Rightdm00

No I hate this. I want to spend £60 million for Connor Gallagher instead. 

Completely changed from the player we had here. Ran the Luton midfield with non-stop energy. We could easily double his wages from Luton and it would still be an amazing deal. 

A perfect stopgap after the Mings injury. Absolutely no clue how he got that contract out of Barcelona though. First CB I've ever seen whose worst trait is defending. 

Love a VT thread where everyone is in unison. Thanks for your service Robin but please let this be the last game played for us. 

6 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

No they don’t. And he has been playing in the pivot with Caicedo most recently and they’ve looked a lot better.

He is versatile. Something that Emery loves.

Only because of injuries, especially once Enzo went down.  He most definitely plays in advanced roles for Chelsea. Here is one game  from March and here is another in November.  I can find you more. He plays both but the idea he isn't an attacking midfielder is false. 

32 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Would be a shocking piece of business

Agree, would be going backwards at that point. Also don't see how he would work in the double pivot. Chelsea usually plays him in a more advanced role which for Unai would be the Second striker or wide midfielders. Definitely not a Douglas replacement and would be horrid as a DM. 

A healthy Jacob Ramsey is twice the player. With Rogers emergence, this has to be purely paper talk. 

I would be itching to move to if the starting striker blocking my access to the first team is actually a cyborg from the future who plays 90+ minutes every game and never, ever gets hurt. 

13 hours ago, sidcow said:

See I think it's the opposite. It's the RELUCTANCE to be an all seeing god is the problem. It's the interpretation of what's clear and obvious that's the problem. And their reluctance to override the ref is mind blowing. Unless a chainsaw is used they won't call a physical assault as a foul if the ref didn't. 

Or if the ref gives something because someone tripped over his own feet they let it go. 

The whole thing would be so much better if they just said what they see instead of worrying about making their mate look poor. 

 

We are sitting on opposites sides of video replay review.  Which isnt a problem because both methods of video review are employed successfully by various other professional sports.  Is the ref in charge of all field decisions or is VAR a co-equal partner.  The PL is trying to have it both ways without explicitly stating where VAR sits on the decision chain. 

In the NBA, VAR doesn't interfere from outside of the arena. The refs review their call on in arena video and make an announcement to the arena explaining their call and the decided outcome.  The NBA does release a report stating calls the refs got wrong at the end of the game. I think most fans acknowledge that reffing a basketball game is very difficult and the goal is a high degree of accuracy not getting every call right.  

The NFL determines some calls from a video replay headquarters and allows others of a more subjective nature to be reviewed in stadium by the head ref. Once again the refs makes an announcement to the stadium once the decision has been made. 

The PL needs to come out and say where VAR sits in the decision making process.  Is it the all seeing God of the NFL or the backstop to prevent egregious errors like the NBA and MLB. I would even be okay with giving a PL manager a challenge per half and let them decide when VAR steps in, otherwise the onfield decision stands. Any thing is better than the current system which equally undermines the onfield ref and leaves the entire stadium and most TV viewers in the dark on what's actually happening during a review. 

Just being implemented very poorly. It's supposed to act as a backstop to correct "clear and obvious" errors by the ref and the ARs. Currently it operates as an all seeing God correcting the ref on even subjective calls. If VAR can't quickly determine if an obvious error has been made then either go straight to a pitch side review or play on. 

2 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

This.

I just think he's ridiculously laid back

Or maybe he was enjoying a sit down after running 10+ kms for 50+ games. 

5 hours ago, Genie said:

Anyone else look at Matty Cash’s happy little face in the pictures last night think “you’ll be watching on TV”. 

He'll be starting at RW at the CL final if we have anywhere near the injury crisis we had this season. 

Just a little banter with the fans.  He goes on to praise the fans and the players for an amazing season. Even made sure to include Buendia on the stage so he could say his piece. Usually awards show speeches are pretty dry and formulaic but Mings felt, as he always does, quite genuine. 

Even Man City are bored of Man City winning the title. 

26 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

But we were told all season that the way we play we wouldn't be the one getting tired or injuries and that would be Newcastle or Tottenham as they play such a high intensity game.

 

Seems people were wrong there then.

Tielemens, Emi, and now Rogers all go down with a muscular issue. That's all due to the sheer #s of games played. Throw in the long term injuries in the squad and it's obvious that the players will be tired no matter what strategy we employ.  We obviously need additional quality at various positions if we are to continue with 50+ games next year. 

Ange ball for 38 PL games is a joke. It will never work without Spurs spending huge on PL quality backups at all positions. They are dead on there feet just from playing in the PL. No deep cup run either. 

23 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

The decision to move Philogene, Ramsey and Archer out does not seem so smart now.

None of them are doing a job in the PL right now. Why would you assume they can help us here. This is our first European campaign in almost 20 years. Teams get tired but then you throw in the long term injuries and it's just the way it is. Nothing to be done but support the team. The manager has worked a miracle to get us to the precipice of CL qualifications. 

23 minutes ago, smg said:

Oh dear let’s be sad for the back line who can be crap in their roll as defenders in the knowledge that fans will blame the player behind them

That same lineup has put in numerous better performances with Emi backing them. If you have played the game you know how much a nervous keeper can affect your play.  He inspires zero confidence when he plays and just like clockwork we concede 2-3 goals with him starting. 

You can say none of the goals were his fault but end of he just isn't good enough. Could you imagine him in a CL game. God forbid a CL knockout. Don't hate the guy Villa can do better. 

I just really want this guy at a new club next season.  I'm tired of seeing him flapping around sapping the confidence of our entire back line. 

Hope Monchi sees this.  VT has spoken, get to selling Bailey and get Philogene into the starting 11. 

Ange-ball. Firing 30+ aimless crosses into the box. Finally on the 31st they get lucky and win a pen. 

David Raya the World #1

1 hour ago, Delphinho123 said:

I want to really like him but I’m at the point now watching games where I just expect him to lose the ball or our attack to break down when it gets to him.

I’ve been saying this for some time now, but what is he? He’s not a no.10 for me and I don’t think he can play as a striker. That leaves the right wing position which is usually occupied by Bailey or McGinn on the right of midfield. 

I feel he’ll never be what he could be or what we want him to be, certainly at £45m, until he locks down a position and gets a run of games there. It speaks volumes that a kid from Boro signed for 8m in January has shown more in 7 games than he has all season quite frankly.

He’s a bit of a problem. I hope he comes back next season raring to go having used his first season to really acclimatise to the league. I think we all like to point to the Bailey example but let’s not forget that, that is an anomaly rather than the norm. 

Has to do A LOT more. 

Most signings don't hit the ground running .  Almost every signing we have made has needed time. Douglas was played out of position and took multiple seasons to find his groove in the double pivot. McGinn looked like the PL was to big of an ask before Unai showed up.  Most signings either don't work out or take some time to acclimate.  A signing coming out the gate flying like Rogers is the anomaly. 

Also mentioning a price tag like £45 million is kind of small time. That's nothing for a CL club. They pay that just to get a squad player. If that's the club we are fighting to join then price tags like that, and higher, will quickly become the norm. 

4 hours ago, villa4europe said:

Not a chance

That's a really simple header 

How, the keeper is outside the box. Once the keeper leaves the box the header back is never on. To me it looks like Olsen is coming to give it a hoof but Carlos calls him off. Emi absolutely plays that much calmer and that calamity defending never develops. 

Would anyone here trade places with Spurs. I highly doubt it. We are a good but not great position for CL. Amazing place to be after the 5-1 loss to start the season versus Newcastle. 

1 minute ago, The_Steve said:

Diego took the decision without sighting the keeper 

The ball was head height. 99 out of 100 times that's headed back to the keeper and he can easily pick it up. Olsen was grossly out of position which forced Carlos to try that comical clearance attempt. Just terrible defending by all involved.