delay with Emi and then the other ball being thrown on the pitch but I just never feel confident when he's running up. Compare to Tielemans and Luiz who are just ice cold and side foot into corners.

To be fair, it was 2 and a half minutes from the time he walked up to the time the ref blew for him to take it. 
 
Thats an insane amount of time. Great mental fortitude to not shank it to row z. 

9 minutes ago, one_ian_taylor said:

That's a pretty amazing record. Watching last night's shoot out again, his shithousing isn't actually that significant.  But it's  got to the point where everyone is watching for it,  and his reputation is intimidating to the opposition. Also must take heat off our players

From an Arsenal fan, but a good thread on the psychology he imposes. Goes and grabs the ball before Bentaleb. Skating on thin ice there with the new rules but it’s not “intimidating” and even he pretends that he’s just checking the ball but has already done the job - Bentaleb is rattled. 
 
Also think Unai and co. did their homework and told all their players to take a second to compose themselves. Statistically, there’s a higher conversion rate if you take a few seconds for the penalty as opposed to firing away as soon as the ref blows the whistle. All our players, except Tielemans funnily enough, did that last night. 
 
The exceptions? Bentaleb and Andre. 
 

Penalty in the 3rd critical spot was definitely not what I expected but to be fair, he’s always had good technique. It’s the decision making that’s questionable. 

• Wins coin toss to go first -
• Best taker last -
• World’s #1 -

Very concrete pattern in the build up - Lille want Konsa and Cash to have the ball

Fonseca has done a little more homework than Arteta - constantly funneling us towards our weaker right hand side build up. This is where Konsa's lack of distribution hurts us.

Against a lot of odds - I think they might actually pass aid for Ukraine.

1 hour ago, CVByrne said:

Having lived through so much pain for Villa wanting CL so much and making it donor die was stressing me out to no end. Being defeatist is a way of avoiding the pain of failure. 

But what is failure? I think we are now a top 8 side and we can compete for trophies and CL places and win any football game against any side. If we end 7th one season and 5th and get CL another as long as we can be sustainable and compete isn't that success? 

So by that metric this season is a success a resounding one. Nothing that can happen over the final games of the season can really change that 

One I look at it from that perspective life isn't as stressful and every game doesn't bring agonising levels of nerves and stress. 

Enrique said it in the lead up to PSG/Barcelona but I think Unai have also said something along the same sentiments and what you said above.

Pressure is not winning against Lille or Bournemouth. Pressure is going to work 7 days a week and not having to get sick to make sure you don't miss any days.

Lille, Bournemouth, a trophy, UCL - all of this is just opportunity and one I think Unai and the boys will rise to meet.

But will he turn words into action?

It helps though, if you have KDB.