First off, hope everyone had a good Christmas. I might have overindulged in some of the revelry, but what can you do. It was family, friends, and fun. And a hangover was the perfect sedative for watching us blow a 2-0 lead at Old Trafford.
That gutted me a bit, mainly because it was so uncharacteristic under Emery. But when you’re starting Dendoncker (and I truly appreciate his goal), you know you’re up against it a little bit. For me, two things: Out-battled in midfield and Garnacho. He made us pay like an in-form Ronaldo. And yeah, there was that combination of luck, timing, errors, all of that. It happens. As we know, not a deep squad, and injuries and suspension whittled down our best XI and bench options. The streak of not losing points from a winning position has ended like all streaks do.
So there was that. But as others have said, the strange season continues, and results around us have generally been favorable. I’ve obviously not been one to embrace ‘winning the league’ talk…I think top four or five would be a massive achievement. The main thing right now is to make do, get results, and see what January might bring. No one’s running away with anything yet. The doomsayers? Well, losing like that to United was going to trigger a lot of trauma, and I just stayed away from it.
From what we’ve seen, Emery doesn’t add players for the sake of adding players, and January is January. But you never know when it comes to contracts winding down, release clauses, whatever might propel a deal forward. For me, a little bit more depth would be welcome, but it has to be players you’re willing to live with at the very least. I’m sure that as far as NSWE and Monchi go, they’re very well aware where Villa are and what we have. I think a couple moves could well be made, which is to say that if Emery is on board, we’ll do business. We also simply need more impact from Diaby and Zaniolo, which isn’t to say that they were going to address the specific needs on Boxing Day.
Beyond that, I’m guessing there’s been a lot of introspection and a healthy dose of pragmatism around Bodymoor the last couple days. I think we’ll be ready to play and redeem ourselves. But as we’ve seen more and more, there simply are no easy games. There are teams you ‘should’ beat on paper, but you have to actually beat them on the pitch, and the competition up and down the league is impressive.
Me, it’s fingers crossed. The errors, well, they’ll have been discussed. The midfield battle analyzed. The players will know it was a missed opportunity. They’ll know within and from Emery how it went wrong. Burnley? Well, we just have to see what’s in those legs, hearts, and tactical tweaks.
Over to you.
The Author
John Clark
John is co-owner of AVL, and has followed the Villa since the '70s. A journalist by trade, he is, by most accounts, a very nice person. You can follow me on Twitter @JClarkKohoutek. It's an astonishing experience. Or a complete waste of time.Comments 99
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Good article. I think Dendoncker needs more game time then the errors will be minimized. He has had a decent career. In my opinion, he is a more than capable backup for Kamara.
Today he is likely to start again. We need our depth to function and the likes of him, Lenglet and others need to step up. Burnley is another match and i think we are going to win 2-0; regardless of who is playing.
UTV.
We are doomed. Can’t even win the toss.
Utterly fab. Bailey is doing the business w/o me doing a precautionary pre-emptive slagging.
Oy…can’t believe we gave that right back.
Bloody hell…these decisions take so long.
Well done, Ollie, good to see Diaby netting. Needed that before the half.
Another assist for that useless Watkins who hasn’t scored today.
Some good flashes, some dodgy moments at the back. Stray passes have been putting us in trouble or killing moves more often than not.
I’d like to see a third, I can tell you that.
Is there some sort of cliche about no games being easy?
Over the last 7 seasons, the average points to achieve 5th place has been 68. On average then , we need 29 points from the second half of the season (assuming England gets the 5th place). We’d need 1.5 points a game compared with the 2 we achieved in the first half of the season. The o ly time it’s gone above 70 points in the last 7 years was 2017 when they target was 75 points, and on that basis we’d need 1.9 points per game. . . . Still a little lower than we’ve achieved in our first 19 games
Good god. Spurn chance after chance then concede that.
I want to be able to relax in a game!!
Bugger, the 10 man curse stuffs us again!
I can hear the stamping in the old wooden Trinity Road stand.
Thank god…and Dougie.
Ice ice Dougie.
And breathe
Certainly made hard work of that.
So to stay on track for Champion’s league, we ‘should’ need one more win out of our next 3 games.
Yeah r0bb0…You look around, you see how hard it is, but we’re still in a good spot. Obviously could be five points better off, but that’s kind of how it goes. Win games you might not expect to, lose ones you think are no problem, and struggle a few times.
And on days like today, it just came down to not being clinical. Good job Diaby did score, because those misses…One, yes. But should never have come down to a penalty.
On the flipside, statistically, you’re going to get games where there are enough good long balls to a threatening player that you’ll give up goals/chances.
Burnley were definitely intent on playing that ball quickly and often.
Agonised win while being in a mini slump in form and also fighting our physiological barrier of playing 10 men.
Would love to swap Duran for their Foster. Would love to have their goalkeeper in our squad.
Positives? Kamara should be available next game? Torres back on pitch. Bailey doing the business for the first 60 mins.
jbd,
I think also a psychological barrier about having got those two big wins and then having to keep producing. Especially when the squad suddenly got thinned out a bit.
Against the 10, and that whole passage where chances were just coming for fun, I think there was that letdown in concentration. It seemed almost inevitable that we were going to score and they lost sight it was still just a goal difference and Burnley were going to keep doing what they had done.
That was a bit hairy
Too many missed chances good ones at that
But how can you critise the team management owners
Unbelievable year under emery and remember only 4 permanent signings from him(not counting duran)
Fa cup next week hopefully cash torres(with haircut)tielmens ready to start,martinez Luis konsa mcginn and watkins need a holiday to recharge for Everton game
I’ll assume my position in the stocks and you can all throw rotten fruit and veg at me. I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE FA OR LEAGUE CUP.
I am the points monster. Give me POINTS POINTS POINTS AND MORE POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have to say, I’m with you, jbd. I want the ECL and points.
Put all the kids you can out there, see what happens.
That said, have gotten so used to winning any loss feels wrong.
Jc
Speaking of kids,why had we only 8 subs today including 2 keepers
Phew. Bloody hell, that was a narrow squeak. I’ve been through the wringer twice. It was a tough game and a tough watch. So many chances passed up and you just know it’ll come back and bite you. On that score I wasn’t disappointed but I wish I could enjoy the game more.
Taking stock. We’ve had 8 games during December, won 4 and lost just one. I am delighted with that. The legs looked tired today as the game wore on. Great to see Bailey on song again and also great to see Diaby get on the score sheet. Ollie a mere 2 assists which I’ll take in any game.
Come to the conclusion that the damn ref who red carded Kamara has prevented an even greater accumulation of points. Bastard. I do think his absence has affected the balance of our side.
Other results matter now and Forest have done us a big favour beating the Wai Ayes and Manure. I’m looking at P4 so Brighton beating Spurs counted too. My eyes are firmly fixed on the gap between us and P5. As Unai says, if after match day 32 were still a couple of points off the summit, then the dreaming starts.
The relief when Dougie buried his spot kick was electric. It got us out of jail. Now I’m going to wind down and open a bottle of red. UTV.
What a 2023!
None of us came close to predicting that this year would be so good.
Yes the wheels have been creaking lately, but with 8 games in 28 days it would be astonishing if they didn’t. Of course it’s hard to take, when we lose or draw games, particularly against teams we now ‘think’ we should be beating, but you only have to look at results over the past 8 games to see that we’re not the only ones who have suffered.
Over the past month, most teams have had 8 games to contend with (Man City had an extra 1 plus a couple of long flights towards the end of the month), but our creaky wheels still saw us doing better than 16 teams, with only Bournemouth, West Ham and Liverpool doing marginally better. Liverpool had the easiest run of fixtures of any team in the league so probably ‘should’ have done better than us. Apart from the obvious contenders, one team that we probably should be keeping half an eye open for is West Ham, who did manage to pick up 2 more points than us from a similarly difficult run of fixtures.
Only Burnley had a tougher run of fixtures in December than Man United during December, so if United now have an easier run of games, maybe things will start to click for them and they can still throw a spanner in the works.
Spurs’ high intensity, Bielsa type game may be contributing to their harsh injury list, which saw them only pick up only 10 points from their potential 24 in the month, but it’s hard to imagine Postecoglu changing his style now, and along with them probably losing players to African and Asian tournaments in January, it will be a bit more surprising if they manage to keep up a serious challenge for top 5 than some of the others.
The loss of Kamara to his rather arbitrary sending off, has made it tougher than it might have been over the past 3 games. With him coming back, and Ramsey, Torres and and Moreno playing themselves back to match fitness, plus (with a bit of luck), Tielemans returning in a few week’s time, it should become a bit easier for Emery to shuffle the pack a bit and recover some of the form we seem to have lost in the past week or so.
Spurs probably need the much easier January fixture list than any of the other top 5 contenders although losing players to overseas competitions probably hits them worse than others.
We go into the New Year with a 6 point cushion over them, 9 points over West Ham and 11 points over Man United, so Champion’s league qualification has to be considered a target now. . . . . anyone prepared to say they really believed that at the start of the season?
I’m sure we’d all like to be able to relax and enjoy games a bit more than we have over the past week, but it’s great that each game now feels so important. . . . . and not because we’re looking over our shoulders at a relegation battle!
Although yesterday, ‘pundits’ finally started to talk about Villa as potential title contenders, it still doesn’t feel that way to me despite the evidence of the league table and our results since Emery came in.
Liverpool and Man City look like the most likely contenders and seeing De Bruyne back on their bench and Rodri out there scoring yesterday was a reminder of just how strong a squad they have.
I’m still looking over my shoulder at the teams from 5th to 8th rather than looking to the top of the table. . . .is everyone else the same?
JC and jbd, yup. . . I’d use the kids and players needing match fitness in the FA cup, and absolutely give Watkins, Bailey and McGinn a rest
Yep, I’d give some tired legs a rest next weekend but with an easier January in terms of games played who knows what Unai will do?
It’s also difficult second guessing what Boro will do. They are 3 points short of a play-off place and have a home game against Coventry tomorrow that carries great importance. Then 5 days later they play us, then 3 days after that they have the home leg against Chelsea in the ELC semi. They’ve got some tough choices to make.
Here’s a quote I’m surprised I hadn’t seen before. Apparently, Sir Alex Ferguson was asked after the first set of games this year, which team had impressed him most. His response was: “To be honest with you, I watched Aston Villa and Newcastle, and I can’t believe the scoreline,” he said.
“Honestly, Aston Villa played fantastic football, and just lost bad goals. It’s a surprising game, football. You can play teams off the pitch and not score – that’s what Aston Villa did.”
Unlike most of us mere football fans (and tv pundits), there’s a man who sees through the final result and analyses how the teams have actually performed. He clearly saw more in us at that point than even we Villa fans did.
When I was pondering earlier who our challengers might be I missed out Newcastle and Brighton, which was a bit silly really as they’ll both be above United if they win their games in hand.
Both teams have suffered from injuries, but then so have we so it’s probably reasonable to ignore that. Of the two, Newcastle feel the most likely to mount a challenge for 5th but I suspect my view is being coloured by the mounds of cash we know they have in the background. Having said that, FFP is still restricting them and it seems unlikely the’ll be able to do much business in January (famous last words)
Tomorrow’s game between Liverpool and Newcastle is a good test of how you’re thinking. . . . what result do you want?
Seeing plenty of messages wanting Arteta out after today’s loss. . . . fickle. . .what?
When I do pop onto TVB I have ‘nearly’ trained myself to skip Uni’s postings in the same way I learned to skip his posts on here when he called himself Frem.
You’d have thought he’d learn to write at least slightly differently, to camouflage himself, but seems he really just can’t. It’s a shame as one in ten of his comments are insightful, if only he could bring himself not to post the other 9 repetitive ones.
On the last day of 2023, a quick shout out to John for his consistently original and interesting posts on here which keep the thing going.
Thank you.
I’ve certainly gained a better appreciation of the tactics of the team and formations through your postings and the observations of others on here so thanks for that too.
All the best to everyone on here, and hope you all have a healthy and enjoyable 2024. . . . . and with the anticipation that in 2024, we just ‘may’ even get to enjoy Champions League football at Villa Park again!
I’ll join RoBb0 in thanking John for all his efforts throughout the year. The coming year promises to be a belter and right now we’re on course for the Champions League in the autumn.
Wishing all Lifers a Happy New Year.
r0bb0, Plug…Cheers.
And cheers to all who post and share their thoughts. Always gives me something new to think about.
More than that, just makes me happy talking Villa. Great group of guys, can’t tell you how much it means.
So Happy New Year to you all. One hell of a year for Villa. Here’s to more for all of us.
Happy New Year all. I’m looking down like you R0bb0. Would love 4th. Thanks for keeping the site going JC. Much appreciated
Happy New year to one and all
Echoing others to JC for his work in keeping this sight afloat thanks
A Newcastle win would be too much to expect on this day
Watching tonight’s game. . . . still conflicted
Head wants Liverpool heart wants Newcastle.
Var and Anthony Taylor absolutely disgraceful tonight again,jota 2 steps then dramatically falls over shambles
The ref Taylor and his VAR man should be red carded and fined heavily for bringing the game into disrepute. Jota feels the keepers hand on his boot as he runs past him but then realises 3 paces later he’s gone too wide with the ball so dives. A straight yellow for diving as he wasn’t impeded but no….he gives a pen. And VAR does sweet FA. However, it’s quite acceptable to ignore defenders clamping their arms around attackers at corners and set pieces that really do impede opponents.
Plug, I have some (a little) sympathy for referees on when they should give a penalty. Doesn’t the trouble lie with those who make the rules?
I haven’t checked yet but my guess is that the rules aren’t sufficiently clear cut.
I agree with you about Jota’s penalty,but then I did feel that Duran’s yesterday was equally embarrassing.
If the law said that contact with a leg or foot without prior contact with the ball is a penalty then both would be fair enough, although the play acting would still be hard to watch.
On that basis though, Jesus should have had a
penalty against us, whereas it was ruled out because the contact was deemed to be insignificant.
ruled
Will join everyone in the common lament…I don’t know what a penalty is.
We’ve had enough disgraceful decisions go against us over the years that I’m obvs not minding the run of the green lately.
But it is broken, and ‘clear and obvious’ isn’t cutting it.
The problem with penalties is that the laws of the game uses vague words.
For example, some of the wording defines it to be a foul if:
“a player commits any of the following offences against an opponent in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force”
Two of the “offences” are if a player “trips or attempts to trip” and “kicks or attempts to kick”
“careless” is defined as: “when a player shows a lack of attention or consideration when making a challenge or acts without precaution.
You might think that the first bit is quite clear. Take the Duran penalty for example, where the defender did kick Duran, so that’s quite clear, but it starts to become vague when you look at an example such as the Jesus one. In that case, Jesus brought his foot down onto Douglas Luiz’s foot to create the contact so Jesus was not kicked. We’re seeing increasing numbers of cases where attackers move their foot towards the defender’s foot in order to make contact and it can be really tricky to interpret the movements of different players limbs.
“Careless” is defined by the IFAB as “when a player shows a lack of attention or consideration when making a challenge or acts without precaution.
. . . I really don’t know how that is supposed to help the referee and it would surely be better for them, players and fans if the word ‘careless’ was taken out and VAR was just used to see if contact actually took place.
It seems to me that the decision about whether the defender kicked or tripped the attacker, or whether the attacker initiated the contact is best made in real time by the referee. Slow motion VAR just doesn’t seem to help make those decisions. I expect it won’t be too long before AI is able to interpret changes in direction of players’ legs, but we’re not there yet.
Under current circumstances, if the law says it should be a penalty if an attacker is kicked or tripped by a defender, then, much as I dislike it, it’s probably reasonable for a player to go down to show that he’s been kicked, because otherwise, there’s a good chance that the referee will not spot it. I’ll admit, there’ve been times when I’ve shouted “why didn’t you go down” at my TV when a Villa player has clearly been kicked, as referees almost invariably play on, unless the player actually goes down. There’s no need for them to roll around like a 2 year old with a tantrum to make their point though. . .that’s just embarrassing.
Finally, if VAR was only used to determine if there was clear and obvious contact and the rest was left to the referee then maybe the VAR checks would be quicker and (marginally) less controversial. That’s the sort of thing that VAR in its current level of sophistication should be able to determine.
Robbo
The penalty decision last night was by same ref that denied us possibly 3 just over a week ago
Agree about arsenal game and Jesus but I wonder how many proper decision we have got compared to utter wro g ones,yes the ghost goal was a big one in our favour but goal ruled out v Palace same season doesn’t get same coverage
Rooney sacked what a pity,he was working so hard
Var should only have 30 seconds to give a decision
Otherwise it’s not clear and obvious this 9 10 mins of var time added is ridiculous, think Sheffield utd was only 4mins added in first half after how many var stoppages,Taylor again
Tom Brady will be lamenting today that his minority investment in small heath has been wasted on Shrek’s compo.
Can’t add any meaningful comments to the VAR debate. Like JC, I don’t know what constitutes a penalty any more. Just have to admire the authorities administrators who have made an A+ job of screwing the game up.
VAR should surely only be used for matters of ‘fact’ such as offside, or was there actual contact between players or between a player and the ball.
The onfield referee then makes all subjective calls.
r0bb0,
Agree with the wording issue. I think for me, really, it ought to be more like American football. The review booth is the unequivocal arbiter, there’s no sparing the ref’s blushes. They just can’t see it as clearly in the one, split-second look they get unless it really is obvious from their angle.
Obviously AF is a start-stop game anyway. The interruptions are less impactful. But with penos, you’ve already stopped things. The review booth should review, shouldn’t take more than a minute, really, and their decision is final, whatever the ref gave.
Fouls are generally pretty obvious on a couple of slow-motion looks from a couple of different angles. I think the problem arises from the stakes of awarding what is most likely a one-goal advantage, and whether they ‘feel good’ about saying “a shirt-pull is a shirt-pull…a push is a push,” whatever, so here’s a goal for you.
There’s the “player is going away from goal, the player takes another touch,” all the various things we’ve heard. So for the booth, it’s just, “would it be a foul outside the box?” and we’re done, summary judgment, take away the idea that they’re overruling the ref. It becomes “the ref is asking you to have a look.”
James Gill….hahaha.
The players are using the penalty book to their advantage. They work to get a penalty not play the game. It’s time to make the penalties clear cut. Contact is inevitable in football but a penalty shouldn’t be. Give the refs clearer guide lines and up all the diving penalties to a yellow. Be more adamant with yelling at the ref…no one but the captain. This kind of intimidation just mushrooms into the crowd getting involved. Give managers a yellow for yelling at the ref. Give the refs more ammunition to run a game. Make offsides easier to spot. Leading foot for example which has been mentioned before. Some infractions are pure accidental, get over it and play on unless there is a definite injury. The players need to watch some ice hockey and learn some grit to their playing and not roll around.
John McGinn will play through an incidental penalty and more often than not gets the better of the situation.
Think it was a bit easier in the past because being tough was more important than winning a foul or getting bailed out.
All players do it now, ours certainly, shield the ball, feel the little bump, fall over. Players just didn’t go over so easily, so often (to my memory, anyway).
But it’s inconsistent all over the pitch. Defenders coming through the backs of strikers, all the clutching and grabbing, whether the defender is coming over the top, or the player is backing in and undercutting…Everyone would be fine if they sat all the refs down over the summer, said here are the examples, and if you don’t follow them, you’ll be penalized. And show all the players/teams the same video examples.
You have to take some of the subjectivity out of it: “This ref’s letting them play, this ref is calling everything. This ref won’t take his card out, this ref is handing them out like candy.” In a given match, seems fine that the one official is treating both sides fairly. But. The same standards don’t carry across all officials and matches.
There’ll always be injustices, some quite costly, but seeing a greater degree of consistency across different officials would help, I think. And because of the stakes, you just take the peno out of the ref’s hands completely. He points, the review team decides. And their decisions have to be the same, or likewise, they get sanctioned.
JC, the more I think about it, the more I like your idea of the VAR panel deciding on all penalties. Put our very best referees on a smallish VAR panel and we’ll improve the chances of seeing consistent decisions week in week out.
Ian, John McGinn is one I definitely have in mind. I really do appreciate that he plays the game in the right spirit and tries to keep on his feet but the trouble is, referees just don’t give penalties unless players play act!
All talk about what is a penalty and what isn’t
Anthony Taylor reffed 2 matches 10 days apart and gave completely different decisions for same offences
Sa.e with kamara sending off same offence very rarely same punishment
Ian
I am all for following rugby and apart from captain no one else speaks to ref
Mind you an out of breath mcginn might be hard to understand
Anybody watching darts the young lad luke is special
Robbo
Panel ofbest refs would be small,can’t say I have seen many good ones
Might indeed be a small panel, JG.
But I wonder if solid, photographic (or video) references, widely distributed, rather than words open to interpretation by those not on the field and feeling the crowd (or even being biased) might give more cover (and accountability) for consistency and unpopular decisions.
Won’t ever be 100%, but it might improve perceptions of integrity and impartiality by actually showing a bit more of both.
American football has more clear-cut penalties, so the review booth might not as easily applicable, but I’ve seen they generally get it right. “Upon further review, the ruling on the field is overturned/confirmed.”
Not perfect, a lot of it is like VAR, but there are interpretations of intent, some gray areas (did the QB cause the contact to the head by ducking down and getting hit by an arm aimed at his chest by someone already flying through the air), was the hit malicious (did they have time to avoid, etc), did the receiver truly have possession or “make a football move,” but it does remove the pressure on the referee and stops the “clear and obvious,” which is a bit of cop-out.
Anyway, my two cents. Have also long thought there should be an after-action panel reviewing dives and retroactively applying penalties.
In fact, I think the idea of retroactive penalties might clean up a lot. There’s getting away with it on the field, maybe getting a yellow, but knowing that it will be reviewed and you might have to pay a £5k-£10k fine…Not a lot of money to some of them, but no one likes paying out fines, and I bet it would decrease diving significantly.
Would never fly because it is interpretation, but it’s more objective and definitive than on-field decisions. It’s all just so hard to see however well-positioned the ref is.
And we pretty much all know it when we see it. That’s what I always come back to.
And of course, players drawing fouls is always situational. Super John will go over easily from a bump on his bravearse if it’s a ‘danger area’, Villa are under the cosh, he’s surrounded by two or three and trying to avoid the turnover in the middle of the pitch.
But if he sees a move on, etc., he generally fights through. Pretty honest player, but he’s not above gamesmanship, either.
That’s another one I see that pretty inconsistent (falling over with the bump from behind). And I’m tired of big CBs in tight positions going over when someone breathes on them. Me, I’d like to see obstruction brought back, but that ship is way over the horizon.
Besides showing bias in the clutching/grabbing/tactical foul portion, I thought ECL refs at least were better about that soft contact.
Just watched some highights from our new signing (according to his Wikpedia page) Cyril Ngonge.
He seems to have some decent close control ball skills but also loves a speculative shot from distance. He may well get quite a few assists when surrounded by better players and finishers and you can imagine Emery coaching him to use his skills to recognise when to shoot and when to find a better placed team mate.
Just seen Gabby calling Arteta out for moaning about Saka being fouled a lot. The Chinese have a proverb . . .”the crying baby gets the milk”, but I don’t think crybaby Arteta is consciously trying to influence referees the way Fergusen used to, I think he’s just naturally a slightly inadequate individual who actually does believe that the world is against him.
I used to be a bit embarrassed by the number of times Ashley Young in his heyday, and Jack Grealish used to dive or (let’s be generous) ‘initiate’ fouls against them and Saka is from the same mould. So many of the fouls against him are at best ‘soft’ and are invariably exaggerated by him.
He’s actually been fouled 50% less than Jordan Ayew (the ‘most’ fouled player) and if any managers have a right to moan, it would be Eddie Howe and Unai Emery, both of whom have 2 players in the top 10 most fouled players this season.
Really. . . .Arteta needs to concentrate a little more on coaching his players rather than exposing his innate insecurities by whingeing when things aren’t going quite as well for him as he’d hoped.
rObB0, Arteta is feeling the heat. It’s not easy explaining to your average entitled Arse fan why you are 2 points behind ASTON FRICKIN VILLA after 20 games. Especially after acquiring Rice last summer for megabucks. Especially after dumping Emi for Ramsdale. Especially after 4 years to build a team. Especially after your predecessor had only been given 18 months. Especially after that predecessor has moved ASTON FRICKIN VILLA above you in 14 months. Great init.
Super comment Plug.
I can’t help it, I still feel that Arsenal will end the season above us, but for the reasons you’ve laid out there, they really should!
I’m with Emery in thinking we need to see what the position looks like after another dozen games.
JC, your comment about obstruction is an interesting one, as its still in the rulebook but hardly ever enforced. It would certainly change John McGinn’s game if it was. As you point out, the obstruction g player is much more likely to gain a foul for falling over forwards when they feel any contact from behind.
FIFA Law 12 – states that “an indirect free-kick should be given if a player impedes or obstructs an opponent.”
This is my problem with the rules, to a fan, they feel far too arbitary and therefore inconsistently applied by different referees, or as JG has pointed out, even exactly the same referee from one qeek to the next.
The rules should be simplified wherever possible, and referees then told that they must apply them every time.
They try to apply offside every time, so why not obstruction.
Either apply a rule every time, or damn well get rid of it!
Bit quiet on here,
So no olsen digne torres tielmens or traore for tomorrow
O reason not to put out reasonable stro g side with no game for another 8days
JG, I’d been thinking that we should rest quite a few players tomorrow but with you reminding us that there’s 8 days till the nest game, it seems slightly less important to do that. I’d still rest McGinn, Watkins and Bailey, if only to protect them from risk of injury, but maybe include most of our other first 11 players but hoping to give 5 of them an early substitution.
Suppose it really comes down to wear and tear vs retaining sharpness.
Emery isn’t talking like he doesn’t care, saw a fan poll with more saying they’d rather win the cup than the ECL. And I suppose that now we can generally mix it up with the ‘big boys’, the idea we’d just get to the final only to lose has been rubbished.
So…We may well see a pretty decent side.
Will be interesting if Duran starts, seeing there are rumors he wants a move to Milan. Which I find sort of ludicrous, but given his temperament, he may well not be suited to Emery. More than a bit hot-headed and undisciplined.
No earthly idea whether anyone’s actually interested in him.
Me, while less ‘glorious’, I think I’d rather see us win the ECL if it comes down to a choice. Winning European knockout silverware and a place in Europe next year…Seems to do a bit more for us, a hedge against falling off.
But. Also be rather nice to get another FA Cup after 66 years. Seems an impossibly long time.
Make that 67. I forgot we changed years!
When Timo Werner was at Chelsea I used to enjoy telling my Chelsea mates what a donkey he is, so it came as a ‘surprise’ to see his name linked with Villa. The rumour went quiet but has resurfaced. There’s probably nothing in it, but I guess if the price is right then there ‘may’ be some sense in it.
Chelsea signed him as a striker but he seems to get overexcited when he gets within shooting distance, but put that to one side, and he does work hard and create space for his team mates.
If (big if), there’s anything to the rumours, ‘might’ Emery be able to make him fit in a Villa team?
JC. A week ago I really wasn’t bothered about the FA cup. . . . More than that, I really saw it as a potential drain on the reserves of a comparatively tight squad (compared with the company we’re now trying to keep) and hoped we’d put out a weakened team and get it out the way.
Now it’s match day however, I can’t help myself wanting to see us win. It could actually be a handy game to bring a few players back up to fitness and maybe the next round could look that way too when it comes round?
I’d still be tempted to rest a few players, although the ones I’d be most keen to rest are the ones like Watkins and McGinn who happen to be the ones with the greatest stamina and may bear up under a full schedule of games.
I think Werner is a donkey as well. But if Unai went for him, my perception of him would change entirely as I have complete trust in Emery. Chelsea have a history with strikers. Some like Drogba were exceptional and some like Werner and Jackson less so. Although to call Jackson a donkey is being somewhat unfair to the donkey.
I want a win today. Boro will get all of the ref’s decisions, they’ll be able to kick us, bite and scratch and get away with it. The answer is a couple of early goals from Villa to knock the stuffing out of them and move their thoughts to Chelsea on Tuesday.
Plug . . . . that’s a handy reminder that ‘Boro have a cup semi final coming up, so they probably have an even greater incentive to rest a few players than we do. If you were a ‘Boro player wouldn’t it be in the back of your mind that you really don’t want to miss out on a cup semi final in front of your own fans in just 3 days’s time?
Before we pooh-pooh a Carabao cup semi final, one of the best atmospheres I’ve experienced at Villa Park was the second leg of the league cup semi final, under floodlights, against Blackburn Rovers in 2010. After winning at Ewood Park in the first leg, expectations were high for an easy passage to the final, but 2 early Blackburn goals put the crowd on edge until we scored again and finally ended up as 6-4 winners and an over-excited pitch invasion.
In case you want to re-live it :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phUBW7C7LK8
oops. . . . .that was the full game, so assuming you only have time for highlights:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z_5zIztmUU
I would take Werner and let Duran leave for 20m. We probably got 15m for Azaz. Also get Dendoncker wages off the bill. Digne to Saudi is interesting. I would prefer to keep him
Hopefully Tim and a couple of U21’s start today
Villa MD, I can’t believe I’m saying it, after all the Jokes Ive made at his expense in the past to my Chelsea supporting mates, but if the finances made sense then I’d certainly take Werner over Duran too. It’s probably all speculative nonsense anyway so won’t come to anything anyway!
I was just looking to see which players are at AFCON, saw Bertrand Traore’s name listed and thought. . .”nah. . . he’s injured”. . . . . checked, and it seems he is over there after all. That can’t be true can it?
I then put, “Traore International injured” into Ecosia (a much less predatory search engine than Google) and saw this headline from June ’23:
“Villa will assess Bertrand Traore after the winger was injured while on international duty.”
Then checked the next one from November ’23:
“Aston Villa handed injury blow after forward returns from international duty injured”
“Bertrand Traore returned to Bodymoor Heath injured after representing Burkina Faso during the November international break”
“The forward will spend a period time on the sidelines as Villa head into their busiest period of the season yet.”
Emery confirmed his absence through injury on Thursday (21 December) with Injury Expert Ben Dinnery sharing on his website (22 December) that there is “no return date” for the forward.
Miraculously, just a couple of weeks later he’s done another Lazarus, and is fit and well, and off to Africa to play football.
We’ve seen that he is sometimes able to turn it on for us, but whether he’s taking the piss, or just hasn’t impressed Emery and it’s been felt to be more politic to suggest he’s injured instead, what is clearly NOT the case, is that he’s just been really unlucky, and only happened to be fit when internationals need to be played.
This feels horribly like one of those times when a player has decided that he’s going to hang on, take his money and hope for an attractive new contract without a signing on fee when his Villa contract runs out. If so, that certainly won’t be helping us to improve against a background of tight FFP rules.
I may be making 5 from 2+2, but what might the other options might be?
r0bb0,
I feel that way about Traore, too. His availability has been rather suspect for some time.
I guess Villa have okay keeping him as emergency backup, though whether he’d actually be able to serve that role is obviously doubtful.
Just wonder who’d take him on anything but a free.
MD,
I think Emery would like to keep him, but maybe there’s truth to him wanting to leave and that’s why Acuna keeps popping up a bit like Tammy Abraham.
Given how important that LB position is, I suspect Emery would like to have two so he could continue to start one, sub on the other to get 90 minutes of full effort, and keep rotating the starter.
But even if he goes, I have to tip my hat to him the way he stepped up after Moreno got injured. Always 100%, whatever his faults, and he seems to have been enjoying himself.
What I’d really like to see is a truly defensively excellent RB. Would be fabulous to have a shut-down fullback on one side who can stand up to the tricky wide players that always give us trouble and help dictate the opponent’s options.
And yes, r0bb0…Always want them to win once the game comes round. See who you get next, etc., who gets knocked out.
I don’t want the extra games, either, but there’s now a fair number of younger fans who’ve never seen Villa lift a trophy.
From everything he’s said in the past, I know Ollie will want to start, SJM, too. But you’d have to think a two-week layoff would do some of these players a lot of good.
I’m going to get a short, fresh page up, fyi, so we can start fresh again…
Okay…fresh page up, about the lineup I’d expect.
COYVB