Rightdm00

5 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Thought he was lucky not to see red against Leeds too.

This guy got some on the pitch issues.

Bamford's play acting almost cost us our promotion. Then he goes and pulls that shit again. I'm glad Mings treated him as the diver he is and yanked him off the ground. 

Also, the best part of that entire incident is VAR reviewed and said play on. Even VAR know's Bamford deserved it. 

Thought XG was garbage til I sat down and read the methodology on how it's calculated. Like all stats it's not meant to be a cure all but it definitely gives you a good idea on the overall quality of play for a given team. 

If you slide over to the Sheffield United thread I posted a good example of how XG can be a good predictor on future performances. 

The good news for Villa is that XG has us as the third best team in the Prem. Of course with our thin bench it may be difficult to maintain that level of play over 38 games but it definitely shows how well, presently, Dean has us playing. 

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

He's already accepted - it's something he'll have agreed to in the contract - there's a contract with three parties with a clause that allows the registration to return to City at a fixed price. If they take that up, he's registered to them - that's the contract he's agreed. If the clubs were trying to force it on him that would be different.

 

Yeah that's how it works. The player has already agreed to the transfer if the clause is met. The players registration will automatically transfer back to Man C. Douglas will then have to negotiate a new deal with City. 

1 hour ago, punkiller1981 said:

Just on this “big 6” who are they exactly?  Are arsenal in their ? Given current status. Spurs surely chat be classed as big 6 because they never win anything and haven’t for 30 plus years. I assume Leicester are in there as recent league winners ? Does anyone actually know 

The Big 6 I was referring two were the 6 clubs that attempted a take over of the Prem earlier this year. Project Big picture. 

Arsenal

Manchester united 

Manchester city 

Liverpool 

Tottenham

Chelsea

1 hour ago, sharkyvilla said:

That's only a small part of it, he had been a regular in La Liga but still couldn't get a work permit for City.  He got one for us because he was one of our biggest ever signings and wages as well as his La Liga appearances.  I think he must be pretty close to earning an automatic work permit because he has played so much for Brazil recently, it needs to be above 30% of their games over two years and he has started several in a row.  City would be mad not to want him back, some people say he has no choice if they activated the buyback clause but I still find it hard to believe that's the case.  You'd hope we could offer him a contract and a vision that would mean his head wouldn't be turned but it would be hard for him to turn it down, especially if he has the chance to play with Messi.

The buyback clause is between Man City and Villa. The player has no say in the matter. Now he could choose not to sign for City but they would still own his registration. They could then decide to sell him on but more than likely he isn't going to refuse to sign for City. 

If Douglas is worth about 50 million and the buy back is 30 million then we can easily just pay City the extra 20 and call it good. 

16 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Does he get a work permit to play for City?

One of the key criteria if you don't meet the automatic qualification through international appearances is how many domestic club appearances has the applicant made in the last 12 months. I couldn't find the required percentage but Douglas has missed very few over the last year. Has to be at least 80%. I think he would get it. 

1 minute ago, VillanousOne said:

he didn't throw his toys out of his pram about getting undeservedly subbed either

Bertie got the best of both worlds. Got the goal and then got out of there before all the extra running started. 

On 24/12/2020 at 21:21, MotoMkali said:

The thing about US sports is that there isn't actually any parity. Take basketball for instance most relevant since edens owns the bucks. Only 19 of 30 teams have ever won the championship, 11 teams have won the last 37. 2 teams have combined for 34 of the 74 total championships.

Over the last 10 years lebron James has been in the finals 9 times, the heat have been in the finals 5 times, the warriors have been in the finals 5 times, the San antonio spurs have been in it twice (and been in the finals 4 other times since 1999 - winning it 5 times in total). Lakers twice (one on the backend of a 3peat). Oklahoma City once but there best player has been in it 3 other times since.

And only 3 teams have won rings in the last 10 years that hadn't already won one. One was LeBrons team, one was the raptors after getting the San Antonio spurs best player and the other was the Dallas Mavericks having made the finals 5 years earlier.

The leagues highest ever ratings were when there are dynasties. Lebron, the Shaq/KOBE lakers, the pau kobe lakers, the warriors, the showtime lakers and the Jordan Bulls.

The point is that the championships still aren't spread out evenly. And that when they are it hurts the leagues. This is because it prevents casual bandwagoners from jumping in and enjoying the sport.

Sure the rise and falls of the teams are a lot more sudden because your players can't easily be poached and you generally have control over them for their first 9 seasons. But teams in bigger markets have a massive advantage as players team up and join each other on different teams. And even with the measures they put in place the only super stars who have stayed on their teams are Steph Curry, Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokoumpo and that is like 3 of 20 guys who command that level of money.

And we don't know the final outcome no matter what. How many times have people predicted Barca to win the champions League over the last 5 seasons probably 3 or 4 times they were the favourites but in the end they choked every time. 

The NBA has the least parity by far of the North American sports.  No doubt. That is driven by the fact that having the best player in the league almost always guarantees you a spot in the NBA Finals. It takes a really special team to deny Kobe, Duncan, Shaq, or Lebron when they are in the Finals. 

You want parity check out the NFL where back to back champions are rare. Only 3 times in the last 30 years. In that time no team has won 3 in a row.  Over half the league has won a title in the last 30 years. The hard salary cap is a big part of that. Prohibits you from stockpiling talent for any significant length of time.

What's funny is that the Prem has slowly been moving towards more parity. FFP, inept ownership of some of the top teams, and the level of tv money available has allowed the smaller sides to be much more competitive than 10-15 years ago. That's why the "Big 6" tried to enact that new plan because if they don't act now they may well not be the Big 6 in another 10 years. 

10 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

I think you’re wrong on this. It’s very hard to quantify the amount a coach contributes but there have been a lot of very talented players in many sports that for various reasons haven’t achieved their full potential. A change in coaching has brought big improvements in players no matter how talented they already were. 
 

I often think, why do world class tennis players or golfers change their coaches? Even why do they need a coach? What can you teach a Nadal or a Tiger Woods? However they all have them and often change them, so they must make a difference or why bother? 

The perfect state side example would be Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan. If you got some time to kill the Netflix documentary "The Last Dance" shows how Jordan made the leap with Phil's direction. 

We both needed a keeper. They signed Ramsdale and we got Emi. Shows how important a good GK is to your overall performances. 

Last year XG had them at 54 goals conceded but they only let in 39. Whole lot of that is down to Henderson. 

This year XG has them at 26 conceded and they have actually allowed 26 goals.  Ramsdale is the one transfer they had to get right and they royally cocked it up. Down they go. 

8 hours ago, MaVilla said:

I do something on the relegation thread showing this years points progress versus last year, i thought i would do something similar in here for top 6 points progression versus previous years.

Basically, top 6 points requirement since the 2014 season have been, 59, 66, 63, 69, 63, 62, this is an avg. PPG ranging from 1.6 to 1.8.

As you see by the right hand graph, our current PPG in the first 13 games, is 1.9 - meaning if we continued this progression, we would total 72 points.

Obviously i dont expect us to amass 72 points, but its interesting all the same.

 

10 hours ago, bobzy said:

Looks like I’m about to enter unpopular opinion territory... I love Dougie, he’s a class player and had a good game. 

BUT

I thought he caused some problems when we were down to 10 men, and often does the same thing in games. He’ll press too keenly, doesn’t win the ball, and the opposition are running at us. It’s a slight thing, ultimately, but I noticed it today.

Still, he’s class so whatever. 

Fair critique. He can get caught ball watching at times and will lose sight of what is happening elsewhere. 

Also, he will commit to a ball he has no chance of winning leaving the defense caught out. Happened during one of the Liverpool goals can't remember which. 

Those are traits that improve with time spent on the pitch. By 24 he will be one of the best DMs on the planet that I am sure of. 

Also, we are still due our Luiz banger from 20+ yards out. I wonder who gets it this time? What if it's City?

World's worst aimed "stamp". It was an unnatural movement because he was hurdling McGinn. Would have been a travesty had Tyrone injured the 30 million dollar ass of John McGinn.  

it was a nothing incident that Zaha decided to turn into something.  If Mings has it out for Zaha why doesn't he take the opportunity to toss him around while he has has hemmed up around the collar. 

As long as Barkley makes a full recovery, this injury has been a bit of a God send. Gave Jack the opportunity to show he can effectively play in a middle 3 at this level. That will give us a large amount of negotiating power with Chelsea. If they aren't reasonable then we move on knowing we already have a player more than capable of playing Barkley's position. 

8 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

I watched the first yellow several times over and can't see that Mings did anything wrong. Zaha overreaction was outrageous and should've been sent off

Zaha takes a swing, Mings hilariously holds him off with one arm then Zaha pulls the move when your bigger brother has you completely strapped up and you need your mom to come save you. 

Throwing your head around, yelling, falling to the floor. Sh*t was embarrassing. I'm very happy we won so we can laugh at this seasons later. 

10 minutes ago, fruitvilla said:

Dean's take on the incident.

"I thought the first yellow card was pathetic," added Smith. "Tyrone is stopping himself from getting attacked and gets a yellow card for it. With the second one, it looks like there is a foul just before Tyrone commits the foul - so they are two very soft yellow cards."

Perhaps he is just defending his player.

 

As any good manager should. First yellow was soft and the second was deserved. Zaha is an elite level irritant. Mings will have to be better in the future. 

2 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

Again though I don't think people are saying he isn't up for/to it.

People myself included are saying he has over the last couple of months made too many individual errors, often fairly basic ones. He has also on a couple of occasions lost his cool, Leeds where he got away with it and today where he didn't. We now go to Chelsea without him, which I think we would all agree is far from ideal as we would rather have him in the side.

Mings is a very good defender however despite the collective form and results of our defence I think his personal performances have been below what he is capable of and he needs to improve.

I'm not blaming Mings for all 7 goals conceded but he was poor in those games and I was answering the question of where "poor again" came from.

Trent, you are having the proper discussion on his level of play this season so fair play there. I have nothing wrong with comments/discussions on his concentration or questionable positioning at times. Having spent the majority of my football playing days as a defender I always play close attention to that area of the pitch.  

What does me in and honestly and can sap my enjoyment after a great performance is coming here and watching people call for his replacement. They are there, pages of them, and others on here see it. This is what General Krulak promised us a decade ago and Mings has played his part. 

I want to enjoy this feel good season and when you look at the squad, Mings will be integral to our progress. 

3 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

You say many are saying "get rid" I'm not seeing that and I'm certainly not saying that. You might see the odd person here or there but there certainly aren't "many" people saying it so this is a strawman arguement.

I'm not interested in whoscored ratings in the slightest. I don't agree with you that all 4 defenders have been at the same level this season.

As for poor again, I think he was poor against Southampton and Leeds.

I will definitely acknowledge you aren't one of posters calling for his replacement so my apologies there.

As far as how you rate him this season, I would think no defender has a good game when 3+ goals are scored. Unless you are blaming Mings for all 7 conceded. 

He is no longer Super Mings and thank God for it. We defend as a team now with everyone on the backline doing a job .

He has been a vital part of a defense that leads the Prem in clean sheets and yet somehow he isn't up for it. How?  I just can't square that. 

33 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

Deeds not words is what is important.

Holding his hands up is all well,. He got involved with Zaha needlessly just like he did with Bamford against Leeds and both times its impacted on him and the team. He needs to learn and he needs to up his game because aside from the bookings he was poor again today.

 

No one is faultless so it definitely is important to man up and speak your apology to your teammates and the fans. 

Where is this poor again coming from. Whoscored has Targett, Mings and Konsa all rated the same for this season. That's what my eyes tell me as well. 

People never learn around here.  He was clearly our best defender last season. Now the other defenders have improved to his level and many are saying get rid. Madness. 

2 minutes ago, ferguson1 said:

I think 40-50m right now but by the summer he could be an 70-80m keeper.  Let’s not forget what Chelsea paid for someone not so long ago.

He's the right age, pedigree I could easily see a 50m bid coming in this summer. He's already that good. 

43 minutes ago, Lord Willard said:

Champions League too soon? Hahaha I'd snatch your arm off if someone offered us that now

It really hurt Leicester winning the league so quickly.... Look at them now constantly challenging for Title/CL/Europe

 

 

The only part that worry's me is if we have enough room under FFP to make the necessary additions for a european campaign. Other than that bring it on. 

1 minute ago, Genie said:

Watkins needs to stop hitting shots at the woodwork from point blank range.

Harder to hit the woodwork than it is the goal. Think of the level of skill he must be employing to do that.  

Abraham is onside by a big toe and Watkins can't get a single decision WTF