Villarocker

He's have to be a complete imbecile to let Kesler-Hayden go on loan. Who is back up to Cash then? Chambers, Konsa, Young? Square pegs in round holes if you're trying to make your right back play like Trent Alexander-Arnold. Some of his decisions baffle me. Coutinho clearly isn't working where he wants him to play. Why not give him a free role behind a lone striker and play wide attackers on both sides? Bailey and Buendia out wide with Watkins down the middle. A middle three of Coutinho, Kamara and one other, probably gotta be McGinn.

This is how I see it. Gérrard attracted bigger named players that maybe Dean Smith couldn't attract. Are those "bigger" names any better than what we had playing there? Is Digne that much better than Targett? or Coutinho that much better than Buendia? We wait to see whether Carlos is better than Mings or Kamara is better than say Luiz or Nakamba. The manager will be on bigger wages and so probably are his backing staff. Coutinho and Digne will have certainly been out on much bigger money than other starters and who knows what we're paying Kamara and Carlos. Is there an overall gain? I mean, do we sacrifice attracting bigger named players for the increase in wage bill if there's no overall improblvement on the pitch in terms of results/league position? Also, we've seen a regression in Watkins, Buendia, Konsa. Did we really look so creative in pre-season that our manager couldn't see a shortfall there? Was Mings really much worse than Konsa last season? Why did it take so long to make changes today? We regressed in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Surely he could have made changes earlier with 5 subs now available and being a goal down? I'm not saying Gerrard isn't the man but, I've not seen enough so far to say that he is.

He feels it all slipping away........

Surely we our net spend we have not finished buying in this window? We seem to be stacked in the centre of midfield but, for me, there is still room for someone who can play out wide. We have Coutinho, Buendia, Bailey and Traore who can do that but three of them seem to prefer to play narrower and one who is inconsistent and who seems to be not too fancied by Gerrard. I think the perfect fit would be Jonathan David, like a few others have mentioned. He can play wide or down the middle.

I agree with you mate. The others aren't playing great so he will be getting a chance unless they up their game. When he does, it's up to him to take it.

Don't worry mate, we are never never never signing him.

I bet he's sponsored by Adidas!

I think we'd see a better McGinn if he was allowed to play further up the pitch.

I think Gerrard is sort of making it up as he goes along. I'm not sure he knows which shape/formation he really wants to play with the players he has. I would like to see Bailey, Buendia, Coutinho and Ramsey in the team but, not sure how you fit them all in. If Cash is going to be replied more upon creating chances at the other end, I think he may be in for a tough season as Kesler-Hayden is going to push for that place in the team.

What so you think we need to compete for top 8, TRO? I think we are an attacking threat and creative midfielder short. I hoped Coutinho or Buendia would be the creative flair needed to replace Grealish but, Coutinho seems out of sorts and Buendia seems out of favour.

Why is it that when I read this and think we could have Sanson and Kamara in midfield I hear myself say Sodom and Gomorrah?

Wouldn't removing the captaincy maybe make him doubt himself even more?

^^^^ This was how I was feeling about Mings and Konsa last season. Mings seemed to improve whereas Konsa seemed to start making errors and looking a bit exposed. Oddly, I also think that McGinn has also regressed during Gerrard's time in charge so I find it odd that he made him Captain. Unless, Gerrard knows/sees McGinn didn't play in a natural position last season and therefore expects better now that Kamara is in the holding role? Either way, I think it is tough on Mings to lose all forms of Captaincy at the club.

I have a video off Francis that shows how he and his brother make Fufu. It looks like hard work! Tha ks for the kind words mate. I don't feel inspirational although, I hope that people can feel inspired to help these poor people live a better life.

I have contacted organisations here to try to find a way to help get Francis a work visa in order for him to come here but it is difficult, almost impossible. It's a shame how these people live their lives.

My friend's name is Francis and he is the brother of Amando, the leader of the Ghana Lions. Francis is 25 years old and told me that some of his family have moved out of the village in pursuit of work and send money back to him via Western Union, hence he has a mobile phone to receive the payments. However, at that point when I first started talking with him, he had no money in the account. They have no bank accounts so they need to use Western Union. It is really easy to send them money via the Western Union app. It was only when I started chatting to him and asking him personal questions about how they manage to make ends meet etc that he told me more about their way of life. He told me they had electricity but faced having it cut off because they owed the government 800 cedis because they had no money. That was when I sent the money to prevent that from happening. I have pictures to show how this family lives. They are so grateful and we exchange messages every day since. Francis told me how they eat this meal called Fufu every day usually. It is plantain and cassava. He sent me a video of how they mash it down to a pulp and make a soup out of it. When I gave him the money he used some of it to buy rice and said they ate rice for the first time in 3 months. I mean, rice! He even sent me pictures that were taken of him preparing their meals. Rice is something we take for granted - to them it is a luxury. Francis and his family are Christians who go to church. It's not a scam, they live in poverty. It's heart-breaking to see. His dream is to be a philanthropist. Francis' brother, Amando, contacted me recently to thank me for what I have done to help his family. He told me he has this dream to help the disabled people in his village through football and their love of Villa. He said it gives them belief and something to keep them interested during their struggles with life. What Tyrone and Nathan are planning will help them with that. My concern is, will it put food on the table? They shared with me information of how a young lad in his early 20's, named Alex Frimpong, had died of sickle cell anaemia. Francis used to donate blood to him. I guess if people wanted to help Francis and his family they could do so by sending money via Western Union and I could give out Francis' details in order to do that but, first, I'd like to run that by Francis. I'm pretty sure he should be OK with that though. If he is OK with it, anyone that wants to send money could contact me for Francis' details via private message and I will share those details with you. Francis is on Twitter and Whatsapp and loves Villa. He is a very humble and friendly fella so I am sure he would befriend anyone who wants to chat with him. I guess I could also send people who want to contribute some photos to show the family and how they live prior to it and you could contact Francis first before deciding to send his family some money?

This is such a huge thing for the Ghana Lions. Tyrone and Nathan Dawe, together with those that are assisting them are going to make such a massive difference to the quality of life there because they have many disabled people who they want to help via football. I've befriended one of the Ghanaian guys from the village where the Ghana Lions are based. In fact, he's related to the main man behind the Ghana Lions. Man, these people are extremely poor. We started following each other on Twitter and discussing all things Villa. After a while he told me that his dream was to come to Villa Park to watch Villa live. I naively assumed that wouldn't be too big a dream to fulfil. My friend went on to share the way he lives with me. He, together with 5 siblings, his parents (his Dad is disabled) and 10 nephews and nieces share one house. I say "House" but it is basically a shack. Holes in the roof. They cook in a pot on a fire outside. My friend told me they usually eat the same meal every day around 5pm because that's all they can eat. They have no money to buy food, usually. They wash outside. They have water in a tub and they stand under a tree with a line around them with washing on for privacy. My friend has only received two days work this year. He worked on a farm for long hours, carrying a huge bowl on his head to gather fruit and veg in what can only be described as a swamp. He does that for the equivalent of £4.70 per day! It's heartbreaking to see how these people live. I had to help him and his family so we worked out a way for me to send him money. I immediately sent him £150 which equated to 1,300 cedis (Ghanaian currency). He couldn't believe it. He told me that nobody in his house had ever seen that amount of money before. He didn't sleep that night because he was afraid he would wake up and it would all be a dream. It was enough money for his family to pay off their electricity debt to their govt to prevent having it cut off. My mate also bought some school books for his nephews as he wants them to have a better education so they can have a better future. Obviously, he also bought food. They had rice and stew for the first time in months. I've since sent further money to him. I have also decided to send him 300 cedis - around £35 - each pay day. I wish others could help these people too. My mate wants to come here on a work visa but it is so difficult to do so with the way this govt changed the rules. All he wants to do is earn some money to send home to support his family. With the shortage of workers in this country you would expect the govt to relax laws for people to be able to do this. Sorry for the long post guys. This is something that I've become invested in so I'm really glad that Tyrone and Nathan and decided to do this for the people of Juaben.

Is he ginger?

Out of the current squad, which players do you think Gerrard sees as starting eleven for him next season? I think he's probably happy to start: Martinez, Cash, Digne, McGinn, Ramsey, Coutinho and, Watkins. I think that he will consider two new centre backs, a defensive midfielder and another striker as his priority signings - all to go into the starting lineup.

Wait! Are you telling me that I should be drinking whilst on this website?

We should not be paying over 150k per week to him. He's not the quality player he used to be.

Maybe he would have against any other club than Liverpool?

Not sure Marv was spent yet. Thought he was doing well breaking up their play.

Would you swap out Coutinho for Buendia? Everytime I see Coutinho he looks like he's out of gas.

Foul all day long. How can Konsa attempt to block that ball back across goal when he's been pulverised?