I could try and be really clever and profess my knowledge of all European clubs and rattle off a load of guff about it’s history and players etc.
But the truth is I’ve never even heard of them and I very much doubt anyone reading this has either, unless they avidly follow European footy. Even then, you’d have to be pretty focused.
First off, I’ll just post Wiki’s first few lines about the club;
HŠK Zrinjski Mostar (Croatian: Hrvatski športski klub Zrinjski Mostar, lit. ’Croat Sports Club Zrinjski Mostar’) is a professional football club, based in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The club plays in the Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and has been one of the top teams in the country over the last few years. With eight championships won in the Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zrinjski is one of the most decorated football clubs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The club plays its home matches at Stadion pod Bijelim Brijegom in Mostar.
Well, that’s a lot more than I knew before I read it, anyway.
Am I showing my lack of knowledge if I openly admit I’ve never even heard of Mostar?
So basically, they’re a tin pot club and this ought to be a double figures win, eh?
Hmm, I thought that against Legia last week (well, a straightforward win anyway) and we all know what happened there.
Squad news and it’s not good really. Moussa Diaby, Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey are all out, although it hasn’t really been pointed out why.
It just amazes me how easily players seem to get injured these days. I recall loads of tackles years ago which probably would have literally snapped today’s players in half, yet they were often just brushed off with an attitude of “I’ll have you for that”.
I’m laughing to myself, but well, that’s how it seemed anyway, although the truth is I’m probably looking back with my rose tinted glasses. The point is players definitely seemed more robust 30 or 40 years ago.
It has to be over-training or something, I’m sure.
Fish and chips washed down with half a dozen pints and 20 fags never hurt the likes of Franny Lee, did they? (RIP and who knew he created a bog roll empire?).
Ahem.
So the big question for me has to be will Emery rotate or will he play it safe after last week’s fiasco? He has to go as strong as he can, I reckon, because we don’t want to underestimate our opponents. Except I think the manager will rotate again. I think Duran will come in for Ollie.
And then I don’t want to think about what else he might change as I get the shivers even beginning to think about last week’s defence, or rather lack of it.
I’m not even going to make a prediction this week, except I think we ought to win.
But anything is possible and I’m only leaving myself wide open to even worse disappointment if we get beat.
UTV
Comments
154 responses to “Villa – HŠK Zrinjski Mostar; Who?”
After so long out of Europe, is it taking us a while to acclimatise? We obviously want the win but Emi has kept us in it twice already. The geezer is a God! I fkg love him!
Still foxed but the goal has to come…I bet it’s bloody Tiemans too!!!
Fuck, about time! 1-0
Cash has been excellent, yet half the time the players haven’t used him.
Shocking decisions too many times and I’m not in the slightest bit happy about that bag of shit.
Maybe now, Emery will play a fucking full strength side?
Wow 94 minutes of underwhelming football and then McGinn nods in a blinder.
Suddenly everything is alright.
Super John McGinn.
I read that we were 1-14 to win that.
Shocking.
Yes, we got the win, but….
You don’t always get what you deserve. Brilliant finish
Just tracked down our Europa League Conference position. All teams have played 2 matches. All teams are on 3 points with 0 gaol difference. All to play for.
Yes, we should be ok, but hopefully Emery will have learned a lesson.
We’ve seen it twice now. We can’t afford to not play our best team.
It’s start again in this Group!
Emery is entitled to expect the players he puts in to perform but tbf it was all the players not at it in the first half. Watching with a Liverpool mate and we both thought the real issue (first half) was the lack of control and drive from the midfield and the team seemed unbalanced.
Luiz for Dendonker and Cash for Digne solved both those problems plus the additional experience of Watkins for Duran was important as was not starting with Olsen – so fair play to Emery.
We have to also remember how many key injuries we currently have – now 5 players who would be starters including three key midfielders – that limits Emery’s options.
With Diaby, Ramsey, Kamara and Moreno unavailable, we have a lot less options. That’s why I hoped we would start a strong XI to try and get ahead before it became a nervous finish.
Thankfully we got the 3 points but we have to start showing our opponents more respect.
Totally agree. Get the game won, then rest as many as you like.
If we’d gone 2 up, I don’t think there’s a prayer they’d have pulled it back.
We absolutely peppered their goal for the entirety of the second half and eventually the breakthrough came!
McGinny Ginn Ginn!!!!
Job done.
All credit to their defence. They must have been gutted in the dressing room. Just goes to show it’s not what you spend, but how you mange it.
Apparently Prince William has gone to visit the dressing room. If I was him I’d be runnning around with my pants around my ankles wearing a Royal Crown.
But then again I’m not Royalty.
Fair enough! 😁
🙂
We should have won easily especially in the second half when we peppered their goal with shots. You’d think that one might have deflected in or at least have fallen to a Villa player but no, most bounced straight out of the box. Anyway, cometh the hour and all that, and up steps Super John with a great header.
Lessons to be learnt – start with your best team, go at it from the whistle and don’t underestimate the opposition. We need to remember that, while Emery is an old European hand, many of our players are not. Hopefully though they will learn.
I have high hopes for Zaniolo but still wondering what exactly Tielemans is for…
Agree completely about Tielemans: nowhere near as good as he seems to think that he is, and he’s lazy…
Never was keen at Leicester but lazy?
More a case of S_ _ t e imo.
On the plus side, a freebie so can’t fail to make a profit come the January window.
So every team in the group has 3 points from a home win and away defeat, all by a one-goal margin. Zrinski and Alkmaar have scored 4, Villa and Legia 3. Emery’s priorities laid bare by that starting XI, he isn’t going to sacrifice any EPL points to win matches in Europe: The stiffs sink or swim by their own efforts until half time. I wonder if that will change for the Alkmaar matches.
Tonight’s first half reminded me of a b/w film regularly shown at Xmas called Hellsapoppin’. Appropriately starring the Three Stooges it began with the disclaimer “Any resemblance between what you are about to see and a Motion Picture is purely coincidental.” The VP programmes should carry a similar warning about our midweek football.
OLL, I;ve just come back from the game, and actually it wasn’t bad to watch -great atmosphere at VP (hats off to the away fans for their noise, incidentally). Obviously we didn’t have the benefit of 20 different TV camera angles and replays, but I thought the ref was awful – kept falling for the play acting time after time.
But the biggest gripe around where I was sitting came every time Tielemans or Bailey tried doing something ‘clever’ that went wrong… Thry’re just not good enough.
But consider if they had got a goal and we hadn’t, which was very possible, the way things were going.
Then it would have been 6-3-3 and us on 0, which would have made it a totally different proposition.
I wonder if Emery “fluked” things in a similar way with his previous cups?
Seriously Badger?
Mate, you been on the cooking sherry?
Have a look at his managerial stats on his Wikipedia page.
Mate you don’t “Fluke” those stats, you have a handle on what you’re what you’re doing? They’re sorta comparable with say Fergie? Come on you don’t do that through luck?
Not a fluke Badger – that’s unfair.
Criticise him for rotating but I had Martinez MoM after the first half which says a lot about all the players not just the ‘three stooges’.
His changes at first half showed he’d read the game correctly and made a vast difference to our performance. On another say we’d have knocked in three or four second half.
Here’s an interesting stat – our 27 shots produced one goal. In Zrinjisky’s game against AK they scored 4 goals, 3 of which were long range thunderbolts, from 8 shots. AK had 14 shots!
It sure is a ‘funny old game’.
Hitch, IMO the difference in the 2nd half was Luiz and Cash; they were positive going forward and didn’t give the ball away with the sort of careless mistakes that I saw from Tielemans and Bailey.
I really think that Luiz is one of the most under-stated and under-rated players in the PL at the moment; he just oozes class and makes Villa a unit going forwards.
Well, you don’t fluke your way to a Champions League semi-final that’s for sure. However, in future if it was up to me I’d –
– Play Luiz from the start and sub him in the second half if we’re ahead. He’s our mid-field engine now and we immediately stepped up a gear as soon as he came on the field
– Ditto for Matty Cash
– Only play Tielemans as a sub for Luiz when we’re 4-0 up and can afford him
– Go for the throat by playing Olly and Jhon together from the start. When we let these teams immediately settle that’s when we get into trouble
– Again give every team the respect they deserve. Years ago you could field the under-19s and win but not now.
Anyway, it’s been a bumpy start but I still think that we can do it.
Badger, all I can say is that from where I was sitting, they never looked like they were going to score – not even the early break that Martinez saved – they came and basically played with two banks of five defenders for 80+ minutes.
Now that’s what I call a football match, Zrinjski came with a plan and nearly pulled it off but for the skill of Emery he knew just what the game called for. But my radar was on Tielemen and how many balls he miss placed and gave away, but in his defense he sent some good balls up to our forwards but he’s still unreliable in the team . That game was a classic football match and will be remembered for years to come ..
I don’t think Badger was calling Emery a flukey Manager but maybe a lucky one occasionally? After all you make your own luck.
Simply glad to get the 3 points last night with half a squad.
After the Wolves game we’ll have an incredibly valuable 14 days to get our crocked players back fit. I’ve never been so welcoming of an international break.
No idea on the score for Sunday but I’ll sure be watching!!!!
As long as Watkins doesn’t come back crocked by playing for Southgate!
Don’t even go there…
I didn’t know Luca Modric played for these guys before moving to Spuds…Good job he wasn’t playing last night!!!
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/oct/06/legia-warsaw-players-arrested-in-netherlands-after-az-alkmaar-match
My God but I hope that the West Midlands police read this. Legia fans attacking the Dutch police knocking one unconscious and two Legia players arrested by the police after the match.
The Zrinjski fans made a great noise yesterday but it might well be that we’ll hear nothing from the Legia fans after last night’s incidents because it’s entirely possible that they might be banned.
Interesting to see what the fallout is going to be from this one.
Two players nicked?
What’s that all about?
http://www.espn.co.uk
Legia fans “stormed” entrance gates, clashing with stewards and the police, WITH ONE OFFICER PASSING OUT.
Oh dear, the hazards of modern Policing.
Watkins signs new long term contract.
Happy Days
UTMV
Happy days indeed. It just shows that Ollie has faith that we’re going in the right direction. I’ve also got a feeling that Ollie and Jhon might make a good team going forward as they are different types of players, so what’s not to like?
Here’s hoping for another Ollie hat-trick against Wolves on Sunday.
Great news about Ollie signing for another 5 years.
The bit I like most is his key reason – Emery. He was clear that our manager has made him a better player and that he knows he will get even better. I really believe that when players sign for this reason a club is embarking on something special. Normally they expect the manger to be sacked. To sign fir 5 years shows real belief in the Villa project.
Great news to see Ollie sign a new contract. I dare say his call up to the England squad has added some extra £ to the deal.
Has anyone heard anything about Ramsey’s injury. Someone told me he has refractured his foot!
Holte, I can’t see anything that backs up your friend’s rumour.
There are assumptions though and my guess is they’re probably not far off the mark.
I find that annoying. Either Ramsey was being economical with the truth in describing things to the doctors (which I doubt) or we’ve rushed him back.
I know where my money would go.
Just to clarify. I didn’t really mean fluke. It’s why I used the apostrophes.
That said, we didn’t look like scoring because it looked like one of those days.
What I meant was how many times did he win games when it looked like he wasn’t going to?
As for them not looking like scoring, I totally disagree. I remember at least a couple of chances where I thought to myself that Olsen might not have saved them.
Still, the games done and thankfully we won.
Superb news about Ollie, but I don’t believe it was ever in doubt, tbh. Players seems happy and we can currently pay them enough to compete.
Long may that continue 🙂
Canadian Pete had a point this week with us being cagey about our injury news. Bailey was meant to be out for a month but did 90 minutes Thursday. Why give the opposition a heads up? Fingers crossed for Ramsey. Keep them guessing!!!
Just praying nothing happens to McGinn and Ollie the next 2 weeks while the rest of the squad recuperate.
The Wolves game is about 28 hours away and I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve! How weird is it to hope for an Arsenal Citeh draw because it benefits US!!!!!! Will watch the Spuds game today in the hope they trip up too…
Pete also said that ongoing pain after a metatarsal injury is not unusual – who knows – let’s hope he’s right and it’s nothing more serious.
It’s funny how Pete’s stock has risen. I don’t always agree with him but he raises some good points and his show is thoroughly entertaining.
He doesn’t give a f*** either! 🤣🤣🤣
See Iroegbunam played for U21’s the other night so getting minutes under his belt which is good news. Can see him in first team squad which will add to Emery’s options.