oishiiniku_uk Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 Agreed re: Top 4 chances. There's no outstanding candidate for fourth IMO and I'd favour us over the other competitors so long as we can: 1. Tighten up at the back 2. Keep the majority of our key players fit and available. Those are two pretty big asks though, so I think it will be huge achievement if we manage it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG_Villa_Fan Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 7 minutes ago, oishiiniku_uk said: Agreed re: Top 4 chances. There's no outstanding candidate for fourth IMO and I'd favour us over the other competitors so long as we can: 1. Tighten up at the back 2. Keep the majority of our key players fit and available. Those are two pretty big asks though, so I think it will be huge achievement if we manage it. True, we’d need some luck especially with injuries, however, we have an outstanding advantage - out of all competitors for 4th we’re the only ones with an elite manager. I can’t believe I’m saying that as a Villa fan, what a time to be alive. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMelvillan Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 6 hours ago, rodders129 said: I think we have a really good opportunity to get top 4 again. I agree with El Segundu re Liverpool…it’s all rosy at the moment but the true test will be when the novelty of Slot wears off and they have to face some adversity. Chelsea are an even more extreme example for me. I suspect that they will fold under pressure and not have the togetherness or character to stay consistent. Spurs will struggle with the extra European games imo. Ange is totally intransigent so there’s not adaptation in intensity or style. I can see them flaming out. Utd’s best chance are a new manager bounce before Christmas. The players will do what they always do, respond to a new manager and go on a run only to drift back next season. Hoping ETH stays as long as possible. For me Newcastle were the threat but they have been pretty unimpressive so far and look like their away form will be patch again. Bookies have already elevated Villa above Man U in race for top 4 but still firmly behind the other 7. At 4/1 I like the odds! definitely a bit of a media love in for Liverpool and Slot at the moment. Like its incredible that a team of excellent professional footballers didnt suddenly forget how to play football the second Klopp walked out the door Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 42 minutes ago, oishiiniku_uk said: Agreed re: Top 4 chances. There's no outstanding candidate for fourth IMO and I'd favour us over the other competitors so long as we can: There *should* be a decent chance England gets a CL spot for fifth place this season. Although that was probably said last season too. Co-efficient FC should be better this year. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders129 Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 2 hours ago, oishiiniku_uk said: Agreed re: Top 4 chances. There's no outstanding candidate for fourth IMO and I'd favour us over the other competitors so long as we can: 1. Tighten up at the back 2. Keep the majority of our key players fit and available. Those are two pretty big asks though, so I think it will be huge achievement if we manage it. If you think about it though we did neither last year and came 4th. I thinking we’re better this year and the competition isn’t necessarily stronger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oishiiniku_uk Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 (edited) 20 minutes ago, rodders129 said: If you think about it though we did neither last year and came 4th. I thinking we’re better this year and the competition isn’t necessarily stronger Our defence in the first half of the season, before the injuries started to hit and the fixtures piled up, was significantly better. In the league, we conceded 25 goals in the first half of the season and 36 in the second half. We also conceded 2 or more goals 6 times in the first half of the season and ELEVEN times in the second half. We were having to score at least 3 times in a lot of games at the back end of the season to get a result. Edited September 3 by oishiiniku_uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewiek2 Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 13 minutes ago, oishiiniku_uk said: Our defence in the first half of the season, before the injuries started to hit and the fixtures piled up, was significantly better. In the league, we conceded 25 goals in the first half of the season and 36 in the second half. We also conceded 2 or more goals 6 times in the first half of the season and ELEVEN times in the second half. We were having to score at least 3 times in a lot of games at the back end of the season to get a result. The Kamara factor at play there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveAV1 Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 2 hours ago, oishiiniku_uk said: Agreed re: Top 4 chances. There's no outstanding candidate for fourth IMO and I'd favour us over the other competitors so long as we can: 1. Tighten up at the back 2. Keep the majority of our key players fit and available. Those are two pretty big asks though, so I think it will be huge achievement if we manage it. If we can do both 1 and 2 we can make the top 1 never mind too 4. Tyrone also to lift the FA Cup in May before leading us out in the CL final where he’ll score the winner from a SJM corner with20 minutes to go which is the time we always score the winner in European finals. This time a header not the more traditional shin!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted 22 hours ago Share Posted 22 hours ago 9 points from 4 games. 2.25 PPG. We are in 5th place after Newcastle clawed their way to a late win against Wolves… but I still feel we are on for 4th. Lets see how the start of the CL campaign affects our PL form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted 22 hours ago Share Posted 22 hours ago 3 minutes ago, ender4 said: 9 points from 4 games. 2.25 PPG. We are in 5th place after Newcastle clawed their way to a late win against Wolves… but I still feel we are on for 4th. Lets see how the start of the CL campaign affects our PL form. Going to be interesting to see how much stress there is over this new group format, there'll be a lot here of course, games like away Vs young boys will be "must win" and it'll be a disaster if we lose but in reality I think it could end up far more relaxed, a lot of teams go through, the results don't kind of directly correlate with each other in the same way because we don't all play the same teams, there should in theory be less pressure Take for example Newcastle last year, with that group they had to do something at home, they lost to Dortmund at home in game 3 and they came under pressure to win away in game 4, they lost that game too and then they come under huge pressure to get a result away to PSG etc etc This year the group won't take shape for a long time, we just have to do enough to stick around and be in contention, could be well in to December before an actual "must win" game comes in But again, that won't be the case on here! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Waring Posted 19 hours ago Share Posted 19 hours ago 2 hours ago, villa4europe said: Going to be interesting to see how much stress there is over this new group format, there'll be a lot here of course, games like away Vs young boys will be "must win" and it'll be a disaster if we lose but in reality I think it could end up far more relaxed, a lot of teams go through, the results don't kind of directly correlate with each other in the same way because we don't all play the same teams, there should in theory be less pressure Take for example Newcastle last year, with that group they had to do something at home, they lost to Dortmund at home in game 3 and they came under pressure to win away in game 4, they lost that game too and then they come under huge pressure to get a result away to PSG etc etc This year the group won't take shape for a long time, we just have to do enough to stick around and be in contention, could be well in to December before an actual "must win" game comes in But again, that won't be the case on here! That's true. They say 8/9 points could be enough to qualify for the knockout playoff stages. So a win against young boys that's 35-37.5% already towards qualification. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPower_14 Posted 16 hours ago Share Posted 16 hours ago We're definitely better this year IMO, but what hurt us last year was fixture congestion and exhausted players. We have good rotations everywhere apart from defence, where I can see us having a few tired players as the season goes on, and that usually means conceding goals. If we end up with a cup run and progressing through the CL, we'll be playing twice a week for most of the season. It's a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinebro Posted 14 hours ago Share Posted 14 hours ago I actually think Newcastle will finish fourth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted 13 hours ago Share Posted 13 hours ago 8 hours ago, villa4europe said: Going to be interesting to see how much stress there is over this new group format, there'll be a lot here of course, games like away Vs young boys will be "must win" and it'll be a disaster if we lose but in reality I think it could end up far more relaxed, a lot of teams go through, the results don't kind of directly correlate with each other in the same way because we don't all play the same teams, there should in theory be less pressure Take for example Newcastle last year, with that group they had to do something at home, they lost to Dortmund at home in game 3 and they came under pressure to win away in game 4, they lost that game too and then they come under huge pressure to get a result away to PSG etc etc This year the group won't take shape for a long time, we just have to do enough to stick around and be in contention, could be well in to December before an actual "must win" game comes in But again, that won't be the case on here! This is true. It feels like there's a hell of a lot of games being played just to eliminate a few teams and get to knockouts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinebro Posted 13 hours ago Share Posted 13 hours ago 8 games in the "group phase" is insane Anyone thinking it won't affect our league form I think is a little naive It's just so many games we'll have to play Of we could finish 6th and have a good run in Europe it would be an excellent season for us 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted 12 hours ago Share Posted 12 hours ago 42 minutes ago, Pinebro said: 8 games in the "group phase" is insane Anyone thinking it won't affect our league form I think is a little naive It's just so many games we'll have to play Of we could finish 6th and have a good run in Europe it would be an excellent season for us more so the ECL last year? I'm not saying we will breeze through the group stage without a care but I am saying that with this new group format we can rotate, we can play at less than 110% and it shouldn't be as mentally draining as the CL was in previous years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinebro Posted 12 hours ago Share Posted 12 hours ago 17 minutes ago, villa4europe said: more so the ECL last year? I'm not saying we will breeze through the group stage without a care but I am saying that with this new group format we can rotate, we can play at less than 110% and it shouldn't be as mentally draining as the CL was in previous years Can't really afford to heavily rotate our squad is the UCL like we could in ecl. Very different Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeroy Posted 12 hours ago Share Posted 12 hours ago 1 hour ago, Pinebro said: I actually think Newcastle will finish fourth The difference between us and Newcastle is it looks like they can defend. I saw them against spurs and spurs put loads of pressure on them but Newcastle didn’t buckle and they’ve still got Botman injured. Spurs had so much territory but Newcastle stopped them creating any clear chances. If that had been us we’d have been generous and let spurs score a couple at least. Against Everton Calvert Lewin had two 1 on 1 chances and fluffed both of them. The second goal they scored was from a set piece. The high line and defending set pieces is still our Achilles heel. And having sold Diaby and Dougie and with Rogers still needing to work on his end product and Ramsey not looking as dangerous as pre injury, I suspect we’ll score at least 10 fewer goals than last season so we really can’t afford to be shipping 60+ again. As a footballing side there’s little between us and Newcastle, in fact we’re probably a slightly better side, but defensively they pee all over us at the moment. And of course they don’t have European distractions. Unless we improve our defensive frailties I don’t think anything above 6th is likely. Maybe 5th if Chelsea and Man Utd continue to be inconsistent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwivillan Posted 12 hours ago Share Posted 12 hours ago 1 hour ago, Pinebro said: I actually think Newcastle will finish fourth They've hardly had a tough match yet and haven't looked flash. I think we'll finish above so that's 1st-3rd for us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted 12 hours ago Share Posted 12 hours ago 18 minutes ago, Pinebro said: Can't really afford to heavily rotate our squad is the UCL like we could in ecl. Very different I'm expecting 5 or 6 changes tomorrow id say there is a difference in the CL in that the players who did so well to get us there will be gutted to miss out, like I'm expecting duran to start over ollie but its ollie's goals and assists that got us there but like i said the main thing is i don't think the pressure is there like it was before, in a group of 4 teams we might look at tomorrow's game and say if we want to get out the group we have to win that game, if we had a 4 team group with YB, Bayern and Bologna there would be massive pressure to get 6 or 7 points in the first 3 games, with this new format we don't, that pressure isn't the same, mentally the competition isn't as tough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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