Xela Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 5 minutes ago, striker said: When was the time Villa strung a set of good results together with the current midfield? Thats not just the midfield though is it? I'd put it more at the door of the attack. Our 2 main strikers have been off form and we've had injuries with other players. Plus we massively missed Jack. Now with Coutinho here, Buendia starting to fire and Bailey due back i'm positive we'll move up the table. I think the midfield has done ok. I'd like a new DM, but i'll maintain the current midfield is not piss poor. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 6 minutes ago, striker said: Yet Villa continue to make little headway in the Premiership after the expenditure. What are your expectations of Villa? Do you think we will ever get to the level of Man City or Chelsea? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 If Luiz or McGInn were to leave now they'd fetch big money and chances are would go to clubs currently doing better than us, Ramsey is one of the best young midfielders in the Premier League, he too would fetch big money and chances are go to a club doing better than us. Midfield has been the strongest area since Gerrard came in, it's him fixing that area and making it more solid, that has resulted in our improved form, previous to Gerrard coming in we were too naive, thinking you could play with one sitting midfielder and have the other two as attacking midfielders, a lot of games Smith would play with a No.10 as one of the midfield three, something not many other managers do and for a good reason. As for a good run of results with our current midfield, I'm pretty sure we're around seventh in the form since Gerrard came in and that's despite having played Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd since his arrival, so our form hasn't been bad at all. Midfield can be improved, but it's definitely not 'p#%! poor', in fact off the top of my head we've probably got the best starting midfield other than the 'traditional top six' and then West Ham and Leicester. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomsky_11 Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 29 minutes ago, striker said: If the priority is mid to lower league position then sure. Lol what? We are 11th now, tied on points with 10th, having just picked up 1.6ppg from possibly our trickiest run of games of the season, most of which were played without Coutinho and Digne who are clear improvements to the side, all under a new manager, and about to head into I think about the 4th easiest run in of any team in the league, but because we didn't sign a central midfielder we most be aiming for a "mid to lower" league position? 6 hours ago, striker said: Villa still haven’t addressed that piss poor midfield which was and still is the most conspicuous weakness in Villa’s team. The personnel in our midfield are hardly "piss poor". As others have mentioned, Luiz and McGinn haven't attracted interest from teams above us because they are "piss poor" and Ramsey on recent form has been as good as either of them as well. I'd suggest the biggest reasons the midfield has perhaps looked one of the weaker areas of the team wasn't us having poor players there, but 1) Smith often played a system that left us much more open and less structured in midfield when out of possession, and 2) we have a set of good midfielders that aren't entirely suited to the roles they have been asked to fill, which was further exacerbated by point 1). The latter of these is perhaps still an issue with Luiz being asked to play the '6' role when he is more suited and would himself prefer to play further forward, but he is by no means poor in that role. He's played plenty of games there and has shown significant improvements to his defensive side this season. Moreso than this though, Gerrard has basically fixed the first point with the change of system, which in turn also makes point 2) much less of an issue too. Nakamba for example has looked a different player under Gerrard. That's pretty much all down to system change. Could we improve the midfield further? Sure. Would probably cost more than it's worth right now though and wouldn't make much difference to where we finish the season (which won't be a "lower league position" btw). What's already made a much bigger difference though than any player could make is the change of management. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 1 hour ago, Xela said: Piss poor? Bit harsh isn't it? I'd say imbalanced rather than " piss poor " but it's definitely been much better recently, as poster above.pointed out. I, along with a few others, just feel a different type of midfielder would help us go up another level. However, I'm still excited to see what we look like with more time, Sanson being more fit and confident, and injured players coming back. There is still every chance that this team could gel, with the right blend and go on a good run. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomsky_11 Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 3 minutes ago, tomsky_11 said: ...having just picked up 1.6ppg from possibly our trickiest run of games of the season.... and about to head into I think about the 4th easiest run in of any team in the league Detail on this btw, average league position in the current ppg table of teams played/to play: in Gerrard's first 10 games: 9.1 in our season so far: 9.7 (3rd worst) in our remaining games: 11.4 (5th best, not 4th sorry) Also worth pointing out the remaining games by the same measure for: Arsenal: 10.18 (5th worst) Wolves: 10.41 (9th worst) West Ham 10.53 (10th worst, but the 2nd worst set of away fixtures at 8.57) Brighton: 9.56 (3rd worst) Leicester 11.4 (marginally better than us overall, due to only playing West Ham (8th in ppg table) from the top half in their remaining home games, but then the 7th worst set of away fixtures at 10.0) 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSvillain Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 13 minutes ago, tomsky_11 said: Detail on this btw, average league position in the current ppg table of teams played/to play: in Gerrard's first 10 games: 9.1 in our season so far: 9.7 (3rd worst) in our remaining games: 11.4 (5th best, not 4th sorry) Also worth pointing out the remaining games by the same measure for: Arsenal: 10.18 (5th worst) Wolves: 10.41 (9th worst) West Ham 10.53 (10th worst, but the 2nd worst set of away fixtures at 8.57) Brighton: 9.56 (3rd worst) Leicester 11.4 (marginally better than us overall, due to only playing West Ham (8th in ppg table) from the top half in their remaining home games, but then the 7th worst set of away fixtures at 10.0) Interesting, thanks for posting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 2 hours ago, Wainy316 said: The gaffer is rubbing off on you isn't he rude. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 29 minutes ago, tomsky_11 said: Detail on this btw, average league position in the current ppg table of teams played/to play: in Gerrard's first 10 games: 9.1 in our season so far: 9.7 (3rd worst) in our remaining games: 11.4 (5th best, not 4th sorry) Also worth pointing out the remaining games by the same measure for: Arsenal: 10.18 (5th worst) Wolves: 10.41 (9th worst) West Ham 10.53 (10th worst, but the 2nd worst set of away fixtures at 8.57) Brighton: 9.56 (3rd worst) Leicester 11.4 (marginally better than us overall, due to only playing West Ham (8th in ppg table) from the top half in their remaining home games, but then the 7th worst set of away fixtures at 10.0) Out of interest who are the 4 teams with easier runs based on average league positions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMitch Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 2 hours ago, striker said: When was the time Villa strung a set of good results together with the current midfield? You can make the same argument about our defense, strikers, wide forwards, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMitch Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 2 hours ago, striker said: If the priority is mid to lower league position then sure. Furthermore, Villa have been continually linked to defensive midfielders! We're 7th in the form table since Gerrard took over... Also, being linked to players does not mean anything if we don't sign someone. If it was actually a priority to sign a DM, we would have signed someone there instead of the players we did prioritize. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Made In Aston Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 It's official... Best transfer window! Transfer window ratings 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 11 minutes ago, Made In Aston said: It's official... Best transfer window! Transfer window ratings Best January window ever! It actually annoys me when our own fans complain about it. Makes me want to swear at them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post tomsky_11 Posted February 1, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted February 1, 2022 1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Out of interest who are the 4 teams with easier runs based on average league positions? 1. Chelsea 12.86 2. Palace 12.06 3. Man City 11.87 4. Leicester 11.44 5. Villa 11.41 Interestingly, I've just flexed the home games by 50% as would appear to be about the average home advantage in points per game in the Premier League and the top 5 easiest run ins changes to this: 1. Chelsea 2. Man City 3. Villa 4. Leicester 5. Southampton Brighton move from 3rd to 2nd worst 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villabromsgrove Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 (edited) Here's an idea .... Let's just watch the next seventeen games and enjoy them. Stats are a side show to the game we all love. C'mon the Villa! Edited February 1, 2022 by villabromsgrove missing word Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 3 hours ago, KMitch said: We're 7th in the form table since Gerrard took over... Also, being linked to players does not mean anything if we don't sign someone. If it was actually a priority to sign a DM, we would have signed someone there instead of the players we did prioritize. Facts do tend to outweigh narrative 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 2 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Best January window ever! It actually annoys me when our own fans complain about it. Makes me want to swear at them. I have seen our fans on VT give our window 3/10. I guess some people have more understanding of social media than football 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 (edited) 7 hours ago, CVByrne said: Well obviously that won't go on forever. I was assuming they meant that was for 5 years as part of their stated plan. They are injecting capital to grow the club at a fast rate to get to that level where we compete. We are one of the biggest clubs in the country based on fan base and history so we have easily the potential to get towards Spurs level in terms of global brand and income as part of their plan. I imagine the 3 years from this season to the next two after it are where we'll see out accounts flattening out so our combined losses for the 3 season will be minimal (10m) if any at all. Any future investment in Villa Park will be treated as separate as it still is in a separate company after we sold it to another NSWE holding company if I remember correctly. No work to facilities is included in FFP calcs either anyway. I think the big game change will come when Premier League go direct to streaming and the income of the clubs sky rockets. We need to seize that moment to rebalance the money distribution more equitably. That can give us the path to kick on I agree we are a big club and all that and lots of potential but many clubs can claim likewise. I don't think we can compete with Spurs from a financial perspective. Their stadium is a huge asset and the ability to host American Football, concerts and other events gives them a huge upper hand. I hate Levy, but he is a sharp lad. 10m profit over the next 3 years combined: not a prayer of anything near that imo. Where is the profit going to come from? Are we going to batten down the hatches and have no new players for the next couple of years? Our overheads are going through the roof, we are going to be loss making. Re investment in Villa Park. As you correctly say any investment is not counted towards FFP but again, you correctly say we don't own Villa Park. The problem is that we currently pay rent to the Villa Park holding company and if they invest in the stadium and improve the facilities then FFP dictates we must pay a higher rent. So rather than having stadium investment as a freebie from an FFP perspective it will actually cost us money. Redevelopment of the stadium will directly negatively impact our spending power in the transfer window and on wages. Edited February 2, 2022 by Peter Griffin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 9 hours ago, Peter Griffin said: I have seen our fans on VT give our window 3/10. I guess some people have more understanding of social media than football It’s unbelievable. Can you imagine what some fans would be like if we had Newcastle / Man City type owners? It would be unbearable! Anyway back on topic. Great window! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MentalM Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 14 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: It’s unbelievable. Can you imagine what some fans would be like if we had Newcastle / Man City type owners? It would be unbearable! Anyway back on topic. Great window! Well Newcastle fans are outraged they didnt sign Haaland, Mbappe and Messi this window... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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