Pre-Match Thread

[Tomaszk]

Obviously, they aren't as bad as their points tally suggests. They're definitely better than Albion and Newcastle for starters.

Don't think we're good enough to start changing 3 or 4 players to rotate for the sake of it, but Wolves will be a tougher game than this and it would be nice to have some fresh legs in both matches.

I'd bring in Sanson for Ramsey to get a good look at him. Ramsey did great work at Leeds but was a bit wasteful at times. Sanson has looked the part in every minute on the pitch so far and looks comfortable on the ball, which we'll hopefully see more of at Bramall Lane.

Tempted by Luiz for Nakamba (who I would definitely start v Wolves) or McGinn as well.

[Hornso]

1 hour ago, villa89 said:

Sheffield United are shite. Plain and simple. We should be beating them by 2 or 3. 

Sorry but I think that's too simplistic. Rarely get thumped at home, you just have to look at their results this season:

Lost by two goals: Tottenham, Liverpool

Lost by a goal: Leeds, Man City, West Ham, Leicester, Man United, Everton, Chelsea, 

Drawn: Fulham

Won: Newcastle, WBA

[OxfordVillan]

Sheffield United played well against Liverpool, they just lacked that little bit of composure or luck to get the ball over the goal line. The composure can be attributed to lack of confidence, understandable given where they are in the table. This will not be an easy game for Villa, quite the opposite. I think in Sheffield United you have a team that know they’re realistically down, but with so much of the season left to play they are playing for dignity and actually playing quite freely, from what I watched. It’s just putting the ball in the net that’s problematic for them, and on any given day that might change. We have to make sure that doesn’t change against us. So Nakamba definitely gets to start again, the only change I might contemplate would possibly be Sanson in place of Ramsey. 

[cb_82]

Tough game but one we have to go and win.

 

In terms of the team I think you go as strong as possible but with a decision to be made about who is most appropriate for the opposition rather than they played the last game eg Nakamba was great in a game v Leeds where they had most of the ball however his passing stats are not always great and so you may think someone like Luiz is more pro active on using it better - Alot of teams do this in terms of team selection but Villa fans (On twitter especially) don't seem to be used to this thinking, probably as we haven't had the options like we have now in a while.

 

Prediction... Im going 2-0 Villa, I think it will be a tight game but I think we will win and im going for Watkins to score and then a late El Ghazi penalty to finish it (I need to get a bet on that to just incase it actually happens )

[gwi1890]

Don’t expect to hammer these they are difficult to break down, hopefully we can catch them sleeping early on in the game and capitalise similar to the Arsenal and Leeds game

[wedge]

This will be an incredibly tough game at a ground we haven't done well at in recent years.

I'm presuming no Jack as hopefully will at least make the bench for Wolves on Saturday, I'd go with:

 

                                              Emi

             Elmo           Konsa            Mings         Targett

                                          Nakamba

                            Luiz/Ramsey        Sanson

                       Traore           Watkins          El Ghazi

 

 

Subs: Heaton, Davis, Engels, Barkley, Ramsey/Luiz, McGinn, Trezeguet.

[bannedfromHandV]

We haven’t scored two goals in a match since losing to Burnley, I think 0-0 draw on the cards.

[useless]

There's no two ways about it that Sheffield United are a very poor team and anything other than a win would be a very disappointing result. They're having the worst season in their history, one of the worst of any premier league team ever, or any team ever for that matter, saw a stat yesterday from one of their fans that they've lost twenty-one of their twenty-six games so far this season, no other team in the history of the football league has lost more of their first twenty-six games. They've also lost five of their last six games, so it's not even as if their recent form has improved. All that said the biggest threat to us in a game like this is probably ourselves, so we can't afford to be complacent.

 

[Delphinho123]

Horrible match this. We're expected to go there and win which will make it even more painful when we don't.

As others have said, I think we should win, but I have a horrible feeling!

[Raver50032]

Lots of references to the 'ghost goal' incoming for this one. Probably be a bit of a broadcaster montage sequence about it in their usual style. Wouldn't put it past the Premier League to engineer a 'revenge' VAR bit of indecency in this. 

[AvfcRigo82]

I think we will win this game.

As long as we have 11 players who will graft for 90 minutes then we have more than enough quality to overcome Sheff Utd, who are now as good as relegated anyway imo.

If we're aspiring for top 6 finishing then there can be no excuses why we don't collect all 3pts in this game.

 

[foreveryoung]

Personally I can't see us losing this one. If anyone heard Wilder's post match interview, he seems to have give up now, an he knows they are destined for relegation, so why push for a win against the Villa?

[pintpotvilla]

17 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Then why did they beat Man Utd?

If they are so bad?

Albion drew with Man Utd too and at Man C, Burnley won at Liverpool That's football It doesn't mean they're any good though

[OxfordVillan]

27 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Personally I can't see us losing this one. If anyone heard Wilder's post match interview, he seems to have give up now, an he knows they are destined for relegation, so why push for a win against the Villa?

Dignity, pride, personal ambition. With acceptance of relegation you may see a slightly more relaxed Sheffield United. This is a team that isn’t hindered with fancy players already looking for a way out, with their 2nd or 3rd manager of a catastrophic season. No, from what I’ve seen is a team that have simply lacked that little bit of quality in front of goal, they are all still putting in a shift and don’t suffer lack of effort. Brewster has proven to be a completely ineffective signing for the Premier League, perhaps a naive signing when it’s clear to most observers that they needed more proven, experienced quality up front. Against Liverpool yesterday they could and should have scored at least a couple of goals. They didn’t and that’s their problem. But that doesn’t mean that Villa can turn up expecting chances to be missed by Sheffield United, Wednesday could be one of those rare days when Sheffield United chances get taken. We don’t exactly have many goals in us at this moment in time, so clean sheets become quite vital when you’re looking for wins. If we turn up Wednesday even slightly under motivated, or over confident, then we’ll come unstuck. 

[Robtaylor200]

There shouldn't be a problem here, we are all a little warry only because we are Villa fans and have seen it all before. To the betting man this should be a banker 

Just a case of how many we score and fully expect another clean sheet 

[One For The Road]

If ever there was a game for Barkley to come back in its this one. No need to protect the back 4 here, just go for the win. They are bottom for a reason.

2-0 Villa and another win without Jack.

[BOF]

I'm firmly in the Roy Keane camp wrt Sheffield United. I don't care how dangerous they could be blah blah.  They're atrocious, they've lost 21 of their 26 league games this season and we must be beating sides like this. No excuses. Zero, nyet, nada. Yes we have to be professional. Yes we can't just turn up and expect it to happen. But that's what's got to be done.

3-0 Villa. Just get it done and move on to the next one.

[Vive_La_Villa]

They are as good as relegated so in some ways can play with a little less pressure. However they are shit so there’s really no excuses to not be winning this game.  Nice patient professional performance like against Newcastle will do the job. 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Vive_La_Villa

[Paddywhack]

These lot hate us by the way...much like the rest of the league though to be fair.

This has been an eventful fixture the last few years; us pulling it back to 3-3 after they were 3-0 up, the 'ghost' goal and then the John Egan red card.

As @BOF said, hopefully we can just breeze past them on Wednesday and move onto the Wolves game.

[OxfordVillan]

I’m thankful that a handful of posters here aren’t anything to do with our team preparation. As we’ve ALREADY found out to our cost, you don’t take ANY team in the premier league for granted, you have to earn the right. Talk of easing past the bottom team, blowing them away etc. Misguided.