Kid Icarus

Made 6 changes for Qarabag at home, then 5 changes for the match 3 days later btw. You can definitely argue he maybe could have rested more players, particularly Tonali, but it's not like he didn't rotate at all.

As I say, I've just read the thread. One person, dcmk told you to go to bed and asked where the thread was after the previous match (that we'd won), literally everyone else engaged with you.

I think Bruno going to Man United would probably (and hopefully) be the thing that finally does it for me with modern football like.

Well when you said that's what had happened it's not what I remembered happening, so I went and read the thread. Other people can have a read (it's a short thread) and make their own minds up, but I don't think that's what happened at all personally.

Hmmmm. Let's just say anyone who's interested can take a look and judge whether that happened for themselves.

There's a weird amount of Ugandans that get named Adolf. I noticed it when I used to work with loads of student records a few years ago. Being Austrian and naming your child Adolf in 1970 can only be deliberate or stupidity like.

Nice bloke but I wouldn't rely on Mark Douglas to give me the correct time. In terms of reliability he's likeable Luke Edwards.

3 games into their mad run, having loaned 5 odd players in January who finally clicked. Prior to the start of that final run they were languishing in 10th and had been anything from 6th to 12th for the majority of the season. The point I'm making (and will end on again) is that Villa going on a run right at the end doesn't suddenly mean they managed the season well - they got those loans precisely because it was going so badly.

Honestly if we did what Villa did last season I'd have even less respect for anyone u-turning and trying to claim we'd managed the season well, because we haven't and neither did Villa. But I get it, if you're someone trying to claim Villa managed their season well last season, you have to be consistent.

You're judging it now You've been judging it for months. But your approach is to judge it at the end of the season, okay then. And if we went on a run now in the last 7 matches and finished say 6th, you'd say we've managed Europe and the season well.

When I said "So then what you complaining for? If we win every match from now on like Villa did, we make Europe and we've managed the whole season well." You didn't pick up that I was taking the piss out of such a daft outlook?

Villa didn't cope man. You can't rewrite 90% of their season because they got some loans (because they couldn't cope) and went on a mad run. If we go on a mad run now and make Europe, not a single person would try and claim we've managed Europe well.

So then what you complaining for? If we win every match from now on like Villa did, we make Europe and we've managed the whole season well.

If we're 12th at the end of March have we coped well in the league then aye?

It was, Rogers stood on the 'keeper's hand but people talk about that match like it was a 0-0 parking the bus by Man United. Villa didn't play well, didn't deserve to win, rightly went down to 10 men and lost 2-0 to the worst Man United team in our lifetimes who hadn't won at home since February, and had nothing to play for. Villa only needed 1 point in the end, or better goal difference than us, which they were nowhere near. Ironically Howe, the manager who did get us there on GD, would never ever be afforded the luxury of having that situation be described as "unlucky" by those who think our current situation is unacceptable and attributable to him. The loan market is available to us as it was Villa, but not using it isn't a criticism of Howe just as using it isn't a compliment to give Emery.

If we're talking about Howe and the implication is that Villa coped so we should too, it's worth pointing out that how they coped (if you want to call it that) wasn't because of Emery's skill or any secret trick, they just loaned players. We could have done as Villa did, but doing it or not doing it isn't a reflection on Emery or Howe's ability either way.

That ref decision was correct, but Emery's lauders always cherry pick that as the reason Villa didn't get CL, and not something like being 12th at the end of March. Let's see how Villa get on in 26/27, the idea they coped with it is a myth, they had to loan loads of players to stop their league season being the same as ours is looking.

I haven't just heard of it, all teams do it. No idea where you've pulled the idea that we're the only ones that do it from.

Howe's training philosophy is to treat games and training as one and the same, and that games are an extension of training, we know this. Repetition is also how you improve like, it's not simply a case of the whole definition of insanity thing.

Presumably when the 'who would you replace him with?' question was being asked to the Robson out lot on here, the answer was that it's not their job, it's the club's - the club who then swiftly approached Steve Bruce and Graeme Sounness.

Howe has said it he's mentioned countless times that the new players need patience, love, that other players have needed time to get up to speed, and that the lack of training time has effected us massively. 'Doing the same thing over and over again until it clicks' is training in a sense.

Short memories with Woltemade again imo, I'd go back and read what everyone was saying about him when he was playing up top and how it needed to change because literally no one was in the box when our wingers got to the byline. His purple patch was unsustainable as well with something daft like 5 goals from 6 shots or something at one point. Wissa should have been that plug and play option but as soon as he was injured it was going to be tough, then he's been shite ever since. I'm confident Howe will get it right, there's far more evidence to suggest he will than the opposite imo.

Transitional season just applies to any season that bridges one era to another (and is a bit of a write-off) when there's a big change, most commonly when there's a squad overhaul and/or a key player leaves. Nothing automatically to do with a style change and yes, it does have a lot to do with being shite, they tend to go hand in hand.

Villa were mid-table until the very last run in at the end of the season last year. The CL affected their performances and their squad massively. Some Villa fans wanted Emery out. The difference between them and us is that they bought/loaned loads of players in January. That was what galvanised them.

They're all still the lines now, nothing is mutually exclusive. Presumably you missed out the 'we're in a transitional season' one by accident.