Aston Villa vs Nottingham Forest pre-match thread

[brontebilly]

Need someone to step up other than Watkins. They will sit in so space will be at a premium. One of Bailey or Ramsey to get us going.

[Ads]

Need someone to step up other than Watkins. They will sit in so space will be at a premium. One of Bailey or Ramsey to get us going.

Comes down to the left side functioning or not as absolutely fantastic as Bailey has been. That ability of Moreno to push on and for JJ to run inside peels players away and gets JJ into the game. Torres ought to help massively. Albeit a goal through the middle him stepping out on Saturday got us that 2nd goal. I agree with you that they'll pack it tight between the lines, which is why I think the left will be key.

[Nev]

Every game comes with a narrative these days, and so with Spurs not playing we have another "must win". The desire to finish as high as possible is further fuelled by the media seemingly looking the other way where we are concerned, not helped by the likes of Newton Heath spawning two lucky wins on consecutive Sundays.

The return of Torres, resurgence of JJ in tandem with Moreno, Ollie looking confident and Bailey playing well has dispelled a few doubts about how we cope without Kamara. But we did, and will, offer chances to the opposition and with Forest looking to hit us on the break I can see quite a few goals on Saturday. I have a feeling that we are beginning to get back "into the grove" and that leads me to predict a win.

3-2

[Allan C]

3-0 to us 

[Baldy]

With the threat over relegation and a possible points deduction Forest will be up for this. It's probably their FA Cup final as well. We have to come out the traps fast, match their intensity and our extra quality will prevail. 3-1 to the boys in C & B.

Spuds, Man Utd, Chelsea, Geordies will all have their eyes on this and that 4th spot. Be great to p*ss them all off on the same day.

[Smithy]

They were EXTREMELY lucky to win against us at their place. Emi beaten from distance twice in one game? As rare as rocking horse shit. Plus we had the chances to score three or four, even against them parking the bus.  We should have more than enough to beat them at home, even after our recent wobbles at VP.

Win and we go five points clear of 5th place, it's the perfect incentive.  I also read somewhere in the last week or so, that Forest have benefitted more than any other team in the lea from subjective VAR decisions going in their favour (awarding/denying pens, fouls in the build-up to goals etc - not offside black/white stuff), so it would be nice to see us balance the books a bit with a nice subjective VAR decision going in our favour :-)

[Smithy]

Had a quick look at the form table, as it feels like we've been "off it" since Boxing Day, but I was surprised to see we're 6th for the last 6 games, and 5th for the last 10 games.  So although we haven't maintained the form required to mount a title challenge, we've actually still been perfectly okay for a side with European aspirations.

If dropping to 5th/6th in the form table counts as our big "dip" for this season, then I'll be delighted!

[Martyn Smith]

2-0

[Risso]

They were EXTREMELY lucky to win against us at their place. Emi beaten from distance twice in one game? As rare as rocking horse shit. Plus we had the chances to score three or four, even against them parking the bus.  We should have more than enough to beat them at home, even after our recent wobbles at VP.

Win and we go five points clear of 5th place, it's the perfect incentive.  I also read somewhere in the last week or so, that Forest have benefitted more than any other team in the lea from subjective VAR decisions going in their favour (awarding/denying pens, fouls in the build-up to goals etc - not offside black/white stuff), so it would be nice to see us balance the books a bit with a nice subjective VAR decision going in our favour :-)

We were awful away. The only decent chance we had was the Watkins header he should have done better with. Other than that, I seem to recall a couple of very easy saves from Zaniolo and Diaby, but that was about it.

[Monty]

Yeah, they were lucky in the sense that we were quite bad that day, objectively unusual for this season. They did play well though, perhaps their best display of the season. Hopefully we show up this time!

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Just had a look at the post match thread from the away game, it's ugly, not a positive to be found.

[taylorsworkrate]

They were EXTREMELY lucky to win against us at their place. Emi beaten from distance twice in one game? As rare as rocking horse shit. Plus we had the chances to score three or four, even against them parking the bus.  We should have more than enough to beat them at home, even after our recent wobbles at VP.

Win and we go five points clear of 5th place, it's the perfect incentive.  I also read somewhere in the last week or so, that Forest have benefitted more than any other team in the lea from subjective VAR decisions going in their favour (awarding/denying pens, fouls in the build-up to goals etc - not offside black/white stuff), so it would be nice to see us balance the books a bit with a nice subjective VAR decision going in our favour :-)

We were awful away. The only decent chance we had was the Watkins header he should have done better with. Other than that, I seem to recall a couple of very easy saves from Zaniolo and Diaby, but that was about it.

Yeah we were deservedly beaten at their place. We had a lot of the ball at 2-0 down but rarely looked threatening.

[ChicagoLion]

Yeah, they were lucky in the sense that we were quite bad that day, objectively unusual for this season. They did play well though, perhaps their best display of the season. Hopefully we show up this time!

6 minutes, Elanga ran past Cash as if he wasn't there, squared the ball, no one closed down goal game over.
They then defended the penalty area, left their foot in a few times.
It was a pretty easy win, we had no idea hoe to get past the 11 behind the ball.

If we score first we win.

[brontebilly]

To be fair, Martinez throwing one in after half time when we were getting up a head of steam killed us. They didn't attempt to play afterwards but we lacked that bit of guile to open them up on the day.

Hudson-Odoi seems to have woken up from his career hibernation, Elanga is a decent player and Awoniyi has the physicality to cause us our CBs problems. They will try to get stuck into us from the off so we need to be at it from the first whistle. I think we will do it though, 2-1. 

[VillaTim]

Forest will sit deep and play on the counter, the sooner we score the sooner their game plan goes out the window.