Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours/Champions League Thread 2024/25

listermint

Patser wrote: »

EL GHAZI AGAIN!!!



Still we played on with a Chelsea man down - although it was his tackle that injured him.....

The goal got him up fast didn't it..

rebelomar

Nice goal.

Gone a bit aimless in possession now. Need to start passing it around again.

Traore while doing well on the ball but is killing us defensively.

circadian

Definitely pressing them more, both teams will be tired after a run of matches in quick succession. I'd settle for a draw as Chelsea do look a lot better than they did against arsenal but at the same time from 75 mins onwards there'll be plenty of tired legs on the pitch.

artanevilla

This is set up for Tammy.

Patser

Ooooohh McGinn - so close to a beauty

circadian

That was an excellent shot by McGinn.

Patser

We need subs, some legs are looking tired. Nakamba for Luiz maybe, Hourihane for McGinn - maybe even Guilbert in for Traore

rebelomar

Grealish understandably looks tired.

artanevilla

Stuck a tenner on Hause at 70/1 for next goal. Hopefully get a couple of corners before the end.

LeBash

Patser wrote: »

We need subs, some legs are looking tired. Nakamba for Luiz maybe, Hourihane for McGinn - maybe even Guilbert in for Traore

We are gassing but I'd go Elmo for Traore right now. Hasnt hit a clean pass in 10 mins

Patser

LeBash wrote: »

We are gassing but I'd go Elmo for Traore right now. Hasnt hit a clean pass in 10 mins

Good call, would give Cash some help too

Patser

Insane that over 170 mins in 48 hours, Smith has made 2 subs (and one of them was because of a red card.....


Oh, make that 3 Subs - Ramsey on

listermint

That would have been an entrance

circadian

Think we're going to struggle the last 10 mins or so, everyone looks knackered now.

Wouldn't mind a cheeky goal but it's gonna be hard enough to keep it at 1-1.

Patser

Davis to be the hero!!!!!

listermint

Two points dropped there.

Shame. Will get them at old Trafford.

rebelomar

Great result and effort from the team.

Hung on while dog tired. Great spirit.

Esse85

McGinn was really good, far too clever for Kante.

Defense looks solid again, Hause stead as you get. Targett again looked mean defensively and Douglas Luis just oozes class.

JPA

I'll take a point all day long.

circadian

Great result, great work to keep it going until the whistle instead of throwing it away which nwould have been expected last year, especially with everyone so wrecked.

I think resting up will be very important this week.

rebelomar

In the 93rd minute McGinn twice towered above Havertz to win headers despite giving away about 6 inches in height. Unreal desire.

If we can add a couple of good players in January then it could be a really exciting second half to the season.

Hat tip to Hause for his professionalism. To be able to put in these performances after not playing much this season is a credit to him.

VillaMad

To put it all in perspective, Chelsea brought on Werner and Havertz who cost £140 million or so, whilst we brought on Jacob Ramsey and Keinan Davis who cost nothing.

Added to the fact that when we played them in June, we only had 26% possession and could barely get out of our own half. The transformation has been remarkable.

Villa have now already gained more points this season (26) already than when they returned from lockdown (25) in June to face Sheffield United.

JPA

What does Craig Shakespeare do? Because he must be good at it, every player has improved this season.

LeBash

Smith has to take the biggest credit though imho. Since lockdown he's turned us around, players who I thought were muck like Trez, Luiz, Targett, and others have all at least doubled in value with their form. Id have liked to see where Wesley would be by now.

Mings for me is by far the weakest link in the team. He was such a huge part of promotion that I think he's still living off that a little. Konsa and Hause should be the starters. Konsa has a lot of Paul McGrath in him, never seems to be chasing, always in the right place, just seems to read everything very well. Absolute bargain!!!!

Corholio

Games like this for me show that McGinn is underrated in the games when he doesn't 'perform well', he still does a lot for the team in those and when his whole game clicks it's unbelievable. His engine is absolutely second to none, wouldn't swap him for anybody.

CSF

Corholio wrote: »

Games like this for me show that McGinn is underrated in the games when he doesn't 'perform well', he still does a lot for the team in those and when his whole game clicks it's unbelievable. His engine is absolutely second to none, wouldn't swap him for anybody.

I don't know if I agree with what you said at large, he has been often poor this year, but my god was he immense today.

Corholio

CSF wrote: »

I don't know if I agree with what you said at large, he has been often poor this year, but my god was he immense today.

I just think even in his poorer games his energy is usually not rivalled by any other midfielder Villa have and has rushed opposition midfields. This alone is something much improved on last year, rather than sitting back and watching teams play.

CSF

Corholio wrote: »

I just think even in his poorer games his energy is usually not rivalled by any other midfielder Villa have and has rushed opposition midfields. This alone is something much improved on last year, rather than sitting back and watching teams play.

He is high energy for sure. Problem at times has been that he has been low quality, but last couple of games he has looked more like the player we used to rave about every week in the Championship and first few Premier League games.


I know people look at the injury as the dipping point for him in terms of level, but I think he'd already begun to regress a bit before the injury, so I'm delighted to see him back now as good as he ever was.


I think it is really interesting now with El Ghazi in good form, what our first choice 11 would be for Man Utd if everyone was fit and in good condition to play?

FintanMcluskey

LeBash wrote: »

Smith has to take the biggest credit though imho. Since lockdown he's turned us around, players who I thought were muck like Trez, Luiz, Targett, and others have all at least doubled in value with their form. Id have liked to see where Wesley would be by now.

Mings for me is by far the weakest link in the team. He was such a huge part of promotion that I think he's still living off that a little. Konsa and Hause should be the starters. Konsa has a lot of Paul McGrath in him, never seems to be chasing, always in the right place, just seems to read everything very well. Absolute bargain!!!!

Mings really is the weak link for the last while

Shows the magnitude of change at Villa the last few months

Best team since mid 1990s currently?

Esse85

FintanMcluskey wrote: »

Best team since mid 1990s currently?

Definitely cannot say that.

The Mon teams that finished 6th three seasons in a row takes that prize.

sc86

Id leave mings on the bench for man u game , i assume thats what will happen anyway.
Barkley in for traore mayby?

CSF

sc86 wrote: »

Id leave mings on the bench for man u game , i assume thats what will happen anyway.
Barkley in for traore mayby?

Who would play on the right in a Grealish/Barkley/El Ghazi trio though?

Bounty Hunter

sc86 wrote: »

Id leave mings on the bench for man u game , i assume thats what will happen anyway.
Barkley in for traore mayby?

Maybe El Ghazi deserves to start but for me Traore has done enough to get the nod on the right recently and I’d have no qualms with Grealish reverting back to the left.

Esse85

I'd rather leave Mings, Barkley and Trezeguet into the team when their replacements mess up or need a rest.

I'd not be in favour of bringing any of them 3 straight back into the team, it sends out the wrong message, let them fight their way back into the starting line up, we've done just fine without them. That'll keep them hungry too.

CSF

Esse85 wrote: »

I'd rather leave Mings, Barkley and Trezeguet into the team when their replacements mess up or need a rest.

I'd not be in favour of bringing any of them 3 straight back into the team, it sends out the wrong message, let them fight their way back into the starting line up, we've done just fine without them. That'll keep them hungry too.

Normally I’d agree but the next game is on Friday and the lads looked knackered. If our quality players are available to rotate we should.

Mings would be the exception to that as I don’t think Konsa or Hause have been ran into the ground of late like the rest.

JPA

Mings will be straight back in, no question about that.

Patser

LeBash wrote: »

Mings for me is by far the weakest link in the team. He was such a huge part of promotion that I think he's still living off that a little. Konsa and Hause should be the starters. Konsa has a lot of Paul McGrath in him, never seems to be chasing, always in the right place, just seems to read everything very well. Absolute bargain!!!!

Absolutely true about Konsa, I think he'll prove to be our biggest bargain ever. I remember when he signed he had already had impressive stats for being Captain at Charlton while only 20, and then 1st choice at Brentford. Still only 23 and a leader.

Amazing to see that our back 4 yesterday were 23 (Cash) 23 (Konsa) 25 (Hause) 25 (Targett). Has to be youngest defence in Premier League


Edit: just to add, our oldest starter last night seems to have been Martinez at 28... absolute squad for years here

LeBash

Patser wrote: »

Absolutely true about Konsa, I think he'll prove to be our biggest bargain ever. I remember when he signed he had already had impressive stats for being Captain at Charlton while only 20, and then 1st choice at Brentford. Still only 23 and a leader.

Amazing to see that our back 4 yesterday were 23 (Cash) 23 (Konsa) 25 (Hause) 25 (Targett). Has to be youngest defence in Premier League


Edit: just to add, our oldest starter last night seems to have been Martinez at 28... absolute squad for years here

Never even thought of that. Rare to see a back line without 1 lad in his early 30s.

I think we will end up selling a few of these unfortunately but hopefully the scouting system is working and we have replacements.

I cant see anyone being as attached to the club as Grealish and he was still almost gone.

Patser

LeBash wrote: »

Never even thought of that. Rare to see a back line without 1 lad in his early 30s.

I think we will end up selling a few of these unfortunately but hopefully the scouting system is working and we have replacements.

I cant see anyone being as attached to the club as Grealish and he was still almost gone.

It's absolutely mind blowing how young our squad is for the level of talent and experience on display. I mean, care to guess our oldest outfield player yesterday.......



McGinn 26
Grealish, Traore, El Ghazi 25
Watkins 24
LUIZ is 22 2 fecking 2!!!

Even allowing for Mings to come back in, that wise older defender is......27.
Nakamba and Trezeguet are 26. Hourihane at 29 still scrapes into under 30s bracket.

Only Elmo, Taylor, Heaton and Lansbury(?!) are over 30

LeBash

Patser wrote: »

It's absolutely mind blowing how young our squad is for the level of talent and experience on display. I mean, care to guess our oldest outfield player yesterday.......



McGinn 26
Grealish, Traore, El Ghazi 25
Watkins 24
LUIZ is 22 2 fecking 2!!!

Even allowing for Mings to come back in, that wise older defender is......27.
Nakamba and Trezeguet are 26. Hourihane at 29 still scrapes into under 30s bracket.

Only Elmo, Taylor, Heaton and Lansbury(?!) are over 30

And Lansbury didnt even get registered so its safe as houses to not include him.

Would we have at least doubled the value of the squad from buy price to sell price?

rebelomar

I think Mings and Barkley both come straight back in the team.

We looked tired late on vs Chelsea.

Hause and El Ghazi both have come in to play 4 or 5 games in a row from a position of not playing any games really so they will be feeling the pinch now I'd imagine.

Both deserve to hold their place but I'm sure energy levels will dictate team selection.

Still a long season there and I don't think anyone will get the hump not starting a game given the current packed schedule.

Any transfer rumours? All has been quiet so far it seems.

CSF

rebelomar wrote: »

I think Mings and Barkley both come straight back in the team.

We looked tired late on vs Chelsea.

Hause and El Ghazi both have come in to play 4 or 5 games in a row from a position of not playing any games really so they will be feeling the pinch now I'd imagine.

Both deserve to hold their place but I'm sure energy levels will dictate team selection.

Still a long season there and I don't think anyone will get the hump not starting a game given the current packed schedule.

Any transfer rumours? All has been quiet so far it seems.

Yeah tiredness seems like a good reason to rotate in the rare positions that we have the depth to do so

pavb2

Here’s an article detailing our turn around after lockdown and this season.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12040/12174929/how-dean-smith-and-aston-villa-changed-tack-to-pack-a-punch?fbclid=IwAR2NaQn-RigX80yNy0g5F2CfjjnNHDVmOQRq5CYg_CuaWZ-vBHur3-rPEpI


I think post lockdown we did improve, the key points for me were the win against Arsenal and Watford’s implosion which meant we just about stumbled over the line. If ever there was a team benefitting from finishing 17th it was us and that period laid the foundation for the football we’re seeing today.

kilburn

On transfers front being linked with 29yr old Inter Milan midfielder Matius Vecino

listermint

Grealish signed new 5 year contract today to 2025.

Must have had a league position clause in old one for end of 2020 I presume.

JPA

listermint wrote: »

Grealish signed new 5 year contract today to 2025.

Must have had a league position clause in old one for end of 2020 I presume.

Where did you see that?

Patser

This is our year!!!!

Panrich

FintanMcluskey wrote: »

Mings really is the weak link for the last while

Shows the magnitude of change at Villa the last few months

Best team since mid 1990s currently?

Certainly best football since the 90's. MON may have achieved more but it was not very pretty to watch. Now we have good football and results.

CucaFace

Panrich wrote: »

Certainly best football since the 90's. MON may have achieved more but it was not very pretty to watch. Now we have good football and results.

I couldn't agree more.



This team is def the most entertaining Villa team ive ever seen.



Grealish is the a truly world class player, the likes ive never seen play for villa before.



Douglas Luiz is also the best DM ive seen play for Villa it has to be said.

pavb2

CucaFace wrote: »

I couldn't agree more.


Grealish is the a truly world class player, the likes ive never seen play for villa before.

.

I’ve tried watching other PL teams games without the claret and blue specs on and I can’t see any other player with the same skill levels who consistently influences a game as much as he does.