Rightdm00

7 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

I think Leicester winning the league after barely staying up has inspired some to think we're going to win the league. Which we will.

10 game win streak to chase down the leaders and finish top. The Dean Smith way. 

5 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I’ve been impressed with his ability to run with the ball out wide. At one point he put a peach of a cross in which was begging to be finished by Ollie himself! 

Also watching back the goal line clearance I don’t think he bottled it. We’ve already seen how he throws himself at headers. I think he thought the ball was going in so left it. In hindsight he should have thrown himself at it.

I do think he should have done better to get on to Jacks cross on the break. He was in a better position for it then White.  The defender should have had to go through him to get the ball so it was either a goal or a penalty/red card. 

I was thinking the same thing on that cross. Honestly, when he crossed it I got mad for half a second because I was wondering why Ollie wasn't in the box to finish it off. 

26 minutes ago, sne said:

Yeah obviously we are not fighting for the title but for mid table security, but the point still remains. With the schedule as it is this season it's not going to work. Our players will break down. If not by injury then by mental exhaustion. 

Rotation is overblown without European or deep cup run commitments. Most players on sides playing in Europe will easily start over 50 games a season. That's excluding any international competitions.

If they can manage that workload without getting shattered then our first 11 should have no problem playing a couple games over 40. 

57 minutes ago, sne said:

Leicester managed to win the title using very few players, but they still had a far better squad than we have. I fear injuries will pile up if we go down that route sadly.

Really hope we can get a couple quality players in in January.

Leicester played the same 11 and 2 subs for about of the 70% season.  In doing so they won the league. We aren't even trying to do that. If we can get to 50 points playing the same 11 before injuries and fitness levels undoe us then that is still significant improvement from last season. 

5 hours ago, vazquez said:

I think Ross injury and moving Jack to number 10 was mistake. Should have brought Nakamba or Hourihane in and kept the formation, Grealish needs the ball and space to attack, anonymous in the middle.

Jack got pushed to the middle because he was not tracking Lamptey at all in the first half. It was obvious he was gassed from that international break and moving him was better than taking him off. 

Either way, the point stands. Jack was invisible in the middle and quickly drifted out wide first to the right and then finally back to his more comfortable left side.  It was actually a little comical at times.  At some point late in the 2nd half Jack was out wide right and him, Trez and El Ghazi were all right on top of each other. 

Jack unable to play on the left for the majority of the game really screwed us. Fair play to Brighton for forcing that tactical shift. 

5 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Conor takes better set pieces and offer more in open play.

xG dried up as soon as Bertrand started to tire. Teams were able to double and even triple up on Jack and that was that. 

Dislike him all you want but he will be crucial to us maintaining an attacking style with Ross out for a couple weeks. 

26 minutes ago, Brumstopdogs said:

Listening to Dean Smith's interview he seemed angry about the way we gave away the goals so it's not like he doesn't notice it. We clearly need to make better decisions defensively to become harder to beat.

On the whole though he is doing a really good job IMO. All the games this season, with the exception of the Leeds game, I think we've deserved at least a point and not only that, typically, we've played good entertaining football in the process.

We're doing that playing the youngest average starting 11 in the league too so reason for optimism.

This is so key I just wanted to re-emphasize the point. Young teams will make mistakes, even egregious ones at times. 

The first goal, when both our CBs got lost ball upfield, is a perfect example. 

I listen to a couple of FPL and soccer podcast in general. Villa have been the talk of the town since we bonked Liverpool on the head 7-2. We are exciting to watch and have been attracting new fans from all over. 

If fans are noticing I promise you propective recruits are as well. Who wouldn't want to come play for an attacking team with a Head Coach who always backs his players. This season was so crucial to get right and currently Dean has us 5 points off of first with a quarter of the season played. Let's enjoy it!

13 minutes ago, AV82 said:

I wish Smith would have said f**k it, rested Douglas for Nakamba, McGinn for Hourihane and Grealish for Traore just so we could actually see it all in action.

.. Oh wait we did that against Bristol City back in September and we lost 3-0.

Imagine the uproar if Dean had rested just 2 of them and then lost by the same scoreline. 

Only the elite teams can dominate all phases of play. We generated more than enough chances they just fell to the wrong guys (Trez like 5 times). As long as we keep generating quality chances we will be in every game. Until those chances start drying up I'm not worried. 

Obvious Grealish, Mcginn, and Douglas were not up to speed after being over used during the international break.  

Then throw in Trez missing every way possible and it was just one of those days. On to the next. 

Looked good in the first half. Put in a couple great dead balls. Tired quickly in the 2nd. 

Got a whole week now to work on the proper formation for next week since I doubt Barkley is fit next week. 

Hard to plan for one of your top players going off in the first minute.

I'm assuming the pen was overturned because the Brighton player got some of the ball before he clearly kicked Trez on the shin. 

Never seen a defensive line that far forward on a throw in. Targett was the furthest back and he was 5 yards past the halfway line. Awful mistake by the defense there.  

11 hours ago, sidcow said:

Out of interest, don't players get any say in where they go? A team picks them and they have no choice in the matter? How very odd. 

Major stars can insert no-trade clauses in their contracts. 

Another way is if they have a short amount of time(1-2 years) left on their contract. Teams will be hesitant to trade for a player that won't commit long term. 

Player power in the NBA is huge. Star players can even force trades to specific teams.  For example check out James Harden. It's an open secret that he will be a Brooklyn Net by the end of the off-season. The only secret is how much the Nets will have to give up to make it happen. 

Players aren't huge fans of trades but given that their deals are fully guaranteed and some even include trade kickers they don't complain to much. 

Note: a trade kicker clause will increase the salary of a player by a given percentage (10-15%) if he is traded from the original team that he signed his deal with. 

22 hours ago, Amed said:

Unrealistic to think we won’t lose one of our top players in the next summer window - Luis has been very good last 6 months but he’s replaceable. Think if Man City trigger it - we’ll take the profit and move on. A club like Leicester seem to lose top players every summer and find same quality or better to replace. Selling is ok if you have a plan - in fact every successful club has had to sell big players at the right time to progress (Liverpool - Coutinho )

While I would love him to stay, he is the most likely departure in our squad. If he moves on we are guaranteed a lump sum payment of at least £30 million pounds. As you mentioned, if he leaves, we take the payment and go find his replacement. Every team outside of about 4 or 5 in Europe have to deal with this. Our management team should not be surprised if it comes to pass. 

48 minutes ago, YouUnastanFren said:

I almost had a seizure reading this. Mings already makes a few of those runs for us, especially when we're losing. Pretty sure he did it against both Leeds and Southampton.

We really don't need to sacrifice our AM for another CB for him to be able to do it. Watching England play has soured me against that system, maybe forever.

Back 3 will always be a negative system. The goal of football is outscore your opponent. When you sacrifice a midfielder or attacker to start another CB that is by default a negative, defensive action. 

In the last ten years Chelsea were the only league winners to play a back 3. 

Brazil was the last World Cup champion in 2002 to play with a back 3. Their 2 world class wing backs in Cafu and Roberto Carlos were key to that system. 

A back 3 can be used temporarily to cover for injuries in the back. Leicester is doing that right now with both their starting CBs out. Using it as a permanent session will almost always place an artificial ceiling on your team's progress. 

3 hours ago, hong0311 said:

That McGinn back pass contributed a lot to Arsenal’s xG if I recall correctly.

That's the Partey shot they counted. I couldn't figure out what shot they were talking about. 

Also, our xG is deceptively low because OGs count for zero.  

8 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Gomez out will Konsa get called up? 

Hope not. Our squad is far to thin to right now. 

24 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

I re-watched the Arsenal game yesterday and they got into some really decent scoring positions. Poor decision making and shots coupled with some heroic blocking from our defenders prevented them from scoring.

After properly studying the game, Arsenal didn't play as badly as people are saying. That doesn't take away from our performance of course, but there is definitely room for improvement.

Arsenal probably deserved a goal based off the chances they created. That's how it goes sometimes though. Southampton definitely didn't deserve 4 based off their chances. That's just how it goes sometimes. 

Don't think anyone is arguing we played the perfect game. One area they definitely need work is our pressing in the middle 3rd. 

Dougie and John, positionally, can be found out at times. The funny part is our front 3 and right side press pretty well but if our opponent can break that initial trap their is always a free man in the middle. 

Hard to suss out why on TV, since the camera is always focused on the ball or a tight shot of a pensive Deano. Something to work on though. 

Joe Gomez just suffered a serious injury in training. How many senior CBs does Liverpool have now?

15 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

You’re obsessed with shots against.  Many of them are from distance or half chances so it really doesn’t mean that much. 

Our xG against backs you up as well. We have allowed 9 goals on an xGa of 8.4. 

Slightly over performing on xG thanks to the deflected goals from the Liverpool game. We are exactly where we should be league wise based in our performances. 

1 hour ago, Lord Willard said:

I can't believe how much he has improved. Just shows how far you can come from hard work. Great role model for kids to watch. 

He is perfect for us right now but if we are to push on next season, I'm hoping we can find another hard working player that has that little bit more quality. 

Honestly, I still wouldn't count him out. Who's to say he has stopped developing. Rooney had Park Ji-Sung, Gerrard had Kuyt. When you are a generational talent like Jack you need grafter who can do the dirty work and then has no problem letting you have the ball for large swaths of the game. 

Trez is the right age, just entering his physical prime at 27, and on a club friendly deal ( 33k/week) He could easily be that guy for Jack. 

I like the confidence of everyone casting 3 other teams not named Villa back the to championship. Maybe its because we seemed dead certain for relegation for large parts of last year but it's all a bit to real still.  I will avoid the schadenfreude for now and just be happy that we aren't in the convo. 

29 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

To be fair who really wants to come on for 5-10 minutes to see the clock down. Ain’t worth putting your shin pads on. 

Yeah, I'm with you. Connor has been playing professional soccer for over a decade. He doesn't need 5 minutes of garbage time. If he was coming back from injury, sure, but just so he can run around and kill clock...nah I don't see the point. 

Sometimes I feel like people who scream for subs think the manager's two jobs are to pick the 11 and then use all 3 subs every game. I get it, unlike american football, where you see the coaches alter every play, it can be bit more difficult to ascertain where the manager has had a positive/ negative affect on a match. Subs are the one concrete way a fan can point and say look this is where the manager screwed up or "changed" the game for the better. 

I'm not against subs by any means. If a team is playing poorly or a player just doesn't have it by all means change it up. Fans need to understand that a player coming on is going to be initially completely off the pace. It takes time to integrate with the other 10 players already out there. So I completely understand why a manager who is up 3-0 away from home decides to keep things as is and not change it up for the sake of a short run out. 

53 minutes ago, weedman said:

I've noticed this too, he seems to love a Ben Mee style "leave one on them" kind of tackle and he needs to cut that out or he's going to either seriously injure someone or get a red card. 

Aside from that I think he's been decent, not spectacular, not bad, around a 6-7/10 so far and room for improvement 

He is definitely going to get a red at some point.  Aggressive defenders will collect the odd red card. I honestly don't see a problem with it. We were soft as a wet paper bag last year. Glad to see we have a bit of an edge about us this season.