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DJBOB

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Everything posted by DJBOB

  1. DJBOB

    Austin MacPhee

    DJBOB replied to Strog's topic in Villa Talk

    Arsenal are both a tall side and Raya I think has the most cross claims in the league so we likely wanted to keep it away from Raya if at all possible and cause a scrum at the near post. In fairness, Pau did an excellent job coming across Gabriel at the near post that led to Bailey’s goal.
  2. DJBOB
    Incredible angle. Shows how much work Ollie still had to do, but baited Raya to come closer when he paused near the top of the box as if to shoot. Credit to ESR for doing everything he could to put him off. Deflection aside, Ollie still meant to dink it past Raya - look how he leans back after the shot. But also - questionable positioning by Raya? Comes out and gives Ollie a bevy of options if he wanted to. Plenty of room at the near post to slot it past him. Especially with ESR covering, don’t think there was any need to be far out as he was. The away end - class
  3. DJBOB
    There are things he admitted that has let him down while he was in the lower leagues. Commitment, discipline, fitting within the system. But the first touch and vision cannot always be taught. To go away to Arsenal and put on the display he did, being the main link between midfield and attack and to put in very hard running as an almost box to box midfielder - was genuinely impressive. I think Unai likes to pick these types of players too. Not the wunderkind who is tracked by all clubs but players of a certain humbleness. Pau, Diaby, and now Rogers are all of a similar ilk.
  4. DJBOB
    6 corners vs 4 corners - Arsenal's prowess from corners and our weakness is well known so to limit them to only 4 corners and to have less corners than us was a huge win. We defended our goal well and our first goal came off the second phase after a corner 12 fouls vs 7 fouls - with almost 50/50 possession, we largely stayed away from the troublesome fouls that got us in trouble in other matches. Of those 7 fouls, only 1 was in our final third (Tielemans 49') 5 offside vs 1 offside - though we were under the kosh a few times, we kept our midblock line high to keep them out of the box as much as possible. They were still able to breach the line but we kept to the game plan to keep us out of a siege 191 passes vs 112 passes - 191 passes from Emi/Diego/Pau vs 112 passes from Raya/Saliba/Gabriel - as dangerous as it seemed - we committed to baiting the Arsenal press as high as possible with Emi frequently receiving a pass right at the goal line with Arsenal players in the box. It helped us to beat the press especially with Zaniolo pinning White back several times with great hold up play
  5. DJBOB

    John McGinn

    DJBOB replied to PompeyVillan's topic in Villa Talk

    Turns out, John can play in the double pivot when needed!
  6. DJBOB
    Is there a reason Arsenal fans don’t seem to like Bailey? The fan reaction videos are hilarious but seemed overly angry at Bailey when he scored.
  7. DJBOB
    Between the two - On performance? City by far. Complete control of the match. Dominated a Pep team that will likely never be replicated. For the 90+ minutes, they had one meaningful 60 second spell but were otherwise second best in all departments. On importance? I suspect Arsenal. Arresting a flagging momentum. Huge boost on UCL likelihood. Unai exercises his demons by knocking off Arsenal’s title challenge. It’s easy to play well when everything is going well but took a lot of courage to put out the performance we did today under the gun.
  8. DJBOB
    Think he went for a little dink instead of it being a chip. Might have squeezed it past Raya but good control to make the angle regardless.
  9. DJBOB
    It also shows the improbability of winning 5/6 in a row at this stage in the season. We have done enough to secure top 5. Just a matter of whether we have enough in the tank to hold onto 4th.
  10. DJBOB
    The answer against taking unilateral action may be in @Chindie’s post about the simmering Iran problem, which is not exclusively Israel and the US but also the Saudi’s and UAE. That other nations participated in the defense of Israel whether it’s through radar or information is very significant in the larger scope of cooperation. The more dangerous actor in all this may be Israel who may take unilateral action to defend themselves. Iran, while encouraging this whole disaster through proxies, knows they cannot win through conventional warfare. The longer game is reminiscent of a Cold War type effort of proxy wars and maintaining alliances and weapon suprematism. But it’s not exactly a selling message to say, “Wait Iran out, form alliances with your traditional enemies, and then watch them collapse internally.” After all, the genesis of this current near world war is Iran trying to stop Israel from normalizing relations with the Saudis.
  11. DJBOB
    I wouldn’t presume that this is all Biden led. It has been - since the twin catastrophes of Afghanistan/Iraq - to at all possible - de-escalate and do nothing that will involve US overt commitment, but provide arms in any way possible. This testing of the waters by both Iran and previously Russia is on the same axis of coordination. You are right that the US essentially is telegraphing their lack of desire in participating in a war while maintaining a “don’t do that” Instead of speak softly and carry a big stick, it is, “You better not or else we might provide more arms.” From Obama to Trump to Biden, there is an unwillingness to get drawn to direct conflict but a willingness (to some degree as we’re seeing in Ukraine) to provide arms. It is an interesting paradigm overall as the US electorate does not want a war but this obvious lack of commitment has emboldened the Russia’s and Iran’s to continue poking and prodding without fear of a true reprisal. Because a true US reprisal is WW3 and contrary to the commonplace thought, the US electorate does not want war.
  12. DJBOB
    Truly in bizarro world. 10 points ahead with 6 left to play. United routinely look the worst team on the pitch against any opponent no matter the quality. Newcastle are bottom half away from home and 4/6 are away. The only question remaining is 4th or 5th.
  13. DJBOB

    Austin MacPhee

    DJBOB replied to Strog's topic in Villa Talk

    Well I think being able to afford one of the best CDM’s in the world would improve the side. We agree on that.
  14. DJBOB
    United are shit and won’t finish 5th
  15. DJBOB
    Newcastle have the second largest home/away split in the league and have Palace/Burnley/United/Brentford away.
  16. DJBOB
    And I thought we had a poor defense!
  17. DJBOB
    The situation isn’t 1:1 and we’re in a better situation with our players but look what happened after it fell apart with MON. It’s not the end of the world if we don’t make it but let’s not pretend it won’t be a big help if we make UCL.
  18. DJBOB

    Unai Emery

    DJBOB replied to PeterSw's topic in Villa Talk

    Probably recognized the big gaps in our shape and knew we needed at least 2, but probably 3 or 4 to make sure we were comfortable.
  19. DJBOB
    Yeah we always say Villa are a big club and sleeping giants, but going away to Qarabag or LASK isn't exactly prestigious. There's still your Shakhtar's of the champions league but with us being low in the pot - we would be in for some blockbusters. Who doesn't want to see Villa vs Bayern again?
  20. DJBOB
    I wouldn't necessarily say it was devastating if we didn't make UCL, but I really think people underplay the jump start of funds and recognition (especially with the new format) we could get if we qualified for UCL this year. The good thing is that we're about halfway through dropping some of these atrocious contracts that have been signed over the years and have locked up long term futures of a lot of key players (Watkins/Emi/JJ/McGinn/Konas/Pau/Diaby). Unai doesn't like operating with a huge squad anyway and likes to give youth a chance so Europa league is not the end of the world. If we can find a way to move a lot of the dead wood and high wages (sorry Digne!), then I think we can still make 1 or 2 astute signings in the summer. If you had asked me 3 years ago if there was a possibility that Real Madrid or Barcelona or either of the Milan clubs would be playing at VP next season, I would have called you absolutely delusional. But that's a real possibility now. So imagine 3 years from now what we could do if we cut the line into UCL and what kind of players Unai could attract and build around. Europa League would still be good and give us a chance at the competition, but I want to reiterate that Unai puts us in a way better position to maintain UCL and continue gaining ground as compared to Howe or Reneiri with Newcastle and Leicester.
  21. DJBOB
    I don’t think that sort of awareness is really Ollie’s strength. He’s got a bit of tunnel vision for the goal. Mind you still joint top in assists for the league so he’s got awareness when it’s not on but I have a feeling once he decides to shoot, no one else is getting a pass.
  22. DJBOB

    Austin MacPhee

    DJBOB replied to Strog's topic in Villa Talk

    Not bad Nanny
  23. DJBOB
    For the corner we gave away, I wonder if there was a mix up on who’s supposed to stand where. Typically, Ollie stands at that front corner of the 6 yard box and there’s 3 other zonal players around the 6 yard area with all others man marking. But for some reason McGinn was standing in the front post area and Duran was…on the post. Can’t imagine they wanted the tall striker standing on the line instead of where McGinn was supposed to be.
  24. DJBOB
    I think the best case realistic scenario is City, Arsenal, Atletico to go through. Almost a certainty at that point.
  25. DJBOB
    So in the realistic middle to worse case, us and City would both have to win to secure the 5th spot? @Delphinho123 dream scenario
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