Pre match thread

[Tom13]

Lille have some very technical players. It's going to be a tough tie for sure.

[Lille fan]

for those interested here's my analysis of what Villa is gonna face next thursday
i've seen every game this season so you can trust me

Lille is 99% certainly going to play like this

--------------Chevalier------------------
Santos- Yoro-Alexsandro - Ismaily
-----André------Bentaleb-----------
Zhegrova----Haraldsson----Gudmunsson
--------------David------------------------------

CHEVALIER is france's 2nd best goalkeeper (behind Maignan), period. 

ISMAILY is an experimented brasilian left back, smart and good technically but old and slow , can definitely be a weakness versus a fast-faced player (Bailey?)

ALEXSANDRO is a crazy strong physical defenser (think Jaap Stam) but not reliable at all with the ball , ligue 1 teams usually target him to press against..

YORO is our young (18) jewel , Real Madrid wants him for next season , smart , very clean , impressively calm... he reminds a lot of people of a young Varane

SANTOS is a young , powerful and technical , extremely offensive right back . he's equally a serious threat to the opponent and an opportunity , as he's nowhere as good defensively than he is offensively.

ANDRé : Captain , Great Fighter , he's awesome ! It's beyond me than Premier League clubs never drafted him (he's 35 now so too late)... Him and David are the 2 remaining players from the 2021 ligue 1 title.

BENTALEB : He's better now than when he was in Tottenham... very complete player , technical and powerful with a strong emphasis on passing (short or long)

ZHEGROVA : Spectacular but flawed... He can score insane Robben-like goals all by himself but he's also a bit of a one trick pony , using only his left foot and he's too much of a solo-ist for my taste. Easily the best player of our team on dribbling and 1 to 1. Bad defensively.

HARALDSSON : Our sole "big" investment this season (14M euros) is a thin young icelandish , he only started playing good games last month . very generous and gifted with the ball but if you leave him no space he'll drown... (same for your english fellow ANGEL GOMES  at the same position , who's injured at the moment)

GUDMUNSSON : he runs a lot and defends well , weak technically , shouldn't be a danger for you except on counter attacks

DAVID : Great versatile player. He scores quite a lot this season but he's not a scoring-machine like Watkins.... not quite your typical center striker... he's more like a "false 9 " , lots of work for the team , defense , building... extremely good at pressing and create mistakes from the opponent.

On the Bench : CABELLA (good creative player but old) , OUNAS (insanely technical but fat and lazy) , CAVALEIRO (mediocre) , ANGEL GOMES ( you might know him but probably still injured) , DIAKITE (all rounder defender , less impressive but more secure than Alexsandro or Santos)

As you can see Lille is asymetrical with a very offensive right side (Zhegrova-Santos) and a  defensive left side (Ismaily-Gudmunsson) . How Aston Villa deals with that will be the key of the game , along with neutralizing Haraaldsson in between the lines , and leave Bentaleb no time to use his long play

Lille very often struggles with first 15-20 minutes , a great match start from you might hurt us a lot. Also , our young team lacks maturity and have a hard time finishing games especially when leading. The André-Bentaleb aggressive midfield combo might be the best in ligue 1 (psg excepted) so Mc Guinn and Luiz should be warned.

Ligue 1 is far less intense than Premier League so i think Aston Villa should use that to his avantage (as Newcastle-PSG and Arsenal-Lens this season) and not play too secure. As i've said before , Lille is statistically MUCH better at home . If you don't crush us in VP anything's possible..

Very excited for Thursday !


 

[BOF]

31 minutes ago, Lille fan said:

for those interested here's my analysis of what Villa is gonna face next thursday
i've seen every game this season so you can trust me

Lille is 99% certainly going to play like this

--------------Chevalier------------------
Santos- Yoro-Alexsandro - Ismaily
-----André------Bentaleb-----------
Zhegrova----Haraldsson----Gudmunsson
--------------David------------------------------

CHEVALIER is france's 2nd best goalkeeper (behind Maignan), period. 

ISMAILY is an experimented brasilian left back, smart and good technically but old and slow , can definitely be a weakness versus a fast-faced player (Bailey?)

ALEXSANDRO is a crazy strong physical defenser (think Jaap Stam) but not reliable at all with the ball , ligue 1 teams usually target him to press against..

YORO is our young (18) jewel , Real Madrid wants him for next season , smart , very clean , impressively calm... he reminds a lot of people of a young Varane

SANTOS is a young , powerful and technical , extremely offensive right back . he's equally a serious threat to the opponent and an opportunity , as he's nowhere as good defensively than he is offensively.

ANDRé : Captain , Great Fighter , he's awesome ! It's beyond me than Premier League clubs never drafted him (he's 35 now so too late)... Him and David are the 2 remaining players from the 2021 ligue 1 title.

BENTALEB : He's better now than when he was in Tottenham... very complete player , technical and powerful with a strong emphasis on passing (short or long)

ZHEGROVA : Spectacular but flawed... He can score insane Robben-like goals all by himself but he's also a bit of a one trick pony , using only his left foot and he's too much of a solo-ist for my taste. Easily the best player of our team on dribbling and 1 to 1. Bad defensively.

HARALDSSON : Our sole "big" investment this season (14M euros) is a thin young icelandish , he only started playing good games last month . very generous and gifted with the ball but if you leave him no space he'll drown... (same for your english fellow ANGEL GOMES  at the same position , who's injured at the moment)

GUDMUNSSON : he runs a lot and defends well , weak technically , shouldn't be a danger for you except on counter attacks

DAVID : Great versatile player. He scores quite a lot this season but he's not a scoring-machine like Watkins.... not quite your typical center striker... he's more like a "false 9 " , lots of work for the team , defense , building... extremely good at pressing and create mistakes from the opponent.

On the Bench : CABELLA (good creative player but old) , OUNAS (insanely technical but fat and lazy) , CAVALEIRO (mediocre) , ANGEL GOMES ( you might know him but probably still injured) , DIAKITE (all rounder defender , less impressive but more secure than Alexsandro or Santos)

As you can see Lille is asymetrical with a very offensive right side (Zhegrova-Santos) and a  defensive left side (Ismaily-Gudmunsson) . How Aston Villa deals with that will be the key of the game , along with neutralizing Haraaldsson in between the lines , and leave Bentaleb no time to use his long play

Lille very often struggles with first 15-20 minutes , a great match start from you might hurt us a lot. Also , our young team lacks maturity and have a hard time finishing games especially when leading. The André-Bentaleb aggressive midfield combo might be the best in ligue 1 (psg excepted) so Mc Guinn and Luiz should be warned.

Ligue 1 is far less intense than Premier League so i think Aston Villa should use that to his avantage (as Newcastle-PSG and Arsenal-Lens this season) and not play too secure. As i've said before , Lille is statistically MUCH better at home . If you don't crush us in VP anything's possible..

Very excited for Thursday !
 

Thank you for that. Very informative. Sounds like we actually have a few similarities stylistically in how the individuals match up.  Sounds very much like it will come down to who will win the individual battles. Hopefully the Premier League quality will show through. But we're not above making mistakes, and our form has dipped recently, so it's not a bad time to be playing us.

[Ceemo]

Cash still out and Lenglet out with a small problem according to Emery. Chambers not registered in the Conference League squad so Villa have no senior back-ups.

Guess that if one of the centre-backs or Konsa has a problem, then Kesler-Hayden would move in at right-back. Possibly Bogarde on the bench?

[BOF]

30 minutes ago, Ceemo said:

Cash still out and Lenglet out with a small problem according to Emery. Chambers not registered in the Conference League squad so Villa have no senior back-ups.

Guess that if one of the centre-backs or Konsa has a problem, then Kesler-Hayden would move in at right-back. Possibly Bogarde on the bench?

Yeah I guess that, or McGinn doing a Jack of all trades again in one of Emery's merry-go-rounds.

[Marka Ragnos]

I worry about our squad being so depleted and what that means. Everyone knows we're running on fumes. Just need to push the jalopy over the finish line this year, even if we're carrying the transmission and wheels in a rucksack.

[TheMightyVillans]

Shame lenglet is out. Would have been a good game for him to play in I think.

                           Martinez

Konsa        Carlos          Pau          Moreno

Mcginn       Tim              Luiz          Rogers

                   Diaby          Watkins

[Django_Zooms]

14 minutes ago, TheMightyVillans said:

Shame lenglet is out. Would have been a good game for him to play in I think.

                           Martinez

Konsa        Carlos          Pau          Moreno

Mcginn       Tim              Luiz          Rogers

                   Diaby          Watkins

This, but with Tielemans or Bailey instead of Tim.

[VillaAlex]

We really need to put our best side out here.

Bailey needs to play.

 

Martinez

Konsa Carlos Pau Digne

Bailey McGinn Dougie Rogers

Tielemans

Watkins

[imavillan]

A massive, massive game.....maybe this tweet puts it into some perspective

content copied and pasted for those who don't want to or can't access the tweet

 

In our entire 149 year history Aston Villa have made the Quater finals or better only 4 times previously in European competitions….

77/78 UEFA cup vs Barca. knocked out

81/82 Dynamo Kiev. went on to win the cup

82/83 Juventus. Knocked out

97/98 UEFA cup Athletico Madrid. knocked out

23/24 Lille. ??????????

Make no mistake tomorrow night is HISTORY….. Something that doesn’t happen very often. We are witnessing a special season, and they will need us more than ever tomorrow…. Let’s make some real noise !!!

 

 

Edited April 10 by imavillan

[WallisFrizz]

 

[neilski]

Will anyone be using screenshots of your tickets tommorow?  contrary to what the club say about it not working and you should use other methods ive always done it and find it the quickest way for me to get in with my son as i cannot get the both tickets to show in the villa app and also google wallet is a tw@t when i try and set that up. I cant see the point wasting printer ink either which is probably more valuble than gold pound for pound 

[fightoffyour]

8 hours ago, WallisFrizz said:

 

 

 Aston Villa suggest scheduling change to Premier League for clubs in Europe

Quote

 

By Jacob Tanswell
Apr 10, 2024
Aston Villa have suggested to the Premier League that it reviews its scheduling of fixtures for teams playing in Europe.

In a conversation with the Premier League, Villa made observations as to how the Premier League could help English teams manage the fixture list, but there has not been an official request for a specific game to be moved.

Instead, the suggestion was informally put forward earlier in the season, with Villa citing last month’s game at home to Tottenham Hotspur as a case in point.

The fixture was put forward to a 1pm (BST) kick-off on Sunday — at the request of the police, with Liverpool vs Manchester City rearranged for a later start time — giving Villa a shorter amount of time to recover from their goalless draw away to Ajax three days earlier.

Villa’s suggestion was to move their game back — also given the importance of the fixture — to Monday night, affording additional rest time between fixtures.

Despite no formal complaint to the Premier League, Villa also view the difference in schedule with upcoming Conference League opponents Lille as another illustrative point.

Lille have a week between games, with no league match between the two legs against Villa. Emery’s side, meanwhile, will travel to Arsenal on Sunday. In addition, Lille’s previous match — a 3-1 win against Marseille — was on a Friday evening, giving Paulo Fonseca six days to prepare for the visit to Villa Park.

Villa view their suggestions as something for the Premier League to consider in the future, providing a similar level of support Ligue 1 offers for their domestic clubs competing in Europe, creating additional rest time between games.

Head coach Unai Emery was reluctant to use scheduling concerns as an excuse for his players ahead of Villa’s first European quarter-final in 26 years. He did, though, state the Premier League “can support us”.

“We are speaking about the match tomorrow, we are in a conference speaking about the match tomorrow,” said Emery. “We were thinking the amount we are going to play (against Arsenal) it’s not good for us, for me and for everybody.

“I think it’s better for the English team (to have games rescheduled either side of European fixtures). We are playing in Europe, I think the Premier League can support us as well. But it’s not concerning me.”

The Premier League says it always considers its clubs’ European games when finalising its domestic fixture schedule, which takes into account external factors such as fans’ travel arrangements, sides competing in other competitions, broadcast slots and policing.

The league adds that it actively assists with scheduling around the semi-final stages of European competitions, while balancing that impact on other clubs. It is also Premier League policy to ensure that none of its teams play twice within a 60-hour period.

 

[Jareth]

Unai will go strong tonight, because a win here is probably as useful as a point at Arsenal, in terms of getting villa into the UCL next season. And key players have had rests for one reason or another. Reckon we will see Rogers light it up too.

[VILLAMARV]

Can't see my mind being focussed on work all that much today.

[TRO]

On 10/04/2024 at 02:25, Lille fan said:

Fonseca and Emery are about the same age . You're right to compare them though , they share a lot of similarities (they're both guardiola fanboys after all) .

Fonseca is undoubtly the star of our club and is regarded as one of the best coach in french league , if not the best. He probably deserves a much better/richer team than Lille , although his bad run with AS roma hurt his career...

what he tries to get from his team : as much ball possession as possible , always building from the back with short passes (bit too risky sometimes) ,  and quick passes sequences in the middle to defeat opponent's pressing.

i don't think you should expect a low passive block with rare counterattacks.... more like a medium block and a big fight between midfielders with some tactical ideas to try to neutralize Aston Villa's individual superiority.  I wouldn't be surprised if ball possession is pretty much equal.
 

Sounds like, similar teams.

Our Monchi, had an indifferent time at Roma too.

I guess all teams, base their style on some other team at some point...so it comes down to who wants it on the day. Our manager is top drawer, but he can't stop individual errors, I guess your guy is the same.

I think it's who applies their individualism in to a collective force, on the day.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, VILLAMARV said:

Can't see my mind being focussed on work all that much today.

what's changed?

[romavillan]

21 hours ago, Tom13 said:

Lille have some very technical players. It's going to be a tough tie for sure.

If we play to our potential it should be a cracking game, they play nice football but so do we when we're on it

[StefanAVFC]

With 5th pretty much wrapped up, I'd go full strength here, get the result, and make next Thursday irrelevant.

[Callum]

On 09/04/2024 at 15:08, omariqy said:

Not confident at all tbh

thats the spirit!!!