Summer transfer window 2021

[Delphinho123]

3 minutes ago, Dante_Lockhart said:

What a wonderful problem to have.

I'm inclined to agree actually! 

[TRO]

1 hour ago, the_eristic said:

It is absolutely shocking. Our best passing central midfielder is Doug, who averages total passes in the mid 40s per 90, while literally everyone else is making 35ish or fewer, and to top that off, almost none are short/medium "building" passes, they're either long balls and switches (fine if your only gameplan is GET IT TO JACK ASAP) or back to a defender who has to lump it up because their midfielders haven't moved into a better position to receive the ball back and can't do anything with it reliably anyway. Bad enough to watch, but when you start breaking down the numbers it jumps out and slaps you in the face. It's so dire, it's warmed me to the idea of someone otherwise a bit uninspiring like Harry Winks, just because he'd improve our general distribution and control of the ball so much if nothing else, which would help others play their more natural games.

but we can't see past that....I'm not sure, I want him, but a player who can help control midfield is paramount.

we seem obsessed with lightweight ball players......sure we need them, but not a team full.

[a-k]

15 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Bailey on the right, and Buendia through the middle, surely?

 

Another option, sure, if Buendia can hit his best playing through the middle. Would prefer Ings on the left of the front three rather than Watkins.

[The Fun Factory]

Danny Drinkwater is available..

[MrBlack]

I think Buendia, Sanson, Ramsey, Chuk and McGinn can all play the more advanced midfielder/CAM role. Yes, it would be nice to have a dedicated specialist there, but signing someone into this position would give us "too much" of a selection headache I feel. Unless we sell or loan out someone from that list of players, we are going to be upsetting our squad.

As for a defensive midfielder, I feel like we have a natural gap there where we have no equivalent backup for Nakamba. Obviously, we would want to be signing someone better than him,  so he becomes the backup,  but feel like this is the more important signing...if we are to make only one more

Edited August 16, 2021 by MrBlack

[fightoffyour]

1 hour ago, useless said:

 

There are only two Chukwuemekas, two Chukwuemekas! It'll never catch on.

[TRO]

45 minutes ago, vreitti said:

Fair observations. Then again, you could likewise argue Watford scored a very lucky deflection and an equally well executed shot. We won't get into Europe playing like that though.

Thanks.

when opponents get such easy access to our defenders ( Midfield issue IMO) lucky deflections and Ricochets are common place....Mings and Konsa alone cannot be expected to be the only ones with defensive Nous....We are allowing them to be "got at" and then its panic stations.

We have to get closer to our opponents, that requires top fitness/sharpness and a willingness to deny, amongst other things.

[MWARLEY2]

2 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

There are only two Chukwuemekas, two Chukwuemekas! It'll never catch on.

With their 1st names being the same initial i wonder what they will have as the shirt names . Chukone Chuktwo

[Tomaszk]

2 hours ago, DCJonah said:

The Watford game was awful, absolutely awful. And I agree 100% about the midfield. 

My point though, is these 'concerns' are coming from the same people who have told us the sky is falling every month for the last few years. And my original point was in response to the ridiculous over the top posts made that are being called realistic.

Our midfield is not good enough. Its the weakest area of the squad and needs to be addressed. 

But I also know that the owners and Dean have done this with other areas, so why all of a sudden, would I have a meltdown when they've proved to me they've strengthened the squad in the past?

Best to just laugh at and not interact with these people if you can.

They thought Smith wasn't good enough for Villa and will say they were right whenever he leaves... four years after being appointed with the club a million miles forward from where it was four years ago. Going to be funny to watch whenever it happens.

We need to sign a midfielder.

[TheStagMan]

1 minute ago, Tomaszk said:

Best to just laugh at and not interact with these people if you can.

They thought Smith wasn't good enough for Villa and will say they were right whenever he leaves... four years after being appointed with the club a million miles forward from where it was four years ago. Going to be funny to watch whenever it happens.

We need to sign a midfielder.

Indeed. It is shocking what some people come out with. I have had to leave a couple of Villa FB groups simply due to the amount of stupidity being posted in there. Our fans are utterly, utterly embarrassing at times. Someone above even said they were disappointed with our owners! Jesus Wept!

 

To your last point - I agree we need to sign a midfielder. BUT not just ANY midfielder. One who will improve us and fit into the system. We have (apparently) had bids rejected for a couple of them. I don't for one minute think that the powers that be are not trying. One thing I do not want them to do is just buy a midfielder (or any player) because they are available - we made that mistake too many times in the past. Even if it takes until the end of the window, I would prefer them to do it right, rather than quickly. Obviously right AND quickly would have been better but that is sadly not always possible.

[RicRic]

51 minutes ago, a-k said:

If we want to play 4231/433, we are looking at something like this as our "depth chart", not including kids. For 3rd year back in the Premier League I would say we have a pretty good first XI and solid backup in most areas, except in midfield, and that is regardless of how we line-up (e.g., with either or both of Watkins and Ings at the same time). I really rate Ramsey but not sure if he is quite first XI quality yet. Sanson is a bit of an unknown.

I don't believe for a second we are done in the market. We signed Buendia at ~35 mil to play with Greedlish, and seems like Bailey was incoming too with the plan that Greedlish was staying. That's ~60 mil in transfer fees spent. Considering that with the subsequent purchase of Ings and the incoming 100mil we have a negative net spend, surely there is a player or two coming in over the next two weeks. I would be surprised, in fact quite disappointed, if we didn't land a quality DM or CAM by the end of the month.

No way is ramsey a starter in that position id be much more optimistic with Chukwuemeka and Bailey on LW when he is better at RW well it wastes as his full potential is not in that position 

[RicRic]

42 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Bailey on the right, and Buendia through the middle, surely?

 

Certainly has to be , i cant see it no other way and i hope management see it that way, buendia didn't do that well last game but tough he’s going to have to make it his territory and own it 

[HalfTimePost]

44 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Bailey on the right, and Buendia through the middle, surely?

 

Hes a right winger that doesn't find the space he needs to operate in through the middle. Bailey can play either side and drifts nicely

[thunderball]

Rewatched the game especially our second half, had a totally different view of things. We were actually OK, and 10 more minutes and we would have scored again. Things started to work, we played at a pace we’re used to, they looked on the ropes. 

First half was shambolic, I have never seen our formation so wide open and full of gaps and our mid field totally pressed like that, I can’t recall conceding those types of goal on a break where the rest of the ream was so far away out of position, we were a huge mess. In fairness to Targett, he was left on his own, and Cash was just terrible all game. These two will come good. And in answer to some comments on here: Jacob Ramsey is good enough to start on this showing and pre-season he was the best midfielder on Saturday. Whether we can buy improvement on him is another question.

For me, Nakamba had a very good game but I don’t think he is good enough over a full season, we defo need an upgrade. His replacement has to improve McGinn as well and unleash Buendia. Otherwise I think we need someone other than McGinn (Sanson?) and then McGinn is a squad player. 

Ings changes everything as now we play a 4-4-2 it’s going to take some getting used to. This is a big surprise to me and surely a totally different direction to what we intended at the start of the window?

Edited August 16, 2021 by thunderball

[Tomaszk]

20 minutes ago, TheStagMan said:

Indeed. It is shocking what some people come out with. I have had to leave a couple of Villa FB groups simply due to the amount of stupidity being posted in there. Our fans are utterly, utterly embarrassing at times. Someone above even said they were disappointed with our owners! Jesus Wept!

 

To your last point - I agree we need to sign a midfielder. BUT not just ANY midfielder. One who will improve us and fit into the system. We have (apparently) had bids rejected for a couple of them. I don't for one minute think that the powers that be are not trying. One thing I do not want them to do is just buy a midfielder (or any player) because they are available - we made that mistake too many times in the past. Even if it takes until the end of the window, I would prefer them to do it right, rather than quickly. Obviously right AND quickly would have been better but that is sadly not always possible.

All correct.

People may not want to hear it, but in a way Grealish leaving takes some pressure/expectation/requirement off I think.

With him here we absolutely had to keep flying forward or he was always going leave. He is one of the best players in the world. We did pretty bloody well but you can't stop a franchise like City. I would have loved him to stay and have a statue outside the ground within 10 years but he wanted something else.

Now Jack's gone a more incremental, sturdy improvement is OK by me. I trust Smith to say no to players he doesn't think are good enough and I trust Purslow to not overpay for players so we aren't becoming a cash cow. Would I like to win the league next season? Yes. Do I think it's possible without Grealish by next season? No.

Ings was very much a necessity of we absolutely needed a striker good enough should Watkins not be available, so a splurge was signed off. The panic and general negativity around Villa would be so much worse if we hadn't got Ings in and Watkins had missed the first game.

We're going the right way.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

14 minutes ago, thunderball said:

Rewatched the game especially our second half, had a totally different view of things. We were actually OK, and 10 more minutes and we would have scored again. Things started to work, we played at a pace we’re used to, they looked on the ropes. 

 

Playing well and dominating a game once you're already 3-0 down is just not a good barometer I'm afraid. 

Quote

Jacob Ramsey is good enough to start on this showing and pre-season he was the best midfielder on Saturday. Whether we can buy improvement on him is another question.

I'm not remotely concerned as to whether we have enough quality at 8/AM when you account for McGinn/Luiz/Sanson/Ramsey/Chuk. It's at 6 we have a problem, or indeed the problem is the system in trying to crowbar a 10/SS into the side when we don't have the midfielders to cover for it. 

Edited August 16, 2021 by dont_do_it_doug.

[sidcow]

47 minutes ago, thunderball said:

Rewatched the game especially our second half, had a totally different view of things. We were actually OK, and 10 more minutes and we would have scored again. Things started to work, we played at a pace we’re used to, they looked on the ropes. 

First half was shambolic, I have never seen our formation so wide open and full of gaps and our mid field totally pressed like that, I can’t recall conceding those types of goal on a break where the rest of the ream was so far away out of position, we were a huge mess. In fairness to Targett, he was left on his own, and Cash was just terrible all game. These two will come good. And in answer to some comments on here: Jacob Ramsey is good enough to start on this showing and pre-season he was the best midfielder on Saturday. Whether we can buy improvement on him is another question.

For me, Nakamba had a very good game but I don’t think he is good enough over a full season, we defo need an upgrade. His replacement has to improve McGinn as well and unleash Buendia. Otherwise I think we need someone other than McGinn (Sanson?) and then McGinn is a squad player. 

Ings changes everything as now we play a 4-4-2 it’s going to take some getting used to. This is a big surprise to me and surely a totally different direction to what we intended at the start of the window?

In the match thread I said we had done enough to score 2 (before we did obviously).      I really don't think it was as bad as people have made out.  Yes it was hugely disappointing and yes they were streets ahead of us in the first half, but we were much much better second half and could easily have snatched the draw.

One bad half and the world is ended.  I feel all we need is a midfielder who can actually keep the ball and we'll be fine.

[Bunnski]

50 minutes ago, thunderball said:

Rewatched the game especially our second half, had a totally different view of things. We were actually OK, and 10 more minutes and we would have scored again. Things started to work, we played at a pace we’re used to, they looked on the ropes. 

First half was shambolic, I have never seen our formation so wide open and full of gaps and our mid field totally pressed like that, I can’t recall conceding those types of goal on a break where the rest of the ream was so far away out of position, we were a huge mess. In fairness to Targett, he was left on his own, and Cash was just terrible all game. These two will come good. And in answer to some comments on here: Jacob Ramsey is good enough to start on this showing and pre-season he was the best midfielder on Saturday. Whether we can buy improvement on him is another question.

For me, Nakamba had a very good game but I don’t think he is good enough over a full season, we defo need an upgrade. His replacement has to improve McGinn as well and unleash Buendia. Otherwise I think we need someone other than McGinn (Sanson?) and then McGinn is a squad player. 

Ings changes everything as now we play a 4-4-2 it’s going to take some getting used to. This is a big surprise to me and surely a totally different direction to what we intended at the start of the window?

Can I get a link to where you watched it please?

[dukes]

1 hour ago, MWARLEY2 said:

 Chukone Chuktwo

Time to get some jungle in the field !

 

One for the Top Buzz posse in the place.

[MWARLEY2]

3 minutes ago, dukes said:

Time to get some jungle in the field !

 

One for the Top Buzz posse in the place.

Totally off topic so sorry but made me think of this genius 2some