John Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 You have again pointed out that we haven't beaten a "top team" villalad21. We can put that right before the end of the season, or as I also previously said, draw those games and win the rest. I don't care who our wins come against, as long as we get the wins that we need. I was pointing out that we're not the only one of the bottom six, that will start several of their remaining games as second favourites. Just because other bottom six teams have beaten "top teams" already doesn't mean they'll do it again, nor does it mean we can't beat them, because we haven't done so previously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhan_Zhuang Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 1 hour ago, VillaChris said: I'd rather West Ham were safe personally. To stay up we need to finish above Brighton and Bournemouth who have similar run ins to us e.g. playing a few of top 6-7 at home and also got tough aways. If West Ham have nothing to play for on final day you have to think that would favour us if we need to go there and get a point to stay up. Our last four fixtures could easily be against teams with nothing to play for and just wanting the season to end. I'd rather we do the hard work sooner than later, we might be fatigued or without key players for the last four games. The ten games over the month is going to be tough on our team who let's face it seemed to struggle with fitness before the break! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdulaziz1 Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 I think it's as usual, a case of game by game. If we get something out of Sheffield Utd, I think that would put us in a very good position going to the last 9 games. Actually even Newcastle and Southampton have some tricky games. If we can win against Sheff Utd, Then against Newcastle (assuming a loss from Chelsea. We could be 4 points behind behind Newcastle. They have some 6 pointers against other relegation teams. It's game by game, so we can't just say that it's impossible a team don't get a win over 9 games. Hull went down last time in a very dramatic way. We just need to do our job and hope other relegation teams fail to collect points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M_Afro Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 Our first game is massive. A win could really set us up to make a strong challenge to stay up. I do worry for our fragile mental state though if it doesn’t go our way! Hopefully we have found some resilience down the back of the sofa during lockdown. Without it, survival is going to be a real long shot. We need a bit of luck too which is something that we are due in my opinion. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted June 9, 2020 VT Supporter Share Posted June 9, 2020 3 hours ago, M_Afro said: Our first game is massive. A win could really set us up to make a strong challenge to stay up. I do worry for our fragile mental state though if it doesn’t go our way! Hopefully we have found some resilience down the back of the sofa during lockdown. Without it, survival is going to be a real long shot. We need a bit of luck too which is something that we are due in my opinion. 110% agree, beat Sheffield and we have a good chance of getting out of the mire. I fear for a good performance and falling off at the end like the Spurs game, mentally at this stage no coming back from that 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roonst83 Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 The break in season can’t have done us any harm. None atall. We were in utter freefall and I believe were the worst team in the league back in March. The break has given time for Smith, the coaching staff and the players to reflect on their performances and try and workout how to rectify that. And we have had more time for McGinn to recover from his injury. Having him back, when fit (he current looks well overweight, in my opinion) will be a big plus if he can get back to the form he had at the beginning of the season. Plus it’ll help take the focus off Grealish. However, what worries me is how atrocious we were defending as a unit/team. We allowed the most shots in the league and let in the most goals and most set pieces etc. All these defensive stats place is 20th in the division. We were fragile as a team and conceding way too many chances to the opposition. Unless that can change then I’m very worried for us. As much as I like Mings and think he’s a great leader on the pitch for us and that we look better with him, he is prone to major lapses in concentration each game leading him to drift out of position and make mistakes. Again, unless this can change were going to struggle. Sammygoal looks a threat, but we need to use him well and provide for him. Just get crosses into the box and he’ll thrive. Trezzy and AEG have flattered to deceive and neither offer enough of a threat and are too easily defended against. That first game against Sheff Utd will tell us a lot about us. They’re a super fit team who are very well drilled. It’ll be tough. There’s no home advantage which is something that stays show we benefit from. Smith states that we have too many “training ground players” in our squad so hopefully they step up in away games when there’s no home crowd for the opposition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 Hope we won't get embarrassed against Leicester tomorrow. I know it's only a training game but still any confidence will be good at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Zatman Posted June 9, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted June 9, 2020 1 hour ago, villalad21 said: Hope we won't get embarrassed against Leicester tomorrow. I know it's only a training game but still any confidence will be good at this point. I am sure you will find a way to be embarrassed even if we won 5-0 2 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gurru991 Posted June 9, 2020 Visiting Supporter Share Posted June 9, 2020 14 minutes ago, Zatman said: I am sure you will find a way to be embarrassed even if we won 5-0 Regardless of what happens, he will manage to find a negative from the game. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 13 -15 points for safety in my opinion. The sooner we get them the better (particularly should the season be halted again). A point a game over the season normally proves enough, but with our goal difference and with the games being played behind closed doors, who knows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddytheVillan Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 It will be pretty gutting if we get relegated. Maybe I'm over rating some of our players, but we'll lose a team that clearly have good camaraderie, and are on the whole good players. We have a few top players like Mings, McGinn and Grealish, and a few players with the potential to develop to that level like Nakamba, Luiz, Guilbert, Davis, Samatta. In fact, the only complete write off players we have (in my opinion) are Konsa and Trezeguet, who should be moved on regardless of what happens this summer. We were utterly appalling just before the season was paused; getting pasted by Leicester and losing to really weak teams like Southampton and Bournemouth. Hopefully the break will benefit us, the realist part of me says we'll be almost as bad as we were before and end up going down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 17 minutes ago, PaddytheVillan said: It will be pretty gutting if we get relegated. Maybe I'm over rating some of our players, but we'll lose a team that clearly have good camaraderie, and are on the whole good players. We have a few top players like Mings, McGinn and Grealish, and a few players with the potential to develop to that level like Nakamba, Luiz, Guilbert, Davis, Samatta. In fact, the only complete write off players we have (in my opinion) are Konsa and Trezeguet, who should be moved on regardless of what happens this summer. We were utterly appalling just before the season was paused; getting pasted by Leicester and losing to really weak teams like Southampton and Bournemouth. Hopefully the break will benefit us, the realist part of me says we'll be almost as bad as we were before and end up going down. Problem is that we'll never know if we were good enough to survive. The next ten games are different and not a fair reflection of whether we were good enough or not. Even if we win 10 games on the trot or lose 10 games on the trot it wont reflect the integrity of the league or the first half. For me, it's not about the games, how we play or whatever. I couldnt care less if we played awful in all 10 games but stayed up, that's all that I care about because the season as a spectacle, fairness and integrity. So let's just get through the next 10 games by hook or by crook....not worry about performance because it's hard to compare to normal football. It'll give these 'project' players more game time and hopefully we'll see better from them next season if they are still around. I would not write off Konsa yet though....I have seen nothing from him in a Villa shirt but was highly thought of, i believe, at his previous club so we should give him a bit of time. Doesnt mean he's a first XI next season but as a squad player and a bit more time might have something we havent seen yet. That goes for all our 'project' players. I'm not going to write them off after one very hard first season in the premier league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robby b Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 If we do get relegated do you guys think we'll have a better chance than last time of bouncing straight back up at the first attempt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 46 minutes ago, robby b said: If we do get relegated do you guys think we'll have a better chance than last time of bouncing straight back up at the first attempt? Yes, but it would be a tough ask. Depends how many of our better players if any, would stick around and the quality of the replacements, we brought in. As we found out last time, it's not an easy division to get out of. I would back us to get back inside two years. We would really need to do it first time though. Let's hope we don't find out and stay up. We were a year ahead of schedule in getting promotion, let's not drop a year behind that schedule now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenjiOgiwara Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 10 hours ago, robby b said: If we do get relegated do you guys think we'll have a better chance than last time of bouncing straight back up at the first attempt? I do, but I still think we lack fight in our team and that's a problem in the championship as well. We have a lot of good footballers and we play some nice football at times, but there's just something missing in the middle of the park. Mings is really the only player I feel has the fight and leadership you need to stomp the championship and it's not sure we will be able to hold on to him. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 If we go down we'll lose Grealish and probably McGinn and Mings too, and a few of the others might not want to play in the championship either as happened the last time we were relegated, so we'll be certan to lose a number of our better players, but regardless of that we should be going into the season with the mindset that the only acceptable outcome is automatic promotion, if you go in half hearted making excuses about how hard it is to get out of the championship then you're setting yourself up for failure, as you are if you settle for just challenging for a play-off spot, we will have money to buy new players, and decent set of players already at the club and a manager that has won promotion before, so there shouldn't be any excuses. In fact contrary to intuition and what might initially seem like common-sense expectation, I think over all we could end up with a stronger team next season than the one we have now regardless of whether we stay up or go down. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister_a Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 If we go down, can't we sell ourselves the stadium a second time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 The one saving grace if we go down now is that it might not be as mentally crushing as regular relegation might have been. If we are relegated now we can rightly convince ourselves that it was unfair and under extraordinary circumstances. Had we gone down with a whimper the regular way it could have been crushing and who knows what effect it might have had on the squad and the manager. It might be easier to rally the squad around this type of relegation and motivate a response. Then again it might be even worse. We are not down yet and I think this break was a blessing for us as I honestly think we were going down had the season continued. We looked spent towards the end. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robby b Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 51 minutes ago, useless said: If we go down we'll lose Grealish and probably McGinn and Mings too, and a few of the others might not want to play in the championship either as happened the last time we were relegated, so we'll be certan to lose a number of our better players, but regardless of that we should be going into the season with the mindset that the only acceptable outcome is automatic promotion, if you go in half hearted making excuses about how hard it is to get out of the championship then you're setting yourself up for failure, as you are if you settle for just challenging for a play-off spot, we will have money to buy new players, and decent set of players already at the club and a manager that has won promotion before, so there shouldn't be any excuses. In fact contrary to intuition and what might initially seem like common-sense expectation, I think over all we could end up with a stronger team next season than the one we have now regardless of whether we stay up or go down. I think we might lose Heaton too, which would be blow, he's a top keeper. So it's just as well that Steer did well last season and that Nyland did so well in the League Cup this season. At least they've both shown promise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 15 hours ago, robby b said: If we do get relegated do you guys think we'll have a better chance than last time of bouncing straight back up at the first attempt? Yes, although I think we'd have to get rid of Smith first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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