Aston Villa vs Manchester United - Sunday 11 Feb 16:30 | Page 3 | Vital Football

Aston Villa vs Manchester United - Sunday 11 Feb 16:30

I don’t think the Chelsea performance will have any baring on how we play on Sunday. Unai and the players will be on their A game, it’s a huge game which could make or break our season in the top 4 race. The Chelsea game despite the strong line up on paper I don’t think was really regarded as a critical game or competition. Man U are still a basket case despite picking up a decent points haul in the last 6 weeks, they are still always only 1 game from complete temporary meltdown, there’s no reason why we can’t do them on Sunday. They were lucky against us in December the intensity of the previous matches caught up with us in that second half
 
I’m a bit worried about Sunday. We seem to have run out of momentum to outplay the better sides, we’ve even struggled a bit against the lower sides. Whilst Sheffield United was a great result, they were awful.

United are on a decent run, and Hoijlund has broken his duck so you can guarantee he’ll score as he’s playing us.

What I would like to see, is a fast and dynamic start moving the ball quickly through the field and even going a little
direct as I believe Martinez is injured. If we beat United on Sunday, it won’t be from being cautious for 60 minute and the turning the screw, in that scenario they will finish stronger.

I think we go for a big start with the intention of getting two before half time and then seeing out the roller coaster ride of a game in the second half.

All that said, I don’t think Unai will do what I’d like to see above. It’ll be get hold of the ball, control possession and build up slowly. In Unai we trust though, he’s probably smarter than me I guess.
 
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Even when this lot are shit, we usually lose to them. The fact they're on a good run makes me think we're going to struggle.
 
If we go 2-0 up, I’m going to leave early in an extremely happy mood, and not listen to the radio on the way home about the inevitable United second half come back.
 
Being 2-0 up would be a lot better than being 0-2 down like the last two home matches. But I get your point. We need the killer attitude of mind to go with a faster movement of the ball that we saw at our pinnacle against City. I also remember a bit earlier in the season when we were struggling to play out from a high press, Emi kicked direct to Digne who would be halfway down the pitch. Maybe teams got wise to that one? But Pau would be a massive upgrade in quality if he could fill one of the centre back’s positions tomorrow. My vote would be Pau for Carlos who has yet to convince me.
 
Silhillvilla said:
I think the evidence is there - no press, no tracking runners etc , he likes his players to play games at the expense of training as he see's it more useful so a strong line up was expected plus we had so many injuries there was limited choice to rotate. He's on record saying it anyway. We played in a very similar mode vs Everton in the Carabao Cup, again it was a strong side who pretty much played it like a training game like we did on Wednesday. We will see far more intensity and running on Sunday .
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Honestly, if it was a decision to let the FA Cup go for this season and prioritise the league and conference thingy, I'd be fine with that. I know not all of our fans would accept it but we can't win everything this season.

We are saving that for next season.
 
BodyButter said:
Honestly, if it was a decision to let the FA Cup go for this season and prioritise the league and conference thingy, I'd be fine with that. I know not all of our fans would accept it but we can't win everything this season.

We are saving that for next season.
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Looks pretty clear we've let the Carabao and FA Cup go. I've lost count of how many times Emery has stressed the league is the priority.
 
Yeah, we can't go from relegation fodder 15 months ago to having a squad that is competitive in all these competitions.

Unfortunately that's just an unrealistic target and expectation. Especially with our stupid amount of injuries.

Not sure why we played the strongest 11 available though Vs Chelsea if we were dipping out? That's Risky. Who knows.

Just please let us beat these nobs tomorrow. And a Steven Gerrard interview for the Plop. I would seriously whistle and skip all the way to work Monday.
 
Langoe66 said:
Great boost to hear Digne and Torres are back in the mix and no doubting what a huge game Unai thinks this is after listening to his presser. Hope he can transmit the same energy to the players and we end up with one of those performances which we’ve seen so often in the 16 months since he’s been here. Three points and we’re virtually guaranteed a top five place. Can’t be much more of an incentive than that in the middle of February!
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Completely agree mate! Im feeling alot more positive about this one now players are coming back.

Utd are no mugs but i still do think they are quite fragile if you make life difficult for them. We gotta step up and show you aint taking our spot. We are here to take yours
 
Professor Dem_C said:
Completely agree mate! Im feeling alot more positive about this one now players are coming back.

Utd are no mugs but i still do think they are quite fragile if you make life difficult for them. We gotta step up and show you aint taking our spot. We are here to take yours
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Just don't give them any respect. The fergie, Giggs, Keane etc etc are just ghosts that for some stupid reason still hang around in teams heads. This Manchester United is just a mid table team. Treat them as such.
 
I’ll be getting of a plane at around half time of this one. Seeing some snippets from Emery’s interview it’s clear the importance of this one is recognised, could be a season definer. I think if there is any chance Pau can start, he will start.
 
Things I want to see in this game are:

Play with the same intensity we showed in beating Manchester City and others at Villa Park by closing down and not allowing them to play as they want to and giving them something to think about by attacking with speed and purpose.

Things I do not want to see against this lot:

Allow them to pass a ball into spaces with no Villa player around because they didn't track back or get close to the nearest opposition player. The gaps all over the pitch were well exploited by Newcastle and Chelsea who were allowed to carry out the instructed tactics far too easily for my liking.

And if Unai sees what is going on then please tweak tactics more quickly when something clearly isn't working.

As regards the game, well it will make my week-end complete if we beat this lot because I'm not embarrassed to say I despise them with a passion.

UTV:utv::utv::utv:
 
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