KentVillan

I don't think regression to the mean is really the appropriate concept here. Unlike most teams who claw their way into Champions League / Europa League places in a single season, we have the budget to cement whatever level we reach. Yes, FFP is a major barrier to that, and yes, if Man Utd get their act together, that will make it significantly harder for challengers to stay there. But I think there's this slightly false idea that Unai is working devil magic to get these players performing at this level. Whereas the reality is that we're making big signings most seasons who significantly improve squad quality. In the last 4 seasons we've signed Watkins, Cash, Martinez, Buendia, Bailey, Digne, Kamara, Moreno, Duran, Tielemans, Torres, Diaby. Ok you might quibble on Cash and Duran, but in the main these are serious first team signings that have improved squad quality. We'll make more signings like that this summer. I think this club is on an upward trajectory, and this isn't a statistical blip. We're in 4th place with a massive injury crisis. If anything the regression to the mean is our best players coming back from injury, and us actually performing *better* than we are at the moment.

Mings, Konsa, Kamara, possibly Digne You’re right, but arguably this is a squad depth issue rather than a transfer policy issue.

Ferguson mostly criticised his players behind closed doors. He rarely called them out in media interviews. Post match interviews mean f all really. The players know they’ve stunk the place out, I don’t see any signs of comfort or complacency - just bad, tired performances. What does Unai gain from saying that?

4 matches in 13 days, and McGinn / Luiz / Kamara have started all of them, and either played full 90 or been subbed late in 2nd half. I don't think our rivals are doing that with their entire central midfield? You'd want to be rotating players in, but we simply don't have the depth. Tiredness is a natural consequence of that, professional footballers aren't superhuman. And I don't think any of this is on Unai really. Maybe he could have hauled a couple of players off earlier against Shef Utd. But mostly his selections make sense, given who's available.

Well-run clubs don't sign many players in January. It's always been a seller's market. Just looking through Man City's transfer history over the last few seasons. The only first team players they've signed in a January window were Laporte (2018) and Alvarez (2022). They do almost all their business in the summer. FFP makes it even harder for us. If we overpay for players in January, we just end up with less budget to spend in the summer transfer window when there are more quality players at better prices available. And it's not even clear to me how much authority Unai has to demand signings.

He’s dealing with an enormous injury crisis, and a lack of depth in key positions which means some players are starting to look tired. I think it’s as simple as that tbh. The teams around us have deeper squads. He has tried to rotate and sign depth, but it’s a work in progress. The knock on effect is that we’ve become more predictable, too. But again, not really Unai’s fault.

He looks off the pace and frustrated - possibly done in by the injury.

Despite all the worries about the defence (who weren’t good), it was our midfield that really stank the place out. Looked tired, not up for it, slow to the second balls, and too many missed passes. Very odd performance, not much fun at all. I thought the forwards (Bailey, Tielemans, Watkins… Diaby when he came on) actually played ok, unlucky at times not to get something. Didn’t think it was a foul for their FK, but great strike nonetheless.

We've won games against decent sides with far shakier defences in the past, and we still have the best keeper in the world behind them, plus an amazing defensive mid partnership in front of them. Think we need to trust in Unai's ability to get them firing.

Cash - Carlos - Lenglet - Moreno is a decent enough defence. Konsa will be missed, but talk of disaster / catastrophe etc is hysterical.

I’m optimistic. I’d be more worried with a midfielder or striker, but I don’t think he particularly relies on a turn of pace (which is the main thing injuries tend to ruin) and he obviously looks after himself well. Plus he doesn’t have a lot of miles in those legs for a 31 year old. And he’s come back from bad injuries in the past. The good thing is we have enough quality at CB to not rush him back or overwork him.

I think Emery is pretty limited in options at the moment, and tactically that makes him more predictable. If you’re an opposition coaching team doing your homework on Villa, it’s pretty obvious who’s going to be starting atm, and what the plan is going to be. That would be different with another starting striker or winger, with Buendia available to cause mayhem in midfield, with Pau available to spring attacks from deep, and so on. For that reason, I’m not sure much of the criticism is justified even though I completely agree we’ve dropped off badly in recent games.

Pau coming back would obviously be big, but realistically we can still go on a good run without him, as we showed last season. I also don’t think every team we face will be temperamentally willing to just play a low block. That’s going to mainly be the lower table sides who are happy to scrap for a point or a goal against the run of play. We’ll carry on picking up big wins IMO.

What was the last big signing of a Colombian player in England? Also, who cares? I like that he uses his Twitter like a human being and not a PR robot.

I’ve spent a lot of time in Colombia, don’t think people understand the national pride they have. When any Colombian makes it big in Europe or the US, they take it very seriously. Everyone knows about it and celebrates it, whether it’s actors, musicians, footballers, cyclists, whatever. He’s done nothing wrong at all IMO. For example, if you tell any Colombian who has an interest in football that you support Villa, they’ll immediately say Juan Pablo Angel and Jhon Duran. Villa being a relatively obscure club outside England. They care a lot about this stuff.

This is all strikers except for the handful of elite goal-a-game strikers. If you’re a 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 type of striker, then those goals are going to come in streaks.

It’s definitely “Aston Villa are” in British English - that’s what the BBC, Sky, and newspapers would all say. It’s referring to the group of people who make up the club. ”Aston Villa is” is US style. It’s referring to the entity itself. It’s less personal, more corporate. Hope that adds some useful color to the debate y’all. Cowabunga

They had a deliberate game plan to target certain players. Dougie definitely one of them. Unai’s job will be to coach him to learn to handle this and exploit this. Ultimately it’s a compliment to his abilities, but need to avoid it becoming a regular theme.

He’s been a very good signing. I like his attitude. Obviously would rather have Pau or Mings in there, as I think he lacks any of the standout characteristics that they bring. But he’s a v consistent professional who does a tidy job every game.

I actually don’t think the shithouse tactics got to us *too* much. We stood up for ourselves reasonably well. Ultimately the ref should be doing his job, but I don’t think it’s why we lost. The bigger issue is we can’t find a way through this type of stacked defence. We look so so so much better against teams that want to play football further up the pitch.

I think we just don’t have the personnel to unpick the low block atm. Virtually all of our attacking players with possible exception of Tielemans are much more comfortable playing on the counter

I’m not one of those who votes “poor” for the ref every single week, but he was **** useless, crap ref, can’t control a game, let Everton get in his head. We might regret getting nothing from that game. Think it was there to be won.

Think a draw is the best result for us in this game, but whatever the result it means a team around us dropping points, so there’s pros and cons whatever. Great game as well. Think we might see a red card in the second half!

What drama has he actually created? A lot of this is idle speculation about nothing. People are acting like he's constantly in the tabloids slagging off the club, doing drugs, turning up late for training, fighting with his teammates. All I see is someone who's struggling a bit with his age and a lack of minutes, but still putting in a shift most of the time.

What / where is Saint Dominic's Preview? Is it a real thing? All I can find on Google is stuff about the Van Morrison song and album.