Aston_Villan4 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 15 hours ago, StewieGriffin said: Really poor goalkeeping there, followed the ball across goal and lost her positioning - if she'd taken 2 or 3 steps less she'd have saved that comfortably, which is a shame as she'd made 2 really good saves beforehand. 1-3 now - how is that not a handball?! Offside and a handball. WSL refs are even worse than Premier League refs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan95 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 I'm not buying that any of these matches are write offs or unwinnable especially when we won some of them last season. Even this season other teams around us have managed to pick up the odd result in these fixtures. Brighton won at Man City, West Ham beat Arsenal, Tottenham beat Arsenal. I know there's a big gap in quality between the top teams and the rest and I'm not expecting to win many but we should at least be competing a bit better IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Games against top four clubs aren't a complete write-off, we've actually come close to getting results on a number of occasions this season, but when we do play them they're massive favorites, and there's always a chance of losing by a big scoreline, even last season when we had our best season ever, we lost 4-1 to Arsenal at home and Man Utd put five past us. It's not really not getting any points from the top four that has cost us this season, it's losing at home to Everton when we were the bettr team but gifted them both their goals, not beating Bristol City at home, when we had similar stats as Arsenal had against us last night, and only getting three points from our four games against Spurs and Liverpool both of whom aren't actually that good Also it can't be emphasized enough the state our squad has been left in, last night we were without four players that at the start of the season would have been in our starting eleven, van Domselaar, Parker, Staniforth, Blindkilde, and Hanson, van Domselaar will have missed more than a third of the season when it ends, Parker and Staniforth more than half, we didn't have time to replace Blindkilde, I think Hanson and Dali have missed a third of the season so far, all this disray to a squad that was woefully short of numbers and imbalanced to begin with 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattVillaPortsmouth Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 The injuries/suspension no doubt haven’t helped, nor did the fixture list at start. Like I said at beginning of season, even with the ins - we didn’t progress, it was plain to see we needed more even with what we got in. Only good thing about this season, is we are still up there with best of rest, even though they have prob progressed they have only really made up ground on us - as we all have said, big big summer ahead. Regardless of al that our home form is woeful, 2nd from bottom on form table at home (only Bristol lower - only Chelsea still to play away of top 3) - compared to 4th away (only the magical top 3 higher - and we could end up 3rd ahead of Arsenal with us both having 2 left). 8 at home and only 1 win - (that’s only 2 of top 3, still got city to play). We have Leicester/spam left as well as city at home, need to make them count. We got 37 points last season, only 19 so far. Liverpool had 23 currently 29, spurs 18 now on 25. 58 points is the max first place will get, same as last season. If we had treaded water at least we would have been 4th comfortably. I think 7th is the best we can hope for (with the way the remaining fixtures are), which all though not great is not the end of the world. Shame Laura B has only had 12 minutes at City, and with form of Park unlikely to get many more - may get a winners medal, but surely playing time is better at that age for progression Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villanbee Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Agree about Blindkilde. She's barely kicked a ball for them. Unused sub over the weekend. Eligible for 5 games. Hasn't started any. Unused sub in 3. Brought on at 90 mins and 79 minutes in her other two. Interesting to see how the rest of the season pans out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villanbee Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 (edited) Re this season, my point is, and has always been, the plan has to be year-on-year progression. You can measure it by points if you like, rather than league position, but we're a shadow of last year's team. Yes, last season we lost a good few against the top teams but we also beat Man City at home and Arsenal away. In fact, we beat City twice because we beat them in the cup too. This season, injuries have been an issue but it's not like we were playing really well when these players were fit. Our squad depth is better than last year too. Last year we had injuries and we beat Arsenal without Kenza Dali who was in terrific form at the time. Talk about the run of tough fixtures at the beginning of the season doesn't wash with me. All teams have to be played and it should have balanced out with easier fixtures later on. Last season we played Man City on day one and beat them. We've gone backwards and other teams have gone forward (especially Liverpool who look like breaking into the supposed closed shop of the top 4). That cannot be acceptable. Most of our players in their mid twenties (Mayling, Pacheco, Patten and Lehmann) don't look to be progressing (putting it mildly) whilst age is probably catching up on the others. Dali hasn't been as good as last season and our defence looks like they've never played together at times. I think it all needs a reset over the close season. Edited March 25 by Villanbee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Blindkilde is only twenty, I suspect they sold her the idea she was being signed as a project player, so probably wouldn't have been expecting to get much game time this season, she's also said in interviews that it's her dream to play in the Champions League, so that would have been a factor But the main reason would have almost certainly been wages, it's not like in the mens game where Premier League players are already very rich so can afford to turn down big offers, or bide their time, even if it's a substantial increase, because they're already millionaires, in the WSL the average yearly wage is £47k a year, if Laura was on say £40k or similar with us, and Man City offered to double that, she couldn't really afford to turn it down as an increase like that would make a massive difference to her sitation 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 We've barely been able to play our full strength team all season, it's not just now that we're missing players, last year the injuries were mostly to squad players, like Remi Allen, Magill, Littlejohn and so on, who hardly got any game time anyway, I can't remember any of the main players being out for a lengthy period of time, last season's injuries don't compare to this season, it's not even close We beat Arsenal on the last day when they had nothing to play for, Dali was missing but that was one player, the team was on a high, and several of our other players were in the form of their life, it doesn't compare to the situaiton we're in now Also I think people aren't understanding the full extent of the difficulty of the first five games, it's not just that they were individually difficult fixtures, it's that they all came one after the other, if there had been easier games in between then we could have got points from those and would have gone into the tougher games with more confidence, it's a nuanced thing to understand but them all coming together like that made a huge huge difference i particularly disagree with the negative comments about Patten, she's made a few errors but overall she's been one of our better players and is underrated, the only player we have who can bring the ball out of defence with any kind of composure and help us play from the back, I'd probably put Pacheco in that category as well, in fact I'd say she's been unlucky not to have recieved an England call-up considering England are lacking in the left-back position, those are the kind of players we frankly need more of going forward The only reason Liverpool look like they've broken into the top four is because Man Utd have been particulary poor, but what has really happened is that Man Utd have been poor and dropped out of the top four and it's become a top three again, Skinner probably going to lose his job because of it, expect Utd to spend big again in the summer and for them to finish way ahead of Liverpool next season We're going to get a reset in the summer regardless, as we have no choice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villanbee Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 (edited) Fair enough. Obviously it's all about opinions but you can't keep defending our poor season on the basis that we've had bad luck. The men's team has had bad luck all season and are pushing for Champions League. A few weeks ago we had to play Lenglet and Chambers in central defence! You can't deny the defence has been a shambles all season. Anna has been a mainstay centre half in a defence that has shipped 35 goals already. Only 2 less than last season with 5 games left to play. For what it's worth, I've always liked Pacheco, but she's also not had the season she had last year and doesn't even seem to be fully in favour with Carla Ward. Subbed off on Sunday. Not started a few. As for an England call up, as much as I like her, she's not even the best left back at the club, never mind for England. As it stands, I don't think our defence is good enough. The amount of goals we've conceded, and the manner of how we've done so backs that up. However, you misunderstand my point. There were no negative comments about Patten or Pacheco in that post. My point was, where's the improvement? They are both 25 (or thereabouts) now. With good coaching they should have improved and they haven't. It's either down to the quality of the player or the quality of the coaching. If the players are good enough... And that is my point. Progression. Can you point to any player who is playing better this season than last? Edited March 25 by Villanbee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 I don't keep defending our poor season, I've pointed out numerous times it's been disappointing and have pointed out on this very page where we should have done better, pointing out how depleted our squad is and has been for most of the season and how ridiculously hard our start was isn't defending the season as an whole, just pointing out there are major mitigating factors to us not doing as well as last season Our defence leaks a lot of goals to a huge extent because of the way we set up, they get no protection from the midfield, our defensive record was actually very poor last seaso as well, but didn't get noticed as much because our attack was often able to outscore the oppositon, so the system was worked, this season as well as the set-up some of our defenders have been below par, but Patten not amongst them, she's obvious class, Pacheco is the best left-back at our club, she's better there than Daly, she's not started when she's been injured or had an illness, Carla Ward said there had been illnesses this week, she herself in fact wasn't on the touchline yesterday because of it, it's probable that Pacheco was one of those that was ill in the week, also the club want to experiment with Gregory at left-back, hence why she was given game time there at the end of the Everton match, expect to see more of that between now and the end of season Also to compare the state of the women's squad and the injuries to the men just doesn't make sense, it's nowhere near the same thing, how many times does it need pointing out, van Domselaar, Parker, Staniforth, Blindkilde, McLoughlin, Dali, Hanson, all missed big chunks of the season, we've got just three fit central defenders, one of those only just returned from injury herself, we've only three midfielders, one of those, Taylor, Ward has harldy played, we've had to change our system and play Daly in midfield, can guarantee we would rather not do that, last week some days we only had twelve players available for training, the men having to play Chambers and Lenglet in defence is nothing close to what the women have had to endure, Chambers was brought on off the bench because we had the luxury of resting Torres, and Lenglet is on loan from Barcelona and last season was playing for Spurs, French international, I bet Ward wishes her problems were comparable to having to play someone like him, the men's squad has mad depth so can more cope with injuries than the women's team Of course we haven't improved that much is obvious, some of it down to Ward and or the coaching, some it down to lack of support from the club, and some it down to bad luck, I don't think any of our individual players have improved this season either, but hard for any of them to do so in the circumstances, as it happens I would say that Pacheco and Patten, along with Daly are ones that have at least been as good as last season, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Of our current squad Leat, Corsie, Turner, Staniforth, Nobbs, Taylor, McLoughlin, and Magill are out of contract in the summer... That leaves us with Goalkeeper: van Domselaar, Poor (technically doesn't have a pro deal yet as not old enough, but presumably it's pre-agreed) Defenders: Mayling Maritz, Pacheco, Patten, Parker Midfielders: Dali Attackers: Lehmann, Leon, Hanson, Salmon, Gregory, Mullett, Daly So the dilemma is whilst the squad needs a rebuld can we really aford to not offer some of those out of contract new deals especially in midfield, if we don't offer contracts to Nobbs and Staniforth we would need to sign three or four new midfielders alone, but the flip to that is if we want to revamp the squad we might need to get rid off their wages to help fund the rebuild I'd have no problem with Leat being given a deal or her being our No.1 next season, truth be told haven't noticed much difference between her and van Domselaar and Hampton, if it saves us having to pay big replacing Daphne so we can spend that money elsewhere improving the team overall then we might be the better for it, although obviously hope Domselaar stays Corsie I think will leave as will be 35 n the summer, maybe we will keep Turner as the experieced centre-back option, a lot will depend on where we're planing on using Parker, but either way we're going to need one or two new central defenders I think there's a good chance we will give Staniforth a new deal, very underrated player, not sure about Nobbs, would be crazy not to give Mcloughlin a new deal, not sure what the club is thinking of with her, should have had a new deal already, unless she's indicated she won't sign Magill I imagine will leave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 (edited) We're one of the WSL teams to have invested big in our academy as per Emma Sanders, club will be expecting us to start bringing some of them through to the first team squad soon, one of the reasons reported for not signing as many players last summer as perhaps expected was that Ward was particularly impressed with Martha MacPhail and Megan Shaw, but MacPhail has only had a few minutes, and Shaw hasn't even made the subs bench, which is strange, considering she was making the bench last season when we were less desperate, she's not injured as has been playing for our U21s I thought we might have seen the likes of Milly Round, and Ruby-Rae Tucker, Louise Apuusi-Tchassem guymira and a few others make the bench too, we're so short of numbers could put some of them on there just for the experience, some of them might not be ready to play, but Ward hardly even plays the ones who have proven they can play at WSL level, namely Gregory and McLoughlin, we loaned Gregory to Leicester a couple of seasons ago, and she was playing better for them than our wingers were for us, now also would have been ideal time to give McLoughlin a run in the team I think something we have to get better at is finding loans for our youngsters to help them make the step up to WSL standard, trouble is it's not like the men's game where there are many options to send players, with the women you've got the Championship, but then after that there is a massive drop-off in qualifty, and Championship clubs maybe reluctant to take on unproven youngsters, maybe the loans to the third tier would be beneficial I don't know Edited March 26 by useless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Rachel Daly is in the England squad as expected, she's the only one in there not to play for a 'top four club' or Bayern Munich or Barcelona. Although can't really have any complaints about any of our others not getting in, Parker injured of course, and Salmon will probably be with the U23s, Nobbs has been something like back to her best since January, but understandable that Grace Clinton and Jess Park would get in ahead of her Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recircle Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 21 hours ago, useless said: Magill I imagine will leave Re. midfield, I remember Magill right at the end of last season being provider for a Daly goal - making a run from quite deep before nicely working a give-and-go with Daly (actually two give-and-gos, if I've got it right). I thought it might be a possibility that she could broaden her game and become a supplementary midfield option, but it hasn't happened. Getting McLoughlin back will be a plus (although she'll have seen Blindkilde Brown go to City and watched Jess Park kick on working in tandem with Hasegawa at the same club, and might be hoping to attract the attentions of a bigger club). To judge from how little she's featured, Miri Taylor looks not to be an answer and won't presumably be kept on. It feels like it might be diminishing returns from here on with Nobbs and maybe Dali. Going to be interesting to see what happens in the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Magill isn't a bad player, but we have many other forward options, to which we might even add, and I imagine she will want to go somewhere and get more game time, also she's about to hit her thirties and there's been a lot of talk about us needing to bring the age of our squad down, I think it's one of the oldest, if not the oldest in the WSL McLoughlin will be out of contract, not reported anywhere, but I watched interview where she said so herself, said her aim this season was to prove she was good enough for the WSL, but wasn't really given a chance, could be we've got an option of an extra year, I hope so, she's got big potential but I'm not sure would attract the interest of 'big clubs' just yet, said in another interview that being on loan at small heath made her realize how much she loves Villa and being at the club, so going by that I think she will stay if we want her to. Dali is under contract so will probably still be with us next season, I think we need to make a statement and sign a top player to replace Blindkilde, like we did when we signed van Domselaar to replace Hampton, not that it has to be a world class player, but another top younger player like Laura herself, and even after that we will need to sign a couple of other midfielders 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recircle Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 (edited) 1 hour ago, useless said: McLoughlin will be out of contract, not reported anywhere, but I watched interview where she said so herself, said her aim this season was to prove she was good enough for the WSL, but wasn't really given a chance, could be we've got an option of an extra year, I hope so, she's got big potential but I'm not sure would attract the interest of 'big clubs' just yet, said in another interview that being on loan at small heath made her realize how much she loves Villa and being at the club, so going by that I think she will stay if we want her to. Fair enough. I'd gathered she'd played very well in the SWPL Cup final that Rangers won - scored one and worked hard. The 'big clubs' talk was just thrown in on the basis of things developing quite rapidly with Blindkilde Brown and Park. Nice to hear she has an attachment to Villa. Edited March 26 by Recircle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 (edited) McLoughlin has been good for Rangers, and was for small heath, she's also done well whenever called upon by us, but I don't think any of that is enough for the very top clubs to come in for her at the moment, as they bloat their squads with the very best players, she's not on the level of Blindkilde or Park yet, they're both more proven at the top level, especially Park who is a full England internationl I think it's a question of whether we actually want to keep her, it's hard to imagine that we wouldn't, Ward was quoted as saying after she was loaned to small heath, that she was 'a massive part of our plans', just strange she wasn't given more game time, then loaned out again, and that we haven't given her a new contract yet. I think she's more than deserving of a place in our squad, and more game time going forward, and because of her young age, it's not just about what she can do now, but her potential Edited March 27 by useless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 (edited) U21s beat Blackburn 6-2 yesterday, Louise Guymira At and Louise Coates both got two goals each, Ellie Woods and Milly Round got the other two - Future Lionesses I think that Guymira might be one to look out for, scores some cracking goals Would be good to see a few more of them on the bench before the end of the season and maybe get a few minutes Still hoping Mullett can get her first WSL goal before the season ends Edited March 28 by useless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 Anna Patten has switched allegiance to the Republic of Ireland and has been named in their squad for the April fixtures 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 Wouldn't be surprised to see Pacheco switch to Philippines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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