wilko154

Completely agree, I've been saying this for weeks. We waste players out in the wide areas with both a winger and a wing back on each side, it means we are way too open in the midfield and we get overrun constantly. A midfield three with 5 at the back, or moving to a back 4 with four in the midfield would help massively. We also need the players to show some fight as they did against Tottenham. A lot of people are blaming Smith but I don't think anyone thought the players would perform so poorly a week after putting in one of the performances of the season.

I CANT WAIT!

We have to remember that last time we played Southampton we were missing Mings at the back (Engels and Hause were the centre back pairing), we are now playing a different formation & McGinn went off injured early in the game disrupting our rhythm. This time around we are looking stronger, despite the result Sunday's performance shows there is some fight left in this team. Reina Konsa Engels Mings Guilbert Luiz Nakamba Targett El Ghazi Samatta Grealish For me Hause is the weak link at the back, defensively he is sound but he is too casual on the ball. Engels was solid (for the most part) in the centre of the defence with two quick centre halves each side of him it covers his main weakness in pace. The Luiz/Nakamba partnership always worries me, they seem to allow too much space in the midfield. However Drinkwater looked off the pace after 20 minutes on Sunday, we desperately need McGinn back. Really hoping the players don't down tools on Saturday ahead of the Carabao Cup Final, an attitude of not wanting to be injured and missing out on Wembley is a danger. It's a must win and I'm pretty confident we have enough to do just that.

@kurtsimonw sorry to hear what you are going through, just hope you are aware that a lot of people on VT are here for you and think of you as a friend even if this is only an online football forum. I can't help you with much, but the gym is something I can possibly help with. Diet is key, if you're not keeping your diet in check then you won't lose fat and you won't gain muscle in the right areas. I've tried tracking my calories and macros before but it's never worked for me as I've never had a full understanding of it. Watch the below video and potentially give it a try. It's the clearest video I have found on how to go about making an impact on my training. Use MyFitness Pal to track what you eat, and try to hit your daily macros, protein, carbs and fat. It's surprising how a diet you have been following and thinking is good, is actually completely wrong. It's a slow process but following the below video has seen me lose weight and make some gains over the last 6 weeks. It's also something to occupy your mind and focus on. Some of his other videos are also really good.

Gutted that The Villa View is going, the podcast has been a weekly listen for me since it started. I've found that listening to it from the start I've grown used to the format of 70% football 30% random chat but it worked so well. Wish both Dan and Tom good luck for the future. Although I've listened to MOMS for the last few months I've never really gotten on with it. The presenters seem to jump on the negative of everything to do with the club and the players. I unsubscribed today as I re-jigged my Villa Podcasts. The 1874 podcast from the Athletic is good. I like Dan, and it closely follows the content of the Villa View in match reviews and transfer roundups. One that I'll continue to listen to. Today I subscribed to Claret & Blue and Gather Round The Lamp so will give them both a listen to this week and going forward.

Give the below a go, I re-did my CV in November after redundancy and got myself a job straight away. The templates are really useful. https://www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/cv-examples-and-samples/

He's out of contract at the end of the season so we won't get a penny.

Last season Man City had an allocation of 32,506. 30,000 season ticket holders at Villa Park this season means there will only be around 2,506 tickets available. Glad I have a season ticket

Why? He's probably the most talented of our youth players. When he's 23 I would expect him to be a part of our first team squad.

If a professional footballer can't manage two games in a week (with one being a Cup Semi Final) after having a week off then they need to take a long hard look at themselves. Full strength, no sentiment, do our best to get to Wembley. It's about time this football club started competing for silverware again, and I hope this is just the start of it over the next few years.

Think O'Hare will play in the Championship next season, and hopefully then join up with us in the PL the following season. Some players are late developers, O'Hare is one of those. Technically he is great, he just needs to bulk up now (just as Grealish has done). People forget that at 21 year old Grealish was sitting on the bench in the majority of games in our first season in the Championship, it was only near the end that he started getting starts. Looking back at it now we would have been much better served giving him Championship game time earlier.

Cancelled my flights, re-booking flights transferring elsewhere. Don't think it's worse the risk of imminent death.

How much longer does he have on his contract?

It's been a heavy weekend

No thanks

I would say we have already started working on getting our revenue up. Trezeguet, Nakamba and Samatta will have increased our overseas fanbase by huge numbers.

How has this game not sold out? It's the Semi Final! For the last 3 years we could have only dreamt of being at this stage in a competition. I know it's only the Carabao Cup but even so!

Unfortunately not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFL_Cup

I'm going on holiday to Australia. literally just landing in China for a transfer to the second leg of the flight. The way back is then a 6 hour stopover at Guangzhou airport. I'm starting to think I may book another flight, although I can't get a refund on my original.

That is an ideal formation for us. Utilising AM's instead of LW/RW. Also that front three in April McGinn (AM) Grealish (AM) Samatta (ST)

Yeh in theory it works. Bayern used to play the formation, and Juventus have played it in the past. When you dominate games with a lot of possession it's effective. Because we don't dominate the possession, the formation means a lot of holes are formed in the middle of the pitch. Holes defensively, but also holes when trying to play the ball out from the back meaning mistakes are made. Our best centre midfielder in Grealish is also shunted out wide and receives little of the ball. No doubt about it he has been effective on the left in terms of goals, but in a free role he could play through the middle primarily and drift left when required; this would then allow us to get him on the ball more in useful areas where can drive at defences. I do agree with you though, Samatta up front may actually this formation along with being able to move El Ghazi back into a wide position. He ended the game against Watford well when he went out onto the wing.

Right now we are playing a 5-2-3 formation. And it sucks... Our last lineup being: Reina Konsa Mings Hause Guilbert Targett Drinkwater Nakamba Trezeguet El Ghazi Grealish The problem with this formation is that we have two players in the wide positions and nothing through the middle. Playing 5 at the back should free the wing backs to cover the wide areas themselves. If we want to continue with the 5 at the back we have to change to either 3 in midfield, the extra midfielder can be a flat midfielder or a number 10. Grealish would suit this role perfectly as a number 10.

Dr Tony is going to fix this soon though as it's something his company specialize in. He's just finalizing the theme park plans at the moment though.

Flying into China in March, so following this closely at the moment as I don't fancy dying anytime soon. Seem's to be just a stronger version of the flu, the 20 people that have died were all elderly with health conditions. An article I read yesterday seems to imply that the virus has come from Bat Soup, literally a bat in a bowl of soup. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7920573/Revolting-footage-shows-Chinese-woman-eating-bat-scientists-link-coronavirus-animal.html

Triple Captained Mane, have been building upto this week for ages. B*llocks.