17/18 Promotion Charge

[Grasshopper]

30 minutes ago, Hairdo said:

I feel that with a full pre-season of teamwork we could/should be challenging for the top 2 next year.

       GK

JB JC NB NT

       MJ

  HL     CH

    RMC

SH       JK

That team is more than capable of getting promoted and with players like Grealish, Green, Adomah, De Laet,Thor and even RHM to rotate in we should be up there.

You are in many ways right, but we still need 2x GK 1x CB 1x DM 1x CM

We dont need to be using Hutton, Richards, Elphick, Bacuna, Gardner or Gaby-2-games-a-season.

Better coaching, management & tactics needed though

[NottingVilla]

Wolves getting in Nuno is a massive coup for them and almost guarantees we will finish behind them. We continue to fall behind in all aspects. Don't expect automatic promotion, you will be disappointed. 

Edited May 31, 2017 by NottingVilla

[Demitri_C]

46 minutes ago, NottingVilla said:

Wolves getting in Nuno is a massive coup for them and almost guarantees we will finish behind them. We continue to fall behind in all aspects. Don't expect automatic promotion, you will be disappointed. 

Its as much as a guarantee as me being able to predict the british weather.

Does not guarantee anything

[Mjvilla]

1 hour ago, NottingVilla said:

Wolves getting in Nuno is a massive coup for them and almost guarantees we will finish behind them. We continue to fall behind in all aspects. Don't expect automatic promotion, you will be disappointed. 

This kind of thing is just laughable. What has he done to make you think that? Having looked at his record, he's done ok but in his last season he won sod all with Porto. That's like winning nothing with Celtic. 

[Zatman]

2 hours ago, Mjvilla said:

This kind of thing is just laughable. What has he done to make you think that? Having looked at his record, he's done ok but in his last season he won sod all with Porto. That's like winning nothing with Celtic. 

he got Valencia to top 4 and since he left Valencia they went into a relegation battle and had to suffer Gary Neville

[Mjvilla]

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

he got Valencia to top 4 and since he left Valencia they went into a relegation battle and had to suffer Gary Neville

But in his last season in management, he won nothing.... with Porto. That's laughable.

[Zatman]

5 minutes ago, Mjvilla said:

But in his last season in management, he won nothing.... with Porto. That's laughable.

Its one of the weakest squads in recent Porto history and they havent won a trophy since 2013 and he obviously improved them since they were 3rd and 15 points behind Benfica the season before

[Godders]

14 hours ago, NottingVilla said:

Wolves getting in Nuno is a massive coup for them and almost guarantees we will finish behind them. We continue to fall behind in all aspects. Don't expect automatic promotion, you will be disappointed. 

No manager is ever guaranteed success at any club, let alone immediate success. Look at Pep: best manager on the planet, bar none. Really really struggled this season at City.

[Demitri_C]

10 hours ago, Zatman said:

he got Valencia to top 4 and since he left Valencia they went into a relegation battle and had to suffer Gary Neville

There have been many managers who have had success abriad that flopped here. Ramos, pepe mel, amd our very own remi garde as a few examples.

[Hairdo]

20 hours ago, Grasshopper said:

You are in many ways right, but we still need 2x GK 1x CB 1x DM 1x CM

We dont need to be using Hutton, Richards, Elphick, Bacuna, Gardner or Gaby-2-games-a-season.

Better coaching, management & tactics needed though

Totally agree. It was not by accident that I left those names out. Hopefully the sales/releases of these will give us the desired funds to get your needs.

[Mjvilla]

17 hours ago, Zatman said:

Its one of the weakest squads in recent Porto history and they havent won a trophy since 2013 and he obviously improved them since they were 3rd and 15 points behind Benfica the season before

His record isn't really that impressive and certainly not someone I would consider a 'coup'. He's done pretty well I suppose.

He will be in it for the long haul though won't he, has a history of sticking with clubs.... 

Employed by a club who get through almost as many managers as we do, it's a clear recipe for success and definitely guarantees finishing above us! 

[villa89]

Boro are 7/1 favourites for the league and we are 15/2 second favourites. Definitely villa should be up at the right end of the table all next season.

[ThunderPower_14]

I'm more optimistic about next season than i've been for a long time.

 

We should go in expecting to challenge for automatic promotion. We have a good squad and they've had time to settle and gel. Bruce has done it before and that's enough for me really.

[One For The Road]

Top 6 is definitely achievable with the right staff and a few more signings.

[AntrimBlack]

9 hours ago, ThunderPower_14 said:

I'm more optimistic about next season than i've been for a long time.

 

We should go in expecting to challenge for automatic promotion. We have a good squad and they've had time to settle and gel. Bruce has done it before and that's enough for me really.

I am less optimistic than I was at the beginning of last season, and as I was again when Bruce came in.

I have no enthusiasm for the upcoming season, only dread.

[jimcohen]

17 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

I am less optimistic than I was at the beginning of last season, and as I was again when Bruce came in.

I have no enthusiasm for the upcoming season, only dread.

I am nervous too, as the league is so hard and we are still short in some key areas of the game, namely the ability to pass and keep the ball. Our possession has been poor for years now and I cant really understand it. When we dropped down to the Championship I thought, naively so, that we would dominate possession and most games and get top 6, but we regularly had under 50% of the ball against some very week teams. After Christmas when we bought CH and HL I thought that would make a difference as at their previous teams they kept the ball well and NF and BFC had good possession stats, but it made no difference. Is Brice really telling them to just play counter attacking and not worry about keeping the ball? We have one of the best squads in the league and some of the best players, why is it that we cannot play a more controlled game?

I remember the first season under PL, we started away to West Ham, I was there and we kept the ball well. We all sang "We're passing the ball, we're passing the ball. We're Aston Villa, We're passing the ball." As it was such a shock, after the previous dross, that we were now playing under a manager that valued keeping the ball. The issue of course there was we had poor players relative to the league and a lot of goals were given away from individual errors and/or loss of possession within our own half from one of our own players. You need good players if you want to keep the ball. 

But in this league, with our current squad, surely we are good enough to do that.  

I want a new GK, CB, DCM, Winger and CF like most people, but also feel if we could just keep the ball, play better attacking, positive football, our current bunch are just as good, if not better than anything else in the league. Are you really telling me Brighton or Huddersfield had a better starting 11 than us? No, they just played better football. As a team. probably with lower expectations, so less pressure, but they achieved what we couldn't with what in my opinion was a fair inferior squad and starting 11. I would not have one single player from either of their teams in Villa's starting 11 apart from maybe Knockaert and Stockdale. And from Newcastle too, I would only want Lascelles instead of NB, Shelvey for CH and Gayle for Hogan, but the last one would be close. 

But even if you think a few others would get into our team, you get my point. Our players are good enough. Its our tactics and style of play that seems to be killing us. 

[Michael118]

2 hours ago, jimcohen said:

I am nervous too, as the league is so hard and we are still short in some key areas of the game, namely the ability to pass and keep the ball. Our possession has been poor for years now and I cant really understand it. When we dropped down to the Championship I thought, naively so, that we would dominate possession and most games and get top 6, but we regularly had under 50% of the ball against some very week teams. After Christmas when we bought CH and HL I thought that would make a difference as at their previous teams they kept the ball well and NF and BFC had good possession stats, but it made no difference. Is Brice really telling them to just play counter attacking and not worry about keeping the ball? We have one of the best squads in the league and some of the best players, why is it that we cannot play a more controlled game?

I remember the first season under PL, we started away to West Ham, I was there and we kept the ball well. We all sang "We're passing the ball, we're passing the ball. We're Aston Villa, We're passing the ball." As it was such a shock, after the previous dross, that we were now playing under a manager that valued keeping the ball. The issue of course there was we had poor players relative to the league and a lot of goals were given away from individual errors and/or loss of possession within our own half from one of our own players. You need good players if you want to keep the ball. 

But in this league, with our current squad, surely we are good enough to do that.  

I want a new GK, CB, DCM, Winger and CF like most people, but also feel if we could just keep the ball, play better attacking, positive football, our current bunch are just as good, if not better than anything else in the league. Are you really telling me Brighton or Huddersfield had a better starting 11 than us? No, they just played better football. As a team. probably with lower expectations, so less pressure, but they achieved what we couldn't with what in my opinion was a fair inferior squad and starting 11. I would not have one single player from either of their teams in Villa's starting 11 apart from maybe Knockaert and Stockdale. And from Newcastle too, I would only want Lascelles instead of NB, Shelvey for CH and Gayle for Hogan, but the last one would be close. 

But even if you think a few others would get into our team, you get my point. Our players are good enough. Its our tactics and style of play that seems to be killing us. 

 

The difference between us and Newcastle is they have at least 5 players who are far and away too good for this division - Shelvey, Gayle, Clark, Ritchie and Elliot. All players I would be happy if I was managing a midtable Premier League team. Atsu looks a good player as well but haven't seen enough to rate him properly and Perez and Goufran I would say are Premier League quality as well.

In comparison our squad is filled with Championship quality players (Chester, Taylor, Lansbury, Adomah) or players who at the very least have big question marks over whether you'd consider them Premier League quality (Kodjia and Hourihane).

I still think our squad under the right manager is good enough to get promoted but for me there is no comparison to Newcastle.

[Dave J]

17 hours ago, ThunderPower_14 said:

I'm more optimistic about next season than i've been for a long time.

 

We should go in expecting to challenge for automatic promotion. We have a good squad and they've had time to settle and gel. Bruce has done it before and that's enough for me really.

I fail to see other than blind faith - I include myself in this - what on earth any of us can see in Bruce that might lend us to think we can get automatic promotion next season?

[VillaChris]

I'm actually looking forward to next season much more than last season which I thought would be a transitional season and turned out exactly that which is putting a kind spin on things.

Was amazed last summer at the amountwho thought we'd challenge even if we didn't sign that many players.

[The Fun Factory]

Given that each relegated side took in more tv money than last season's Premier League champions, they should be the 3 that go up on paper. However 2 of them are basket cases currently. I can see Boro being the steady yo-yo club like Burnley soon.  Wednesday, Leeds, Us and possibly Derby or Wolves should be fancied plus a random like Huddersfield- Brentford anyone?