Sorry for the terrible title, but it’s as good as anything else I can think of.
I’ve seen it said a few times over the last couple of months that we’re on the edge of hammering someone, but you could have fooled me and I don’t know what game they’re watching. In fact we look more like the team that could get hammered, with our defence, in my opinion.
Not today though and I’ll be watching this one with some interest. Firstly, because we only knocked the Irons out of the cup a couple of weeks ago. The big questions are was the reason they lost last time because Potter hadn’t had any time to work with them and has he managed to improve what wasn’t a great side?
And then there’s Donyell Malen, who, when you consider we got £20 million plus £3 million in add ons for Philogene, was a bargain at an initial fee of £21 million, rising to £27.7 million. That’s for a Dutch international and it seems to be a really excellent purchase and a great bit of business by Monchi and the Villa. Or is he just somewhat over-hyped and we’ve just got him at fair value? I suspect not.
Let’s hope playing on the right (which I’ve no doubt is where he will play) proves more fruitful for him than it has for a fair few players over the last few years. The position seems to destroy players for some reason and it’s a bit of a coincidence that I believe our biggest weakness is who will no doubt be playing behind him; IE the right back.
Regardless, Donyell has talked about how he wants to get goals and assists, but has recently talked about how training has involved defending. And this is the part I’m interested in. How well does he track back and help out? It took Bailey ages to learn to work back, after all and I hope it’s not the case here, because as much as we want that attacking part of the game, defence is equally important in my eyes.
I believe the Dutchman has decent pace too and that’s something we sorely need.
Squad news and nothing has changed. McGinn is training with the squad, but it doesn’t sound like he’s ready yet. Onana is still training on his own and is obviously miles away, as is Pau. Ross Barkley still isn’t ready either
As for West Ham, they have central defender Konstantinos Mavropanos out having been red carded last week for two yellows. Fellow central defender Jean-Clair Todibo is also a big doubt. Jared Bowen isn’t ready and it’s the same with Crysencio Summerville. Michail Antonio and Niclas Fullkrug are definitely out.
Am I the only one who’s never heard of most of those players? Whatever, it sounds good for us defensively and attack-wise.
After hearing of West Ham’s woes, I’m encouraged. They beat Fulham in their previous game but lost 2-0 to Crystal Palace at home in their last game. It doesn’t seem Potter’s had enough time to change much and given our home advantage, I have to go for a Villa win. I’m going to stick my neck out and say I think Malen will get a goal too. Perhaps that’s wishful thinking, but I do see goals. If we can’t take advantage of a West Ham side without their two best defenders and a weakened attack, well…….
So what do I think the score will be, then?
I’m tempted to say 3-1. But I think a repeat of that previous 2-1 win is more likely.
I’ll take either.
UTV!
How the f*** is Alvarez still on the pitch. I’ve counted about 16 bookable offences…
West Ham to win now
SURPRISE!!!!
Clean sheet? F*** it.
And who put the cross in? 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
FFS.
McGinn and Little Emi in…
Absolutely shite again unbelievable
We’re not even that good Little 🙂
Losing Mings and having no CB has completely disrupted us – Digne is not a CB.
We are definitely on the back foot now – completely lost it
Feels like we’ve been teetering all season and could implode at any moment. Could this be the moment?
West ham at home fucking hell if we can’t beat these shower of shit we’ve got no chance
Why the xxxx don’t we kick the ball il the pitch. Digne is shocking at passing it from the back and putting us in perpetual trouble.
I’m absolutely f****** sick of that same shit, week after week, month after month. PASS FORWARDS FOR F**** SAKE!!! 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
I’m at the point where I want us to balls it up and pass it into our own net or put it on a plate for the opposition. We’d fully deserved it That’s how sick of it I am.
We’re really shit. 🫤
I could see it coming, we are poor in defending have been for a long time, look at what he’s about to do now change it when he should have done it ages ago . Again Rodgers subbed our midfield been poor with him over the last month or so . Well plod on Villa you can forget going up the league and we’ll be lucky to go any further in the future. Oh happy days..
I’ve just lost it with the ref and Alvarez. My tea nearly went across the room. 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Now Potter pulls him. Disgusting.
You have my sympathy BFR – the standard of refereeing is crap
I was right after all – the ref’s shite.
Alvarez should have been sent off by now
I was right – the ref’s a useless pile of Sh**e
I can think of far more politically incorrect names but trying my best to hold back…
How is it week after week that we seem to get on the wrong end of corrupt refereeing? It’s so blatant now.
FUCK YOU POTTER!
Dipshit.
F**k off Potter – how much did you pay the ref?
We’re stuffed!
Maybe we all need to wake up, smell the coffee, take a bit of a reality check and realise…
We’re just not very good?
From a non emotional stand point – we’ve stuffed ourselves by leaving us short at CB.
Digne is not a CB and it showed.
I have to question the strategy in this transfer window – what are we actually trying to achieve – other than shooting ourselves in the foot.
One very pissed off Villan
Balanced books, Hitch. Not a balanced team.
Easy to blame PSR but our management team need to be more savvy and ruthless when it comes to making sure the footballing side aren’t sacrificed to the bean counters.
We should never have sold Carlos in this window whatever the situation.
On the plus side, it was good to see Mings put for the second half smiling which suggests it’s not a serious injury – although will probably keep him out of Wednesday’s game.
Not sure how we’re going to line up – play Swinkels at CB – Digne’s not the answer.
And we didn’t need this type of game before Wednesday.
Sadly, I can see our season going down the tubes
Since the start of the 2016/17 season, no Aston Villa player has won more duels or made more tackles in a Premier League game than Boubacar Kamara against West Ham.
◉ 17 duels won
◉ 9 tackles made
He also won possession 11 times, the most by a Villa player in a PL game this season.
In other words, without him, we’d be f*****.
He’s top class BFR – without a doubt.
Word for Konsa who was also superb.
Agreed. Kamara was awesome again. His value is sky high!
Referee was a joke and how many times have I said that now. The decision not to award a second yellow card for Alvarez was disgraceful.
As for Villa, we were shit again. We have only had a couple of good games all season and we were lucky to have a got a draw in the end..
Someone on here said Emery is a one trick pony and I’m beginning to agree. We started full throttle and got the goal and then…… nothing!
I don’t understand the decision to play Digne at CB and bring Maatsen on at LB. That meant two positional changes when he could simply have brought Bogarde on. So what happened next was West Ham get the ball out wide and put crosses in against mostly midgets compared to West Ham’s attacking players.
Bournemouth have 9 players out injured and they are tearing teams apart. I can see Spurs knocking on their door for Iraola after today.
I can’t even be bothered to be angry after that load of crap.
It’s more resignation in the fact that I think that could be the game that costs us CL qualification.
And frankly we don’t deserve it anyway. We have no pace, are lightweight, get pressed to death all the time, don’t create chances and can’t defend even before Mings got injured. Just so many things wrong with us.
And how Pacqueta never got sent off is beyound me.
I’m all in favour of letting a game flow, but that ref never got a grip of the game and was so, so poor.
Potter needs to work on his goal celebrations. For a moment, I thought he was taking a big constipated shit.
Money in the bank who cares about winning football matches as long as we ok Money wise.
I think emery has reached his ceiling time to move on Bournemouth manager anybody at least see attacking football.
What happened to our attacking with pace we had last year ?
They started so well tonight then what a shambles after mings went off,why didn’t he bring bogarde on or play kamara ch with bogarde in midfield manager has lost the plot time to go I hate to say it.
Something has gone terribly wrong with the club behind the scenes.
Celtic will rip us apart and destroy us.
Back to reality and 60s football
Classic self-inflicted Villa cock-up. Martinez as bad as the rest for fumbling tonight.
Laughable switch after Mings departed, it should have been Bogarde on. Maatsen has got nowhere near the performance to match his transfer fee, so we weakened 2 positions instead of 1. Free crosses from their right wing and overload Cash at the back post, West Ham have been doing that as long as we have had a short-arsed right back.
I will take the opposite view to the rest of you. I find Buendia a catalyst for a slump. It does not surprise me he was absent for the whole of our best season. Pretty footwork but no end product. Wake me up when he scores or assists in a match Villa win.
Disagree on Buendia, OLL. Loads of end product before the injury. And end product aside, the tone he sets alone makes the team go up at least one gear. And gets the crowd going. Which might get another gear out of the team.
In my opinion, Bailey shouldn’t start another game this season. Buendia in the 10, with instructions to shoot to score, and play Ollie in. McGinn on the right. Either Morgan or JJ left. That works best for me.
I can’t believe the view being Emery has reached his ceiling and should be replaced. All I say to rubbish like that is Cubishley and Charlton!
I think the problem we have this year is PSR impacting on Emery being able to make the full changes he would like to. Don’t forget PSR meant Luiz and Diaby were sold, two quality players who have not been replaced.
The wealth clubs league published this week had us at 18th but with a 96% wage to revenue ratio. To be in Europe next year (at this rate we might not achieve 7th), that ratio has to be 70%. This is really restricting our ability to update our squad. Therefore, I really believe that our squad is going through a period of rejuvenation.
I think the key is who Emery will want there in 3 years time. From the starters today I would say:
Martinez
Konsa
Kamara
Rogers
From the bench, who came on
Maatsen
Malan
Those out injured:
Onana
Torres
I expect a real turnover of players this summer. PSR means moving on high earners for young players with potential to develop and sell, like Duran.
This season I hope we give it our best in all fronts, but expect inconsistency.
It might also mean selling Duran for north of £80m and spending the money more wisely than Purslow did.
If PSR is now the ultimate arbitrator in football then we should sell Duran.
As always Europe adopts the worst of American practices without understanding the difference between franchised sport and our game.
Bill, us oldies saw the best of football, the modern generation sees the worst of financial might.
I think we may well sell Duran. I think he brings an element of risk and that will probably cost us as much as it benefits us other times.
Sell him while his stock is high. He hasn’t impressed the last couple of times on the pitch and I’m not sure he really sees us as his home.
Shame though
Agreed (again) Sid. I think we’ll see a mass clear out this year as the next stage of the project begins. Unfortunately unless you’re one of the sides that can spend, spend, spend with zero repercussions, finance is now ruling squads more than ever. It’s not about sustainability or protecting clubs for the fans, it’s about maintaining the status quo. We’re clearing the decks ready invest again.
In saying that, letting Carlos go was a big mistake unless a quality CB arrives this week.
If I had any doubts about how corrupt football has become the reaction to this game removes them.
Paqueta who is a talented footballer is lauded but all his cheating and trying to get players booked or worst is overlooked. Questions about whether Digne should have been red carded when Paqueta dramatically threw himself to the ground seem to be the main topic – but no questions as to why Alvarez was allowed to stay on the field when it was absolutely clear under the rules of the game that he should have received at least two yellow cards.
This lack of consistency and generally poor standard of refereeing is unacceptable. Why isn’t VAR intervening and advising the ref that Alvarez should have received a second yellow? Oh the comms say – ‘he”s a lucky boy’ that’s all bollocks and it’s no wonder I’m starting to get so pissed off with football that I’m seriously starting to have doubts about why I should watch it.
Alvarez should have been red carded. No question. Not sure about Digne. He put out an elbow after being pushed but it didn’t seem overly aggressive to me. Stupid risk to take though. I thought the ref was poor. I’m not sure it was bias. Just crap refereeing. It’s a shit job though. Every decision 50% of viewers think you are a wanker.
TBF I thought West Ham played well. They could have crumbled the way we started and bearing in mind the disruption to a team with a limited squad they did well.
As for Villa, we started really well and a second goal may well have seen us cruise to a win. After they got a foothold they squeezed us and controlled midfield. Pacqueta is irritating but brilliant. I wish he was in our team.
Unfortunately Malen did a blinding impression of Bailey with a weak attempt on goal after cutting on to his left foot. I hope he turns out better.
Our record after CL games is appalling. Hard to see a win against Celtic but even if we do I don’t expect us to go further than the next round.
PSR is really screwing us. We would have a much stronger squad than now without that, and it pisses me off that we have to sell players that we would like to keep justo balance the books when the owners are keen to spend their own money to make us stronger.
We are this years Newcastle