Nine

Well then at least you weren’t shouting ‘sell him, he’s shit’ after every game like alot on here did

I always defended him and saw his qualities as an asset. Was never convinced that he had a run of goal scoring form in him that hes been on lately mind.

Villa are so narrow that Willian will just cut in over and over from the left and get free shots on goal

Villa are absolute shit, reading their forum they all want Gerrard out asap

Don’t expect him to start any time soon myself, looks quality in moments but not sure he’s there overall yet.

People saying he’s been Howe’d and he has to a degree but this upturn in goals is more down to the player imo, looks different when he’s got some confidence about him. If he can keep this run up he will easily go into double figures this season, always loved his work rate output and his commitment so it’s great to see him getting these goals.

6th is of course doable after our start but it will take a big amount of good fortune to get there imo. It’s a weird season with the World Cup break and the squad is thin key areas as we all know. The intensity we play at will stretch this squad during the second half of the season, more so if you add in good cup run. Luckily for us we don’t have a full team of internationals but a few of our biggest players will be playing in good sides at the WC so might not come back as fit as we’d like.. it is of course a good chance to get Isak, ASM and Shelvey back to full fitness though. We saw last night that we conserved energy well during the second half by stepping off the press a bit and letting a toothless Everton use the ball, I have faith in Howe to manage this squad to get most of it while reducing the chance of injuries.. Jan window will be interesting to. Long story short with a good slice of luck, one of the usual top 6 hitting some bad form and we keep our key players fit there’s no reason we can’t hit 7th or even 6th.. I don’t expect it though. We are ahead of where I thought we might be during this transitional season but Id still be happy enough with top 10.

First half was complete dominance, 2nd we looked to conserve energy and stepped off them more and probably let them have possession more than we might have liked but the plan looked to me that we wanted to counter them. They did ok enough at the back that it didn’t really pay off, a couple of poor individual performances in there but overall it was a very comfy win. Schar, Miggy, Bruno and Wilson the highlights for me tonight. We looked tired by the end mind.

We are bossing this in the middle

MIGGY

Getting excited for this now, love a weekday game

Silly to change our midfield to accommodate Shelvey when it just a massive risk to his mid-long term fitness

I’d expect him to start tonight over Sunday if he is to be rested for one of these games

I agree with your 2nd point but unfortunately a lot of muscle injuries is the just the nature of the beast of the way we play under Howe and although better medical personal and facilities would obviously help it won’t change the percentage of injuries massively imo. As we add more quality to the squad we can afford to rotate more and it will offset that, our squad really is kind of balanced on a knife edge atm.. a couple of key injuries changes our entire outlook. Need luck on our side re injuries for now.

3 points would be huge tonight. They will deploy a well organised low block so if we can snag an early goal it should set us up nicely, more likely to a cagey one where we really need to take the few chances we will get though. Crowd will be up for it so Pickford might burst into tears at some point.

Honestly think we are more likely to win this at the moment

Yep exactly, I said (back in Jan?) I thought wed be approaching this slowly and as we had just brought in Trips/Bruno on around that number it seemed logical that 120kish was the limit for now. 100% it will be pushed this summer though, all the signs are there.. new contracts for Bruno and maybe ASM depending on the mid/long term plans for him is what I expect to happen at some point in the near future which would put them towards or about 150k pw (Bruno perhaps even a little higher). 2 maybe even 3 players in the summer brought in at that sort of number would seem the next logical step.

HATE Bruce Pardew Allardyce Souness DISLIKE/DISGUST McClaren Kinnear/Carver (Just meme managers, never took them seriously enough to hate them) APATHY Shearer Roeder FONDNESS Hughton Howe ADORE Robson Rafa Not old enough for the rest

The key thing is the wage structure is starting to be pushed upward now, Wilson’s new contract is good indicator of this. Will open up more options for us next summer, still don’t expect anyone coming in on 200k a week though, the mid 100s will probably be the upper limit for now.

Start him over Wilson? Or out wide?

From last week, I get that Jordan isn’t popular but he clowns Souness here

No chance. Silly to move Miggy inside when he’s been playing like he has at RW, Willock will be needed vs their press to. ASM starts if fit enough, Isak bench for me.

Never ceases to amaze me how emotions cloud judgement so much when it comes to football fans

Extra extra time again

That goal clearly meant alot to him