The College Dropout

Colwill is pap. ATM at least. Tall, quick enough, cultured left foot.... lad is pony atm. If we swapped him and his level of performance for Dan Burn, we'd be 10th.

Jones has played 800 more minutes than Angel Gomes, for a better side in a tougher division. I like Angel Gomes. But he's been benched for a 17-year-old. No issue with him being behind Curtis Jones atm. I kinda like how Tuchel hasn't chosen kids to fill out the squad. Let the young boys play in the U21 and win. Let good seasoned pros like Dan Burn cheerlead from the sidelines. There's usually about 3-4 players in a squad that have little chance of getting meaningful minutes. Let them be old boys.

Curtis Jones starts regularly in a double pivot or 8 for the best team in the country. Gallagher and Gibbs White play 10 or wide I believe. they are competing with Rogers, Palmer and Foden. Angel Gomes has been dropped from his club side. And Wharton is only just coming back from a long injury lay off. Curtis Jones is crazy under rated.

Enjoy the trip. The atmosphere. Off chance of landing a ticket. Anyone with a spare ticket. DM me please 🙏🏿

Fair. Don’t see how you can have him and Rogers in the same team mind. England have a lot of attackers. Few proper midfielders.

Who else?

Lack of quality CBs and CMs.

Only Anderson or CHO in with a shout no?

Delighted for him. He's been our best CB all season and top 3 performer.

Iraola is on an upwards trajectory but he’s not like a post Dortmund Klopp. He’s not achieved anything Howe hasn’t. Likewise we aren’t such a big step/opportunity given PSR. Not saying there won’t be reasons Howe might get fired/leave.

There’s also not an obvious candidate or easy lever for us to improve. Look at the managers Spurs, Bayern, Man U, Liverpool, Juve and Chelsea have hired in recent years. None of them have the same trajectories or accolades Ancelotti, Mourinho, Klopp, Guardiola, Tuchel, Conte etc. had. That brand name manager era seems to be over. At least the ones that do the rounds. There’s only really Alonso that’s a massive name not at a super club.

For me the intensity it requires makes you wonder if it’s scalable to 50+ games a season. And then is he a man that can win trophies ? Any trophies? Emerys teams tend to struggle with European cup runs in the league. But we know he can win trophies. Villa won’t win the CL but they’ve got a great chance of winning the FA Cup. Howe has to answer both questions.

Detailed strategy is doing heavy lifting. There are only so many things that can be done to lift a clubs revenue. Maximise existing channels or do something innovative/use levers Barcelona style. Or the rules change. A point people in the know made after the takeover was that PIF would often set ambitious targets but not have a realistic plan to achieve those targets. With that in mind - pressure on commercial team and hesitancy to leverage APT agreements doesn’t fill me with hope.

I just don’t think Eddie fits the description of gatekeeper the way Jordan originally meant. Many pundits said from the start Howe would stabilise us if it would be another manager tasked to take us to consistent European football and then title challenge. He would be our Hughes, Ranieiri or even a Dean Smith at Villa or Chris Hughton at Brighton. Even Adkin’s at Soton. That’s for getting us here but we know we need someone else to kick on. I think he’s already surpassed that. Gatekeepers aren’t given the chance to fail - they’re just meant to hold the forte and keep the seat warm and ensure minimum standards are met. It’s like calling Arteta a gatekeeper if he gets sacked without winning the league or CL. I agree with the points raised. But I think they are being used to justify a statement that’s already proven incorrect.

He's contradicted himself a bit re: Eddie. The "gatekeeper" comment suggests he's a bit of a Chelsea-Ranieri or City-Hughes which isn't the case. The pivot in the point he makes talking about Owners expectations perhaps is true... but that's not what gatekeeping means. Or at least not the original type of gatekeeper he intended

I was a massive fan of Asensio pre-injury. At his best he was like a B level Madrid player. He was really handy in his last couple of seasons at Madrid too but mostly off the bench iirc. Didnt pay attention to him at PSG. He’s come to Villa and just looks a class above. For us and Villa these are heady times. I wonder if they have the feeling we have with Isak, Bruno, Tonali etc. like ‘these lads can do things I’ve never seen our players do in my life’. For me Bruno and Tonali are 1 & 2 CMs for us and it’s not close. I don’t think either are ‘world class’ but they are so good it’s crazy.

Hala Madrid

Then the rules need to be changed. Double touches allowed if they are accidental.

I mean the rules are the rules.

The ball moves ever so slightly before it’s struck

Rules are rules. Unlucky. nobody was upset when Mitro double kicked his pen against us. I don’t see the double touch mind. Maybe the ball moves a bit before it’s hit? The ball does move in the air in an unnatural way. But I don’t see the contact clearly.

I’m not pretending. But they really stunk tonight. This is a week for football curses to be broken. Scenes we’ve never seen before need to happen.

Best R16 for a long time imo. The matches I’ve watched these last couple days feel like QFs or SFs.

Worse than Manchester United? Or Liverpool?

He looked terrified. But he struck it well and only missed by margins. I guess any pen on target is better but Rudigers and Lucas pens were poor.