The_Rev

2 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

That's how to beat us.

Surprised more haven't tried it.

Newcastle and Brighton did and we smashed them.  
 

Really impressed with Spurs so far. They use the ball really well and they are very good at shutting off our passing lanes.  We are weathering the storm but only just.  

1 minute ago, troon_villan said:

Wasn't a foul throw. That's just Udogie's style

It was a foul throw.  

31 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

Nunez really is Gestede with pace

Can’t allow this observation to go unnoticed. 

You aren’t far wrong. Everything I’ve seen of Nunez just shows he’s trading on athleticism.  Has he always been the biggest, fastest and strongest guy on the pitch?  At his age (24) there’s still time to improve his technique but he came through the Peñarol and has been at Benfica and Liverpool so it’s not like he’s this unpolished diamond that just needs good coaching, he’s had that his entire career.  Maybe this is as good as he’ll ever be and just bringing the chaos and having the occasional afternoon where he’s unplayable because of physicality will be enough.  

On 22/11/2023 at 15:15, turvontour said:

Anyone know if Witton Lane will be closed after this game, like Alkmaar.

I don’t know for sure but I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t.  From everything I’ve heard, through the grapevine but from people who would know, is that the police are concerned about Warsaw fans and the enhanced security at recent games (we had mounted police at Luton!) have all been dress rehearsals ahead of Thursday night.   I’d go with the assumption that you won’t be able to walk towards Witton Station via Witton Lane or the North Stand Car Park.  

Just needs a Bundesliga title and a couple of Ballon d’Or wins to truly emulate Keegan’s time in Germany now.  
 

Veering off topic but re: Ballon d’Or, it does feel like this one was the end of the Messi - Ronaldo era.  The next one is wide open and you’d feel that a couple of English players, namely Kane and Bellingham are in with a real shout.  It will probably be dictated by what happens at the Euros but on club form those guys are making the right kind of headlines. 

Now the international break is over there are some weekend previews up and one of them (BBC I think) mentioned that Harry Kane would have already won last season's golden boot in the Bundesliga, which was shared by Niclas Füllkrug and Christopher Nkunku who both got 16. 

On 19/11/2023 at 16:26, HanoiVillan said:

I have looked before for contemporaneous accounts of why Kazakhstan moved from AFC to UEFA and unfortunately there are few links left nowadays, but there are multiple explanations, one of which is 'better teams' and the one I find more plausible which is 'more lucrative fixtures', but others as well. 

They’d have a historic claim because between the days when UEFA was founded and the early 90s the flag of Kazakhstan was this: 

Their people were citizens of the Soviet Union and played in UEFA competitions.  Any player in the squad right now who is older then 31 was born in a country where the capital city was Moscow. Most of the population will be in the same boat. When the transfer from AFC to UEFA happened (2002) only the people who were below ten years of age would have been born after the Soviet era, so while a lot of things you say are true when it comes to negotiating with which federation your football will be played in, Kazakhstan have a strong cultural and historical case.  

They certainly do things differently over there. 

It seems like a really odd timing of an announcement.  If he's had bad news from the doctor then why broadcast it now?  He's got a contract until 2026 so it's not like there's any time pressure on him.  I know he did an ACL at Bournemouth and missed a year there, was it the same knee? 

Lerner also got divorced at the same time.  That took a huge toll on his ability to back Villa. 

He’s carrying Mo Salah. 

Forest are pretty good at home. They picked up 30 of their 38 points last season at The City Ground and they are unbeaten there this season.  
I’m not trying to say it wasn’t a disappointing result but they are one of the bottom half sides who a lot of better teams will drop points to away from home. 
 

We do need to pick up the pace a bit though. Rationalising defeats isn’t the same as putting points on the board.  If we are shooting for 70 points and Champions League contention then 25 points away from home is a bare minimum. 

So. Um. Tifo like us now! 
 

6 minutes ago, VillaJ100 said:

Just threaten to not sell them any weapons

They’ll just buy weapons from France or China instead.  The sad truth is that wheels need to be greased and sport is one of the most visible components. 

Some mental gymnastics going on there.  Lineker once turned up to MotD in his boxer shorts.  

Saw the replay. That’s on Lindelof. 

4 hours ago, Cizzler said:

Wasn't impressed by him at the weekend at all. He got completely sold for the McGinn goal and was largely ineffective, but appreciate must be difficult to look good in that current Fulham team.

He’s not gonna want to pull a hamstring six weeks before he’s due to fly out to Munich.  

Ramsdale won't say anything because he's not stupid but there's a story out there and a thirst for endless content, especially at a club like Arsenal (who have 8-10 times as many followers on social media than we do, and their match highlights have 4x as many views as ours on YouTube) so the simple truth is it exists because people click on it.    

That would probably be just picking up returns.  But yeah, I’m happy to go to some of the ‘lesser’ fixtures.  Denmark vs Austria in the groups or something.  I’ll start laying groundwork now though.  

Taking this off topic on the first page, but I just realised I might need to do some homework if I want to get to Euro 2028 matches.   Last time I went to a tournament was Euro 96, only did one game (Scotland 0-0 Netherlands at Villa Park) but it was possible just to buy tickets from Villa Park a week or two before the game.   What's the procedure these days?  I'll bet I've not been to an England game in ten years but I'm more than happy just to do the games at Villa Park in the Euros regardless of who is playing. 

9 hours ago, GingerCollins29 said:

"What makes you so committed to Ireland" is what has pissed most people off. 

 

Yeah, but that’s just TalkSport’s business model.  In fact it’s the current business model for anybody who gets rewarded by social media algorithms for ‘engagement’ as pissing people off generates more engagement and spreads your content further than insightful or informative stuff.  TalkSport have been doing this since the 90s when Kelvin Mackenzie realised that more idiots would phone the station on premium rate phone numbers to tell the presenters why they were wrong if they were trolling than would phone in if they were having a sensible discussion.  
 

I still find the Even Ferguson thing amusing for reasons stated above. 

I’m saying I find the reaction amusing when Ireland’s modus operandi for the past 35 years was finding anybody who might technically be eligible and asking first.