Pre-season 2023/24

[Small Rodent]

Tielemans is a level above Luiz / Kamara but they will benefit and learn from his class

I’m loving how our midfield is forming. It’s very exciting.

[Olneythelonely]

Do Villa put up the full 90 to rewatch if you bought a pass, but then realised it was your wife’s birthday? Just asking for any moron that did this. Not me.

[Matt C]

So striking how different players come in, different positions and they know exactly what their job is, it’s seamless.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Tielemans is a level above Luiz / Kamara but they will benefit and learn from his class

Luiz? He'd be the first name I'd put down on the team sheet. He was at half pace today and was still the best player on the pitch by a country mile. Kamara needs to get up to speed or he could be the one to lose his place to Tielemans.

[tomd2103]

Went to the game earlier and it was an enjoyable evening.  Thought we took a little bit of time to get going, but once we did, we moved the ball quickly and found Diaby in pockets of space.  Thought we kept the tempo up even after all the changes in the second half and Coutinho really looked to be enjoying himself. 

From what I could tell it was the version of 4-4-2 where we play with a winger and the left sided midfielder tucks in.  Diaby looked to be in a central role off Watkins.

Olsen had very little to do, but still managed his obligatory pass straight to an opponent on the edge of our box. 

Chambers did fine at right-back, but is limited in that position - we need another option. 

The centre-halves all looked pretty comfortable, though Torres made a few stray passes into midfield in the first half. 

Digne was fine, but we need Moreno back soon to give ya another option.

I thought all of the central midfielders had good games.  Going to be difficult to pick two from Tielemans, Kamara and Luiz.

Bailey was Bailey.   

McGinn was his usual self when he came on.

Buendia looked a bit out of place on the left side.  Jacob Ramsey is going to be a big miss to start with.

Diaby got into some good positions and looked sharp on the ball. 

Ollie Watkins was his usual self and took his goal well.  We need another striker to provide competition along with Archer.

All-in-all. a very good run out.  We still need a couple of players to come in and could do with Moreno and J Ramsey coming back into the fold ASAP. 

[VillaTim]

Tielemans is a level above Luiz / Kamara but they will benefit and learn from his class

Luiz? He'd be the first name I'd put down on the team sheet. He was at half pace today and was still the best player on the pitch by a country mile. Kamara needs to get up to speed or he could be the one to lose his place to Tielemans.

I thought Tielemans was a cut above anyone else . He's a notch above Luiz.

[eamonn]

Where was Diego Carlos tonight?

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Went to the game earlier and it was an enjoyable evening.  Thought we took a little bit of time to get going, but once we did, we moved the ball quickly and found Diaby in pockets of space.

Comments like that will only get you BE's missus recipe for dodgy limoncello.

[tomd2103]

Where was Diego Carlos tonight?

Was about to ask that.  Had a quick scroll through the pages to see if it had been mentioned earlier.

[VillaTim]

Where was Diego Carlos tonight?

Broad Street , making most of last days of the holidays period.

[Brazilian Villain]

Where was Diego Carlos tonight?

Apparently he was at the ground, just not in the squad. Might have a light knock or maybe Unai's saving him for the Valencia game.

[AV84]

It's basically just the peno and goals. Nice movement from Coutinho before the 3rd. Ball could have been passed back to him, and then he was in loads of space outside the box when the goal went in too. I have doubts that he could do 90 minutes for us, but I hope he sticks around and plays a part this season.

[coreyfeldman]

What stands out more than anything, is that Emery has players we've written off (for fairly good reason), looking like proper top level competitors.

Only a friendly of course but our system was so overwhelming tonight against a team that finished 2nd in the league. The lazio starting 11 was basically their main team.

We changed 6 players and our tactics and shape remained the same, that's elite level management

I'm excited lads

[Risso]

...and we should have won by 5 or 6, and it's not like they weren't trying, the dirty bastards.

[Dogtanian]

The real question is, what did the Italian folk think of the balti pies?