Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: PeterWithesShin on January 18, 2026, 06:32:13 PM
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We go again.
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Time for another unbeaten run
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Meh.
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Sign some players.
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Finishing was rubbish. some of our approach play was sublime. Frustrating.
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Time to start another 6 billion wins at home record again. But that was up there with as bad as they come today. Flat players, flat fans.
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We lost at home to Everton in 1980-81. Just sayin'.
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A shit day in the office.
Rogers needs to practice shooting with his left foot. Right is brilliant.
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320 loose or wayward passes.
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Sign some players.
It would appear that we are not allowed to
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I never want to see Guessand in our shirt again!
Someone has to ask serious questions about how and why we signed him. He is never good enough to be a professional footballer, let alone at this standard.
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The sloppiness was seriously worrying. It says something that hemmings seemed to have more composure than the established players. And now probably without mcginn for some time, Newcastle away is probably last fixture id want in the league next.
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Disappointing not gelling today. McGinn injury seems to have a big impact.
And why can you shove a player over with two arms and just get away with it, it’s a joke. Garner should have gone second yellow.
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Sign some players.
It would appear that we are not allowed to
We have signed two already this window and agreed a deal for another before he chose to go elsewhere. We must be able to bring someone in, unless the plan is to sell Watkins for parts at the end of the season.
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Hemmings showed promise.
The finger will be pointed at Torres for his poor touch but Martinez needs to be holding that shot.
Not sure why he took Maatsen off as he was playing well, getting us up the pitch and providing a threat.
Surprised he didn’t sub a sub by bringing Jimmy Aloba on for Guessand who was gash.
Better off with an Easter Island statue up front rather than Watkins, very poor.
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Disappointing not gelling today. McGinn injury seems to have a big impact.
And why can you shove a player over with two arms and just get away with it, it’s a joke. Garner should have gone second yellow.
But they should have had a goal, too. Didn't think the officials were particularly anti-Villa today.
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Disappointing is all I can say.
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If we'd matched Everton's determination, work rate and tempo we'd have won that match.
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6 midfield players out or not available today, Fenerbache and Newcastle next
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George and Ian the only 2 that did well, everyone else was off it. Shit happens, our first stinker for 4 months. Still a nice change from havung them every week.
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Disappointing not gelling today. McGinn injury seems to have a big impact.
And why can you shove a player over with two arms and just get away with it, it’s a joke. Garner should have gone second yellow.
But they should have had a goal, too. Didn't think the officials were particularly anti-Villa today.
No didn’t say they were, but that was a blatant foul, and he should have gone. 10 men and a free kick there was massive.
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Poor day at the office. On another day Rogers bags a brace, if he has his shooting boots on. I didn't think we were too bad in the 2nd half, but we could have played until Christmas and not scored. It was one of those days.
Both Watkinns and Guessand chose today to stink the place out. The latter is simply not good enough and never will be. We gave away a ridiculous goal from two individual howlers.
On the plus side, we picked a good weekend to drop points given the results elsewhere. We need to get bodies back, Onana and Sancho need to step up, (stay fit and contribute more respectively) and at least 2 new ones through the door.
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Poor.
With so many injuries (and the self sabotage of sending the Don to Roma) we needed our senior players to step up today. But they were all a long way short of their best.
It's not going to get a whole lot easier this week with Fenerbache and Newcastle away next up.
On the plus side, maybe we can leave Guessand in Istanbul.
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We lost at home to Everton in 1980-81. Just sayin'.
I said that earlier today. We were dreadful that day and they were also bang average.
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It was crap but we were due a stinker and it's come. See how we react on Thursday. Maatsen was best player by a long stretch and subbed. Lindelof deserved to keep his place for the League and Torres could have played Thursday.
Guessand is plain terrible. He'll never make the grade, what an absolute waste of money
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Time to start another 6 billion wins at home record again. But that was up there with as bad as they come today. Flat players, flat fans.
The pressure doesn't just get to the players. FA Cup semi-final was similar. Somethign about the big games with big opportunities.
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Not great. To have McGinn, Onana, Barkley and Kamara out is massively unfortunate.
But we played awfully - we made mistakes all over the pitch and got what we deserved.
We really need some players in, like last Jan. Our recruitment of attacking players in the summer was awful. If you think since Unai has been here, Diaby, Bailey, Rashford, Duran, Jayden, Asensio, Ramsey and Malen have all gone. Our squad is so much weaker than 2 or 3 years ago
I thought the young lad who came on looked good. More an opportuntity missed then a real issue. And to be fair, thats what we do as Villa - bottle it when were at risk off doing something magic.
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George and Ian the only 2 that did well, everyone else was off it. Shit happens, our first stinker for 4 months. Still a nice change from havung them every week.
I’d agree with this.
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I never want to see Guessand in our shirt again!
Someone has to ask serious questions about how and why we signed him. He is never good enough to be a professional footballer, let alone at this standard.
I could not agree more, he was awful. I would have subbed him when he bought Hemmings on.
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Woeful, all round. Roll on Thursday to get this out the system.
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We looked tired. And that’s before you consider the key injuries to starting players that have depleted us. So many games in a short period of time and not being able to properly add to the squad. Having to sell Malen to make room to buy players bit us today. We will bounce back, but today was a big loss and opportunity missed.
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Bugger
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As soon as Guessand came on on knew we were in trouble, Him and Watkins passengers all day.
Why we bought Guessand heaven knows he is not even championship standard. Rogers was our only threat. Thought Mattson played well.
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Forget injuries and we look tired this happens all too often.
Olympiacos.
Palace FA Cup.
United last season.
Everton today.
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I blame the media for not believing we'll win the league.
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Tired? We look knackered, dead on our feet and with two games next week I'm struggling to see how we'll pick ourselves up.
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Forget injuries and we look tired this happens all too often.
Olympiacos.
Palace FA Cup.
United last season.
Everton today.
We do have form when it comes to shitting the bed on the big occasion.
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Finishing was rubbish. some of our approach play was sublime. Frustrating.
Yep. That’s what I saw, plus great defensive work from Everton and bad defensive work from us for their goal.
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Tired? We look knackered, dead on our feet and with two games next week I'm struggling to see how we'll pick ourselves up.
I agree but we have Unai
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Poor result and performance. Hopefully a minor setback and to ge fair we haven't seen too many games like that at home over the last few seasons.
No Kamara, Onana, Barkley, Sancho, Malen and now McGinn and the squad is looking stretched.
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Forget injuries and we look tired this happens all too often.
Olympiacos.
Palace FA Cup.
United last season.
Everton today.
We do have form when it comes to shitting the bed on the big occasion.
Every single time. That's why they don't talk about us in the title race. We're not in it.
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I doubt "they" spend much time thinking about our performances against Sheffield United and Olympiacos, tbf. That's your trouble, you're obsessed with exposing media prejudice against Villa.
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Very disappointing effort, but their goal was a cock up from both Torres and Martinez and if Rogers had his shooting boots on we would have won.
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We rolled the dice a bit by letting Malen go this week, and being unable to be decisive in bringing in new and oven-ready legs in midfield and up front. We’d have been laughing if we’d won today, but instead, we lost the game and our talisman for the foreseeable. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right gamble, but gamble it mos’def was.
I actually thought, in the main, that we created lots of opportunities moving forward, but a bit like in September, we just couldn’t get it to click at the crucial moments.
The Torres mistake was bizarre (and Emi poor too) - can’t recall what it was but something happened just before to put Konsa under time pressure, and you could suddenly see how it was going to unfold.
Decent cameo from Hemmings, though didn’t always pick the right pass (like plenty of others, so no disgrace there).
Guessand getting a lot of stick and he certainly does give off an odd vibe. But he did come closest to scoring today, made a really good run to create another (poorly finished) chance first half, and put in a very nice touch to create a good chance for Rogers second half. Just sayin’.
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Martinez could have caught that shot it was so weak.
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Very disappointing effort, but their goal was a cock up from both Torres and Martinez and if Rogers had his shooting boots on we would have won.
We lost though, didn't we?
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Martinez needs to come for that cross for their disallowed goal too. Takes a step to go for it but hesitates. Guessand half hearted too.
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This is my solution to the problems that we saw today:
Clearly Wes and Naseef need to shut the business down, sell everything off and give up our memberships of the Prem and UEFA.
And every one of today's team needs to be shot.
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Martinez needs to come for that cross for their disallowed goal too. Takes a step to go for it but hesitates. Guessand half hearted too.
To be fair - I thought Guessard was being pushed by there off side guy. I though that is why it was deemed he was interfering with play
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This time two years ago we lost to Man Utd and Newcastle and bounced back. We need a bit of luck with injuries though. Hopefully McGinn back soon and Kamara/Onana too.
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Martinez could have caught that shot it was so weak.
He didn't even need to dive. It was so easy, he chose one for the cameras.
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First home game I've missed in ages. Luckily, I picked a stinker. Guessand looks like a puppy chasing a balloon. No wonder Monchi was kicked out the door spending Gbp35mill we haven't got on a player who would struggle in the Championship. What was he thinking?
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Awful performance. Sloppy in everything we did. Injuries have caught up with us today; 4 midfielders out, somebody marginally less useless than Guessand out ill, squad thin as it was.
Didn't deal with the high ball, awful mistake for the goal. Buendia was fucking appalling.
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Martinez - 4 - basically nothing to do and drops another clanger. Fast becoming very replaceable come the summer.
Cash - 6 - did ok and kept Grealish out the game but meant he offered little going forwards
Konsa - 5 - bullied by Barry and no incision in his passing.
Torres - 5 - clanger for the goal
Maatsen - 7 - our best player. Shame he went off but he’d don’t a lot of running and suspect Emery thought they’d be sitting deeper so limit Maatsen’s space.
Tielemans - 6 - pretty anonymous. Closed down v well
Bogarde - 4 - poor, especially on the ball. Badly miss Onana and Kamara
Buendia - 6 - tried a lot, looked quite dangerous but boy does he give it away with some sloppiness
Guessand - 3 - did he actually play?
Rogers - 6 - crowded out a lot. Got q petulant when consistently fouled. Not a game for him. We need to find other ways to play than just through the middle
Watkins - 3 - just what’s happened to him. He’s been useless nearly all season. If it’s an injury then he should have been rested and Malen played but we can’t even do that now.
Subs
Digne - 5 - did fine
Hemmings - 6 - looked lovely. Too soon to expect loads from him though.
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went for a walk , clear my head.
Even with 4 midfielders out we had enough chances to win , If Rogers had the right boots on thou the Pickford one was a great effort .
We was absolute awful but still should have beat that tripe , Garner getting MOM for his tackles in the last 20 minutes when the pusher should have been off and at 0 0 with 10 men , Villa win it , the ref bottled it like most of them done against a team like Villa.
I thought buendia tried , some wank stuff and some great stuff , I thought Maatsen was really good , I wouldnt have taken him off.
guessand other than a good header was rubbish and I really want him to do good here but I saw worse players under Remi Garde , the malen signing should have been put off , injury or not , Villa come first unless you have your player already in .
Disapointed in Watkins , thought he was a waste of a shirt today but we have no choice unless you just through a younger in and to be honest they couldnt do any worse.
Most of them was meh , Torres did his once a mth fuck all but come on , Martinez what
you doing with that feeble save, pathetic.
I wasnt bothered about catching up Arse , to me its about the distance from Liverpool. yan and chavski but Im sure and hope this is just a kick up the back side and get some bloody players in , I mean would Elliot have been any worse that Guessand.
off for a glass of red .
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The poor performance and mistakes were all due to having no steel whatsoever in midfield and nobody in there capable of collecting the ball from the defence whilst under pressure.
It fucked our game plan, because most of what we do hinges on that first pass.
Unfortunately, if Kamara and McGinn are both out for a couple of months, I don't think our season will recover. They're just too important. We're in for a pretty choppy spell, I fear.
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Last season, it was at Centre Half. This season midfield. Can't we try to spread the injuries around a bit ffs.
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Not good enough obviously. Pau cocked up, but Emi’s attempt at a save was fucking pathetic.
The midfield situation is obviously a huge issue, and I have sympathy there. I don’t for the utter balls up we’ve made on attacking options. It was a big risk to sell Malen before this game, we had nothing to change the game.
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Awful performance. Sloppy in everything we did. Injuries have caught up with us today; 4 midfielders out, somebody marginally less useless than Guessand out ill, squad thin as it was.
Didn't deal with the high ball, awful mistake for the goal. Buendia was fucking appalling.
Agreed. Worst performance for a long long time.
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went for a walk , clear my head.
Even with 4 midfielders out we had enough chances to win , If Rogers had the right boots on thou the Pickford one was a great effort .
We was absolute awful but still should have beat that tripe , Garner getting MOM for his tackles in the last 20 minutes when the pusher should have been off and at 0 0 with 10 men , Villa win it , the ref bottled it like most of them done against a team like Villa.
I thought buendia tried , some wank stuff and some great stuff , I thought Maatsen was really good , I wouldnt have taken him off.
guessand other than a good header was rubbish and I really want him to do good here but I saw worse players under Remi Garde , the malen signing should have been put off , injury or not , Villa come first unless you have your player already in .
Disapointed in Watkins , thought he was a waste of a shirt today but we have no choice unless you just through a younger in and to be honest they couldnt do any worse.
Most of them was meh , Torres did his once a mth fuck all but come on , Martinez what
you doing with that feeble save, pathetic.
I wasnt bothered about catching up Arse , to me its about the distance from Liverpool. yan and chavski but Im sure and hope this is just a kick up the back side and get some bloody players in , I mean would Elliot have been any worse that Guessand.
off for a glass of red .
Sounds like you've already had a few!
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We rolled the dice a bit by letting Malen go this week, and being unable to be decisive in bringing in new and oven-ready legs in midfield and up front.
It’s rolling the dice if you let a player of his quality go when you have another one through the door, contract signed. You’re gambling that they’re better than the player they’re replacing, and that they can fit in and hit the ground running.
What we’ve done is put the dice down, picked up a revolver and shot ourselves in the foot, and both kneecaps.
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We are third on merit but our success is built on winning the fine margins each game. If you walk the tightrope enough times, you will eventually fall off. It is easy to point at Rogers and his finishing but he has won us games we had no right to win this season, the odd time when it goes the other way is acceptable.
I sometimes watch the Guessand highlights reel to remind myself why we bought him. I think he was identified as having a similar skillset to Morgan but we have seen absolutely none of his powerful running. He looks terrified and like a poor fit. Bad for him, bad for us.
Seeing a lot of annoying crap about an understrength Everton side beating us an'all. Has there ever been a side this high in the table at this stage of the season that is so woefully represented by the so called experts? Losing Kamara while his replacement is injured and the replacement for the replacement is injured too is way too much for us to cope with.
SJM staying on might have won us the game today too, he is our out ball and looked like he had the measure of them. Those are the little margins again though. It is a shame but we have enjoyed an amazing run at VP. The manager and team deserve a bit of slack
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The poor performance and mistakes were all due to having no steel whatsoever in midfield and nobody in there capable of collecting the ball from the defence whilst under pressure.
It fucked our game plan, because most of what we do hinges on that first pass.
Unfortunately, if Kamara and McGinn are both out for a couple of months, I don't think our season will recover. They're just too important. We're in for a pretty choppy spell, I fear.
Agreed, we can't succeed with those two out together. Ive been quite critical of Onana and his inability, even when fit, to cover Kamara but he's unavailable yet again. Didn't see it today but if Bogarde couldn't step up at home to Everton that's a real worry. Drop off from McGinn on right to Guessand/Sancho is tragic really. If we got the Gallagher deal done he would have come on for McGinn today and got a run in the team. Same for Tammy, he comes on for Watkins today if we got the deal done.
Have to get quality into the club in the next few days or we could slide quickly.
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We rolled the dice a bit by letting Malen go this week, and being unable to be decisive in bringing in new and oven-ready legs in midfield and up front.
It’s rolling the dice if you let a player of his quality go when you have another one through the door, contract signed. You’re gambling that they’re better than the player they’re replacing, and that they can fit in and hit the ground running.
What we’ve done is put the dice down, picked up a revolver and shot ourselves in the foot, and both kneecaps.
Yep.
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Don't think you could really say Bogarde wasn't up to it.
We had loads of opportunities to attack them in prime central positions but, in maybe 10 or 15 such forays, could not find the right pass.
Bogarde mostly did fine, just ran out of steam and was on a yellow.
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Juan Pablo raised a good point. Harvey Elliot.
We need him now more than ever. Does anyone know how many games he can still play without us being obliged to buy?
We are paying his wages and he must be eager to impress for his own future.
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Disappointing day
Everton came fo a smash and grab and got it
Shame we were right on top before they scored thanks to a defensive error and bizarre parry from Emi.
Unai seemed to gamble at HT and out Rogers up with Watkins and Buendia in the hole. That seems to be working and we were better but perhaps exposed us at the back.
We badly missed Kamara and had no one to play on the half turn. So our build up was ponderous first half.
We will just have to beat Newcastle now to make up for it!
The Malen loan without a replacement inexplicable. We now need to signs. Couple of midfielders quickly!
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Newcastle and Fenerbache away are not games you want with a depleted midfield and no options. I think we might be in for a bad week or two before we stabilise again. Transfer windows are creating so much uncertainty this season.
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I don't think we would have lost had Torres and Martínez not made bad mistakes, but I'm not sure we were going to win either.
We can look at missing injured players, but they probably had even more missing than us.
Once McGinn came off, I'd have tried pushing Maatsen up further and brought on Digne rather than bringing on Guessand. Yes, he hit the bar, but fluffed a decent chance and his contribution was minimal again.
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We didn't play that badly but losing McGinn obviously didn't help us. We gifted a goal and were unable to break down the obdurate defence. Hemmings looked very assured - he's going to be a star - but without attacking options to come off the bench we ran out of ideas.
A special mention for the ref: Garner, MOTM according to Sutton, should have been sent off. The ref was giving similar fouls all around the pitch. Rogers does seem not to get fouls that others do get: because he's big and strong refs seen to assume that no one can knock him over; crazy.
Oh, and Guessand is a total donkey.
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An all round off day. I actually thought Martinez made a good save prior to their goal but others clearly don't. It was also the first time I have seen Bogarde's level drop. The number of midfielders out now is beyond worrying.
Edit: At least the FA got their preferred result with Arsenal and Man City dropping points. The ref's thresholds for fouls for and against us seemed very different but it always seems that way again David Moyes sides.
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I don’t blame Malen for wanting to go, to get more game time. I don’t think he was given enough opportunities at Villa considering I rate him so highly. I assume Unai didn’t and he’s the manager.
Watkins I think is on the slide so, can only hope that Tammy can do the business for us. We missed a huge opportunity when we could have got £100 million for Ollie. Be struggling to get 30 now.
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No one was ever offering £100m for Ollie. £45-50m max at his peak, which sadly seems to have gone. He seems a West Ham signing. £30m.
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went for a walk , clear my head.
Even with 4 midfielders out we had enough chances to win , If Rogers had the right boots on thou the Pickford one was a great effort .
We was absolute awful but still should have beat that tripe , Garner getting MOM for his tackles in the last 20 minutes when the pusher should have been off and at 0 0 with 10 men , Villa win it , the ref bottled it like most of them done against a team like Villa.
I thought buendia tried , some wank stuff and some great stuff , I thought Maatsen was really good , I wouldnt have taken him off.
guessand other than a good header was rubbish and I really want him to do good here but I saw worse players under Remi Garde , the malen signing should have been put off , injury or not , Villa come first unless you have your player already in .
Disapointed in Watkins , thought he was a waste of a shirt today but we have no choice unless you just through a younger in and to be honest they couldnt do any worse.
Most of them was meh , Torres did his once a mth fuck all but come on , Martinez what
you doing with that feeble save, pathetic.
I wasnt bothered about catching up Arse , to me its about the distance from Liverpool. yan and chavski but Im sure and hope this is just a kick up the back side and get some bloody players in , I mean would Elliot have been any worse that Guessand.
off for a glass of red .
Sounds like you've already had a few!
do you blame me :)
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I don’t blame Malen for wanting to go, to get more game time. I don’t think he was given enough opportunities at Villa considering I rate him so highly. I assume Unai didn’t and he’s the manager.
Watkins I think is on the slide so, can only hope that Tammy can do the business for us. We missed a huge opportunity when we could have got £100 million for Ollie. Be struggling to get 30 now.
Nobody is paying £30m for Watkins.
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I don’t blame Malen for wanting to go, to get more game time. I don’t think he was given enough opportunities at Villa considering I rate him so highly. I assume Unai didn’t and he’s the manager.
Watkins I think is on the slide so, can only hope that Tammy can do the business for us. We missed a huge opportunity when we could have got £100 million for Ollie. Be struggling to get 30 now.
I don’t think there’s ever been a time that we could have got £100m for Ollie Watkins!
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Surprised we didn’t stick one of the young kids who is a striker on the bench.
Isn’t the Scottish kid Wilson meant to be highly regarded?
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This is a massive few weeks with regards to the transfer market. No midfield cost us today and Sancho phoning in ill didn’t help.
Poor from Watkins today but we are third from
top not from the bottom so let’s see what Emery can pull out of the bag this week.
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Finishing was rubbish. some of our approach play was sublime. Frustrating.
This. We played quite well but couldn’t the net.
Having 3 midfielders out is gonna screw us.
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If Jordan Bowery and Rudy Gestede had a love child, it would be better at football than Guessand.
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Our strength is midfielders overloading the box and creating space for the forwards. Today we looked a squad short of a squad. Tielemans had a poor game for him. Rogers couldn't finish his dinner. Watkins was atrocious at almost everything he did. We lacked a wide option and had zero urgency to call on from the bench.
Those bashing Guessand, he's poor, but he fights. He's also potentially a fantastic right back.
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This is a massive few weeks with regards to the transfer market. No midfield cost us today and Sancho phoning in ill didn’t help.
Poor from Watkins today but we are third from
top not from the bottom so let’s see what Emery can pull out of the bag this week.
I'm not sure why you say Watkins was poor ... it's not like he had much service. The disappointment came from Rogers who had several opportunities and couldn't convert.
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The amount of times Konsa refused a ball to Bogarde was ridiculous. If it was Kamara, the ball would have been played. It was either Konsa not trusting him or instruction from Unai, meaning he doesn’t trust him. Either way, it had a big part to play in how particularly slow and laboured we were today.
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So sloppy at critical times.
How many times did we pass the ball straight out of play.
There were some good points.
Tielemans did the work of 4 men today.
Cash was decent.
Bogarde was very tidy and Hemmings looked very much at home.
The bad though.
Konsa standing on or holding onto the ball for too long.
Torres fuck up. Thanks for that.
Buendia, runs and buzzes around but is so ineffective. I have said for a while, he has regressed to Buendia 1.0. Nowhere near good enough.
Watkins. Absolutely shit mate. You should be embarrassed by that performance.
Guessand. Wher the hell do you start ? Firstly we have been mugged off massively.
To me he looks like a someone who doesn’t know his teammates. It’s like he’s a stranger who has been brought in, just to make up the numbers.
He looks completely lost, and he can’t run.
They used to call players like him ‘languid’. He’s not languid, he’s just fucking shit.
So disappointed. Yet again when there was a chance to have something really tangible for a positive result.
And yet again, we shit the fucking bed.
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Our strength is midfielders overloading the box and creating space for the forwards. Today we looked a squad short of a squad. Tielemans had a poor game for him. Rogers couldn't finish his dinner. Watkins was atrocious at almost everything he did. We lacked a wide option and had zero urgency to call on from the bench.
Those bashing Guessand, he's poor, but he fights. He's also potentially a fantastic right back.
Seeing Grealish ghost past him not sure about that. Not aimed at you, but I think the right back talk is clutching at straws because he works hard. He’s just not very good.
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We often talk about control but I felt it was a bit more frantic today. Which isn't a surprise with no SJM, Onana and Booby. They give us that control that allows us to do what we do. If those 3 are out for a while we're going to have to change a bit I reckon.
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So sloppy at critical times.
How many times did we pass the ball straight out of play.
There were some good points.
Tielemans did the work of 4 men today.
Cash was decent.
Bogarde was very tidy and Hemmings looked very much at home.
The bad though.
Konsa standing on or holding onto the ball for too long.
Torres fuck up. Thanks for that.
Buendia, runs and buzzes around but is so ineffective. I have said for a while, he has regressed to Buendia 1.0. Nowhere near good enough.
Watkins. Absolutely shit mate. You should be embarrassed by that performance.
Guessand. Wher the hell do you start ? Firstly we have been mugged off massively.
To me he looks like a someone who doesn’t know his teammates. It’s like he’s a stranger who has been brought in, just to make up the numbers.
He looks completely lost, and he can’t run.
They used to call players like him ‘languid’. He’s not languid, he’s just fucking shit.
So disappointed. Yet again when there was a chance to have something really tangible for a positive result.
And yet again, we shit the fucking bed.
Doesn't even rhyme!
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Our strength is midfielders overloading the box and creating space for the forwards. Today we looked a squad short of a squad. Tielemans had a poor game for him. Rogers couldn't finish his dinner. Watkins was atrocious at almost everything he did. We lacked a wide option and had zero urgency to call on from the bench.
Those bashing Guessand, he's poor, but he fights. He's also potentially a fantastic right back.
Guessand is not a fricking RB: too slow and ponderous.
Re the wide option, someone above suggested that we maybe should have brought Digne in for McGinn and moved Maatsen forward: probably a better option than Guessand, given the general lack of experience on the bench.
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Guessand as a right back ???
The bloke can’t fucking run.
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"He was very lucky indeed..."
Should James Garner have received a second yellow card against Aston Villa?
https://x.com/SkySportsPL/status/2012968993108209923
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We often talk about control but I felt it was a bit more frantic today. Which isn't a surprise with no SJM, Onana and Booby. They give us that control that allows us to do what we do. If those 3 are out for a while we're going to have to change a bit I reckon.
Indeed and also Newcastle away with a callow midfield is not a good prospect.
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The thing that concerns me is that, with players out injured, players like Watkins, Buendia and Guessand know there's no-one to replace them and can turn in the sort of poor performance that they turned in today. There is a weight of expectation now and to lose to Everton is so very disappointing but hardly surprising with losing McGinn early, may players being below par and the shocking refereeing decisions. Rogers was very clearly pushed.
Have to say, Torres, thought he particularly struggled with the physical presence. Guessand is a lazy, half hearted player, possibly lacking a bit of confidence, which is weird because we are 3rd, but some poor play today. We have wingers who never seem to take on and beat their men to deliver. Rogers, Buendia, Tielemans, Watkins, Bogarde all had below par games, can't carry that many players. Oh Emi, what were you and Torres doing?
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Flat first half and flat atmosphere. Picked up in the second half, but keystone cops for the goal. Said at half time, it was a one goal game. It was a game for McGinn to take by the scruff of the neck, such a blow losing him. We can’t lose him, Kamara and Onana and hope to compete.
Newcastle are a glorified meat and potatoes side to me, but what they do have is muscle in the middle. Its asking a lot of Tielemans and Bogarde next week.
Buendia hugely frustrating today. Rogers desperately trying to take on their whole team. Watkins anonymous, once Maatsen went off our main creative outlook disappeared.
Feel very flat tonight.
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File today with Sheffield United. olympiacos, Palace SF and Old Trafford last day of the season. Chance to move to the next level and we froze.
Though if Rogers had bought his shooting boots would have been a different result. Would have liked to see him move wide left and Buendia into the middle for the last 30 minutes too
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Flat first half and flat atmosphere. Picked up in the second half, but keystone cops for the goal. Said at half time, it was a one goal game. It was a game for McGinn to take by the scruff of the neck, such a blow losing him. We can’t lose him, Kamara and Onana and hope to compete.
Newcastle are a glorified meat and potatoes side to me, but what they do have is muscle in the middle. Its asking a lot of Tielemans and Bogarde next week.
Buendia hugely frustrating today. Rogers desperately trying to take on their whole team. Watkins anonymous, once Maatsen went off our main creative outlook disappeared.
Feel very flat tonight.
Newcastle will shred us in midfield sadly.
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File today with Sheffield United. olympiacos, Palace SF and Old Trafford last day of the season. Chance to move to the next level and we froze.
Though if Rogers had bought his shooting boots would have been a different result. Would have liked to see him move wide left and Buendia into the middle for the last 30 minutes too
Happens in too many big games. So frustrating.
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File today with Sheffield United. olympiacos, Palace SF and Old Trafford last day of the season. Chance to move to the next level and we froze.
Though if Rogers had bought his shooting boots would have been a different result. Would have liked to see him move wide left and Buendia into the middle for the last 30 minutes too
Think you have to take the McGinn, Onana, Kamara issue into account before making this association
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We win plenty of them as well though, it's worth remembering that.
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File today with Sheffield United. olympiacos, Palace SF and Old Trafford last day of the season. Chance to move to the next level and we froze.
Though if Rogers had bought his shooting boots would have been a different result. Would have liked to see him move wide left and Buendia into the middle for the last 30 minutes too
Think you have to take the McGinn, Onana, Kamara issue into account before making this association
And selling Malen, particularly before this game. The first 3 are critical to our game, the latter has been really important to help us change games.
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File today with Sheffield United. olympiacos, Palace SF and Old Trafford last day of the season. Chance to move to the next level and we froze.
Though if Rogers had bought his shooting boots would have been a different result. Would have liked to see him move wide left and Buendia into the middle for the last 30 minutes too
Think you have to take the McGinn, Onana, Kamara issue into account before making this association
And selling Malen, particularly before this game. The first 3 are critical to our game, the latter has been really important to help us change games.
Yea agree. I don’t think we shit the bed today, I just think we were missing too many essential players to get it over the line. Partly a luck issue, partly it seems with Malen and noreplacement, a stupidity issue.
Anyway
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File today with Sheffield United. olympiacos, Palace SF and Old Trafford last day of the season. Chance to move to the next level and we froze.
Though if Rogers had bought his shooting boots would have been a different result. Would have liked to see him move wide left and Buendia into the middle for the last 30 minutes too
Think you have to take the McGinn, Onana, Kamara issue into account before making this association
And, we actually made chances, far more of them than they did. Rogers could have had 2 or 3 on another day.
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1. Play full strength team against Spurs.
2.Sell Malen without a replacement.
3. Bring Guessand on. We effectively went down to 10 men.
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File today with Sheffield United. olympiacos, Palace SF and Old Trafford last day of the season. Chance to move to the next level and we froze.
Though if Rogers had bought his shooting boots would have been a different result. Would have liked to see him move wide left and Buendia into the middle for the last 30 minutes too
Think you have to take the McGinn, Onana, Kamara issue into account before making this association
Exactly. Tonight was a bridge too far that's all. We are missing virtually our whole midfield engine room We will come back stronger. Word for Rogers. He was immense today. He couldn't quite make it happen but boy did he try. Phenomenal player and he's ours. If the referee wasn't doing his best Mr Maggoo impression today Rogers would have earned at least two free kicks on the edge of the box and both in prime Rogers "knuckleball" territory. One of which led directly to an Everton breakaway from which they scored.
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Forget injuries and we look tired this happens all too often.
Olympiacos.
Palace FA Cup.
United last season.
Everton today.
Chelsea FA Cup
1989-90
1992-93
Arsenal FA Cup
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Why are refs so blatantly favouring the opposition. It’s getting too commonplace now.
Another shit bag today.
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Perhaps Unai shouldn't have been in such a hurry to bring Pau back when Lindelof had been playing so well. Pau was having a very poor game even before the mistake for their goal, and his passing added nothing today.
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Brighton to seal Europe
Arsenal away 2-0
Bayern home
Arsenal and ManC home
Quarter finals
PSG home
ManU home
There's plenty of big wins as well if you look for them.
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Perhaps Unai shouldn't have been in such a hurry to bring Pau back when Lindelof had been playing so well. Pau was having a very poor game even before the mistake for their goal, and his passing added nothing today.
Yeah but he’s fantastic this season so it’s hardly a huge error. The mistake was poor, but Emi should still be easily saving it.
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No complaints about the result today.
We could have played all night and not scored. It didn't help losing McGinn early in the game. Add Kamara and Onana and that's three first choice midfielders unavailable.
Too many passes went west, nothing come off for us.
Since returning home I'm hearing that someone should have had a second yellow card but it's balanced by their first goal that I didn't look offside to me.
Bad day at the office. We don't have many of those at home.
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Brighton to seal Europe
Arsenal away 2-0
Bayern home
Arsenal and ManC home
Quarter finals
PSG home
ManU home
There's plenty of big wins as well if you look for them.
I know mate. I just cannot believe today. It was such an opportunity to put us virtually in the top four.
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If Jordan Bowery and Rudy Gestede had a love child, it would be better at football than Guessand.
Said to a pal during the match, the Guessman is the only one of the current crew who makes the 2015/16 vintage.
The only issue there is Bacuna, Westwood and the rest were largely signed for bargain basement fees. At a time when Lerner was losing interest.
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Vila were all over the place today I felt. It seemed in the first half that we could win pretty comfortably if only we applied ourselves and played with more urgency. But that much needed touch of organisation never arrived, probably because we lost McGinn so early. Very disappointing.
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If Jordan Bowery and Rudy Gestede had a love child, it would be better at football than Guessand.
Said to a pal during the match, the Guessman is the only one of the current crew who makes the 2015/16 vintage.
The only issue there is Bacuna, Westwood and the rest were largely signed for bargain basement fees. At a time when Lerner was losing interest.
I just do not understand, if our manager is so on the detail, analyses the crap out of everything, how the fuck do we sign this bloke? But worse than that actually play him.
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Disappointing all round really. I honestly think had we got the equaliser, we would have snatched it.. He didn't have a lot of options on the bench to make the subs he usually likes to. Having four players out is bad enough but all in the same position is a killer.
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I didn’t watch it. However in anyone’s opinion is it the start of a bad run or a one off?
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I am a bit worried that we are running out of options and steam again.
We never got hold of the game in the middle when we really needed to.
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I didn’t watch it. However in anyone’s opinion is it the start of a bad run or a one off?
Depends on two things - severity of the midfield injuries and also quality of the players we get in.
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If Jordan Bowery and Rudy Gestede had a love child, it would be better at football than Guessand.
Said to a pal during the match, the Guessman is the only one of the current crew who makes the 2015/16 vintage.
The only issue there is Bacuna, Westwood and the rest were largely signed for bargain basement fees. At a time when Lerner was losing interest.
I just do not understand, if our manager is so on the detail, analyses the crap out of everything, how the fuck do we sign this bloke? But worse than that actually play him.
Absolutely.
Thing is, it's not just Unai.
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I didn’t watch it. However in anyone’s opinion is it the start of a bad run or a one off?
I dont think we need to worry just yet. It was like the Shef Utd games a few years ago - on another day we would win it with a similar performance. Everton played well - but Youri couldnt find his range, Rogers finishing suggested we were playing Rugby and Martinez / Pau combined to give away a soft goal
The squad is looking thin, but we often struggle against the more physical teams
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If we'd taken our chances we'd have won comfortably. Rogers being the main culprit.
The only people in the stadium who didn't the two handed push on Rogers were the officials. A staggering decision, if you can't see something as blatant as that then you shouldn't be an official.
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Seems clear that Pgmol have made a deliberate decision to try and avoid sending players off this year. And that will always favour the more agricultural teams.
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We lost at home to Everton in 1980-81. Just sayin'.
It was also the last time Liverpool failed to beat any of the promoted teams at Anfield.
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Another problem we had today was Emi B was at his absolute worst. He’s been surprisingly great this year, but it was a good reminder that he’s played himself into being an important member of the squad but he’s not a nailed on starter.
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I didn’t watch it. However in anyone’s opinion is it the start of a bad run or a one off?
A lot of worrying signs today, we looked fatigued all over the pitch. Which is probably why we made so many basic errors.
Our squad depth is a huge issue going forward, if SJM and Kamara are out for a long time then this will exacerbate the tiredness issues.
We need to prioritise which competition we are going to focus on because it is obvious we don’t have the resources to compete in all of them.
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I don’t blame Malen for wanting to go, to get more game time. I don’t think he was given enough opportunities at Villa considering I rate him so highly. I assume Unai didn’t and he’s the manager.
Watkins I think is on the slide so, can only hope that Tammy can do the business for us. We missed a huge opportunity when we could have got £100 million for Ollie. Be struggling to get 30 now.
I don’t think there’s ever been a time that we could have got £100m for Ollie Watkins!
For four days between his winning goal against the Netherlands and Spain beating England in the final.
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Another problem we had today was Emi B was at his absolute worst. He’s been surprisingly great this year, but it was a good reminder that he’s played himself into being an important member of the squad but he’s not a nailed on starter.
With the injuries we have, sadly, he is a nailed on starter, and that is a problem. I agree with your point though, I found myself shouting obsenities at the telly more than once.
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We often talk about control but I felt it was a bit more frantic today. Which isn't a surprise with no SJM, Onana and Booby. They give us that control that allows us to do what we do. If those 3 are out for a while we're going to have to change a bit I reckon.
Indeed and also Newcastle away with a callow midfield is not a good prospect.
Just get our money's worth out of Elliott, play him in Turkey and if he doe well, again at Newcastle. He still has two or three games left before he gets to ten, doesn't he?
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We always seem to look knackered when we have had a full week off.
I must say, that Everton team is the most David Moyes team ever.
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McGinn, Onana and Kamara currently crocked further demonstrates the futility of incoming Guessing , Elliott and Sancho over the summer - none of whom have done anything of any note.
We should have spent better in the summer and I dearly hope it doesn’t come back to haunt us in light of current injuries.
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McGinn, Onana and Kamara currently crocked further demonstrates the futility of incoming Guessing , Elliott and Sancho over the summer - none of whom have done anything of any note.
We should have spent better in the summer and I dearly hope it doesn’t come back to haunt us in light of current injuries.
It did today.
But I do not understand how Emery went along with these signings
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Another problem we had today was Emi B was at his absolute worst. He’s been surprisingly great this year, but it was a good reminder that he’s played himself into being an important member of the squad but he’s not a nailed on starter.
With the injuries we have, sadly, he is a nailed on starter, and that is a problem. I agree with your point though, I found myself shouting obsenities at the telly more than once.
I know he gets people's backs-up with his lack of physicality (not much he can do about that) and giving possession away cheaply but his game is to try feints and flicks and he actually looked our most creative source of a goal today. And he never gave-up, flinging himself for a header at the death.
We were controlling the game with McGinn on the pitch. Replacing our bravest player with our most timid against such a physical side was always going to conspire against us... of course, Guessand then almost scores from a ridiculously difficult header. His run for Youri's through-ball was also great but a confident player takes that shot first time and bangs it in the far corner.
I counted two other positive contributions in the second half but the lad hides and surely knows that he's not ready for the pressure of playing for a team near the top of the EPL.
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McGinn, Onana and Kamara currently crocked further demonstrates the futility of incoming Guessing , Elliott and Sancho over the summer - none of whom have done anything of any note.
We should have spent better in the summer and I dearly hope it doesn’t come back to haunt us in light of current injuries.
I don’t think the first three being injured has any relationship with the issues in signing the other three. We’re pretty unfortunate to have the injuries we have in centre-mid, we might need to do something about that now, but had we signed any more centre mids in the summer it would have been very odd.
We needed attacking players as well - and every single one had failed to make a meaningful impact, for different reasons. That’s an issue with selecting those players, and the associated transfer conditions - I guarantee Elliott would have helped had he played. But reality is we’ve got no real value from our outlay in attack.
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Another problem we had today was Emi B was at his absolute worst. He’s been surprisingly great this year, but it was a good reminder that he’s played himself into being an important member of the squad but he’s not a nailed on starter.
With the injuries we have, sadly, he is a nailed on starter, and that is a problem. I agree with your point though, I found myself shouting obsenities at the telly more than once.
I know he gets people's backs-up with his lack of physicality (not much he can do about that) and giving possession away cheaply but his game is to try feints and flicks and he actually looked our most creative source of a goal today. And he never gave-up, flinging himself for a header at the death.
We were controlling the game with McGinn on the pitch. Replacing our bravest player with our most timid against such a physical side was always going to conspire against us... of course, Guessand then almost scores from a ridiculously difficult header. His run for Youri's through-ball was also great but a confident player takes that shot first time and bangs it in the far corner.
I counted two other positive contributions in the second half but the lad hides and surely knows that he's not ready for the pressure of playing for a team near the top of the EPL.
I though Emi B was ok today. He tries stuff and maybe 3 out of 4 times it doesnt come off - but when it does it can make a big difference. As a squad player, he does more than enough - and when you compare him to Guessard, Sancho etc - I would say hes a useful member of the squad
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Compared to those 3 the traffic cones are useful members of the squad.
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Thought Buendia was Jekyll and Hyde. Some terrific stuff - couple of brilliant turns, but he must have had the ball at feet running at a retreating defence what, 5 or 6 times, without finding a killer ball/shot.
Eamonn, one of those Guessand moments was a reverse pass to Rogers in the area, which was actually a great pass, I felt at the time.
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We often talk about control but I felt it was a bit more frantic today. Which isn't a surprise with no SJM, Onana and Booby. They give us that control that allows us to do what we do. If those 3 are out for a while we're going to have to change a bit I reckon.
Indeed and also Newcastle away with a callow midfield is not a good prospect.
Just get our money's worth out of Elliott, play him in Turkey and if he doe well, again at Newcastle. He still has two or three games left before he gets to ten, doesn't he?
Would hardly blame Elliot for not trying a leg on that scenario. Emery has made clear that he is done with us. But we need to
end Guessand and Sancho's stints with us asap too. Barkley out of contract in summer and injured again is on way out too barring something remarkable late in the season. That's a lot of problems at the top end of the pitch.
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Only way I reckon that happens is if Liverpool don't take him back and Elliott agrees to a few games so as to show other clubs what he can do ahead of the summer. There's a chance he'd do everything he could to play well to show us and everyone else that he's a good player.
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I’d rather Elliot playing for us than Guessand.
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I’d rather Elliot playing for us than Guessand.
Clearly he’s a much better player.
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Just home. Listened to a few Villa podcasts on the way and the 'bottle job' narrative came up. To me this was not the case today, just the problems of poor summer recruitment, PSR issues and a number of key injuries finally swung the balance against us today. We didn't play to the level we can, but still did enough to win. Unai has done a miracle with a strong 11 and 4-5 decent subs each game. We had neither today and it was just a game too far. Hopefully a few signings, some positive injury news by the end of the month and we can go again.
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Just home. Listened to a few Villa podcasts on the way and the 'bottle job' narrative came up. To me this was not the case today, just the problems of poor summer recruitment, PSR issues and a number of key injuries finally swung the balance against us today. We didn't play to the level we can, but still did enough to win. Unai has done a miracle with a strong 11 and 4-5 decent subs each game. We had neither today and it was just a game too far. Hopefully a few signings, some positive injury news by the end of the month and we can go again.
Agree with your post about todays game.
Normally our 60/65 minute changes take us away from the opposition but that option wasn't there today for obvious reasons.
Rogers although he skied 4 chances almost scored another goal of the season the season contender.
Not quite enough to win it id say, but Everton did a job on us and it worked out for them.
Onto the next challenge!