ChicagoVillan1983 Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 (edited) 55 minutes ago, fightoffyour said: Is that really how belief works, or just what they're saying to remain realistic and keep the fans grounded? Because I would have rather thought that many sportspeople are rather elevated by belief and carried by that momentum to reach higher levels. And I'd be looking at that fixture list thinking if we get a result at Brentford, especially if it's a win, we've got a great chance of going top of the league (albeit perhaps only briefly) on Friday 22nd. Then I'd be thinking another result at Old Trafford and we have a good chance of starting the year top as well. And then I'd be looking at the schedule up to April and thinking we could even pull ahead of the pack here. And if we could do that, we'd then have the extra belief to go into those next games against our rivals and a tough last two months of the season in a great position and dull of confidence. Put differently, the underdog mentality is exceptionally motivating. Sitting on the top and looking down is much harder. Keegan Newcastle is my best example. Even saw it live on Sunday - early goals against an opponent you see as better than you then it is much harder to manage the mentality than a last minute grab. We talk about his tactics and style of play and coaching ability, but the way he has changed the psychology at VP may be his most unsung achievement. Edited December 12, 2023 by ChicagoVillan1983 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adman Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 1 hour ago, ChicagoVillan1983 said: Put differently, the underdog mentality is exceptionally motivating. Sitting on the top and looking down is much harder. Keegan Newcastle is my best example. Even saw it live on Sunday - early goals against an opponent you see as better than you then it is much harder to manage the mentality than a last minute grab. We talk about his tactics and style of play and coaching ability, but the way he has changed the psychology at VP may be his most unsung achievement. Agreed. How many times have we crumbled when winning, losing or drawing? We just look so composed and assured now whatever is happening on or off the pitch. Unbelievable 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 16 hours ago, stewiek2 said: What in the name of sweet Unai is this? It's absolutely terrifying. Mind you, they're encouraging children to cut their bits off on tiktok so what you gonna do. This is tame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberman Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 24 minutes ago, Adman said: Agreed. How many times have we crumbled when winning, losing or drawing? We just look so composed and assured now whatever is happening on or off the pitch. Unbelievable Yeah - the fact that we haven't dropped a single point after taking the lead in 11 games is extraordinary. Great, great mentality. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 13, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 13, 2023 18 hours ago, abdulaziz1 said: Just think of next game as a cup final Just as long as it's not the 2000 Cup Final. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 2 minutes ago, mjmooney said: Just as long as it's not the 2000 Cup Final. 2015 was worse. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted December 13, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 13, 2023 2 hours ago, mjmooney said: Just as long as it's not the 2000 Cup Final. 2 hours ago, villa89 said: 2015 was worse. The only two cup finals I've been to in my life. Good times. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 On 11/12/2023 at 19:15, HKP90 said: To add a little more sauce to your point there, our run in for the next month or so is chock full of teams we'd back ourselves to beat. That 2.2ppg has survived some very difficult games on paper. Forest, Bournemouth, Wolves and Everton ( cup)....have proved that is not as easy as it sounds. Teams who are just intent on stopping us playing, are a difficult prospect.....and we have to motivate ourselves to the level, we mustered for the top teams. Its just not easy....no easy games in this league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 Would you back any of the top teams, to takes 6 points back to back against 2 further top teams? for example would you back Liverpool to win on a wed against Arsenal and then win again against Man City on a Saturday. It was a fair old scalp. Its the lesser teams, we need to do better against. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 (edited) Out of morbid curiosity I had a look at the 98-99 league to see what happened there. We were top at Christmas with 36 points after 18 games (so one more point than now having played two more). The second half of the season we only brought home 19 points in the last 20 games, collapsing to finish 6th by a point. I'm a bit too young to remember any details but what happened? Injuries? A 1-D play style that got figured out? Too intense play style that led to fatigue similar to Newcastle? Or were we just playing out of our skin/lucky results and reverted to type? Edited December 14, 2023 by VillaJ100 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted December 14, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 14, 2023 40 minutes ago, VillaJ100 said: Out of morbid curiosity I had a look at the 98-99 league to see what happened there. We were top at Christmas with 36 points after 18 games (so one more point than now having played two more). The second half of the season we only brought home 19 points in the last 20 games. I'm a bit too young to remember any details but what happened? Injuries? A 1-D play style that got figured out? Too intense play style that led to fatigue similar to Newcastle? Or were we just playing out of our skin/lucky results and reverted to type? From the Champions league thread, as a little summary. Particularly Chris’ post. My post really is just me looking back, thinking that an FA cup defeat to lower league opposition doesn’t have to derail the season, before finding Villa taking me and everyone into the abyss for a few months. On 30/10/2023 at 21:27, Mark Albrighton said: John Gregory was the manager. Villa were joint top after 22 games, behind first place Chelsea on goal difference. Think we were on 43 points. Then we died. Really died. We were knocked out of the FA cup by Fulham - they were a league one side at the time, albeit a good one - and that carried over for the rest of the season. We ended the season in sixth with 55 points. Twelve points from the final 16 games. Utter collapse. On 30/10/2023 at 23:00, VillaChris said: Losing Bosnich in the October meant our brilliant defensive record went to pot. Oakes had done well covering for him in previous two seasons but couldn't handle being keeper for top of table team and we started conceding 2s and 3s on regular basis home and away which wasn't sustainable. Exactly like now if god forbid Emi was out for a couple of months and Olsen had to come in.... Also lost Ugo with eye injury when Shearer deliberately kicked around Feb time. Dublin also had fitness issues so he wasn't the same as he first joined. You can always split the Gregory era in two parts. First up from when he joined to the cup final, a genuine rollercoaster of incredible unbeaten runs and long winless runs and some memorable games I can still recall to this day, losing 4-2 at home to Liverpool when it could've easily ended 8-8 and also 3-2 cup win over Leeds which is still in top 5 great games I've attended (Carbone hat trick and Merson spilling blood setting up the winner). Then kick off of the cup final and the last 18 months were as dull as anything, can only recall about 5 matches from 2000/01 season it was that boring. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Waring Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberman Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 They are very bad at podcasting - all talking over each other. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotoMkali Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 1 hour ago, Pongo Waring said: God how can Rory jennings talk the most sense on a podcast 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mic09 Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 1 hour ago, rubberman said: They are very bad at podcasting - all talking over each other. Or some would say that because it's simply mates having a chat, that is the best for of conversation. I enjoyed the vid - I think that Rory often makes some good points against the narrative. Over the last few days I thought that if Aston Villa was called Tottenham or Arsenal, a lot more people would think we could win the league. It's not just this season - it's a 12 month consistency which only seems to get stronger. We are in the title race at this point, no question about it. In 3 months time we might very well not be in it, but right now, we are in it. Predicting football 3 months ahead is like predicting the weather for 2 weeks ahead. Sure, you can make some reasonable assumptions, but you have no idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaAlex Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 (edited) Given the drama of some about Newcastle and Man Utd going out it's great that Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal are still in European competition at a more competitive level. It should hopefully tire them out as we battle for the title, especially in those later months Edited December 14, 2023 by VillaAlex 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhan_Zhuang Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 5 hours ago, Pongo Waring said: 4 hours ago, rubberman said: They are very bad at podcasting - all talking over each other. Yeah, not even four minutes in then switched it off....annoying... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Waring Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 9 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said: Yeah, not even four minutes in then switched it off....annoying... Can clearly see the asian guy is a big 6 maxi who's never watched Villa this season 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted December 15, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 15, 2023 (edited) Had a dream we came from behind to beat Liverpool 2-1 and keep the home record going. some blonde guy with the winner, looked like Birkir Bjarnasson from a distance but I guess it could be a January signing. Edited December 15, 2023 by fightoffyour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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