KentVillan

Strange game. Definitely 2 points dropped. Not sure Emery actually got a lot wrong, just a lack of concentration from the players.

Brentford's game plan was obvious, but it worked pretty well for them.

Dougie Luiz definitely deserved the booking, and that's a big shame.

Saw a thread on Twitter of another club’s long range goals. A bit of a dying art these days with Guardiola ruining football.

What are the best you’ve seen from Villa players over the years? Share YouTube clips if you can find them

11 minutes ago, TRO said:

However, Lascelles said recently after a game, I could play another 90 minutes, such is my fitness......maybe because, he hasn't played much, I don't know.

Players aren’t always the best judges of what they’re capable of. To be an elite footballer you need supreme confidence in your own ability and fitness.

Player burnout is a real thing - it’s why injuries accumulate towards the back end of the season, get worse in the busy periods, and why sides competing for the Champions League need very deep squads (basically two first teams).

Of course there are some exceptions, players who can handle an extreme workload of 50+ games a season without injuries or drops in form, but they aren’t the norm, even at the top level.

I think Emery calculated rightly that the cost of facing Brentford with a weakened side was bigger than the cost of resting a few players away at City.

It makes sense to me, but we’ll only know for certain in the coming weeks.

I also don’t buy the argument someone else made about international break being time off for the players. Most of our first team players travelled and played I think?

It’s testament to what Emery has achieved in the last couple of seasons that people think we had a realistic chance of points at the Etihad with Martinez, Watkins, McGinn, Kamara, Mings, Buendia, and Ramsey all out.

He’s a victim of his own success sometimes on here. It’s insane how well we’re coping with this injury crisis.

I like him, will improve a lot over the next couple of seasons, I’m sure. Good athlete, brave, seems well liked already. The running out of gas thing will be fixed, we’ve seen the same with other players.

We didn’t lose this game because of squad rotation. The two key changes (our two most important players) were forced on us. The rest all made some sense, and we’ve just been battered by a very good side.

4 minutes ago, T-Dog said:

Whilst he didn't cover himself in glory, I think you gotta look at Olson - He looked surprised they'd even had a shot from there. 

Olsen did absolutely nothing wrong

Pussying out of that wall is a nail in the coffin here surely. A shame as he has started to look much more useful recently, but that was unforgivable.

1 minute ago, GlobalVillan said:

Lol. Yeah, if you judge players on one half of football. I don't though.

Any striker is capable of the odd goal.

Let's see how he goes over the next year or so. 

You seriously don’t see him “making it as a PL player”? When he’s doing stuff like this at the age of 20 away at Man City? It’s more than a half of football isn’t it, he looks dangerous, he passes the eye test.

On 02/04/2024 at 16:14, GlobalVillan said:

Benteke? Where are people seeing all this? Ive watched every minute he has played and I haven't seen anything at all that suggest he even has the potential to be like Benteke, never mind the ability.

I fear this guy is criminally overrated by our fan base. I know that will annoy some people but that is honestly how I see it.

Far more likely to be booked than to score. He is a better option than Davis, but that's not hard. I hope to have better options next season but for now I would start Diaby or Zaniolo. 

If I'm proven wrong about him then I will 100% hold my hands up but I do not see Duran making it as PL player based on what I have seen to date.

Benteke? Really?

25 mins in and this is looking like a shocking take

13 hours ago, richp999 said:

He's on 5 yellows and 18 fouls in 264 mins

Our 'Worst' is probably Luiz, on 8 yellows and 40 fouls, but in 2512 minutes.

So you'd have to say Duran picks up roughly 5 times the number of yellows and fouls per minute played... very roughly.

But I suppose context is everything, maybe he comes on for the last 15 minutes and needs to chase and disrupt, which leaves him more open to the cards/fouls. 

Good post, thanks. Yeah I think it’s more his “chaos” role rather than him being an unmanageable loose cannon. And refs generally show more cards towards the end of a match. Altho of course he needs some refining, no doubt about that.

Is Duran’s disciplinary record really as bad as everyone keeps saying or is this a bit of a Loco Colombiano stereotype? As I see it he’s very enthusiastic, young, can get overexcited / frustrated. I don’t see the lunatic Balotelli type figure some people keep painting him as.

30 minutes ago, DakotaVilla said:

He was the definition of dog shit today. Yes, he may be a great player to come in the coming years but he is no where near Zaniolo or diaby’s level today. 

Was sitting with a load of neutrals and WH fans and nobody was saying this. Was a 6/10 performance. Need to calm down

8 minutes ago, YLN said:

I don't see the potential. I think he's strong and powerful with a bullet shot, but that's it. I think he has poor positioning, poor instincts, quite clumsy, no finesse.

The comparison to Bertrand Traore is so wide of the mark. More Adama, and even then his dribbling is not even close. 

I'm usually wrong and look forward to this post being quoted, but i don't see it and if we got an offer of what we paid I'd take it.

I think he has that X factor, though. Force of personality. Not exactly the same type of striker, but Didier Drogba springs to mind. Someone who brought their whole personality onto the pitch and made defenders' lives a nightmare, even if they weren't technically the best player.

He's also superb in the air, like that's not even a question of potential, he's already brilliant in the air.

I think he’s a much better option than people realise.

Yes, very raw, a bit more maverick than Emery probably likes, but what he has is terrifying pace and physicality, mad shot power, and a proper aerial presence.

If Watkins is out for a few games then I hope we just let Duran enjoy the limelight, don’t get on his back too much when things don’t come off.

Seems like a proper confidence player to me who needs to feel loved.

8 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

I’ve been really impressed with Duran. 

Think this game will do him the world of good 

1 minute ago, Callum said:

Wont be long term. Will miss this weekend likely, but no more. Looked like a heavy fall, hopefully just bruising

Hope you’re right, but very unusual for Watkins to go down like that, it will be something he’s pretty worried about I’d think.

Henderson is such a div

1 hour ago, Villa_Vids said:

It is true. The media have not once championed the narrative about our rise from championship to european contenders - they don't want Villa to be above their London and North West favs.

Being a journalist is a job, they have to write things people will click on. Man Utd have probably 20x as many online "fans" as we do. That's just the sad reality. I don't think your average sports journo cares too much where Man Utd finish, but they will definitely spend a lot more time reporting on them because that's what generates clicks.

I think we've done well to go under the radar, tbh. The lack of focus on our performances has probably helped us. Let them wank over Big Ange Mate.

5 hours ago, rodders0223 said:

Football 'influencers' on these fan panel shows that talk like they're part of the team and take part credit and think they have won these trophies that hugely dedicated athletes worked hard for.

Proper mental culture this.

I absolutely fkin hate this about football fans in general. Such a cringe personality trait for anyone over the age of 10

7 minutes ago, PaulC said:

Man city looking good to win it again I think. 

Favourites yes, but still only about 30% probability implied by the bookies odds, just too many good teams left and they only need one bad night.

Imagine we’ll be sweating on this for a while!

3 hours ago, useless said:

As you can see from the gif, McGinn was going for the ball, and the biggest clue is that after he makes the tackle observe his eyeline, all he is focused on is the ball, if he was purposely trying to hurt the player, then after the tackle he would be looking at the player, but he wasn't, he didn't even have the player in his thoughts, if you use emotional intelligience you can see, h was going for the ball but made a bad job of it, so ended up accidently tripping up the unfortunate Spurs player

Also just because Villa fans would have wanted a red card had it been done to one of our players, that doesn't prove that it should have been a red card, many Villa fans always crying wolf, when it comes to refereeing decision, to the point now where their protestations fall on death ears

Absolutely f**king bonkers, sorry

2 hours ago, useless said:

Clearly should be a yellow, clumsy but is going for the ball, that's where his determined face is focused and where his foot is aiming for, he's trying to put the ball out of play for a throw-in, to prevent an attack, even if he was purposely going for the man, which he was not, those tackles happen in every game, and the response is usually 'he took one for the team'.

 

They don’t happen in every game. On the other angle it’s very clear he couldn’t realistically have won the ball.

There was no cynical purpose to it either, it was just dumb.

That’s no attack on McGinn really, get his frustration etc, been excellent this season. Just made a mistake.

27 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

if ref gave a yellow, do you believe VAR intervenes to upgrade it?

Andy Robertson was upgraded to red by VAR for a similar incident (at 3 mins here). Key point is lack of attempt to play the ball, it lowers the bar for how dangerous the foul needs to be to be a red card.