I’ve been saying for years that Utd are a club in decline and we’re seeing it accelerate, in my opinion. The “theatre of dreams” is falling to pieces because of the Glaziers’ lack of investment and I’m sure I heard the other day that Ten Hag has spent £600 million on players since he arrived. What’s worrying for the club is that they’re no better and often look like they’re not even trying. Everybody I know says his sacking is imminent, with many saying they don’t understand why he hasn’t gone already. The trouble is, how many top managers would want to manage the club, even though money talks?
So my caution regarding Ipswich proved to be correct and to rub salt into things, I see West Ham tonked them 4-1 yesterday. Flaming typical!
And while I’m tempted to say I expect us to put three past Utd, I’m again reticent to actually say it. “The Villa way” could easily come into play again and we all know our record against them is simply atrocious. Still, I’m very minded to think we’ve turned a corner and those days of constantly losing to them are over.
It’s early in the season, but already the injuries are racking up. Squad news is that Ramsey, Onana and Bailey are all going to be late fitness calls. Judging by Unai Emery’s comments, it seems Bailey’s problem is only slight, but Ramsey and Onana are bigger doubts and apparently if they do make the squad, they won’t be fully fit. That’s really not good and for once I’m actually glad we’ve got a rubbishy International break coming up. Talking of which, we have players complaining that they’re playing too many games but if that’s the case, why are there so many International friendlies? Money, money, money, I guess.
John McGinn is still out.
Utd have Bruno Fernandez available after his red card was rescinded. Typical of Villa’s luck, but hey ho. Kobbie Mainoo is going to be a late call, but is doubtful. They have a couple of long termers, but frankly, I don’t care.
The big question for me is how long can we go without starting Jhon Duran? Whatever you think of him, he’s on fire and is scoring for fun. From what I’ve been reading, the lad is still difficult for Emery to manage, but his attitude has improved massively and he’s working hard in training. Is that because of a promise that we’ll let him go soon? I hope not.
I read that we could play Morgan Rogers on the left and squeeze Duran in somehow, especially if Bailey and Ramsey don’t make it. It would be a good reward for the striker, but Utd can score goals and I suspect Emery will decide against and possibly swap him out earlier, to give Ollie a rest.
After a massive effort against Bayern, a big concern has to be how much that game has taken out of the players. Unai Emery has recently said that he had doubts about the players lacking motivation for the Ipswich game and concentrating more on the Champion’s league. Man Utd is always a massive game, so that surely won’t apply today, you would hope.
Prediction time then and as I said, I expect us to put three past them. 3-1, I would think.
But then I’ve just seen a very depressing statistic. In 58 Premier league games, we’ve beaten Utd 5 times, drawn 13 and suffered a stonking 40 losses.
Hence, I’m going for a draw, 2-2, with me cursing “the Villa way”.
Fingers crossed and UTV!
It’s the hope that does me in.
This should be straightforward, but……
I think we could be without Roger’s, Ramsay, Onana and maybe even Bailey too. It doesn’t seem to take much to knock Bailey out of the game and he’s nowhere near last years levels.
I’m never confident about beating Utd. They looked dreadful defensively during the week so hopefully we can get at them
Aston Villa XI: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Tielemans, Barkley; Philogene, Rogers, Bailey; Watkins.
Subs: Gauci, Carlos, Durán, Buendía, Nedeljkovic, Maatsen, Bogarde, Swinkels, Young.
Man Utd XI: Onana; Mazraoui, Evans, Maguire, Dalot; Mainoo, Eriksen; Garnacho, Fernandes, Rashford; Hojlund.
Subs: Bayindir, Lindelöf, De Ligt, Martínez, Zirkzee, Diallo, Casemiro, Antony, Ugarte
No Ramsey, Onana and McGinn which means we have 3 players who like the physical side of the game out.
We have Bailey in the team which could be a risk if he is still carrying a knock.
The worry for us is their front players can hurt any team and we need Cash to be up to speed immediately. Defensively though they might have an experienced CB pairing but with Eriksen also playing, they surely will struggle against pace.
I can’t call it to be honest and I still have that fear of dread playing Man Ure as they always seem to beat us regardless of how poor they are.
Hmmm…No idea. We had respect for SAF’s teams. Post Alex, Utd have been 1000 more times more intolerable. Come on lads!
Deapute the injuries, we have 5 big names on the bench. I REALLY want to win this one!
Today is our 10th game of the season and injuries to date:
Cash: Hamstring
Bailey: Hamstring
McGinn: Hamstring
Ramsey: Hamstring
Onana: Knee
Konsa: Hamstring
We can’t keep up this injury rate. Why all these hamstrings? Is it coincidence or is there something Emery and his team need to look at?
Eat less pork?
A cagey game. We need to find a rhythm.
This is poor.
Scrappy by both sides both desperate for a win.
Horrible to say but either side could snatch this at present.
COME ON LADS!!!!
Man U are junk.
But they’re way better than us.
The Bayern game seems to have taken loads out of the lads.
I felt we were starting to work our way into the game. Still not firing – yet!
Free kicks by us have been woeful.
All set for a Duran goal.
The worry is that we don’t have any options from the bench. Maybe bring Duran on for Philogene and play Watkins out wide. Buendia for Bailey possibly but we seriously lack depth within our squad with a lot of inexperienced youngsters. I would probably be happy with a draw right now with an international break to try and get players back from injuries.
Or Maatsens ahead of Digne on the left wing?
2 teams not playing well for totally different reasons. Just a touch of magic…Come On!!!!!!!
Sounds pretty dire – travelling to Heathrow so just following on BBC and here.
Digne’s delivery has been shocking 🙁
But his defensive work has been spot on. Oh, to be a footballer!!!!!
I think we’ve missed the industry of McGinn and Onana today. A bit of muscle is lacking.
Maaaaatsen is on!!!! He’s fast.
I think we’ve missed the industry of McGinn and Onana today. A bit of muscle is lacking.
A game to forget!
So a point gained for Man U and another two points dropped by us from games we should have expected to win.
If we want CL qualification again, that’s simply not good enough.
The whole team didn’t look good and delivery all round was awful.
I thought it was Cash who looked noticeably the sharpest and it’s obvious why.
I’m not blaming the lads and thank god for the break coming up.
Jesus we see the game so differently, I thought Cash was f**king terrible and Chesty still winds me up. Holds onto the ball to long and takes to long to make his mind up when it comes making a decision on a pass.
I never think Cash is great, but I did think he looked the sharpest of our side, probably because he’s been rested. And anyway, he was better than Digne, who was terrible, imo.
As for Rogers, I’m sure I read that Emery tells him off if he releases it too early. I agree he seems to hold it too long, but I’d guess that’s more about Emery wanting him to gain more experience of playing to his strength, in driving forwards.
Nobody had a good game today, imo.
Cash’s first touch he telegraphed the ball inside he was going to play, Rashford read it and was in behind.
For all his enthusiasm we do need an upgrade.
Chesty, there’s a time to carry it and a time to release (that almost sounds biblical), he needs to get the timing right otherwise we lose the ball while stretched and then are susceptible to the counter (imo).
Managed to see the last 15 minutes most of which was taken up by the ref fiddling with his equipment – if you’ll pardon the expression 🙂
Only two positives we avoided defeat by our nemesis and managed our first clean sheet of the season.
Injuries (already) and Wednesday did for us I think. Good to see Kamara and Mings get 45 minutes with the U21’s.
Normally I hate the IB but this one has come at a good time for us.
Terrible game but just maybe Wednesday evening has left them with little in the tank so forgivable.
No standout performances, huffed puffed but the final ball always wanting,.
What’s happened to Bailey?
He’s proper off it.
This break will do Bailey a world of good he will soon be back on it
Disappointed but not surprised. I’ve seen the same happen to Barcelona, Real etc after big CL games. I guess it’s all part of the learning curve.
Glad for once for the international break, hoping that we get a few back in for the next game.