Will we qualify for the CL?

[aj2k77]

Bogarde and Onana at the base of midfield would be so poor on the ball we'd have to play Torres and look long continually.

[Goldenballs]

I haven't seen much fleet footedness or quick passing from Luiz either, everything is so slow and pedestrian most of the time.

As frustrating as it is we just need to grind out points where we can and hope McGinn et al come back soon and hit the ground running. Our current starting 11 isn't top 3 quality in a million years.

And please start Tammy,

[Goldenballs]

#AVFC have won just 𝐓𝐖𝐎 of their last 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 Premier League games when having 67% possession or more in a single game in the competition 📉

🤝 vs Crystal Palace
❌ vs Wolves
🤝 vs Ipswich Town
✅ vs Tottenham
❌ vs Brentford
🤝 vs Sunderland
✅ vs Nottingham Forest
❌ vs Brentford
🤝 vs Leeds United

Taken from X, the gospel of truth.

[Meanwood Villa]

Frigging Brentford

[SamTheMouse]

With the Onana Luiz central midfield we won’t do it.

I’d slightly disagree with this. It’s not necessarily a bad midfield but it’s the team and Unai learning that if the opposition is bottling up the midfield then we have to find a way of utilising width more effectively. We did it brilliantly in the last 15 minutes yesterday and it was quite apparent that Leeds were hanging on as we cut them to ribbons time and again. You could see it in the first half as Leeds were bottling our left side and midfield but Cash and Bailey had acres of space which we didn’t capitalise on. Teams are cute now with bottling up central areas against us so Unais 3 Tens system needs tweaking and preferably without Bailey and Buendia starting.

Agree with this. Ideally we'd be turning our opponents' tactics into an advantage by, as you say, getting us using the width of the pitch more effectively.

The downside being that we'll be more open to the counter, so the challenge is to find a balance.

I doubt Emery will do this, though, as he clearly hates the idea of putting early crosses in, and has hammered into the players the need to recycle the ball back across the pitch and retain possession.

Which is why I think our performances will remain poo until at least two-thirds of our first choice midfield are back.

[SaddVillan]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cj0npqv9rylo

This from the BBC'S Sport website.

5th place should be good enough for a Chumps League place.

[Percy McCarthy]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cj0npqv9rylo

This from the BBC'S Sport website.

5th place should be good enough for a Chumps League place.

Yes, it’s been nailed on for a while now. Football Rankings had it at 100% weeks ago. We’re miles in front and we’ve only got to finish in the top two:

MOST WINS in this European season:

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England, 50-11-14
🇪🇸 Spain, 33-10-24
🇩🇪 Germany, 32-9-18
🇮🇹 Italy, 30-11-20
🇵🇱 Poland, 29-11-12
🇵🇹 Portugal, 28-9-12
🇫🇷 France, 28-8-25
🇳🇱 Netherlands, 22-6-33
🇨🇾 Cyprus, 21-12-12
🇩🇰 Denmark, 20-10-8
🇬🇷 Greece, 19-19-13
🇧🇪 Belgium, 19-6-15

[PaulWinch again]

If we win our next one and Chelsea lose at Arsenal we’ll be 9 points ahead of them when they come to Villa Park.

Please Villa, this time at least keep up our end of the bargain. If we go to Wolves and try and grind it out I bet we’ll fail to win, we have to play with a bit of enterprise and more risk.

[PaulWinch again]

I was reflecting and what we’re at risk of doing is what people sometimes do when they play poker. Build up a big stack and instead of “putting the foot on the throat” they basically become inert and the game slips away from them. If we continue to start games with so little intent I think we’ll get overhauled. We have to start playing like a team who believes it can beat a team by two or three goals, rather than one that hopes it’s in the game going into the final third.

Still very doable, but needs to start Friday night.

[Brazilian Villain]

I was reflecting and what we’re at risk of doing is what people sometimes do when they play poker. Build up a big stack and instead of “putting the foot on the throat” they basically become inert and the game slips away from them.

I think I know what brought the poker analogy to mind. https://x.com/WPT/status/2015845862606569924

[PeterWithesShin]

Conversely you can play the big stack, bluff off loads trying to bully the smaller stacks and bust out from being too reckless.

[PaulWinch again]

Conversely you can play the big stack, bluff off loads trying to bully the smaller stacks and bust out from being too reckless.

Absolutely, but I’d say that’s a pretty generous view of what we’re doing. But I’ll gladly doff my cap if we win the next three.

[PeterWithesShin]

I didn't say it's what we're doing. Just that being too passive or too aggressive has its potential downfalls. What good poker players do is know when to change speeds. We're too often starting too passive and only get aggressive late on when we're already behind.

[PaulWinch again]

Ah fair enough I misinterpreted. Agree I do think the passive starts are really undermining us at the moment.

[Toronto Villa]

I’d rather we started strong to get an early goal and then slow it down. It will pull teams into us opening up gaps to break into as they advance. Something we have been pretty good at taking advantage of in the Unai era. But that tactic is shit if we are already behind. It’s slow and predictable and teams just drop deeper and we end up just passing it sideways and back with no real final third impact. And then desperation sets in and push up against a deep back line hoping to get a goal to save the game.