Rightdm00

The amount of responsibility this system puts on the fullbacks is insane. Without them covering endline to endline we have zero width. You can see why we recalled KKH and in plans to make Digne one of our highest earners.

Oh no why won't Steven make a sub

We have to be over 20 shots by now. How have we not scored. This is them paying us back for the Deano win earlier this season.

Finish our chances and we have at least one if not 2 goals. Chances are even falling to the right guys and they still aren't going in. One has to go in eventually, right?

So where are we at in the bid stage.... Prepped? Sealed? Delivered? I think we all agree he would be a lovely addition but feels like strictly paper talk.

How often does a mid-table PL club sell a reserve player for any kind of profit? We already had a Europe top 30 wage bill our first year back in the PL. Doubt anyone is going to stump up any type of fee for Anwar or try to match the wages he's getting here to play 15-20 times a season. Outside of moving on a free think he will see out his deal here.

Agree, and now PL clubs are building training grounds that cost more than the stadiums most championship clubs play in. The sport science and coaching available at Bodymoor Heath will be some of the best in the world. Given the above going out on loan should be part of the development process but not THE development process. Also, just a weird fact but Villa don't seem to send their youth out on loan often. Nothing like Harry Kane's development. Ramsey, Grealish, Albrighton, and Clark all went out on loan for less than a full season. I feel like at Villa if you are doing multiple loans then it probably means you aren't good enough.

I can't be mad at Carney not signing the contract during his full full season as a professional. Its the smart play. Why rush to sign and remove any leverage he might have. When the likes of Pulisic and Sancho have 30 first team appearancs at 18 years old he knows the playing opportunity is out there. I feel their is salary that could convince him to go with a little less playing time but Villa have to be willing to pay it.

Feel we are being a bit harsh. Purslow financial muscles dwarfs anything Lambert had at the time he was managing us. He could have had all types of fanciful countinho like dreams but no way was Lerner going to finance them.

Dean is fine. He's double dipping right now being paid by 2 clubs. After this Norwich gig is over he will be able to enjoy his 2 fave pastimes. Golf and being a Villa fan. He'll be living the dream.

What have Newcastle done to change the landscape. If they get it wrong they could be in the championship come next season. Least of our current worries.

You're watching sky news to be enraged/entertained. They could care less about whether the information they are reporting is factual. They know people hate watch them so they'll hint at Villa being a small club or mention a second "mystery" club being part of the deal. It's all just entertainment and had zero to do with actual news.

That's quite a bit for a punt. Just for the fact it quells any lack of ambition talk I'm for it.

I just hate getting bored to death for a majority of a match and losing. Steven's style is only palatable if it produces results because so far most games haven't been huge on the entertainment factor. Also, listen to his comments from today's game. He said we lost the game because we conceded two poor goals. Gives me Brucey vibes. One goal scored is the minimum to win a game not the standard.

Played like he had Mings on his left shoulder. Needed to raise his game. Went missing for me.

Every lost can be described in this fashion. We either start slow and find the right intensity in the 2nd half or get the start right and tail off. Lack of consistency was always going to be an issue trying to institute a high press system. I will say for the amount of running Steven's system requires his lack of subbing before late into the 2nd half is interesting.

It's been coming for a couple games now. Once we stopped pressing in the 1st half we never got back in the game. Another game where we create little to nothing. Take out the Norwich game and we are averaging less than 1 xG per game.

Agree, the goal came because we dropped into that narrow low block and went completely passive. Tried to run out the clock on the half.

For all our cute work in the middle our quality in the final 3rd has been awful, again.

You can't be serious. Ashley Westwood left us and has played for Burnley his entire career. Douglas will move to a team in the champions league. Besides the two player both being deep lying playmakers they couldn't be more dissimilar.

Wow you guys really were just waiting on Mings to have a bad game. He's been on a string of great performances since Steven's arrival. One poor game and the boo birds come out. I was always taught that the real mistakes that lead to a goal almost always happen off the ball. Casuals follow the ball around and that's the extent of what they take in each play. If you want to get analytical about that goal then look at the free man in the box who isn't fronting lukaku. That dude is a world class striker 6'3, strong as hell. No one is marking him 1v1. To nullify a player of his quality you go 2v1 everytime a ball is played in. On the goal Konsa is just floating, marking space. Well space can't score. Then you move onto Sanson who is playing way off the Chelsea player who put the cross in.Those are just the two I spot with the limited camera views on the YouTube highlight. If I had the coaches film, with all the angles, I could find a couple more issues that led to each goal Chelsea scored. We took a risk not doubling up Lukaku. No surprise both goals he either scored or assisted on he was 1v1 versus our defense. Defending is always done as a unit. Rarely is their a singular point of failure.

It's obvious Grealish papered over many cracks within our team. It's no mistake we look a shadow of ourselves in attack when compared to last season. Watkins never created much on his own and the PL best creator last year is currently riding the bench for City. Don't think it's much deeper than that.

Seems, in England at least, giving someone the captain armband is just another stick to beat a player with. Rarely seems to be mentioned in a positive light unless a club is attempting to purchase another teams captain.

Stats like that plus his poor crossing shows why Forrest moved him back to FB in the first place. Not trying to slate Cash as he was a huge improvement on what we had before. I just think he will always be a pacy, athletic FB with average at best technique. Probably will never get to top 6 level but we aren't anywhere close to being a top 6 side so he is low on the list of needed improvements.

Celebrating OGs is always weird. I never knew what to do as a player. Sometimes I would and then other times I just felt embarrassed for the opposing player. Of course I'm one of those guys who can't sit through cringe moments in movies because of second hand embarrassment.