Gallowgate Toon

Watched the match this morn and he looks full of ideas at the moment. Love that he got 20 mins up front during the second half and Isak switched out. Those in-match rotations (which are actually natural rather than forced) could really help us if we can keep the majority relatively fit.

Our lack of pace in defence won't be solved with just one player, like. We need it as an option but if 1 of 4 defenders is the only one with proper legs then there are still plenty of targets to hit.

https://youtu.be/nNnXTcr0DLQ?t=707

Makes it all the more tragic you conceded 3 last night to Jacob Murphy playmaking. In all seriousness, were you playing as high as that last season?!

Edward is crafty, like. Villa arguably beat our press better than anyone other than Liverpool and Arsenal last season and the shape change was perhaps a way to try a different press pattern to see how Villa's movement and passing changed without being able to prep for it.

Don't usually get bothered about this type of thing but it was absolutely relentless.

Haven't watched a Craig Hope YT walkaround video for a while so decided to catch what he said about it and he's talking about it like it was a league game halfway through the season Bruno and Tonali too similar, apparently etc.

Tbf, the press and 2 in mid left us canny exposed in the centre early on.

One thing he does have that our other CBs lack is pace. He's not got fantastic acceleration but as he gets up to speed he really is decently quick.

Carrick regen.

Didn't expect a 3-4-3 with Pauly D, like Edward starting the mind games early.

Howling at the thought of 'Daniel' being furious about this over his breakfast

His Pringles test

I'm indifferent to Adam P most of the season but I'm really looking forward to his travel vlogs when he goes to new places for the first time

Whoops, meant Barnes' 21/22 season matched Maxi's 22/23 for it. This is another place xA gets tricky though. Understat says one thing, Footystats (who use TheSport) says another for seasonal breakdowns. SofaScore don't use xA past last season, from memory etc.

Is this actually true though? Or, more specifically, he may have a very good final ball. His assist tallies have varied but overall numbers are strong across his PL career to date. Last season seems to have been an outlier in the assist stakes after a career high 21/22 (I don't believe he was on set pieces but may be wrong). xA per 90 numbers vary for different sources but it looks like Barnes matched Maxi's 22/23 last season.

ASM wasn't the most fun to watch in the squad, for me. He was unpredictably predictable, if that makes sense Isak and Bruno I find the most enjoyable for different reasons. Trippier, Joelinton and Willock have regular outstanding moments as well.

Got a sneaking suspicion that Diaby will struggle with the physicality for the first half of the season but I think he'll turn out far better than Bailey overall. Depth will be the biggie for Villa with all of the comps. What are the odds they win the Conference?

Watching that comp, Isak really should be immense foil for him for 1-2s but also being able to rotate positions. Barnes seems to end up centrally a good amount and has enough IQ to make good runs when he finds himself there.

xA is interesting but I found some of his assists and checked the xA against them and it seems ropey with the variables. E.g. he had 2 assists against Burnley in 2019 from an xA of .18 but the first assist is a fantastic left-foot cross onto the 6-yard line for a Vardy header.

Quite a lot made about his lack of take-on success from last season but it seemed to be down a lot from his previous seasons which were closely aligned to the league average. Did Leicester change LBs or something?

Really looking forward to seeing what Howe can get out of him. He seems very coachable.

ASM was never consistently great against deeper sides which is where we became unstuck more often last season. There was the argument that he'd maybe create more space for others in those situations but having sides with good movement is already an alternative to that. However, losing him reduces one of our better weapons over the last few years against the 'bigger' sides who gave us more space.

Woof that fee isn't great. Think with the heat about our 'unfair links' to Saudi clubs that there might be some canny add-ons in there that come out in a couple of years. Minteh and Kuol to totally fill the ASM gap in 24/25.

If we continue last season's tactic of right side build up to then quickly switch to LW then that really suits Barnes, like.