The Europeometer™ (2023/24) - permutations in O.P.

[TBG]

Only 21 points clear of Sheff Utd after that

[Stifler]

3 minutes ago, ExiledGeordie said:

No chance with these injuries. If the injuries clear up second half of the season and we sign a couple players then we can have a strong second half of the season though.

FFP has us fucked.

Meanwhile the cunts we played today fucked FFP off, and are in the process of trying to overturn their 10 points deduction, and I won’t be surprised if they do.

[brummie]

3 hours ago, Andybiotics said:

Villa are 1 Watkins injury away from being a club in crisis. They literally have no other Strikers. 

 

That isn't true.

 

We'd play Diaby in the Watkins role and move things around. Not that I think we don't need more options up front - we do - but that is not where our main injury threat lies.

 

When we sold Ings and then Cameron Archer, I thought Emery was nuts. He was right, though, that is a massive part in turning Watkins into what he is today. Also, depressingly because football shouldn't be like this, those sales helped with FFP, esp that of Archer, as a 19m home grown product makes a HUGE difference to the figures.

 

Easily the biggest problem for us would be Martinez being out, as Olsen is dog shit. The second biggest would be at RB as I am not sure Emery entirely trusts Cash and there's limited runway in Konsa playing there.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by brummie

[brummie]

5 hours ago, janpawel said:

Villa also don't play every game 100mph like we do, surely that helps with fitness / injuries 

 

I'm hoping it's the next thing Howe implements as we continue to make progress and improve as a team

 

What I do think is that, even acknowledging we're in the Conference League and not the Champions League which makes things easier to handle, we've probably adapted to it really well. I've been a bit concerned at some of the rotation we've engaged in thus far, but he's proved himself to be right in all of it.

 

If we were playing in the Champions League now, it'd be much, much harder.

[nufc123]

Think that was it. Its just not the season. Injuries and a lack of performances away from home. Not a big deal.

[Optimistic Nut]

West Ham doing us a biggy here.

[Yorkie]

3 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

West Ham doing us a biggy here.

 

If you don't consider West Ham as rivals to us they are, aye...

 

Probably makes it a harder proposition on Sunday too.

[Decky]

No win in 5 for Spurs is pretty mental after their start. Big Ange losing it already?

[NEEJ]

26 minutes ago, nufc123 said:

Think that was it. Its just not the season. Injuries and a lack of performances away from home. Not a big deal.

Howay man.

 

We're 15 games in. 

[Geordie Ahmed]

Spurs with a fraction of the injuries we have and they are all over the place 

[jack j]

5 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

West Ham doing us a biggy here.

They could be above us and us in 9th come our game kicking off Sunday

Ridiculously tight in the top half this season ffs

[Optimistic Nut]

2 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

If you don't consider West Ham as rivals to us they are, aye...

 

Probably makes it a harder proposition on Sunday too.

 

They could be, but if West Ham finish above us we've not been CL contenders for me. I still see it as top 5 so we're almost as we were apart from Man Utd getting back involved. 

 

Worst case scenario is we leave the Spurs game 4 adrift of 5th, I seriously thought it'd be 8-9 before the Chelsea game. 

[nufc123]

1 minute ago, NEEJ said:

Howay man.

 

We're 15 games in. 

Howay. Dont think we are catching anyone from 4th at all. They wont lose many games.

[Froggy]

4 minutes ago, Decky said:

No win in 5 for Spurs is pretty mental after their start. Big Ange losing it already?

 

They've bad injuries as well to be fair. 

[Coffee_Johnny]

8 minutes ago, Decky said:

No win in 5 for Spurs is pretty mental after their start. Big Ange losing it already?

I think Maddison was really making a difference for them. Seemed to link everything together. 

[Yorkie]

2 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

They could be, but if West Ham finish above us we've not been CL contenders for me. I still see it as top 5 so we're almost as we were apart from Man Utd getting back involved. 

 

Worst case scenario is we leave the Spurs game 4 adrift of 5th, I seriously thought it'd be 8-9 before the Chelsea game. 

 

I think we'll probably be quite a distance from the CL race during the middle part of the season. However, if we're out of Europe come March and have something much closer to a fully fit squad, our run-in is fairly kind. If we do falter while the squad is this stretched, a late surge could well reignite our chances. 

[nufc4eva]

4 points less than this stage last season is ok considering champions league and injuries. Vill have 14 point more than same stage.

 

As frustrating as it is we just need to stay as close as we can. Some teams will drop off and hopefully not us.

[The College Dropout]

51 minutes ago, brummie said:

 

What I do think is that, even acknowledging we're in the Conference League and not the Champions League which makes things easier to handle, we've probably adapted to it really well. I've been a bit concerned at some of the rotation we've engaged in thus far, but he's proved himself to be right in all of it.

 

If we were playing in the Champions League now, it'd be much, much harder.

Bailey has played himself into the team right? And I assume Tielemans was starting due to rotation? Cash fallen out of favour in recent weeks too right?

 

It’s a proper squad there. being in the conference league might be a bonus fatigue wise as it keeps squad players sharp and gives them a chance to shine.  

[brummie]

Just now, The College Dropout said:

Bailey has played himself into the team right? And I assume Tielemans was starting due to rotation? Cash fallen out of favour in recent weeks too right?

 

It’s a proper squad there. being in the conference league might be a bonus fatigue wise as it keeps squad players sharp and gives them a chance to shine.  

 

The big difference is win in Bosnia in a week or so and we forget all about Europe until March  It would be totally different if we were playing PSG or Milan rather than FC Tractor Factory and Collective Farm FC. 

 

I'd say Tielemans has played himself into the team as much as Bailey has done, he's properly started to deliver on his performances.

 

It feels like we've assembled a decent squad on the quiet. Add Jacob Ramsey, Buendia, Mings (who is massively underrated by everyone who doesn't support Villa) and Moreno (now back) and it looks more than decent.

 

Having said that, last season under UE, we frequently couldn't fill all the seats on the bench and had two keepers listed.

[nufc123]

48 minutes ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

I think Maddison was really making a difference for them. Seemed to link everything together. 

Van de Ven is their key to the high line also.

[Optimistic Nut]

Realistically we're probably going to have another month of this aren't we? A chunk of these players won't be able to get a decent break until the likes of Longstaff, Botman, Willock, Murphy, Barnes and Wilson return. Even just 2-3 of those at the moment would be massive.

[Kanji]

I’m sorry but when a team like us is playing the same 10 outfield players 4 matches in a row with 2-4 days rest in between it’s going to happen. Stop comparing our issues with the others. It’s all really not apples to apples based on varied importance to one’s team. 
 

What can we do? Fix the away form, get the injured lads back, rotate more to load manage, sign some proper players in Jan to fix the issues that have plagued us away from home and expand our style both home and away. 

[Kanji]

Hard to hyper critical about anything we’re doing at the moment. Our star young left winger got caught up in his prior club giving him the piss all game, we missed sitters, we made bad mistakes — this shit happens. We will learn from it. Nights like tonight you’d kill to have Wilson, Barnes, Willock, Jacob Murphy  Big Dan Burn and Longstaff. 5 of those could have come on to change the fucking game if we had enough players fit. think on that for a moment. Maybe our star center mid from Italy we can’t play all season. It’s been rotten luck with critical injuries but so far it’s been a brilliant season all things considered with a fuck load of football left to play and many many memories to make. 
 

 

as a reminder in our opening match of the season we decided to bring on Wilson, Barnes, Murphy and we went and plastered a bewildered Villa side. Tonali was owning the pitch with Bruno and life was fucking peachy. We loved our depth and ability to change matches. 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Kanji

[madras]

1 minute ago, Kanji said:

Hard to hyper critical about anything we’re doing at the moment. Our star young left winger got caught up in his prior club giving him the piss all game, we missed sitters, we made bad mistakes — this shit happens. We will learn from it. Nights like tonight you’d kill to have Wilson, Barnes, Big Dan Burn and Longstaff. Maybe our star center mid from Italy we can’t play all season. It’s been rotten luck but so far it’s been a brilliant season all things considered with a fuck load of football left to play and many many memories to make. 

The young star left winger has been running on fumes for a week or two.

[Kanji]

1 minute ago, madras said:

The young star left winger has been running on fumes for a week or two.

100% agree. The extra jolt obv comes from home crowd comforts.