The College Dropout

Howe needs to give him a breather and let him play behind Wissa a bit.

If we want to win football matches he needs to play. It was a ridiculous shout.

Does that include some of the recent additions?

Wonder why he’s totally abandoned 2 up top or a 1–1. the over reliance on wing play is baffling.

I think Thiaw is similar. They play well individually but the unit doesn’t seem as strong. Both had solid games I thought but we still conceded 2.

Some of you lot were saying it’s good he missed this match so he can rest. He’s the only player with some creativity and the only one capable of scoring from distance. Or just comes up big. tonali 0 goals how many assists? Joelinton? Small Joe 0 0 Ramsey 0 0 Actually Miley is the only other one with a forward pass and a goal threat.

We’ve played 11 or so games more than those and that counts a lot. But aye we’ve not added any quality going forward or in midfield after all that money.

That was the turning point. As soon as we had to chase the game was up.

At some point we do need to try another route in terms of goalscoring. It’s consistently evident we need another route.

Think he’s done nothing Ramsey.

Aye. We never do. They always do.

I do not rate Ramsey man. Consistently a nothing player.

Was hoping for a shape change

We do not. We’ll need something off the bench and so will they.

Not a corner?

Have Villa unlocked some kind of long shot cheat code? Buendia and Rogers are slapping these in basically every other week

Agreed. Howe has the players the fans and I’d an excellent manager/coach. Without him I fear we become Everton of yesteryear. Him and his staff are the last of the setup that essentially built the league cup and double CL qualifying teams. In terms of doing more than spending money.

No need to be sensitive. My biggest concern is with the exit of Staveley we don’t have anyone that is passionate about the clubs success at the head of the club. We haven’t had strong direction or competence since she left.

Arsenal have still lower wages and squad cost than the other 2/3. At a point their revenue was bottom of the top 6 but they’ve done well to rebuild. Their merch game is A1 too.

Oh yeh and teams in Europe get league games moved to help them rest for Europe. Our TV channels would never allow it. Sunday 4:30 super Sunday and then Weds CL standard

Par for us has been 7th/8th for some time. Kieran Maguire or someone on Twitter will have squad cost table somewhere. But wages matter more than squad cost. Financially £60m on Havertz is a level above £55m on Elanga due to the wages. The more pertinent point is there's a fairly big gap between our wage bill and the level below. Which gives us a major advantage over the field if we are not in Europe. Being in Europe and bottom of that top 8 shows you what a tough challenge we have being competitive on all fronts. We are going to play 15/16 top level games more than the majority of the PL, that's going to cost us points.

I'm not belittling Villa - I think they've done tremendously well. But to suggest we would rather be in the Europa League is madness. If Villa had got in the Champions League this season they would've been an even bigger problem for us. They would have a stronger squad than they do now almost certainly. Winning the Europa League is also super tough for PL teams if they are competing in the PL properly. Last year Spurs & Man U gave up on the league in February at the latest. I suspect Villa will go full strength in the PL every week until CL is mathematically secure. I'm not sure they can keep competing strongly on both fronts until the end of the season - unless they strengthen again

‘It’s a shame we didn’t get Europa’ Jesuuuu Christo you guys are lost. I think our best midfield is having our 3 well rested. It’s better than any Sean Longstaff 3. But I agree any Howe midfield needs strong runners

"Soulless" as in the Ownership and decision makers. From the outside it looks like you've bought some highly rated youngsters and hoped it would all work out eventually.