Aston Villa Banter 4

12 Feb 2026 15:42:33
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Matchday 25 - Quick Round Up

12 Feb 2026 12:47:59
Been a Villan for over 60 years and seen a fair share of ups and downs in that time.
Last night’s performance wasn’t great but the result was.
Spent far too many seasons worrying about whether we were going to score a goal, win a game or get relegated.


I’m not in the least bit bothered that we didn’t play well. I look at the league table and see Aston Villa in third place and it’s like manna from Heaven. UTV

12 Feb 2026 14:55:54
Big Tone if we were offered this position, at start of the season, we would have snatched their hand off . I complain about individual performances but, taking our season start, bad injuries, over all we can’t complain.UTV

12 Feb 2026 12:32:41
Afternoon all

Yes, last night was a hard watch. And frustrating. But everyone on this forum would have taken a 1-0 win at 7:30pm last night, regardless of how we got it.

Moaning about playing out from the back is daft. That's what we've done since Emery has been manager. Our game is based on possession, the start of which is retaining the ball from our goal kick. If you don't like that, you'll be forever unhappy with the current set up.

In fairness, we did change it up last night. We did go long from some of the goal kicks and played it long out of defense. We also brought on two wingers in Bailey and Alysson who helped stretch the pitch. So efforts were made to change things - but still at heart we are about retaining the ball.

What is abundantly clear in recent weeks is how important Tielemans, Kamara, Rogers and McGinn are to how we play and our success. The two holding midfielders (the double pivot) are key - taking the ball when facing their own goal, moving it quickly, bringing Rogers into play. Rogers is key as he just seems able to make things happen no matter what. McGinn is key as he brings an energy and dynamism not seen in other players. And he gee's the crowd up. We're missing 3 of these 4.

Luiz hasn't played many minutes this season, so looks rusty. He'll come good. Onana is up and down at the moment, at his best when breaking down play and striding forward. But, sadly, they aren't YT and BK.

So we have to get the best we can out of what we have. We're going to keep playing the same way - we'll mix it up at times, and we do now have genuine width and pace on both wings. But we'll still ultimately be 4-2-3-1, with the 2 being the conductors of our orchestra.

Finally, shout out to Matty Cash. Much maligned in his time at Villa, sorely missed last night and one of our players of the season so far.

11 Feb 2026 22:37:54
They looked knackered again, Rogers looked like he'd been bad in bed all week . The one shining light was the kid, shame we couldn't play him in his usual spot on the right . Shame Mings had that goal taken off him . A win is what we needed, keeps it rolling,
Can't believe how bad Brighton where, last season the football they played was great to watch .

The footballs gone out the window, to be replaced by see how many fouls you can get away with . Once again the ref let them get away with a fair few . UTV

11 Feb 2026 22:30:09
So anyone that didn't previously know that Ratcliffe was such a completely out-of-touch kn*b-head before - they do now😡. I'm inclined to think that the 'fit and proper' ownership criteria should be revisited

12 Feb 2026 09:23:54
What’s he done now menace?

11 Feb 2026 22:09:27
Good result, hard watch. I think it will be like this at least until our first choice midfield is back and hopefully not until the end of the season. But we need to support the XI that are on the pitch, the squad is paper thin and stretched to the limit, so performances like we delivered when we were on to our winning run aren't going to be coming any time soon unfortunately.


I think now we have Abraham available we need to give Ollie a rest.

11 Feb 2026 22:55:40
Lotm saying tonight, doomed may not agree but we’re missing Ginny . He gets the crowd going and his energy, drives us forwards. UTV

12 Feb 2026 09:31:15
Definitely miss him, it’s true he’s not at his best every single game but he has way more good games than bad ones I’d give him a 3 or 4:1 ratio.

11 Feb 2026 20:43:18
I know we're missing out 3 best players from this season but the rest of the team can surely do better than this.
Watkins hasn't been right all season.
Lose this and our season will really start unravelling.

11 Feb 2026 22:02:12
It was very poor trinity, players walking around all second half, we look jaded and Luiz looks like he hadn’t a clue what to do with the ball, Bogard good defensively but offers nothing else as a fullback.

they say the best teams find a way to win when not at their best so that’s the bit of positivity I’m going to latch onto 😀 horrible game but massive MASSIVE 3 points.

11 Feb 2026 22:33:30
Trinity, one word sums tonight's performance Awful. Tonights game followed exactly the same pattern as Everton and Brentford, 270 minutes and six halves of football all exactly the same tactics. Slow boring play with absolutely no idea. Surely our world class manager should be able to adapt our tactics. We are far too easily to play against. How often do we have to watch Martinez to Konsa back to Martinez back to Konsa and then to Maatsen only for him to get hemmed in by the corner flag and lose the ball, it's absolutely ridiculous easy as teams force us into repeating ourselves.

Watkins is a spent force and to be brutal he is clueless without the abilities control the ball and what did we do, ship Malen out. If Emery doesn't change things soon we will be lucky to make any level of Europe. This poor clueless football has to change. Is it surprising the ground was like a morgue for most of the game.

11 Feb 2026 22:40:13
Unfortunately for us our whole tactical basis for attack is pretty much through the middle. That strong central midfield unit has, to some extent at least, masked what a few of us think has been glaringly obvious for some time - whilst others over the last year or two have debated the quality of central defenders and full backs, the overall ability of our attacking unit has been behind the rest of the team by some way. Obviously all areas could be improved upon in someway, as they could for any team, but without our best midfielders the emphasis is on our attacking players to create and affect games more.and they're clearly coming up short, with the exception of Rogers who must be in danger of running out of gas trying to do it all himself.


If we're lucky, we can keep in touch while we await the return of a few key players, but either way, I suspect a major overhaul in the summer is coming.
Not great tonight, but credit to those who battled and never game up.

12 Feb 2026 06:53:24
Some deluded comments creeping back in I'm afraid.
Take 3 starting midfielders out of any top team and they will struggle just as much.
Arsenal wouldn't be top 4 without Rice, Odegaard and Zubimendi.
City miss Rodri when he is injured, imagine adding Silva and Foden at the same time.
Liverpool without Szoboslai, Gravenberch and Macallistar would be struggling for top half.
No team is going to be anywhere near their best in our situation.

Picking on the forwards isn't helpful, it's the job of those behind to give them something to work with rather than waiting until they are surrounded by 3 defenders.
Work needs to be done in the summer, Onana, Kamara and Barkley all spend way too long on the sidelines, we are better off losing 2 and replacing with 1 who is at least consistently fit.

{Ed001's Note - mate Liverpool are struggling for top half with those 3!!! Let alone without them.}

12 Feb 2026 09:38:06
We’re not deluded saying our midfield is poor, obviously the injured players are a huge part of this, nothing we can do about what players we can use but they need to improve, onana good defensively but nearly every pass forward goes to the opposition, Luiz is too slow with the final ball, Buendia has gone missing since the Newcastle game, Roger’s can’t do it all on his own, sancho is actually the only one improving at the minute, him and Roger’s have some chemistry starting to show.

12 Feb 2026 10:37:15
Rk, I think you might have missed my point about the forwards and 'picking on them'. You've basically agreed with most of my point that any team, particularly ours given our set up, would miss their three top midfielders. As an objective view on our whole team though, I think most would agree that, Rogers aside, you'd be hard pressed to find any other top six team in which any of our front players would get in the starting eleven.and that really shows when they're exposed, but also when we're at full strength to be honest.

That's not to say they shouldn't have our absolute backing during games, but if you think that observations like that aren't accurate or 'deluded' then that's entirely up to you.

12 Feb 2026 16:34:43
You won't get back up midfielders improving to the level of the starters. If they do, someone leaves because either they want guaranteed first team football or wages that we can't afford to pay a backup player.
Expecting 3 or 4 forward players to run rings around 6/7 defenders without effective support is the foolhardy part. Ollie has had his struggles but the likes of Sancho, Buendia and Rogers can't work miracles when the others aren't passing anywhere near them or at least helping to create some space.


The big issue last night for me was the lack of tackles in the middle third, a lot of our big chances come from transitions starting within 10-15 yards of that centre circle.

12 Feb 2026 17:01:49
I've not seen any comments on here suggesting that our back up midfielders should be expected to be as good or better than our first choice or that our attacking players should be expected to run rings round the opposition by themselves. You've lost me now mate. Off to the pub.

11 Feb 2026 20:26:50
Emery needs to light a fire under everyone at half time, 10 shots 1 on target, messing about way to much at the back we are going to get punished, need to move the ball faster and get Watkins off the pitch he's as useful as a chocolate teapot

11 Feb 2026 22:39:37
Whack, Watkins gets worse every game and Abrahams is definitely not the answer. Whoever sanctioned the Malen move wants shooting. Sancho, Dougie Bailey Abrahams are not the answer to our problems and again our transfer policy is definitely not helping matters. Guessand was our highest cost recent singing and that sums up our recruitment policy.

11 Feb 2026 07:39:08
{Ed's Note - BullysBoy II has posted a new article entitled, Wolves Selection Debates Need Better Perspective

10 Feb 2026 22:24:44
Man Utd 95th equaliser, jammy buggers, but once again, scores could have gone worse .UTV

10 Feb 2026 22:20:18
We would definitely settle for Chelsea and Man Utd dropping points, If we don't take advantage by winning tomorrow it will be a massive lost opportunity. To many more home defeats could prove to be the decisive factor in champions league qualification.

10 Feb 2026 22:02:39
The other lads in claret and blue are doing us a favour so far 🔨🔨

10 Feb 2026 10:02:56
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Liverpool v Manchester City - A Quick Liverpool Perspective