Pre-Match Thread

[troon_villan]

11 hours ago, turvontour said:

Ye, and let's be fair, Arsenal pretty much beat themselves against Burnley.

[rjw63]

Need to win this, Burnley are Northern clog-wearing, whippet-raping shite.

[sidcow]

On 13/12/2020 at 16:43, maqroll said:

Is Cash suspended as well?

Not since we got rid of Xia. 

[Sulberto21]

I'd play Ramsey in this game depending on Barkley being fit or not. I'd then stick Ramsey or Barkley on Westwood to really make him crumble under the pressure. They're crap in midfield but have cloggers elsewhere. 

I want us to blitz them in the first 20 minutes. We have to take our chances. Every game we've lost this season we've had massive chances and we've also been robbed by var and the officials. It could easily be 10/10 for us.

I predict 3/4 -0 to villa as long as we take our chances. Too many missed easy chances. Grr I've said chances too much.

[stegzy]

I’d keep Ramsey in for Barkley for this one and make sure he’s 100% for Sunday. I’d put Hourihane in for Luiz as I think his creativity is more important than Nakambas tenacity on this occasion as we should have more than enough for Burnley. Other than that I would prefer Guilbert at RB but believe Smith will go with Elmo and the only other change would be El Ghazi for Traore although only 50/50 on that one.

[Mantis]

11 hours ago, useless said:

A point would mean we will have only take one point in consecutive home games against Leeds, Southampton, Brighton and then Burnley, that would be one point from a possible twelve in the last four at home. Really could with a win.

While our recent home form is woeful, the lack of crowds at stadiums is clearly having an effect. Don't know if it's still the case now but I know a few games ago the rate at which teams were winning away was drastically higher than usual.

[PieFacE]

Hope we don't approach this game the same way we did the Brighton game. Yes on paper we should we win, but we need to be sensible and not play a ridiculously high line just because we're at home. We should approach it like an away game really and trust that over 90mins we'll score more than they do. By that, I don't mean we should play defensively, just not give them too much space in behind us to counter. 

I do think we'll struggle in this game, Burnley will come looking for a point, sit deep and to try and hit us on the counter. We tend to struggle a little bit against teams that we have to break down. So the last thing we need is to go a goal down early so they can drop back deeper. 

[Keyblade]

1 hour ago, PieFacE said:

Hope we don't approach this game the same way we did the Brighton game. Yes on paper we should we win, but we need to be sensible and not play a ridiculously high line just because we're at home. We should approach it like an away game really and trust that over 90mins we'll score more than they do. By that, I don't mean we should play defensively, just not give them too much space in behind us to counter. 

I do think we'll struggle in this game, Burnley will come looking for a point, sit deep and to try and hit us on the counter. We tend to struggle a little bit against teams that we have to break down. So the last thing we need is to go a goal down early so they can drop back deeper. 

Burnley aren't a counter attacking team. Don't exactly have blistering pace up front to hurt us on the break with Wood and Rodriguez.

[Big Salad]

The whole time Dyche has been at Burnley, they have never exactly been a tremendously talented bunch, but he always seems to find a way to have them be successful regardless of that just by how physical and straightforward they are.  On paper, no doubt we are the superior squad but as the old saying goes this game isn't played on paper.  I am going for a hard fought Villa win and Ollie with the goal.

Also, I am having a root canal done at 8am my time in the morning, so after getting through that a nice Villa win will be great

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

Any win takes us nicely into 7th then, which I feel is the least our performances this season should reflect at this stage. Burnley back in the relegation zone after Fulham’s draw last night will give them a little extra motivation.

4 of our regular starting XI out if Barkley isnt ready, against a side just getting into their stride. I believe in the character of this side though and hope they can prove it again tonight. Its all on those fringe players to come and fit in seamlessly. Defence need to be up for the physical battle and keep concentration. No more slow starts. Big game to hopefully set us up for a good xmas period.

[penguin]

Hopefully our lack of subs in the previous games don’t hurt us here. Nakamba has played precious little Premier League this season and will be expected to do the 90 today I’d imagine, same for Fred if he starts but I think it will be Elmo.

On paper we should win but I imagine nearly everyone who goes there says the same thing. They’ll be looking to keep it tight and score from set-pieces.

[alreadyexists]

10 hours ago, rjw63 said:

Need to win this, Burnley are Northern clog-wearing, whippet-raping shite.

Lock up your whippets, the clarets are coming to town.  

Edited December 17, 2020 by alreadyexists

[villalad21]

Bit nervous over Nakamba..

[Lord Willard]

Big game tonight to keep up with the pack, lose and we'll start to fall behind.

 

[OxfordVillan]

9 hours ago, PieFacE said:

Hope we don't approach this game the same way we did the Brighton game. Yes on paper we should we win, but we need to be sensible and not play a ridiculously high line just because we're at home. We should approach it like an away game really and trust that over 90mins we'll score more than they do. By that, I don't mean we should play defensively, just not give them too much space in behind us to counter. 

I do think we'll struggle in this game, Burnley will come looking for a point, sit deep and to try and hit us on the counter. We tend to struggle a little bit against teams that we have to break down. So the last thing we need is to go a goal down early so they can drop back deeper. 

Spot on  Its all in the mindset and we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves and think we should be smashing anyone 

[PieFacE]

7 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Burnley aren't a counter attacking team. Don't exactly have blistering pace up front to hurt us on the break with Wood and Rodriguez.

They aren't a counter attacking team. But nor are they a possession based team, and nor are they anything else really. They will still sit back and try to hit us on the break, I don't see another way that they will try and move up the pitch. 

[ozvillafan]

• 4 starters out (potentially)
• Burnley off the back of a win (albeit Arsenal)
• Burnley currently in relegation place, so they're pumped for this one
• Our home form is not great.

It all points to 1 thing: An easy victory for the Villa, 3-0 (Ollie, Konsa, McGinn).

I've got a good feeling about this one.

[TheMightyVillans]

Potentially going into 7th place with 2 games in hand... Surely too good to be true.

[tezzaleed]

seems a lot of people getting cocky here and massively underestimating Burnley.  agreed Dyche is a old fashioned kick em up in the air arsehole but they are they have a tight defence now they've got players back from injury (hoping Ben mee is permanently injured the scum bag) but they have some footballers in the team as well.  Dwight McNeill is one of the best right sided midfielders outside top 4 and I'd happily stick him in villa's first xi.  Rodriguez a decent player.  this won't be an easy game.  we've struggled to break teams down when they sit back and mings tends to lose his discipline in such games presenting holes at the back.

[A'Villan]

Look forward to joining you all live at KO for this one. Will be my first live match in some weeks. I've missed it all, and the discussion and banter on VT.

UTV!