Aston Villa v Manchester City - Pre-Match

[Rigadon]

Haaland being marked by Torres is a worrying prospect.  I hope my ‘waters’ are wrong is all I’ll say about this one! 

[Sexual Ealing]

I agree that it adheres to its commercial imperative, and it might be worse now than at other times, and I don't think it's a problem pointing it out - saying it's part of an anti-Villa conspiracy obviously is silly, but saying shit things are shit when you see them being shit strikes me as something a person can do.

And I agree with you. There's basically only a cigarette paper between my current position and being an absolute fucking Tory (it would be quite on-brand for me to decide to be a Tory at this stage in that party's development) because my default position is that it's almost always YOUR FAULT if you don't like the way the world works.

Daniel Levy realised this. Spurs were an afterthought of a club, but he decided to make them relevant by making them good. There's no reason why Villa can't do the same, and every passing newspaper article or Twitter skit that refuses to give us our due is OUR FAULT, because we've decided to be not good enough.

Edit: I meant to say that my cigarette paper is holding together some pretty hardcore MDMA so I love everyone all the time.

[PaulWinch again]

Haaland being marked by Torres is a worrying prospect.  I hope my ‘waters’ are wrong is all I’ll say about this one! 

We’ve won twice with him doing it before. I suspect Haaland will score though, and my biggest worry is I don’t think we’re creating enough or scoring simple goals at the moment. That isn’t really sustainable.

[Olneythelonely]

I think putting Mings in to deal with Haaland would be a massive mistake. Not only is Mings not good enough to do that (is anyone?) but we lose our best defensive partnership and Torres’ is so important to everything we do well.

I do think our only way of getting something from this is by really getting at them. We won’t win by slowing everything down.

[PeterWithesShin]

Haaland has scored in his last 12 games for club and country, and in 19 of his last 21. So he won't score today.

[PaulWinch again]

I think putting Mings in to deal with Haaland would be a massive mistake. Not only is Mings not good enough to do that (is anyone?) but we lose our best defensive partnership and Torres’ is so important to everything we do well.

I do think our only way of getting something from this is by really getting at them. We won’t win by slowing everything down.

Yep it’d be negative and the wrong approach. We’ve also won the last two games against Citeh with Pau playing.

He’s important and should start anyway, but without Tielemans it’s essential that he does.

[cdbearsfan]

Haaland has scored in his last 12 games for club and country, and in 19 of his last 21. So he won't score today.

Mods, ban this SCUMBAG. 😡😡😡

[PeterWithesShin]

Mods, please ban the anti-scumbagist.

[PeterWithesShin]

Hopefully Unai realises our best chance of victory against this lot is 5 at the back.

[enigma]

Also, the beeb with a massive in depth piece today about how Hansi Flick has revived Rashford's career, not a word about the time with us.

They're all out to get you mate.

It is, in a very basic way, bad journalism though. Not for being anti-Villa, just for being Big Boy Ballwashing.

Not sure I agree in this case. It's not meant to be a story of his career so far. It's literally about how Flick is using him at Barcelona. No real need to mention us in that context really.

[Hillbilly]

I have a horrible feeling we are going to get a hiding today.

[Pete3206]

Haaland has scored in his last 12 games for club and country, and in 19 of his last 21. So he won't score today.

Reported

[Pete3206]

Malen and Guessand on the bench.