Aston Villa v Young Boys Pre-Match Thread

[eamonn]

For the love of McGrath, I hope Ollie has his scoring boots on and gets at least a brace and at best a double-bogey.

[RamboandBruno]

Bit of annoying k/o time, but gives me an excuse to finish work early, which is nice

[Dave P]

Bit of annoying k/o time, but gives me an excuse to finish work early, which is nice

I think the kick off time is so early as were playing Young Boys and they need to be in bed by 9 #shitjoke

[cdbearsfan]

Me mother made the same joke and was quite pleased with herself. 🙂

[eamonn]

It's a top joke. Clever yet wholesome. Rare these days.

[PaulTheVillan]

Routine win.

Bizot in goal.

Can see Maatsen, Malen and Bogarde getting a start.

[not3bad]

For the love of McGrath, I hope Ollie has his scoring boots on and gets at least a brace and at best a double-bogey.

This would be a very good time to hit the target and gain confidence again, just before some very tough Christmas fixtures.

[TaxDodger]

I'd go;

Bizot

Lindeloff, Konsa, Torres, Maatsen

Kamara, Bogarde

Guessand, Malen, Sancho

Watkins

[Pete3206]

Qualify in top 8 first, then rest players. The competition is too important to mess around.

[Drummond]

I'd go;

Bizot

Lindeloff, Konsa, Torres, Maatsen

Kamara, Bogarde

Guessand, Malen, Sancho

Watkins

Bizot

Garcia Konsa Lindelof Digne
          Onana      Bogarde
Guessand      Eliott    Sancho
                Watkins

[TaxDodger]

Qualify in top 8 first, then rest players. The competition is too important to mess around.

My logic in resting a few players at this point is that this is probably our easiest remaining game on paper, which we should be able to win with a squad side. We'll want to finish as high up the table as possible to ensure home games later in the competition, so every game is important regardless of whether we've mathmatically confirmed our place in the top 8 or not. Therefore if we're going to rest players at any point, I'd rest them here, rather than in Istanbul for example.

[eamonn]

Yep, if we can't dispose of a bunch of eleven and twelve year olds with our second-string, we should give-up now.

[rob_bridge]

3.1

Is Garcia available?

Malen to start please. Deserves one after last 2 sub appearances.

[simon ward 50]

Qualify in top 8 first, then rest players. The competition is too important to mess around.

Agree 100%

[Dave]

Qualify in top 8 first, then rest players. The competition is too important to mess around.

Once (assuming) we've confirmed top eight then it'll be a sharp pivot to "we need to finish top two to get home advantage in the second leg of the knock-out stages".

I can't imagine people will be willing to sack off the last match against Fenerbahce if that is still at stake.

And if we try and play (what people would describe as) our best eleven in every match because it's all so important, our best players will be on their knees by April when we will really need them firing.