Carlos_the_third

Really hope we don’t go back to playing both Marvelous and Douglas, like we did in our three match losing streak, just because it’s man united. Our midfield is clearly the biggest threat we’ve got, and we should therefore try and impose it on every side in the league bar city in my opinion. United’s midfield is atrocious, so we do have a real chance here I feel, especially if Wes can occupy the centre halves. Same team as last game for me, but with marvelous instead of Douglas.

Can’t help but feel the formation doesn’t match the squad. We carried a right winger the whole of last season, and are now carrying both wingers and a striker (unfair to say we will for a whole season, due to taking time to adapt, but has certainly been the case the majority of the time so far), not looking at all threatening going forwards, with at least 2 CMs unlucky not to be starting on the bench. Not sure of the solution to this - two I came up with that won’t be tried are a diamond (Wes and Keinan causing chaos up top), or a 4-6-0 with 6 CMs ala Spain (I would love to see this if just for the reaction from others).

I can’t be bothered checking, but would be interesting to know how West Ham do away vs how they do at home. The London Stadium has by a mile the worst atmosphere of anywhere I have ever watched a match, so I bet they can’t wait to get out of there, and their 2.5k or whatever away fans will be easier to hear than the many more poor souls they pack in at home every week. That being said, we should really be aiming to beat the likes of West Ham at home - yes, they will likely come ahead of us by the end of the season, but if we are going into games against this sort of opposition without realistically thinking we can turn them over then we are restricting our expectations to only being able to beat about 7 teams over the season, which is ridiculous if we want to stay up, let alone do anything more. I’ve been greatly impressed with our defence, but really disappointed with our general forward play this season - we all know that we are capable going forward, we just need to show it. If we are brave, and run the ball through midfield, 3 - 0 to AVFC - let’s remind David Cameron who is boss.

For a while I’ve really wanted to see us try a diamond in midfield. With the current squad this would be either Conor or Jack or Jota in the 10, then Luiz/Marvellous sitting, and SJM and JG/CH in the two. Midfield is our clear strength, and I really think this diamond could allow us to make it even stronger. We won’t do it, as with Targett injured we wouldn’t have the attacking threat from the left, and we don’t really have a second striker who we could justify starting (although Wes and Keinan up front would be a real handful!), but every time Conor plays further forward than DM he seems to score. I also really want him in the side for his set pieces, and because I really root for him when he’s playing, so hopefully we can see it at some point in the future, as I can’t see him getting a start in the prem aside from injuries/suspensions otherwise!

I know we were clear underdogs in this game, but I can’t help feel a little disappointed about the way we went about things. We spent most of the game camped in our own box, with Wesley 35 yards from our goal. I know spurs were CL finalists, but they are really not anywhere near one of the worlds untouchable sides, and we didn’t even try and compete toe to toe against a midfield of winks, with sissoko and ndombele having a competition to see who could play worse. This goes entirely what smith promised before the season, which was again disappointing, but plenty of time to put it right. However, I would much rather have lost like Norwich yesterday than sit back and wait for the inevitable. This isn’t really a criticism of anyone (although would be interesting to hear why some of the selection decisions were made, as I cannot work them out at all), as it is going to be a steep learning curve for the entire squad this season, but to be honest I was hoping for a little better. Anyway, 37 more games!

As a proud villan living in London, I have been wearing various villa shirts around the place the last couple of years. After the play off final, I have been getting a lot of comments/chants. A lot of these have been positive (a non villa fan started singing ‘we are premier league’ at me on the high street), but equally there have been a lot of jibes - genuinely think a lot of people are worried about us, and turning spurs over today would only help with that. All I hope for though is that we at least give them a quality game - I have been running my mouth to anyone who will listen about our transfer business to try and spread the love, so a stuffing could really cause me some issues. 2-1 villa - SJM+Guilbert, Kane

It was painful watching Wanyama towards the back end of last season, he was that far off the pace - whether or not that was a short ish term issue (ie was still recovering from an injury) I don’t know, but don’t think he would suit us either way.

Most seem to think he’s better going forwards than backwards - could form an exciting partnership with El Ghazi then, and also will hopefully be protected by AEG who as far as wingers go is pretty diligent defensively! Excited to see how this goes - even if he isn’t the worlds best defender and isn’t super quick, that doesn’t rule him out from being very effective with the right team setup (Leighton Baines struck me as having similar weaknesses but was still absolutely great for Everton for a number of years). Also plenty of potential to grow with consistent starts, which he will presumably be getting with us - happy with this signing at the quoted £11 mill (assuming the £6 mill add ins aren’t for things like ‘be named Matt’).

I am really excited to see AEG in the prem - he is one of our most exciting and unpredictable players for the last few years, and I am really keen to see how he does when we are playing against better teams. Also, given that it seems as though we are signing an attacking left back in Targett, he should get a lot more support going forwards and therefore won’t be doubled up on as much, which will hopefully lead to him having a bit more space to go on crazy runs forward.

Yeah it’s a no to Costa from me - after coming back from injury he lost a lot of pace, and struggled in the championship the back end of the season Wolves went up. He did seem to be improving in terms of fitness as last season went on, but not worth the risk for the price which would be close to £10 mill one would assume.

El Ghazi is one of my favourite players - having a winger who just sprints at defenders with the ball is so great, even if it doesn’t always work, as it causes absolute carnage in the defence and leads to more space for JG/JM as the opposition midfielders scramble back. He also does a very good job defensively. If we can get something similar on the other side, we will be so much more of a threat than last season - teams didn’t really have to bother marking the winger on the other side to AEG most of last season, so were able to double up on him with CMs shifting well across.

Leeds can play dirty like West Brom but also play good football when they have the ball. From our two demolitions of derby this season, it seems they can do neither. Would much rather play Derby in the final if they somehow manage to find a way there.

Albert has completely lost confidence in himself in terms of dribbling/general positive play (which is sad to see as I really like him), and shouldn’t be playing in the final (same goes for Green, but probably for different reasons). With Tammy also struggling up front since returning from injury, we have a bit of a problem with the front three. I would move El Ghazi to right wing, for two reasons - firstly, he is our best winger, and assuming we are playing Leeds he should therefore be let loose on their makeshift left back. Secondly, he is better at tracking back than every potential winger except Adomah (who shouldn’t be playing), and Elmo is not as effective as Taylor defensively (due to being more adventurous). This gives us the option to put Kodjia or Abraham left wing (the latter would be a rogue choice but Tammy is struggling being the main man since injury so could be effective), knowing Taylor is quite secure behind them, with either Abraham/Kodjia/Davis up front. Personally I like the look of Tammy - Davis - El Ghazi as a front three, but can’t see it happening - I suspect Kodjia will go wide left and Tammy instead of Davis in the middle, which would be much preferable than the option s used in either leg against West Brom.

Stepped up for the first pen and emphatically buried it - great to see that level of confidence from someone who I’ve not seen take a pen before!

That was a poor performance from us tonight, but West Brom got absolutely everything they deserved over the two legs. They never threatened except for scraps and the odd set piece, and had no intention of playing football in 210 minutes against a team that finished below them in the league. The final (presumably against Leeds) will be an entirely different game, and I am much less confident after today than I was before, but we are there!