Aston Villa v Tottenham Match Thread - Sun 21 March @ 19:30 - Sky | Page 35 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Tottenham Match Thread - Sun 21 March @ 19:30 - Sky

Villan57 said:
Yes but reverse this season and you'd have a case, a poor start and a decent finish and the future looks a lot brighter, like I said this feels like a draw but after you'd been 3 up not 3 down
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No, I think I still have a case mate.

Our start shows what we are capable of. But we haven't got the consistency or know how yet. The poor end is fatigue, tiredness from such a small group of first XI calibre players, lack of experience, minus Jack, Covid on top etc etc.

I get people would be brighter if we ended strongly because that's the Hollywood element of life. I don't see it that way, the start shows what we could be IF we were 2 years further along.
 
As Villans we surely know by now not to get too carried away with the highs or too despondent with the lows.

You have to take the season as a whole and we were never strong enough as a squad not to have ups and downs. Had we started the season in this form it would have been expected, if we were then playing now like we did at the start and moving into the top 10 we’d be delighted.

A strong start to the season can be a double edged sword - it gives you space to breathe and not look over your shoulder but it also raises expectations and makes you dream ‘what if we do something special’. I certainly was guilty of beginning to believe “champions league? Why not?”

For instance, I imagine there will be West Ham fans who will see it as a failure if (when) they don’t finish top 4 after the run they’ve had.

As the saying goes, ‘it’s the hope that kills you’.
 
mike_field said:
Yes, if from the start of the season before a ball is kicked but we aren't at the start of the season so in fairness mate, that stat counts for shit. As does my 5 game in fairness if taken over a season

But we're talking 2021 form when we're already safe and people have daftly been seduced by Europe which was never happening with our squad

And much like Wolves, Southampton previously and so on, if we did qualify for Europe it would send us back 2 years.
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Personally I never wanted the poison chalice Of the Europa league but our performance levels are a real concern
 
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sirdennis said:
Agreed but surely someone of your age and experience didn't get carried away with that . If the form was reversed and we had started poorly and were flying now it would be a totally different feel , but the points tally would still be the same.
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Age and experience? I guess the likes of Ian Wright and Gary Lineker who fancied us and said we had a real chance of crashing the top 4 know fuck all either, Not buying that pal, with the form we were on, the way we were playing I don’t think anyone could imagine we would turn from the most exciting team in pretty much all of Europe creating the most chances to one where we literally look like relegation fodder and struggle to take a shot, we were having 25 shots per game at one point and now we’ve forgotten how to take a shot.
 
McGrath4Pope said:
As Villans we surely know by now not to get too carried away with the highs or too despondent with the lows.

You have to take the season as a whole and we were never strong enough as a squad not to have ups and downs. Had we started the season in this form it would have been expected, if we were then playing now like we did at the start and moving into the top 10 we’d be delighted.

A strong start to the season can be a double edged sword - it gives you space to breathe and not look over your shoulder but it also raises expectations and makes you dream ‘what if we do something special’. I certainly was guilty of beginning to believe “champions league? Why not?”

For instance, I imagine there will be West Ham fans who will see it as a failure if (when) they don’t finish top 4 after the run they’ve had.

As the saying goes, ‘it’s the hope that kills you’.
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And whether right or wrong, there's also the element where players feel that confident everything goes for them in effect and they work on the buzz. When it turns against you (especially lack of experience of that) it's the 'but I did this last week and scored, why the fuck hasn't it worked?' and the adjustment to digging back in expecting things not to work but rather than feeling entitled it will without effort, you give that effort until it does again.

I criticise players like it's going out of fashion and form should be effortless...but it's not Fifa or Football Manager.
 
Silhillvilla said:
Personally I never wanted the poison chalice Of the Europa league but our performance levels are a real concern
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But we're getting in good positions and just failing to find a final pass, or taking one touch too many. That screams a mixture of lack of quality and lack of fitness. We had a mass outbreak of a serious respiratory disease followed by 2 games a week for 2 months. Trez is statistically the most wasteful attacker in the league (expected goals vs. actual) and El Ghazi is still El Ghazi.

So yeah, the form's not good but it's not like it's a mystery.
 
Silhillvilla said:
Personally I never wanted the poison chalice Of the Europa league but our performance levels are a real concern
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I agree it's a concern matey, but I see reasons for it.

Also agree Europe this year would've been the death of us in reality with the extra games. Even with good spending again this summer we haven't the first team to cope and our U23's need at least another year before they can really come into first team thoughts - even for poor Euro opposition. We've seen it from Ramsey, he's the most ready, but he looks good for ten minutes and shows promise but we don't see him for another hour.

It's not a criticism - our young lads did fantastically well against Liverpool - but they also showed why they aren't yet bench ready even.
 
Villa 4 Ever said:
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Age and experience? I guess the likes of Ian Wright and Gary Lineker who fancied us and said we had a real chance of crashing the top 4 know fuck all either, Not buying that pal, with the form we were on, the way we were playing I don’t think anyone could imagine we would turn from the most exciting team in pretty much all of Europe creating the most chances to one where we literally look like relegation fodder and struggle to take a shot, we were having 25 shots per game at one point and now we’ve forgotten how to take a shot.
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I can confidently confirm they know fuck all.

We've had Kevin Phillips say Barkley has been worth £11million to us - they don't get a pass just because they leach of the taxpayer.

I imagined we'd wobble dude. :rockon:
 
Well on current form there's no team in the Prem who'd be particularly worried about playing us.
At the start of the season 50 points would have been the kind of total that was enough to suggest progress - maybe we can still reach that sort of heady total.
(it's actually little more than Burnley manage half the time).
You'd hope there would be steady progression (with all the coaching and that) but it somehow never seems to work quite that way.

End of this season can't come quick enough atm
 
Silhillvilla said:
For me the most disappointing and frustrating thing is the lack of proactive management input. We've been playing badly creating very little for months now yet the manager has changed nothing. That is pathetic
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Yup, DS needs to shuffle even if it's not natural. I find that disappointing given how good we saw his game management was at Brentford. Whatever the block is (and it's not Jack) he needs to overcome it to kick on to the next level.
 
Fuck off you bellend :Fingers:

Silhillvilla said:
Honestly don't think we were the better team. That thread title needs looking at in the trades description act
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I do, we were pointless but I still thought we were the more dangerous in reality. Had Emi put that ball into Row Z they had nothing. And that pathetic penalty, well I hope Mike Dean enjoys his latest tour.
 
Villan57 said:
I just hope this current form is not where we really are though, or we will be back down the bottom half nest season and we may well finish this season below halfway , which will be gutting after we all thought we'd cracked it in this league
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I’ll assess at the end of the season. Right now it’s on a knife edge between improvement and treading water.
If its improvement then it means my beloved Villa is on the up. If it’s treading water I was correct and our recruitment was as flawed as I thought in that you continually dip into a certain market you will reap want you sow.
 
Melon Donkey said:
I’ll assess at the end of the season. Right now it’s on a knife edge between improvement and treading water.
If its improvement then it means my beloved Villa is on the up. If it’s treading water I was correct and our recruitment was as flawed as I thought in that you continually dip into a certain market you will reap want you sow.
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An improvement on last season? Our form was worse than it is currently WITH Jack playing out of his skin.

Our recruitment has been really good for the most part but we're only 18 months on from having to buy half a top flight squad at £8m a player. Frankly, I think we should be reminding ourselves of where we were only recently more often than we do.
 
Silhillvilla said:
For me the most disappointing and frustrating thing is the lack of proactive management input. We've been playing badly creating very little for months now yet the manager has changed nothing. That is pathetic
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Terrible since january. None of our midfield impact the games.None of them look like scoring. The two wingers were an embarrassment. The poor form started with Grealish in the side but weve got worse.
The run in is horrid and cant see more than 50 points. Would have took that at the start. But we are in relegation form at present and cant see that changing.
 
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Silhillvilla said:
Like I said, denial.
And only 3 goals scored in 6 games ! Only 11 in 2021 (14 games).
Worse than last season backed up with facts
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Take the first 4 games away (that liverpool result is now like looking at an 80 year old beauty queen) and we have won 8 drew a few and lost 11........ 7 of those in the last 14 since january.
Our goal expectancy at the end of the first half was 0.00.
Can we have another lockdown boris??
 
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