Youri Tielemans

[paul_e]

Also the title of the video is just blatant click bait shite. You could argue that any signing for any team in the world could potentially make that team worse, but generally adding quality players to an already good squad with an excellent manager in charge is going to be beneficial overall.

Well he makes the point that the first two players we signed were essentially replacements/competition for two of our best and most important players. He goes on to mention we are in need elsewhere including wide attacker (now Dialby of course), right back etc - all of which I agree entirely with.

Of course we needed depth and we trust Unai to get it right, but I don't think at the start of the summer many of us would have thought our first two signings (at almost our record fees) would have been a left sided centre back and a player very similar to Doug.  However we feel about Unai, I think it was a reasonable analysis to make.

There are a few problems with that though:

1. just because they're the first 2 signings through the door doesn't mean they were the highest priority, just that they were time-sensitive (Tielemans) or comparitively simple (Pau). Diaby next was clearly far messier because of the Saudi involvement and I think we might have had a few other options we were asking about for that role as well (that's not to say he wasn't first choice but rather that we spoke to agents about a few players and then made the decision once we knew what our options were).

2. Philogene has had a chance and looked decent in one of those priority gaps, Emery may well have decided to hold back and watch him for a while before pressing ahead with that transfer. Same with Konsa having a run at right back to see if it could work before we push on with plans there. We were linked with Meunier before and now it's changed to a kid who we'd clearly be giving time to before expecting him to step up so maybe that indicates a change in the plans, which again would suggest a bit of a delay in making the decision makes sense.

3. Mings and Konsa finished the season excellently but the back up options were Chambers who Emery seems unconvinced by and Carlos who is recovering from an injury that would've been career threatening 20-30years ago, if he gets back to his best then it's a bonus. Ditto with Luiz and Kamara, they're both very good but with Kamara being a bit injury prone so far we needed another player on that level to really push on. Tielemans on a free is as good an options as I can imagine for that and, unlike the tifo guy, I think any 2 from 3 combo of them will work.

Aside from that, I think the passing angles thing he was coming out with the explain why Pau won't play right is a bit of a red herring based on old styles of play and far less accomplished footballers.

[chrisw1]

I don't disagree with most of what you say Paul.  But he was commenting on spending £65m 'theoretically' replacing two of our best players.  Obviously they're not straight replacements and squad depth etc.  But he has a point.  The video was made before we signed Diaby, which he identified was an area we needed to look at.  He wasn't suggesting our window is over.  I wouldn't expect him to have detailed knowledge of a youngster who had been on loan and had a decent game against Walsall.

Tielemans is poor defensively and I think Doug covers Kamara and he covers Doug in the event of a Kamara injury.  But yes I agree, it's a very strong three to choose from.

His conclusion wasn't that we've made shit signings.  Yes it was a clickbait headline but the overall analysis was pretty sound (in my opinion)

I think we will continue to build down the left mostly, so I think his passing analysis was correct.

[paul_e]

I don't disagree with most of what you say Paul.  But he was commenting on spending £65m 'theoretically' replacing two of our best players.  Obviously they're not straight replacements and squad depth etc.  But he has a point.  The video was made before we signed Diaby, which he identified was an area we needed to look at.  He wasn't suggesting our window is over.  I wouldn't expect him to have detailed knowledge of a youngster who had been on loan and had a decent game against Walsall.

Tielemans is poor defensively and I think Doug covers Kamara and he covers Doug in the event of a Kamara injury.  But yes I agree, it's a very strong three to choose from.

His conclusion wasn't that we've made shit signings.  Yes it was a clickbait headline but the overall analysis was pretty sound (in my opinion)

I think we will continue to build down the left mostly, so I think his passing analysis was correct.

Where are you getting £65m from? Tielemans was free and Pau was £30-35m.

I wasn't expecting him to have knowledge of kids, my point was that how we have organised the window will be based on a lot more than creating a list of gaps to fill/upgrades to find, putting them in priority order and then working our way down the list. Which is why any analysis partway through the window doesn't really mean anything. That's why the video is so clickbait-y, it was just to drive a few views with very little actual content.

He didn't have a conclusion, that's the other point I was making, the closest he came to one was to admit that he didn't know how we'd be setting out our defence for next season.

On the passing thing do you think Torres and Mings together at centre back makes it more difficult for us to build our play down the left? If not then I'm not really sure how you can say he was correct. Without wanting to repeat myself and bore the shit out of people the idea that footedness makes a difference is based on centre backs being far poorer on the ball than Mings and Torres are. The old idea was that a pass into a centre half puts them under pressure over their touch so, to ease that pressure you want them to favour having the ball on the outside so they can either smash down the line or out of play as an out ball. If they're on the wrong side that wild hack clear is going across the pitch which is riskier. If the player is comfortable to take 2-3 touches and look for a pass (as we are) then it's irrelevant, especially when your out ball is a pass back to the keeper instead (who is also now expected by a coach like ours to to able to take a touch and pick a pass).

It's not that I think it was particularly poor but rather that it felt like someone who hasn't actually watched us play as much as he should've and who was only making a video because he had a deadline to meet so he just came up with a pretty pointless analysis of a transfer window that was, at that point, about 25% complete.

[chrisw1]

Yes my mistake on the fees getting mixed up.  For the record I think they are both quality signings.  I would have preferred Guendouzi to Tielemans, but not for an additional £25-£30m outlay.

The point re passing lanes is Torres will almost certainly play on the left as we build up from that side.  You don't pay £40m for a player and then compromise what you have signed him for.  We are therefore leaving out our best defender or hoping he can adjust to playing on the right.  The fact you think he should be able to doesn't mean he will. 

But I clearly disagree with most of you on the merits of the Tifo stuff.  I think it's some of the best analysis out there and am always pleased when they cover Villa.

[Hookeysmith]

I thought YT showed real promise and a quality addition against Fulham.

I was concerned by Carlos* but thought he looked very strong and some long passing was sublime.

Did not see a lot with Torres but maybe that is a good thing.

Diaby did next to fuck all apart from mis control his first touch but finished it brilliantly.

So i think our new signings (*I know Carlos is not new but for what he has played so far for Villa he might as well be) were all pretty decent and seem to fit in with our play very well.

[Toronto Villa]

absolutely superb tonight

[Risso]

absolutely superb tonight

A complete midfield performance. Brilliant.

[PaulWinch again]

He’s got real class. Excellent piece of business.

[pauliewalnuts]

Properly superb tonight.

[mrfuse]

Gives Emery plenty of options and possibly a bit of a head scratcher of the starting line up when everyone is fit. 

[VillaTim]

Best player on the pitch. Class

[Chris Smith]

Best player on the pitch. Class

He was, I wonder if even Unai knows what his best line up is for 5he first game at the moment.

[DrGonzo]

A wolf among sheep in that midfield tonight.  Range of passing, ability to judge when to shoot, pressing and tackling. Looked excellent.

[Percy McCarthy]

I don't disagree with most of what you say Paul.  But he was commenting on spending £65m 'theoretically' replacing two of our best players.  Obviously they're not straight replacements and squad depth etc.  But he has a point.  The video was made before we signed Diaby, which he identified was an area we needed to look at.  He wasn't suggesting our window is over.  I wouldn't expect him to have detailed knowledge of a youngster who had been on loan and had a decent game against Walsall.

Tielemans is poor defensively and I think Doug covers Kamara and he covers Doug in the event of a Kamara injury.  But yes I agree, it's a very strong three to choose from.

His conclusion wasn't that we've made shit signings.  Yes it was a clickbait headline but the overall analysis was pretty sound (in my opinion)

I think we will continue to build down the left mostly, so I think his passing analysis was correct.

Where are you getting £65m from? Tielemans was free and Pau was £30-35m.

I wasn't expecting him to have knowledge of kids, my point was that how we have organised the window will be based on a lot more than creating a list of gaps to fill/upgrades to find, putting them in priority order and then working our way down the list. Which is why any analysis partway through the window doesn't really mean anything. That's why the video is so clickbait-y, it was just to drive a few views with very little actual content.

He didn't have a conclusion, that's the other point I was making, the closest he came to one was to admit that he didn't know how we'd be setting out our defence for next season.

On the passing thing do you think Torres and Mings together at centre back makes it more difficult for us to build our play down the left? If not then I'm not really sure how you can say he was correct. Without wanting to repeat myself and bore the shit out of people the idea that footedness makes a difference is based on centre backs being far poorer on the ball than Mings and Torres are. The old idea was that a pass into a centre half puts them under pressure over their touch so, to ease that pressure you want them to favour having the ball on the outside so they can either smash down the line or out of play as an out ball. If they're on the wrong side that wild hack clear is going across the pitch which is riskier. If the player is comfortable to take 2-3 touches and look for a pass (as we are) then it's irrelevant, especially when your out ball is a pass back to the keeper instead (who is also now expected by a coach like ours to to able to take a touch and pick a pass).

It's not that I think it was particularly poor but rather that it felt like someone who hasn't actually watched us play as much as he should've and who was only making a video because he had a deadline to meet so he just came up with a pretty pointless analysis of a transfer window that was, at that point, about 25% complete.

He’s a Villa fan so I’m sure he pays due attention.

[tomd2103]

Reminds me a bit of Andy Townsend when he came, although YT is a lot younger.  Just a quality player who seemed to fit straight in and looked at home immediately.