Championship Play-off Final : Pre-Match Thread

[curiousorange]

The best team will win on the day, as opposed to the ones who can play the referee better. I honestly don't know if I'm that confident about it but I would have snapped your hand off on Saturday night for the chance to meet Derby at Wembley so I stand by that. It's time to play our game again and if we do, we go up. It's about football now, pure and simple.

[andyh]

It’s as simple as this.
We ain’t going to get a better chance than this to go up. I really do not want to be disrespectful to Derby, but this is our best chance of going up and keeping Jack and our best players.

If we turn up on the day, this should be it.

[hilts_coolerking]

Keep our heads and show our best form and we're in the Premier League.

[wince]

Oddly confident. I’m glad it isn’t Leeds...

[p_ad]

I like derby never had any bother with them,used to love going to the old baseball ground.
 I think if we play as we can I think we should come out on top,be a good game I think and it will be about the football not side issues

[tomd2103]

That's actually an interesting selection, play Whelan and Hourihane and give Jack and El Ghazi free roles off Tammy.

I'm on the start Kodj bandwagon but that could actually work and get us playing between the Leeds lines much more.

Similar to how we played v Liverpool with Jack and N'zogbia floating off Benteke (obviously a bust in the final but our mentality for that was wretched).

Few options but I'm not convinced DS will change shape at this late stage so imagine we'll start two out wide.

Might need a 'Graham Fenton' type of surprise selection for the final.  Definitely think the front three needs tweaking, as Green has struggled in recent weeks and Adomah looks shot at the moment.  I would personally move El Ghazi to the right and then consider these options:

 - Whelan, Hourihane and McGinn in midfield and Jack drifting out to the left side
 - Kodjia starting on the left
 - Kodjia or Davis starting up front and Tammy moving out on the left

That's the last thing I would do at this stage. El Ghazi has been one of our better, if not best, performers in the last few weeks. Don't mess about with what is working. Concentrate on the areas that aren't.

I'm still not sure about El Ghazi on the left MV, as he is weak on his left side.  Would still consider switching him to the right and looking at other options for the left. 

  I think El Ghazi is as good on both sides (weak on his left side? don't make me laugh) - he is a two footed player and can cross with left or right but I think his shooting is slightly better on the right foot which he can use more effectively cutting in from the left wing.

Must have been watching  a different player to me this season Malcolm!  Hardly ever seen him beat a player down the left and cross with his left foot.  Agree with you that he is effective cutting in on his right though.  Just thought one of his best games this season was away at Albion when he played on the right.

[Monty]

Really could go either way, Derby are very dogged and have great character and never know when they're beaten. Add to this they play good stuff, and I think Lampard has done, in some ways unsurprisingly, really creditably well this season. Also I just generally like the Derby lot.

That all said I would absolutely take a dodgy penalty and a 1-0 win with loads of fouling and cheating and diving and swearing at the ref and boofball and long throws and time wasting and winding up the opposition fans, and they absolutely would as well which is totally fine. May the best team win so long as it's Villa, but if it's not then fuck it, I just hope we win however we can.

[Toronto Villa]

I would start Kodjia and give him free reign. Adomah and Green are limited ability players and offer nothing in terms of unpredictability. I like that Kodjia is hard to plan for and has goals in him. Set him free

[andyh]

Green should be nowhere the starting 11. If we go up he’’do well going out on loan for 12 months to a smaller club like errrr, Leeds for example.

[mr underhill]

Derby are the form side and will not be easy, far from it. They demolished Leeds, something we manifestly failed to do. But play to our best and we can win.

[OzVilla]

Derby are a decent side with pace up top and we need to respect. However, I think Leeds would've asked questions of us and disrupted our game much more.  That's not to say Derby aren't capable of beating us but I think Leeds could've really done a job on us in a way that Derby cant.

Confident now but will be shitting myself in around 10 days time.

 

 

[Villafirst]

Leeds had the game in their grasp but were too gung-ho. The goalie had a mare, defence was all over the shop - Cooper made the EFL team of the year? A joke!
I can't see Tyrone and Axel being so generous. We know how to beat this lot - their defence looks poor.
Villa to win 3-1.

[tim]

I genuinely didn't expect it to be Derby, so fairly pleased with that.

Rams to the slaughter..!

[Axl Rose]

I would start Kodjia and give him free reign. Adomah and Green are limited ability players and offer nothing in terms of unpredictability. I like that Kodjia is hard to plan for and has goals in him. Set him free

I completely agree.

[Duncan Shaw]

We just really need to work on guarding against complacency, both amongst the fanbase but particularly the team.  We have put arguably our two best performances of the season on vs Derby, we really could have had 6 or 7 at VP, but that will count for absolutely nothing now.  That said I'm glad it's them and not Leeds.