avfc1982am Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 2 minutes ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said: And El Ghazi. Forgot about him. Yeah, I think that's a given though. No chance he stays tbh. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
It's Your Round Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 7 minutes ago, avfc1982am said: Who do you have in mind Nick??? Tammy by any chance Nah, Nick’s more of a big Kienan fan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 24 minutes ago, nick76 said: Quantity maybe but I worry whose going to be clinical with the chances we make. So we have quantity but do we have that difference maker in the striker position? Unsure I think ings could have a great season but I agree with you. But the quantity will stop us from buying more IMO. I think Bailey, Traore and Archer will have the chance to prove themselves under Gerrard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaFaninLondon Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 6 hours ago, allani said: Again I agree with a lot of what you are saying. One more starting midfielder would make a huge difference to the balance of our squad. I am probably more confident about our defence than you are - in that I am expecting / hoping Mings will be much improved with someone next to him telling him where to go. Mings is a good defender but I don't think he reads the game very well and gets caught out of position too often. I do think Carlos will transform him and as a result we will concede fewer silly goals. On the counter argument - all five teams finished above us in two of the last three seasons. I think their fans would point to that as a reason why they would expect to finish ahead of us again this season. Three of the teams have finished top half in two or more of the last three seasons - we've had spells where we have had top half form and spells where we have had relegation form and more of the latter than the former. In some ways the fact that mid-table is quite tight means that you can gain places between seasons, in other ways it means that there probably won't be much splitting the teams from 7th - 14th and so one or two poor results could have a big difference in the final league standing. On the ability of the squad I kind of agree and disagree. We have some talented players that we probably haven't seen the best of yet. But I think that the balance of the squad is off. Kamara has started to address that. But to really push the top 8 or 9, I still think we need a better balance in midfield. Luiz and McGinn are both good players but I can't see how suddenly they are both going to transform this season just because we have Kamara behind them. I would expect them to improve but am still worried that they have haven't been good enough as 66% of the midfield for the last 3 seasons and so it is a big ask for them suddenly to click and not get dominated when other teams apply a hard press. I also have doubts about how Ollie will fit in with Emi2 and Couts - I don't think he will make as many chances as he should (by not making the runs that those two are looking for and not having the skill / vision to play neat 1-2s with them to create chances for others) and he won't score as many of the chances that are created as he should. So those two issues that I think are holding us back from a serious Top 8 challenge. Could we finish top half? Yes absolutely we could. Could we finish top 8? Yes, if things go our way. But also that applies to maybe 5 or 6 other teams. I don't think we have any reason to assume at the moment that we should expect either of the above any more than any of the other 5. We are VERY close and it has been a long time since I have thought we are only 1 or 2 players short of being a really good team. But I don't think we yet have the balance in our squad to say that anything worse than 10th is the manager's fault. If we sign the extra midfielder that SG wants then I would agree that the Board will have given him everything that he has said he wants (other than maybe a new striker) and then I would 100% agree with your point that if he wants to be considered a good manager than top half would become a minimum target. But at the moment we still have 1 too many square pegs that we are trying to fit in a round hole. Fair enough. I accept your opinion about finishing places, though don't agree on that one. I think the board will want to see improvement of at least 3-4 places on last season even if no one else comes in, they backed Gerrard very heavily in January remember and since he's joined as our manager they have effectively added four new players to the first 11. I really, really want to see another CM come in, someone like Sangare (or maybe someone more box to box) but it's not all about spending money and bringing players in, a good manager will get the most out of his existing resources and IMO he has a top 10 squad at his disposal if he manages it correctly. There are players like Bailey being written off but what happens to him will tell me how good a manager Gerrard is, IMO Bailey is potentially one of our best players but he has to be managed correctly next season. Same with Buendia and even Ings. We need more out of these players and it's up to Gerrard to make them play to their full potential. As I said, I do believe we underachieved last season, but to add to that I feel pretty much every team that finished above us up to Brighton (other than Newcastle) is either weaker or no stronger than last season while we are stronger. Brighton have lost their best player and could still lose Cucurella, Palace have lost their second top scorer (Doucoure is a decent signing, but more defensive), Brentford lost Eriksen. Wolves maybe aren't worse than last season but aren't much better, Collins is a decent signing but they already had a strong defence, their attack is still below par. One good thing for them is Neves is still there because they will be much weaker without him. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul514 Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 49 minutes ago, DCJonah said: Just can't see us signing an attacking player. We've got too many. Yep and if you have the money for a forward why wouldn’t you buy a full back or midfielder beforehand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alreadyexists Posted July 17, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted July 17, 2022 16 minutes ago, DCJonah said: I think ings could have a great season but I agree with you. But the quantity will stop us from buying more IMO. I think Bailey, Traore and Archer will have the chance to prove themselves under Gerrard. I agree about those players being given chances, especially Archer he’s very young and has done everything the club could ask of him, namely score goals whenever he can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 35 minutes ago, avfc1982am said: Who do you have in mind Nick??? Tammy by any chance Haha funny you should mention….. Nah I don’t know, I’m sure the club have players in mind whether they go for them now or in the future. I just worry about our ability to be clinical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 24 minutes ago, DCJonah said: I think ings could have a great season but I agree with you. But the quantity will stop us from buying more IMO. I think Bailey, Traore and Archer will have the chance to prove themselves under Gerrard. I still think Archer may go out on loan. The other two have great quality but I’m focusing on a goal scoring striker, those two can play their parts other ways. It’s down really to Danny and Ollie. I hope one of them can pick up the mantle this season but I’m still hoping Gerrard goes into the market for a striker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 14 minutes ago, paul514 said: Yep and if you have the money for a forward why wouldn’t you buy a full back or midfielder beforehand Why do we need a full back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jareth Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 2 hours ago, DCJonah said: Just can't see us signing an attacking player. We've got too many. Dream future tweet from 2017 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul514 Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 2 hours ago, Xela said: Why do we need a full back? We have two first team full backs plus now a loan player and a 37 year old. None of the kids are ready yet, we definitely need a right back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWARLEY2 Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 Guilbert or Chambers or Konsa or Kesler as hack up to Cash. Well and truly covered 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarryOnVilla Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 7 minutes ago, paul514 said: We have two first team full backs plus now a loan player and a 37 year old. None of the kids are ready yet, we definitely need a right back. forget about Fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Vive_La_Villa Posted July 17, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted July 17, 2022 12 minutes ago, paul514 said: We have two first team full backs plus now a loan player and a 37 year old. None of the kids are ready yet, we definitely need a right back. Is that you Steve? 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest av1 Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 11 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Is that you Gareth? Fixed that for you mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 Gulbert only has one year left on his contract, so I think there's a strong possibility that we will try and get some money for him while we can. Also think there's a strong possibility that Young will be covering right-back, with maybe Chambers or Konsa being options if we need to go ultra defensive in certain situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 43 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said: Guilbert or Chambers or Konsa or Kesler as hack up to Cash. Well and truly covered I'd rather not have players who can simply "do a job" rather than genuinely challenge for a starting place/admirably deputise, such as Augustinsson (I hope). If we want to have good cup runs, we need good backups, not CBs who can play there in case of emergency. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post useless Posted July 17, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted July 17, 2022 Kesler-Hayden one of our best and most consistent academy players and then excelled out on loan first in League Two and the League One, also did extremely well against Man City in the cup, only one game, but he really was exceptional, I looked on twitter after that match and it wasn't just Villa fans raving about him. The whole point of the money we're spending on the academy is so that it will eventually help us improve the first team, it doesn't make sense to buy another right-back that will block his pathway, if he's not ready this season, or rather if we think he's better served going where he will get consistent game time, then just use what we have now, whether it be Guilbert, Chambers, Konsa, Young or whoever, as back-up to Cash. 6 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 31 minutes ago, Keyblade said: I'd rather not have players who can simply "do a job" rather than genuinely challenge for a starting place/admirably deputise, such as Augustinsson (I hope). If we want to have good cup runs, we need good backups, not CBs who can play there in case of emergency. So we still have Guilbert as he said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burchy Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 RB wise I think all three are good at going forward, in their own individual ways and in truth it’s the defensive side of things that splits them more than anything else. For me I’d keep Fred for the remainder of his contract and say thank you very much at the end of it. For me he’s the better deputy for Cash at this precise moment in time. Different story next year though if we can get KKH a decent championship loan. The club may see it differently and sell him this summer but that’s my honest opinion. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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