2021/22 expectations

[Jareth]

SG has an opportunity to put things right quite quickly, lots coming back from injury and a full squad to choose from - in fact he'd really have to stuff it up not to do dramaticaly better. Then there's the Jan window - so I say steady the ship, get a tune from what we have, buy in two key positions and we should really expect to end up 8th-ish.

[villa4europe]

papa johns trophy winners 2022

 

[DCJonah]

There were a few who deemed this squad good enough to challenge for Europe. I wonder if they'll remain consistent with their views now?

For me, I don't care this season. Just stay up and look to break top half next season. 

I'm just looking for positives in performances and individuals for the rest of this season. Anything else is a bonus.

[It's Your Round]

40 minutes ago, messi11 said:

2nd

Defeatist!

[useless]

On 30/07/2021 at 14:21, useless said:

As it stands I think we will be doing very well to match last season's points total regardess of whether Grealish is with us or not. Midtable would represent another good season.

Bingo! Looks like I was right, hopefully we can secure a top half finish.

[Mark Albrighton]

On 16/05/2021 at 15:00, Mark Albrighton said:

Between 8th and 12th is my expectation. I suspect what the club do the following summer will be dependent on if they’re closer to a final position of 8th or closer to 12th.

Yay, my initial thought is looking accurate (any subsequent revised guesses were of course me playing devil’s advocate ).

It was a risky move on my part, but the tactic of incorporating 25% of the possible league positions in my expectations might just pay off for me.

[VillaChris]

Hands up who predicted Wolves would be 13 points clear of us in the first week of April.

All very Aston Villa in the 21st century.

[useless]

No one was prediciting Wolves would have done as well as they have full stop, it's not just them being well clear of us that's taken people by surprise it's how well they've done in general, if it was known that they were going to have this good of a season then them being thirteen points ahead of us at this stage wouldn't have come as much of a surprise.

This is the best they've done since promotion at this stage of the season, so they're on course to having their best league season in terms of points since promotion.

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by useless

[messi11]

We deserve to go down. Relegation form.

[VillaChris]

Just now, useless said:

No one was prediciting Wolves would have done as well as they have full stop, it's not just them being well clear of us that's taken people by surprise it's how well they've done in general, if it was known that they were going to have this good of a season then them being thirteen points ahead of us at this stage wouldn't have come as much of a surprise.

This is the best they've done since promotion at this stage of the season.

 

Lage's done brilliantly in fairness. Kept what worked well with Nuno but they're more ambitious, were throwing plenty forward even at 2-0 up today.

Have to put it in context though, they still wouldn't probably finish top 6.

[useless]

I don't think we're actually far off Wolves in terms of points won since Gerrard came in, edit just checked and it's seven, I thought it was four, but they've played an extra game than us in that time, we're actually still eighth overall based on games since Gerrard's arrival, albeit we've had some disappointing runs and results with him in charge.

[messi11]

34 minutes ago, useless said:

I don't think we're actually far off Wolves in terms of points won since Gerrard came in, edit just checked and it's seven, I thought it was four, but they've played an extra game than us in that time, we're actually still eighth overall based on games since Gerrard's arrival, albeit we've had some disappointing runs and results with him in charge.

Theres no way we are 8th since Gerrard come in Useless. I need prove

[useless]

That's presuming that this table is up to date, but even if it's  not we're still around midtable which is exceptable. Twenty-six points after nineteen games averages to fiftey-two points over a season, which isn't amazing, but still acceptable and usually enought to finish top half.

[messi11]

4 minutes ago, useless said:

That's presuming that this table is up to date, but even if it's  not we're still around midtable which is exceptable. Twenty-six points after nineteen games averages to fiftey-two points over a season, which isn't amazing, but still acceptable and usually enought to finish top half.

Not a big improvement from dean smiths villa tho

[useless]

Last season was a good season, but we dropped off badly since the start of the new year, so we hadn't been doing well with Smith for a while, and also last season we had Grealish, and was an unusual season all round because of games being played behind closed doors, so don't think we can deduce much by comparing last season to this season. Gerrard came into a struggling team.

[VillaChris]

45 minutes ago, messi11 said:

Theres no way we are 8th since Gerrard come in Useless. I need prove

Probably are in fairness given likes of Brighton and Southampton are currently on terrible runs and Leicester were higher around October/November. Howe at Newcastle has done better since he came in but Newcastle gone back to losing aswell recently.

Issue is though we're double figures off Wolves and West Ham, that for me isn't good enough especially given how the table looked after Leeds away.

[MaVilla]

39 minutes ago, useless said:

Last season was a good season, but we dropped off badly since the start of the new year, so we hadn't been doing well with Smith for a while, and also last season we had Grealish, and was an unusual season all round because of games being played behind closed doors, so don't think we can deduce much by comparing last season to this season. Gerrard came into a struggling team.

the first half of last season was a good season tbh, the last half was turgid, and it continued to be turgid for the first 11 games of this season.

Gerrard tbh, and im not trying to defend him, as we have been very poor still at times, but he has improved us compared to the previous 12 months performances, when Smith was sacked we had less points than at the same in our near relegation year.

The data:

2020/21: Game 1 to 17 (1.7 PPG) - Smith

2020/21: Game 18 to 38 (1.2 PPG) - Smith

2021/22 : Game 1 to 11 (0.9 PPG) - Smith

thats 31 games where we averaged at most 1.2 PPG, and as low as 0.9 PPG, thats almost the equivalent of an entire season.

2021/22 : Game 12 to 28 (1.4 PPG) - Gerrard

 

Hopefully Gerrard will have a large war chest this summer, and tbh, i doubt he would have joined if he wasnt promised that, i just hope we actually spend well this summer, as for some good signings in the last 3 years, we have spent 350m and still have players who a) cant pass the ball, or b) are weak as tissue paper and lack any form of aggression.

Edited April 2, 2022 by MaVilla

[YLN]

Following Villa this season has been a complete dirge. I've never been less interested in the team. I think it's mainly since SG took over, but I have really checked out now. It looked like there was an outside chance of relegation, and then we won a few games, and then it looked like there was an outside chance of europe and then we lost a few games. And now we're 8 games from the end, and just waiting for the season to end.

It's all so dull.

[VillanousOne]

29 minutes ago, YLN said:

Following Villa this season has been a complete dirge. I've never been less interested in the team. I think it's mainly since SG took over, but I have really checked out now. It looked like there was an outside chance of relegation, and then we won a few games, and then it looked like there was an outside chance of europe and then we lost a few games. And now we're 8 games from the end, and just waiting for the season to end.

It's all so dull.

It's weird we signed Bailey and Buendia who looked like maybe not direct replacements for Grealish but both players who could provide more attacking options and play wide.

we had almost no preseason Bailey quick got injured, Buendia took a long time to get up to speed. Traore was injured also. So Dean resorted to a terrible back three and a Ings and Watkins partnership that didn't work.

Gerrard has added Coutinho who though quality isn't really the type of player we needed and swapped Targett for Digne who hasn't really been an improvement and injury issues have meant letting Targett go to Newcastle an even dumber decision. I love Ash but who the hell else in the league would 'choose' him as a left back?

Gerrard has a fully fit and sharp squad (accept Nakamba) but still persists with a narrow unbalanced team, with a midfield that don't compliment each other and an attack that doesn't know what it is doing.

Yes Coutinho, JJ and even Watkins and Ings have showed some class moments, but these are becoming rarer and rarer.

We do often look better in possession under Gerrard, sometimes we compete better also, but largely the counter attacking flair we had that could occasionally beat the bigger teams above us has gone, replaced by slow ponderous football, everyone seems to want at least two touches too many.

Other than a decent DM we have a squad that should and could be doing far better than we are, even if it was just grinding out a few draws. 

I wasn't anti Gerrard, but certainly don't think he is the answer.

Edited April 3, 2022 by VillanousOne

[Zatman]

10 hours ago, YLN said:

Following Villa this season has been a complete dirge. I've never been less interested in the team. I think it's mainly since SG took over, but I have really checked out now. It looked like there was an outside chance of relegation, and then we won a few games, and then it looked like there was an outside chance of europe and then we lost a few games. And now we're 8 games from the end, and just waiting for the season to end.

It's all so dull.

I do agree, since Gerrard came in I have lost a lot of desire to watch Villa. It feels empty. 

Absolute no excitement and his boring football actually doesn't help