Apologies, this is going to be a very quick post as both Badger and me are away at present.
This is really about starting a new discussion ahead of tomorrow’s game.
Bill has stated his concerns and Holte has taken the diametrically opposite stance that we can win fielding eleven mannequins!
Stats wise – do I put too much store by stats – Villa have won the last two against Newcastle at Villa Park and are unbeaten in six (2W 4D) but those two wins are the only two wins in the last 16 games and the last time we had a run of seven games unbeaten against the barcodes was in the fifties!
Saint-Maximin, Almiron and Callum Wilson plus Willock – that’s a pretty useful line up which can destroy any defence on their day – so I’m not taking anything for granted.
Watkins is missing which is a problem as he stretches defences; Traore is also out with his hamstring and would have been useful as an impact sub. In other team news Luiz might start and the BBC is saying Sanson may be involved but there doesn’t seem to be anything coming out of VP on this.
Smith in the press conference said ‘I don’t know much about Watkins knee injury’. Why not? Surely he should know about it and understand it? Sound familiar?
It will be interesting to see who starts – Young instead of Targett and Bidace in place of El Ghazi – and who is on the bench from the U23’s.
It seems clear there’s a degree of disruption at VP so us losing tomorrow wouldn’t really surprise me.
Looks like Martinez and Buendia will miss Chelsea and Everton games next month after being called up by Argentina. Great news for them but not good for us!
Also Luiz
There are two problems – extension of the International break for countries to ‘catch up’ on missed qualifiers due to Covid (Argentina being one such country) and quarantine rules for players returning from Red Listed countries (Argentina and Brazil to name but two.).
It seems that clubs in UK and Europe are refusing to release players unless the government guarantees a quarantine exemption. This seems unlikely given the recent Lions tour of SA when no exemption was granted.
It would be particularly galling if Buendia went yet didn’t play! It’s also important that there’s a level playing field on the decision whether or not to make players available
Just to add – it seems to me that those clubs affected in the EPL should be allowed to rearrange games so as not to be unfairly disadvantaged.
Villa on Sky tonight for anyone daft enough to pay for Sky – like me 🙂
Interesting piece on the BBC…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58310362
I’ve just seen on sky sports news that Austin Macphee has gone to Scotland to coach.
Surely that’s got to be our setpiece coach?
The Independent confirms it.
Bloody hell, we only had him for 5 minutes.
Losing one coach is ok. Losing 2 is odd. But losing 3?
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/steve-clarke-scotland-ole-gunnar-solskjaer-scottish-football-association-kenny-mclean-b1907908.html