KEA or Sylla?

[Steve R]

Sylla and A.N. Other instead of both Westwood and KEA. We surely have another central midfielder at the club.I'd be happy to put Johnson or Carruthers in there.

[eastie]

Agreed the answer is kea or Westwood - sylla should start without question.

[supertom]

Agreed the answer is kea or Westwood - sylla should start without question.

This.

Our central midfielders struggle to trap a ball, so we need to put as much mobility and physical prowess in there as possible. That means Sylla over Westwood and KEA.

[brontebilly]

Sylla is the beneficiary of the Carlos Cuellar syndrome it seems........

[LeeB]

I'm not having El Ahmadi.

I'm surprised he's started as many games as he has. He's not a bad player, but he's not incisive with the ball and lightweight in the tackle, and he has a tendency to ball watch when we're defending and loses his man.

We don't look as good with him in the side.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Sylla is the beneficiary of the Carlos Cuellar syndrome it seems........

Does he intermittently grow a beard ?
Does he keep reptiles as pets ?
Does Martin O'Neill want to sign him ?

Please explain.

[onje_villa]

KEA/Westwood + Sylla

Certainly on current form I'd have KEA over Westwood yet I agree that you can't really leave out Sylla, we need him in the team.

[PaulWinch again]

KEA puts in some decent challenges, but he flatters to deceive a lot for me. He doesn't make anywhere near enough impact at home.

[aj2k77]

Kea and Westwood are both a bag of shit, would look good in a 1st division side. Neither protect the defense or add anything going forwards. Neither can take a set piece and neither can tackle very well. Both lack pace and physical prescence and neither adds any height to the team.

On the plus side they both are pretty good at passing the ball 5-10 yards sideways.

We needed a midfielder desperately this summer.

[eastie]

Westwood in fairness looked ok last season but this season he has been very poor - him, Lowton and Weimann have been really disappointing this term.

[aj2k77]

Yeah looking ok for part of a terrible season is not what I'm looking for in an Aston Villa midfielder.

I've had it up to here watching us getting out played over and over again. 3 years straight we've been garbage and these type of performances are becoming the norm and accepted just as players who should be nowhere near a Villa first team are having excuses made for them repeatedly.

[Ads]

We're not garbage, we're just average.

[aj2k77]

We're not garbage, we're just average.

Average i'd say is 9th-14th year after year, win as much as you lose, score as many as you concede.

The last 3 years hasn't been like that at all. There are no home bankers anymore, as we don't win many at home and can't string 90 minutes of decent football together. We've somehow evolved into another Wigan fighting relegation repeatedly.

I'm in a bad mood today, must be the weather.

[Ads]

I think we've improved on last season and have a very reasonable points tally considering we have played Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City and Spurs. If they were the top five, would you be that shocked?

We have had one shocker of a performance, Newcastle at home, where we ere dreadful. Hull away was a tedious affair, but we kept a clean sheet and took a point. I will never complain at a point away from home.

Come November we will be playing sides in our league, the second tier of clubs; West Ham, Cardiff, West Brom and Sunderland. I fancy at least 8 points from that, which depending on how next Saturday goes, will see us around 20 points roughly a third of the way through.

Well on course for 50 points and that 12-8th finish.

[Concrete John]

I think we've improved on last season and have a very reasonable points tally considering we have played Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City and Spurs. If they were the top five, would you be that shocked?

We have had one shocker of a performance, Newcastle at home, where we ere dreadful. Hull away was a tedious affair, but we kept a clean sheet and took a point. I will never complain at a point away from home.

Come November we will be playing sides in our league, the second tier of clubs; West Ham, Cardiff, West Brom and Sunderland. I fancy at least 8 points from that, which depending on how next Saturday goes, will see us around 20 points roughly a third of the way through.

Well on course for 50 points and that 12-8th finish.

Whilst I agree with pretty much everything you say, I would raise one word of caution as getting the points we have against the getter sides does not automatically mean we'll get more against the sides nearer to us ability wise.  Afterall, they'll be viewing games against us as one where they could get a few points, also.

We'll be mid table this season, I reckon.  Whether that's upper or lower mid table will depend on how we do against the sort of sides we have in November.