Aston Villa v Brentford: Saturday 6th April, 3pm | Page 4 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Brentford: Saturday 6th April, 3pm

Old Trinity Villan said:
There has been a drop off in form. Some of the stuff we played pre Christmas was as good as I can remember in recent years.

We are competing at the top end of the best league in the world. It's nearly all against teams with at least twice the income. I'm actually surprised and delighted we have not dropped off more.

Factor in we are having to do Europe as well for the first time in years, there in lies the demands. I watch Liverpool for example and there subs at times are Salah, Gapko,Luiz etc. Now compare with ours?

This strength in depth is from years of competing at the top and the associated extra income it's that simple. I'm hoping Unai can shuffle the troops to get us over the line. As I've said before Unai is becoming a victim of his own success in some eyes. Not a reference to anyone in particular BTW.
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The lack of strength in depth is because of injuries but if we hadn't had them we'd have a lot of depth to be fair. You mention Liverpool but they've also had to play youngsters because of injuries, Bradley, Qansah, they had a whole midfield three of youngsters at one point because of injuries to first teamers.

Most teams have had bad injuries this season because of the stupidly long stoppages, Luton and Wolves did when we played them (Wolves had none of their front three plus their main central defender) and Brentford have had some very bad injuries this season including pretty much their entire defence.

I know it's cool to think injuries have only plagued us and they haven't been kind I agree, but other teams have also had bad injuries and still managed to maintain good performances.
 
MrLoverLover said:
We always seem to reference that, one of the worst times to be a Villa fan. Yes times are better but are we saying we can't make constructive criticism because we once got relegated. If so, that's madness.
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People have different views it does not make one or the other right. It's a forum about debating all what we love and at times hate about our team. It's when it gets personal it's wrong. My glass is normally half full I would not go otherwise after all the years of crap. Maybe I'm just easily pleased.
 
Old Trinity Villan said:
There has been a drop off in form. Some of the stuff we played pre Christmas was as good as I can remember in recent years.

We are competing at the top end of the best league in the world. It's nearly all against teams with at least twice the income. I'm actually surprised and delighted we have not dropped off more.

Factor in we are having to do Europe as well for the first time in years, there in lies the demands. I watch Liverpool for example and there subs at times are Salah, Gapko,Luiz etc. Now compare with ours?

This strength in depth is from years of competing at the top and the associated extra income it's that simple. I'm hoping Unai can shuffle the troops to get us over the line. As I've said before Unai is becoming a victim of his own success in some eyes. Not a reference to anyone in particular BTW.
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Schadenfreude, we ate seeing the benefits of employing a top Manager. Watching Man U spunk £ MILLIONS is pleasing. Can we increase our revenue streams to join the "Big Boys" Clubs? I would prefer to stay at an enlarged Villa Park but l understand the lure of building a "Super Stadium " Tough decisions ahead.
 
There has been a big increase in injuries and its down to far too many games. I saw the figures for Spurs and us. I think we have played something like 12 more. Its why they don't have to put out teams like we did at Man City. Oh and the twice as much money.
 
Stephen Jay Hawkings said:
Nobody is saying you can't be critical of the team/manager. You can say what you want.

I don't know what your big grievance is.
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It's getting jumped on when I give an opinion, I can take respectful disagreement if you explain why but it seems people like @Langoe66 just want to bitch about my posts at every opportunity and whinge to point score and then all his buddies back him up. His response wasn't diplomatic, it was more just to try to put down the original point I made which was a valid one. Go and read it back if you want if you genuinely don't know why I'm frustrated.
 
MrLoverLover said:
It's not about disagreement, I welcome that, I also use politics and economics forums where of course we don't all agree on stuff, but it's about jumping on every post I make to put me down and then everyone liking said post to almost jump on the bandwagon.

Nothing I have said is untrue, or even controversial, if I was posting it on non-Villa forums they'd probably all agree, I think a lot of the time on here unless you say something positive all the damn time you get alienated. Maybe I'll just post my predictions before the games and that's it if that's how it's going to be from now on.
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Nobody is having a go at you mate for the sake of it, it's just that they disagree with some of the stuff that you post. Over the years I've been on here, and it's relatively few by comparison with many, I've been called sexist, racist, loads of stuff to do with Brexit that aren't very complimentary too name just a few. However they are a great bunch of lads and lasses, and it's nothing personal. Keep posting mate, whatever you want, it's a forum. Fight your corner, that's what the forum is for.
 
CDX_EIRE said:
I'll just sum up xG by saying its like quantum superpositioning because yeah I think as a metric it can be useful however like every stat there is context. Its as right as it is wrong.

We all agree United are dire and the luckiest fucking team in the world. Thats objectively true. xG would back that up because their non-penalty xG difference puts them down in 16th with your Palaces, Fulhams and so on. The problem is it also puts Chelsea up into 4th and nobody watching Chelsea thinks they are the 4th best team in the league. It also launches Everton into 7th, a team that hasn't won in over 12 games.

xG is so nuanced and people shouldn't use it without remembering that (a) it doesn't take into account the positioning of defenders and (b) it is the accumulation of shots only that gives you the xG tally.

So if a ball is fired across goal and its an open goal, if a player completely fluffs it and doesn't make contact with the ball that is 0 xG. the xG of a game could be 1.1 to 2.4 but the latter team might have 12 chances that only register 0.2 xG.
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I get that, it's not entirely foolproof but it is a pretty handy metric of how you're doing. The eye test tells me that too, I thought we looked much better earlier in the season and our XG backs that up as in pretty much every game up to Burnley (our last game of 2023) bar three or four games we had the higher XG. And we looked and were a bloody good side in the first half of the season.

Since the turn of the year I have found myself more frustrated watching us noticing we are looking worse than our opponents more often than not and checked the XG and low and behold, we had started to record lower XGs than our opponents far more frequently. It's easy to ignore the data but it's absolutely right there in front of you and you can see when you watch the game.

If this is just about getting through the rest of the season playing like this and we still sneak 4th, ok, but if this continues into next season it really won't be good. I'm not necessarily saying we've been found out but it is a concern for me and I'm surprised it isn't for everyone else as you all seem so calm.
 
wittonite said:
Nobody is having a go at you mate for the sake of it, it's just that they disagree with some of the stuff that you post. Over the years I've been on here, and it's relatively few by comparison with many, I've been called sexist, racist, loads of stuff to do with Brexit that aren't very complimentary too name just a few. However they are a great bunch of lads and lasses, and it's nothing personal. Keep posting mate, whatever you want, it's a forum. Fight your corner, that's what the forum is for.
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Cheers mate, appreciate that.
 
Villan57 said:
Like I've said many times you have to measure the correct Metrics to make stats mean anything and as all football games are different this is mostly impossible to do.
5 shots hit the post they are classed as off target, 5 shots trickle to the keeper they are on target. Stats say one team has 5 shots on target the other side had zero shots on target, absolute bullshit way of judging a match
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I've often wondered why they don't classify hitting the woodwork as 'on target'. To me it seems obvious.....
 
MrLoverLover said:
It's getting jumped on when I give an opinion, I can take respectful disagreement if you explain why but it seems people like @Langoe66 just want to bitch about my posts at every opportunity and whinge to point score and then all his buddies back him up. His response wasn't diplomatic, it was more just to try to put down the original point I made which was a valid one. Go and read it back if you want if you genuinely don't know why I'm frustrated.
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If it's about the XG, then I also think it's bollocks but some others on here don't. That's all I've really seen of any arguments on this thread.

But whatever, I've got no beef with you, namaste brother 🕊️
 
sirdennis said:
More succinctly XG is a load of bollocks and proves nothing.

I prefer to use my eyes and when I look at the table we are 4th and have been for some time now and the season is played over 38 games and not the last 5.
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If clubs only did that tho they'd make massive mistakes like Dortmund did when they sacked Klopp after a crazy season. Its both, you need to watch and use stats if you only do one without the other you'll never have a full picture.

Its another massive failure of our education systems, we don't teach statistics as a primary module and people can't marry reality with facts (and vice versa).
 
MrLoverLover said:
You're wrong I'm afraid. It doesn't tell the complete story but it is very much not 'a load of bollocks'.
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It is in my opinion and I'm not against some stats being used. Not a luddite by any stretch and the amount of info you can access about players performance and fitness levels is invaluable.
 
Villan57 said:
Call me old fashioned but the only stats that count are goals for and against.
The rest is made-up nonsense to fill the gaps between games by people like Sky Sports.
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You are old fashioned mate.

So am I. Each to their own but I couldn't give a flying about stats . I too think there are only two that count.

Well. Apart from my xb tonight (Expected beers).
 
sirdennis said:
Same as we lost to Wolves by then according to O'Neil
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Yep, the Wolves had one clear chance all game with their left back up against Emi which was a no-contest. Had they had a striker in the same position does the XG go up or did us having the world Number 1 reduce all the XG's . Too many variables so I'll stick to 2 goals being the only stat that matters.
 
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