Anwar El Ghazi

[May-Z]

Technically, his striking of the ball is excellent. So when he has a pen, free kick, first time shot he executes them usually really well. Hence his goal threat.

For such a big bloke he's just a bit wet in the physical side of the game and in the 1v1 battles wingers find themselves in each match.

[May-Z]

Technically, his striking of the ball is excellent. So when he has a pen, free kick, first time shot he executes them usually really well. Hence his goal threat.

For such a big bloke he's just a bit wet in the physical side of the game and in the 1v1 battles wingers find themselves in each match.

[Indigo]

40 minutes ago, Pissflaps said:

So can anyone please explain this logic to me re El Ghazi. In my new season ticket seats yesterday and probably no more than 15 minutes into the game yesterday these two people directly behind me who are probably 20 or so say to each other god he is so shit, get him off. El Ghazi had lost the ball once at that point trying to beat the full back. First thought, who would you replace him with exactly? The bashing of him continued all game.

We get the penalty..up steps El Ghazi. Now I have been going to villa park since 1988 and I have never heard something, to me, as idiotic and rage inducing as:

"I hate him so much, I hope he misses the penalty"

He scores and they celebrate.

I am literally lost for words at the retardation of these people at this point. Anyone want to swap seats because I can see myself getting arrested before the season is over when i cave one of their skulls in.

Help me here, am i being unfair or should these pair of words removed just **** off down to the Temple of Doom instead?

Sounds like the match thread in the flesh.

[Killeen30]

21 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Lol. A confident el Ghazi? When has he been confident? How many times has he had the chance to gain confidence only to then put in a horrid display after the event? 

This idea that he’s a confidence player is just an excuse for him playing poorly week in week out. He’s just not very good. 

Remember his purple patch last season when he was scoring for fun? Possible December, not 100% sure on that, but yeah. For me he is very much a confidence player. 
 

how much was he signed for? About 5 million or so. I’m not sure what class of player you expect for that sort of money. He’s served us well in terms of what we paid. I agree that ideally he’s not a starter but I think he is a decent squad option, especially coming from the bench.

 

 

[Delphinho123]

2 minutes ago, Killeen30 said:

Remember his purple patch last season when he was scoring for fun? Possible December, not 100% sure on that, but yeah. For me he is very much a confidence player. 
 

how much was he signed for? About 5 million or so. I’m not sure what class of player you expect for that sort of money. He’s served us well in terms of what we paid. I agree that ideally he’s not a starter but I think he is a decent squad option, especially coming from the bench.

 

 

I can’t argue with most of that tbh. He was cheap and he probably is ok as a squad option, but I don’t rate him much at all. 

I find him to be a very frustrating player. 

[PussEKatt]

15 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

I can’t argue with most of that tbh. He was cheap and he probably is ok as a squad option, but I don’t rate him much at all. 

I find him to be a very frustrating player. 

I like him.He gives us options on both sides of the pitch.

[sidcow]

4 hours ago, wilko154 said:

Never understood peoples problems with Anwar.

He had a poor first half but was much better in the second half, and his improvement noticeably came after the penalty when the fans were singing his name.

He's not going to be our first choice on the left wing this season; but as a backup winger he is more than enough and has goals in him. People bang on about selling him, but if we had we currently wouldn't have a left winger available in the squad.

If we're after an emergency winger we have Ashley Young and Philogene Bidace.  Penalties aside I would bet both would be more effective than Anwar. 

As others have said Anwar would be great in a less physical league where he has more time but unfortunately in the PL  he's pretty much incapable of operating as an effective winger i.e beating his man and putting in a decent cross. 

Just for the record I DON'T HATE HIM AND I'M NOT SPOUTING BILE ABOUT HIM. I just don't think he's a premier league player. That's all. 

[blandy]

22 minutes ago, PussEKatt said:

I like him.

Me too. He is what he is. I accept that. I don’t expect him to single handedly win every game, but I like that he scores goals, I like that when he’s on song he’s a proper handful for defenders. He tends to be on song when he’s confident. And he tends to be confident when he’s supported or when he’s scored.

Ive said this before, several years ago, but I remember being away at Bolton, before we went down. Villa were playing badly, all of them. The fans started chanting “Alan Hutton, the Scottish Cafu” for no other reason than irony and boredom. But kind of from that moment on he was visibly lifted. Another player with some weaknesses, but “we” the fans got more out of him just through what started as ironic support, but support nevertheless. It works.

Anwar, when is in our team, support him at the games, be positive and he will be. He’s had to turn off all his social media because some knob head Villa fans abused him. If people feel unwanted they can’t give as much as when they feel wanted. 

[AVTuco]

2 hours ago, AV82 said:

How interesting that for someone so lambasted for being mentally weak he can step up and bang a penalty in no problem.

That is a weird thing. I can't explain it, but that's how I see things.

[lapal_fan]

3 hours ago, blandy said:

Me too. He is what he is. I accept that. I don’t expect him to single handedly win every game, but I like that he scores goals, I like that when he’s on song he’s a proper handful for defenders. He tends to be on song when he’s confident. And he tends to be confident when he’s supported or when he’s scored.

Ive said this before, several years ago, but I remember being away at Bolton, before we went down. Villa were playing badly, all of them. The fans started chanting “Alan Hutton, the Scottish Cafu” for no other reason than irony and boredom. But kind of from that moment on he was visibly lifted. Another player with some weaknesses, but “we” the fans got more out of him just through what started as ironic support, but support nevertheless. It works.

Anwar, when is in our team, support him at the games, be positive and he will be. He’s had to turn off all his social media because some knob head Villa fans abused him. If people feel unwanted they can’t give as much as when they feel wanted. 

Tres bien

Being a supporter is all about getting behind your team, especially when things aren't going their way.

You think as a player under pressure, hearing 40k people "ughhhhg'ing" after you've misplaced a pass or lost the ball is a great way of motivating or encouraging?  Or you think they'll be more likely to hide from the ball, give themselves a few mins out of the spotlight etc etc.

But y'know, slating people is much easier.

Edited August 22, 2021 by lapal_fan

[Dave-R]

3 hours ago, May-Z said:

Technically, his striking of the ball is excellent. So when he has a pen, free kick, first time shot he executes them usually really well. Hence his goal threat.

For such a big bloke he's just a bit wet in the physical side of the game and in the 1v1 battles wingers find themselves in each match.

It's great how Ghazi has penalty at a perfect record but step some yards back to outside of the box and I wonder what his shots to goals are?? One game last season he were given a shoot on sight policy it seemed and although he did score one it was a game where we just gave him the ball like mad and he'd had over 30 shots I believe.

If hes running around the 18 yard box and struggling to score, he then has to realise that the closer he gets hes more successful, sure easier said than done though. There have been games last season and season before where he were so close, closer to goal than the penalty spot and the lad fluffed what should of been guaranteed goals. If Ghazi had of scored those I believe last season he may have had an extra 6 goals as it happened a fair few times.

Thing is with Ghazi is that hes only going to get away with this for so much longer. Weve all seen the upgrade in talent that's coming in and next season we will be looking to bring in even better talent no doubt, so the lad has to step up in every direction. The question is can AEG do it, personally I dont think hes gotten much better under Smith, I still feel were seeing the same player as we seen from the championship and that's worrying for me. This means that hes stalling on improving   rest of his game and it's a damn shame I must admit.

Going forward I'd like to see him move on up and catch up with the likes of bailey, Buendia, Watkins, Ings, Traore so on but I doubt it will happen. I feel that AEG and Trez along with a few others like Wesley and Davis will most certainly be Phazed out after this season whether you like these players or not people. You can only afford so much time  to players who cant keep up, remember its business as much as it is a sport or fan following and there comes a time when progress happens whether we like it or not. Now the speed in which Villa are going and hope it continues this season and if by any chance we go onto europe then next season there will be all sorts of stars wanting to come here. That means letting players like Wesley, AEG, Davis and Trezegeut  go, even if it's to incur losses on them. The way we just have look at it is thank you for your help, you aided us getting to where we are but now we must part ways and go on separate new journeys.

I'll always thank every player who came in and gave it a go and I'd certainly say AEG did that alot of the time. I'd also say for the goal he scored at Villa just like every other goal they are or were important. 

At the moment while he's in a Villa shirt, hes certainly got my support and although I may complain about him here and there. Most of all I do wish him plenty of goals and hope he can fix some parts of his game for the sake of the team and helping propel the club up  the ladder.

[Danishlad]

6 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

Thought he did some pretty good things yesterday.  He miscontrolled one pass but got back on it and squared a good ball for a chance in the first half. 

Had a really good touch  when the ball came into his feet with back to goal and defender behind him, he opened his body go one way and then lost his defender going the other way.

Was never gonna miss the penalty.

He's a scapegoat for a lot of things, but I'll always appreciate him.

Matty Cash and Ramsey also had a few bad touches and lost the ball etc, but the reaction is never as vehemently negative as when El Ghazi does it.

We have some strange and shitty fans.

problem is that balls skills are supposed to be his strong side. He doesn't read the game well, press well or defend well. He isn't a creative player. He doesn't particularly pass well either. So when he takes his poor touches he seems a poor footballer

[Spoony]

Like many have said he’s played his part spectacularly for Villa. We need to improve on him for the next phase.

I can’t imagine he will be here past this season and whenever the time come for him to move on he would always receive a very warm welcome from me at Villa Park. He holds a far higher place in my rankings for his goals, incredible promotion season and professionalism than the likes of Jamie Grengleback. 

[Killeen30]

Hourihane will be moving on. So in the minds of some people on Villa Talk he’s as good as gone. Has been since January. So we’ve found our next victim. Class.

He’s an average squad player for an average mid table team. Yes that’s where we’re at right now. We might have ambitions to fly higher, but it’s where we’re currently at.

Let’s get behind our players while they play for the club. UTV.

[andyjsg]

He was on and off yesterday, a couple of awful passes from Ash (who I thought was great generally) didn’t help him. Always puts in a shift and he isn’t first choice and if either Bailey or Watkins had been fit they probably would of started ahead of him. I’m not sure any of our real rivals have a player who scored 10 last year as their 3rd choice left attacker…..

[ronk-villa]

We signed him for comparative peanuts and hes improved every season hes been with us.  I cant really criticise that.  Dont think he should be starting, but dont think he will when all are fit.

[jim]

4 hours ago, PussEKatt said:

I like him.He gives us options on both sides of the pitch.

Me too, although I don’t think he is very good on the right.

Whenever he plays I always fancy him to get a goal.

[Strog]

1 hour ago, Spoony said:

Like many have said he’s played his part spectacularly for Villa. We need to improve on him for the next phase.

I can’t imagine he will be here past this season and whenever the time come for him to move on he would always receive a very warm welcome from me at Villa Park. He holds a far higher place in my rankings for his goals, incredible promotion season and professionalism than the likes of Jamie Grengleback. 

Here, here but who is this grengleback you speak of

[AV82]

4 hours ago, AVTuco said:

That is a weird thing. I can't explain it, but that's how I see things.

Same!

[Delphinho123]

2 hours ago, ronk-villa said:

We signed him for comparative peanuts and hes improved every season hes been with us.  I cant really criticise that.  Dont think he should be starting, but dont think he will when all are fit.

I don’t really think he’s improved at all tbh. Genuinely, I don’t.