roonst83

My cousin is in the sporting agency world across multiple sports, and from Brum and told me that the very top sporting talent with the most potential for growth in value is Bellingham. I haven't seen enough of him but he sounds like the real deal. Every time I've seen Blues this year Crowley stands out more to me. Am sure Bellingham will get better and better but just an observation about Crowley.

Jack shared the letter from all the players on his Instagram story, and he's been fairly active since. Best way to be, hiding wont help. He's a target for away fans anyway so little point in hiding. Unless he decides to host a sex party in quarantine, of course.

Voting. now closed. We came second. But the chosen one is Watford v Wolves

Absolutely great stuff from Sky. Best thing is they remove the charge for Skysports yet allow you to keep the channels. And they’ll automatically reset the charge once the action is back up and running. It’s an absolute no brainier.

We simply need to be constantly crossing for this guy. He's so hungry and has so much determination. We have decent crossers of the ball in Grealish, Hourihane, Target, El Ghazi, Elmo etc so need to utilise that strength.

Imagine if we won. Just imagine.

Yep, VAR will be used in the final.

Horrible that anyone would confront Max or any of the other lads. They're young Villa fans who are enjoying their lives and being proactive enough to produce content that literally entertains thousands of followers (Villa and non-villa fans) and gives great insight into the match day experience. Above all, max is clearly a decent young man. Anyone who confronted hi or his mates should hang their head in shame. Idiots. Back on topic, I personally couldn't stand the Villa View podcast. Bardell was there to try and ridicule his co-presenter (not sure of his name, but the more well-spoken of the two) at all times. Coudn't get into. Must say 1874 one with Gregg Evans is much better, and i cans stomach Bardell in this as Gregg Evans is so insightful so there's better insight. And actually, in fairness, Bardell has grown on me more listening to this new one. I used to guest "appear" on the Lions roar one based in London (name date the London Lions supporters club) and really enjoyed it. Its since drifted away which is a shame as I was keen to do more. I actually produce and record a regular podcast for a charity I own and run which helps people affected by leukeamia (called Bpositive in case any of you are keen) but I have been keen to set up a new Villa one with match previews, reviews, chat through villa memories and have some fun too. If anyone is based in London and fancies it drop me a DM. Ill update as and when I get round to setting it up.

Worst game he’s had for us today. Terrible.

Wholeheartedly agree with this. Our midfield offers very little in the way of protection for our defence which brings added pressure. Our defenders are unproven in this league and are learning on the job and when our backs are against the wall (and, significantly, without McGinn) we struggle to keep hold of the ball.

Agree with this and this is why this season reminds me, sadly, of the one we went down a few years ago. We have players who have great potential but may only realise that elsewhere if we go down.

I primarily start these pre match threads to try and divert my attention and focus from the previous gut-wrenching loss. It’s essentially therapy for me. Biggest issue here is how we pick ourselves up in terms of confidence after such a heart breaking loss to Spurs. No other team around us would’ve lost like that and that worries me. Burnley did a good job on Saints yesterday by hunting and pressing them all game when they had the ball. We need to do the same I feel. They will fancy beating us. We need to be composed on the ball and defend well. Mings will likely come back in for Engels if he’s fit. Other than that I’d bring in Nakamba for Drinky who looked well off the pace against Spurs. Would fancy us more if we took a point from Spurs but we’ll need to work hard to restore some much needed confidence this week in training. Pressure has mounted now. This game is massive.

Agree with this.

Should’ve done better with his chance but he was fantastic today.

I genuinely didn’t realise that

I'd perhaps expect Drinky to be brought back in and have Luiz on the bench. Luiz has looked decent asa sub recently. Nakampa is still hit or miss but I suspect Smith will want more "enforcers" in the middle as I don't think we'll have the majority of the ball in the centre of the park. Nakampa has been possibly the most frustrating player this season. His performances against Watford and Leicester second leg showed just what he can do but they are, sadly, rare. Winning the midfield battle in any game can often lead to the outcome so we need much more consistent good performances by Marvelous.

I hear what you're saying but for two teams where there was "not much between" we were by far second best, which was what worried/worries me. Agree about our home form being where we're aiming to get points and a full VP can help, but we have some very tough teams coming to VP and need to be picking up points away, too. If we suffer a loss against Spurs then that puts more pressure on Saints. Lose to Saints as well then that doubles the pressure on our next home game etc. I guess my point about the Bournemouth game worrying me was I expect much better form ourselves, especially after two recent good results against Watford and Leicester in the cup.

Agree. Last weekend’s result worried me on many levels. None more than the fact we didn’t match a team below us for their desire, fight, hunger and application. We were much the second best team and it was unacceptable. Almost like we didn’t expect them to be up for it. I’m always worried when our fans are confident of a good performance and I should know better myself but I didn’t see us losing and we got outplayed. We can’t afford a drop in level like that again and need to fight and scrap for every point. We have shown that on our day and when it matters we can stand up to the task so we need to take that into the last thirteen cup finals.

Whenever I check their score I just know that they will have scored late. They've done it for years.

Dreading it after Bournemouth. We need to show far more grit, determination, fight, desire and hunger than we did at the Vitality to have any chance of not losing this. Get rid of Anwar and throw in Trezzy. We can’t keep having ineffective and invisible players who are bit involved in the game, when they’re supposed to be an attacking threat for us. Mings needs to shore up the defence as it was very poor at Bournemouth. And we need to try be more ruthless and competitive in the midfield as we don’t do enough to break up play or drive us forward. And we do not offer any protection to our defence. Need to use the wide areas to try provide for Samatta. He’s hungry and just needs something to feed off.

I do think Luiz is far more effective (and less of a risk to us defensively) when he is further up the pitch. He's good on the ball and can pick a pass. Those traits get nullified when he's sat back too deep as there's very little time on the ball when we're being penned back deep. When we counter i feel Luiz is a useful outlet for us and carries the ball well and can spread the right passes.

Remember it well. I was at the front of the upper tier sat next to Kodjia’s brother and we all went nuts. Think this was also the same game Jimmy had missed a penalty in earlier. Totally made up for it late on in front of a barmy away end.

Difference is we wouldn’t have been loaning Drinkwater from Burnley though, it would be Chelsea. We had to wait for Danny’s contract at Burnley to expire before we could sign him on loan. His contract expired a couple of days after we played Burnley and then we signed him pretty much straight away.

Fair enough.

Pretty certain they do.