So we beat Brentford, beat Southampton and won in Europe again to make it three wins on the trot. Can we make it four?
Just as it frankly amazes me that we’re sixth in the league, given our recent form, it amazes me even more that Forest are actually a place higher. I’m sure that says something about the Premier league this season, but I’m not sure what. It’s probably that most teams have been pretty rubbish.
I really ought to be confident about this game, but I’m not quite there yet. I know results show that we look like we’ve turned the corner and got through a rough patch, yet I have a feeling that the Champion’s league is taking more and more out of the squad. We so badly need to automatically qualify and by-pass that next stage so the lads have a couple of months away from Europe, but then of course, we might be fighting on the FA cup front.
Squad news and Ollie Watkins will have a late assessment. I’m not sure it matters much, because I think Unai will start Jhon Duran, who surely deserves a start? It would however be nice to see Ollie on the bench if we require an option. Jacob Ramsey and Leon Bailey’s fitness hasn’t been updated, so the assumption is nothing has changed and they won’t feature.
Forest don’t have many problems, but Alex Moreno isn’t eligible, which is probably a bit of a loss for them, as he’s apparently been very good, while Ibrahim Sangare and Danilo are both long term injured.
Forest have a very similar record to us this season. They’re on the same points, but have a better goal difference. Not much, but they concede less and score more at the same time. Given that we’ve conceded 23 in 15 games, it’s really not hard to see where our problem lies. It’s in the defence and we need a right back so Konsa can return to by far his best position. But we’ve been saying that for ages and I have a feeling it won’t be addressed in the upcoming window either. Given our position in the CL and even the Prem, considering we’ve been so poor, it’s hard to criticise Emery though, I suppose.
I certainly didn’t expect us to be doing so well in Europe.
All this begs the question of if we don’t buy a right back, what position will be strengthened? Not long until we find out, but you’d expect we’ll get at least one player in.
This seems to me to be a game all about strikers. Duran is going to start, it’s just been confirmed, as is Mings, who will surely be wanted in trying to keep a lid on Chris Wood, who’s on a roll.
This game looks drawish to me and I’m going for a 1-1, which I’d be okay with.
UTV!
SURPRISE! I really should be a betting man.
AAGGGHHH!!!!
Robbed again.
No, not robbed at all. Just the same old Villa.
Exactly.
Robbing ourselves, Bum Bum. Pathetic.
Unbelievable.
That’s the Villa all over.
Ohhh fuck off we’ve blown it
Since when did a good old fashioned fucking clearance up the pitch become prohibited? How many fucking times have we pissed about in the last third and invited pressure??? 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
That’s down to Unai, imo.
Absolute shite just like fucking Bournemouth
Absolutely Holte – xxxxing brain dead!
Then again Obama was brought in to help see out the game and we concede 2 and had a goal disallowed.
Man of the match was Kamara and it showed when he went off how bad we are without him
True.
No disgrace. Some really bad decisions. We tried.
Some might believe me in saying we have lightweight players in defence and also in midfield, Rodgers had a blinder (I don’t think so ) . time to ship out.
I thought Rogers played well, fwiw. He was probably our biggest threat, imo.
Because he goes for it though, it does mean he can run into brick walls, achieving nothing and giving the ball away.
Whereas some of our players simply give it away all the Time. Tielemens springs to mind again. I thought he was terrible, same as he has been for about the last 3 months, imo.
No Badger, please watch him he’s losing the ball and fails to use his strength. Sorry, not a favourite player of mine and I don’t know why people think he’s good. We can all forget Villa going places this season not when we have a weak defensive player that doesn’t stamp their authority on games. That was a disaster today sorry to say.
Sorry, Bill, I think you’ve called that 100% wrong.
Look around, you’ll see many think he was one of our best players.
🤮🤮🤮
How to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Unai’s substitutions usually work well but today they cost us.
Maybe. But even I can boot the ball up the pitch so it’s nowhere near my own goal. Not difficult.
Actually Forest played well. Bugger. But God bless football!!!!
They’re at home. The onus is on them to play.
We should’ve had a penalty first half. We had the lead. VAR saved us once. But – as predicted and expected – we conceded more than one goal. Which means you ain’t taking 3 points home from Nottingham. Until this shit defence is sorted, nothing will change. Tough games coming thick and fast…
I thought Forest were poor until the last 20 minutes with our first substitutions. Tielemans does a lot unnoticed and Kamara going off left us there for the taking. Emery doesn’t screw up very often but today he did.
If it was down to me, Duran has just scored, would I take him off, maybe not. But I can tell you now, taking Kamara off was suicide!
Likes it’s been mentioned already, sometimes just boot the f**king thing up the pitch for god sake!
If we had a right back Emery trusted we can have kinda back where he belongs
I like Cash but he’s not good enough for where we want to be. Start Konsa and Mings instead of Carlos and Torres to see if we can get a clean sheet for once. I hope we can get 2 or 3 signings in January. A RB and a RW desperately needed.
I didn’t think much of Forest either. Very average and we were more than holding our own until our utterly shite defence was called upon.
You can praise Emery all you want, but until he sorts that load of crap out at the back, we will not achieve much at all.
I knew I should have watched the strictly final
Poor defence against aerial threat. Mings (ill) missed because crosses from our left don’t get past his head. Other than that the subs all looked worse that the players withdrawn, in Onana’s case he always looks like a fish out of water unless he starts. Cash unlucky with their winner, he was kicked from behind, and should have got a free kick.
All true, to be fair. So their winner shouldn’t have stood. And we had a blatant penalty ignored, despite the existence of the pitiful and pathetic VAR. Reasons to be aggrieved. Again.
I didn’t post anything at the time but did Martinez make the save of the season? If you watch it at full speed, it’s unbelievable that he kept the ball out.
Badger Bill has a point, Chesty blows hot and cold, when he’s good he’s the dogs. When he’s off it, you’re playing with a man short?
Today?
As BFR might say, we played walking football, they played with intensity but then again we are playing on two fronts?
It is what it is but we really do lack quality going forward, play far too pedestrian and fail to break teams down.
January window is going to be interesting..
January window: oh look, a tumbleweed…
Yeah, Chesty was not good at Forest. Can’t argue that point. Just typical Villa like this time last year when we could have gone top. Arse and Pool dropping points and we throw it away.
Less annoyed, more deflated.
I’m glad two of you see my point, Bum bum, Ron SS if Rogers runs into brick walls where the fuck is ours? His problem is brain not quick enough in the game I’ll say again watch and you will see. Uni lost us that game in subbing wrong. If he’s focused on Europe games by giving time to benched players what happened at Forrest will be repeated. Play your best and sell the worst come January I say.
I genuinely think we’re suffering from a smaller squad due to FFP. It’s a stitch up.
I can’t blame Emery. Subs are either ineffectual, brilliant or shite. You can never tell. Look what happened midweek compared to yesterday. I think the players are mentally tired more than physically. Forest were just sharper than we were and that was a clear penalty on Morgan too.
Gonna be an interesting Citeh game next week…
It’s true. And it’s not a coincidence it falls apart in the last 10 minutes. Same with Bournemouth. Tiredness sets in. Mental and physical. A win a we would’ve been back in the top 4. 🤦
City home and Newcastle away next. Can’t see more than 1 point from those if we’re lucky.