How good are we really

[montague]

Sorry for a glass half empty question but if you discount our flying first 4 games, since then we have played 16 won 6 lost 8 with a GD of +1. A points ratio of 1.25 gets you about 13th/14th in the league. We have improved massively of course and play some really good football at times but in reality to talk of Europe seems premature as we still lose too many games and are probably a mid table side at best.

[Baldy]

We are good against opposition who give us the space to play in an open game.

We are average against any physical, hard working opposition who close us down.

This league is 'horses for courses' and we do not have enough horses in the stable at the moment but we are definitely working on it.   

[algy]

Yeah, I mean it's probably a fair-ish assessment.  I think we're more upper-mid-table than lower, but whatever - we're now a mid table Premier League side.  That doesn't bother me, to be honest.  It represents good progress over the past 24 months that we've gone from being a mid table Championship side to one who holds their own with established Premier League teams.

That some folk are saying that Ross Barkley isn't good enough for us is a measure of how far we've come.

I'd also say - look at the teams above us.  Manc City, Manc United, Leicester, Liverpool, West Ham, Everton, Spurs, and Chelsea.  Those are the only sides in the country that are better than us right now.  They're for the most part all well-established top flight clubs, the only exceptions being Leicester City & West Ham.  Leicester have been incredibly well managed on & off the pitch for a few years and are deservedly in the position they've earnt for themselves, and West Ham ... well, I think they were unlucky to finish as low as they did last season, and this season is making up for it with a better-than-expected league position.

Basically - I think we're a mid table team, and a bit of a work in progress at the moment.  The thing is, I think we have a handful of players (our entire back 5, plus Douglas, Grealish, maybe Watkins, maybe Bertie) who are capable of taking us much higher.  We're in a good position right now.

[hipkiss92]

Sorry for a glass half empty question but if you discount our flying first 4 games, since then we have played 16 won 6 lost 8 with a GD of +1. A points ratio of 1.25 gets you about 13th/14th in the league. We have improved massively of course and play some really good football at times but in reality to talk of Europe seems premature as we still lose too many games and are probably a mid table side at best.

Yeah and if you discount all the games we'd won we'd be bottom.

A win is a win, the order of it doesn't matter.

[ChicagoLion]

I think we should have more points but we look mid table to me.

[LukeJames]

We have the inconsistency of mid-table and I love it. I have'nt thought about relegation once since July.

[richtheholtender]

What I will say is that I only get disappointed at worst when we lose games with this team. There have been Villa sides over the years that I think have lost on effort which has enraged me. I like this team and can never accuse them of not trying. I always feel we are in games as well. Last night 0-2 down with 10 to go I still fancied us which is something I like about this Villa team.

[richtheholtender]

Probably “fancied us” is a bit strong more felt we were in it.

[Mister E]

Both Dyche and Moyes learned from their first game against us; both tightened up their tactics to hold us at arms-length and exploited our weaknesses (in their second game, Burnley used their set-piece strength to good effect; Wet Spam caught us on the break and found Emi on a bad day).
We need to be more flexible and get more options in the squad to be able to adapt our play - more horses, as Baldy says above.

[SoccerHQ]

It's a good question.

I think we're good and the metrics support it as we've been one of the top 6 defences all season and our goalscoring is about 7th I think.

And in terms of individual players Jack, Martinez and perhaps Luiz are all top 6 in their respective positions.

So why aren't we top 6? Well we've been neck and neck with Everton all season who are 6th. They win, we lose and suddenly they seem miles ahead of us but reality is it's only 4 points and I think we can reduce that gap back down to 3 given who we're both playing at the weekend.

A few teams around us have also still played two more games which also impacts things and I think we do still have a habit of after losing a game not always recovering quickly. After Leeds won in October we then lost 3 of our next 4 and similar seems to be happening now but then loads of other clubs around us had that sort of run. Think we're also not as strong at tweaking things as games go on so we lose games we migh'tve got something out of with an earlier change or two as Burnley did v us once they went 1-2 down last week.

Generally more interesting is the stat they showed last night that this abnormal season with more away wins than home ones halfway through which is generally inflating most teams points totals in top half.

After 22 games last season Sheffield United had 32 points from 22 games.....and were 6th. We've got that points total from two fewer games yet are barely in the top half.

By most metrics we'd be 6th but BCD makes this an odd sort of season. We're doing o.k, just hope we don't have a massive slump which ruins all the good work as we should be finishing 10th at least.

[Ads]

We can and probably will finish 9th or 8th.

[villa `cross the mersey]

We can and probably will finish 9th or 8th.

Cant believe I am doing this but, ...............I agree with Ads 9th or 8th is realistic

[SoccerHQ]

We can and probably will finish 9th or 8th.

I think that's most realistic and would be a very good season given where we were at start of July 2020 when even staying up seemed remote prospect.

Nothing wrong with thinking we can still do a little better though. It's like at the start of each MON season most predicting we'd finish between 5th-7th and then opportunity opens up to finish top 4 and we can't quite take it and then being disappointed.

I'm sure we'll sign some more good players in the summer but my hunch is next season the top 6 won't be as close as it is now as generally the top sides get their s*** together after lacklustre season and bounce back strongly so this is odd and unique season and opportunity to do something we haven't for a long while.

[chrisw1]

We're a decent team, vastly improved from last year and capable of playing some very attractive football and beating anybody on our day.  But we're still hugely reliant on one player and our squad really is paper thin.

You see people posting about how we're better / should expect to beat or finish above the likes of Everton and Arsenal, but the reality is that whilst these types of teams can have off games, spells or even seasons they are just miles ahead of us in terms of suad development.

Just look at the benches of the likes of Chelsea, Spurs, Everton, Arsenal, Leicester and even West Ham and the difference is stark.  We're probably 5 signings away from having a truly competitive squad.

So my answer is we're pretty good, very good at times but we've still got a very long way to go.  I'm excited by the future.

[Edvard Remberg]

Shit apparently - read that last night.