August Optimism Gauge

[PieFacE]

Gonna be honest, I'm not feeling too confident about the upcoming season as things currently stand. Naturally this could all change depending on what happens between now and the end of the window. 

We've lost quite a lot of creativity and goals in Luiz and Diaby. The Diaby sale felt a little unnecessary to me as I was quite looking forward to seeing how he progressed this season. 

I'm quite happy with the signing of Barkley as I think he has a lot of good attributes that Doug had and Emery will get a tune out of him. 

The Maatsen signing feels a bit odd considering the fee and the fact we have two left backs already. If we're in a position now that we can't sign anyone until we sell someone else, then Maatsen probably shouldn't have been prioritised as there's much bigger issues elsewhere. 

However, we're in the Champions League so I will enjoy every moment of it. It feels to me like we've made a lot of changes to the squad and aren't necessarily any better for it other than a bit of depth in CM. 

[JoshVilla]

I'm kind of flip flopping at the minute.

On one hand, I don't feel like we're really any stronger in terms of overall quality in our starting XI. We've lost Luiz and Diaby who gave us a decent goal return last season. Onana looks a good player but I don't think will contribute much in terms of goals, and we're yet to sign a proper Diaby replacement imo (we'll see how Philogene does at this level). We're light at CB at the minute, and will be even more so if Carlos does leave (though it looks like we could potentially have some CB/RB cover coming in).

However, on the other hand, our overall squad depth is much, much better than last season. We've got some big players returning from injury and hopefully ready to contribute. We had a bloody good team last season when the players weren't so knackered, so hopefully with more options for rotation we might be able to maintain that level over a longer period this time around. We have one of the best managers in business at the helm and we have **** Champions League football. This time ten years ago I honestly didn't think I'd see Villa in the CL in my lifetime. We may not go far in the competition, but to be at Villa Park and hear that anthem pre-match is going to be amazing. 

[Leeroy]

I was much more confident this time last season, quality players signed (Tielemans, Torres, Diaby), strong preseason generally, superb form the end of the previous season which set us up nicely going into 23-24.

 

It feels like the complete opposite this time around - signings been iffy and we look to have prioritised size of squad over quality, selling Luiz and Diaby, the Duran situation dragging on with seemingly no resolution now, poor preseason losing more than we won, very poor form towards the end of last season where we just about crawled over the finishing line to finish 4th (and had Spurs to thank for losing all their games against other top 8 teams at the end). And the our star striker hasn' played a single minute of preseason and wasn't even in the squad for the final friendly which I still don't know what that was all about.

 

Luckily we have a very good manager and I'm hoping he can get this team together, because right now I'm worried about the season ahead.

Edited August 12 by Leeroy

[MrBlack]

2 hours ago, Leeroy said:

I was much more confident this time last season, quality players signed (Tielemans, Torres, Diaby), strong preseason generally, superb form the end of the previous season which set us up nicely going into 23-24.

 

It feels like the complete opposite this time around - signings been iffy and we look to have prioritised size of squad over quality, selling Luiz and Diaby, the Duran situation dragging on with seemingly no resolution now, poor preseason losing more than we won, very poor form towards the end of last season where we just about crawled over the finishing line to finish 4th (and had Spurs to thank for losing all their games against other top 8 teams at the end). And the our star striker hasn' played a single minute of preseason and wasn't even in the squad for the final friendly which I still don't know what that was all about.

 

Luckily we have a very good manager and I'm hoping he can get this team together, because right now I'm worried about the season ahead.

Signings have been far from iffy. Except Barkley, who is just an improvement in Dendoncker, the rest improve the player they've replaced or have added an alternative dimension to our squad.

The sales are a valid concern though. Luiz especially, although there were a number of games last season where we played well without him so I'm not sure it's the disaster some are portraying.

Preseason has been extremely experimental, and we've largely lacked our two most important players for virtually all of it. 

[Leeroy]

5 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Signings have been far from iffy. Except Barkley, who is just an improvement in Dendoncker, the rest improve the player they've replaced or have added an alternative dimension to our squad.

The sales are a valid concern though. Luiz especially, although there were a number of games last season where we played well without him so I'm not sure it's the disaster some are portraying.

Preseason has been extremely experimental, and we've largely lacked our two most important players for virtually all of it. 

I'd say iffy compared to last summer which was largely excellent (apart from not signing a right back) and the fact we're competing in the Champions League next season so need to bolster the quality. Struggling to attract reputable players is not something I envisaged in May when we confirmed our place in Europe's elite. 

 

Regarding Luiz, we did beat Bournemouth and Arsenal without him, but it's too small a sample size for me. He was our best player in the first half of last season IMO and probably our best playr in the second half of 22-23. That's more than half the time Unai has been manager here. 

 

Let's see what happens against West Ham. The pre match thread isn't particularly positive which tells you all you need to know about the mood right now. A decent signing or 2 would brighten that mood.