Will we qualify for the CL?

[eye digress]

Noticed Jonathan Liew on the Football Weekly (in proximity to a great rant on Sir Jim) opine that he “worries for Villa” and thinks we’ll miss out on a Chump’s league place.

I usually have a lot of time for him, but don’t think he’s thought this one through - even though his broader thinking (the 5 richest clubs will finish top 5) can’t really be faulted per se.

But he did say something else that I thought interesting, that Villa have been struck down by injuries, and that we don’t have the depth of squad to compete in those circumstances with the Uniteds, Chelseas, Liverpools, etc.

It’s something I hear often, like a short hand, but is it really true?

I mean, if United’s first choice 6 and 8 were out for the season, would they be fielding a better quality pair than Onana and Luiz? If the centre backs were out, would they be fielding better than Lindelhof/Mings? Same questions for other positions, and for Chelsea and Liverpool (a similar question was answered on another thread for goalkeepers yesterday, where the consensus would have had our pair 4th out of the top 6 after City, Arsenal and Liverpool).

[Dick Edwards]

We do have a good squad. As you allude to, if any club in Europe lost their entire first choice midfield, they would suffer a drop in quality. Arsenal for instance have a huge squad, but if their central midfield equivalent of Rice, Odegaard and Zubimendi were missing simultaneously for an extended period they'd struggle.

[Mellin]

Agree with every word. If you even take out McGinn and just remove Rice and Zubamendi, Rodri and Silva, Casemiro and Mainoo, Caicedo and Fernandez, or Gravenbach and Szoboszlai...how's that going to go? Exactly as it has for us. The back up is fine, just no team in the world can cope with losing their two best players in their strongest position.

We all knew we were fucked when we heard about Kamara and we all knew we were really fucked when we heard about McGinn and Tielemans. The story starts and ends there.

[Percy McCarthy]

^^ I like Jonny Liew as well. He predicted us to finish 9th at the start of the season.

[Monty]

Yeah he's just one of those people who doesn't rate this team much or, for some reason, the club at large. Some Londoncentrism at work I guess. Anyway, he's very good in general.

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

I'm not a massive Liew fan but I imagine his opinion is held by many people. I enjoyed him calling Ratcliffe a fucking prick more than once the other day.

[Villan82]

There has been more negativity here than in any of the other Emery years, with a lot of snarky digs at our players, yet we sit third in the league. Make it make sense.

[PaulWinch again]

We should do it - but the nagging doubt is we are really performing badly at the moment. Obviously the injuries are big mitigation, but it feels like generally speaking if the opposition score we’re not going to win. Hopefully an upturn in performance is round the corner.

[PaulWinch again]

Having reflected I think our ability to finish in the Champions League spots is going to hinge on us getting some fluidity in attack back. We’re not actually conceding many goals - obviously the FA Cup game was a bit of a freak - but generally speaking it’s a single goal most games. But our inability to get any real flow into our game means goals are really hard to come by. Obviously Tielemans is big in that, but even without him there’s just a general need to up the intensity and energy in the final third. If we can we’ll be fine, but if we keep performing like we have of late I think we’ll struggle.

[Meanwood Villa]

There has been more negativity here than in any of the other Emery years, with a lot of snarky digs at our players, yet we sit third in the league. Make it make sense.

I imagine if you checked posts from after the Spurs home game in 23/24 or the Chelsea capitulation in 24/25 you'd see more negativity than at the moment. People are naturally worried because we've lost four out of 12, having only lost two in the previous 19.

Because we got ourselves into such a good position, the concern is amplified because it feels like we're going to blow it. It's the equivalent of being more nervous when someone pulls a goal back to make it 2-1 than if we go one down.

I didn't see last night but it sounds like there is a large mitigating (admittedly self-inflicted) factor to the defeat so I'm not much more concerned than I was before the match, albeit I'm pissed off with another cup season down the tubes.

[Crown Hill]

Can’t stand Liew. I’ll never understand why he’s contracted as a journalist. Pretentious and ignorant going back to his Telegraph. Equally wrong about cricket snd football.

Having said all that he’s right about our squad. Onana and Luiz is proving to be a frightening midfield combination. In effect our attacks are just breaks now that usually miss these two out. Our defence is under enormous pressure because of the lack of cover in front.

Unai will need to find some sort of new system because we can’t play the possession system with this midfield.

[Rigadon]

I thought he system was fine until Bizot got sent off.  Luiz is an able deputy for Tielemans and Onana is OK as a back up for Kamara.  We seem unable to play our normal game when we have a man sent off or the opposition does. 

It really was just unforced errors that cost us last night. 

[ROBBO]

Beat Leeds and the pressure eases just a little.

[ChicagoLion]

I thought he system was fine until Bizot got sent off.  Luiz is an able deputy for Tielemans and Onana is OK as a back up for Kamara.  We seem unable to play our normal game when we have a man sent off or the opposition does. 

It really was just unforced errors that cost us last night.

against a team with 2/3rds of its normal midfield out.

[PaulWinch again]

Beat Leeds and the pressure eases just a little.

I think we have to win the next two games.