The English Football Thread

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by Qwertyy

'grats to City on winning the title in November.

had to wait until now to post about the game 'cos i was still fuming. Mourinho is falling into the same things that got him canned at Chelsea and it's hard to watch. could've easily lost 2 or 3 nil.

thing is, i don't think Mourinho is a bad manager. he's very tactically sound. the issue is when you're in a league with Poch, Pep, and Conte you can't expect to do the same thing in all of your matches and expect them to not catch on. he needs to be sat down or just come to his senses, his stubbornness is preventing him for taking us any further.

to be far Man City have a better side than us anyway so we weren't really ever going to win the league barring a huge **** up from them. we keep addressing our attack while avoiding the real issues which is our ball movement in the midfield and our defence. Matic was a great signing, but in the formation we use we need to have very good ball movement through the midfield, and with Pogba out hurt we're seeing just how much we lack in that department.

Lindelof was a ****e signing. he was just ok at Benfica and we have guys like Tuanzabe and Fosu-Mensah who could've just as easily filled the same role that he is at the moment.

/rant

at least Villa are still looking alright in the Championship. want to see them, Wolves, and Leeds go up. i know as a Man U fan i shouldn't say that about Leeds but i want to slap them around some more and that's hard to do when they're down there.

Do you think losing Zlatan was a factor? And how do you feel now about Rooney being back with Everton? Do Man U fans still love him or what?

[Ol’ Qwerty Bastard]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Do you think losing Zlatan was a factor? And how do you feel now about Rooney being back with Everton? Do Man U fans still love him or what?

Zlatan is definitely a factor. physically i think he showed his age in the prem, but his technical ability is timeless. he could do nothing for 85 minutes but would still find a way to score the goal that would put us on top. I think Lukaku is a great goal scorer but he's a finisher not a creator, and in Jose's system they're asking too much of him in terms of hold up play and running with the ball at his feet. personally i think putting Mkhitaryan and Rashford/Martial on the wings and keeping them further up the pitch would allow us to do. it's part of what made us so good during our early run of games. Mourinho has them coming back so far defensively however that at times it feels like we're playing with a flat 5 across the midfield which is absolutely nuts.

as far as Rooney goes, i'm not entirely sure. i will always appreciate what he did for the club but i don't think he was the club legend that he was made out to be. he was simply the best we had during a time where the best of our english talent like Scholes, Beckham, etc. had moved on. keep in mind i'm a bit of outsider as i don't live in England, but from what i've seen and heard and the way that i feel myself, it was like Rooney was never entirely our own. when you look at club icons like Giggsy, Sir Bobby, Scholes, or even to some extent the Nevilles, they were Manchester through and through. i felt with Rooney there was some sort of disconnect, like in the back of my mind I was always thinking "yeah, he'll be leaving shortly." just my two cents. this could be way off the mark and just how i feel myself.

he definitely did and still is getting a lot of backlash from a portion of the supporters. it's pretty disgusting imo. while i do think he's a bit overrated and has a tendency to muck up a lot, he had some great years and left everything on the field whenever he played for us.

[Ol’ Qwerty Bastard]

avi change worked

'grats to Arsenal as well

[Cuthbert]

Shit league shit title race.

Spurs <<<

[Ol’ Qwerty Bastard]

man city will walk it. they could totally slip up and still pull it off because Jose chokes and Spurs choke.

[Cuthbert]

The Championship is where it's at.

This season, is the first time in five years (aside from a brief period at the end of 2013 to the start of 2013/14 where we beat Arsenal away) where I've really felt some optimism for the Villa. We're not getting battered every game, we rarely drop points at home, we are winning away and we are coming back when we are a goal down.

I do truly believe we will be in the play offs and hopefully the automatics.

If we could get six points from our upcoming home matches then that would be sexy.

[Ol’ Qwerty Bastard]

what do you think happens if (when) you go up? i like what ive seen from the bunch you have atm, but i don't think many are PL quality. reckon you'll get stuck in the up/down or do you think the club will invest in order to push back to being at least a lower mid table team?

[Cuthbert]

Originally Posted by Qwertyy

what do you think happens if (when) you go up? i like what ive seen from the bunch you have atm, but i don't think many are PL quality. reckon you'll get stuck in the up/down or do you think the club will invest in order to push back to being at least a lower mid table team?

We are held back by FFP I think at the moment. The owner can't spend any more (we spent next to nothing over the summer), if we get promoted we will have a bigger budget and obviously PL money. I'd expect investment though I couldn't put a figure on it.

Objective in the first season would be survival. There are four or five players max who I'd keep in the PL. It will be a period where we have to rebuild and ensure survival, we cannot go down again.

Over a five year period we really need to be looking to get back to where we were before the rot started. I grew up knowing Villa as a team that would regularly finish top 6 and play in Europe. That is where I want them to be. Guys can laugh but there is no reason why we shouldn't target top 6 finishes, we are 4th or 5th in the all time league table, we have the 5th most league titles, we have had European success before. It's not like I'm demanding CLs and PL trophies. I want Villa to be a respectable team again.

For me personally there are two things I really want to see happen within the next five years, the change of crest and a start on the redevelopment of the North Stand, taking capacity to over 50k.

[Ol’ Qwerty Bastard]

i agree, Villa should be an Everton (of past few years, not of this year) type club. want big Ben to come back but he's just not looking very good atm.

[Trollheart]

Zlat nearly made the perfect comeback, huh? You see his interview afterwards? "Lions do not recover the same as humans" or something. Class.