Unai Emery

[Demitri_C]

Yes, I found it really tedious when we won 15 home games on the bounce, were regularly smashing sides by fours and fives last autumn, made a European semi final for the first time in 40 years and made the CL.

I much preferred the high octane Lambert years.  We want our Villa back.

Why does being unsatisfied to how we are currently  performing have to be compared to a extreme scenario like the lambert days kevin ?

You are aware those days were in 2012 over 10 years ago? We were under a complete  different ownership  and the PL was different to back then.  Not sure why we have to compare to a period of that long ago?

You would have been comparing to smiths last season here which is more recent!

[PaulWinch again]

Thing is we’ve downturned with injuries/players leaving etc to higher than we were before Unai joined. So basically he set an incredibly high water mark, that even in our struggles is better than others have achieved of late. I’m willing to give him the chance to improve and fix it again.

No one thinks we’re playing well at the moment, but bloody hell a sense of perspective is needed. He’s a fantastically successful coach, he’s done wonders at Villa. If you’d said to anyone a day, a week, a year before he joined we’d be in the Champions League with a very good chance of the knock out stages you’d have been laughed at. It doesn’t mean he’s beyond criticism, but fucking hell some of the sky falling in stuff.

[VillaTim]

They raised the bar on the fans with the ticket pricing - best part of £100 to watch the big games in the lower north , really ! 50% ST price hikes , really !  No wonder the fans are more demanding of results and performances . Works both ways

[pauliewalnuts]

They raised the bar on the fans with the ticket pricing - best part of £100 to watch the big games in the lower north , really ! 50% ST price hikes , really !  No wonder the fans are more demanding of results and performances . Works both ways

There is a degree of sensibleness in this post, Tim.

For all the "Champions League Villa!" you get from Heck on Twitter, all the media banging on and on, all the 'we're a big club again' vibes they give out, ultimately, it's time to walk the walk now, and if you're charging insane prices because hey! That's what CL clubs do and we are one now! then you are going to have to remain one for more than one season.

[Ian.]

Thing is we’ve downturned with injuries/players leaving etc to higher than we were before Unai joined. So basically he set an incredibly high water mark, that even in our struggles is better than others have achieved of late. I’m willing to give him the chance to improve and fix it again.

No one thinks we’re playing well at the moment, but bloody hell a sense of perspective is needed. He’s a fantastically successful coach, he’s done wonders at Villa. If you’d said to anyone a day, a week, a year before he joined we’d be in the Champions League with a very good chance of the knock out stages you’d have been laughed at. It doesn’t mean he’s beyond criticism, but fucking hell some of the sky falling in stuff.

Damn right. Excellent post Paul.

[VillaTim]

They raised the bar on the fans with the ticket pricing - best part of £100 to watch the big games in the lower north , really ! 50% ST price hikes , really !  No wonder the fans are more demanding of results and performances . Works both ways

There is a degree of sensibleness in this post, Tim.

For all the "Champions League Villa!" you get from Heck on Twitter, all the media banging on and on, all the 'we're a big club again' vibes they give out, ultimately, it's time to walk the walk now, and if you're charging insane prices because hey! That's what CL clubs do and we are one now! then you are going to have to remain one for more than one season.

Booting loyal fans out their seats they've had for years to make way for the new fans from The Cotswolds  / Harborne etc , good luck with that as they'll be Chelsea fans next year the way its going .

[eamonn]

And would have worked were it not for one of the most bizarre penalties/goals ever... which we had a good go at trying to out-do yesterday!

Yep, given how thick as pigshit our defence/goalie are, it's amazing we're not fighting the drop.

[tony scott]

A lot of people are saying our playing style (for years we yearned for one) is now being successfully countered, but surely we have a plan for this, we can implement inplay.

[Percy McCarthy]

They’re either tired or devoid of confidence or both. There was a time quite recently when the players looked like they believed they could beat anybody. In that shit-show against Chelsea they looked nervous and played with a huge inferiority complex. We looked mentally and physically weak and as is the way of the world when one looks like that, one gets bullied.This was particularly disappointing as before that we looked like we were improving, albeit very slowly.

Unai needs to address all that, obvs. (I only typed that to make it relevant to the topic). Maybe a win or two in the next week can sort it out.

[Tony Daleys Shorts]

playing so much through Rogers is a huge issue , yes he's a trier and likes to bomb forwards but hapless endeavour doesn't work in this league . I think his new monster contract was hasty and too soon . Same can be said for Duran . We have some structural issues and Unai needs to solve them fast.

We’re getting pressed high and our escape ball and starting point for the counter were largely chipped passes from Emi or Pau to Diaby or latterly Rogers in space in midfield, teams are now wise to this and are closing that space down. The Chelsea centre half was all over Rogers on Sunday meaning we’d no out ball, which results in the sort of panic and loss of possession in our own third we saw Sunday.

Emery needs to come up come with some tactical tweaks to re-counter this. I’m confident he will.

[Simon Page]

Saunders went 8th, 7th, 7th, in the seasons after 77. It's never a straight line to success. Last couple of seasons we've over-performed what you'd have predicted was possible with the squad, now we're trying to build and replace at the same time. In short, we'll moan for a couple of seasons, win the league 2028 and piss off back to Division Two in 2034. Enjoy it.

[London Villan]

Goes back to the loss of the midfield.

2023 saw an out ball to one of Dinge, Pau, Luiz, Kamara or longer to Watkins or Diaby/Bailey. Opposition teams couldn't close down all those options. We've lost half of them which makes us easier to press u now.

Once Kamara is back up to speed it will help (as we saw vs Juventus) but the lack of a pacy threat for the longer pass is constricting us.

[tomd2103]

They’re either tired or devoid of confidence or both. There was a time quite recently when the players looked like they believed they could beat anybody. In that shit-show against Chelsea they looked nervous and played with a huge inferiority complex. We looked mentally and physically weak and as is the way of the world when one looks like that, one gets bullied.This was particularly disappointing as before that we looked like we were improving, albeit very slowly.

Unai needs to address all that, obvs. (I only typed that to make it relevant to the topic). Maybe a win or two in the next week can sort it out.

That is a bit of a concern.  When you look through that team, how many of them would you really fancy to really dig in and scrap it out when things aren't going well? 

I honestly don't see too many from the line up on Sunday and as you say, we are a bit of a soft touch at the moment. 

[aj2k77]

We've been a soft touch and easy to score against for a while now. It's only how electric we were going forwards that masked it.

[Risso]

Saunders went 8th, 7th, 7th, in the seasons after 77. It's never a straight line to success. Last couple of seasons we've over-performed what you'd have predicted was possible with the squad, now we're trying to build and replace at the same time. In short, we'll moan for a couple of seasons, win the league 2028 and piss off back to Division Two in 2034. Enjoy it.

I've plotted 8, 7 and 7 on a graph, and the line is pretty straight to be honest. Am I doing something wrong?!