I am actually back home now, but not for long. I’m off to a training course tomorrow in Middlesboro, of all places. So I doubt if I’ll be able to see much of the game, as I’ll no doubt be stuck in tons of traffic.
Whatever, I’m hotfooting it back to Spain on Saturday to get away from this weather and back to my original holiday plan.
I heard a statistic on Sky sports news earlier and it shocked me.
We have only won one FA cup third round game in the last eight. That is frankly disgraceful for a team that has been mostly in the Premier league. But yet, so typical of Aston Villa.
Just like we’re going to be up against a new manager bounce after West Ham sacked Lopetegui and appointed Harry, oops, sorry, Graham Potter today. It’s a hard life for managers sometimes, isn’t it? Potter walked away with a rumoured £10 million or more payoff, had a nice 20 month break and then walks into the West Ham job, where I have a feeling he might do a decent job for them. Hopefully that turnaround won’t come too quickly though.
And to cap it all, it looks like we might have to face a new manager bounce when we face Everton too.
Anyway, can we change that shocking third round record? And does Unai actually care about the FA cup?
The main news for us is that John McGinn definitely won’t be available. Pau is out for weeks, but those two apart, we seem to be all good.
I’ve searched for West ham team news, but everywhere is dominated by Potter’s appointment and I don’t really care much anyway. I do know they have a couple of top players out, but that’s it.
Emery made out that he wants to win the game and I wouldn’t expect him to say anything otherwise. He also points out that winning the cup is a route to the Europa cup, which worried me slightly. Is that an admission that we won’t qualify for the Champion’s league? I prefer to think not and he just vies that as a worst case back up.
He also talks about how we’re trying to build a team and that sort of comment makes me think he might want to give some players a rest and some young players a game. I can see Maatsen coming in, but we don’t have a lot of room for many changes, I’d have thought.
Certainly Philogene won’t feature as his £20 mill plus signing by Ipswich will probably go through tomorrow. Does Kosta Nedeljković replace Cash at right back? Maybe, but apart from giving the lad game time, I can’t see why. Cash, as much as I don’t rate him, has hardly burnt himself out this season, I wouldn’t have thought. Duran is still suspended, so “Whack it wide” Watkins (thanks, whoever posted that one) is assured a start. McGinn being out leaves few options in the middle and the hope would be that quite a few of our players play themselves into some sort of form, which isn’t an ideal way of looking at games.
Thoughts then and the biggest plus for us is that West ham leak practically two goals a game and I don’t see Potter changing that by tomorrow night.
The problem is that we’re not taking our chances and our defence is nearly as abysmal as West Ham’s.
Will Potter change much at all? It’s difficult to see after just one day, so this is basically going to be all about the new manager bounce. And after what I’ve just read about Lopetegui and his relationship with the West Ham squad, their players are going to be at least in a more positive mood and will be all out to impress the new manager.
Which means things might prove probematic for us.
Everything about this game is a total guess for a fan, but surely we’re due an FA cup win, aren’t we?
Add in our home advantage and I’m going for a 2-1 win and a happy 150th Anniversary.
Heh, I remember the 100th Anniversary like it was yesterday. And that makes me feel really old 🙁
2-1 it is then and UTV!
Why is Onana not playing when Barkley played last game?
Why pick the Centenary game when there are 6,000 West Ham fans there to kill the occasion?
What was the pre match team talk? “Let’s go through the motions and avoid injuries! It doesn’t matter if we lose!”
They clearly know how to play against Villa. The solution is to not play like Villa…
I’m finding it more and more frustrating and boring watching us recently! I was thinking of taking up walking football now I’m getting on but I might get spotted by a Villa scout!
We’re not at the races here. This game could have been over already. Totally lacking intensity.
As usual. So so poor. Feel sorry for the fans.
Crap game, crap Villa performance
Fact. 🙃
Word of mouth🤷♂️. Seriously?
Have Rogers, Bailey and Watkins gone off for a break?
Yep – 35 minutes and we haven’t managed a shot of any kind!
Was it OLL that said Villa didn’t fancy it in cold weather?
Pacqueta stopping play for Bailey was a great touch. Wow!
I think the weather is playing havoc with this surface. Dangerous.
The way Villa play is playing havoc with my temper. Also dangerous! 😩
Embarrassing and shameful first half.
Worst half since Gerrard was in charge.
Worrying – we’re going in the wrong direction.
Apart from Kamara and Cash – the rest might as well not be on the pitch.
Absolutely shite our big day and we haven’t turned up
Unbelievable
Bailey baby is an embarrassment!
Was that the worst half we’ve played this season? It certainly felt like it.
That was truly abysmal. Again.
I think we have had a few of those. I don’t get it. It’s like they are going through the motions and Bailey is embarrassing. I would put Buendia on simply because of the effort he will put in. Not many players deserve to stay on the pitch though.
It’s going to be one of those nights where the only consolation is that we will have fewer games to play.
They simply take too many touches, as Dixon said why are Villa taking a touch or two or an extra pass before hitting the obvious pass?
Too slow, predictable, over elaborate and boring.
This season or ever, Badger?
I’m disgusted with Villa taking the piss out of its fans. They might as well announce defeat before they start selling tickets! Looks like another season for a 3rd round exit.
Look on the bright side – we’re achieving the consistency sought by Unai in going out in the third round every season. 🙂
Not even half way convincing. I knew the instruction was ‘Lose but don’t make it too obvious. Should you win the same selection will be made for the next round.’ How did I know? The first two names were not Martinez & Digne = ‘we are not bothered lads, its a cup that distracts from EPL and CL’ Olsen by himself is a signal to the outfield that the manager does not want to win.
For all his flaws Unai picks Torres over Mings, – not for his defensive quality. It is because you know exactly what Mings will do as soon as he takes two paces forward, a left footed pass down the left wing to the full back or Watkins (who no longer makes that run). No chance of Mings crossing diagonally to Bailey or Cash, or threading a pass down the middle. Therefore the opponents know they can double mark and stop Villa advancing.
Are we going to tear into them in the second half? That’ll be the day.
Roy Keane said we are playing like a team who wants to be out of the FA cup!
Keane just said that we are playing as if we want to go out of the cup. Maybe that’s the truth of it.
When we are bad we do look the worst team in the division.
Chesty looks woeful this evening.
(how much are PSG offering?)
And there’s why Rogers pisses me right off. Going nowhere and loses it. We called it ‘ball greedy’ at school. Grow up.
Weird game…I can still see us scoring.
We are making this lot look like Real Madrid )-:
Pathetic
I think you are all clearly forgetting it’s the genius of Graham Potter.
😏
Thank f**k for that
Onaaaannnaaaaaaaa!!!!!!
VAR would have disallowed that 100%
Chesty, best player on the park 😂🤣
Chestyyyyyyyyy!