Aston Villa Women

[useless]

Most reviews had us down as having one of the best transfer windows of all WSL clubs, we most certainly haven't stood still in that regard, all the players we signed are top class, good enough for top four teams, we've just been unlucky with the fixtures, and injuries, we've been without three or four of our best players who would be guaranteed starters, also have to remember we only lost last weeks game in injury time despite being down to ten players. Where I don't think we've helped ourself is the line-up today, didn't need to name all our central defenders in the starting line-up.

We missed Dali, and Hanson, but Pacheco was also a big factor in how we play, saw stats that suggest that she was the best attacking left-back in the WSL last season.

We just need to get that first win out of the way, incredibly frustrating that next week we have Arsenal away, going to be a lot of pressure on the Spurs game

[Farlz]

Yeah I think the idea that we’ve stood still is very wrong. 

It’s a disappointment with all the hype that was built up of course, just have to hope we can regroup and get going once the Chelsea fixture is over. There’s definitely a good side here. 

[MattVillaPortsmouth]

Only 7 subs today again, yes we have Kenza and Kirsty to come back in. But I think we are a few quality players short still.

An upgrade at GK, but there is not much between HH and DvD (if we are talking closing the gap or breaking the top 4)

Patten and Hansen were already here

Georgia won’t get many minutes.

So Ebony, Lucy, Adriana to replace Evie, Rueshia, Remi and Emily - yes improvements but not really in starting 11 (presume Dali comes back in midfield, with either Parker or Corsie dropping out) Ebony/Adriana to replace Aleshia . Not really counting the retired or those with very little minutes. 

I don’t think we were particularity unlucky to lose both games, we didn’t create enough and look to easy to play round and through.  Arsenal will be another big ask (hopefully we get something as will be there to enjoy it) but I can’t see it unfortunately.

In:

• Daphne van Domselaar (transfer from FC Twente)
• Lucy Parker (transfer from West Ham)
• Anna Patten (transfer from Arsenal)
• Kirsty Hanson (permanent transfer from Man United)
• Ebony Salmon (transfer from Houston Dash)
• Adriana Leon (transfer from Man United)
• Georgia Mullet (Academy to professional)

Out:

• Evie Rabjohn (heading to Manchester United)
• Remi Allen
• Emily Gielnik
• Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah (heading to London City Lionesses)
• Ruesha Littlejohn (heading to London City Lionesses)
• Natasha Harding (retired)
• Elisha N’Dow
• Sian Rogers (heading to Charlton Athletic)
• Hannah Hampton (heading to Chelsea)
• Meaghan Sargeant (retired)
• Natasha Harding (retired)
• Freya Gregory (loaned to Reading for 2023/24)

Others around us, maybe not had the big(ish) names but have improved their starting XI’s

 

 

[beachboys1]

3 hours ago, MattVillaPortsmouth said:

I fear we have stood still or at least not progressed as much as others around us over the summer.  We look really leggy in the first 2 games, it’s not going to get easier next few weeks.

 

Need Dali back quick.

said on tv we had smallest budget in wsl

[useless]

Salmon, Leon, Parker, and van Domselaar are all improvements on our starting eleven, Salmon and Parker have both been in England squads recently, Parker turned down Man CIty to join us, van Domselaar is widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world, Leon has just come Man Utd and is probably an improvement on Lehmann, as is Salmon, plus you can't just discount Hanson and Patten because they were already here on loan, Hanson was one of the best attackers in the league last season, but she wasn't our player, when season ended she went back to Man Utd, we did incredibly well to sign her.

Plus it's not just about improving the first team, in women's football there are so many injuries, that you need decent players from the squad, this is the first time we've had a squad full of top top players, with a few exceptions there's not much difference in quality between our subs and first eleven, whereas previously when we first came up our back up players were Championship quality as were a lot of the starters, then we progressed to having steady WSL performers on the bench and better in the starting eleven, to where we are now, once Hanson, Pacheco, and Dali are back we're going to have leave out a lot of good players, we're already doing that now, with Salmon and Blindkilde on the bench.

We're light in a few areas, fullback, and possibly central midfield, but squad's as strong as it's ever been, and I'm not sure which teams had a better transfer window than us, barring an injury crisis I still expect us to challenge for fifth place

[MattVillaPortsmouth]

I would say Liverpool and arguable Tottenham have maybe not got the so called bigger named players  (Jenna Clark was exceptional yesterday for plop) but have had a better window than us - just because we signed 2 young England squad players and VdD (who I agree has potential to be World Class) - but she replaced an equally good keeper Parker looks good, but not really a CDM/CM - and when Dali and Pacheco are back fully where does she fit in. Equally only 1 of Leon/Salmon might play, although I still think Lehman has lots to offer.

We will see throughout the season, but we so few games losing 2 already puts us massively behind the 5th or higher challenge.  

With only 2 players missing our bench was woefully short yesterday, and even with those 2 it still only the maximum allowed. It maybe I’m a little frustrated as we looked really good last year, I just feel we have missed the chance to break away from the other teams and really push the top 4.

[villaajax]

We played well against United and had there been an impatrial set of officials, we may have won that had Daly not been wrongly called offside when through on goal and refused a clear penalty later on.

We were poor for most of last night against a team I feel we should beat, there is no denying that but I wouldn't panic just yet. When Dali and Hanson are back and Pacheco is back up to speed, I think we're be a lot better.

[useless]

Liverpool's transfer window wasn't that impressive, not sure how it was better than ours, they lost their best player and leading goalscorer from last season, and other than Roman Haug I don't think they signed anyone of particular note, Jenna Clarke meant to be a good young defender, but as it stands she's no more proven than our young defenders Parker and Patten, in fact she's much less so, I was actually surprised that Liverpool didn't strenghten more, I think we should still finish above them despite being six points behind as it stands

As for Leon and Salmon both not starting when everyone is fit, that's evidence of us having a good transfer window not the opposite, also Parker and Salmon getting in the England squad is now small thing, the likes of Turner, and Pacheco, and at times Mayling have done brilliantly for us and got nowhere near the England squad, so you know those that do have to be close to exceptional, especially as Parker and Salmon both did it whilst playing for non top four clubs.

Not really sure there was much more we could have done, people talk about us being weak in defence, but we have four central defenders, Turner was our best defender last season, there were calls for her to get an England call-up and not just from Villa fans, Corsie, and Patten have both been excellent since we signed them, Corsie is also club captain, and Parker was wanted by better teams than us and as above she's getting in the England squad, which isn't to be dismissed.

That we're missing the likes of Dali and Hanson, but can still name the likes of Blindkilde, Salmon, Pacheco, Magill on the bench, is a sign of how strong our squad is not the opposite, those players would get in most other teams starting elevens, also not sure how van Domselaar being equally as good as Hampton can be spun into a negative, most would say she's better, but even if she's only as good as Hampton that's not a bad thing, because Hampton was exceptional for us, I'm pretty sure know one was execpting us to be able to bring in a keeper just a good or better.

All that's not t say we're going to have a good season, I was weary about this season, because teams that finish fifth, or as the best of the rest typically struggle the following season, but if we do struggl it can't be blamed on the transfer window, other than signing another rightback to challenge Mayling there isn't much more we could have done, we even signed one of the best young keepers in the country as a ready made replacement for Leat who's out of contract next summer, so we're showing good forward planning,

[useless]

I think there's a good chance we will finish above the current top two in the WSL Leicester and Liverpool, I don't think we will get top four, we haven't heen helped the opening fixtures, difficult to gain any momentum early on, but I don't think we would have got top four anyway, but I think we can still challenge for top five, if we get that again it will have been an exceptional season, I was actually thinking Brighton might be our main challengers for best of the rest as they really did make some good signings, and managed to keep Katie Robinson.

[Villanbee]

We didn't lose yesterday because the squad wasn't good enough. Absolutely we missed Dali (and Pacheco is a usual starter too) but we still had more than enough quality on the pitch.

We lost because the players on the pitch didn't play well enough.

Listen to Carla Ward's interview with Sky Sports. She doesn't pull any punches.

[useless]

Yes just because we've got good players that''s no guaranteed in of itself that we're going to win games, we're still always second favorites when we play a top four team, albeit one that's capable of beating them, and we aren't just gong to convienently win all our games against the other seven teams, just like we didn't last season, last season in October we lost consecutive games to West Ham and Everton and I remember there being a degree of panic then, probably less so then than now because the expectation was lower, but point is we're going to lose games unfortunately, and not just to the fop four.

Ward is always good in her interviews after games, can be very harsh but she never makes excuses and gives a sense she's going to put things right

 

[gurru991]

3 hours ago, useless said:

I think there's a good chance we will finish above the current top two in the WSL Leicester and Liverpool, I don't think we will get top four, we haven't heen helped the opening fixtures, difficult to gain any momentum early on, but I don't think we would have got top four anyway, but I think we can still challenge for top five, if we get that again it will have been an exceptional season, I was actually thinking Brighton might be our main challengers for best of the rest as they really did make some good signings, and managed to keep Katie Robinson.

Leicester's main goal this season is not to be in a relegation battle. A mid table finish would be a real achievement for us. 

[Zatman]

On 08/10/2023 at 20:40, STO said:

Liverpool look bigger and stronger than Villa.  They move the ball quicker too. 

probably the asthma has moved onto the womens team   

[skarroki]

 

On 08/10/2023 at 23:44, beachboys1 said:

said on tv we had smallest budget in wsl

Surprised and disappointed if so. We have a great squad and manager, why are we not investing more in the women's team? Can't push top 4 if we have a relegation budget. Eventually others will catch up, overtake and sign up our best talent. 

[useless]

The idea that we had the lowest budget sounds like bull, we probably spent more than most just by virtue of the fact we paid for both Hanson and Salmon, I think we might have paid for Leon as well, all our other transfer were frees I think, but that's not unusual for the women's game, most transfers are frees, almost to the point where judging a transfer window on money spent doesn make sense, but even if you do I'm pretty certain we weren't the lowest spenders, if we were I'd actually take that as a compliment given the players we managed to bring in.

in the last ten months we've signed Adriana Leon, Ebony Salmon, Kirsty Hanson, Anna Patten, Lucy Parker, Daphen van Domselaar,  Sophia Poor, Jordan Nobbs, and Lucy Staniforth, we paid fees for both Nobbs and Staniforth as well, amongst those you've got four lionesses, and Netherland's No.1, a player who was one of the best in the league last season and nominated for player of the season, one of the best young keepers in the country, Leon on came from Man Utd and has a good record at international level with Canada.

In terms of recruitment there's not much to complain about

[useless]

Just looking at the stats on FA website for one of our academy players Freya Hirons, she's another that we signed from Leicester, as well as playing for us she also plays for Narborough Foxes U15, in four appearances for them this season she has scored twenty-one goals and assisted another twenty-one, scored five in three games, and six in another, doing well for us too by the looks of it and also part of the England youth set-up.

We beat Durham 3-1 in first round of FA Youth Cup last week, she scored one of the goals

In other academy news, Rachel Maltby and Lakeisha Phibbs made their England U17 debuts recently, they were both listed as forwards, we also had a player in the Poland U17 team, and Charlotte Lee made her debut for Wales playing for their U19 team.

U21s playing Burton's senior team this weekend in the Birmingham Challenge Cup

[smg]

29 minutes ago, useless said:

Just looking at the stats on FA website for one of our academy players Freya Hirons, she's another that we signed from Leicester, as well as playing for us she also plays for Narborough Foxes U15, in four appearances for them this season she has scored twenty-one goals and assisted another twenty-one, scored five in three games, and six in another, doing well for us too by the looks of it and also part of the England youth set-up.

 

Clearly a talented young player with those stats but looking at the league table, the team she plays in is obviously dominant ( it happens a lot in youth football the better players are drawn towards the top teams)and who knows what the future holds ? Left Leicester for Villa what happens when Chelsea, Arsenal , Man City/Utd or a variety of top European clubs start sniffing around ? Let her play and see what happens hopefully she will fulfill her potential at the highest level.

[useless]

They're dominat because of Hirons, twenty one goals and twenty one assists in four appearances if you take away those their results are completely different, also they're only dominant in the sense of winning by big margins, again because of Hirons, but in terms of the league table, there's just three points that seperate the top three, I had a look at the other top scorers in the league the closest that comes to Hirons was a player from a different team that has eight.

The point of showing those Narborough Foxes stats was more to show the gap in quality between that level and the level of the top academies in the country, relatively speaking Narborough and the other teams in that league are probably a decent level, but if you put a player in there from our academy, or any top WSL academy then it will show they're on a completely different level.

Her potential for us will be judged on how well she plays for us against a much higher standard of teams, and to be fair to her she's top scorer and assister in our league the last two seasons, and obviously been doing something right to get her England call-ups.

As for her leaving us because she left Leicester to join us in the first place, she would have only been about twelve or something when she left Leicester as she's been with us for three seasons according the 'future lionesses' instagram page, so that would have just been a case of us convincing her parents that our academy is better for her development, also most of our academy is made up of players we've taken from small heath and Leicester, and there are bunch from West Brom as well, so if you apply that logic to Hirons you'd have to apply it to most of our academy players, many of whom are also seemingly very talented, after we lost Rabjohn, I though we might lose Mullett, but thankfully that didn't happen, and we showed we can attract top academy players by signing Sophia Poor, no doubt there would have been other top teams in for her.

Since we've become a professional club only Isobel Goodwin, Freya Gregory, Olivia McLoughlin, Laura Blindkiled, and Georgia Mullett from our academy have been given professional contracts, there's probably some pre-agreement in place with Sophia Poor too, and Rabjohn was offered but turned it down, shows how hard it is to make it with us as an academy player, I think we've got more talent in our academy now, they're winning trophies, beating top European oppositon, have lost count of how many of them have England call-ups, so might have a chance of producing more professionals in the coming years, but at the same time our first team squad will be improving, so going to be tough

[useless]

A shame we don't have a Conti Cup game today, because there are five teams in our group and the other four are playing each other we're the ones to miss out, might have been a good opportunity for us to get a win and some confidence back into the players.

On paper we have one of the easiest groups, should be favorites to qualify, and because our second eleven for the most part is much stronger now should be able to rotate and not risk too much, maybe involve a few academy players, I think good chance Mullett gets some minutes in this competition

Would be great if we could win it, Daly has all her individual awards but would be nice to see her win one with the team too.

[useless]

The other games in our group finished with Sunderland beating Sheffield Unite 3-2 and Durham beating Blackburn 3-2. We play our first game in the competition on November 8th against Sheffield United.