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Villa are taking this rivalry seriously. They’ve only gone and outdone us

No Renton, you've got it wrong "UAE" are actually really nice and Man City are a proper club according to the mackems.

The bottom line on Howe. If the numerous chances we had, were scored, we would have won comfortably. The team he put out was “good” enough to win.

I will not be participating in dry January during this event. Might get to the Trent at about 11am.

Is this the week CT has finally got the hang of this football lark?

I agree with CT (may the lord have mercy on my soul)

ASM is another player I personally look forward to being gone from the club. I know it’s probably controversial as many love him but he’s never going to click under Howe iyam. He’s a player that suits being the big fish in a small pond, being the focus of the attack and not being overly burdened with having a strict role or defensive responsibility. As for Shelvey I’ve watched the lazy bastard for 8 years, the only thing he brings to the team is he can play that DM role and free Bruno up. Once we sign someone for that role it’s time he went, the amount of times he cost us over the years with giving up on covering runners, wayward absurd passes, and general stupidity lashing out at opponents means it’s time to go. I know for whatever reason after a handful of decent games under Howe there’s some that want to keep him but personally I can’t stand the player.

i think this phase will be remembered as the most exciting. it’ll soon get boring in a few years time when we’ve won every bit of silverware going and our supporter base morphs into an entitled set of arseholes who boo when we fail to dispatch every opponent by at least three goals at SJP. those of us lucky enough to have been here will whisper: i remember when we lost to Wednesday in the cup

Yep. Willock has been playing well and Joelinton provides energy and progresses the ball nicely. I do agree that Longstaff lacks quality but in his defence his game is about running and covering and being an engine for others. He's never going to run a game or grab the headlines. We need a player like him but we need a player like that is better in every respect. We're not far away. We've created the chances but there's patches every now and again when the ball won't go in the net. It'll turn. It's not like we're playing particularly badly. I still enjoyed the game last night. I think we'll see the goalscoring take-off again soon enough. Wilson, for example, basically hasn't played for two months because of the WC and he barely trained since because of illness. He'll come good quickly. He's a quality player when he's sharp. Isak too. I think it's worth remembering that he is one of the top striking prospects in the world. Perhaps we've forgotten because we've seen so little of him. Wood is turbo shit. No excuses there. Poor bloke. He seems like a wuality human. But fuck me he lacks so much that a PL striker requires. Hopefully we can be in a position within the next 12 months that we can offload him because his place in the squad is no longer tenable. Someone else mentioned it. A stark point about our squad is that it completely lacks talented youngsters. There is nothing by way of academic graduates to speak of and Anderson does not convince me at all. And FA Cup 3rd round matches make that apparent. I look forward to the first time we have an 18 y-o like Rico Lewis at City who has recently come into their side looks like a worldy straight out of the box. This will all happen for us soon enough. It's annoying in the present that half our squad is still turbo shit but it's exciting for the future because it will change. These will be the days we look back on fondly in the years to come as the team transitions out of this awkward teenager type phase of quality first XI sprinkled with absolute crap off the bench. It's like we're some hot young thing with acne and braces or something. It's awkward but it's a phase.

I thought Anderson’s miss was the worst of the lot tbh. It was the easiest chance of the evening

One thing is certainly clear, we don’t have a squad capable of competing in both the league and European competition. There’s a big summer coming up for us.

You can always rely on Villa to embarrass themselves to the point our defeat at Sheff Wed doesn't look bad. Takes the shade off us. Well done lads.

The side put out were good enough to win. They played like all they would have to do is turn up. I didn't know enough about Sheffield Wednesday to comment on their side, but they played well and were definitely more hungry for it. I turned to my mate after 5 mins yesterday and said I had a feeling it wasn't going to be our day and it annoyingly proved to be right. Howe did try to rescue it by bringing the big guns on, but I think this was more born out of the fact we were losing to a League One side for the second year running. He made some comments a couple of months ago about not ever wanting to make those mistakes again. In hindsight, we don't currently have the resources to battle on 3 fronts so it was probably a blessing. If we beat Leicester on Tuesday it'll soon be forgotten. The saddening thing of all for me is how cheapened the FA Cup has become. As a kid it was the pinnacle of the football season but too many teams treat it like a necessary evil.

Was good catching up with @PaddockLadthe other day and having a bit dance.

those of us of a certain vintage will remember the 4-2 defeat at hillsborough in '83 and the crushing at the turnstiles and in the ground. they had to open up the restricted view left hand corner to relieve it. still remember the coppers hat been chucked about in there! anyway, leppings lane is a notoriously narrow funnel leading to the turnstiles, especially when the culture was for the vast majority of supporters not to leave the pub till the last minute. the chant of how man, hey man which accompanied the jostling to get in to position at the turnstiles could very well have originated at hillsborough, it was certainly always very prominent there.

I don't blame Howe for resting one or two given the game at arsenal and the QF coming up but four of the back 5 including GK was maybe a bit much considering how much some are lacking, you compound that by putting the likes of Ritchie, Anderson and Murphy in front of them and you're dicing with a KO. We all have our doubts about Lascelles and Lewis looked like he was Olly Murrs playing in a charity match, especially early on, Manquillo got a nosebleed on the counter and Murphy was Murphy who follows through in his shorts when he's got a break on and could score. Agree with Alex regarding Ritchie, finished now after being helped on his way by Bruce playing him out of position for so long. The Geordie maradona doesn't convince me so far although it is early but he just looks another graduate who will play in the lower leagues ATM. Like I say, Howe had a congestion/injury problem and yesterday showed just much he must surely know he'll be fucked if he's got to rely on some of these.

The next patron excess funds can go towards a new shift for thebrokenkey.

OP

Well the worry that a couple of injuries could derail the season just took on a whole new meaning after today's performance. We could really do with a couple of upgrades this window. Even if nothing spectacular. A couple of players that aren't absolutely tragic and can hold their own when needed

I was in a whiskey shop in Inveraray a few years ago perusing their various wares and picked one off the shelf that had essentially a numbered, signed white label on it. I asked about it and the wifey with a totally normal tone replied that it was very raisiny and a perfect breakfast whisky. I bought it.

I've lived here for nearly 40 years and never been served my morning whisky in a pizza box. Now I feel like I've been missing out.

3 signings in then. Mint

And everyone who hates Villa

Honestly I've got a Mackem 'mate' who hasn't posted on Facebook for absolutely months. Then last night he pipes up with this .... the knob!

Apart from the Leicester game we’ve missed chances to win all the other games we’ve drawn or lost since the restart. Our form in general isn’t as good as our mid Octoberish peak. but we’ve played ok. This is in a way reassuring, most teams have peaks and troughs. If the chances go in we settle into a rhythm and see games out fairly easily. Some new faces will give the squad fresh impetus. Those having a wee dig at Eddie last night n the immediate aftermath of a disappointing result hopefully have pause to think on this morning…. mind if Leicester put us out we’re putting some posters on suicide watch

I felt bad for him when the camera focused on him about a minute after the chance. He looked tortured. Still no excuse for a striker in any of the four divisions not to hit the target there, but he looked like his head had gone.

That wood miss btw

I thought Joe Linton was very good yesterday. I also loved some of the glimpses of how good Izak is going to be when he’s fully match fit. He has this tilting bend in his body around the box where you can tell he’s ready to make the runs. Once we get used to feeding him, he’s going to bag lots of goals.

The deficits in our first XI are clear to see - We have very little in the way of goals or assists from the left wing. ASM isn't trusted and Joelinton is better at CM - We have minimal creativity in midfield. Bruno can't do it all on his own, Longstaff is a clogger and Willock is regressing - Our 2 CFs have been sick notes for months and Wood is awful. I'd rather have Joelinton deputising up front. I'm rapidly losing patience with Wilson too

Surprisingly unmoved by our exit for some reason. Thought we played ok, even with all the changes, we created plenty but just can't finish. Wrote it off when Anderson chance was saved tbh (posted as much at the time) on the subject of Anderson I see zero evidence of "wonderkid" about him at all, hope he proves me wrong. Their first goal was offside (as was ours) their second created by a lovely little header into space by Bruno G. For fucks sake 🙄 We were comfortably the better team IMO, but unless we start converting some of these perfectly good chances we create we're going to continue to struggle (Leeds, Arsenal and now Sheff Wed, close, but no cigar). Wood can only come on/play again when we have 30 seconds left before a penalty shoot out.

Replay for Liverpool is great news. Keep that fixture congestion up. Match will be played midweek for them, in between Brighton away and Chelsea at home - both already hard fixtures. How awful.

Have you heard of the shift button?

It’s still just a poor man’s Wykiki though.

Ah fuck bloke on the Athletic podcast recommended Stevenage as a good bet to beat Villa. And I straight up ignored it.

I mean the answer to that is factually just "yes". These things happen in football. But maybe they should just reflect what they have written.

It would be amusing if they decided the winner of FA Cup would go into Champions League. It would be taken seriously then.

Trouble is we've seen time and again wholesale changes can put you in bother. Like I said, it's hard to blame Howe too much if at all but there's one or two who haven't done their prospects of staying at the club in the long run any favours at all.

Should give him a squad number, give him reserve games and hoy him on the bench for the odd 10 mins here and there as a sub. Fuck sake can’t be any worse than his antipodean neighbour .

Tielemans has been mooted on our forums but it seems the fact that Leicester fans fans seem to want him gone has put many off. Plus it's thought he just isn't that good. City forums have also mentioned arsenals Ødegard and your Bruno. Both are deemed as unobtainable though. Rightly so in my opinion.

I think willock’s been mostly excellent this season I agree about the midfield creativity conundrum though. Great to see Joe back in that position but we’re lacking any creativity centrally without Bruno and Shelvey.

i agree that these players will need to be replaced in line with the club’s new ambitions but tbf to Howe he had to rotate in this game. Murphy and Manquillo have both done well for him in the past. We can’t get rid of all of them overnight but they will all go eventually. our first team is class but I hope last night forces the owners to act in the transfer market as the lack of squad depth was exposed. We haven’t got the quality in reserve to make that many changes (yet) - even against a league one side. credit to Wednesday though. They were brilliant

They’re both finished tbf, and aye I’m aware Murphy is 27. Hopefully we see a response in this one, at least we will likely see a lot less of the real scrubs left from the Ashley era - had my fucking fill for the season seeing some of them. I know some fans have a new found liking for a lot of them but I personally don’t have time for a lot of them, I aim a ton of blame at a Bruce but a lot of those players deserve a sizable portion too which is why I can’t wait to see the back of them. Seeing Manquillos name on the team sheet always fills me with dread for example. Again totally understand this will take time but I really look forward to the day they’re all gone (Jonjo Shelvey included, I’ll be fucking buzzing when he finally isn’t darkening the door of SJP).

I honestly can't see what murphy offers at all. let's give howe the benefit of the doubt and accept his statement that maximan was poorly, although he clearly looked uncomfortable when questioned on this, there's no way on gods green earth murphy should be ahead of the frenchman in the pecking order for a place in the team and I'm not his biggest fan. if there's any truth in the rumours of a bust up it must've been a bad one to prefer murphy because he's shite. as for wood.... the mackems are apparently on the bones of their arses financially, offer them £6m and wood for stewart and I'd be astonished if they didn't tell us to fuck off. wood should be nowhere near a club with hopes of a top four place or even a one with hopes of a place in the championship play off places.

Both should be in the squad tbh. Not saying I rate them but they’re much more useful than Ritchie or Lewis (for example). It’s not like we’ve got better players to take their places

thread title

@Tom you called it when you questioned the thread title @Dr Gloom

Well done, mate. Fully deserved and you look a very well drilled unit. Best of luck for the rest of the season. You cunt