villaglint

Would be a nice addition but doesnt seem to be the strongest of links at this moment. Everything seems to be saying he is going to NUFC or am I missing something?

Hello Gordon, Thanks for your views on Carles always good to get new fans on to VillaTalk with views of our players. Did Carles ever score any goals like that for Elche?! Also I watched a bit of your match against Barcalona the other day as you seem to be our new feeder club. Quite the battering. Still we've all been there.

Agreed but think it'll be a long time before we see him back and even then it could be months before he is fit and firing. With such a long term multi set back injury the possibility also remains that he'll never be the same. I have no idea whether that is the case. Still I'd be focusing on wide attackers ahead of strikers righ now.

Would be nice to get one more attacking option in. You really feel that our squad is very close to being good. GK - Good starter and back up Defence - Good starters and back up certainly in the middle. I think Richardson is decent cover at LB and Lowton is OK good going forwrad but ropey. Defensive midfield - Good starters and cover. Box to box - Think this is an area we have to improve with coachin - Delph. Cleverly and Bacuna all capable of doing more in opponents box. Attacking midfied - Gill has had a great start little support with Cole perenially injured. Wide attack/wing - Weimann, Gabby, N'Zog - A glaring lack of quality compared to other areas of the team. Still need additions here. Strikers - Benteke still a beast for me even if he has been poor lately, think he'll kick on big time once he gets a goal and hopefully the confidence of the whole team lifts. Struggling for cover in this area too.

In statistical terms I can break the game down as follows. (I live in Bournemouth and have a number of Bournemouth supporting friends) In the first half I had 21 texts with varying degrees of chirpiness. In the second hald I had 1 text conceding defeat after our second goal. About sums the game up for me.

What if we loaned Utd Vlaar for the rest of the season. Would that effectively balance out the Cleverely loan so we could loan in Januzaj

Good man Fab, I always like you!

Always been a good instinctive finisher, it's when he gets a second to think he struggles. Decent today though so pleased he got his goal

Go and get the guitar...

Sometimes it is a bit buried so just have a bit of a dig around

I remember once after coming back from 3 month travelling trip and going to gym. When I woke up my arms where pinned in position to my chest as I couldn't bend by biceps. Took me a few minutes to straighten them out, was both scarey and hilarious at the same time.

Premier League 2014-2015 - Best Defence Pos. Team Goals against 1 Southampton 16 2 Chelsea 19 3 Manchester United 21 4 Manchester City 22 5 West Ham United 25 5 Arsenal 25 5 Aston Villa 25 8 Liverpool 27 8 Stoke City 27 10 West Bromwich Albion 29 11 Swansea City 30 11 Hull City 30 11 Tottenham Hotspur 30 14 Crystal Palace 33 14 Sunderland 33 16 Leicester City 34 16 Everton 34 18 Newcastle United 35 19 Burnley 36 20 Queens Park Rangers 39 Just to add a bit of balance not saying this means anything either way was just stuck by how bad our attacking stats are bearing in mind league position but as you can see it is offset by the defence. Actually third best in league for away goals condeded. Exciting times...

Just DOMS... entirely normal, just keep going and they become less of an issue.

Somebody needs to write a book about you RV I have a feeling you would make Hunter S look like William Hague

I live in Bournemouth and been speaking to a few season ticket holding mates this week. Consensus seems to be that they are no great shakes at the back but pretty fluid going forward. Tend to out score most teams rather than clinically beat them. One of them said a player like Benteke could cause them all sorts of problems. Sounds like we have pretty much opposite stengths and weaknesses so could make for an interesting game.

Yeah £3m seemed crazy money for Sinclair bearing in mind the risk and wages. Be nice to think we had other options but who knows, more than likely Gil was the other option

Injured for Saturday, dear oh dear

Off topic - Agreed Merson was man of the match for almost an entire season for us IMO astonishing stuff. On topic - If Gill is 20% of the player he was then we'll have done alright

I think when you do anything for the first time you are always going to feel a bit self conscious. If you play football for the first time in ten years or take up golf. I have recently started indoor climbing and I am very aware of how crap I am compared to everyone else. Point is though that everyone has to start at the bottom and as you get more experienced all those feelings go away. Not that they matter a jot in the first place.

A stone is a good effort! I put on about 4kg but I was in pretty much peak condition (for me) up until 21st. I actually managed to make myself sick at 2am through overeating of cheese on boxing day so got the bulemic benefit on that one but other than that yeah mega excess. Thoroughly enjoyed it. No worries though by the end of the week reckon I'll be right again. As an aside I go to the gym at lunchtime and it is usually pretty quiet. Last week was obviously much busier but today Monday 12th, basically second Monday we've all been back and it was back to being deserted... Way to stick at the new health routine!

But I'm assuming that's how they've been told to play, or you would see things improve from match to match as they were coached into new ways. You never know when it comes to Villa but surely that is not the case. Lambert was talking about how necessary it was to get goals from midfield. Surely in order to do that they need to enter the box from time to time. The other problem is that you have two strikers in Gabby and Weimann who are being asked to jobs that they are both rubbish at. Gabby is best running at people in the centre of the pitch towards goal, and Weimann is a predatory striker with a decent shot. None of them are the creative wide men types, and it shows. Thing is with Gabby give him space and he will tear you to shreds. Close him down really quick and he hasnt got the technique to keep the ball let alone hurt you. Doesnt matter where on the pitch he is that is the opposition team talk every time. Sometimes the opposing manager may neglect to mention it and that is the one good game in 15 he tends to have. Weimann agreed - never been suited to that position and it really is scarey how many games hes played for us there. Not sure I'd agree with the decent shot bit!

The reason for our lack of chances/goals is very clear to me. The lack of movement of our strikers is often cited and is to a large extent true but for me the bigger issue is the lack of movement of our midfielders. If we play with three CM's it is essentially that one or at times both of the box to box players needs to break the forward line and get beyond the strikers. This is something Delph, Cleverly, Westwood never ever do. They all want to sit waiting for the ball and waiting for the strikers to make it happen or more often waiting for Hutton and Cissokho to make that run beyond the strikers.

Just thought I'd recommend this little product to any protein lovers out there. http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=266386187 As you will know lentils generally are a ball ache to cook (in terms of time) but these things only take 2 minutes have a really excellent fat/protein ratio and literally go with everything.

Yes id agree Rots, I like Westwood but he always seems to need to take an extra nudge which slows us down and is one factor in our lack of fluidity. Really good example was in one Benteke shot in second half (deflected a bit and saved from edge of area) it was quite a nice move (one of very few) and was crying out for a first time pass from Ash but he inexplicably took a touch I can only assume it is hard wired in, he did in fact manage to bumble it through to Benteke but the moment was gone. I think in effort to jump start our woeful scoring record id go Sanchez and Delphi deep with Cole, presumably Gill and fingers crossed someone else new behind Benteke.

Don't think GG was in NextGen winning team, that was Grealish, Burke, Carruthers, Johnson, Donacien etc