Reflections on Conference League

[Rudy Can't Fail]

His passing is world class, his defending (all season) certainly isn't.

However, he is vital to how we play, but needs other good footballers in the team, who can accept passes in tight spaces and be aware of the space they can play in.

Kamara, Doug, SJM and Teilemans fit this description.

His passing is world class when it comes off. As for his defending, doesn't he always look better when partnered with Konsa? I don't think Unai did anybody any favours bringing back Diego and Cash is no midfielder.

I was left wondering last night whether or not we need a serious defence rebuild. Then I look at the league table and apart from the top 3 only Everton have conceded more. Still, if we want to narrow that gap and as we saw last night, we can't always rely on scoring more goals than we concede, a tighter defence next season is a must.

[Villan82]

Pau is world class.

Ha! Shake those pom-poms! I'm all for a bit of positivity, especially on days like today but ffs, can we try and keep it just a touch real?
Torres can't get in the Spanish team and it's not like he has much competition. Right now he's lucky he's at a club with so many injuries as his current form is less than convincing. My guess is he's not fully fit which may explain why he's missing games.

Spain have one world class player and it sadly ain't Pau Torres.

You sure about that?

[Drummond]

Torres will be much better with Mings back next to him. Mings is a brilliant defender and a good footballer. Torres is a great footballer, who will hoepfully benefit from having Mings do a lot more of the defensive work next to him.

I'm concerned about leaving Konsa out. The only player who has been dribbled around more is Vin Dijk, twice, Konsa 3 times.

Perhaps a 3? Or Torres left back?

[Meanwood Villa]

Pau has looked off it recently, think it's the knock he's carrying. What I will say is I don't think it's coincidence our first dip from winning the league form was when he was out.

[Scratchins]

I am just back from Athens and I want to thank our super fans who made it an enjoyable experience. Good natured in town, supporting the Villa all the way through - especially the half time 'Thursday Night' singing and then the class act of applauding the Olympiacus team and fans at the end. A shame that we are out but we are at the beginning of an exciting journey and there is a lot to look forward to.  UTV

[VillaTim]

Pau has looked off it recently, think it's the knock he's carrying. What I will say is I don't think it's coincidence our first dip from winning the league form was when he was out.

Torres has indeed looked off it not helped by Konsa who has also been a mixed bag .

[London Villan]

We've seen this season, with almost 60 games that there shouldn't be a starting 11 - but a group of 20 players that could start every game.

Konsa Mings - Mings Torres - Konsa Torres  - should all be options, none of which significantly weaken us.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I am just back from Athens and I want to thank our super fans who made it an enjoyable experience. Good natured in town, supporting the Villa all the way through - especially the half time 'Thursday Night' singing and then the class act of applauding the Olympiacus team and fans at the end. A shame that we are out but we are at the beginning of an exciting journey and there is a lot to look forward to.  UTV

Brilliant. I saw a video this morning where he filmed from the away section, underneath the Villa stand during half time. The fella just looked up, turned to the camera and says "Class!". Don't be surprised if we get grouped with them in the Champions League next season.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Pau is world class.

Ha! Shake those pom-poms! I'm all for a bit of positivity, especially on days like today but ffs, can we try and keep it just a touch real?
Torres can't get in the Spanish team and it's not like he has much competition. Right now he's lucky he's at a club with so many injuries as his current form is less than convincing. My guess is he's not fully fit which may explain why he's missing games.

Spain have one world class player and it sadly ain't Pau Torres.

You sure about that?

As sure as I am that you're a very silly, excitable child. Like Unai, I'm demanding, want us to improve and won't stop until we're the best team in Europe again.

[Sexual Ealing]

That's reassuring Mark.

[caster troy]

Most defences look weaker when their best defensive midfielder is out, look at Man City without Rodri. If we'd just had Kamara avoid his injury we'd have 4th sewn up ages ago and we'd be one game from a trophy now.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Most defences look weaker when their best defensive midfielder is out, look at Man City without Rodri. If we'd just had Kamara avoid his injury we'd have 4th sewn up ages ago and we'd be one game from a trophy now.

You're forgetting the Conference League.

Our midfield have been the key to our success and failures this season. When they're on song we can beat anybody.

[LeeS]

Interesting that in the quarter final and semi final, both Lille and Olympiacos had no competitive fixtures on the weekend before both games. I think that helped massively, and when you take into the fatigue that the players undoubtedly were feeling and the limited squad options that we had it is hardly surprising that we struggled so much over all four legs. Food for thought for the Premier League? Nah, don't think so!

Agreed that it’s a disadvantage when opposition are a little fresher but don’t agree that teams competing in Europe should be “facilitated”.  That impinges on the integrity of domestic league. And it’s not just PL, Bundesliga, Italian and Spanish Leagues teams also played on both weekends.

Integrity is a good point. But the main issue is that you can’t vanish games. If we hadn’t played Brighton then when would we play them? It would have to be squeezed in somewhere else. And we’d already be catching up on the games we’d missed ahead of the first leg and the two Lille games and the Ajax games. You can’t make them disappear. They just stack up and have to be played. I’m actually sick of hearing this one. Sorry.

[Bully2345]

I agree with Lee. There is no space in the calendar, as shown by them cancelling FA Cup replays. The PL plays more games than most European leagues as it's a 20 team league but that is not going to change as it would take 14 of the 20 teams to agree to reduce to 18 teams and turkeys don't have a strong history of voting for Christmas.

[OCD]

We don't need games re-arranging to try and give us a benefit over the opposition, we need a squad with more quality in depth and better luck with long-term injuries than what we've had this season. We can't do anything about the latter but we can the former, and this was our first 50+game season in a long time.