alexf

Should be sub only until he can get his fitness and sharpness back. Not contributing anything positive when he starts lately. Osula weirdly is probably ahead of him at the moment in terms of effectiveness.

Mentioned in the match thread. But in the interest of trying other options, and since his form has been criticised anyways, I'd want to see how he is at right back given the current options. He has the pace and power to be really effective there and can't see many wingers if any getting he better of him down the outside. It takes away from having him in the centre, but now Bruno is back fit we can probably get by with he, Ramsey and maybe Willock if we go with 3 and/or with Woltemade in the 10. We simply can't keep playing Trippier there and until Tino and to a lesser extent Miley are back available I think we are struggling for alternatives No idea what the academy lads are like as Howe seems reluctant to try anyone.

Mentioned it earlier but been seeing this graphic doing the rounds. Pretty telling graphic and tells the story really. Until we can boost the squad/revenue to be able to cope better then this is the pattern that will continue. Would not be shocked to see next season go back to the 1.97 average if we got momentum.

Also bit left field, but thought this for awhile. If we have no one else available, would anyone else try Tonali right back? Could play Bruno and Ramsey on the center and think Tonali physicality would be perfect for covering right back while Tino and Miley are out. I know we lose him in the middle, but since we have been struggling in there anyways maybe it's not that big a loss, but I can't see many wingers getting the better of him if he played there. Was even thinking we should have moved him there and brought Ramsey on in the Brentford game rather than leaving Trippier on.

Keeping telling myself I need to stop watching away games as it's giving nothing but misery...but then the fact it was a struggling spurs is reeling me in with some hope. But it's far more likely we give them the boost they need rather than the other way round. I would 100% set up defensively and play counter attack. They lack quality like us but do have some pace on the counter so if we can frustrate them and then use our own pace on the counter I think we have a better chance. If I see Trippier's name in the starting line up then I'll probably skip it as I'll assume we're losing.

I think if there are compilation videos of you saying ridiculous things that people mock you for then it's possible you are just not a very good pundit and TV companies are likely to drop you. There is a plethora of shite male pundits aswell but that doesn't mean she isn't one also. I think if she had directed her frustration at just itv execs for putting men in positions she feels women should have then she would probably have got more support. But go after the individual men that have been pundits on women's football and who are just trying to earn a living but also try to help add support and growth to it is where she falls down. Expecting them to just step aside and more so to actively promote her like she suggested Wright needed to do with his "influence" is ridiculous. It makes everyone feel like she got dropped for being shit and coming out with crazy theories and bad analysis and then tried to deflect from that criticism by saying she got dropped for being a woman and/or black.

Feel like we should have played for more draws this season. It's clear we can't over run teams like we have in recent seasons. So there have been times, Brentford included where it just didn't feel like it was going to be a Leeds repeat and I could just feel something wasn't right with us and felt we should have calmed down and seen out the point. But you can see in how high Trippier was for the winner that our mentality, especially at home is go for the win. Same can be said for many games, like the Liverpool home game with ten men. Get the equaliser just make sure we keep things tight, but no we went rushing out trying to steal the ball and got caught out of position. Think we need to accept we are bang average this season, especially while we have key players injured and the bulk of he squad fatigued. Just grind out results and then when we are in a healthier position, try and attack games more and see if we can get a run of results going. For now we need to stop the rot.

Man I see these talking points brought up all the time. Especially with Howe. "Taken us as far as he can..." I'm pretty sure people were saying the same thing in 23/24 when we were having the same issues and struggling to balance the amount of games. Then in the first half of last season before we went on a run and won a cup and finished top 5. So here we are again, in a tricky season with an exhausting schedule, injuries to key players and signings not quite telling with the team. There was a graph to show the average points posted somewhere else and it showed our two stand out seasons under Howe were when we weren't in Europe. It's clear he needs to learn and adapt and get better at managing a team when juggling multiple competitions. The caveat to that is simply the squad isn't strong enough and clearly neither is our academy compared with the established top 6. Mistakes were made in recruitment but there is so much context to be applied that it's hard to hold too much blame when the you review the difficulties we had landing our first choice targets. Eddie has proven multiple times he can turn around bad form and get us achieving heights I didn't think I'd see again. He's entitled to an average season given the circumstances that have affected it. If this was to be prolonged and deep into next season then maybe a refresh would be beneficial, but I have no doubts we will be better next year, especially when it's likely we will have no Europe. People just need to get used to the fact we will have these up and down seasons when in and out of Europe until we are able to get revenues up and bolster the squad to adequately managed more games. I'd rather stick by Eddie than torch the whole thing due to one average season.

Knew we were in for a bleak and depressing month or two when those fixtures came up and we went 120+mins against Bournemouth in the cup. Once the injuries started and the fatigue set in we were in for a tough time. Still it's getting worse than I thought it would be. Players are lacking confidence and look absolutely shagged. It's only going to get worse however with the run of away games we have again and no rest in sight. Can't believe we can't find a better solution to having Trippier play every game however. Costing us so many goals. I'd rather put Sandro at RB and play someone else in midfield if necessary.

Probably irrelevant to the result. But the amount of time wasting by them, particularly in injury time, ball must have been in play for a max of 2-3 mins of that 9 mins injury time and he added on 15 seconds.

Lads just looked devoid of confidence. Coupled with tired old players like Trippier and an anxious home crowd is just recipe for disaster.

There was something awkward and clunky about that reveal of his contract extension to the press. Felt odd it got revealed when it did and why. Also coincidentally his form dipped right around that time aswell. Wonder if there was abit of unhappiness about it from his camp. Either way I don't think he can be accused of not working hard for the team, he works harder than most and is the least of our problems at the moment. There are other players and positions that need fixing in the immediate to get us firing again.

Yeah a few of us at the time felt there was something dodgy about that deal. Villa seemed to have been bailed out multiple times by Saudi teams for players that are not the usual high profile Saudi signings. So when we get criticised for not working the market as well as Villa we have to remember they got like £55m for Diaby after a mediocre first season at Villa and £70m odd for Duran who had about 6 months good form and was a relative nobody when you think of the types Saudi has been spending money on previously.

People describing him as "honking" are going overboard in my opinion. He's been below the standards he set last season but then the whole team hasn't been functioning well this season. I feel he's still consistently one of our better players and a really important cog especially out of possession. I think the dip when his passing was all over the shop which felt like it was only for a few games pre his kid being born has painted a narrative that he's been awful all season. Still think he's probably off in the summer, thought it even before all the recent stuff in the press. But I think people making out he's been awful is just a form of cope for another disappointing loss of a good player.

He's really fast with erratic over hit crosses and poor goal and assist stats for a winger. Can see why people would compare the two.

Will we ever be free from the propaganda monster going on talksport and playing the hits? Tuned in to see what Hopkinson was saying as they were in newcastle today and low and behold they have wheel old this fraud and like Trump he never fails to bring out the classics, - hard done by by the fans and media and they made it too personal - souness and dalgliesh told him the Newcastle job was hard so that's proof he did a good job. - he recommended Eddie Howe for the job - did as well as Rafa but somehow Rafa is loved and he isn't - it's complete nonsense that he was in bed with Ashley apparently. Sick of this guy repeating his talking points ad nauseam to the point he thinks if he says them enough times people will accept them as the truth. Talksport lap it up and give him the platform.

Trippier is costing us here. But also the midfield are allowing far too much space. We should have locked that half down, 11 men behind the ball and got in 1:0 up and instead we played right into their hands and have gifted them the lead. So frustrating to undo all the good work.

Ugh, could see the reasoning for the set up against PSG and was pleased we were trying something different. Not sure of the thinking here however. Proven time and again that Gordon doesn't work as a striker and was hoping we'd stick to 3 at the back and be solid enough to give ourselves a chance. Happy to be proved wrong but this looks like we're playing into their hands.

Also hates having to choose between Burn or Botman so normally doesn't.

I do believe at our best we can give Barca a good game and learn some lessons from the first match. We had our chances, Gordon missed a sitter. Also took a Rashford thunderbolt to win it for them and we scored a really nice team goal that game. However I think some are maybe forgetting that they didn't have Yamal that night. Got to get through the playoff first but yeah idea of playing Chelsea 3 times in a row is bleak, especially as they are going alright under that new dork annoyingly.

Considering we have picked up 5 significant injuries in the last 7 games since Leeds is a concern. Lost Schar possibly for the season Then lost Tino for a few months. Then Murphy picked up a knock Then Bruno got the ankle issue And then Big Joe out for a while with his groin problem. So 3 pretty serious and 2 minor but they are starting to add up. Looks like we came out the last game ok but the games are starting to wreak havoc. Hall especially is a worry that we will just break him like we did Tino by him never getting a rest and there is zero cover other than Burn now and he puts in alot of minutes and effort.

I'm trying to think of an equivalent striker from the old Barclays days. He's like a modern day Yohan Elmander. Crikey with the dearth of classic centre forwards these days how much would the likes of a Yakubu, Viduka or a Hasselbaink etc. go for these days if they were playing in this era with the same shortfall of strikers. They would be getting rated way beyond what they were back in the old days.

That kit disgusts me.

Haven't seen the game and assume they weren't trying as they don't need to win. But looking at the other teams in the Europa have to say Villa look big favourites to win it. The way it's been structured the last few years, surely it's now lost alot of prestige to win the Europa. Doesn't seem like as big a challenge as it once was. I'd back us to win it comfortably if we were in it either this year or last. Wouldn't mind if we could get into it next season as CL looks unrealistic now.

Hope they are bouncing from a good performance and not too fatigued from all the games and travel. Would feel like same again tactics if we can because it's a very similar game to last night, albeit you feel Liverpool can be got at this year, but they do just seem to be picking up abit and with our history there it has to be seen as an expected defeat. So I would take a draw and a repeat promising away display if you offered it. If we were really on our game however and took our chances theres no reason to be afraid of them. Just don't get beat in the first 20 mins as they will likely be like PSG and come flying at us from the off.