The_Rev

Central midfield is the real problem here. 

35 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

If he was as elite at defending as he is on the ball, he'd be at Real or City. 

It's well documented now but that was all the talk after Villarreal's run to the Champions League semi finals. He was going to be the man who would replace Sergio Ramos at Real Madrid or he was going to Bayern Munich.  The real big boys decided not to pull the trigger for reasons we've all seen during his month in England.  At the moment I'm not sure we are a better team with Torres in it than we were before he signed.  It is a difficult comparison to make on such a small sample size, especially considering we've lost Mings and Moreno to injury from that water tight defence that ended 2022/23, but I think we are fools if we don't expect opposition sides to target Pau as a weak link over the course of the season.  Unai Emery has got enough credit in the bank with me that I'll believe he's got a plan to deal with it, but it's a glaring hole right now. 

It’s got ‘part of the pre match video montage of amazing goals’ written all over it.  I suspect we’ll be seeing it on the big screens at Villa Park for years. 

The team is worse with Pau in it than we were last season with a fit Mings and Konsa.  

27 minutes ago, AstonMartyn88 said:

Since when has Nanny MacPhee been part of the Scotland set up?

Basically the same week as he joined Villa.  (source) 

He’d done the dual role thing with Midtjylland and Northern Ireland before he did it with Villa and Scotland so clearly he’s comfortable in working that way.  
 

As for the game? Men against boys.  Big wake up call for Scotland who might have found out they aren’t as good as they thought they were.  Hopefully we see the back of Henderson and Maguire from the squad now but I’m still fully on board with this team. 

Sourness reminiscing about the time when Scotland won 0-0 at Wembley during the Euros.  

Losing 4-1 at home to Japan will do that for you. 

He’s gonna do the dirty on Katie Price? 

Ah.  That’s Hajj which is on a prescribed date every year (it moves by 11 days because lunar calendar) and the biggest hassle in getting that is getting a visa from Saudi Arabia because they need to control the size of the crowds, which are roughly limited to two million. 
 

This was umrah, a minor pilgrimage, and probably no more difficult to organise than a long weekend in Dubai or The Caribbean. 

56 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Looks like he’s been on the pilgrimage to Mecca, wonder / assume if this is why his contract was ended with PSV

How do you mean?  Going to Mecca would be pretty straightforward at short notice for someone of El Ghazi’s means. He could decide the day before and jump on a plane from Amsterdam. 

Darwin is having a field day vs Pau.   We should totally have scored though. 

High line isn’t the way you play here. 

3 hours ago, LondonLax said:

Man U won 8 of 11 in the 90s and Liverpool won 10 of 15 in the 80s.

Nothing new under the sun. 

Liverpool’s era of dominance probably goes under appreciated by some football fans.   In the fifteen years between 1975/76 and 1989/90 they were Champions of England ten times, Champions of Europe four times (and banned from Europe for five years within that period!) FA Cup winners twice, League Cup winners four times and UEFA Cup winners twice.  I’ve omitted trophies from the list too, including a league title a couple of years earlier and an FA Cup a couple of years later because that 15 year spell was just ridiculous.  Manchester City can do something similar but they’ll need to sustain what they are doing until about 2030 and pull their socks up in Europe. 

There's probably an embargo for the highlights.   They're up now:

https://youtu.be/OraULZ4h7TM?si=CbKslpu4KO1RiOYS

(and you don't know how tempted I was to Rickroll you here)

Newcastle in the group of death.  Seems appropriate.  

He's not going to displace Saka or Foden is he? 

45 minutes ago, VillaAlex said:

Not just our lads but how has Solly Match not been picked either. 

Too fat.  He needs to be Solly Lighter to get in the squad. 

28 minutes ago, weedman said:

It's mad that there are people moaning about other people moaning that other people are moaning about a player that most are kind of nonplussed about 

Welcome to the internet! 

I thought Burnley sold Ben Mee?

Harry Kane has hit the ground running in Germany then.  Three goals and an assist in his first two Bundesliga games.  

Loving the ball they're using in Germany this season too.  Proper Adidas Telstar style design. 

44 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Carragher trying to claim is wasn't a goal scoring opportunity because you don't know what would have happened if he wasn't fouled 

 

I think that’s a fair point if Neil Maupay is running through on goal but literally anybody else?