trousers

Talk of Villa always takes me back to 5th March 2022... Just over 4 years ago... There were Saints... 9th in the Premier League... with Villa back in 13th... They beat us 4-0... triggering the downward spiral to where we find ourselves now... Sliding doors and all that...

Phew!

We're looking to do a villa holiday in Sorrento next May. Any recommendations?

The phrase: "my happy place" 🤮

# shudder #

Is this one of those "I know something but will ask it as a question rather than state it overtly" type questions....?

Given the number of draws involving teams fancied for promotion, I guess we can probably chalk up that first round of games as: "could have been worse"...

Fair enough... I guess people might have been expecting him to be more similar to Azaz, rather than someone who "doesn't play like Azaz". Anyway... Early days... Interesting to see how he progresses 👍🏻

I guess any perceived "overreaction" might be less down to his performance yesterday and more down to the realisation that he's seemingly not the "Cover for Azaz" type player that the club said they were going to source, and we were lead to believe this was said player...?

I get that's the 'safe' way of doing things, but I'd make an exception in this case.... I appreciate it probably won't happen though... "Computer Says No"... (Which is probably why I'm not a football manager)

Jander has to start alongside Downes if fit, with Bragg on the bench. Azaz also to start instead of Dobbin. Wouldn't change anything else.

According to AI 'research' (yeah, pinch of salt etc), Downes and Bragg only spent 1 minute (excluding injury time) on the pitch together during our unbeaten run in the second half of last season.... so, yep, its certainly not a pairing that Eckert would call upon out of choice vs necessity.

I'd rather we signed a winner to be honest...

A win

If Quarshie isn't good enough to play in a promotion chasing championship team, why on Earth did we buy him in the first place...?

I've actually liked what I've seen when he's played before. Yes, he's not the finished article by any stretch of the imagination, but he gives us the physical presence and pace that's a tad lacking with Stephens and THB.

I'm hoping that our below par start was mainly down to a somewhat half-baked pre-season and that once we're firing on all cylinders then 'normal service' will resume. We need to address the large Shea Charles sized gap in midfield pronto though... If we were 7 points off an auto-promotion spot around Christmas, we'd probably fancy our chances of closing the gap, so nowhere near panic stations yet...

Eh? I thought most of the squad were "mediocre championship players"...?

And, what's more, we'd have come away with at least a point if Bazunu had been playing....

Yeah, but Tonda can't possibly ignore the 'stats computer', which no doubt indicated that Larin should only play a set number of minutes, regardless of how well he was playing... It's the modern game, innit...

Obligatory yellow for Downes

Was just thinking that. Edozie didn't feature much on in pre-season either, did he?