DaveAV1 Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 6 minutes ago, Talldarkandransome said: Brentford still crying? Coupled with Pep doing the same it could mean a waterlogged pitch true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 19, 2023 10 hours ago, TheFish said: Have you got much room in the budget to strengthen come January? If so, what do you need? Money shouldn't be a problem, although I don't pretend to know how FFP works. We need a right back, a centre forward and possibly a decent reserve goalie if such a thing can be found. Don't expect (or want) any 'marquee' signings, would prefer hidden gems - fortunately, DoF Monchi has a good track record of finding them. Level of optimism? Personally I don't dare to dream, but some are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdulaziz1 Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 On 19/12/2023 at 00:46, GingerCollins29 said: Don't think we will, but if you were Emery, would you sacrifice a potential FA Cup run by playing the youth team against boro to focus on the ECL and title/top 4? I would definitely not. Not many games to begin with, which with some good draws I think we can manage. Boro are in semi final so I suggest they’d focus on that more. Then we don’t play UECL until March. I’d try and stay in all competitions until then. Then it comes one at a time, and manage home and aways for Europe. If we can manage Kamara absence and win our next 3 added to Boro. Then I think we shall think more about adding two players possibly to help us on our three competitions. Hopefully with Buendia being integrated at March. Just imagine they start asking Emery: Congratulations Don Unai winning league, it has been a very successful season. Then he answers, the season hasn’t ended yet, as much as I’m happy with the league but we’ll only celebrate tomorrow as we still have two (semi finals) or two important finals coming up which we should keep focusing in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFish Posted December 20, 2023 Visiting Supporter Share Posted December 20, 2023 11 hours ago, mjmooney said: Money shouldn't be a problem, although I don't pretend to know how FFP works. We need a right back, a centre forward and possibly a decent reserve goalie if such a thing can be found. Don't expect (or want) any 'marquee' signings, would prefer hidden gems - fortunately, DoF Monchi has a good track record of finding them. Level of optimism? Personally I don't dare to dream, but some are. Why do you need another striker? Watkins is banging in the goals and that Duran looks raw but talented? For what it's worth, I think you'll get Champions League football but the depth and experience of teams like Arsenal and Liverpool will keep you from an unlikely title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwivillan Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 19 minutes ago, TheFish said: Why do you need another striker? Watkins is banging in the goals and that Duran looks raw but talented? For what it's worth, I think you'll get Champions League football but the depth and experience of teams like Arsenal and Liverpool will keep you from an unlikely title. And the irony is neither Arsenal or Liverpool have a reliable "striker" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 20, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 20, 2023 19 minutes ago, TheFish said: Why do you need another striker? Watkins is banging in the goals and that Duran looks raw but talented? Duran is exactly that - raw. And, tbf, we have other players who can get goals. But I still think an injury to Watkins would be bad news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwivillan Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 1 minute ago, mjmooney said: Duran is exactly that - raw. And, tbf, we have other players who can get goals. But I still think an injury to Watkins would be bad news. It would be bad news as he's integral to our system but that doesn't equal easily replaceable. Salah injury would be bad for Liverpool. Where are his goals going to come from. We're much better off with our interchangeable system than the rest of top 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 18 hours ago, duke313 said: Anybody still upset we went out of the Carabao Cup? Those fixtures would be piling up if we were still in it. Two weekends allocated to FA Cup plus the PL winter break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 On 19/12/2023 at 10:57, TheFish said: What's your confidence levels? Have you got much room in the budget to strengthen come January? If so, what do you need? Confidence levels for the title are not real - we don't actually expect to win it but it's nice to dream. Some money in the budget but only for the right player - Monchi and Emery might just prefer to wait until the summer to get the right person. Needed for the summer, a strong back-up striker for Watkins, a strong back-up keeper for Martinez, a Right Back to replace Matty Cash. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeroy Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 On 19/12/2023 at 10:57, TheFish said: What's your confidence levels? Top at Christmas if Liverpool and Arsenal draw. Less demanding European campaign than either of those. No League Cup distraction. Best home record in the league, best GF at home too. Only Newcastle have conceded fewer goals at home. Second overall for goals scored behind Man City. 7th for Goals conceded overall. Have you got much room in the budget to strengthen come January? If so, what do you need? I think the title would be dreamland but I don’t think any Villa fan thinks it will actually happen. It could of course and if we’re still close in march/April then anything could happen, but we can’t get carried away. I do think we have to be making top 4 though. I am confident we can achieve that although I’ve seen Villa teams in the past pass up such opportunities. If we beat Sheffield Utd, we are on 41 points from 18 games. With 20 games left, we’d need 30 points (1.5 per game) to get to 71 points which you got last season to make top 4. Given we are tracking at over 2 points a game since Unai arrived, that is obviously very achievable and we should get more than that. I think most fans would be delighted with winning the Europa Conference and getting top 4. I’m happy if we go out of FA Cup early, don’t think we’re good enough yet to compete on three fronts. In terms of strengthening, Cash is well liked but can be upgraded with a better right back. Most other positions we are fine, upgrades on Olsen and Dendoncker should be looked at if we can move them on. Everyone says a striker, maybe, Duran is a bit raw and a loan would benefit him but getting a very good striker to be backup to Watkins is tricky. I’d like to see a midfield playmaker come in myself, an Odegaard/Fernandes/Maddison type player, but this might be one for summer. Buendia is popular with some fans, but I think we could get a better version of him (although he is currently out with a bad injury). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberman Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 Well, I don't expect us to win the league, but equally don't see why we can't and expect us to put up a good challenge. The consistency is there and no other sides look any better at this stage - all the other competition have their weaknesses. Long way to go still but why not believe? If, as is likely, it's going to be a mid-80s points total this season, we can do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 20, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 20, 2023 At the very least, we are putting down a marker for the future. We're back, and we ain't going away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlobalVillan Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 7 hours ago, Kiwivillan said: And the irony is neither Arsenal or Liverpool have a reliable "striker" Whilst I don’t think we will win the league, (I believe we can of course), I agree with this point 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen_Evans Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 1 hour ago, mjmooney said: At the very least, we are putting down a marker for the future. We're back, and we ain't going away. That would be a lovely break with tradition. The 80s and 90s seemed to capture our history in a nutshell. Big achievements, big disasters, sudden comebacks, rinse and repeat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oishiiniku_uk Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 On 19/12/2023 at 10:57, TheFish said: What's your confidence levels? Top at Christmas if Liverpool and Arsenal draw. Less demanding European campaign than either of those. No League Cup distraction. Obviously we are rank outsiders but the fact that no one sees us as a genuine threat is actually a positive I think. We've been sneaking our way up the table, similar to how we got Europe last season, without anyone paying much attention. Things that give me hope: We've got the second highest points total over almost a whole year. The media talks about a 'purple patch' but it's a pretty long one at this point. Our style of play seems pretty sustainable over the season and we've become flexible in how we set up for each opponent and can be threatening from lots of different areas of the pitch. We've the third best manager in the league and he's still improving the players on a game by game basis. He has total buy-in from the squad and every player realises they are playing the best football of their career. We've beaten two of the top 4 in the past couple of weeks. That's pretty unheard of for us, but these milestones keep coming under Emery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adman Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 People mention experience of being in a title race and the fact we don't have it. True, but due to city's dominance, most people's experience is of failure so not sure how much that helps them. If city could keep wobbling for as long as possible, that would be great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan_of_oz Posted December 21, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2023 I've backed us to win the league. I am a believer! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted December 21, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2023 43 minutes ago, Villan_of_oz said: I've backed us to win the league. I am a believer! £20 @ 250/1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan_of_oz Posted December 21, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 21, 2023 Just now, fightoffyour said: £20 @ 250/1 Very nice mate!! I should've jumped on earlier but still thought the odds were decent for where we are currently... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RicRic Posted December 21, 2023 Share Posted December 21, 2023 Im not so sure I actually want us to win the league, but hear me out I genuinely believe the excitement would be too much for my body to take in ultimately leading to severe health issues , i would not be able to handle that my much joy . is this not okay or can everyone understand I would be bouncing off the walls because this is one thing you dream of but you are certain it wont happen, fa cups and europe is one thing but the league! Wow 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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