Aston Villa (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

After a defeat I cycle out into the hills and mull it over. At least I’m getting fitter… various things I’ve wondered:

Is this just a hangover from 4 in a row.

Pep is a serial winner and hates losing. Maybe the players are less so?

The players are still largely decent. But after 4 in a row the desire and hunger must dip.

Maybe the players feel they have nothing to prove.

Far too much football played by our lads. All over the world. The spurs league cup tie was only 51 days ago. How many matches since then?

Off field issues seem to be a possible problem. Parenthood brings challenges for young guys.

Can players raise themselves now when they know realistically that title is gone this year.

Teams now fancy their chances and have worked out how to beat us. Easier to do when then players aren’t giving it all.

The absence of a physical presence on the pitch and dressing room can’t help.

The 115 have diverted Management attention. Rightly they have been focussed on that. They can’t do that and pay same attention to recruitment.

Clearly lots of factors at play.

Absence of Rodri and KdB cannot be underestimated though.
Good post, probably with a lot of truth in there. 4 in a row has taken its toll and credit to the team for that. This team's has had it's day though now. The only positive from this crap run is it's hopefully accelerated the need for a rebuild that would have happened in the future anyway.
 
Good post, probably with a lot of truth in there. 4 in a row has taken its toll and credit to the team for that. This team's has had it's day though now. The only positive from this crap run is it's hopefully accelerated the need for a rebuild that would have happened in the future anyway.

The more I think about it the more I’m sure Txiki was told no major signings til the 115 is done and dusted. No one envisaging the injury crisis that would follow.
 
I disagree with this logic, especially when it's about young players in positions that are currently weak spots. You could say Chelsea were proven right about Salah and De Bruyne when they won the league in 2015 and 2017 after selling them, but when these two players go on to dominate the league for the next 10 years while Chelsea themselves slide into a rut then it is fair to criticise the short-sightedness of the squad planning
I completely understand your point.

It's all about timing too, The likes of Palmer would have got more game time now at City than he was two years ago, He wasn't prepared to wait around for his opportunity and credit to him for moving on.

Pep loves to work with a small squad and be narrowed down to squad to players to have gone on and won the Treble and 4 In A Row so his moves were obviously the correct ones.

Chelsea squad was incredible around those years too and they were very successful, They has players in the squad that still had years at a high level so decided to move Salah and De Bruyne on (at that time).

Timing in football is the most important and when you are so successful everything has to fall into place especially to do what we've been doing in recent years, Right now "some" of the players we've moved on we could actually be doing with right now, The reality is we didn't need them 2 or 3 years ago. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
 
Some in here think that because you win something - you can't possibly have been even better. It's a complacent, unanalytical logic. However those thinking it is possible are obviously Johnny come lately and spoiled.
Yeah, I don't see how it is sensible. We won a treble with Palmer in the squad, I doubt anyone in hindsight think we would have done worse if he were given Doku's minutes last year. Instead we ended up strengthening a team we were miles ahead of to the point where they seem to be ahead of us now. Not sure how any mental gymnastics can get that to be anything other than a mistake.

The only way we get proven right in that situation is if we end up with someone much better than Palmer in that spot or if we needed his transfer fee to strengthen the squad in different areas. But right now I'd carry him back to Manchester myself.
 
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Oh brother what? The truth hurts? If he was really that good enough he would still be here. Short term memories.
You parrot the same drivel every time. Palmer must be shite because Uncle Pep let him go. We must be playing great now because that’s how Uncle Pep set us up.Great first half because Uncle Pep said so. Rah, fcukin, rah!
 

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