il_serpente

I saw maqroll take it. Muttered something about seeing you out drinking with a bunch of words removed he hates.

Margarita. Real one. Fresh squeezed lime juice, Cointreau, Cazadores reposado. Nothing else. Shaken over ice. No sugary slushy confection. F*** that sh**. Refreshing, and you see God if you have enough...

Loved her in Zero 7 and solo before she hit it big. Actually seems like a decent Betty, I think she just isn't really comfortable with the whole celebrity thing.

I think it was always a big ask for Garde to give the same kind of short-term bounce that Sherwood did, because the situations they came into were so different and the contrast between each of them and their predecessor did not lend itself to producing similar reactions. Under Lambert there was clearly a malaise throughout the organization and fan base, and the players seemed to have lost faith in him to inspire them and turn them around. The liberating effect of of removing the wet blanket and having a high energy, positive personality come in and emphasize hard work and freedom to attack is the ideal recipe for a short-term bounce. In contrast, it's clear that Sherwood hadn't lost all the players' faith regardless of what the supporters thought, and the newness of the season probably didn't have them convinced that we were as good as down without a change. Couple that with Garde's low key demeanor and it's not exactly a situation that you'd expect to light an immediate fire. His best shot at success (and any other prospective appointment's, really) was always going to be a sure, steady hand that could get the team settled and playing consistently as a unit, with players gaining confidence in themselves and their teammates and believing that places in the first team will be determined by merit. Whether there was/is enough time for that dynamic to save Villa's place in the Premier League is another matter, particularly since most of us still aren't sure that the players are good enough regardless of what Garde does. To me, he's shown some progress, particularly in that team selections seem based on some underlying logic that takes into account players' performances and their suitability for his strategy for a particular match. He got it spot on against City, mostly right against Watford and terribly wrong against Everton. Everton was a stark reminder of his lack of PL savvy. Watford was a reminder of the team's fragile confidence and the size of the task before him. I'm still optimistic that in time he'll get things on track if the supporters don't write him off too soon. I'm less optimistic that there will be enough time to catch three other teams.

Mostly because his coming on meant the removal of a midfielder. Once we started hoofing it to him Watford won every second ball because there was no Villa player around to pick it up.

I rate him and thought he was a noticeable and welcome upgrade on Richardson, but I think some of the praise on here is a little over the top. I thought on too many occasions when he was given the ball with space on the overlap he turned it back rather than try to beat his man or get himself a 1/2 yard to put a ball into the box. commentator on the stream commented on this a couple of times. I also noticed a couple of times in the Villa half where he seemed to be caught on his heels when he looked in the best position to pick up a misplaced pass or loose ball initially but got beaten to it by a Man City player. I remember thinking, "good, Amavi will get that" only to see him move too slowly.

im convinced traore is the answer at the moment, dont stick him on the wing where he can do his nzogbia impression, have him up top running in to space, grealish and gil threading passes through, if not him then its got to be ayew or even sinclair, then probably kozak, then gabby, then gestede He hast to be willing to move to play that role, though. So far, he has seemed to not want to run unless he has the ball. He mostly stands on the right waiting for someone to give him the ball and then waits for the defender to come close enough to where he can beat him for speed.

Thanks, Mike. No brook here, SBS. We're in a drought. Just dry streambeds.

Don't have a stream available. From the Eurosport live feed, stats and comments on here it sounds like the strategy is to win as many corners as possible and hope Gestede puts a couple in. Is that pretty much accurate?

Not thrilled by the lack of creativity, but K-Mac obviously has decided that Gestede is our best chance of putting ball in the net, so he has listened to what everyone was saying: If you're going to play Gestede, we need wingers who can cross the ball. Our 2 best crossers are playing on the wing. It's a little sad that our 2 best crossers are defenders, but there you have it. Perhaps after Gestede gets his hat trick he'll bring on Gil, Grealish, Ayew and Adama for the 2nd half...

You're going to look mighty foolish when Garde doesn't win us the league like you've guaranteed...

The movement wasnt too bad compared to now, you are right though, when you have people in the middle and out wide with the calibre of Young,Milner,Downng,Barry and Petrov life is much easier. God I miss that midfield [emoji20] Barry and Downing never played together, and Milner and Good Downing played together for 1 game (the Downing of the 1/2 season after he came back from the broken foot was not worth reminiscing about). People get nostalgic about a Villa midfield that never existed. If we'd had them all at once we'd have cracked the top 4.

Drivers who think that just because their car has fog light they are required to use them at all times.

Needs to move without the ball. Just seems to stand around in the same spot waiting for a teammate to bring him the ball and then does the exact thing each time. Liverpool had obviously watched him and closed him down easily by having Lucas help Moreno. That should have left some space to exploit, but they knew they could get away with it.

Think Villa's midfielders created more chances for Plop than theirs did. Does everyone lose their ability to pass to their own player when they sign for Villa?

Carly is not viable. She has a strained relationship with the truth. First claimed that HP's wholesaler of the year hid from her management team their dealings with a 3rd party who resold illegally to Iran and then more recently claimed that it all happened after she left HP and she didn't know anything about it. Can't both be true. Takes credit for growing to double its revenue. Only because they bought Compaq. Drove HP into the ground. Lobbied extensively for a corporate overseas tax holiday for big corporations in 2004 on the premise that it would allow investment in research and create jobs. HP used $4 billion of its $4.3 billion savings to buy back stock. Then cut 14,500 jobs. I work 1/4 mile from HP headquarters and have friends who used to work there. Their contempt for and distrust of Carly is intense, and they appear to be in the majority among those associated with HP at the time. These are not folks that were laid off because of her merger, mind you.

Since none of us would wish Gabby's injury to have been aggravated or to be healing slowly, let me just express my wish that Tim will decide to play it safe and give his injury another week to heal before risking him, playing Ayew in his place.

He's in his plans now because he couldn't move him on to fund another striker. Doesn't necessarily mean he fancies him any more than he did a week ago.

So this is Fox's version of scoring an atomic strike, then?

If he can beat the fullback and get to the byline inside the area a half dozen times per game and put a low cross across the 6-yard box or pull it back to an open teammate we're likely to get one or more decent chances per game out of it. I don't see the need to cross early to a striker's head or even stop/slow down to look for a pinpoint pass before getting to the by-line. The law of averages says just keep getting there and putting it across we'll get goals.

My apologies to everyone for giving Stefan and Woodytom reason to come back out of the woodwork for another round. Don't know what I was thinking, posting that...

Interesting analysis of Westwood's game in 7500 to Holte, with gifs showing examples of what he did really well. 96% pass completion, and not just simple 6-yard sideways passes that his detractors ridicule him for. Follow the link to see the gifs and heat maps referenced. http://tinyurl.com/orgffgw On Saturday, Aston Villa traveled to Crystal Palace and lost 2-1. There was a lot that the team got wrong, and there is plenty to be concerned about overall. But if you look around, you can find positives scattered about the pitch. Certain players did things very well despite the flaws of others. When rewatching this game, before any of the negatives popped up in my mind (I'm looking at you Gabby), Ashley Westwood's performance really popped off of the screen. I couldn't help but noticing him and focusing my attention on him at all times. Westwood was really a bright spot in this game. Playing in a slightly more advanced position than in the last two games due to Carlos Sanchez (who played well himself) getting start, Westwood was able to put in his best performance so far this season, and that's saying something when you consider how well he has been playing. Westwood completed 96% of his passes during Saturday's game and created a number of chances for Villa: In the pass chart above, provided by Squawka, you can see just how accurate he was in this game. While it is somewhat obvious by looking at the pass chart, the heat map above from WhoScored paints a clear picture of Westwood's role in the match. He tended to hang around the left side, linking up with Jordan Amavi and Jack Grealish, allowing those two players to do what they do best, attack players with the dribble. Playing more advanced and slightly more to the left allowed Westwood to showcase a nice relationship that he has developed with Amavi. Those two connected on 18 pass combos together (according to StatZone) with Amavi hitting Westwood 11 times and (the highest pass combo for Villa) and Westwood finding Amavi 7 times. Westwood doesn't dwell on the football and makes quick decisions, usually putting the ball in positions for Amavi to latch onto it and go: The second gif is Westwood in a nutshell. He's a smart player who reads the game well. He knows his strengths and weaknesses and knows the strengths and weaknesses of his teammates. He's not going to try and take on players and carry the ball forward, he seems to know that he has teammates that are better than that and he trusts them to execute. Speaking of reading the game well, the fact that he is able to know what he wants to do with the ball before he gets it really helps his game and his passing accuracy. That quick decision making and passing was on display in the chance that he helped create with Gabby: That vision and quick passing also helps him switch play from side to side quickly before the defense can recover: In my opinion, Westwood also does a good job of reading situations and circumstances. After Adama's equalizer, Westwood played as if he knew the team had an advantage in him. He continuously looked to pump the ball into him, and he did a good job of finding him in advance positions, allowing him to create a couple of chances before Palace retook the lead: What does all this quick and accurate passing do? It makes you the focal point of the defense: On this sequence, Westwood steps up to receive the pass from Richards. A Palace defender steps up with him, hoping to either take the pass away or not allow Westwood to turn and make another accurate pass. With the defender stepping up, it creates a wide open space for Richards to find Gana. With the defender vacating the area, Gana is allowed to turn and attack (this is the starting sequence that resulted in Grealish's shot on target). Add this to the defensive work that he puts in -- he made two key interceptions Saturday, one pretty much saving a goal -- and you have a complete player who is only going to continue to get better in my mind. Does he have his flaws? Of course, he's not great at taking corners (a number of his corners on Saturday were far too close to the keeper), and he's not the best crosser of the ball, but hopefully when we are playing at full strength, he won't be asked to do those things. Westwood worked well on the left side with Amavi and Grealish in that slightly more advanced role and with Sanchez finally showing he can be a big time player in the Premier League, I'm excited to see Ashley get more matches in this role. On another day, a performance like this is the type of performance that can win games for Villa.

English is my first language and I still have trouble getting my point across. [emoji3]No apology needed.

How about the Christmas tree formation with Grealish and Gil playing as two #10's and Rudy/Gabby/Ayew/?? up front. Allows use of 3 of Westwood, Gana, Veretout and Sanchez to prevent being overrun in the middle. Sanchez if needing more steel, Veretout if needing impetus going forward and switch back and forth between 4321 and 4231 if necessary. Width from fullbacks. Take off Gil and put on Adama and go to 433 if the 4321/4231 isn't working and fullbacks are needed to focus more on defending.

Will he be commuting from London every day like Pires did?