DJBOB

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.

The thing is that in the big matchups between Arsenal/City/Liverpool - the first two have opted to make the game boring as possible to make sure neither side gets a win to pull away from the table.

This does not work in the UCL where you have to try and win!

All the time, City and Arsenal lack the players and the strategem to push forward quickly when the time comes and instead let the opponent sit deeper and deeper in the box. That might work against the Burnleys and Lowtons of the world but not Bayern and Madrid.

Then you see how much damage Bayern or Madrid can do with 3/4 passes and some special players running quickly with the ball.

They can still come back - but both this Arsenal and City match is the same repudiation of the systems Pep and Arteta have created. It's all well good until you got a few players that can dribble and attack.

In their pursuit of dominating possession, they have dampened the 1v1 creativity of special dribblers.

That's why I appreciate Unai, no matter where he takes us, as he understands that you've got to give some of these Rogers/JJ/Bailey types a little bit of room to pick their spots to be creative instead of sticking them on the wing as expert ball recyclers.

Among the records Unai has broken, Villa have now had the most times catching the opponent offside in a season in the premier league era with 147 and counting. The previous high was Liverpool with 144 in the 21-22 season.

Relatively full strength from both City and Arsenal. Bayern may miss Gnabry but still a strong side.

Arteta has put out his more defensive lineup on paper, certainly more respectful of Bayern than they were us.

Same thing with Pep.

May surprise us with two low scoring matches after yesterday's pandomonium.

53 minutes ago, omariqy said:

If we end up beating Ajax, Lille, Fenerbache and Fiorentina to win it then it’s a proper trophy 

Yeah, that's no joke lineup.

Maybe if we had a cupcake path in the knockouts, it would lose a bit of luster, but we will most likely be taking the hardest route through.

4 minutes ago, bobzy said:

They aren't mutually exclusive - and if we manage to both win the ECL and finish top 4 then it'll be a season that (likely) long lives in the memory.  And that's what it's all about, really.

On the bold - Leicester City won the Premier League, FA Cup and qualified for the Champions League.  By far their biggest moments (granted, only according to the couple of Leicester fans I know) are the trophy wins.  Now, winning the Premier League is incredibly special so that's fairly obvious, but the FA Cup win was massive for them too whereas the CL was a novelty - great fun, but basically that.

That said, they've basically "completed football" as far as they are concerned; those moments are very, very unlikely to be topped in their lifetimes whereas maybe we're in a better position to be a strong side for more than 1 or 2 seasons.

Yeah I agree - I just find it odd that the discussion has somehow taken the vein of one or the other when the most probable outcome will be both!

UECL trophy and UCL qualification aren't mutually exclusive. We're on the 2nd leg of the QF, so it's a completely different scenario than MON sending the kids out.

UCL qualification is undoubtedly good for the future, but a trophy will be remembered forever. We could do with both.

Counterpoint, SHA won a trophy and are about to be relegated to League One so winning a trophy isn't the end all either.