VillaJay

I said it when we signed him that he plays more similarly to de bruye than Jack, he's much less of a dribbler but always looking for the forward pass.

Just needs to add some goals as the creativity has been there, even when he wasn't playing at his best earlier in the season.

Great attitude and a winner, Bruno Fernandes is the same, a horrible player to play against but you want those time of characters on your side.

Important point, as we need to stop losing games. There will be ups and downs this season, but there is a clear identity in our football and in spells we are playing some of the best football I've seen us play in a very long time.

Gerrard looks the real deal though and Purslows interview(see Purslows thread) that was released today is really promising.

15 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

Kept us in it at times, magic Man,love him.

 

Not the brightest thing to do in a covid environment, but cant fault his passion.

Made a mistake, but solid as ever.

Just now, lexicon said:

He was attacking and Luiz was defending, plus Luiz had a very good defensive game today anyway. Seems an odd dig. 

I personally thought Luiz was really poor first half, yet all the complaints in the match thread were about Ramsay, despite him actually getting on the ball and trying to make something happen.

Wasn't great today, but needs to be played up top on his own. He has his weaknesses that were evident last season - poor hold up play and first touch but he is a workhorse who brings to much to our Frontline.

I really like ings, a top player, but if it's one or the other, it Ollie for me.

Might shut a few up tonight, was poor first half, but still miles better than Luiz. Exceptional second half, he plays one step ahead of most of our team except for Buendia, Coutinho will help.

A huuuge prospect.

Not a great opening half hour, but they're there for the taking, take the fluke goal away and there's not much in it. 

Get the next goal and we'll win this by 2.

2 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Surprised no boos at HT, that was horrendous on the whole.

What a **** comment, get a grip.

Coutinho for Ollie or Ings at half time, needs to be one or the other.

14 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said:

Yep basically. If you google goalkeeper  xga i think thats where you find a list 

That just shows how misleading stats alone in football can be, moneyball doesn't work in football. Martinez has been solid this season, having watched every game so far. Martinez is the best GK we've had since I've been watching villa the last 30 years. Straight off the top of my head his save vs Leicester in the 2-1 win earned us 2pts which the stats won't show.

Stats are important, but not in isolation and particularly in football.

Looks a real talent and only just turned 17, playing first team football at 16 in any senior league is impressive, looks like he played 90mins vs Celtic in a 1-1 draw and played 20mins vs Rangers too so far this season.

Based on his physicality it looks like he'll be in around the first team sooner than a lot of our youth prospects.

I personally was a little underwhelmed with the Gerrard signing, but was willing to give him a chance and to see what he can do with us.

From what I've seen so far from Gerrard and our board since game 1, I'm very optimistic that Gerrard will be a huge success and see us progress as a team as expected.

On the pitch I've seen a clear identity in our play and can see how he wants us to play, off the pitch I can see he's identified where we need to improve to play his way too.

Based on the opening games, which included games against Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Utd and Leicester, I'm not sure any manager in world football could have done much more with our current team.

He's a decent and likeable player who is good enough to play in the premier league, he's athletic enough to get up and down the pitch. In a system that asks so much of your full backs his attacking limitations show up.

2 excellent attacking full backs are needed and a top DM who can fill in the gaps they leave is needed.

I'd imagine unless he improves in the attacking third, we'll look to bring a new RB back in this summer.

3 minutes ago, deeps said:

Isn’t Philips out till March?

I believe he is, however if there's an opportunity to do a deal now, id consider it, a top player who would do the unglamorous work very well.

1 minute ago, hippo said:

Let me assure in football management Stevie G will have much bigger problems than an injured Marvelous Nkamba .

The way we play under Gerrard relies on athletic attacking full backs and a dedicated dm, nakamba is our only dm and we're seeing his absence clear as day.

Nakamba was outstanding under Gerrard up until his injury.

Either way we are actively trying to solve these issues in the transfer market and let's see where we are at the end of the season.

Gerrard also commented on his side’s interest in Everton full-back Lucas Digne, indicating that the wheels are in motion, without naming names

"We are working hard on targets. It is not respectful to mention any names but there is no smoke without fire and we want to try and improve certain areas of our team and our squad.”

Post match tonight, I'd imagine we are trying for minimum 2 more and maybe as many as 4 if you include a backup keeper.

Coutinho, Digne, DM, CB and backup GK.

Would be delighted with Coutinho, Digne and a top DM like Phillips or Bissouma. Everything else would be a bonus in this window.

CB is needed, however I think we could try go big for one in the summer again.

Gerrard also commented on his side’s interest in Everton full-back Lucas Digne, indicating that the wheels are in motion, without naming names

"We are working hard on targets. It is not respectful to mention any names but there is no smoke without fire and we want to try and improve certain areas of our team and our squad.”

You really get all reactionary over the top posts directly after a defeat.

We played well enough, were the better side by a distance and lacked a little quality where it mattered, Digne and Coutinho will improve the starting 11 considerably and our attacking output.

Even if we lost the next 3 it shouldn't be panic stations, we are playing considerably better and much more competitive at the moment vs the first 10/11 games.

2 minutes ago, picicata said:

I have no belief that, as of this moment, Gerrard knows or believes we can get results against the big teams. For all of Smith's problems I always thought there was a chance we could win any game (except against Man City obviously) He needs to find a way to make our play more expansive.

Nonsense, we just battered utd at old Trafford and by way of poor refereeing and luck we didn't get a result we deserved based on our performance. We should have got a result vs man city and have been very competitive in every game so far.

We play Everton after utd on Saturday, I could imagine they'd try delay any deal until after then.

Very Klopp Liverpool-like tonight in performance, just without the world class full backs and forwards.

Coutinho and Digne would elevate this team into a top 10 certainty in my mind and 2 more from challenging top 8.

I thought he was out best player today, just needs to be more confident in shooting when in good positions.

Carries the ball well, great engine and only going to get better. 

Did well and links up well with Ramsay who likes to play one touch too.