Analysing Aston Villa's start to the season ahead of Forest

0:00Hello and welcome to the Claret and Blue Podcast. I'm your host Dan Rowlinson, joined by John Townley to preview the Nottingham Forest game. It's Thursday lunchtime as we record this well before the press conference. So we're going to take everything with a pinch of salt, John, things can change, injury news, etc. We're going to try and do a predicted 11. But more just a general catch up really. We did an episode while you were in Bruges before the Champions League game, which was mailbox. So we just wanted to kind of chat really about various elements of the team whilst also looking ahead to the weekend's fixture. A three o'clock kickoff at Villa Park. Got the kickoff song right this week. That's good. How's things going? Yeah, yeah, good mate. Good. I'm glad that we've got our first win and our belts. Yeah, not looking forward to the break though. But I think because we've been sort of anticipating it for a while. Okay, we know it's going to come. And even if we do have some really good

1:00form before that, I'll just take that as well. I'm glad we had good form rather than, you know, stuttering still. So yeah, hopefully we can continue after being Bruges, get a couple more wins under our belts, hopefully, and crack on. Need a league win, don't we? Because I think most people probably looked to the commentary game in the cup and how seriously we take that is a talking point in itself. But you'd think Villa should be able to win there as well. Forest and Tottenham, you know, not going to be easy, but nice job. A win in the season, but you need a Premier League win. Pretty quick. Yeah, no, I definitely do agree with that because as I mentioned, you go into the break then. And if we've only got, let's say two more points because we drew to Forest and Spurs, then it feels like, oh, all of a sudden, we're going to win that Gamer against Brentford. And you know, all of a sudden, you feel a bit of like pressure, should we say, going into games, whereas last season, we obviously had a dreadful start and then we picked up quickly and won several games in a row. I think it was, Fulham and then Bernley was it? And then Spurs were in there as well somewhere.

2:03So that felt like a period where we could target wins. Fulham and Bernley at home, that was okay. That's nice. But Spurs away after Forest at home isn't easy, even though Spurs don't have a great home record, but the Forest match, I think, will be trickier as we'll speak about today. Plasma, the system, he plays and Forest and General just do have some good players. And they haven't won this season though, but I imagine that this season, they will be a, you know, a tough not to crack, should we say? So we'll have to play to a good level to try and beat them. Absolutely. I've got one comment from the mail back that I wanted to use to kind of tee up this episode because we're not doing it live, obviously for those anyone who's watching with Contellate's not live and it's well before the presser. So we don't want to do a huge, kind of team use segment because it could be out of date, come to a clock on Friday. This isn't aimed at you, John and Dan, because I feel you're pretty balanced and I believe anyone has the right to be annoyed by performances or specific situations. But I need someone to break down how there can actually be any negativity around anything at the club genuinely can't

3:04understand it. These are the best times we've had for many years considering outside noise and other outlets are pushing negativity our way. We should be back in our club all the way. I do also understand pessimism and fear in the worse, but come on, which I wanted to use a bit of like because we've got no structure, I want to almost look at everything. I want to pick out few individual players and just look at how we've started the season, I suppose. Kind of a bit of an assessment. So I've got a list of eight players here and obviously we've still not seen some of the new boys, but we've seen a couple of them Suzuki and Jackson, seen a bit of Jalgo and those as well, which I wanted to start with him. It looked really good in a little bit of the bright and gay, I want to say, he lost his head, but really good against Bruce. And they can't play against Forest because he's still suspended, of course, which is a you've kind of built this momentum of like, oh, he's a big help in the Champions League. He can't play the next one. He will be really useful, I said in the post, much, with Sam that I think if he was available for the rest of the bright and game and Arsenal and

4:06Hull, I think we'd have more than one point. No, I agree with that. The bright and game is just a complete right off to be honest. After that, it was just a case of this season, it's only going to be 37 games. And even the opposite game is a bit annoying because although the key instance, well, key instance match panel is also like, I can't go wrong. You know, the refs seem to now give a decision of, oh, no, this should have happened. Yeah, the change of mind. Yeah. Yeah, they seem to think that the Natson Falon Bruno Gamerash was a penalty and it should have been a second yellow as all. But anyway, the point of the make is that I don't think that we would have lost that games, lost that game, sorry, many times, had we played it 10 or just later in the season or even now, to be honest. But equally, we did draw to Hull and we should have won that game, McGinn scores or Wendy scores his chance as well. So yeah, it's the negativity. I assume there's always going to be some, I just think expectations of, I don't feel like I did less this time last year.

5:11No, no, because I think last year was very like these guys have done really well for us for a long period of time and all of a sudden this is just like, it looked like it just collapsed on the pitch, like what's going on. This is very different because we've got new players and we, we should all understand that this will take time. We've only seen a few of our new signings anyway. Mainly, I was talking to someone under their journalists before the game while I was eating my raw tomatoes with some sort of beef stew. It was interesting. It was just a warm. Yeah, but you'd expect it to be cooked, no? It was just like cold tomatoes, like not great. I know that would get you a... But I got a minute. That's the real one, the real one, the big one. In what raw tomatoes, in a meal, it was in a dish, yeah, it was basically, it's like, it's exactly what we had in brews two years ago or last year. Still so in the same way. In the breast box, ladies. Yeah, different food, the same thing. So it's like a beef stew sort of thing, which is decent,

6:13and then we have chips with it. But then there was like a side salad and they put some tomatoes in my plate. I know there's no problem. I did have them, but yeah, like cold tomatoes just chopped in essentially gravy. Oh, it's fun. Okay, interesting. It was in a salad though, and it was just in the... Well, it was on my plate in gravy. Okay, that is a good word. First of all, problems, etc. Oh, that's a good word. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, over the papers incident as well, there are a few questions asking for further clarification on how was your bag? Is it beyond your diet? Well, I took a risk because the next day I bought exactly the same thing, but I took great a care with them. I haven't smelt about my bag. No, so we'll have to check on that as and when, but I think it's okay. But the point I was going to make was that when I was having my dinner, we were talking about villa, you know, 2.0, but really this was still the same villa,

7:13really, apart from maybe a couple of other players. And obviously a weaker version of where we were last season because I started 11 and being stripped away, really. So it was almost like a villa, 0.5 if you look at it that way. But the addition is that we'll talk about soon in Jackson and Suzuki, Gov. as well. So a bit of a spine forming there. Yeah, absolutely played key roles in that win over the illusion. We'll speak about them individually, but yeah, that is I think going to become a key feature in the coming days, should we say, even for the next two league games that I'm hoping that those players we will see more from, I know, Gomez can't play to be fair, but get my point. And that's where we're going to sort of pin our excitement on. And obviously, the time he's coming in and buys coming in and you have gone after him still to hopefully get some form. And some of the guys as well, Harvard Bellis, but I think the immediate new signings, it's those guys that we'll be looking to as the leaders should we say to Booster, I mean, yeah, we know that a season

8:15kind of ed some flows. And if we aren't to beat Forest at the weekend, that doesn't then swing the dial back to like, oh, this is the end of the world again, but you can't in need the the bruise result to kickstart the league season as well, right? If you want to lose against Forest, but no, it doesn't make bruise irrelevant. But if you're trying to build some kind of a mentor, to get a positive as organs, Forest, then commentary, and then maybe top them, if it feels like, okay, well, Arsenal brought in and Hall weren't brilliant, but the following three or four, I've been, oh, pretty good now. And almost that break has come at a time of, okay, we're all looking forward to it. It feels like we're kind of halting momentum a little bit. I'll take that because it means we've at least had some momentum in the first place. So yeah, a positive result against Forest and getting some of those new players in there, whether off the bench or starting would feel like, okay, this is all now starting to click. Yeah, yeah, to go back to the question about what is so much negativity. I don't feel that negativity myself though. No, I don't. I think that's more, I don't know, like engage with the things you want to engage with if people are being negative,

9:18just sort of shut out like a villida really, whether that's coming off social media or whatever, do you know what I mean? I don't feel the negativity. I think this is great. Back in the Champions League, again, we just want to trophy. We've signed lots of new players that I'm really excited for. If you go through the youngsters that we have, Madjo, Alison, Manzambi, Hemings as well. Yeah, there's two that I've definitely missed off that I feel bad about, but you get my point. Even younger players that aren't teenagers, so Jackson's young by his standards, going as young by a standard, Howard Bellis as well. Probably for a match and into that too, like Suzuki as well. So this is a, yeah, a really exciting team that we have with the best manager in the league. I'm not feeling any negativity. And we said before, like the games against Hull, even before Bruce, don't expect this to click straight away because it literally can't. Some of our players just aren't playing at the moment or are injured and that's fine. It will take time. But if you're going to get caught up in

10:20people saying, oh my god, we're going to finish in the bottom half because we haven't beaten Hull. Well, that's up to you if you want to sort of deal with those opinions and every opinion is fine, but I think we have a lot of date issue we say to go off in the last four years that we'll be, that we'll be okay. And again, if you can't be excited by the signings that we've made and the youngsters that we have, and by was the other one that I missed out. Then we, yeah, I don't think we will get excited by many other things. This podcast is sponsored by NordVPN for the best discount code available. There's a link in the description down below. You can head to NordVPN.com forward slash Claret and Blue and you get four months for free when you sign up to the two-year plan. There's a 30-day money back guarantee if you're not satisfied with your Nord subscription, but it'll keep you safe online in public Wi-Fi when you're traveling, when you're abroad, all those kinds of things. So, if you want to get on board with Nord, there's a link in the description down below. Let's go in through some of those players then Suzuki is probably the standout new signing so far. I mean,

11:20it's obviously it's here, more Jackson isn't it really. And we've talked for, well, since I also might probably even back into the last year, replacing Martin as is going to be a task. And we still need to see more from Suzuki. It's been four games, but it's distribution. If nothing else, he's so good. I saw a stat you post to do to ensure you're real off in a second about his long-bore success compared to some of the other outfield players in the league. He's excellent. He's don't know, Kay kind of shot-stopping. He's had the couple against Arsenal, which were offside anyway, but he's still had to make the save. So my biggest concern with replacing Martin as was always, what if we watch him in those first few games and we're going, oh my god, this guy's just knob to it and we've made a huge area here. The kind of weight off the shoulders to not feel that and actually almost feel the other way of, this guy could be better than Martin as in time. Not right second, but in time for all. But the bit that we need him to do when we're playing well and we're in control to help us build from the back, he's already instantly good at that. If he can keep it out of his net as well, which is his job, but it'll be in a very good place for hopefully a long time

12:25because it's exciting. It's really exciting. His distribution is exceptional. It really is. Don't think I've ever felt accelerated by a goalkeeper because usually you just want to feel like you're in safe hands and it's going to be okay and you don't talk about him. Similar to Martin as or even like, concerts, for example, on a different position, but don't talk about him because they're doing the job and that is what you want. But with Suzuki, I did a piece he said that, essentially saying that they'll have rebuilt their attack. They've brought in lots of new players but they've lost creativity and rarages and other players who have departed. What Ginsenged says well, we've finished with the most assist. A couple of three seasons going up in the very first. And usually play Michael Orders. Yeah, I think you had like 11 or 13. 11 or 13. Could also be 12. I assist with those two in the middle of my head, but no one I don't think expected that, should we say a new source of creativity to come from your goalkeeper. And I'm not, you know, overplaying that either by the way. Like in the second, Manigain's Bruges, made the first attack of the game. One, one, one, one, a pasta, one, a sacri, then knocks it to McGinn and all of

13:26some were in the box and when they should probably do better than they did, but made up for, of course, later in the first half. But yeah, it's a real weapon for us. And I always remember when Gaudiola would talk about playing with the goalkeeper being so important and Edison joins and everyone's thinking, oh, goalkeeper playing with his feet, why is this so, so key these days and simplify it so easily, just said, well, we now have an extra man. Someone is always going to be free because you're playing with that extra player in possession because obviously they're goalkeeper isn't marking anyone. So there's always going to be a free man and that goalkeeper is now involved in your in your possession. So yeah, very much so a modern goalkeeper. I'm a little bit concerned still that and it's not anything that he's done Suzuki. It's just I don't think we've got a big enough sample size to say, oh, yeah, he's going to, you know, be an exceptional goalkeeper in regards to handling or to reflexes or whatever it may be. I'm sure he's going to be very good, but I'm a little bit, there may be a moment against forest or spurs or whoever, where he does

14:30let one or maybe two in that you think, I think Mahnes might have saved those. Or maybe not Mahnes was a maybe no Mahnes doesn't save those because you know, yeah, he should have from whoever was scored today in the Arsenal game. But yeah, yeah, I think it was, yeah, but the point being that you know, we had such a strong number one in previous years who would save most things that you expect into and more, but equally I think I would accept the tradeoff of an exceptional ball playing goalkeeper with one that is maybe slightly weaker than Mahnes than what Mahnes was as a traditional goalkeeper, should we say. That's that that you refer to there, Dan, was among the 37 players in the Premier League, so far the season to attempt 20 or more long passes only five have a higher passing accuracy than Suzuki, which is around 57%. Obviously that ranks first for goalkeepers overall as well. So yeah, really good. And that's only of course a really small sample size. I think we know from what we've seen so far that that is a key area to his game and yeah, he's

15:32done very well on a really exciting bow. Let's move throughout the team then into full backs first of all. Obviously, one the soccer played against Bruce to mix three up because then actually I thought and sometimes you get this particularly with social media that obviously everyone's given their opinion. And occasionally you'll get it that everyone thinks John McGinn had a good game for example. And then you'll get another player where it seems like 50% think he was brilliant at 50% think he was awful. And that's kind of where Wimbus Saka led his game to I think the other day where I kind of felt okay, like not amazing. I thought it was really impressive in his cameo against Arsenal. And then when he started I was a bit like yeah, Matt caches the number one here for me. Then other people were like, Wimbus Saka was brilliant against Bruce. I was really impressed with him. I think caches the number one. And obviously he's dependent for his availability against forests. It was muscle soreness was it I think for Bruce. So it is confidier. Expect he should be available for the weekend, but presser will tell us that Wimbus Saka is obviously an upgrade on every other backup right back we've had over the years and one game where I'm not

16:33like bold over by him is not enough to say, are these rubbish? It's not that at all. But that department feels as good as it's been for years. On the other side we haven't seen much of a gerry yet, but Matt looks vastly improved on his time that he's had in a villa shirt so far as well. So it kind of feels like that defences in a better position than it's ever been potentially. Yeah, when you turn it back at right back, my mum instantly went to where's Gilbert playing now? I'm sure maybe one or two others did. I wasn't letting out a Christmas quiz once. I can't tell. Maybe he's playing for, oh it was it was which club did he come through? And it was the can. It wasn't not. When he does play for them now. So I'm glad you said it not me. Yeah, in terms of Wimbus Saka, I think his first half was fine. I was impressed actually by the first half of his first half, should we say. I thought we used the ball really well. Yeah, it basically. I thought we

17:35used the ball well in tight pockets and was linking with decent effects. Again, we saw that in the literally the second minute again. It's probably key role in our first chance. Obviously served up in a couple, maybe more than that overcooked crosses, but we got to understand like this is obviously a play where we did very well for Crystal Palace playing in a certain system. Went to Mani-Narid and didn't quite hit the levels that I think some would have expected him to. And that's because he does have some limitations that clearly haven't been worked on through his career. Sorry, and probably won't be. And that's okay. It is our back at right, back online from West Amaru in the championship. I don't really know what we're expecting here. If he does play well enough that we then sign in permanently. And obviously it's an obligation based on certain conditions. Even for that fear, I think that's relatively modest around what was it? 18 million or so. I was more impressed with Wimbus Saka than not, should we say. I just think he tied out very quickly at the start of that second half. There was a moment it must have been literally minutes

18:36into it where he's charged upfield. The ball's been lost and then he's trying to make his way back and he's like trying to grab the opposition wing as sure. And he's like, oh, I'm thinking, oh god, get like get him off because he's clearly this is going to be a problem for a slayer in the game and actually think that while he wasn't beaten for the second goal, just the fact that he was tied up meant sorry that he wasn't ready. His stance wasn't right to try and block the shot which meant his arms were out here and he didn't mean to humble, didn't mean to handle the ball sorry. But when it hits him again, he's not ready, he's not prepared, his arms should be behind his body ready, but he wasn't because it's mentally he was fatigued and he's not making the right decision. So yeah, first game, you know, what we're really expecting the Champions League away from home. I think he was fine in that first half fitness wise probably should have brought him off at half time, but then what do you do because the last options were limited dead? What would we do? We got it right. I got it wasn't it? Yeah, I got a game on you. So maybe that's what we should have done at half time. Matt, on the other side, have you found his start to

19:37the new season? Yeah, I think is then again, Brian aside because whatever. I think it's been very well in the last few games, but I said I'm a walk-in talk. I've said this a few times in the last two seasons when he's had a few good games and all of a sudden he drops off again and then he's thinking he hasn't built and capitalized on where he was in terms of performance level. So I almost don't really want to talk too much about Matt's in a not in a bad way, but more of a I need to see it now for a couple more and then all of a sudden get some consistency and and then he'll be flying because I really like him as a player. I think he's a perfect profile for what we're trying to do. Obviously we're going to do some different which is needed, but at the same time it's Matt's in the shirt at the moment and you can definitely tell that Emory wants this to work and hopefully there's this season because I'm not going to lie in the summer I did think well if we can make money out of any of these players and in the end it was almost all of them, I did think that Matt's team is probably one that we could let go of and replace, but I'm more than happy

20:37for him to have stayed and especially if he improves from a defensive point of view of the other things that I think which I think he's doing in the last couple of games. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd like you say I want to see it more. Yeah, but even before I'm going to call it he's way better than he was. I think he's shown signs of improvement, but quite easy to have a couple of stinkers and we are. Yeah, he's not compromised on that improvement as you say. Yeah, even against Arsenal, he's kind of lost sacrily in the box, hasn't he? Which is the Arsenal, which is how Arsenal scored sorry. And then again, I think he maybe wrote his look a little bit in terms of the foul or alleged foul on Bruno Girmarache, which then apparently would have then got him into a second of the card and he's sent off and we're talking about, oh, we've got sent off get away in lost sacri in the box. So fun margin, I suppose, when we observe players, but yeah, against brews, he was strong and against all he was okay as well. We're going to bypass midfield, which work a bit about Gormas early on and unavailable for the weekend. So it feels a little bit silly to kind of talk about him too much, we'll see him against commentary potentially. Come our obviously as well, he's playing every minute

21:40at the moment and there isn't loads of options beyond them. Barkley's coming in and adds a few shaky moments, but you know, it's kind of to be expected. Great scope. Unavailable. Forward areas, Heming's versus Garnacho, I've put on my notes here, I'm not in a kind of, we're going to put these head-to-head here, but you're kind of signed on at your thinking that we've had a fair bit of primary experience. Yes, he's a project or whatever you want to call it, but we're talking about potentially 40 million pounds here. You'd expect him to be coming in and starting games. No, I know, if one comes in and starts under Henry Strato, why? But Heming's, he's not somebody who is worked under Henry for five years and has a loads of experience either, he's no one team. So I can see a headline that you would write about Heming's potentially if we hadn't signed Garnacho of George Heming's got to save a million because we don't need to sign another forward because he's actually better than we think. But we've kind of already signed Garnacho if the add-ons are met, I suppose, or the obligation is met. It's a bit like, well Heming's he's actually doing really well, he's started every game, played in the Champions League, he's not the finished article

22:44away, any means, but it looks like he can absolutely do a job in that forward line. He's been impressive and someone that feels like you can already kind of rely on, you've had Alisson come in on the other side and have little moments as well, obviously, yet to see him by, yet to see Manzambi, and yet to really see Garnacho apart from a few minutes here and there. So it still feels like despite being excited about the options we've brought in, it was still looking at McGinay who is here, obviously, Bendy and Heming's a youth prospect and it's like, okay, well, this is actually pretty good, but we still have these other new players to come in and where do they think? What's going to happen? I'm going to just spit on a wall ball. Thank you for that. To be honest, when we talk about that forward line, the moment it's Manzambi, I think, is the one that we're probably going to see more often than Embying Garnacho. Do you think Manzambi starts every game if he's fit? Yeah, it will once he gets up to speed because he's that good. And by the way, so is Embi, but it's just because we have McGin that's cemented and I also think that

23:48Manzambi will be cemented once he gets going and yeah, Embi is well, but he's 18 and hasn't played a lot of football recently. Anything that's important, by the way, he hasn't yeah, he played for Senegal, featured for Senegal in the World Cup, didn't start all the games and didn't play that much for PSG. Last season either, really. So he's really, you can almost say, it's just kind of being promoted out of, he wouldn't say it's just being promoted out of Academy football because he's won two Champions League, but you get what I'm trying to say. It's similar to Heming's in a way, but the difference is that of course, Heming's has been with Ewan R for the last year and trained with the first team for the last year. The only thing he didn't do was play that often, whereas Embi is just joined. It's still very young, Gennius Vanouli, new team mates, I think it's a very different situation. So the patience with him is not a reflection on you know, who and I second guessing it or whatever it may be. It's just simply he hasn't played that much football, one's never played with these teammates when the Premier League. It's been a lot of money, Jackson, but oh no, no, no, we worked, but my point is that this is not a here and now signing. Maybe in a few weeks it will be, but I'm talking like right now, it's not a

24:54case of Jackson where he signs and he has to play. That's unequivocal, he's going to play, and by does not have to be that. He could even have a poor season this season, and I'm so really excited for what it will become this season after. Let's just have some time with him, I think, but none of that is me suggesting that he's not going to have a good season by the way. Gunnatch is a different case, I'll get to him in a sec, but I just feel like, Manzan Bissori is ready to be involved quicker, should we say, than those guys. He's played whole season with Fryberg, played at the World Cup regularly, I know we got an injury, but he did very well at the World Cup too, so once he's back, I think he'll just play. Once he's fit to do so, and then Gunnatch show. Yeah, on Heming's, I thought it was out of signing against Brews, of course, he's had two opportunities, one of them is a really good say about some of the other one he should take, better than he did, but is that an easy young too. But I was more impressed with him against Brews than I have been in any other game, because I just felt like he showed a lot of maturity in that second half, the way that he took the ball. Yeah, maturity is the word for me, because it wasn't necessarily the moments where he'd,

25:58and it's not particularly like flashy player, he's not doing tricks and skills like maybe Alice in the World or sort of gliding past a poem, although he can do that to a point, and he's similar to Ramsay in that way. It was more just how we would understand what to do and when in this structure, and that Femry is obviously crucial, clearly that something that Gunnatch show doesn't know how to do yet, which is to be expected as well. So, really impressed by Heming's, and I think he can have a fantastic season for us, and if he has a Emery's Trust now, he's going to be a very good player. We saw Rogers have Emery's Trust, Ramsay have Emery's Trust, Heming's has that now, and yeah, full praise to him for that. And then we talk about not having a best 11 in that, 11 plays every single week, and that's that, but in those forward options, obviously Jackson is your main striker, my jersey back up when he's back fit, McGinn plays like full stop somewhere, he plays, Manzambi I think the same will play when he's available, if record someone, you don't

26:59don't spend this kind of money at a club like Valorant, you just get away with barely playing, Manzambi plays, so to an extent I always feel the same if I'm bi-bodies obviously much younger. If Manzambi and McGinn are locks to quote modern football, Robbish, who's the third player? Is it Wendy, Gunnatch show? Yeah, it's hard to, right now. Right the second is him. It's difficult, which seems crazy, doesn't it? Well, right the second is McGinn, Wendy, in Emmings, I don't like when we talk about the forest, predicts 11, I'm going to stroll to dislodge one of those players, because they will deserve to be starting unless it's fatigue or whatever, but they do have a week off next week, because of that commentary game, I imagine they'll be rotated or likely anyway, and then you'll probably see Gunnatch you in by maybe Manzambi, maybe, starting you know, it might not be in the forest squad, hopefully he's. But I don't know, this is again, only in the summer, these are the conversations that we said, I hope we're having those chats, but at the moment I don't think we are, or don't think we're

28:01all because of we need to do this that and the other. So I'm glad that we're in this position of I'm not sure. Yeah, I do think that, you know, this is just reliant really on Manzambi and then buying Gunnatch show, hitting it off when they have the opportunity or developing over the course of a season, I think to be fair, Dan are best 11 or best attack, should we say, may look very different from mid-October to what it will in the end of February, you know. I think a lot of things can change there. If Enbay has three games in a row, he will be starting and will probably be undropable, same for Manzambi. McGinn will always obviously play, so I would say the only lock absolute is McGinn for sure, but any one of those players, if they show something, then they will have the right to claim more minutes and if we're playing in Champions League as well, later on in the season, obviously we will be from now till the end January, but the minimum. Then they'll all love opportunities, but just on Hemings, again, that trust is so important for Emory that I do feel

29:04like Gunnatch show has a big job on his hands to win that, you know, from win that trust. And that's nothing against him, by the way. It's just I think Hemings has done so well over preseason and obviously now to have that, you know, again, Balls and Gunnatch show is cool here and it's interesting because obviously, you know, we can joke about, oh, Harvie earlier, whatever, and I'm not going there, but what I'm trying to say is that it's going to be very interesting or it's a big test, should we say, for Gunnatch show that he's joined Villa, he is out of the team because a 19-year-old and two-fair Gunnatch show as well, but a 19-year-old who's only just making his real, you know, primarily breakthrough, he's keeping it outside. And I don't think there's any like embarrassment in that, but how have we gone at your feel about it and how will he respond and react? Yeah, because I imagine this is not something his ad in his career before because he's been the young kid, you know, new kid on the block for Man United and a winger for Man United. That's like

30:05one of the big things that you can, you know, have on your shoulders as a youngster. He's had that, and I think he dealt with it well back then. Then obviously things didn't quite go right, he went to Chelsea, didn't work. Now is it Villa and it's like, okay, we're going to now give you the platform to rediscover yourself, but it's on you to put in the yards and to work hard for it. And now that test is at his door because it's not a case that Gunnatch are starting every game and it's say, wow, we're going to stick with you through thick and thin. We will do that as long as you have your end of the bargain done. And it's a real test now for him because he will obviously get chances. He's not just not going to play. I'm sure he will. Like against commentary, for example, and then after the international break and again, I always say, Sancho had a really poor first half last season and to be fair, poor end of the season as well. But there was a few games where he did show some thing and if Gunnatch could do some similar and then continue to play, well, then great. It's another strong option for us, but right now it's up to him to deal with that. And you know, don't want him to get injured, but things can happen during the season. Gunnatch

31:06real and short, at one point will be possibly the only option we have to start again. And then this is opportunity. So long season and also should he start permanently to long contract. I'm sure that'll be in the table for him, Manzambi. And by, you know, this is not a let's judge these players now. It will be in the coming weeks, months, maybe, you know, seasons. Yeah, yeah, definitely. To book about him by Manzambi a little bit in terms of their availability, Jack's and obviously starting games, look sharp against Bruce had the nice flick through for McGinn. Was it? To power? No, to go miss, to go miss. Yeah, for the same goal. To go miss. Yeah, obviously scored himself as well. Good hold up play seemed like that was these best, best performance for me. So not going to talk about him loads either, because like him, Suzuki, the new signings, they're part of the 11 now, because it's not negotiable anyway. This is supposed to be. I've labelled it as like a forest preview, but it's not really. I mean, can't really go for much longer.

32:07Well, there's not much you can, yeah, forest for any played like us a handful of games. It's not much. Yeah, these are always a little bit like let's focus on where we are rather than kind of look into what they offer. We know, Glasgow, we know forest, it feels like a big opportunity to kind of build a bit of momentum. If we are trying to pick an 11, is it just somebody comes in for Gomez and the rest of it's pretty much as is. Power obviously comes back in for the league game. Yeah, from the bridge match, though, as you said. Carriza, yeah, cash comes back in if he's fear of thought. Yeah, for for. Well, begin back inside and reduce innuid boy. Possibly, I wouldn't be against it, but I imagine Emory will just bring Barclayon to be fair, unless he does something radical to combat Glasgow system because we haven't cracked it yet, but maybe it was also in addition the players that for a palace we're using as well. I don't know, but I imagine it's more so the system because we also surely get to walls in the similar shape. So yeah, Barclayon, cash isn't if he's fit. Let's start from that, I don't imagine there'll be any

33:12of the changes. So we'll see just on Jackson R was a really impressed by him against Brews. I feel after that for a few players, but it was nice to see, or it was nice to see some of our new signings and himmings, I guess you kind of put in that bracket as well, show more signs and I said I didn't know in the bridge of you thing that we did that I want Jackson goal, but the sooner he gets up the marketer. Yeah, absolutely. And the goal is obviously really important, but actually it was overall game and a lot of people obviously came in stick before he came into the list and this can't be the replacement for Watkins, but he can. And I think I really don't think we could have done better than bringing Jackson and I, or I wasn't just me who said it, other people who said it as well. I hope that we're vindicated by that. And well, I'm sure every player fun wants that to happen. It's not a, I didn't think it'd be very good and he is, so I feel like a lump to whatever it's not that it's more. This is me by the way, like I was like, I'm not really sure. But I don't want him to be crap together. Say I told you, I thought

34:14you'd be more than I think. That's what I'm trying to say. What I saw against Bruce was like, oh yeah, he's good for the system. I think he's a good player. Yeah, yeah. I think he's got a lot more to his game than what people probably go and credit for. Chelsea, even a bind maybe. And I think he's showing that he's really good in tight spaces. He can link play well. I think he can play across a number of positions to be fair, but we don't want him to, which is the nine and school goals that we need to fulfill our ambitions. But yeah, I was really impressed by what I saw and a quick start for you as well, Dan. Only a Langer and Kai have it's made more runs off the ball in behind the events than Jackson last weekend when he played whole, so he made 13 off the ball runs in behind, which is interesting because Emory spoke about how recently, because Jackson does come deep every now and again, he wants him to be making more of those PS Ingram. Should we sell out Watkins wood into the channels and stuff like that? So that shows that he's already starting to learn that more. Yeah, but I think he's got more to his game, possibly than Watkins. We

35:19just need to get it out of him. And hopefully that translates to goals and not just, you know, is very effective in pockets of space or whatever. He needs to score goals because that is his primary objective, but I think he will because the amount of chances that Fili do create, I know we haven't done so many so far this season, but we can with the call it that we have for sure. And again, place coming into that and buy a man's ambi. Garetski, there's a lot there to be excited for. So hopefully he can, yeah, he gets first of a laparque. And he's first. And he's style of play or create goals as well, whether or not he's directly being the man that gets the assist or just his movement, dragging defenders, runners off him or create space. So he definitely feels like a good fit. Let's wrap up with a score prediction then for for forest, is it going to be, well, a result prediction at least, will it be a victory of a laparque? I think it will be, you know, I think we'll do it. Yeah, it's about time that we get one over one glass of it. Have we never beaten glass? Thanks. So I think we have other, which is mad. This is the first game. It's got

36:21to change at some point, hasn't it? I know that's why it's more of that than anything else. This is for us first game back at the laparque, obviously, since we beat four-neil. What a night that was. And then when they were celebrating at the city ground, I say that a few of them were saying things that were probably shouldn't have before the second leg. Yeah, a new sort of area for both clubs, I suppose, now. But yeah, I would say, yeah, I'll give us a win. I'll give us a slender victory. I'll say, yeah, two-one. I was going to say three-two, but I said two-one. Yeah, I went tight and I before Bruce, I think I said two-one. You got the score alone right by one with it being three-two. I don't see us keeping a clean sheet, so yeah, two-one is probably the obvious pick, but I think I've got another clean sheet. I think you've forest a winlust so far this season, because I lost twice the least in that. I mean, then they went to Anfield and Drew, which is a result of winning to be wary of, because that's a good point. I don't know what the title of this is, but I've already made the thumbnail because I've got match preview. You want it, but it feels really good. What have you got the thumbnail?

37:23Seven-thirds of the goal. I've got Jackson and Delap on it. You know, I head to head, Villa versus Farah. First time invention, Delap? Exactly, yeah, I'm not going to have to change all that to be honest. So the thumbnail is not Delap and Jackson, it will be a group of villa players saying, you know, we've started well. The only thing that I can say about forest, because I did listen to Matt Davis on the way back on my long trip back to Bhrush. They were just talking about how Gibbs White isn't really involved at the moment, and he's kind of on the periphery things because of the structure that they're playing, and then they're asking like a better room to be involved in the key moments, or do you want him to be involved more, but not necessarily in the most dangerous spaces, you know, that sort of thing. So that's an interesting little talk about it for forest, and that's it. Okay, that's how forest preview, 30 seconds. John, thanks so much to your time as always. Thanks to those who watched all of this episode of The Claret and Blue podcast. Anything big and breaking from the presser on Friday? We'll be back

38:25again, but if it's business as usual, our next episode will be the post-match show, where Matt Lynch will be joining me, and I did catch up with him for a sound check. I'll roll the clip here. Can you just tap that mic for me? I'm always not coming through that. The disaster of the post-match awesome show with supposedly Matt Lynch, we thought we'd fix the problem. He joined the call, said hello, I said, yes, brilliant, let's record a clip. We've gone to record a clip, and he's on mute again. I don't know what's going on here. Tap the mic again. Yeah, it's working now. Why is going on? People who criticized us for not having a backup mic, you did have a backup mic, that didn't work, and not doing a sound check. We did, and we've done another one. We think it's now working. Are you reckon you've resolved your issues? I think so, I hope so. I'll find out, I guess, live. I'll find out on air, yeah, I'm sad. I do not, yeah. But, can't wait for that. Sam Lennon, if you're listening, please be on standby. While I've got you here, Matt, very quickly, I'll insert this into the forest preview, so people can see that we have done a bit of prep. How do you see the game going? Do you want to give a score prediction? Kind of a 30 second cameo? Yeah, I think we'll win it to be fair. I think we have

39:28first one of the season in terms of league games anyway. I think the performance is really positive against Brogge, and I think that the real shining light will be Hammons and a hope will get his goal. I think he's deserved it if that. I'd like to think we'll start a bit more of some of the other summer signings now, we're in a position where I'd like to think in by spent of time and sidelines now, we're watching one new, but I'm sure we'll watch this clip back, whatever time we record and say tonight and conclude and by still not played a minute football in the question and why we've lost one nail, I think it's a three-one win. I think we will win it comfortably in the end. I've just got that feeling. We do well against forest at home as well anyway. Yeah, okay. Nice. Matt, thank you very much for coming in checking your audio. You'll go into the game as well, so once we both return home from Villa Park, we'll jump on a live stream as we always do and react to whatever happens. Matt Lynch, see you Saturday. See you Saturday. So hopefully his audio works all weekend because it was a disaster after Arsenal. So hopefully, next episode you see is the post-match show come half five six o'clock, half six probably on Saturday

40:30evening. And that I do for this one, let us know your comments on how Villa have started the season as well and we'll see you on Saturday evening. Bye-bye.