***Villa v Treble Winners Official Match Thread***

[Nick]

Agree with everything

Summary imo:

- poor summer window, missed out on targets, messed about by current players (gundog, walker) and potential signings (rice).
- this led to poor depth, so we are over relying on our first 11. No decent subs, and can't drop out of form players.
- the DEFENCE. I do think it all comes from pep messing about with the defence. Playing akanji in every game, bizarre reluctantance to not start ake, forcing gvardiol out of position, and having to play walker every game (didn't Rico for walker start our treble run in).

Then obviously kev and stones injuries and rodris two bans. That's our 3 best players.

[salford city]

Agree with everything

Summary imo:

- poor summer window, missed out on targets, messed about by current players (gundog, walker) and potential signings (rice).
- this led to poor depth, so we are over relying on our first 11. No decent subs, and can't drop out of form players.
- the DEFENCE. I do think it all comes from pep messing about with the defence. Playing akanji in every game, bizarre reluctantance to not start ake, forcing gvardiol out of position, and having to play walker every game (didn't Rico for walker start our treble run in).

Then obviously kev and stones injuries and rodris two bans. That's our 3 best players.

From the outside it looks like Bellingham led us on and we then scrambled around for an alternative. Rice I could care less about - he was and is still not the answer. Gundo fucked us about and we were not expecting the Saudis to come in for Mahrez and Laporte although the latter was clearly out of favour and we did have Palmer to step up. Kova was a squad signing and still is. I've yet to see anything in Nunes.
The constant fucking about at the back is on Pep. We have signed our No.1 target and yet Pep believes he can turn him into a full back rather than a cb and that then unbalances us. January window will be interesting - no-one will want to give up their best talent so I can see us limping through to summer.
Rodders is back for Luton but we have got to manage his game time. He's going to be targeted by everyone now and we simply do not have a replacement for him.
Back to basics Pep, don't overthink it. Settle on a back 4 and decide who is Gundo's successor.

[johnny crossan]

hoping to have woken up and found that it was just a nightmare
it was - but i was actually awake

It was a watershed game I think. Will the scales will finally drop from Pep's eyes about Rico? It's perhaps harsh to call him a vanity project simply designed to humiliate Cancelo but to trust him in central midfield ahead of Phil is just plain stupid. Only recently turned 18 he is just too weak and too small to operate there in the PL - don't care if his dad trained King Kong. The other elephants in the room are Walker - his footballing limitations are getting more exposed in every game, Akanji's alarmingly frequent lapses of concentration, Gvardiol being played consistently out of position, an obvious lack of pace on the break, a collective failure to press effectively and the absurdly incompetent acquisitions of Phillips, Nunes & Kovacic as reserve midfielders. They've turned out on a par with Rodwell & Javi Garcia - it makes you wonder what our coaching staff are being paid for as well - zero improvement after months and in Kalvin's case, over a year training with the squad.

[s1ty m]

hoping to have woken up and found that it was just a nightmare
it was - but i was actually awake

It was a watershed game I think. Will the scales will finally drop from Pep's eyes about Rico? It's perhaps harsh to call him a vanity project simply designed to humiliate Cancelo but to trust him in central midfield ahead of Phil is just plain stupid. Only recently turned 18 he is just too weak and too small to operate in a PL midfield - don't care if his dad trained King Kong. The other elephants in the room are Walker - his footballing limitations are getting more exposed in every game, Akanji's alarmingly frequent lapses of concentration, Gvardiol being played consistently out of position, an obvious lack of pace on the break and the absurdly incompetent acquisitions of Phillips, Nunes & Kovacic as reserve midfielders. They've turned out on a par with Rodwell & Javi Garcia - it makes you wonder what our coaching staff are being paid for as well - zero improvement after months and in Kalvin's case, over a year training with the squad.

Agreed.

Scratching my head with City. I still harp on about the Alvarez position. He can play, but, if so, Haaland can't. Plain as day he isn't capable of impacting in this odd role. The line-ups last night, you just knew we'd be overrun in the middle. We were, fucking trampled, actually.

[stupot]

hoping to have woken up and found that it was just a nightmare
it was - but i was actually awake

It was a watershed game I think. Will the scales will finally drop from Pep's eyes about Rico? It's perhaps harsh to call him a vanity project simply designed to humiliate Cancelo but to trust him in central midfield ahead of Phil is just plain stupid. Only recently turned 18 he is just too weak and too small to operate in a PL midfield - don't care if his dad trained King Kong. The other elephants in the room are Walker - his footballing limitations are getting more exposed in every game, Akanji's alarmingly frequent lapses of concentration, Gvardiol being played consistently out of position, an obvious lack of pace on the break and the absurdly incompetent acquisitions of Phillips, Nunes & Kovacic as reserve midfielders. They've turned out on a par with Rodwell & Javi Garcia - it makes you wonder what our coaching staff are being paid for as well - zero improvement after months and in Kalvin's case, over a year training with the squad.

Agree with all that bar the Rico part. He was put in a midfield yesterday with Stones and Alvarez, neither midfielders who were both being pulled out of position left, right and centre. It's no wonder he struggled.

[johnny crossan]

hoping to have woken up and found that it was just a nightmare
it was - but i was actually awake

It was a watershed game I think. Will the scales will finally drop from Pep's eyes about Rico? It's perhaps harsh to call him a vanity project simply designed to humiliate Cancelo but to trust him in central midfield ahead of Phil is just plain stupid. Only recently turned 18 he is just too weak and too small to operate in a PL midfield - don't care if his dad trained King Kong. The other elephants in the room are Walker - his footballing limitations are getting more exposed in every game, Akanji's alarmingly frequent lapses of concentration, Gvardiol being played consistently out of position, an obvious lack of pace on the break and the absurdly incompetent acquisitions of Phillips, Nunes & Kovacic as reserve midfielders. They've turned out on a par with Rodwell & Javi Garcia - it makes you wonder what our coaching staff are being paid for as well - zero improvement after months and in Kalvin's case, over a year training with the squad.

Agreed.

Scratching my head with City. I still harp.on about the Alvarez position. He can play, but, if so, Haaland can't. Plain as day he isn't capable of impacting in this odd role. The line-ups last night
..you just knew we'd be overrun in the middle. We were, fucking trampled, actually.

Spot on, should have been top of my list. Playing Alvarez in the Gundo role has weakened the midfield significantly - he is simply not equipped for that key position in our system.

[s1ty m]

hoping to have woken up and found that it was just a nightmare
it was - but i was actually awake

It was a watershed game I think. Will the scales will finally drop from Pep's eyes about Rico? It's perhaps harsh to call him a vanity project simply designed to humiliate Cancelo but to trust him in central midfield ahead of Phil is just plain stupid. Only recently turned 18 he is just too weak and too small to operate in a PL midfield - don't care if his dad trained King Kong. The other elephants in the room are Walker - his footballing limitations are getting more exposed in every game, Akanji's alarmingly frequent lapses of concentration, Gvardiol being played consistently out of position, an obvious lack of pace on the break and the absurdly incompetent acquisitions of Phillips, Nunes & Kovacic as reserve midfielders. They've turned out on a par with Rodwell & Javi Garcia - it makes you wonder what our coaching staff are being paid for as well - zero improvement after months and in Kalvin's case, over a year training with the squad.

Agreed.

Scratching my head with City. I still harp.on about the Alvarez position. He can play, but, if so, Haaland can't. Plain as day he isn't capable of impacting in this odd role. The line-ups last night
..you just knew we'd be overrun in the middle. We were, fucking trampled, actually.

Spot on, should have been top of my list. Playing Alvarez in the Gundo role has weakened the midfield significantly - he is simply not equipped for that key position in our system.

Pep is the greatest manager ever, IMHO. Can he not see it? Can he not see how grotesque Akanji generally is? There are too many questions right now, certainly for a TR3BLE winning team. Gundogan...I could weep that we let that slip away. Reckless.

[PeterParker]

My worry is what is happening with Rico and how he is used.
Last night he looked lost in the middle and it's not the first time.

Imho, Rico looked good as a RB, nothing else. I don't understand this obsession to turn him into Philip Lahm.
Settle the kid, let him learn his position.

[Mase]

My worry is what is happening with Rico and how he is used.
Last night he looked lost in the middle and it's not the first time.

Imho, Rico looked good as a RB, nothing else. I don't understand this obsession to turn him into Philip Lahm.
Settle the kid, let him learn his position.

Looked class the other week in midfield. He, like any kid, will need support from senior players.

[PeterParker]

My worry is what is happening with Rico and how he is used.
Last night he looked lost in the middle and it's not the first time.

Imho, Rico looked good as a RB, nothing else. I don't understand this obsession to turn him into Philip Lahm.
Settle the kid, let him learn his position.

Looked class the other week in midfield. He, like any kid, will need support from senior players.

With the support, yes, without he looks lost in the middle, imho.
At the moment, I think we are confusing him instead of letting him develop on a position.
At his age, playing out of position is the worst thing when you don't have control over your natural position.

[johnny crossan]

My worry is what is happening with Rico and how he is used.
Last night he looked lost in the middle and it's not the first time.

Imho, Rico looked good as a RB, nothing else. I don't understand this obsession to turn him into Philip Lahm.
Settle the kid, let him learn his position.

Looked class the other week in midfield. He, like any kid, will need support from senior players.

With the support, yes, without he looks lost in the middle, imho.
At the moment, I think we are confusing him instead of letting him develop on a position.
At his age, playing out of position is the worst thing when you don't have control over your natural position.

He has spent his entire youth career at City - 11 years - playing as a right back,

[PeterParker]

My worry is what is happening with Rico and how he is used.
Last night he looked lost in the middle and it's not the first time.

Imho, Rico looked good as a RB, nothing else. I don't understand this obsession to turn him into Philip Lahm.
Settle the kid, let him learn his position.

Looked class the other week in midfield. He, like any kid, will need support from senior players.

With the support, yes, without he looks lost in the middle, imho.
At the moment, I think we are confusing him instead of letting him develop on a position.
At his age, playing out of position is the worst thing when you don't have control over your natural position.

He has spent his entire youth career at City - 11 years - playing as a right back,

And there is where he should play, imho. Even if that means we need to bench Walker.

[Mase]

Stones played his entire career as a CB…until end of last season.

[MIAMCFC]

Difficult to defend last night. It was a poor performance. But calm down please. We know the drill we will be there in May. Some comments should be in a classic went early. Cheer up all x

[johnny crossan]

Stones played his entire career as a CB…until end of last season.

occasionally played right back for us, Everton and Barnsley I believe.

[Mase]

Stones played his entire career as a CB…until end of last season.

occasionally played right back for us, Everton and Barnsley I believe.

So a player can play a different position to what they’ve been taught. I agree. Lewis can play midfield.

[Nigels Tackle]

fuck all passion last night from our boys. in stark contrast to the likes of mcginn, douglas luiz, bailey etc...

[johnny crossan]

Stones played his entire career as a CB…until end of last season.

occasionally played right back for us, Everton and Barnsley I believe.

So a player can play a different position to what they’ve been taught. I agree. Lewis can play midfield.

but not yet at the standard required in the PL unfortunately as everyone can see.

[carl_feedthegoat]

Difficult to defend last night. It was a poor performance. But calm down please. We know the drill we will be there in May. Some comments should be in a classic went early. Cheer up all x

Yes lets calm down shall we.........The scum ,who are supposedly the laughing stock of the premier league, are a massive 3 points behind us but lets ignore that fact shall we....nothing to worry about here.

[nottsblue]

Stones played his entire career as a CB…until end of last season.

Exactly. A career. A guy with probably 300 games experience. Not an 18 year old with 25 games