Chrismo

Just to follow up on this. Under MON, we still had a chance to establish ourselves. A realistic chance. A dream. Now, getting CL equals selling players to comply. It's no dream anymore. No joy. Only numbers and glass ceilings. See you guys. It's been a blast! 🙌 #utv #avfc

I'm done for the season guys. We are flying high, playing CL and I find no joy in it. Absolutely none. Caught myself wanting to get CL for the profit, not of the thought of playing against Barca or Real. Sad state of affairs. I'm just fed up. See you guys! #utv #avfc

@Alex_Berwick We are slow, predictable, compact and without confidence. You would never have guessed this is 3rd against a relegated side. McGinn and Youri can't come back soon enough. Rogers or nothing now. Dissappointed by Pau lately. Passing so safe.

Villa try to build through the lines. Preferably centrally. We all know that. It’s not just the quality we’ve lost with the injuries, but the speed at which we do it. It’s so pedestrian. Too many touches. Too risk adverse. Missing the confidence from it being successful. #avfc

Well, it’s a slog. As predicted. Need to keep our heads because we’ll beat ourselves if we’re not careful. I do wonder why if we’re going to play this 4-2-2-2 we don’t just do it with 2 strikers. But what do I know… So many off form. #avfc

@villareport Buendia, Watkins and Digne off. Offering nothing really. Need to up the tempo a bit and shoot from distance. Difficult to be a GK in such conditions. So overly reliant on Rogers, it's actually scary

What would you change at the break? 🔄

@AVFCStatto Sending all the best wishes🙏 Terrible news.

Some personal news ⤵️ This week I have been diagnosed with Myelofibrosis (MF) which is a rare, slow-growing chronic blood cancer. I am not quite sure what that means yet, and what the next steps are. It’s unlike me to bring anything personal to this page but I thought it’s worth saying something as my interactions on here may be put on the back burner from time to time including streaming. If anyone has been diagnosed with MPN or MF and has any advice for me I would be grateful to hear it. Cheers, Dale 💜

@lacantheory Decent sides, but we have ended up against sides that are regularly in CL. We really got the worst draw imo.

@Chrsmo Freiburg are decent + Celta would’ve probably been tougher than Lille as they play in a 3 ATB. They already did Real Madrid at the Bernabeu this season

Not sure we could have had a much worse draw. Lille, Roma, Porto, Lyon is probably the way to the final. Meanwhile Lyon got Celta, Freiburg, Betis and Villa. We never have any luck, do we?🤷‍♂️ #avfc

@Trentvilla1 @Alex_Berwick Totally agree. I was never a huge fan of Monchi. Too much of a wheeler and dealer. But Emery, if he really is the one in charge of everything, should shoulder his part of the blame aswell really.

@Chrsmo @Alex_Berwick See I think too much blame is laid at the door or Monchi, its easier than blaming Emery isn’t it. I think the prospects can be blamed on Monchi but not first team. Whoever is responsible it needs to improve.

Seems like the perfect match this. Probably picked the wrong club in the summer and now got a second chance. I'm really happy for him actually. Gets to prove his worth. Didn't do well for us at all, but we didn't offer him much patience either really. Hopefully he gets his move.

Difficult to make the draw more difficult for us than this... Of course 😂 #avfc

@Trentvilla1 @Alex_Berwick We have made quite a few signings that makes me scratch my head tbh, both "PSR kids" and first team signings. Hopefully Olabe can fix that.

@Chrsmo @Alex_Berwick Exactly! We spent what £30m on two RB’s that will never ever make a contribution to the first team.

@Trentvilla1 @Alex_Berwick Totally. Only time will tell. I'm just happy for him really and I hope they buy him. We need the money.

@Chrsmo @Alex_Berwick But my point is he might not score again for Palace all season. I do think playing on the left has helped him, I do think less pressure there also. I also do slightly suspect he wasn’t that happy here and perhaps feels happier in London. I hope it works out and we get the money

@Trentvilla1 @Alex_Berwick Thing is. Baleba spent one full season getting up to speed at Brighton, but played about 1500 minutes before becoming the 100m player people are talking about. Onana cost double and also used a full season to get up to speed. And who is the best now? Difficult one to justify imo.

@Alex_Berwick @Chrsmo My point is those players aren’t really any different to Baleba they just cost a hell of a lot more. I do think those two teams have been better at identifying cheap talent than us even if you have a valid point about their development and its impact on performance.

@Trentvilla1 @Alex_Berwick While I think age, how ready/good they are and price often goes hand in hand, but there are loads of examples of players coming to the league at a young age and at a low fee, that just pushes and preforms from the off. That's down to our recruitment to find really.

@Alex_Berwick @Chrsmo And with Emery and CL we might manage to do it. But without I honestly think this team would go off a cliff and very very quickly. As I said, I don’t disagree with our approach as such I just feel we go a little too far with it and don’t really plan at all for tomorrow.

@Alex_Berwick @Trentvilla1 True, but Van Hecke cost 2m. I think most people would be OK with loaning him out for two years with that being the case. But I get your point.

@Chrsmo @Trentvilla1 It’s just a perception thing for me really. Take Baleba. Drives people mad, £100m player one week, absolute liability the next. That’s generally what you get for a few years. Love Van Hecke but he spent 2 years on loan. When we do that it’s poor recruitment.

@Trentvilla1 @Alex_Berwick That's fair. I personally think it's more interesting to look at Guessand at Villa and Guessand at Palace, with it being a small sample size, I know. But you are right.

@Chrsmo @Alex_Berwick Thats slightly cooking the stats though. Guessand has 1 goal in 16 PL appearances/698 mins. Lets come like for like if we are making a comparison. But I wouldn’t keep Sancho and I had zero desire to see Buendia or Bailey back.

@Alex_Berwick @Trentvilla1 Most of them. But some of them would be more than good enough to come in and improve what we are doing. Rayan is one example. Do we play in a way that suits him? I don't know. Is he more dangerous than Bailey? You would like to think so.

@Trentvilla1 @Chrsmo Think the point is - and I don’t disagree with you - people have no patience here. Constantly reading that we should be more like Brighton or Bournemouth, but those players would be written off after 2 weeks here.

@Trentvilla1 @Alex_Berwick No, that's more than fair. He does, however have 1 goal and 1 assists in about 100 PL mins for Palace. For reference, Sancho has 1 assist in 607 mins. Bailey none i 197 mins. Buendia 1 goal in 12 last matches.

@Alex_Berwick @Chrsmo I think people need to take into account that Mostar aren’t remotely close to the level of the Prem. Lets see how he does in the Prem where I just don’t think he has enough. While some thought that about those players they were all significantly better than Guessand.

@CarlTho41278660 This is a very good point really. We aren't in a position where we can sign players for 100m, only for us to expect them to come good in 12-18 months. We need instant impact.

@Chrsmo He was overthinking so much and does make you wonder if our system is just too rigid. It's really not sustainable to have players join and 'not be a fit'. Malen not a fit and 12 months to get anything out of Maatsen and Onana. It's not normal

@Alex_Berwick True. I was more on how the players we had in the squad adapted quite quickly to what Emery wanted. No one really talked about a year of adapting to the Emery way when we went from relegation battle to Europe. Different circumstances, but they adapted so quickly.

@Chrsmo Was different. Players had time. Less expectation. Konsa hardly played first 6 months. Had to preserve with Luiz. Watkins didn’t have the pressure. Totally different environment now. Fans saying Guessand was useless after an hour.

@Alex_Berwick Totally. I was one of those who weren't convinced by those players, and still need a bit of convincing about Maatsen tbh. The difficulty of adapting at Villa means the recruitment needs to be spot on. Could argue we did better on that pre Emery, judging by our best XI?

@Chrsmo Agree. Emery asks a lot. Remember everyone saying Onana / Maatsen / Malen were rubbish last year. If you aren’t a peak age top player, you don’t get much time to adapt at Villa. Fans turn quick. Looks happier on the left at Palace where we have options. Lots of things.