Premier League 2020-21 thread

[HKP90]

I still think we need reinforcements if we want to survive. Watkins is a good step forward, but I think we’re still really light in midfield. Our back four/five get very little protection. We have to be organised and stifle our own creativity to be watertight, which we did after lockdown, but we need someone who can close down and break up opponent’s play. Man I wish we’d got Phillips last year.

As it stands I can’t see us getting above 17th/18th, but I am conscious that we’re not done in the market yet. 
 

Relegation is about fight as much as technical quality, which is why I won’t say that we’ll go down, regardless of our business, but as it stands I think it’ll be a tough year.

[The_Steve]

Convinced Bruce Ball would give him more scoring chances 

 

 

[avfc1982am]

3 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Convinced Bruce Ball would give him more scoring chances 

 

 

Lets not forget....He also gets to play up front with Santiago Munez...FFS what a turkey. Bullet dodged imo.

Edited September 9, 2020 by avfc1982am

[rubberman]

Bottom half will be really tight I reckon.  We need to get a few more points against the top 6 and not have any ridiculous doubles against us from the bunch around us this season to keep out of the relegation zone.  First half of the season will be make or break looking at fixtures - looks tougher after Christmas.

As things stand somewhere around 14th/15th I'd expect.  Fulham, Baggies, Palace and Brighton to duke it out for the drop.

[villalad21]

Interesting stat that Pre covid break we conceded on average 17 shots per game.

Post Covid, only 10.

Our keepers got bombarded with shots for most of the season which i highlighted a lot of times.

Really hope Dean builds from how we played after the break.

[Zatman]

1 hour ago, The_Steve said:

Convinced Bruce Ball would give him more scoring chances 

 

 

I am starting to think The Athletic is not worth the hype

[Kiwivillan]

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

I am starting to think The Athletic is not worth the hype

I've been confused by this lately. It's a load of shite from what I've seen that's not paywalled and people have referenced it as if it's gospel

[Kiwivillan]

2 hours ago, HKP90 said:

I still think we need reinforcements if we want to survive. Watkins is a good step forward, but I think we’re still really light in midfield. Our back four/five get very little protection. We have to be organised and stifle our own creativity to be watertight, which we did after lockdown, but we need someone who can close down and break up opponent’s play. Man I wish we’d got Phillips last year.

As it stands I can’t see us getting above 17th/18th, but I am conscious that we’re not done in the market yet. 
 

Relegation is about fight as much as technical quality, which is why I won’t say that we’ll go down, regardless of our business, but as it stands I think it’ll be a tough year.

Assuming Nakamba and Hourihane don't make the 11 who are you upgrading from mid 3 of Luiz McGinn Grealish? I think the team after a season together with selective additions such as Warkins,  fingers crossed, will improve more like the Project Restart period than the season as a whole. There seems to be a groundswell of hysterical Villa fans that want to throw the baby out with the bathwater as if a decade of this nonsense isn't enough 

P.S. Phillips wasn't for sale just like Grealish wasn't for sale for us

Edited September 9, 2020 by Kiwivillan

[Don_Simon]

6 minutes ago, Zatman said:

I am starting to think The Athletic is not worth the hype

 

2 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

I've been confused by this lately. It's a load of shite from what I've seen that's not paywalled and people have referenced it as if it's gospel

I paid the £30 when last season started, I was undoubtedly caught up in our Premier League hype. For football, and Villa specific football, The Athletic is absolutely not worth the hype. The NBA coverage is strong which keeps my interest, but I absolutely won't be renewing. (The 1874 Villa pod that Gregg Evans does is so poor, but thats for a different thread!)

On topic, Fulham & WBA to go down. The other team will be one from seven or eight. Lampard first manager to be sacked. Leeds to piss everybody off. 

[villan-scott]

16 minutes ago, Zatman said:

I am starting to think The Athletic is not worth the hype

It’s decent overall, we’re just unfortunate to have Gregg Evans as our reporter! 

[Zatman]

I think Fulham might surprise teams, players that have been in the division. I expect them to go down but not as bad as people think 

Also expect Onomah in the England squd as jack replacement

Edited September 9, 2020 by Zatman

[The_Steve]

Evans is terrible. I like their NHL coverage, it’s harder to keep up with US sports enough as is. Wouldn’t pay more than the trial prices though. 

[villalad21]

Literally every football youtubers are predicting us down.

To look at the positives. It's easier to perform when you have a point to prove.

[Zatman]

Dean Smith will be terrified of them Youtubers. Time to call the Premier League and concede this season

[Cizzler]

29 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Literally every football youtubers are predicting us down.

To look at the positives. It's easier to perform when you have a point to prove.

Not really a surprise, is it? We were clearly the worst team that stayed up from last season, and we haven't improved at all. Easy choice. 

[HKP90]

1 hour ago, Kiwivillan said:

Assuming Nakamba and Hourihane don't make the 11 who are you upgrading from mid 3 of Luiz McGinn Grealish? I think the team after a season together with selective additions such as Warkins,  fingers crossed, will improve more like the Project Restart period than the season as a whole. There seems to be a groundswell of hysterical Villa fans that want to throw the baby out with the bathwater as if a decade of this nonsense isn't enough 

P.S. Phillips wasn't for sale just like Grealish wasn't for sale for us

Didn’t say he was, and i’m not hysterical at all. I made in my view a reasonable point about the balance in midfield. In my opinion we need an upgrade for Nakamba defensively. After the restart we hardly set the world alight offensively, because we had to become more solid at the back. Smith was even getting pelters on here for not being attacking enough or taking risks. I think hd did what we had to do (esp. after Leicester) and shored us up tactically at the expense of being dangerous going forward. A top DM would free Luiz a bit, and Jack to be a bit more attacking.

Based on form, for me McGinn would miss out, but there would be competition for places and there would be times that we need his workrate. 

[VillaChris]

6 hours ago, HKP90 said:

I still think we need reinforcements if we want to survive. Watkins is a good step forward, but I think we’re still really light in midfield. Our back four/five get very little protection. We have to be organised and stifle our own creativity to be watertight, which we did after lockdown, but we need someone who can close down and break up opponent’s play. Man I wish we’d got Phillips last year.

As it stands I can’t see us getting above 17th/18th, but I am conscious that we’re not done in the market yet. 
 

Relegation is about fight as much as technical quality, which is why I won’t say that we’ll go down, regardless of our business, but as it stands I think it’ll be a tough year.

Can't see us signing any more central midfielders.

Luiz-McGinn-Grealish will start v Sheffield. Probably the three best players at the club now McGinn has his fitness. If we have Grealish wide again then Hourihane is a good squad player who can come in and make an impact.

I would like another DM to give us a bit of strength but that would only make sense if we offloaded Nakamba and looks like he wants to stay and improve on last season.

Options are much better than pretty much any other area as long as they all stay fit. Keeping numbers to that level will also mean Jacob Ramsey making the bench regularly and making a few sub appearances which I think is important to show there's still a pathway to playing if you work hard and do well out on loan.

[VillaChris]

3 hours ago, HKP90 said:

Didn’t say he was, and i’m not hysterical at all. I made in my view a reasonable point about the balance in midfield. In my opinion we need an upgrade for Nakamba defensively. After the restart we hardly set the world alight offensively, because we had to become more solid at the back. Smith was even getting pelters on here for not being attacking enough or taking risks. I think hd did what we had to do (esp. after Leicester) and shored us up tactically at the expense of being dangerous going forward. A top DM would free Luiz a bit, and Jack to be a bit more attacking.

Based on form, for me McGinn would miss out, but there would be competition for places and there would be times that we need his workrate. 

Grinding out a few more 1-0 wins won't do us any harm in the short term, we'd have been safe with 5 games to go last season if we had more nous about us when defending a 1-0 lead against a decent team with 20 minutes left.

Didn't do Sheffield United any harm playing that way last season.

Arsenal game right at the end was probably a good example of hopefully what we'll do next season more. Defended deep in numbers but also had 2-3 really good chances on counter attack in second half we should've scored from. Think it's crucial we get in a quick wide player from somewhere as our counter attacks were painful to watch. Watkins of course will give us more pace in the final third aswell.

[HKP90]

5 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Grinding out a few more 1-0 wins won't do us any harm in the short term, we'd have been safe with 5 games to go last season if we had more nous about us when defending a 1-0 lead against a decent team with 20 minutes left.

Didn't do Sheffield United any harm playing that way last season.

Arsenal game right at the end was probably a good example of hopefully what we'll do next season more. Defended deep in numbers but also had 2-3 really good chances on counter attack in second half we should've scored from. Think it's crucial we get in a quick wide player from somewhere as our counter attacks were painful to watch. Watkins of course will give us more pace in the final third aswell.

I see your point, and I don’t disagree with you about needing to shore up, but as you mention above our pace is limited, which means our counter attacks are toothless. If we had more bite in midfield, win the ball higher and press, our forwards would not need to track 30-40 yards at pace to create chances.  
 

I guess it’s about tactics. If we want  to be a counter attacking team we do need pace, as you say. 
 

For what it’s worth, I think that the signing of Cash gives us the option of playing wingbacks, which would make our deficiencies on the wings less obvious. It will be interesting to see what the next signing tells us about how Smith wants to set up, cos we’d need another striker to make that work.

[The_Steve]

Lol