Borussia Dortmund - August 10 16:00

[sheepyvillian]

3 minutes ago, TRO said:

To be fair sheepy, we are all hoping, that there is not too much to read in to pre-season outside of fitness.

This will be established in the forthcoming games of the Premier League season.

I hear the constant ( understandable) reference to the champions league and the expected excitement that it will bring, but may I remind some, we have already won it.....and that team ( as much as it was years ago) had a durable overtone/backdrop to it....that was its basis.

The Premier League is still our bread and butter, and still the yardstick, by which we will be judged...I hope we don't lose sight of that when we are eating our jelly and blancmange, of the Champions league.

I have a suspicion, it will be a slow start, and we will build up to a good season.....but I think patience, this season, will be key.

That's the key word, "Patience". It's no secret the owners tried to get FFP eased, so they could have a free for all. It wasn't to be, hence incremental rebuild, rather than radical rebuild. 

I would be happy with top 4 and any trophy to show for our efforts. It's been far, far too long.

[TRO]

4 hours ago, villa4europe said:

Don't disagree, there were some real obvious things not given yesterday

But said before I think we've got a CL learning curve coming in that I don't think our squad have that many CL games under their belt - us with the refs is going to be the same...hard to tell if they're poor or of that's just what they are and our players need to learn and adapt to it rather than us feel hard done by every CL game 

I think the PL has gone soft 

That's where I will still judge us.

We are still very much, work in progress, and with the influx of younger players, will take time to develop.....However, every club, will say they need time.

I bang the drum, regularly of being a team that's hard to play against/ to beat......that will still be the barometer for me, that determines, what we win.....I do not see a scenario, where we can expect, as a format , to score our way to consistently win games, or out of trouble.

I still see, nullifying other teams enthusiasm to attack us as a crucial element in our incremental progress.

[TRO]

11 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

That's the key word, "Patience". It's no secret the owners tried to get FFP eased, so they could have a free for all. It wasn't to be, hence incremental rebuild, rather than radical rebuild. 

I would be happy with top 4 and any trophy to show for our efforts. It's been far, far too long.

I would be over the moon with a 4th place repeat....and even a convincing run in the cups, to win a cup does require that bit of lady luck.

I would be a liar, if I said I was ok, with our defending, and for me that is a fundamental part of winning things.

Opponents cannot be let loose to run amok......To win the initiative in a game, we have to nullify their threat.....Right now, I question that ability. It may come in time, I hope it does.

If, I am being honest with myself, Sheepy.....I don't see, big money signings as the answer, or lack of them as an excuse.....but I do see a shortage of players with the nous to stop opponents....I see a predominate slant towards offensive type players.

Even the full backs, despite having already, offensive types, we still sign more offensive types....yes, I know, that is the modern trend, but surely someone has to stop opponents, gallop.....right now, I don't see that.

Patience, is all I've got.

[sheepyvillian]

9 minutes ago, TRO said:

I would be over the moon with a 4th place repeat....and even a convincing run in the cups, to win a cup does require that bit of lady luck.

I would be a liar, if I said I was ok, with our defending, and for me that is a fundamental part of winning things.

Opponents cannot be let loose to run amok......To win the initiative in a game, we have to nullify their threat.....Right now, I question that ability. It may come in time, I hope it does.

If, I am being honest with myself, Sheepy.....I don't see, big money signings as the answer, or lack of them as an excuse.....but I do see a shortage of players with the nous to stop opponents....I see a predominate slant towards offensive type players.

Even the full backs, despite having already, offensive types, we still sign more offensive types....yes, I know, that is the modern trend, but surely someone has to stop opponents, gallop.....right now, I don't see that.

Patience, is all I've got.

Tbf, top 6 and a trophy would suffice for me. You can't have it all. 

[bannedfromHandV]

26 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

That's the key word, "Patience". It's no secret the owners tried to get FFP eased, so they could have a free for all. It wasn't to be, hence incremental rebuild, rather than radical rebuild. 

I would be happy with top 4 and any trophy to show for our efforts. It's been far, far too long.

We should be delighted with top 4 again and a trophy on top would be immense, not something to be ‘happy’ with in my opinion. I worry a bit this season, folks will be expecting us to challenge for the top four again and it’s very possible we won’t, any form of European qualification and I’d be happy, just being in Europe for a third consecutive season would be big for us.

Definitely feeling a bit apprehensive right now ahead of next weekend, not sure our transfer dealings have all gone to plan as of yet (still more to come I’m sure), we need the Carlos/Duran situations resolving ASAP, worried we didn’t see Watkins at all yesterday. Pre season has been tough watching at times, we’ve lacked a spark in general and it’s not been a good set of results for building confidence. Bailey looks to have gone backwards, fingers crossed just a lack of intensity in line with not being competitive matches, some of the new singings have looked iffy to say the least (Illing-Junior, Barkley in particular).

But then, we have Unai Emery and that gives me the confidence that we’ll be competitive and hopefully we can rediscover that spark we had last season when it really matters.

[VillaBrum]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

I thought man for man, we was on par with them, and at times, we played some neat football.....but the difference was pressing, and they was better organised than us, without the ball. They managed to steal the initiative, using it.

The pressing is a real issue for me, because we simply have our game derailed by teams who engage in it well.....and in comparison, we stand off, and engage in token pressing or the semi press, at best.

I am still waiting to be impressed with us defensively, I will cling to pre-season as a reason....but I am quietly unconvinced.

We seem to change players, but the flaky defending still raises its ugly head.

I wait in hope, that we manage to become more convincing in retreat.

 

I feel that was true in the first half. In the second half we nullified their press and started to do a bit of our own. We were a much improved team after half time.