Summer transfer window 2021

[Okonokos]

8 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Scored 6 goals in limited minutes 1st season at Chelsea. Lot of goals or assists for us this season are runs or in the area you expect from striker. AEG in front of him lol ridiculous

Why is that ridiculous? Traore is not a striker. Not even remotely. He's a good wide player and I do really like him but not as a striker.

[MotoMkali]

1 hour ago, brummybloke said:

How did wolves get on this year with just 1 main striker ? He got injured in a footballing accident and wolves went to shit solely relying on 1 forward without a replacement.

We need a goal scorer who can press, of which Davis bless him and wes are not particularly progressive at both things.

Grealish earns his England place on the left, yet he wants to play in the middle at villa, he can play more than one position, so can watkins who has only in the last few years, played as a forward. So saying or implying watkins is nailed on every game next season to play 90 mins per game as our only forward seems slightly optimistic.

 

Great let's go planning entirely around the fact watkins might might get injured instead of actually strengthening key areas of need. 2 of our 3 centre backs are very injury prone. (not including engels he's gone). We have 3 fit wingers and one of them we probably want to play CAM. Our defensive midfield is incredibly weak with McGinn and Luiz. Sanson may help by being an upgrade on mcginn but I would like to see an improvement in that area.

Instead we are talking about signing a ST as backup to watkins when we already have wesley (although probably not 100%) and traore who can play there. Bring in another winger who can play upfront and the job is done. Don't spunk a large portion of our budget on one backup. 

[Kiwivillan]

1 minute ago, Okonokos said:

Why is that ridiculous? Traore is not a striker. Not even remotely. He's a good wide player and I do really like him but not as a striker.

His career appearances and goal returns say otherwise

[Indigo]

If Traore being a back-up striker was seen as a truly viable option then you'd think he would have played even a single minute there this season,  but he hasn't. 

Smith has said himself that the third season in this league is all about building the squad and having greater quality in depth, having your starting right winger act as primary back-up for striker doesn't really go hand in hand with that statement and despite him having previous playing in that position years ago I doubt we see it happen.

[MotoMkali]

Just now, Indigo said:

If Traore being a back-up striker was seen as a truly viable option then you'd think he would have played even a single minute there this season,  but he hasn't. 

Smith has said himself that the third season in this league is all about building the squad and having greater quality in depth, having your starting right winger act as primary back-up for striker doesn't really go hand in hand with that statement and despite him having previous playing in that position years ago I doubt we see it happen.

Name a viable back up RW?

The only minutes watkins hasn't played upfront came after our backup RW was injured for the season. What are we going to do play Elmo RW? Not to mention cash was out injured as well so we couldn't play him there either.

When we have played multiple striker either traore has been subbed off because he's tired or still been providing width as a RW. 

[Johnnyp]

Rashica wouldn't cost much now id say with Bremen relegated. Feel we've dodged a bullet there though. The hype he got here was unreal.

[Okonokos]

3 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

His career appearances and goal returns say otherwise

He's only ever played as a striker in the Eredivisie and Ligue 1. Totally different ballgame.

Going back to the (in your words) "junk" Tottenham have signed as backup strikers over the years. Remember Victor Janssen. He was ruthless in the Eredivisie. Doesn't mean he could do it at this level.

Traore does not have the physical presence, pressing and aerial abilities or the natural finishing to be Premier League striker. Not by a long way.

[Steero113]

2 minutes ago, Okonokos said:

or the natural finishing

Everything you said I agree with except this. Bert is a supreme finisher 

[MotoMkali]

3 minutes ago, Okonokos said:

He's only ever played as a striker in the Eredivisie and Ligue 1. Totally different ballgame.

Going back to the (in your words) "junk" Tottenham have signed as backup strikers over the years. Remember Victor Janssen. He was ruthless in the Eredivisie. Doesn't mean he could do it at this level.

Traore does not have the physical presence, pressing and aerial abilities or the natural finishing to be Premier League striker. Not by a long way.

We'd just have to change the style when he was upfront. More balls in behind. More passes to feet. More short stuff rather than long balls and hoping ollie wins it. 

[Okonokos]

2 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

Everything you said I agree with except this. Bert is a supreme finisher 

I'd say he's a scorer of great goals rather than a fox in the box natural predator type.

I do like him as a player but if he's our backup striker then I would be worried.

[Okonokos]

15 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

We'd just have to change the style when he was upfront. More balls in behind. More passes to feet. More short stuff rather than long balls and hoping ollie wins it. 

I'd rather us just keep Traore in his best position on the right and sign an out and out striker instead.

Edited May 23, 2021 by Okonokos

[Indigo]

4 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

Name a viable back up RW?

The only minutes watkins hasn't played upfront came after our backup RW was injured for the season. What are we going to do play Elmo RW? Not to mention cash was out injured as well so we couldn't play him there either.

When we have played multiple striker either traore has been subbed off because he's tired or still been providing width as a RW. 

If Traore was really seen as a realistic back-up option at striker then I think at some stage this season Smith would have seen his "excellent" scoring record in the position as being more use to the team in moments where we were chasing a game rather than keeping him out wide simply to provide width. Whatever the justification for it, I think him not playing a single minute in the position this season in any circumstance indicates that it isn't something Smith is giving much consideration to.

There are other, more pressing areas of the pitch that need improving in terms of the starting XI, but it's been reported that we're looking for a striker and I tend to believe them given Smith's comments about depth. Seems like that will disappoint a lot of people but I trust that recruitment know what they're doing and either way we'll have on answer on what they think of Traore at striker, personally I expect him to have not played there much more than he already has for us come this time next year.

[VillaChris]

5 hours ago, nick76 said:

If Ollie gets injured or out of form we are screwed.  I’ve heard your argument and other saying the same thing but we have no idea on Wes re injury, Davis is not the solution. We lose our main striker for 10-15 games we lose a lot. I know your arguments against this but a striker is in the top 3 signings we need IMO.  Silly otherwise.

And having option to rest Ollie from time to time would be welcome aswell. For instance second half at Man. United on 1st Jan I thought he was massively fatigued, was second to pretty much every 50/50 ball in the second half of that game.

We had the 2 week covid outbreak and he came back fresh as a daisy and hit a decent scoring run in late Jan-early Feb. Then sat out the Everton game and played very well at Palace and Spurs.

It's DS having the confidence in a back up striker who can come in to start the odd game when we play 7-8 in a month as he certainly hasn't in Davis and Wes still tentatively coming back although possible he'll eventually go back into that row.

Tammy dosen't fit that role given he'll want to be nailed on starter and other clubs like West Ham would likely give him that (although judging from the Holte today he'd be a very popular signing for us).

However it's vital we get in another striker we can at least throw on with 20-30 minutes left. We'll be wanting better cup runs next season so that's potentially another 5 games to add on to what we played this season.

[Zatman]

11 hours ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

That's fine. I also scored a few goals with my left peg. My last competitive match I scored a random volley with my left. Doesn't change the fact that I am absolutely awful with my left foot. 

Same goes for Traore. I've watched him play plenty. Anyone arguing otherwise are fooling themselves. 

Brilliant, are you a professional footballer? 

[VillaChris]

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Zero injuries in his playing career.

We won't sign a 40 mill striker because Ollie might break his leg, especially considering it's highly unlikely knowing his injury record.

He missed a game all of 10 days ago and we created very little so while I certainly don't want a bad injury it's important not to get complacent. And as I've said above having option to rest Ollie for games here and there while not dropping the quality too much in final third would be brilliant as he was certainly flagging for us when you look back at the December games, sloppy finishing and was struggling to get in many of the games around that time.

In last two years we've had two keepers ruled out by ACLs, best midfielder would've been out for half the season if covid hadn't hit and this season we've just lost Jack for three months so seems incredibly risky to think key striker won't get injured at any stage of his Vila career.

I agree it probably makes sense to get in a wide forward who will play mostly there but can also fill in at CF when needed. Said before I think someone like Neres from Ajax would be perfect fit. 24, been a regular for them in their euro runs over last few seasons and good scoring record and I presume Doug and Wes know him from Brazil squads.  Can play wide or centrally in front three.Two years left on his deal and I presume they need to recoup some money from sales given they signed Haller for about 40m in January so I'd be offering them 20m and see what they say.

[VillaChris]

I know Leicester are in europe but they're apparently close to signing Eduoard from Celtic.

They've played one upfront for majority of Rodgers spell and have Vardy and Kelechi so by that logic they wouldn't bother either yet here is club content to keep strengthening when in strong position and keep the squad motivated and on its toes (Vardy also starting to show signs of decline in general performance).

Think how many points we've won from losing positions this season, it really isn't that much for team that got 55 points, think it's only 5. A striker being trusted to come on at 60th minute to change shape of game would've helped us a lot in that respect given there's generally little trust in Davis from DS aside from being a sort of last resort in many of those games last season.

Edit: Seems people want us to have about 8 central midfielders on the books next season so getting in another striker could also mean we play 4-3-1-2 more next season which I think would work out o.k. Could be a serious option if we don't quite get that top quality wide player we all want and could have El Ghazi and Traore as impact subs that way aswell.

Edited May 24, 2021 by VillaChris

[Adam2003]

52 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

 

I don't think Traore would be good playing up front in the PL. He doesn't do the harrying that Watkins does

 

There was more to your point than this so this isn’t disagreement in general, but: there isn’t a striker in football who does the harrying Watkins does.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

The problem is, the caliber of striker people want us to sign, won't come to be backup ( currently ), and we aren't going to change our system.

So I feel we will either have to make do with a young un, a backup one, or our current ones.

" What if Ollie gets injured " probably isn't going to convince a top class striker to come either

Edited May 24, 2021 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[MotoMkali]

22 minutes ago, Indigo said:

If Traore was really seen as a realistic back-up option at striker then I think at some stage this season Smith would have seen his "excellent" scoring record in the position as being more use to the team in moments where we were chasing a game rather than keeping him out wide simply to provide width. Whatever the justification for it, I think him not playing a single minute in the position this season in any circumstance indicates that it isn't something Smith is giving much consideration to.

There are other, more pressing areas of the pitch that need improving in terms of the starting XI, but it's been reported that we're looking for a striker and I tend to believe them given Smith's comments about depth. Seems like that will disappoint a lot of people but I trust that recruitment know what they're doing and either way we'll have on answer on what they think of Traore at striker, personally I expect him to have not played there much more than he already has for us come this time next year.

That's a stupid justification. He didn't play up front because he was our lone RW and the only time we changed the formation was after the Fulham game. At which point he was typically coming off first. 

[MotoMkali]

8 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

I know Leicester are in europe but they're apparently close to signing Eduoard from Celtic.

They've played one upfront for majority of Rodgers spell and have Vardy and Kelechi so by that logic they wouldn't bother either yet here is club content to keep strengthening when in strong position and keep the squad motivated and on its toes (Vardy also starting to show signs of decline in general performance).

Think how many points we've won from losing positions this season, it really isn't that much for team that got 55 points, think it's only 5. A striker being trusted to come on at 60th minute to change shape of game would've helped us a lot in that respect given there's generally little trust in Davis from DS aside from being a sort of last resort in many of those games last season.

Edit: Seems people want us to have about 8 central midfielders on the books next season so getting in another striker could also mean we play 4-3-1-2 more next season which I think would work out o.k. Could be a serious option if we don't quite get that top quality wide player we all want and could have El Ghazi and Traore as impact subs that way aswell.

Vardy is what 33 now. And Ihaenacho has been on fire but they also seem to now be playing 2 strikers so edouard should get plenty of minutes.