hippo Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 21 minutes ago, og1874 said: Right, so let's say we didn't sign Digne, kept Targett, and Targett got injured. Would we somehow not be in the exact same position? I know it totally off the agenda at villa right now - but we could give on of youth players a chance in such a scenario. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 2 minutes ago, hippo said: I know it totally off the agenda at villa right now - but we could give on of youth players a chance in such a scenario. I don't really follow our youth developments, do we have any promising left backs? Got to be worth a try before wasting time with old man Young, while we have nothing to play for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishVilla10 Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 10 minutes ago, Zatman said: I said all along bring in Hickey Signing Digne and paying his salary killed any chance of competition at left back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 1 minute ago, Rustibrooks said: So I’ve slept on it and I’ve calmed down a bit after yesterday. After watching the City vs Liverpool, I can say the whole prem are miles away from these two! I can see what Gerrard wants to do with the team. I can see we don’t have the players for that style of play yet. I do also think that he should adapt to a style that suits the majority, especially if you will get rid of some of these lot. One of the problems right now is that the players have checked out for the rest of the season. Now I think it’s a mixture of them not getting used to the system/don’t feel comfortable in it. Or they know they will be getting sold so can’t be bothered to put in the effort. I do think it’s more of the latter. In my opinion. I’m not Gerrard out at all right now, I think he should be given the chance to get the players he wants in. It’s only fair to him, like a few have said the problems we have now are the same problems Smith had at the start of this season and at times during his Premier League tenure. What's to say the new players won't "check out" if they don't fancy it after a few games or on a cold January night ? Worrying if true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerryBarrPet Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 1 minute ago, hippo said: What's to say the new players won't "check out" if they don't fancy it after a few games or on a cold January night ? Worrying if true. But is it true? Top players don’t “check out” - that’s why they are “top”. The issue is any new players we sign have to be “top” or it’s same old, same old. I’ve been watching for over 60 years and I know it’s now win or bust big change time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 6 minutes ago, PerryBarrPet said: But is it true? Top players don’t “check out” - that’s why they are “top”. The issue is any new players we sign have to be “top” or it’s same old, same old. I’ve been watching for over 60 years and I know it’s now win or bust big change time. Don't know. Personally I don't think players do check out. I was responding to the point raised as a reason for a dip in form. The effort was certainly there yesterday IMO. And whilst I'm not a Stevie G fan - I don't think lack of effort from the players has been an issue during his time here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 (edited) 19 minutes ago, hippo said: What's to say the new players won't "check out" if they don't fancy it after a few games or on a cold January night ? Worrying if true. What is worrying? A hypothetical fantasy based on **** all? Edited April 10, 2022 by jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustibrooks Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 14 minutes ago, hippo said: What's to say the new players won't "check out" if they don't fancy it after a few games or on a cold January night ? Worrying if true. I get the concern, it’s happened before where top players join a team and can’t be bothered to put the effort in if things don’t go well. However If you are going after top players they normally wouldn’t check out. They would have elite mentalities which is what Gerrard wants out of the players. Some of the players we have now don’t have that mentality, in fact some of them have the opposite. They also don’t necessarily need to be at the end of their careers/primes to be top player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 22 minutes ago, PerryBarrPet said: But is it true? Top players don’t “check out” - that’s why they are “top”. The issue is any new players we sign have to be “top” or it’s same old, same old. I’ve been watching for over 60 years and I know it’s now win or bust big change time. You could argue that top players don't check out because they have things still to play for whereas our problem is that by mid January we don't But then you could also argue that looking at utd, Chelsea even spurs under Nuno they quite definitely do check out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 2 hours ago, Zatman said: I said all along bring in Hickey Signing Digne and paying his salary killed any chance of competition at left back Spot on. Hickey won’t be signing with us now. He left for Italy to get first team football. He’s not signing for us to sit on the bench behind Digne or Cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Made In Aston Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 Gerrard blaming the defence... The same defence that kept 16 clean sheets last year, albeit with the upgrade from Targett to Digne. I would suggest that history tells us that the defence is fine as long as the tactics are right. As the defence isn't fine what can we conclude?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 7 minutes ago, Made In Aston said: Gerrard blaming the defence... The same defence that kept 16 clean sheets last year, albeit with the upgrade from Targett to Digne. I would suggest that history tells us that the defence is fine as long as the tactics are right. As the defence isn't fine what can we conclude?! The defence wasn’t fine for the first 11 games this season, else Smith would still be manager. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaParkAvenue Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 51 minutes ago, duke313 said: The defence wasn’t fine for the first 11 games this season, else Smith would still be manager. For the first 11 games Smith mostly tried three at the back, with a very shaky Tuanzebe, to be able to fit both Watkins and Ings in. Bad system, bad results. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 We had a good January transfer window, Digne is an upgrade on Targett and has done fine, I would have preferred Hickey, but can't complain about a player that's a full France international, if he was to leave us now he'd end up at a club in a better position than us, Coutinho is probably one of the best players we've had playing for us, so not sure how that can be viewed as a negative, and Chambers has done well, basically £15m plus player we got for free, I'd put him in a similar category to Targett in terms of how good he is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerryBarrPet Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 4 minutes ago, og1874 said: And still they make a balls of some transfers, because that’s how it works in football - there are no guarantees Absolutely true and I don’t believe transfers are done by one person alone. Player recruitment is now a complex team effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 10 minutes ago, og1874 said: And still they make a balls of some transfers, because that’s how it works in football - there are no guarantees Agreed. Like any financial transaction there is risk. Used Car, insurance policy, house extension. You take steps to minimize the risk. As you say (or imply !) You can't totally eliminate risk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 6 minutes ago, useless said: We had a good January transfer window, Digne is an upgrade on Targett and has done fine, I would have preferred Hickey, but can't complain about a player that's a full France international, if he was to leave us now he'd end up at a club in a better position than us, Coutinho is probably one of the best players we've had playing for us, so not sure how that can be viewed as a negative, and Chambers has done well, basically £15m plus player we got for free, I'd put him in a similar category to Targett in terms of how good he is. That's fair. Digne has been a bit up and down IMO - but he has an excellent CV and prem experience as well. The fly in the ointment is these additions haven't really had an impact on results....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 1 hour ago, duke313 said: I think we’d be a more attractive team to manage if we established ourselves in Europe. Woah ! That's some leap of faith. Personally I will be amazed if we get Europe at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7392craig Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 2 minutes ago, hippo said: That's fair. Digne has been a bit up and down IMO - but he has an excellent CV and prem experience as well. The fly in the ointment is these additions haven't really had an impact on results....... I wasn’t 100% on Digne at first but I’m a complete convert. He thinks ahead and moves the ball quickly, he keeps it up and he’s a steal imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 2 minutes ago, 7392craig said: I wasn’t 100% on Digne at first but I’m a complete convert. He thinks ahead and moves the ball quickly, he keeps it up and he’s a steal imo. If he stays away from Lactose and curries, and takes his vitamins more like. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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