david-avfc

Think we really need to sign a winger this week. I know Emery likes to play with more flexibility than out-and-out wingers but with only Leon Bailey available we’re clearly lacking in options in that space. Emery has publicly said the same, too.

Other than that I think we’re short of strikers, Duran is one for the future and we’ve been playing with a hybrid 2 up top so only 1 recognised senior striker in the squad also looks like a gap in the squad.

I’d be really disappointed and quite shocked if we didn’t bring in players in those 2 positions this week. As for midfielders, it would be great to make a major signing like Guendouzi, but it’s not a priority as we have enough options to see us through to the summer.

56 minutes ago, nick76 said:

 

I’d be surprised if any PL side wants Nakamba, he’s been here 3 and a half years now and has only really been a bit part player for us which shows he isn’t really good enough for the league. He’d have been OK for a promoted side in the summer perhaps as a cheap PL experienced squad player but as a mid season addition I can’t see him adding much value to any PL team.

Not sure if Championship teams could take his wages, or if he would want to drop down either. I could see him at a mid or bottom half French side or back to a secondary European league like Belgium, Netherlands or Turkey, but those clubs have no money hence why he’s probably still here.

13 minutes ago, Johnnyp said:

Lange was involved in Kamara. We all presume it was Gerrard who identified him. Nobody knows that to be true. Probably the same as Duran - watched for a good while. 

As if Gerrard identified Kamara, the bloke doesn’t know football outside Merseyside. I bet he couldn’t identify half of his own squad.

5 minutes ago, paul514 said:

We have KKH

Think Kesler Hayden is still at least a season away from being a serious contender in the squad. He had a poor spell at Huddersfield, which happens with young players from time to time but he probably needs another Championship spell which goes better before we can draft him into the first team

2 hours ago, gwi1890 said:

People underestimate how tough it is to make it as footballer at any level. Plenty that think we’ll have a team of academy players in a few years time will be very disappointed.

Made a mistake sending him to league 1 at Ipswich last season as his first taste of senior football, it was obvious he was never going to be ready, as you say the step up from academy to proper football is tough to say the least. At least this season in league 1 he's actually getting more reasonable game time, even if he maybe isn't scoring goals they're obviously happy enough with him to keep playing him. Unfortunately he's under unnecessary pressure now having already had a failed loan spell in league 1 last season, shows just how important these loan deals are, positively or negatively - if he'd had a full season at Swindon and had scored double figures we'd have all been happy and we'd probably be thinking playing most games this season for MK in a higher division is good progression for him. 

If Guendouzi is Emery’s top target let’s bring him in. We paid £35-40m for Buendia and this guy has been playing at a higher level than Buendia was at Norwich so we shouldn’t have an issue stumping up the cash for him. It sounds like he’d really fit the system as a more attack-minded midfielder who can drift wide similarly to how McGinn has been played recently. 

0% pass accuracy today apparently! OK its difficult to come off the bench and make an impact in such a bitty game but in 25 minutes you'd like to think he could make one pass... 

Thought he was poor today, gave the ball away too many times and didn't create much either. I like him as a player but he needs to up his game now to reflect his potential if he is going to become a key player for us. I think we need more options in the forward positions to alleviate the pressure on both him and Bailey, and I'm not sure Coutinho is the answer 

Ings is a useful player for us, but ever since he signed he just hasn’t quite clicked for us. He didn’t fit into what Smith had been building at all, he was in and out of the side under Gerrard and now Emery seems to favour more a more energetic duo up front. Considering his wages and FFP cost I think it makes sense to cash it and recoup some of the original outlay for him, I assume we would now be in the market for another forward at Watkins and the unproven Duran leaves us a little light 

38 minutes ago, villabromsgrove said:

I was just thinking about current Villa strikers and a thought occurred to me, Cameron Archer was 21 on December 9th so he would have needed to be registered as one of our 25 senior players, whereas prior to his birthday that would not have been required. He's now been loaned out so this is no longer an issue. Jhon Duran is just 19 so will not need to take up a senior squad place for a couple of seasons.

I'm sure we have looked long and hard at players currently in our registered squad of 25 who hardly ever feature for us, with the intention of moving some out to free up space for incoming signings. 

It's exciting to follow rumours and speculation about possible incoming players, but the real hard graft for those in charge of player recruitment is selling or loaning unwanted players who are earning very good wages.

 

If Archer only turned 21 in December he will still be classed as an U21 player as it’s based on their age at the start of the season I believe (or the January before), I don’t think the U21 status changes during the season.

I think Archer is probably the biggest loser in the signing of Duran, same position but 2 years younger and a big transfer fee, whilst he’s been shipped off to the championship having made no appearances under Emery - it doesn’t look great for him unless he really proves himself in the championship in the coming months.

6 hours ago, Zatman said:

16 points in the last 8 games

The club will be absolutely regretting keeping Gerrard as long as they did

It was obvious from Bournemouth on the first day of the season that it wasn't going to work. Even if it was a few weeks later than it should have been at least Nassef stepped in before it was too late, I don't have confidence Purslow would have made the call

Hopefully Emery has the time now to get us into a solid mid-table position ready to push-on for next season

1 hour ago, Marka Ragnos said:

The main one on the club site. 

Probably just not moved his bio from the youth squad to the senior squad. Probably needs to make a few appearances in the team first even though he's training with them

5 hours ago, Tommo_b said:

29…… has there been Transfer policy meltdown on this thread yet? 

At £13m it’s reasonable though isn’t it if he can step in as a ready-made player. Last year we paid £25m for a “ready-made” 28yr old left back so seems like a step in the right direction on the sense scale 

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

Seriously. What the **** is this decision making to give him the ball

By the time it gets to him he's got two men closing him down, and anything less than a perfect first touch, and he's in trouble

He has to do better with his first touch, but it was madness, Olsen throws him under the bus

What option does he really have? Back to Olsen and he's getting closed down and can't pick it up, over to Digne and it's being intercepted. Best option is probably over to his left but he's turned away from them. Best option with what he knows was probably a one touch pass back to Olsen, but that just highlights how stupid it was to give it to him in the first place

The images show how much time and space he had, and sorry to say but it looks like he had plenty. The pressing player is literally 5 or 6 yards away when he receives the ball and he has at least 3 passes on if he controls it properly and lays it off quickly (Olsen, Chambers, Young, maybe even Bednarek as a 4th).

He is a premier league player and is a regular with one of the best international sides, at that level of the game dealing with the ball on the edge of your own box under a moderate level of pressure is literally one of the basics in todays game. 

I think there’s a talented player in there somewhere, he has great control and is prepared to get on the ball and drive forwards where possible. Problem is he looks like a guy who will always blow hot and cold, and when you’ve only got 1 winger in the squad and he’s out of form it really shows. At the moment he looks down on confidence and is struggling to do some of the basics right, we really need to buy at least 1 winger this window to relieve the pressure on him

52 minutes ago, Galway Lion said:

Can someone explain why he was sent off under the double jeopardy rule? He had let go of his shirt outside the area and is clearly trying to win the ball inside the area. Surely worth an appeal 

Pulling someone’s shirt isn’t a genuine attempt to win the ball fairly

42 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

That 2nd goal he obviously thought he was gonna cross it into the box, he wasn't even ready, I'd put my house on Emi saving that and being far more aware.

He has terrible awareness and positioning. Not even a decent shot-stopper either.

Can't see why we bought him at all - other than in the Gerrard era signing big "names" seemed to be the favoured approach and presumably the prospect of signing a first choice international goalie appealed more to Slippy G than a competent championship goalie

5 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Heard of him years ago when he was a top prospect at valencia, not sure how he went from a teenager playing in the CL for them linked with a host of top teams to playing for mallorca

I'm sure on FM he was one of about 4 must sign players from valencia, maybe torres, gaya and soler too, thats the kind of youth group he was with and still making noise... Then just went to nothing

Maybe he could be like Martin Odegaard - hyped up at a very young age and expected to set the world alight as a teenager, only to get labelled as a flop at 19-20 but then starts to realise the potential a bit later on. I guess Grealish was similar, kind of disappeared for a few years and looked to be going nowhere in his career before it all suddenly clicked for him aged 22 or 23 and suddenly become a completely different beast when we were in the Championship.

Certainly this transfer rumour has piqued my interest the most, could be a really interesting one a wonderkid just as they're possibly about to start kicking on to the next phase of their career.

31 minutes ago, pete101 said:

So with speculation this week, rumours of 3 players wanted to be added ,

Alex Moreno left back to challenge Digne and looks like that one probably happens.

Alberto Molerio or Lee Kang-in, Ive never heard of either, both seem similar type of players so you would assume it's one or the other?

So let's say we get them 2 over the line , where would people expect the 3rd position that we would be looking to add to?

 

The two wingers are both young prospects so perhaps if we did sign one we'd still be in the market for a more experienced "ready-made" forward? Moleiro is playing second division in Spain so presumably wouldn't be ready at all, whilst Kang-In has only become a proper regular starter in La Liga this season so perhaps a bit of a gamble as to whether he can step up to being a regular PL player immediately.

Other than that we have been linked with Weston McKennie, a central midfielder who can also play a bit wider too

4 hours ago, MSvillain said:

Does anyone remember the performance he put in against Man City for MK(?), even Man City fans were absolutely raving about it 

It was for Swindon last January, he was their best player and even though they conceded several goals he had their left winger (Jesus I think) in his pocket. He's perhaps not had the best of seasons with Huddersfield but he's gone from starting out in league 2 for the first time to the Championship in 12 months, so he's definitely made progression. Maybe he's still a couple of seasons away from being ready for us but he's on the right path

4 hours ago, rodders0223 said:

Just a very sloppy footballer. Works hard, can be neat on the ball when he dribbles or turns out of trouble but you can't give the ball away as much as he does and as cheaply as he does.

At PL level it is a criminal offence to turn over possession in the way he does.

I'm not sure he likes being central , he gets crowded and makes bad decisions.

He mostly played on the right hand side for Norwich which I think suits him better, agree with your assessment in midfield he gets crowded and makes bad decisions, also just has a general sloppiness with simple passes which is more noticeable when surrounded by players in the middle.

Despite his poor output this season he’s still top of the stats for key passes per 90 minutes played which shows he does offer creativity in the right areas, we need to focus on getting the ball to him around the edge of the box rather than in deeper areas where he’s ineffective 

Bad misses can happen to anyone and it wasn’t an easiest of easy chances, but the worry in my mind is that overall his performance tonight was poor all round, didn’t have the skill or ingenuity to beat the full back once and was pretty poor at crossing… and then adding on not taking chances

Not having other options in that position is scandalous really and begs the question what were the execs doing when Gerrard started to shape the squad this way 

1 hour ago, Villa87 said:

I’m fine with this. Don’t really rate Digne and think it was fairly poor business for the money paid and his wages. Not much of an upgrade on Targett for me. 

The whole transfer stunk of Gerrard wanting to sign “a name”. That said I thought Digne would be better than he has been, I’d actually persevere with him for now if it was my choice as it’s not all his fault he looked so bad being forced to be the main creative player in Gerrard’s shit-show system, and he’s been ok so far under Emery. 

I’d have no complaints with moving Ings on, provided we recouped a reasonable % of the fee paid and we have another attacker lined up. He hasn’t been an awful signing but hasn’t really clicked in the side for us

38 minutes ago, gwi1890 said:

I don’t think Emi needs knocking down a peg or two he just needs time to recover physically and mentally from the world cup. He’s quite a humble lad from what I’ve seen always greets people and fans and came here to play regular football unlike most who are happy to be on the books at scum 6 clubs.

Judging by the howler made by Lloris which gave us the win I guess you’d have to say resting Martinez was the right choice. Also a huge confidence boost for Olsen who actually looked pretty composed in goal for once.