Aston Villa (0) vs Nottm Forest (1) - EL SF 2nd leg pre match

[Mellin]

The short-sighted reaction of miserabilist, defeatist Villa fans (not a personal dig at you, Pete3206, just observing the views of podcasters etc) is certainly a bonus for Forest.  The rest, not so much.  This is sport.  If bookies make us favourites, so what? That's just noise and meaningless noise, at that.  Forest are huge favourites, going by the recent results, they have a lead to defend away from home so the pressure is entirely on them.  The Villa players won't bottle this, my concern lies with our fans some of whom seem to be hellbent on manifesting defeat. 

Fair enough Billy but, are you not concerned by the drastic dip in form, surrendering to a Spurs side easing to a 2nd win in 2026, the other being at already relegated Wolves?

Only a few weeks ago, we stank out Molineux, then got thrashed by Chelsea who were on a terrible run, meekly surrendered at Old Trafford and produced a dismal 2nd half showing at Fulham, not even laying a glove on them. OK, we got wins at home to West Ham, who were rubbish and Sunderland and we very nearly cocked that up at the death.

We were crap in the 1st leg at Forest, absolutely crap. Then came that nonsense yesterday. Both Forest and Spurs expressed a desire to press and win the ball and we couldn't match them. I love Emery and admire what he's done for the club and hope he continues to manage the team. But we can't keep getting to these stages in competitions and just being rolled over by teams like Olympiacos, Palace and Forest.

I'm not "concerned" per se. I think there is context.  Unlike a lot of other (rival) clubs we have gone deep into Europe and have had to balance our players' minutes accordingly. Over the past ten days (I think) we'll have played two games more than Liverpool and Man Utd, the manager has to factor that in when he picks our teams.  We have two very clear priorities - achieve Champions League and win a trophy - despite all the obstacles against us we are on course for this.  Since our Europa quarter final win, I think Unai has started to prioritise that trophy over league fixtures, too - another factor behind our dip in league form.  I'm just trying to look at the bigger picture and the way Unai is trying to manage our season - and  if the way it has panned out had been offered to us back in August, surely we all would have grasped it? 

Thursday night is now a one-off match, Forest have it all to lose and we have everything to gain, we're in an incredible position. Genuinely, the negativity, the hysterical podcasts, all the moaning betrays a bottling mentality within the fanbase, not our manager (who has won many trophies).  Small Heath, Nottingham Forest and Arsenal fans will be lapping up the reaction of Villa fans to Unai's tactical decision - seriously, as a fanbase we can be our own worst enemy at times.  We have the chance of making a European Final on Thursday night - I'm going to say it again - a European Final! My message to everyone here is to snap out of the funk, and grasp the very real moment we are in.

👏👏👏

[RamboandBruno]

Great post Billy. I used to laugh at the idea of debates in forums like this and podcasts etc having any influence on what happens inside the ground, but yesterday dispelled that for me. My 16 year old was fuming more than me at the reaction of many elements of the crowd from the moment the first goal went in. This is a lad who in his first proper season of lots of games rather than the odd few, saw us relegated, then had season tickets through the championship years to now. He seems to remember how far we’ve come more than some of the older heads.
The collective anxiety really does need to be quelled for Thursday, if we don’t score early, the crowd need to stay with the team. In Unai we trust.

[cdbearsfan]

Forest playing the reserves at Chelsea. So much for that plan.

[Pete3206]

I hope you're right about the rest of the season Billy but, I don't agree about your comments about our fanbase and I couldn't care less what fans of other clubs are saying about us. I'm concerned about our loss of form, lack of desire, pace and any sort of a game plan in recent weeks. We've come a long way in three and half years, but we seem to be creaking at the vital moment.

[PaulWinch again]

It was now or never against Man United last day of the season as well. Yet...here we are. Again.

My point is it doesn't feel sustainable, or at any rate solid. We could slide down any time (especially with performances like some we've seen this year...).

The next transfer window we need to get absolutely spot on, and the previous ones do not give me a great deal of confidence that we will.

I think this is it for me. When we couldn’t do anything last summer, I consoled myself with the fact if we held onto our best players we had a good squad. That turned out to be true, and hopefully we don’t balls up the opportunity in front of us. But it was a squad with a shelf life and it’s very apparent time is pretty much up. That means a lot of work in the summer to refresh and we are going to need a much better hit rate.

[PaulWinch again]

Forest playing the reserves at Chelsea. So much for that plan.

Weird choice from them as well.

[aj2k77]

Forest playing the reserves at Chelsea. So much for that plan.

Of course they will. They're not stupid. They want to win a trophy and qualify for the Champions League. They wouldn't give a fuck about keeping Tottenham in the bottom 3 for another week either. 

[Cliftonville Villlain]

Forest smell blood hence their team selection tonight. And rightly so.

[Proposition Joe]

I would say that our transfer situation and management of that situation is bad and getting worse, and in the last year has been borderline farcical. Look at our opponents yesterday for how easy it is to fall back if you get that side of things so badly wrong for a long while.

Yesterday's opponents got it wrong by chopping and changing their manager every couple of years. They even sacked a manager on the eve of a final. They've been a basket case for a good few years and need stability and direction - we have both, thankfully.  Re transfers, we have to operate within tight FFP regulations, so in that context I believe our manager is working absolute miracles.

None of which I find very reassuring!

Indeed. We ideally don't want to be in the top 5 due to "miracles", because eventually the magic will run out. We want to be here on easy mode such that any half-wit manager could get us into the top 5 without even knowing how. As has been the case for most of the Sky6 until recently.

[PaulWinch again]

Forest smell blood hence their team selection tonight. And rightly so.

They’re also getting the reaction they need from their back up players.

[Monty]

Thing about us is that we're a fundamentally weird team, and trying to predict what we're going to do in any given situation is a fool's errand. We could storm this. We could equally reproduce yesterday and go out with a total whimper. There's no way of knowing.

[PhilVill]

0-2. Emery will be cautious (as always), theyll nick a goal. We'll attack more in 2nd half and they'll grab a late second. Then onto a draw against Burnley.

Apologies if that sounds miserable but I just can't see anything different.

[Demitri_C]

Man im so worried now. The preparation  for the game couldn't  go any worse for us

[john2710]

We need to create an atmosphere on Thursday that we haven't seen in quite a while. Fuck all the negativity, if you don't believe & you're not ready to rupture your lungs, stay at home.

We need to match Forest for their physicality & intensity. If we do that I'm confident.

[AlexAlexCropley]

We need to attack.