Reflections on Conference League

[pauliewalnuts]

Emery is a European expert juggling domestic alongside , he loves more games and balances with less training . The players didn't deliver.

He's not a magician. Why don't you just cut them some slack instead of diving headfirst into this sort of grim tribute act thing that just reminds us all of Cooper's Injury and Silhilvilla?

All you need to do is mention Beckford 'being at it' again and the conversion will be complete.

[Olneythelonely]

Emery is a European expert juggling domestic alongside , he loves more games and balances with less training . The players didn't deliver.

They also got really fucking injured, very often.

[Beard82]

Mind you, we can't overlook Dougie's disastrous hair style change plus his return to the arms of whatshername, that all coincided with a downturn of form.

Probably more impactful than losing Kamara.

that's assuming these things aren't related.  Does Kamara even get injured if Dougie's single - I, for one, think not

[Ads]

Fucked the coaches off and in a taxi back to the bar. I intend to salute this European adventure in the best possible way, but drinking my body weight in gin. Fucking love the Villa.

[Grumpy]

There are some insane takes in here.

The team are on the whole shattered.
There has been little to no rotation.
Other European clubs have been waived their league games between euro fixtures.
Our lot have had to play in the most intense league between conference fixtures.

We have three ACLs to key players.
Our primary subs tonight were kids.
The first 11 were out on their feet from the start.

They’ve improved on last year significantly.
We might get champions league.
We were at real risk of getting relegated only 18 months ago.

Please, PLEASE don’t act like a miserable spoiled child because you might miss the only positive period we’ve had in over a decade. It won’t always be this good. Cheer up.

[Steve67]

Unai is a fucking genius to have got us to this point with such a shit hand in terms of injuries and fatigue. We are well ahead of where any of us expected to be so I forgive Cash and Digne being poor and Doug trying too hard. We are destined for bigger and better things so West Ham can dine out on winning this cup all they like, where has it got them? In Unai I absolutely trust and can’t wait for the summer.

[andyh]

We lost that tie because of the way we approached the first 30 mins at Villa park.
We should have dominated and overrun them. We didn’t. We started well for 5 mins then dropped back into slow ponderous play which gave them the opportunity to,get into,the game. They were frightened to death about playing us….we rolled over for them

[Footy-Vill]

There are some insane takes in here.

The team are on the whole shattered.
There has been little to no rotation.
Other European clubs have been waived their league games between euro fixtures.
Our lot have had to play in the most intense league between conference fixtures.

We have three ACLs to key players.
Our primary subs tonight were kids.
The first 11 were out on their feet from the start.

They’ve improved on last year significantly.
We might get champions league.
We were at real risk of getting relegated only 18 months ago.

Please, PLEASE don’t act like a miserable spoiled child because you might miss the only positive period we’ve had in over a decade. It won’t always be this good. Cheer up.

It makes sense what you're saying but your name doesn't as you're called Grumpy and actually seem positive and give good contextual perspective and also you ended with cheer up. Why are you called Grumpy?

[brontebilly]

To be fair, my attention wanders when I'm looking at Alisha Lehmann.

Is she really all that?

[Monty]

There are some insane takes in here.

The team are on the whole shattered.
There has been little to no rotation.
Other European clubs have been waived their league games between euro fixtures.
Our lot have had to play in the most intense league between conference fixtures.

We have three ACLs to key players.
Our primary subs tonight were kids.
The first 11 were out on their feet from the start.

They’ve improved on last year significantly.
We might get champions league.
We were at real risk of getting relegated only 18 months ago.

Please, PLEASE don’t act like a miserable spoiled child because you might miss the only positive period we’ve had in over a decade. It won’t always be this good. Cheer up.

Being told to cheer up by literal Grumpy should shame some.

(Not me, of course. But that's because I'm Moronically Optimistic).

[Grumpy]

There are some insane takes in here.

The team are on the whole shattered.
There has been little to no rotation.
Other European clubs have been waived their league games between euro fixtures.
Our lot have had to play in the most intense league between conference fixtures.

We have three ACLs to key players.
Our primary subs tonight were kids.
The first 11 were out on their feet from the start.

They’ve improved on last year significantly.
We might get champions league.
We were at real risk of getting relegated only 18 months ago.

Please, PLEASE don’t act like a miserable spoiled child because you might miss the only positive period we’ve had in over a decade. It won’t always be this good. Cheer up.

It makes sense what you're saying but your name doesn't as you're called Grumpy and actually seem positive and give good contextual perspective and also you ended with cheer up. Why are you called Grumpy?

Because I’m generally an all round miserable bastard.

I however I can’t for a second be pissed off about this season though and all the potential we have to look forward to.

I’ve been a fan since 1994, I’ve never felt so optimistic.

(I’ve also had a few sizeable whiskies tbf)

[KevinGage]

We lost that tie because of the way we approached the first 30 mins at Villa park.
We should have dominated and overrun them. We didn’t. We started well for 5 mins then dropped back into slow ponderous play which gave them the opportunity to,get into,the game. They were frightened to death about playing us….we rolled over for them

That's not totally wrong but it's pretty much by design.

We might go at it hard for the opening spell, but -when we're in better nick - after that opening burst, we're content to let teams come on to us and wait for the gaps to open.

This works well when you have a GK like Martinez who can almost act as an additional outfield player. It works less well you have an Olsen-type, who is more like a traditional GK.

We're capable of going up the gears or dropping the pace to suit with more personnel. Less so when we're relying on the XI we've been putting out for the past 3>4 games.

[Percy McCarthy]

I see the injury card is being played . Don't . We had enough to beat these with the players we had , it's a poor excuse . We bottled it massively and it's a huge disappointment. Even tonight 9-0 on corners and we frittered away all of them . Was a pathetic no show .

The injuries mean they've played too much. Which means fatigue. Even De Zerbi said it on the weekend: 'this was not Villa'.

What will it take some people? I'm glad the squad have this no excuses culture but - and I hate to break this news but here we are - we are not in the squad. We are the fans. And no excuses for them doesn't mean we have to be unforgiving arseholes.

Nah , not buying it . They were shite played like headless chickens no composure poor defending etc . Well beaten fair and square no excuses .

But you clearly don’t have a fucking clue what you’re talking about Coops.

Of course he doesn't.

To be fair, when I said I was perplexed by intelligent people not getting it, I was obviously not thinking of Dim Tim/Cooper’s Injury.

[Martyn Smith]

I don't want to go down the 'would we have settled for that at the start?' route, but the worst that this season can show for us now is that we got to the semi finals of a European competition and qualified for the Europa by finishing 5th...

[tomd2103]

Absolutely gutted, as I felt from the off that this presented us with our best chance of winning a trophy for some time.  Unfortunately, the most important couple of weeks in recent history have coincided with a downturn in our form.  There are a number of reasons for that drop off, mainly the number of injuries that have been suffered, but we have looked spent for a few games now. 

Let's be honest, the home leg was our big opportunity, but it went horribly wrong on the night and it was a major uphill task from there.