Liverpool are awful

11 hours ago, Zico said:

That Villa team on paper don't look great at all but that's 12 wins a row and they keep coming from behind 

They won't win the league but will Def get CL

Got to give credit to the manager because I just don't see top 4 players 

There'll be fans on Villaways not happy they aren't beating everyone 5-0.

11 minutes ago, gonzo said:

There'll be fans on Villaways not happy they aren't beating everyone 5-0.

I heard them giving it the empty seats mi lord stuff again yesterday OBSESSED 

It varies 😂

1 hour ago, Wanderlust said:

Villa fans whinge a lot and don’t rate their own players. I hear a lot of “Cash is a liability”, “Watkins works hard but no end product” “Rodgers is overrrated” etc etc and yet they have talent throughout. Martinez is a wind up merchant but the best goalie in the league IMO, Captain John McGinn is an aging genius in a strong midfield, defence is solid.

”On paper” they aren’t the most expensive headline signings but Emery has put together an excellent team very astutely with discarded older players the likes of Lindelof on a free, Ross Barkley, Tielemans and some clever young signings eg. an excellent back up goalie for half a million and the likes of Onana plus clever loans e.g Elliot and Sancho.

Its a very balanced squad and they play as a team.
 

 

Aye he's done a great job

Expect him to win Europa League, again

27 minutes ago, Marc505 said:

It varies 😂

Q: In which season did they win the EFL Trophy?

A: they didn't win it, they were runners up.

😂🤦‍♂️

Fuck me that’s horrendous 

1 hour ago, Wanderlust said:

Villa fans whinge a lot and don’t rate their own players. I hear a lot of “Cash is a liability”, “Watkins works hard but no end product” “Rodgers is overrrated” etc etc and yet they have talent throughout. Martinez is a wind up merchant but the best goalie in the league IMO, Captain John McGinn is an aging genius in a strong midfield, defence is solid.

”On paper” they aren’t the most expensive headline signings but Emery has put together an excellent team very astutely with discarded older players the likes of Lindelof on a free, Ross Barkley, Tielemans and some clever young signings eg. an excellent back up goalie for half a million and the likes of Onana plus clever loans e.g Elliot and Sancho.

Its a very balanced squad and they play as a team.
 

 

They're a very good side, well put together, good to watch and very well managed. People want to play for him too, those loans of Asencio and Rashford last year were smart moves. He knows the Spanish market well too

An interesting feature on MOTD last night about Dominic Calvert Lewin and the positions from which he's scored all his goals this season. Essentially, all the dots in a line in the middle of the posts.

In his season where he scored 15 or so for Everton, all but two were scored from between the posts. 

Both those teams have known how to play to him and get the best out of him

Begs the question about us playing Dalby for a run of games, keeping it simple and putting the ball between the posts on a regular basis 

53 minutes ago, ianofcleveleys said:

An interesting feature on MOTD last night about Dominic Calvert Lewin and the positions from which he's scored all his goals this season. Essentially, all the dots in a line in the middle of the posts.

In his season where he scored 15 or so for Everton, all but two were scored from between the posts. 

Both those teams have known how to play to him and get the best out of him

Begs the question about us playing Dalby for a run of games, keeping it simple and putting the ball between the posts on a regular basis 

At the start of the season, Burstow also said the same thing.
Put the ball in the middle and we'll score.

43 minutes ago, ianofcleveleys said:

An interesting feature on MOTD last night about Dominic Calvert Lewin and the positions from which he's scored all his goals this season. Essentially, all the dots in a line in the middle of the posts.

In his season where he scored 15 or so for Everton, all but two were scored from between the posts. 

Both those teams have known how to play to him and get the best out of him

Begs the question about us playing Dalby for a run of games, keeping it simple and putting the ball between the posts on a regular basis 

Doesn’t every CF score the vast majority of their goals from between the posts seeing that it is the striker’s position that gives the best target/widest angle and is the land of tap ins?

Struggling to think of any CF that didn’t tbh. Or scoring midfielders for that matter like Sheehan on Saturday and Dempsey the other week. Easiest place to score from if you can make time and space to get the effort off.

Still your point about trying to create scoring chances bang in front of goal is right but a) it’s the heaviest defended area b) we are set up so that most of our attacks come from wide c) too close and it’s the goalie’s ball - and the ball has to be perfect.

I think SS has been encouraging balls into the middle for Dalby to mix up the attack, but our wingers and WBs struggle to put in the pinpoint pacy killer crosses and passes that would suit him. Look at the balls into our box from Rotherham this weekend for comparison - quality. Or GT whipping it in for Wrexham. We just don’t have the players who can deliver like that consistently so they end up putting floaty efforts in that disadvantage our strikers - or dont bother putting it in at all.

We lack players who have the power in their boots to whip accurate balls in with pace or have a cannon of a shot from outside the box to create deflections, spillages etc for the strikers to feed off - hopefully we can rectify that in January to give us another attacking dimension.

 

2 hours ago, ianofcleveleys said:

Begs the question about us playing Dalby for a run of games, keeping it simple and putting the ball between the posts on a regular basis 

Apart from last season, on loan in Dundee, Dalby has zero record of scoring large numbers of goals.

Obviously "who knows" but it's wishful thinking rather than evidence based.

2 hours ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

Apart from last season, on loan in Dundee, Dalby has zero record of scoring large numbers of goals.

Obviously "who knows" but it's wishful thinking rather than evidence based.

Maybe Dundee got the ball away to him quicker between the posts?

 

5 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Maybe Dundee got the ball away to him quicker between the posts?

... or defenders were worse.

4 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

Doesn’t every CF score the vast majority of their goals from between the posts seeing that it is the striker’s position that gives the best target/widest angle and is the land of tap ins?

Struggling to think of any CF that didn’t tbh.

Back in the day yes, think the point being made was he's a bit of a throwback, unlike for example someone like Ollie Watkins who drifts around, runs channels and cuts in from wide areas. At our level, Collins scored a good number of goals for us but not through hanging around between the posts.

You're right about the crossing, it needs to be better, quicker and sharper

43 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Maybe Dundee got the ball away to him quicker between the posts?

 

They did, I saw some of their highlights last season.

Defenders worse? @Leyther_Matt may have a more informed view but for me, outside the big two, largely similar to bottom half of our league. 

We won't know though till he gets a fair go at what he was brought in to do

51 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

... or defenders were worse.

Declan John, Iredale, Arfield and Danny Llandudno faring well up there, so it must be shite.

37 minutes ago, ianofcleveleys said:

They did, I saw some of their highlights last season.

Defenders worse? @Leyther_Matt may have a more informed view but for me, outside the big two, largely similar to bottom half of our league. 

We won't know though till he gets a fair go at what he was brought in to do

Our entire style of play just isn’t suited to scoring many goals from crosses. They either need to be delivered earlier, or get to the byline and cut them back like the other day. At the minute, the wingers take too many touches and then try to float them in against defences that have had time to set up and prepare rather than being caught on the turn. Hibs scored twice from crosses the other day and even my Mrs said to me why don’t Bolton score goals like that. 

28 minutes ago, Traf said:

Declan John, Iredale, Arfield and Danny Llandudno faring well up there, so it must be shite.

Arfield leaving Falkirk for what it’s worth. Erhahon doing ok as a St Mirren product. 

29 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Our entire style of play just isn’t suited to scoring many goals from crosses. They either need to be delivered earlier, or get to the byline and cut them back like the other day. At the minute, the wingers take too many touches and then try to float them in against defences that have had time to set up and prepare rather than being caught on the turn. Hibs scored twice from crosses the other day and even my Mrs said to me why don’t Bolton score goals like that. 

 

You've just summarised a full seasons worth of endless debate and discussion on here with one post.

Nail on head.

6 hours ago, gonzo said:

You've just summarised a full seasons worth of endless debate and discussion on here with one post.

Nail on head.

Wish they’d stuck it on the fucking dressing room wall tonight 🙃

This inverted wingers bollocks is doing my head in.
Everyone in the league knows ACD won't use his right foot and wants to cut in every time.

On 28/12/2025 at 17:26, Zico said:

Aye he's done a great job

Expect him to win Europa League, again

Likely. He'll win something soon that's for certain.

Top class manager. Wasn't given the appropriate amount of time and support at Arsenal.

8 hours ago, Traf said:

This inverted wingers bollocks is doing my head in.
Everyone in the league knows ACD won't use his right foot and wants to cut in every time.

Bang him up front for a bit. 

Worth a try, every fucker else isn't working.

1 hour ago, gonzo said:

Bang him up front for a bit. 

Worth a try, every fucker else isn't working.

Tried that to an extent for the last 15 mins with him being on the right of a front three and he looked completely lost.

Certainly wouldn’t be dropping him as he constantly attracts defenders. The trick is that he needs to work out when to pass early in such situations when the defenders are already drawn and creating space elsewhere. At the minute he just sticks his head down and tries to dribble past them all and inevitably gets crowded out. 

7 hours ago, gonzo said:

Bang him up front for a bit. 

Worth a try, every fucker else isn't working.

Dapo...

Blew my mind last night that given our struggles in competing with their tall defenders we didn't throw Toal up front for the last 10 minutes. Utter woke nonsense from SS