avfc1982am

Brighton is a huge game tbh. Win and the 10 point gap with Spurs puts enormous pressure on them at Anfield, it also gives us a boost before travelling to Greece. Liverpool for their own drop in form will want revenge for the return fixture and also mathematically stay in the title race for another week at least. It's a huge weekend coming up.

He's far from a sideways player, especially with 10 goals and 9 assists or thereabout. Just off the top of my head the through all to Ollie at Sheff Utd, the ball to Ollie v's Fulham away. I also think the reason why Unai is on him is because of his expectancy of Luiz... he knows what he's capable of and more. If anything it's a show of faith in him and his capabilities, not losing patience. He also gets the armband when McGinn is off the pitch so that's another indication of Emery's faith in the lad. He's been poor by his own standards recently but TBH you've been slating him any chance possible iirc, even suggesting JWP would be better, so with all due respect your post imo is pretty wide of the mark.

Yeah, seen the posts last night which was a very good ending tbh considering the worry. I was shocked to learn it was a youngster, as at the time thought, poor old bugger.

I thought he was too far off the midfield in the first half playing in the 10 role, but saying that he changed the direction of the game and his goal was superb. I do think with him, Bailey and Rodgers in the same side we are far too lightweight and open in midfield which imo is causing us problems and did last night. It's not on Diaby though.

I thought he struggled a bit in patches but I put it down to playing in front of Digne who had a particularly bad game. I thought he was either too deep covering Digne or not compact enough with McGinn or Luiz in the midfield. I like to see him through operating through the middle rather than wide like he did against Arsenal.

Thanks... you too

I think it's a perfectly good idea, getting rid of the turncoats and cry babies. Those with short memories who turn on those that have given a lot for this team to be where it currently is. Absolutely fantastic idea!

It's a shame we cant book shit fans.... on a flight to a gulag or something similar

Its the Villa way. Quick to forget what he's done this season overall. A few proper rocket polishers in the fanbase tbh

God Bless her and the Emergency services. At least some good news to end the evening.

Height, strength and pace is a must whoever we bring in imo. And some right footed players would be good considering we've got a world record amount of lefties in the squad.

Surprised to find this thread on page 3, especially as he doesn't have any bristols. Anyway I think he's also been very poor for a number of weeks tbh. Not nearly as vocal or imposing as he can be, instead he's plodding around looking a little out of sorts.

Should have played tonight imo. Very unlucky and puzzling as to why he's been benched since Arsenal when he was MOTM

I think he needs to go back to playing the 3 in CM rather than Diaby, Bailey and Rodgers, who whilst all great going forward leave us too open in midfield. That's how I see it tbh. Both Diaby and Bailey are very similar, Rodgers I think is also very attack minded and none of them offer the protection in midfield we've lacked the last couple of games.

I agree, both have been completely restricted since the loss of Kamara. Tielemans goes along way to help plug the gaps in the middle as the addition CM but without him both McGinn and Luiz look too stretched. I just think playing Rodgers, Diaby and Bailey restricts the central midfield from imposing themselves on the game. We become too maverick instead of being a more solid and balanced midfield.

I think this is the problem... Put Tim in there and we massively improve. Playing McGinn and Luiz on their own just doesn't work imo.

A bit of a lapse for the opener but other than that he was the only one in the back line that had in anyway a decent performance. Konsa, Lenglet and Digne were awful tbh.

I'm still a bit gobsmacked at that result tbh. Many of the players didn't cover themselves in glory at all but I don't think Unai did either. I honestly think we don't look very good with a 2 in central midfield and needed an extra man tonight. After Youri went off the weekend we folded switching him for Diaby. We folded tonight with just McGinn and Luiz in there. If anything we should be trying to pack the midfield out but we are just too open and far too easy to counter against. For me this is where the problem has been the last couple of games. You can't legislate for the mistakes, the stupidity from players at times and certainly not the bad luck but you can at least make it difficult for teams to play through us. Tonight as with Saturday we didn't do that and as much as the players are to blame I also think tactically Unai has to accept some of the blame. We've gone from being difficult to play against to being easier to open up than a can of worms. It's not over by a long way regardless of how bad it appears at the moment. Why Lenglet started instead of Carlos, why we started with both Bailey, Diaby and Rodgers instead of bolstering the midfield at try to keep their opportunities to a minimum I just do not know. What I do know is we have a monumental task ahead now to turn this around in Greece.

I think even if Olsen isn't entirely responsible for the goals the difference is Emi gives the defence far more confidence. With Olsen in we look weak as piss. Worst thing is this really is a game we should be winning because they're levels below Lille.

F*** sake Luiz

I take it all back Moussa.... I love you

No he's been getting a lot of hate. Both him and McGinn have been poor but they've also been isolated in midfield for large part of the game with a lack of movement in front of them.

Because I think Rodgers is better through the middle, Zaniolo give us a natural left footer and Diaby frees up more space for Bailey. I just think we'd be more balanced

Get Zaniolo on for Diaby at HT and get Rodgers through the middle

I agree. Rodgers and Diaby need to drop into the spaces to receive the ball.