Unai Emery

[Chris Harte]

Boozey's post nails it for me.

We have key players returning, hopefully not too long from now. And there's over a quarter of the season left to play. There are no limits to our dreams.

[garyellis]

I think where I differ from the general feeling here is that I think our current squad would really struggle to finish in the top half of the league. It's a miracle we're third, and if we can somehow finish in a Champions League place, it will be probably the greatest achievement for a Villa squad in my lifetime. It's insane where we are, given the resources available. At the start of the season, I genuinely thought top half would be a decent finish, given the restrictions we're working under. How many of our squad would be playing Champions League football if we sold them?

Look at the teams we're competing with. Look at the money they've spent. Even Leeds spent over £100 million in the summer. We are not the sort of squad that can just turn up and expect to beat anyone in this league. Every point is a scrap.

We're struggling a bit at the moment, but if you took the best three midfielders out of any squad in the league, you'd see a massive drop off in form. Most teams are struggling to put a run together with a fully fit squad. The problem we have is that we can't completely change the way we play for a month or two, and the players we have at the moment simply aren't capable of covering for the players we're missing. Youri, Bouba and McGinn aren't just our best three midfielders, they're the only players that can get us up the pitch. Without one we'd be fine. Without two we'd struggle. It's no wonder performances have fallen off a cliff without all three.

We just need to hold our nerve, on and off the pitch. Get as many points as we possibly can over the next few weeks, and then get some of our midfield back. At our best, we can beat anyone in the league. At our worst, we can lose to anyone. But we're at the stage now, where we don't need to be at our best every week to achieve something remarkable. Which, I guess, is why everyone is worried we're going to fuck it up.

McGinn being fit again will be a massive boost. I am praying for some news about that this week. He'd make such a difference to this team. We all just need a bit of a lift now. A win on Friday, ideally with us playing a bit better, would be huge.

I am with you Boozey 110%

[Ian.]

As always, Boozey, spot on. Great post.

[PaulWinch again]

I’m not sure I agree that every point should be a scrap. The injured players put us out of reach of most, but I reckon even with them out man for man we’ve got a better team than the vast majority of the league. Unai is obviously a genius, and has done incredible things, but we are underperforming at the moment.

I do agree with the general sentiment though, hopefully the improvement is round the corner.

[Mellin]

I disagree with the squad assessment...to an extent. The goalkeeper, defence and midfield (including Rogers) are all top five, probably top three. The depth is there too. The wingers and forwards are, at best, midtable as a collective. Problem we have is the midfield isn't top three right now, so we're relying on the defence and the goalkeeper.

I reckon Emery knows this, hence Mings, and is trying to 1-0 every game until Tielemans and McGinn are back.

[Nunkin1965]

I think where I differ from the general feeling here is that I think our current squad would really struggle to finish in the top half of the league. It's a miracle we're third, and if we can somehow finish in a Champions League place, it will be probably the greatest achievement for a Villa squad in my lifetime. It's insane where we are, given the resources available. At the start of the season, I genuinely thought top half would be a decent finish, given the restrictions we're working under. How many of our squad would be playing Champions League football if we sold them?

Look at the teams we're competing with. Look at the money they've spent. Even Leeds spent over £100 million in the summer. We are not the sort of squad that can just turn up and expect to beat anyone in this league. Every point is a scrap.

We're struggling a bit at the moment, but if you took the best three midfielders out of any squad in the league, you'd see a massive drop off in form. Most teams are struggling to put a run together with a fully fit squad. The problem we have is that we can't completely change the way we play for a month or two, and the players we have at the moment simply aren't capable of covering for the players we're missing. Youri, Bouba and McGinn aren't just our best three midfielders, they're the only players that can get us up the pitch. Without one we'd be fine. Without two we'd struggle. It's no wonder performances have fallen off a cliff without all three.

We just need to hold our nerve, on and off the pitch. Get as many points as we possibly can over the next few weeks, and then get some of our midfield back. At our best, we can beat anyone in the league. At our worst, we can lose to anyone. But we're at the stage now, where we don't need to be at our best every week to achieve something remarkable. Which, I guess, is why everyone is worried we're going to fuck it up.

McGinn being fit again will be a massive boost. I am praying for some news about that this week. He'd make such a difference to this team. We all just need a bit of a lift now. A win on Friday, ideally with us playing a bit better, would be huge.

I am with you Boozey 110%

You've got my vote Boozey as this is how I feel about our current situation.

[PeterWithesShin]

On no planet are there 10 better squads than ours.

[PaulWinch again]

On no planet are there 10 better squads than ours.

No, quite. We’re hindered by our injuries obviously, and the fact they’re concentrated in the same area emphasises it. But we’ve still got a stronger squad than most of the league.

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

The injuries have shafted us but Onana and Luiz are what, something like 75 million between them? We should absolutely be playing better.

[eamonn]

Why is Boozey so-named? He sounds far away from being pissed when he posts.

[LeonW]

It’s clear that recently we’re not currently getting the best out of the players we have. Our current squad even with the injuries we have is comfortably better than Everton, Brentford, Brighton, Leeds and yet we really really struggled against all of them. We got away with it against Brighton. We need to do something different.

Not really sure what that different is? Buendia and Rogers form has definitely cooled and we are back to Gerrard esque hoping for moments rather than sustained good play. I don't think two up top is an option, bar a desperate one, don't have players to go with three in midfield. Three at the back wouldn't suit Cash.

Rogers to the left, Tammy up front should be the call for Wolves anyway. Sancho and Barkley will likely come back in. But I'm not all that hopeful until McGinn at a minimum comes back.

Tammy gives us a different dimension with his aerial ability and physicality. I think more crosses into the box from Cash and Digne to him. Plus I think we get up the pitch quicker with his hold up play. We can put balls up to him and have runners go beyond him. More crosses could be effective also in that Tammy is great at sniffing out scrappy goals like he did on Saturday.

Having two ball playing midfielders rather than one with Onana. Barkley and Dougie at points would leave us a bit more exposed but allow us better opportunities to progress the ball through the lines.

Having Bailey on the left and running down the line with his pace on his natural foot. I know we like to have wide attackers that drift inside on their favourite foot to provide extra space for the full backs but I wonder if pushing the opposition defenders back rather than inside could provide more space for the central midfielders like Barkley and Dougie to shot and play through balls.

Having Maatsen play like Guardiola uses his full backs as auxiliary central midfielders. That could work with Bailey on the left with reduced overlapping space and have Maatsen join central midfield giving us an extra man. We can’t replace Tielemans and Kamara as a pair but maybe having Maatsen join Barkley and Dougie to cover them and press with his pace might be something.

Completely just throwing ideas out.

[boozey182]

On no planet are there 10 better squads than ours.

I think you're probably right, when we're all fully fit, but I genuinely think that with the players we have available at the moment, there probably are. We expect more from our squad than, say, Spurs, because we've been over-performing. But I really do think that we have a mid-table squad.

In an (desperate) effort to provide some evidence to back up my hair-brained theory, I googled 'value of Premier League Squads' and the top result (transfermarkt) has us 10th in the league, just behind Palace and Forest, as well as the ones you'd expect. I appreciate that this is far from definitive, but after finding one source that sort of backs me up, I decided to stop looking.

Maybe I was being too grumpy when I calibrated my expectations for the season last summer, but at the time, I could only see us going backwards. Our squad had gotten worse, while it felt like every other team was spending hundreds of millions. Then take out our three best midfielders.

I think all I'm saying is that we're having a wobble now, but I am hopeful we will recover as soon as we start getting players back. We don't need to (or have time to) create a whole new way of playing, we just need to somehow get a few more points before the others start to return, and then we'll look a lot better.

[boozey182]

Why is Boozey so-named? He sounds far away from being pissed when he posts.

I've been called it for as long as I can remember. Long before I had my first drink. I believe it was at first in reference to the Channel 4 teletext fictitious quiz show host, Bamber Boozler. But I don't know why...

[PeterWithesShin]

Transfermarket think Micky van de Ven is worth nearly as much Rogers, which tells you all you need to know.

[eamonn]

Anti-Villa bias, must be a London media mate of Sexual's doing the valuations.