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Pre-season - Aston Villa (H) Tue 18 July, 7.45pm

Reports and reaction from the 2017-2018 season as Walsall finished 19th in League 1
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chunkster
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Re: Pre-season - Aston Villa (H) Tue 18 July, 7.45pm

Tue Jul 18, 2017 10:38 pm

Exile wrote:
chunkster wrote:on another note, who was Villas 25? thought he was superb reminded me of big dave that played for the Albion :)

Chris Samba. Think they stole him from a basketball team!
:lol: the Harlem Globetrotters theme is running through my mind now :lol:

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chunkster
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Re: Pre-season - Aston Villa (H) Tue 18 July, 7.45pm

Tue Jul 18, 2017 10:39 pm

El_Nombre wrote:
Exile wrote:
chunkster wrote:on another note, who was Villas 25? thought he was superb reminded me of big dave that played for the Albion :)

Chris Samba. Think they stole him from a basketball team!


He looked like he will get ripped apart in the championship. The guy can't turn around!
He doesn't need to :lol:

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Exile
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Re: Pre-season - Aston Villa (H) Tue 18 July, 7.45pm

Wed Jul 19, 2017 1:57 am

saddla wrote:Hey you lot.
You're not allowed to say anything positive on here.
Bunch of Happy Clappers :mrgreen:

You should see the villatalk forum. Makes UTS look like sweetness and light!

Walsallone
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Re: Pre-season - Aston Villa (H) Tue 18 July, 7.45pm

Wed Jul 19, 2017 8:24 am

Thanks for the reports...so despite all the gloom and doom we might be ok if we can find a striker. Anybody know what is the matter with O'Conner?

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Re: Pre-season - Aston Villa (H) Tue 18 July, 7.45pm

Wed Jul 19, 2017 8:52 am

PT wrote:Good to see the M6 moving so well midweek.

All round a promising night.



Sure was. I spotted at least two Land Rover trailers on the M6. It doesnt matter what time of day you observe that stretch between 10A and 7 you will always see at least one LR trailer. How many must pass through each day? 50 odd at least I reckon. Will be even more when we stop buying German cars.

Wyrley Saddler 66
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Re: Pre-season - Aston Villa (H) Tue 18 July, 7.45pm

Wed Jul 19, 2017 9:19 am

GK Gilespie - untested , but looked OK
RB Devlin - looks like a good acquisition
LB Leahy - Also impressed
CB Wilson - best defender and all round footballer that I have seen for a while, an improvement on O'Connell
CB Guthrie - defending good, footwork looks a little suspect
RM Morris - never been a fan, his positioning is woeful - should be swapped to left occassionally
LM Edwards - OK, but not a left winger
CM Chambers - Good solid and dependable
CM Cuvelier - one of his best games, a little too deep at times as chambers should be the defensive
AM Oztumer - we know what he can do but marked out of the game
ST Bakayoko - below par - should have scored, Jackson would be preferred

Overall a promising performance

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Rushall Saddler
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Re: Pre-season - Aston Villa (H) Tue 18 July, 7.45pm

Wed Jul 19, 2017 2:22 pm

ShropsSaddler wrote:Well I do hope some of the doom-mongers and panic merchants are going to come on here tonight and admit they were hasty?!? We played our first eleven for the first 70 minutes and that wasn't a bad display at all, against a decent Villa team. We're certainly not going to be troubling the top of the table without additions, but I doubt we're going to be relegated in September either!

First of all, credit where credit is due.....Whitney certainly knows a player when he sees one. Whoever had the idea to look up north is a genius, we appear to have signed two gems, one polished, the other unpolished. I'd reckon by the end of the season, both Devlin and Leahy will be loved by the fans.

And then, at centre half, he appears to have brought in two players who are both better than what we've got. Again, well done Whitney.

Goalkeeper - looks fine. Hard to tell, he didn't have too many saves to make, but what he did, he did well.

Two glaring problems as far as I'm concerned;

i) Up front - I'd humbly suggest that Makris would have offered more than Bakayoko did this evening. His effort was poor, his touch was awful and, when he did finally get the chance (through making a good run), he missed. I wish we could have seen Jackson on earlier because he seemed to offer a lot more in his time on the pitch. But neither is going to get the goals or lead the line in the way we need

ii) Morris - he's going further and further backwards in terms of development. And for those who say it's since Smith left, perhaps you'll remember that Smith wasn't playing him that often in our successful season because he clearly didn't rate him good enough. He's not.

That aside, Chambers may be getting old, but he's a wise head and you can see that the plan this season is to allow Devlin and Leahy to fly forward whilst Chambers drops into a back three. Good plan, saves his legs and uses his know-how. Oztumer will shine in League One again and Edwards has 5-10 goals in him this year. Cuvelier is the unknown - if he stays fit, he could be very important.

So, all in all, plenty to be pleased about but plenty still to do.


This.

If Bakayoko attempted to control the ball rather than trying little flicks with no conviction, he'd be a lot better player.

Agree about Flo, keep him fit (which is obviously a massive ?), him and Oztumer could run rings round some teams in this League.

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chunkster
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Re: Pre-season - Aston Villa (H) Tue 18 July, 7.45pm

Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:11 pm

I was out with my 2 nephews last night and they were well impressed with the way we played against them, ozy in particular :)

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