There’s no denying it is there?
This is a tough game, away to what I called the most complete side we’ve played this season and frankly I’m just wondering how many we’re going to lose by.
Squad news and Leicester are very comfortable. Wes Morgan and Filip Benkovic both came off injured on Saturday, but they were only back up defenders playing in a side that had been much rotated. Otherwise they’re all good and Jamie Vardy has recovered from a tight calf. We could have done without him starting, but no such luck for the Villa eh?
I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone that we have Heaton, Targett, McGinn and Wesley all out injured and that’s a major part of our first eleven.
And it’s frankly so much of the side, that I’m sorry, but I don’t think we have a prayer tonight, with it probably only being a case of trying to keep the score down.
The good news is that Tyrone Mings is fit, but Kienan Davis is apparently not even training, so we have Kodjia as our only option up front.
That’s not necessarily a problem in itself, if we can go back to how we were playing earlier in the season, where lots of players were chipping in with goals, but that looks unlikely given that we seem to have so many players out of form or lacking confidence.
So I don’t see us getting many goals; maybe one.
Leicester are another story.
I can see them scoring plenty, if they’re on fire.
Will Smith go 3/5 at the back again?
I think I’d be tempted to do so, in the hope of only suffering a one goal deficit, but I can see Smith deciding to go for it and apply his general “the best form of defence is attack” type of play.
In which case, I think I’m going to go for a 1-3 loss.
I worry that it could be a lot worse than that, to be honest, which means that the return leg would be pretty meaningless.
Hence I hope it’s a close result, because League cup semi finals invoke brilliant memories at Villa Park.
Fingers crossed, then.
Bloody Luiz again- flood gates might open now
El Ghazi wimps out ?
and Vassilev comes on.
And Leicester score
1-1
Get douglas out of our club now he is useless!! Mistakes every single game ffs. Floodgates will open now
We’re making too many mistakes now. Typical second half display from Villa.
Well done you Villa players.
How much improved is Nyland!
Can’t grumble about the draw as most, including me, thought we’d get done (oh sorry Nath you should have stuck with your 2-2 🙂 )
Excellent result.
1-1
Thoughts tomorrow, as I’m knackered and ready for bed.
Nakamba and Luiz are both championship quality at best. Both constantly passing to opposition, both dawdling on the ball 30 yards out with Luiz one costing us a goal.
Positives were the back 5, particularly Mings and Nyland.
Still underdogs now we gave away the equaliser but much better than I expected.
Yep – Leicester still favourites as they will play on the break at Villa Park. Shame Konsa’s header didn’t go in,
i thought we rode our luck, but to concede from our own possession having defended all game heroically will be a bitter pill to swallow for those players who grafted. mings was a man mountain and chair leader,instructing everybody i even saw him talking to the young forward we bought on. that is really good to help the younger inexperienced one through.
yes i was wrong as usually but i am glad i wad wrong i predicted a hammering. so happy we stayed in this tie. drinkwater will help our team albeit not in the cup. but he can give us the knowhow in the middle we lack with nakamba and luiz who are both learning on the job. one can not pass and other can make mistakes too often and in a position you can not afford too. drinkwater was brilliant at leciester passing defending and also set up a fair few and scored some belters.
Loved this link for villa https://twitter.com/lukewoodyy/status/1215012841973075971?s=21
Still chatter about Villa having reached an agreement with AC Milan and Reina. Immediate free transfer with six month contract automatically extended by 12 months if Villa stay in the Prem.
If true then it could be a clever move by Villa to move Kalinic on for whatever they can get for him in this window. I can’t see any other reason.
It’s a longish read but this is an excellent article about Grealish. £45m – not enough to buy one leg!
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11904200/jack-grealish-showing-his-class-at-aston-villa-and-hes-getting-better
And I don’t think he looked quite right last night either.
Nice Article Hitch, Grealish I thought he was a little off last night but did the job, well pleased with Mings, but Luis was a disappoint on his performance, we are in with a shout for the final. Sunday a test with Man City, hard one that.
Hi Bill; Badger and me both thought Grealish looked unwell. He was on his haunches after a chase back first half and after that (first half) he seemed to be trying to recover his energy. Couple of times he got the ball with an opportunity to run at the defence but just stood still and passed it – very unGrealish like.
Leicester must still be favourites but all to play for.
Can we sneak a draw Sunday?
I see we’ve upset the Baggies over the Barry deal. Just can’t accept they’re not in the same league 🙂
TBF Hitch, they probably won’t be in the same league next season based on our current transfer activity.
Defensively excellent yesterday, the keeper and back 3 were brilliant. Guilbert also had a good game up against Chilwell. Taylor is painful to watch, but you cant fault his effort!
However, you have to feel for Grealish. He is way too good for the players around him at the moment. If we want him to stay at Villa, we have to get better players in and around him. Luiz has the potential, and obviously McGinn, but the rest of our attacking players are not on his level at all.
Hopefully, we can bring some better players in this month, but its not an easy time to do transfers. Other clubs know we are desperate.
kodjia could be off to forest 3 million fee agreed having medical so on. believe me that guy was useless. he did his part first season when we really needed his help back then he carried the team. but he infuriates me. all the skill he has and he does process enough ability to make it in premiership maybe and defiantly championship. he is bone idle and must learn that the team comes before any individual. for god sake get your head up and be apart of the team.
says a lot that smith chose to play without a recognised striker, he is nobody fool smith isnt. he know kodjia would not graft for us and we would have ended up playing with ten men. the three guys who alternated the role all grafted their arses off. sometime you have to sacrifice your own game for the team.
when el ghazi stole kodijas goal at fulham i wet myself with laughter, because you could see that will make kodija mad not losing the game. i bet that kodija had words with ghazi in dressing room. but i saw on the pitch ghazi told the referee it was my goal lol good for him and good riddance.
hopefully we get a decent replacement, it will be very difficult to purchase one.
I thought something was up not playing him, ill my arse they knew he was not in the camp for long. Your not far out Nath on the way he performed for us,he’s one I won’t miss.
yeah i smelt something fishy too. kodija ill bulshit
Kodja reminds me of Collymore. Plenty of ability but not a team player and only put in a decent performance when they felt like it.
I wonder now if we had offered Chelsea £30 – £40m for Abraham whether they would have taken it. The obvious issue was their transfer ban and Tammy knew that would have helped his first team chances.
If Kodja goes, we need 2 forwards, preferably 1 signed and 1 on loan. Whatever happens, we need to act quickly. I’m not worried about something before Citeh game because that’s a bonus game in a sense but definitely before the games after that.
Not sure that was Collymore’s issue, though I felt the same at the time. i think mental health problems were at the root of it. Massive shame that he didn’t fulfil his potential at Villa though.
i remember smith calling kodija back from a warm up and he ignored the call, so the substitution never happened. then last few games especially the fulham was a absolutely disgrace. he was definitely playing within himself, knowing his contract was running down and villa were never offering a new one. he must have decided to fuck us off and not get injured for us even thou we paid his wages currently. what a arse to refuse to play premiership what kind of fool doesn’t want to play against the best. only goes to show you money is what motivates most of these players these days