Aston Villa vs Newcastle pre-match thread

[AV84]

Any update on Rogers?

[VillaTim]

Any update on Rogers?

Think he's back training so possibly 50/50 to start

[Nii Lamptey]

The Mings v Torres debate is likely to go on forever, but lets not forget the fella on the other side who isn't exactly fault free.

Konsa has added a nasty habit into his play where he'll go down at the slightest touch, then wave his arms in the air demanding a foul/booking from the ref. Prior to this, he was like a brick wall on legs - Really needs to stamp that out of his game.

[eamonn]

Yep, noticed he did it in pre-season and the ref didn't fall for it and the oppo scored. Konsa looked like an entitled lemming.

[VillaTim]

Hope we don't see much of Konsa at RB this season .

[London Villan]

Rogers will play - he is as important to Unai as is Torres.

[Villatillidie25]

Yep, noticed he did it in pre-season and the ref didn't fall for it and the oppo scored. Konsa looked like an entitled lemming.

He’s always been a highly fouled player because he does that thing where you draw the attacker in and then go down to win the free kick. Refs are getting tougher on soft free kicks and if you do it in Konsa’ position and don’t get the free kick then it gives away a huge opportunity for the opposition.

[Brazilian Villain]

I prefer Pau.

You wouldn't say that in Brasil.

[Olneythelonely]

I prefer Pau.

You wouldn't say that in Brasil.

I don’t know, I saw some absolute beauts playing that beach football tennis thing on my honeymoon. Impressive guys.

[boozey182]

The Mings v Torres debate is likely to go on forever, but lets not forget the fella on the other side who isn't exactly fault free.

Konsa has added a nasty habit into his play where he'll go down at the slightest touch, then wave his arms in the air demanding a foul/booking from the ref. Prior to this, he was like a brick wall on legs - Really needs to stamp that out of his game.

The Mings vs Torres debate is a case study for everything that is wrong with the internet, and by extension, the world.

It's a debate that only really gets attention when someone takes an extreme point of view, which then encourages more extreme points of view, either in support of that viewpoint, or against it. Once people have broadcast their opinion on a public forum, that cements it - as a species, we don't tend to like confronting the possibility that we're wrong, so that first 'broadcast' becomes our default position (even more so when we are challenged on it). It then informs other opinions, before all of a sudden, whole swathes of our personality are influenced by a couple of posts we made. All spawning from an extreme point of view that we feel we need to make in order to get attention. (Because if we don't get attention, what's the point of saying anything?)

We didn't have this in the beforetimes. Or if we did, it was on a much smaller scale. I remember my Dad getting called out in the Trinity for criticising Dalian Atkinson in his early days with us, and then that cemented his position. His pride wouldn't let him back down, so was always harsher on Dalian than our other players. These days, we all get to publicly shout every half-baked theory* that creeps into out head, and far too often, as soon as it's 'out there' we abandon all critical thought on the subject and just find new ways of saying the same thing over and over again. Or, in many cases, just keep saying it in exactly the same way, because there are only so many ways to say something that you haven't given much thought to.

This isn't the right place for this post. No good will come from writing this, and it won't change anything. I just find it interesting. This is one of the best places on the internet, in my opinion, so I just find it interesting that even here, where the debate is nuanced and thoughtful in a way that I don't see in many other places, the same tropes are still played out. All it takes is one poster with an axe to grind (or too much time on their hands) to derail almost any topic. How much power does that give them? Maybe that's the point. We all get manipulated by people that haven't thought things through.

I think, what I'm trying to say is: I really like Pau and Mings. I wish one of them was right-footed.

*This post falls perfectly into that category, especially with the over-the-top opening sentence. Apologies.

[Richard]

2 1

Bizot

Cash
Konsa
Pau
Digne

Kamara
Onana

Malen
Tielemans
Rogers

Watkins

Subs - youth keeper, Bogarde, Mings, Maatsen, McGinn, Buendia, Illing-Junior, Guessand, Jimoh

Assume Garcia and Barkley still out.

[manic-road]

Still some general tickets on sale for the opener, price increases can only go up so much each season before fans can't afford to go or prioritise where money is spent.

[PaulWinch again]

Boozey you’re right in that only one side of the debate is extreme, in that only one side is anti one of the players.

[Demitri_C]

And just to prove my point further who was in defence in the 4-1 win?

I know who was in defence for the 3-2 win against PSG.

That the game where Torres was guilty of another error and at 1-5 down on agg the tie was more or less done .

No. You must be thinking of the Martinez mistake and blaming Pau. Something that a moron like Coopers Injury would do.

You like pau, i like mings so i guess we are at deadlock. But for the opposition  we are playing i think Mings is better suited than pau.

 Pau was god awful that final game vs manure as well

[Olneythelonely]

I like Mings AND I like Pau. I’m not the sort of fan that has to have someone they don’t like. I think overall Pau adds more to how we play and it appears that our manager does too.