Aston Villa - 1 Southampton - 0 Post match thread

[Exeter 77]

A win. Scrappy to say the least but I wouldn't have complained  if we had won the 2019 play off final like that.

[andyh]

‘The prettier stuff’ will come when we are further up the league.
What absolute load of fecking guff, on so many levels.

[saunders_heroes]

I’ll take the 3 points but it was a hard watch. Gerrard has to improve this team if he wants to keep his job.

[Nev]

My weekend is infinitely better having won, that's always the case but it feels like we're being conditioned to accept dross in exchange for progress. That somehow, just around the corner we will emerge like a butterfly, free from the shackles of the lower reaches of the table, and start to play exciting, expansive football and it will suddenly click.

I stand by my feeling that where we are now is more or less where we will finish and coupled with the poor football it won't be much fun.

Unless we grind our way to the Cup, my principles will be well and truly junked for that.

[Scott Nielsen]

Win or lose I try to make it a rule not to come on here until the day after a game. The negativity is nauseating. But we needed the win, deserved the win & never looked like losing. It was dull but ultimately who cares.

Dammed if we're too open, dammed if we're too cautious. A win is a win. Let's build from here.

I have a 2-day rule that I try to apply after losses, but I thought it would be relatively safe to get on after a win (even if it wasn't pretty). Not so. It's like we have our very own FB algorithm to make us as miserable and angry as possible.

[The Edge]

We need better players. Shortly after coming on Buendia played a superb pass through to Watkins, who controlled it with all his customary grace and precision, and it bounced off his foot like a ping pong ball being dropped onto a pile of bricks.

Those passes from Buendia should be a centre forwards dream. I love the way he plays them so effortlessly and over the last twelve months we should have scored more goals from them.

He’s a joy to watch at times and we need to make the most of him and Coutinho for that matter.

Totally agree. We need a big upgrade on Watkins. Yes he works his nuts off but I want to see a striker with a silky first touch. A striker who can score from any angle with either foot or his head and has a goal poachers instinct. A striker who has a lethal turn of pace. An all round goal machine. Ollie Watkins is none of these and until they recognise that and address it we can forget the pipe dreams of top 6 and European football.

Those type of strikers are in really short supply, they cost a fortune and have their choice of who they sign for. Much as we’d all love one at Villa I don’t think we’re in that market at the moment.

Then the challenge is to find one. The club pay people a lot of money to search for top players. Mo Salah cost Liverpool 34m. They are out there and we are trying to get to the summit of European football according to Purslow and our owners. We need some of that can do attitude Purslow was talking about.

[Ian.]

We may have one in Archer. I think he’s a natural talent and could find those spaces and he certainly knows how to finish.

[TonyD]

Southampton were even worse than Everton.   

[PeterWithesShin]

Salah cost Liverpool over £40m with add ons, and that was 5 years ago. Transfer fees have gone up a tad since then. If it was that easy to sign a top forward without spending an absolute fortune all of the league would be doing it.

[ChicagoLion]

Salah cost Liverpool over £40m with add ons, and that was 5 years ago. Transfer fees have gone up a tad since then. If it was that easy to sign a top forward without spending an absolute fortune all of the league would be doing it.

Yes, I don’t know why we don’t just go out and sign all the best players.
We would be more likely to win more games if we did.

[AlexAlexCropley]

I mentioned Toney some time ago and was roundly poo-pooed on here as not being better than what we have. He is exactly who we need.

[cdbearsfan]

He isn't. He's no significant upgrade and is also a massive twat. We need to be trying to sign people like Lewandowski not shopping around Brentford again.

[PeterWithesShin]

Toney scored 12 league goals last season, 5 were pens. Ollie scored 11 with 1 pen. I'm not sure it's much of an upgrade.

[cdbearsfan]

Exactly. Ollie got in the England squad, too. Maybe Toney will get better, we shall see. They'd likely want at least £50 million for him, though, and I can't believe there wouldn't be better value elsewhere. Also, I really don't want a Villa player being filmed slagging off Villa every time he thinks he might get his end away.

[Deano's Mullet]

I think anyone would struggle with the service our strikers recieve so far this season. Watkins last night was quite often isolated up front, swamped by defenders and I can't think of.too many successful potential passes that that have been an assist from our midfield yesterday.