roonst83

He frustrates me more than most. He acts way too casually too often in games and is often guilty of poor positioning and thus allowing players in behind him. He just needs to keep things simple and he can become a really great centre back. But until he learns to stay fully focused for 90 minutes he’ll always have the propensity to undo other wise decent performances by making ridiculous errors. He received a great deal of praise when he played for England the other day, and I agree the way he conducted himself in light of being racially abused, was something to be truly applauded. But I’m not accepting he played great as England trounced the opposition and he barely had a thing to do. I really like the guy but can see why Ake kept him out of the Bournemouth team as he’s far more assured. Tyrone needs to learn, and fast, to keep things simple and not play too lethargically. He tends to trot around nonchalantly when he’s on the ball and releases it too late to our players who, by the time they receive the ball, are being closed down. I find Mings makes glaring errors in most games, not loads, maybe one or two per game but in this league, as we are finding out, they are costly and we need Tyrone to be top of his game to be able to hopefully lead us to safety.

Absolute killer!!!

Such an important win today. And, despite being thousands of miles away, I got to experience a dramatic ending, too. I’m currently travelling around Argentina for a couple of weeks with my girlfriend and today had to catch two flights to get from Salta to Mendoza via Córdoba. My transit time in between flights was perfectly timed so I could tune in (via a stream) on the airport WiFi for the first half whilst simultaneously holding my phone adapter into the socket in the airport to try get some much needed battery charge. The coverage kept breaking which added to my frustration at seeing us a goal down and being outplayed, as well as my tiredness from a very early start. I was nervous about this game due to the “must win” importance I’d labelled it given our bet. V.tough run of games. Was jubilant to see we were back in it at half time and to see they’d had Mooy sent off. Boarding was delayed so I was constantly refreshing the poor stream for the game and would constantly have to put up with the game freezing randomly in the most inconvenient places (ie, either us or them attacking). They still looked a real threat despite having ten men and I was fighting like mad trying to contain my frustration. As we boarded the plane I had to use my girlfriend’s phone as I haven’t got any coverage or data out here. Again, there was multiple stop start internet connection whilst on the tarmac and every time we missed a chance or gave the ball away in a dangerous position I would make my frustrations known to those around me. So much so my girlfriend was looking at me with great concern and said “are you really this nervous about the game?” to which she got a shaking of the head and dismissive response. As we were in the process of taking off it was now ‘86 mins on the clock and Brighton were breaking on the attack into our half when the phone froze again. I quickly googled “Aston villa” which brought up the live score so I could Ollie he score more easily if needed. I felt panicked and nervous at the risk of (once again) potentially throwing away such a crucial game and handed my girlfriend her phone. Cue an hour’s flight of me biting my nails (literally, cue more astonishment and look of bewilderment from my girlfriend) and fidgeting and counting down the minutes until we landed. It felt worse knowing that the result was already done and dusted and me not having a clue. I suspected it’s be a draw but was fearful of us throwing it away and couldn’t bring myself to believe we’d snatch it as we looked like we couldn’t break them down atall. As we landed I felt hot and anxious and waited as Kate turned her phone back on, she tried to cover her phone from me seeing it (as she “wanted it to be a surprise” in case we won”) but google still showed 1-1. She said it hadn’t refreshed yet so after I frustratingly told her off for keeping it from me I refreshed the page whilst she was holding the phone to reveal 2-1 to Villa was the final result. Cue absolute scenes from seat 19C on the airplane with me shouting “GET IN THERE BOYS!” and stomping my feet on the ground and throwing fist pumps in the air from my seat. Pretty sure everyone around me thought I was merely relieved to have survived the turbulence as we disembarked. Little did they know. Expected a tough game and they looked in control until they had Mooy sent off. Grealish was instrumental and showed incredible leadership and maturity through his performance today. So glad he’s one of our own. Performance aside, all that mattered today was getting three points and we dug deep, persevered and managed to do the thing that Villa never do in the Prem and bag an injury time winner. The agony and the thrill through experiencing that game today through dodgy streams, iffy airport WiFi and bags of nerves just sums up how important it was we got the win today, any which way it came. There’s something unique and special about being thousands of miles away from home yet being completely transfixed by the going’s on of your football team. I celebrated by sinking loads of Claret from my hotel balcony in a vineyard in Mendoza. Upon me seeing the full time result and going nuts on the runway Kate said to me she’s chuffed because she’s “still on for her bet”, which was Villa to do a Leicester at 2500/1. You couldn’t write it. Tomorrow I’ll be riding a horse in the hills of Mendoza singing Sweet Caroline. UTV. p.s. Grealish MOTM. Obvs.

Absolutely cemented his position in that DCM role. Was my motm yesterday at Norwich. Has such agility, calmness, acceleration and a great football brain. He is so good at breaking up play and taking the ball from the CBs and making use of Jack and McGinn. A great midfield trio they are with Hourihane complementing then all too. Think you can mix up Luiz and Conor. Decent balance across this Villa midfield and a lot of that is down to the fine work Nakampa does.

Watched most of it. Was a perfect away performance at City. I said after they dispatched Watford and Beskitas that they’d kick on now, but didn’t expect that result. They tactically stifled City and we’re bold enough to go at City every time they countered. Deserve the win and their performance, set up and approach is a blue print for how we, along with other teams, should try approach the game when we play them.

Agree about the Mings and Engles comment. Mings can be a warrior in defence at times but sometimes I find he is way too casual on the ball and with following his man and both of those things cost us. He is often too slow to release the ball which leads to the player who receives the ball being under immediate pressure. Love his leadership qualities but he’s got areas to improve on. Engles has looked very assured overall but was naive giving the penalty away at Arsenal and should’ve done much better in picking up his man against Burnley. Essentially, we have a good CB pairing in Engles and Mings but basic errors are costing us key goals.

We go again. Tough fixture away at Carrow Road. Norwich appear to be a different beast at home so this will be tough. Burnley was a missed opportunity to take a much needed three points so sooner or later we’re going to need to pull a surprise result out the bag. So I hope this is it. Hope Targett is fit as he provided much better balance at FB and an attacking option going forwards. I thought our set up against Burnley worked well in the first half but we seem incapable of stringing two strong halves of football together and we looked poor second half and couldn’t adjust to Burnley’s switch of tactics. Not sure how much longer we can persist without Wesley so feels like Keinan deserves a start. Although in May after Wembley if you told me we’d be starting Premier League games with Keinan Davies as our main striker than I would’ve been gutted. Essentially, we look weak up front and don’t have any natural goal scorers which is harming us. Need a result.

The very fact he’s top of this messaging forum and hasn’t scored today tells you everything if you didn’t go to the game; he’s poor and needs dropping. He’s costing us points and whilst I don’t think Keinan (or Kodjia) are better, Wesley needs to know he isn’t for a guaranteed starting place in this team. He was woeful today. Spends too long playing the man not the ball, is powder puff up top and his ineffectiveness causes other players to overcompensate on his behalf. No harm in trying Davies instead. He’s more hungry and can’t do much worse.

Anyone else still raging about yesterday?

We should consider playing Guilbert because he’s our absolute best attacking full back.

Was really excited when we signed Konsa but turns out I’m loving Engles instead.

Don’t get the debate here at all. Always play your best players. Heaton is better than Steer. Yes, Heaton gave away a daft penalty last week, but, he’s made some excellent saves in the opening two games. He’ll be massive for us this season. I’ve got nothing against Steer but Heaton gets the nod every time.

Currently sat on a boat in the Ionian Sea on my way home from holiday, so wanted to kick this off. Huge game and tough test for sure. Full house at VP with expectations of a performance high. We need to be right behind the boys for 90mins. Bournemouth are a well oiled outfit who play great football at times and Eddie Howe is a very shrewd manager who I rate highly. He’ll be aware of how we like to play and will try stifle us by sniffing out Grealish. I wonder if Guilbert and Targett come in, whether Luiz starts and if Jota gets the nod ahead of El Ghazi, who I think was poor against Spurs. (I also think Jota was poor in his substitute appearance but think in a team that should have more of the ball we’ll get much more from him). Goes without saying how much of a huge game it is for Mings. He and Engles will have to be at their best to stop the front boys of Bournemouth. But it’s a game we need to try and get on the front foot of and apply pressure to the opposition all game. Energy levels will be key so I hope the last two games against Spurs and Leipzig, where we had less of the ball, will have improved our fitness levels. Wesley needs to be stronger and less stroppy than he was against Spurs. A big man up top is always getting some physical treatment to try nullify their threat. For me, he wasn’t first to the ball fast enough and if he does that then he can hold the ball up well and bring the likes of Grealish and McGinn in. Benteke used to do this for us excellently. I’d like to see Luiz start and for Grealish not to have to be so deep. Every game in this league will be a very tough test and we have a team and manager getting themselves used to it. A win here would be massive. Leta hope we pop those cherries.

His hair looked nice.

*Positives* 1. Overall first half display and our counter attacking 2.Mings & Engles 3. Elmo & Taylor stepping up 4. McGinn 5. Trezzy looked a threat 6. It’s Spurs away and not many teams will win there 7. We can improve 8. Some first teamers still to come in 9. Heaton was great. He’ll win us some games on his own *Negatives* 1. Wesley - looked weak and bullied 2. Grealish, as class as he is, needs to learn in this league you can’t **** around on the edge of the box without getting punished. It’s Spurs not Rotherham. I’m certain he will leave this and tiredness may have been a factor. 3. Jota looked a lost soul when he came on. Looked way out of his depth. I’m putting this down to it being a difficult game and situation to come into but he’s shown better. And needs to be better. 4. Kodjia. Useless. 5. El Ghazi looked lively but with nothing in the end of it. Lots of step overs but looked better just trying to take players on. Think Trezzy was far effective than him and with only Wesley up to, we need to be effective in the wings. But I appreciate it’s against Spurs. Bring on the Cherries.

Very similar to our opening day win against Bournemouth in our last season in the Prem.

Can pay the £11.99 for Premier 1 then cancel the subscription as it’s a rolling monthly subscription, I believe.

Any chance you can make a one off payment (alá NOW TV) for the game if you’re already a sky subscriber? And does anyone know of this means we won’t be showing the game on our YouTube channel? EDIT. Ignore. Just seen on the ‘Coverage’ thread that can only view it on Premier 1

Ain’t nothin’ finer than a 49er ...

Absolutely nothing sad about that at all. I couldn’t get tickets to the Arsenal FA Cup final a few years ago as I didn’t have a season ticket because I live in London. Spent a few hours before the game with my mate soaking up the atmosphere and singing and drinking with Villa fans before the game. Was great. Then watched the game in one of the hotel bars inn Wembley with plenty of others. There’ll be lots of Villa in and around the bars etc of Wembley singing and soaking it up so if you’re tempted to get involved then do it.

Agree with this, it was as if Mings was trying too hard to stay composed but with Gayle on your heels constantly from the off it seemed to jade Mings a bit. So his over composure was probably a result of trying to over compensate for the fact he actually wasn’t comfortable atall.

Thought he was absolutely excellent for us today. With Mings having a bit of a wobble today, Axel led us out from the back like a leader. They’re a great pairing.

Does anyone know when confirmation will be provided by the club for the kick off times for Saturday? And also the dates for the second leg? I am sure i saw it clarified a few weeks ago that 4th v 5th was 5.15pm on Saturday and then 7.45pm on the Wednesday but the club have stated this is all now "TBC".

I agree he's a bit hit or miss for me. He has good games but he also has poor ones, too. He is often guilty of trying too much and will often do something fantastic but immediately follow it up by giving the ball away needlessly. But he has seemed to improve over the course of the season, and on his day he can be a real threat. We need him for the play offs, that's for sure and he's far better going forwards than Green or Adomah.

Actually conceded only five.