david-avfc

11 minutes ago, DakotaVilla said:

We win the manager is clueless. We lose the manager is clueless. But we’re the best FaNs In tHe wOrLd….

What if we draw though? Does that make him a genius?

1 minute ago, thabucks said:

So Carlos and Kamara who clearly stated Gerrard was a factor  are liars? 

They all talk bollocks in the club interviews, pre scripted sound bites. Gerrard is presumably a bigger pull than someone like Smith, but let’s not get carried away he’s no Klopp or Guardiola and players aren’t signing for villa just to work for him, with the exception of Coutinho who’s his mate which seems like an excellent one off

Always looks lively and quietly creates chances at a very consistent rate and puts a shift in too. Great to see him score at the holte end, not sure what else he can do to force himself into the starting 11 

Thought we looked far better balanced today than last week and overall I’m happy with the performance. Still not 100% convinced on some of Gerrard’s tactics in particular how the midfielders seem to be tasked with covering the full backs who play far too high. Nothing to do with “never wanting him in the first place”, simply judging the team how I see them on the pitch 

25 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

 

https://www.forestforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/keinan-vincent-joseph-davis.49877/page-47

There you go.

General consensus I've heard previously is we priced him out of a move - I'm sure this move to Watford is in the hope he rips it up again over a full season and our asking price is met.

In January we’d surely have been happy to sell for £4m or £5m, rumours in June were that we were looking for around £15m! I know Bournemouth shafted us in similar circumstances with Mings, maybe there were still too many questions over Keinan’s ability in the PL or his injury record, but for whatever reason Forest have held firm and we’ve been made to look a bit silly holding on to a player we don’t actually want and have settled for another cheap loan instead of capturing a reasonable fee.

1 hour ago, sne said:

Scenes when Ross Barkley is presented at HT in front of a furious Everton away section at VP 

After his loan spell the season before last I don’t think the reception from the home end would be much better!

8 hours ago, AV82 said:

This. The 'injury' has been conjured up to save face.

Yes if he was genuinely injured he wouldn’t have been on the bench, we had 3 other defenders amongst the subs and only 1 midfielder so not like we needed to take an extra unfit centre back with us 

40 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Except he appointed 2 x vice captains and a club captain also and none of them were Tyrone Mings. 

Yes this is the part where it turns sour. Not liking Mings as the main captain? Fine. To say he’s completely unsuitable for any leadership role at all (but a guy who doesn’t speak English and has ever played in this country before is) when he’s been the main vocal presence on the pitch for years is baffling and comes across as vindictive by Gerrard. 
 

Mings should have probably played in the last game but he looked iffy in preseason so it shouldn’t have been the end of the world to drop him, yet the way it’s been handled it’s now become a circus. The comments that removing him from the captaincy to relieve the pressure on him now looks absurd given the attention this is now getting. The problem now is Mings is being hyped up which will only lead to misery when he can’t live up to those impossible standards, or it will just rumble on every time he’s left out and we concede a poor goal.

He was on the pitch 

10 minutes ago, ferguson1 said:

I’m a little fed up of hearing that we haven’t shown enough quality in the game and “that’s on me”. Heard this numerous times last season and same old comments already this season.

Now I’m not saying he should go but blimey I don’t honestly think he knows his best eleven and how to play them? That’s the worry for me right now.

 

Always comes across as the "that's on me" comments are insincere as he never elaborates on what he feels he could have differently, it's taking responsibility at arms length. Maybe I'm just nit-picking at this point but in either case I still think after 9 months he hasn't really captured the hearts of many of the villa faithful 

The record of the last 12 games, just 9 points, is dire stuff. The manager at some point has to start answering questions at some point for such a poor run of form extended that long. No more excuses about not having the players, the right captain, enough time on the training pitch - he's had all those things now and it's time to improve. 

3 minutes ago, R.Bear said:

The crossing today was baffling. We kept crossing from deep all game and it was just food and drink for the Bournemouth defenders. Whether this was a gameplan or the players were doing it off their own back doesnt matter. It should have stopped the moment it wasnt working. They had it so easy today, we did nothing to scare them.

I think calling it "crossing" is generous - that implies we were trying to get the ball onto the head of a team mate in a dangerous position. We were mindlessly kicking the ball into their box because we had no other ideas. 

2 hours ago, Zatman said:

Bought Cucurella from Barcelona/Getafe (Barcelona had a buyback)and White they signed at 19 from Southampton

Yet people dismiss this scouting thing as we are Villa we are too big to develop players as we need to win now

But what about the countless youngsters we’ve been signing? Tim Iro, Azaz, Feeney, Barry, loads more even Chukweumeka we signed from elsewhere 

Hopefully the loan spell which ignites his career for us. He had a decent but unspectacular spell in league 1 last year, he’ll now have a better idea of senior football and life outside the villa academy bubble so the stage is set for him to go onto bigger and better things

26 minutes ago, ZL- said:

Another thought on Terrier is he would add to burgeoning French contingent of Digne, Kamara and Sanson. It's clear when squad building that recruiting in language/cultural groups eases adaptation as we've seen with our South Americans!

But can also lead to cliques which can be terrible for the dressing room atmosphere so there’s a balance to be had

If we bought in a midfielder it would presumably be at Sanson’s expense as he seems bottom of the pecking order right now 

£20m for Chukweumeka is great business by us. We’ve given him game time and he hasn’t really made an impact. He could be a good player in the future, but at present he’s a development project who isn’t that useful to us. We’ve cashed in early without having to take the risk on him, we can now either focus on other prospects or just on strengthening the first team without worrying about accommodating a hot prospect who still has a hell of a lot of developing to do.

45 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Historically, wage bill has been the most accurate "value" metric to base predictions on. It's that still the case?

The fact they've got us in a different position from our squad value tells us they don't just use that (if at all) so how can you claim its mostly because of our squad value?

Which in any case, would be a pretty decent indicator.

Other than the 538 prediction I've not even seen another prediction that isn't from a fan.

 

The problem with looking at wages for a prediction is that no one really knows what they are until the official accounts get released 6+ months after the season has finished. So at the moment the official wage figures won’t include any of last seasons signings, or from this summer. Considering the number of big money signings we’ve made in the last 12 months with only one high earner leaving (Grealish) our wages will have skyrocketed. Does anyone actually know where our current estimated wage bill sits in comparison to the rest of the league?

I like McGinn and to be honest I think he gets some unfair stick at times. I’ve always thought  he seems like a great lad and a popular member of the dressing room, not sure he’s a true leader though but we don’t know what goes on in the training ground on a day to day basis

26 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

Not sure about this “number 8” talk… I suppose it depends on what the definition of that kind of player is…

Imo, the last thing we need is another player in the mould of Ramsey, McGinn and Sanson… unless we’re selling one or two of them…unlikely…

We need a different type, maybe a hybrid 6/8… someone like Sangare would fit the bill and SG has stated that Kamara can play as a 6 or an 8… Luiz is the best partner we have for him now and makes us better in possession but he lacks physicality… it’s one of the main things we have been missing for so long and is why we struggle so often in that midfield “scrap”. But, we must retain and control possession better more than anything. Having both McGinn and JJ in the side really hinders us in that respect, we only need one “action” CM in the side. And we have a wealth of attacking talent in front of midfield which can reduce the attacking responsibility of midfield and allow them to be more solid and focus on build up play.

We need to stop being wasteful and stop losing possession so cheaply.

I just strongly feel that we need a composed and solid base in midfield that is defensively strong and excellent in possession. That would unleash our attacking talent and allow them to fully express themselves… that way we could get both Coutinho (overall our best attacking player, esp in terms of scoring) and Buendia (our most creative player, best passer) in the side and give the CF a much better and more consistent supply of genuine goals scoring opportunities….

There would be no need for these players to drop deeper or search for the ball games if we address that midfield balance correctly…

Maybe chance creation is more of a problem than being clinical… harder for the CF to be sharp, focussed and clinical if he only gets the very occasional and possibly more difficult chance in a game… a more consistent and higher quality supply ins only going to help…

I'd have no problem playing with 2 holding midfielders and unleashing the remaining attackers and full backs to push forward, but looking at Gerrard's time at villa so far he's usually only used 1 holding player, either Luiz, Nakamba and Tim once but rarely 2 together apart from when Luiz has been pushed forward in a totally different role. I think Gerrard likes having an all action midfielders in the wider positions to cover the full backs. Personally I prefer a standard 4-3-3 with the attacking emphasis on the wide forwards and with a narrower midfield 3 but Gerrard's the man at the helm and it's up to him to secure success in the way he sees fit

7 hours ago, ender4 said:

Why would we do that when we can get a transfer fee for him?

 

 

For the reasons I mentioned in the post you quoted. He is down the pecking order and unlikely to pay, unless we can arrange a quick sale his wages are just a cost to the club. We don’t know what fee we will get for him - if anything at all as there’s rumours of him leaving on loan to the championship which at best will cover his wages (if it even goes that far).

Gerrard has complained about a “bloated” squad which tells us he sees the number of first team players as a hindrance. We can’t just stockpile players in the hope someday someone bids on them. 

If we shift him on this summer then great but so far that hasn’t happened and now it looks like we’re going to be trying to push a player out just after we paid them money to stay which doesn’t make sense unless something is lined up

8 minutes ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

 

He’s been linked to Watford before so hopefully there’s some truth in this rumour rather than it being a pointless rehash of old rumours

I don’t get why we didn’t just release him to be honest, maybe the club can make some profit off him but it just seems small fry in the grand scheme of things and would have been cleaner for all parties to shake hands and walk away,. He’s never going to play after Chambers and Carlos signed and we’re potentially stuck paying his wages which doesn’t suit either side

18 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

So how and what do we do to improve in that department then?

IMO it’s simple, the club just have to accept that the Ings / Watkins partnership isn’t what we need and instead we need to prioritise playing one over the other and maximising the potential of either Watkins or Ings rather than compromising on both. Neither may be “perfect” but focusing on getting the best out of one will result in a step up in returns pretty quickly 

33 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

This is the Gabby argument over, and over and again.

"Gabby's a legend because he's our top Premier League Goalscorer". Yeah mate, he scored 60 goals in six million appearances. 

As for Ollie, of, ****, course he's the only striker to score double figures in last two seasons. He's the only one we have at the club who has been here two seasons, Keinan doesn't count. I think Ollie has regressed. But he has some credit left in the bank from season one. If he's still shit after 10 games though, it's the bench for you my friend.

If he scored 14 goals would you consider that a good return?

That’s how many league goals he scored in his first season, so to me he should be able to replicate that providing we don’t waste him in a crap set up which doesn’t suit him (i.e. 2 up front). Personally if he hit around that figure I would see that as a good return. 

Didn’t watch the game today but seems like the overwhelming view is that we significantly improved in the second half when we switched to a 4-3-3. It’s only a friendly of course but trying shoehorn Ings and Watkins together cost us last season and if we still believe it’s our best option I fear it will continue to cost us. We have very decent attacking options but we need to get the best out of them