Reflections on Conference League

[Drummond]

Imagine 18 months ago, anyone even suggesting we'd be in Europe, never mind the semi-final. It's been a brilliant experience. Playing decent sides all the way through, giving us a glimpse of what it will be like in future; next season we have at the very minimum the Europa League to look forward to. This club is, very definitely, on the way up.

The players will be gutted, as we all are, but it's about building for the future.

[Villan82]

Defence is a real issue . The goals A column tells its own story, Carlos / Lenglet need moving on . Konsa isn't a RB . Torres is good on the ball but a weak CB.
Next season we can hopefully go back to Konsa / Mings in the middle .

Pau is world class.

We have had an injury crisis.

We are 7 points clear in 4th.

[Villan82]

Imagine 18 months ago, anyone even suggesting we'd be in Europe, never mind the semi-final. It's been a brilliant experience. Playing decent sides all the way through, giving us a glimpse of what it will be like in future; next season we have at the very minimum the Europa League to look forward to. This club is, very definitely, on the way up.

The players will be gutted, as we all are, but it's about building for the future.

Absolutely. And we have a manager who has revolutionised how we play. And guess what? We have our best season since 1995-96, 28 years ago.

Yet still I am seeing people moaning about Pau and how we play. I sometimes think the fan base could do with having a few of those video sessions with Emery!

[VillaTim]

Defence is a real issue . The goals A column tells its own story, Carlos / Lenglet need moving on . Konsa isn't a RB . Torres is good on the ball but a weak CB.
Next season we can hopefully go back to Konsa / Mings in the middle .

Pau is world class.

We have had an injury crisis.

We are 7 points clear in 4th.

He really isn't at defending .

[Olneythelonely]

Defence is a real issue . The goals A column tells its own story, Carlos / Lenglet need moving on . Konsa isn't a RB . Torres is good on the ball but a weak CB.
Next season we can hopefully go back to Konsa / Mings in the middle .

Pau is world class.

We have had an injury crisis.

We are 7 points clear in 4th.

He really isn't at defending .

Nonsense again Coops.

[Risso]

I'm with Tim on that one, Torres is brilliant with the ball at his feet, and in a confident team with the likes of Kamara fit, he looks world class. The actual defending part of his game is much less strong and when we're up against it, he usually looks ropey as anything.

[pablo_picasso]

I can't be angry, really. Which is more dispiriting as we have two games left, and if it were just a bad display you could get angry about it would mean improvement was possible.

But I don't know if it is. They just look absolutely dead.

I think this is it. They looked dead on their feet.

They worked as hard as is possible when fucked, but everything was just too far away, too close, too fast, too slow, too far in front, too far behind.

It was never in the goldilocks zone whether that was possession, ball control, passing, etc.

And thats usually the case when players are blowing out of their arses.

I am dreading the next couple of games & think the biggest element with us either qualifying for Champions League or not is the Spurs v ManC game...

[olaftab]

I was never that bothered about this Anglo-Italian Cup to be honest

JFO.

[Sexual Ealing]

Cash fouling himself in their box with a gaping net in front of him, and nobody else within miles, summed up the whole tie.

[VillaTim]

I'm with Tim on that one, Torres is brilliant with the ball at his feet, and in a confident team with the likes of Kamara fit, he looks world class. The actual defending part of his game is much less strong and when we're up against it, he usually looks ropey as anything.

You just need to look at the Goals A column to see there are some issues .

[Meanwood Villa]

Cash fouling himself in their box with a gaping net in front of him, and nobody else within miles, summed up the whole tie.

That was quite funny. Was that his attempt at "throwing himself at it"?

[Footy-Vill]

I didn't find it funny. That's not champions league level. It's lower league

[ez]

I'm only really disappointed for the younger villa fans who haven't seen us win anything.
Personally I'm indifferent towards the competition. For me Champions league qualification was always the priority and the conference league was like a ramp up event to better things. Am I gutted we didn't win it? Cant say i am. Will I be gutted if we don't get 4th place? Absolutely.

[django]

We were comfortably beaten on aggregate but thought the games were pretty close despite us being way off the pace.

Our approach of trying to draw teams onto us doesn’t really work when they have a two goal cushion and no incentive to press us high up
the pitch. But we didn’t really have the players to try something else or the legs to press with intensity ourselves.

It is what it is. I still think we’ll stumble over the line to get 4th which would be an incredible achievement. As someone said further up, we may as well enjoy this it might not be this good again for a while and we’ve certainly known it a lot worse!

[Brend'Watkins]

I didn't find it funny. That's not champions league level. It's lower league

Yes.  The first thought that came into my head was we need better than that, much better if we have any delusions of competing against superior opposition.