The College Dropout

He does like. He’s probably still under rated by many as a talent. Who is levels more talented than him as a footballer? Him at the 9 shows how complete he is as a footballer. Playing outwide limited his game. Congratulations Dembouz man. Well deserved winner. Ballon D’Or should be contested between supreme ballers not bloody DMs. ‘Donnarumma’ get tae fuck (I’m half joking) TCD Ballon D’Or: Dembouz Yamal Salah Mbappe Tonali

I understood his point re: Isak. but neither Eddie or the club has a history of doing that to players. I hate the Chelsea bomb squad shit.

Is this allowed?

Pau Torres is their best defender or at least up there with Konsa. The Malen transfer is weird. He’s totally unfancied. He looks dangerous to me whenever I see him. But Emery would rather play McGinn in an attacking role. Then they go and get Jadon Sancho too.

Villa missed out on CL on goal difference while being in the CL quarter final. They didn’t sell any key players in the summer either. The approach made sense, the execution was slightly out and the rest of the management/execution has gone haywire since. With the squad Villa has last season, Emery should’ve got them CL, if they had the squad from the start they would have. The squad they have now is good. It’s our turn to go CL and league again. It’s only Howe that makes me think we can hold it together. The squad is short again imo. 5th and CL QF would be brilliant with this squad.

Disagree. American owners don’t want to play Burnley twice while hoping to land big European sides in Europe. The money is in playing Real Madrid, Juve, Barca as many times a season as possible. the but American cartel owners view the PL as subsidising 14 other teams. That’s not going to change. So with that they will want a super league still.

Going for it and trying to consolidate CL place again I still think is the best right and decision. Ultimately they fell short by goal difference and it’s having a massive impact on them. And it’s more mental than anything. The squad isn’t any weaker than the one that qualified for the CL or the one that started last season. But something else is wrong. They’ve not sold any of their best players - the one you could argue they replaced twice. Where I think they have gone wrong strategically is the desire to keep trading. That impacts morale. If Emery was as good a manager as Howe I reckon Villa are in the CL or have a better chance of qualifying again. But I think their PSR approach last season was a good one. For us - we are reliant on the genius of Eddie Howe. Our PSR approach didn’t leave our squad in any better shape than Villa’s now. It’s only Eddie Howe that makes me think we can have a better season than Villa did last. If we don’t - we’ll lose Tonali imo. I pray the new leadership team is less risk averse and more innovative in the transfer market. Our initial aggressive squad building (and Howe) got us our success.

Good chance for non core starters to show something. Harvey Barnes show me something. Joe Willock show me something. Thiaw play solid for 90 minutes. Ramsdale even Elanga show me something. Tino. Trippier. Pope. Bruno. Tonali. Joelinton. Burn. Schar. Take the day off.

That game at Old Trafford was a sliding doors moment for them. Not just the £50m to alleviate PSR and maintain a feel good factor at the club. We lost at home to West Ham after about 12 games. We were mid table. Atmosphere rank. We had a spirited defeat against a top 4 side Liverpool maybe then Isak went on a tear, Tonali integrated and we changed the momentum of the season. But I think many forget how bad the atmosphere was at the club until about GW13-14. It wasn’t half as bad as Villa but it was bad. How held the fans and the group together just about. Villa kept trying to trade until the end. Players like Martinez wanting to leave and then staying. It kills the group. Similar happens to Gordon but not as bad and it messed him up too. Again smart thing Howe did was not wanting to lose any other key players to try and go again. Kept the atmosphere of the core group.

Going full tits up at Villa They don’t have an Eddie Howe to steer them through troubled waters (or a Sandro Tonali & Alex Isak)

Think Tino has looked good carrying the ball in the box.

Who is on penalties btw? I have a feeling it should be Schar. We might persist with Gordon though. Nick W or Wissa should claim it. Easy 3-5 goals a season.

Aye we’ve lost our best player so by definition our ceiling is lower. Elanga isn’t night and day better than Murphy so far. And the rest aren’t automatic starters (excluding the strikers who aren’t as good as Isak). It’s harder to get such big jumps in quality with the squad we have now. But even Burn to Botman you can see how Botman is better on the ball and almost as good in the air. Another Tonali/Bruno level player would take the level up despite how good Joelinton is. Having Gordon back will be big.

Being a CL side - you are always going to miss players. Arsenal were without Odegaard and Havertz on the weekend. Our issue is we still have a small squad. It's better now than it was last time and it helped us earn a point and rest some key players. The secondary issue is that I think the squad lacks class/ability. So far, it doesn't look like any of our signings are significantly better than a starter from last season. But they are nearly all better than the other players from last season. Higher floor lower ceiling.

No minutes against Bradford either. The full throttle.

Having so many games, late transfers and a few injuries has made it difficult for us to gel. We look rock solid at the back. But going forward we stink.

Aye. And my post was after Bruno had played in altitude midweek, then 2 back to back 90s - the only Brazilian player to complete 90 to do that. I do think we need another genuine option at CM.

Why the abuse? im glad he got a rest. Howe is listening to the performance guys. But we suffered for it on the pitch.

Last season we were largely shit for the first 12 games. We tend to do well against top sides at home because they attack and leave space in behind. Hope that continues.

Etikite had scored 10 Ligue 1 goals before his 21st birthday. Earning him a move to PSG. At the same age Woltemade had scored 2 Bundesliga goals and was plying his trade in the 3rd tier of German football on loan. No shade on Nick. Players develop at different rates. But I can’t believe we would’ve gone for Nick W over Etikite or Sesko or the others. And that’s what happened. We went for those first so I’m going to assume they were ahead in the pecking order.

Their general build up play is way better than Murphy and Barnes

He shouldn’t be our most progressive midfielder but he did a manful job today. That turn was one of 2 pieces of class I saw today. I really wanted us to add 2 to the level of him and we didn’t do it. We actually lost one. Tough.

Aye. We’ve got wingers that can’t beat a man or pass and move. A CMs that struggle to pass the ball forward. But it’s Pope’s passing that is a big problem. Aye.

Needs a run of games with Gordon and Elanga flanking him

He does look like a striker that hasn’t played striker a long time. I think he’ll play a lot of minutes with Wissa behind him while he learns the striker position better