Aston Villa (A) - Tue 10th May (8:00pm)

[TheDrowningMan]

4 minutes ago, Razoray said:

Or they lose to West Ham - they play both before we play Southampton. If they lose 1 by the odd goal and win the other by 2, we will be 4 goals behind. 

Yeah, but the likelihood is that regardless of what else happens, they’ll smash Villa on the final day more easily than we beat Wolves. So if they’ve lost one, it’s probably Southampton or bust in terms of establishing a GD advantage.

[VladimirIlyich]

7 hours ago, rb14 said:

We beat them and yet we had only ten players on the pitch. We had a chance to have eleven but when Hendo came on, we still had only ten. 

 

Last twenty minutes, we looked very tired. 

Are you having a go at Keita again? I'm on your side today as I thought he was crap again and Curtis Jones was unlucky to be hooked. Starting both Keita and Jones not a great choice,imo,but we did it again and won three points.

[Guest]

 

[Razoray]

33 minutes ago, TheDrowningMan said:

Yeah, but the likelihood is that regardless of what else happens, they’ll smash Villa on the final day more easily than we beat Wolves. So if they’ve lost one, it’s probably Southampton or bust in terms of establishing a GD advantage.

Villa seemed up for last night and I presume will be the same for Sunday week. Southampton seem to be on the beach. We will have to wait and see what frame of mind Wolves are in

 

[s(k)aturation]

 

Hopefully Wolves can do a "Steve Kindon", minus the final 15 minutes.

[rb14]

1 hour ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Are you having a go at Keita again? I'm on your side today as I thought he was crap again and Curtis Jones was unlucky to be hooked. Starting both Keita and Jones not a great choice,imo,but we did it again and won three points.

Qui moi? As if. Yes. He was a fucking abomination last night. 

 

Given a tiny fraction of the game time that overpriced, overpaid sicknote gets, if Curtis were given anything like that much time, I suspect he'd be performing at a far higher level than Keita. Mind, the slate off our roof that is lying broken on the patio outside our house is performing far better than Keita. 

[Evelyn Tentions]

Fucking lino cost us a goal. His flag should have gone up straight away on their off side. The prick's not just there for exercise and throw ins.

[Scott_M]

Odd game last night.
 

Hendo coming on changed the game but I’m not sure if it was his introduction or that we’d rallied by that point.

 

From Hendo’s introduction until not long after we went 2-1 up, we were really good but then in the last 15 we seemed to just hope we didn’t get injured ahead of Saturday. 
 

Anyway, we won and hopefully Fabinho’s knock isn’t too bad. 
 

Villa better put in this much effort at the Emptyhad. Against their alleged make shift back 4, it could be interesting. 
 

A word for poor all John Moss. I know he gave most of the decisions our way, but he was comically bad last night. I think he must have eaten his prematch meal of a full 16 inch pizza, garlic bread, wings  chips and double helpings of chocolate fudge cake around 7.45pm. 
 

 

[Scott_M]

2 minutes ago, rb14 said:

Qui moi? As if. Yes. He was a fucking abomination last night. 

Again, a typical Keita performance. A complete hologram when we’re up against it, pretty good when we’re on top. 

[Scott_M]

1 hour ago, Razoray said:

Villa seemed up for last night and I presume will be the same for Sunday week. Southampton seem to be on the beach. We will have to wait and see what frame of mind Wolves are in

 

Hopefully full of confidence after their come back on Saturday. 
 

Wolves tend to do alright against City. Narrow loss (and some woeful officiating) in November and I seem to remember a couple of draws and Wolves wins in previous seasons. 

 

Given City’s alleged defensive injury situation, I just hope somebody has the balls to have a go at them. 
 

Wolves need to cancel Traore’s loan at Barca this afternoon and get him back in the side for this evening. 
 

[Ronnie Whelan]

11 hours ago, Red Shift said:

Thiago/Fabinho/Henderson for the Cup Final please. I think Hendo was supposed to rest tonight, or at least not come on so early. I really think that w/o Hendo, the Thiago/Fabinho midfield is unbalanced. Hendo provides the urgency.

Agree with that. Hendo does a lot of unseen work. All the players love him and he's a great captain. A bit like Millie, they are so important for the culture in the club. 

 

City will smash Villa by about 4 goals. I like some of Villa's players but unless nerves kick in, it will be a demolition job. Wolves will be a tough one for them tonight. West Ham won't be easy either - they don't play midweek and while I'm sure most of their fans would favour City over us, their team which is decent with some very good players will be looking for a scalp. Last home game as well. Certainly, it isn't an easy finish.

 

I think it will be box office for the neutrals if they lose one of their games (say they beat Wolves 1-0 and lose to West Ham 1-0) and we beat Southampton by two goals. Two great teams hunting goals on the final day. Jesus call me an ambulance.

[Section_31]

The depth of our midfield is still shocking, if you lose Fabinho, Henderson or Thiago there's not much doing. Jones and Keita wouldn't look out of place in the Villa side. 

 

If we lose any of our main choice centre mids for our finals, I'd be very very worried. 

[an tha]

29 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

The depth of our midfield is still shocking, if you lose Fabinho, Henderson or Thiago there's not much doing. Jones and Keita wouldn't look out of place in the Villa side. 

 

If we lose any of our main choice centre mids for our finals, I'd be very very worried. 

Is right

 

We have 8 midfielders which looks sound on paper/numbers wise, but when we can't start a 3 of Thiago, Fabinho and Henderson we pretty much always look poorer

 

The other 5 are a mix of just aren't IMHO good enough, or up to it yet, or in Milner's case just past it now.

 

We need work doing in there and quite badly.

 

We have dropped pts in 10 league games this season....8 of them were when we couldn't or didn't field a midfield 3 of Thiago, Fabinho and Henderson....

[aRdja]

19 minutes ago, an tha said:

Is right

 

We have 8 midfielders which looks sound on paper/numbers wise, but when we can't start a 3 of Thiago, Fabinho and Henderson we pretty much always look poorer

 

The other 5 are a mix of just aren't IMHO good enough, or up to it yet, or in Milner's case just past it now.

 

We need work doing in there and quite badly.

 

We have dropped pts in 10 league games this season....8 of them were when we couldn't or didn't field a midfield 3 of Thiago, Fabinho and Henderson....

Keita is probably the best 4th choice midfielder in the league, and would start every game for any team bar City, Chelsea and ourselves. 

[El Rojo]

14 minutes ago, an tha said:

Is right

 

We have 8 midfielders which looks sound on paper/numbers wise, but when we can't start a 3 of Thiago, Fabinho and Henderson we pretty much always look poorer

 

The other 5 are a mix of just aren't IMHO good enough, or up to it yet, or in Milner's case just past it now.

 

We need work doing in there and quite badly.

 

We have dropped pts in 10 league games this season....8 of them were when we couldn't or didn't field a midfield 3 of Thiago, Fabinho and Henderson....

Tchouameni or whoever might be next on our list (our second choice transfer targets like Salah and Jota haven't been too shabby) transforms all of that, though, if they quickly become a regular. 

 

Thiago, Fabinho, Henderson, Tchouameni. Then Keita, Jones and Elliott. 

 

I'm sure Ox will move on this summer and Milner will have a more limited influence. Thiago and Henderson aren't getting any younger either but I think most would be happy with one major midfield arrival this summer. 

[ZonkoVille77]

1 hour ago, Ronnie Whelan said:

Jesus call me an ambulance.

 

You're an ambulance.

And I'm Jesus.

[an tha]

8 minutes ago, aRdja said:

Keita is probably the best 4th choice midfielder in the league, and would start every game for any team bar City, Chelsea and ourselves. 

Not for me.

 

Not good enough.

 

Not fit enough 

[an tha]

8 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

Tchouameni or whoever might be next on our list (our second choice transfer targets like Salah and Jota haven't been too shabby) transforms all of that, though, if they quickly become a regular. 

 

Thiago, Fabinho, Henderson, Tchouameni. Then Keita, Jones and Elliott. 

 

I'm sure Ox will move on this summer and Milner will have a more limited influence. Thiago and Henderson aren't getting any younger either but I think most would be happy with one major midfield arrival this summer. 

About right

[Caramac]

Failed to post Matip's goal last night. Bonus gif of VVD and Joel quizzing Moss about the offside.

 

 

[aRdja]

6 minutes ago, an tha said:

Not for me.

 

Not good enough.

 

Not fit enough 

Which 4th choice midfielder would you take over him?

[El Rojo]

7 minutes ago, Caramac said:

Failed to post Matip's goal last night. Bonus gif of VVD and Joel quizzing Moss about the offside.

 

 

That was brilliant. Celebrates his goal by having a go at Moss. 

[ZonkoVille77]

14 hours ago, DalyanPete said:

Worst post of the year fella, if you can't enjoy this ride give it up.

 

That's just my own personal anxiety kicking in. Difficult to enjoy sometimes when so much is at stake. I will be absolute gutted for the players if fatigue is now an issue.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

14 minutes ago, aRdja said:

Which 4th choice midfielder would you take over him?

Give him some choices Roger.

[an tha]

1 hour ago, aRdja said:

Which 4th choice midfielder would you take over him?

In my view Naby Keita is not good enough or reliable enough for what we need and where we want to be.

 

Him and Oxlade for me need to go and we need to bring in more suitable and more reliable replacements (well 1 replacement for the 2 of them will probably be enough)

 

[rb14]

2 hours ago, aRdja said:

Keita is probably the best 4th choice midfielder in the league, and would start every game for any team bar City, Chelsea and ourselves. 

As long as that game is hide and seek. Without the seek. And Keita would always be like "Barley" every fucking time someone went to look for him. 

 

1 hour ago, VERBAL DIARRHEA said:

Give him some choices Roger.

Bob Monkhouse. Philip Schofield. William Shakespeare. Dave off the Royle Family. And Cheryl. And Beverly Macca. Peter out of Family Guy. Guy Fawkes. And Rollo off Grange Hill.