Aston Villa (A) 4/1: Build-Up & Match Thread

[Tom Hark]

Based on not much other than (a) an unexpectedly great result is often followed by an unexpectedly poor one and (b) Cunha might give us a new-player bounce, a win is certainly not out of the question. We can dream for the next five hours, anyway. This feels like a massive game.

 

[WsWolf]

Watched Villa against Spurs the other day and out of possession they were basically playing a back 6 (wingers outside the full backs) with 2 narrow midfielders and 2 narrow strikers. Crowded out the middle, picked them off in wide areas and broke fast. Considering how hard we've found it to break teams down this season I can't see us scoring many against a team set up like that but if we can keep it tight at our end it could end up being a bit of a scrappy game with few chances. Before the WC I'd say that we were guaranteed to lose a game like that but we've got a much better chance now.

I presumed that was because of the opponent, surely they won't set up like that against us at home. Their fans will go mad.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

I don't expect us to win but going into every game I have hope we can get something now which is an improvement from the Lage days.

A win would be huge but a point will do. I am just looking at our points average at the moment, around 1.3 to 1.5 points per game from Lop's 23 matches will see us safe.

 

[Carsy]

Good news - no idea how either are getting game time.

Surely - surely - Guedes can’t be any worse than Podence under a new manager? He played with Messi at Barcelona, for fucks sake?

Can he really be as shit as he’s looked under Lage?

Meh, vallejo played with ronaldo at madrid. If that’s the yardstick then in relative terms guedes ain’t half bad!

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

1.5 PPG is er, quite a lot.

We got 59 points in 2019/20 and finished 7th, that's just over 1.5 PPG. We aren't going to do that.

We need to hope Southampton, Bournemouth and one of Everton/West Ham remain really, really shit, as they all look worse than us at the moment.

 

[Carsy]

Think I'd be going with a narrow front 3 of Cunha Raul and Hwang

I thought Raul and Costa linked up well when they briefly played together. Raul seems to work best in a pair so be tempted to go Raul and Cunha up top.

 

[Carsy]

That's what I was thinking as well (if the Podence & Costa rumours are true). Think Lope might play Adama though with Cunha through the middle.

Rumours are definitely true. I got a text.

 

[Carsy]

Regarding guedes, he must be semi decent to have played for Portugal in this era, and scoring 13 goals in a season in la liga.

Granted I’ve not seen anything to suggest he’s any good, but surely there must be some sort of player in there, somewhere!?

 

[Lycan]

I presumed that was because of the opponent, surely they won't set up like that against us at home. Their fans will go mad.

They won't do it as often as they'll have more of the ball than against Spurs but I think that's just the shape they fall back into out of possession. They did it against Brighton as well, not sure about their other games under Emery, those are the only 2 I've watched.

 

[Carsy]

Probably wrong thread, but fits in with guedes a little bit and him not being rated here, but listening to talkSPORT earlier and they were saying how well Paulinha has been at Fulham, have we missed a trick there? I don’t watch much of Fulham tbf, but know he wasn’t rated on the forum when we were linked.

 

[Carsy]

That's what I was thinking as well (if the Podence & Costa rumours are true). Think Lope might play Adama though with Cunha through the middle.

I’d be half tempted to start Adama, especially if digne is playing for them.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Willian José scored 15 one season in La Liga, he is not a good player. Nor is Patrick Cutrone who once scored 10 in a Serie A season.

Guedes looked awful for Portugal whenever he played, he is not semi-decent, he does not have any attributes at all. He's slow, not skilful, doesn't have good delivery or movement, he's lightweight, he's lazy and he can't shoot for shit. I'd advise you to give up on him as life really is too short.

 

[Lycan]

Probably wrong thread, but fits in with guedes a little bit and him not being rated here, but listening to talkSPORT earlier and they were saying how well Paulinha has been at Fulham, have we missed a trick there? I don’t watch much of Fulham tbf, but know he wasn’t rated on the forum when we were linked.

Palhinha is quality, always has been.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Probably wrong thread, but fits in with guedes a little bit and him not being rated here, but listening to talkSPORT earlier and they were saying how well Paulinha has been at Fulham, have we missed a trick there? I don’t watch much of Fulham tbf, but know he wasn’t rated on the forum when we were linked.

We'd only have signed him if Neves left.

Bouba and Nunes were more suitable signings for us, Palhinha is more of what we already had.

 

[Carsy]

Willian José scored 15 one season in La Liga, he is not a good player. Nor is Patrick Cutrone who once scored 10 in a Serie A season.

Guedes looked awful for Portugal whenever he played, he is not semi-decent, he does not have any attributes at all. He's slow, not skilful, doesn't have good delivery or movement, he's lightweight, he's lazy and he can't shoot for shit. I'd advise you to give up on him as life really is too short.

O, I don’t rate him, and my life is not linked to guedes in any way shape or form, there must be atleast some sort of player in there though.

You get some players that just don’t suit certain leagues, but you can see they’re a decent player. I just can’t see anything with guedes.

Regarding Jose, fair point. He still has nearly 100 career goals mind, and record in la liga isn’t all that bad. So maybe he just didn’t suit the prem?

 

[Carsy]

We'd only have signed him if Neves left.

Bouba and Nunes were more suitable signings for us, Palhinha is more of what we already had.

I was more getting at people openly saying ‘he’s shit’ ‘he’s a clogger’ etc. appears he ain’t half bad.

 

[Tony Towner]

Jose was atrociously scouted. How he gets his goals isn't in any way close to how we played under Nuno. Wasn't ever going to work

 

[Jinky]

Our recruitment team do seem to have a great knack of signing players that look good in other leagues but shite once they get to the PL.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

If you ignore all the good ones then I make you right

 

[Jinky]

Been a long time since we really, really nailed a signing. Nunes is probably the only "good" one, but even with him we're yet to see the best of him & that was a favour from Uncle Jorge.