BigAl

Don't know much about him but anyone would be a upgrade on Guzan at this stage .

Has bags of potential we all know that ,but his conduct on a number of occasions off the field hasn't been what it needs to be ,he is young etc but that doesn't excuse him plenty of young players at other clubs are making headlines for the right reasons ,reading between the lines his attitude in training hasn't been good either unless he changes his habits he won't make it talent only takes you so far.

Looked shattered tonight hope they don't play him tues just to give him a rest he is vital if we have any chance of staying up

Waste time with a sub Remi when you need a goal with 30 seconds left. Mind boggled.

 

.Looked like a Ayew had picked up a knock and needed to come off.

I didn't notice that, hope he's OK. However, with about 30 seconds left on the clock and Leicester with an attacking throw it was the right decision regardless. We had finished for the day.

He wasn't moving properly for last few minutes before he came off could have just ran outta gas though he played his heart out.

Waste time with a sub Remi when you need a goal with 30 seconds left.

Mind boggled.

.Looked like a Ayew had picked up a knock and needed to come off.

Did well today especially second half 4 points from palace and Leicester is a decent return would have taken that at start of the week .

Don't know anything about Hollis .Will give him a chance but what worries me is that Lerner has prob got every appointment wrong he has had to make so far,they have all been disasters waiting to happen,hope this one is different but wouldn't my breath.

If we agree that the majority of Lerner's decisions have been poor, hiring someone to make those dates decisions for him could be seen as a positive thing. 

Faulkner and Fox were his appointments and both were out off there depth as CEO ,has a record with the Browns in NFL of poor appointments as well ,hope this will be different and this man will be a decent chairman for us but I don't trust lerners ability to appoint right man for job.

He is a ordinary player ,doesn't offer us much,if we put him up for sale in morning ,how many PL teams would want to buy him?Not many I would think .He is a champ player at best

Don't know anything about Hollis .Will give him a chance but what worries me is that Lerner has prob got every appointment wrong he has had to make so far,they have all been disasters waiting to happen,hope this one is different but wouldn't my breath.

We are as good as down changing manager again won't help us ,we need a bit of continuity moving forward the squad needs rebuilding and it has to be done with championship in mind.I am disappointed that there hasn't been a bounce since Garde arrived but that's not necessarily his fault ,we have a keeper defence and strike force that aren't up to PL standards none of these players are his he needs to be given a chance to build his own team before we write him off.

I don't agree with the abuse I think it achieves nothing but I can understand why it happens,we are poor too many players out of there depth,low confidence etc,but and I hate when fans accuse players of this but unfortunately in this case it's true the attitude and body language of some of the Villa players is appalling ,we have been out worked in every game this season which frankly is a disgrace if we don't have work rate we have nothing especially with the calibre of players we have at moment ,all we ask is the players give it everything and look after that if we don't get the result so be it but this carry on off not giving a toss and going through the motions in a game sickens me .

 

I agree it's the squad of players that are wrong and we simply haven't replaced bentekes goals which have kept us up these last couple of seasons.

Do we really have that much of a worse squad than Norwich or Bournmouth or Sunderland(!) ? We have a squad, but we don't have a team as cliche as that sounds. Every time we play it's like the players are playing with each other for the first time. Individually we have a few talents. Ayew, Veretout, Gana, Grealish, Gil, Amavi, Richards, Okore, Westwood, Traore would all probably get into the aforementioned teams comfortably yet we are 12 points poorer than them.

Guzan is the poorest Keeper ,Hutton poorest RB Richardson when played poorest LB ,Westwood poorest DM ,in the league ,Gestede isn't a PL striker ,you are only as strong as your weakest link and we have more than and other team ,we have some good players yes buy too many liabilities and players out of there depth in this league.

Very strange team today. The last 180 minutes had shown that Ayew and Gestede actually look reasonably dangerous as a combination, and we were actually unbeaten in 2 games, so I don't understand why 4 changes were necessary.

I don't object to changes in the defence as I don't think its looked solid at all, but the re-introduction of Richardson is just bizarre - he hasn't has a decent game all season.

10 wins needed from 19 games now.

 

I don't think Gestede is able to play 2 games in 48 hrs looks knackered after 70 mins in every game he played can't see how he could manage to play 180 in 48 hrs.

Last season we were the worst team to survive. We then replaced;

Delph with Gana (considerable downgrade)

Cleverley with Veretout (marginal downgrade at moment, maybe in future it won't be)

Benteke with Gestede (considerable downgrade)

Vlaar with Richards (much the same, both either great or awful and getting on a bit and subject to injuries)

Weimann with Ayew (considerable upgrade)

Baker (loan) with Lescott (again, much the same, either invisible or a disaster)

and then Traore who is almost an addition to the squad. All the other signings don't, or can't (Amavi), play.

Fundamentally we didn't replace Hutton, Sanchez or Richardson at all. So there, to me, is no debate that this squad is considerably worse than the squad that was awful last season. Which is why I find any debate about managers kind of pointless - football fans generally only recognise a manager as being good if they're getting results and I maintain that is IMPOSSIBLE with this squad of players.

It was over the second we didn't improve the squad. Even if you want to argue some of the players were good signings, you'd struggle to say they are better than what left with a straight face. It always amazes me that people can't see past 'bad players getting bad results = bad manager' - no manager could get this squad safe.

I agree it's the squad of players that are wrong and we simply haven't replaced bentekes goals which have kept us up these last couple of seasons.

Villa have scored as many goals as Stoke and Sunderland  & Newcastle have let in more than we have. I think this side could score more if they start to have some confidence. I think the main issue is the caramel soft centre that we have by always letting in stupid goals and therefore we always seem to be chasing games. I would say on paper at least we have enough quality going forward to be in this division, though we could do with a class target man.

If we could replace Sanchez, the full backs and have a goalkeeper to challenge Guzan,we might at least on paper be okay. However this would have been a lot better if this was done in August rather than January when we could virtually be down,

In a roundabout way I would say Garde has probably half a decent side at Villa even though we are 10 adrift. But it is a unbalanced and inexperienced squad with zero confidence.

Hindsight is wonderful thing in football but really did we need to spend 7 mil on a talented but unproven kid from Barcelona when we already have Grealish, Sinclair and Gill? If we have bought 1 good striker in a Austin type level for 15-20 mil instead of Gestede and Traoe we might be doing okay. But it's full of ifs and maybes isn't it?

Spot on post ,agree with everything you have said.

Our defense in my opinion has been better since Richards' injury. Even though he has been one of our better players this season, force him to play right back so that Jores can continue playing in the center. Excited to see how good Okore can get if the continues to get game, 

he must be easy to play with at center back, as last season Clark partnered him and look good but has looked crap since Okore's injury, this season Lescott has become A LOT better since becoming Okores center back partner. 

I would agree with you think we have improved since Okore has come in ,but think the main reason is that Richardson isn't playing ,Bacuna has his limitations but is much better .Think Okore should keep his place aswell think its a case of who partners him .

So if it is logical that Sherwood was sacked for recruiting bad players, isn't it logical that those who hired Sherwood should be sacked?

I think Sherwood was sacked because the club believe he'd signed good players and managed them very badly.

Sherwood was sacked because he washed his hands of having anything to do with the new signings,saying they weren't his buys ,saying the new players weren't good enough to the press and generally bad mouthing the club and board no manager was going to survive when doing that he had to go .

He has been poor the last few games ,but up to that prob been one of our better players in a terrible season .His distribution is poor no doubt ,but he deserves his place we have no other player really for the def mid role.

It's our best chance of a win ,Our performances in last few games have been decent we actually look like a PL side ,Think he will start with same XI as Newcastle game which is important we need to start playing a settled team can't keep changing it every week.

2nd half we actually looked like a PL side ,it was the best we have played all season think us getting a win is getting closer ,we are improving slowly .

It's a must win no excuses need a win whatever it takes .I know it doesn't happen like this but we are due some luck and I think weight get it on sat 2-1 Villa win .

well at moment we are conceding an average of 2 goals a game under this regime (would be higher if Southampton could finish)

Previously it was 1.7 goals conceded in last regime when we were meant be defensive shambles

Any defence that is forced to play Hutton and Richardson regularly is going to concede .Also we have played Everton ,Arsenal and City our fixtures have been very tough

It's very simple we have too many players not up to it .Its only a slim chance but getting a few quality players in Jan is our only chance of staying up .Guzan/Hutton/Richardson/Gestede/Westwood currently not good enough for PL .Owner our biggest problem with his lack of investment ,and what has been invested has been done so poorly by managers scouts or chairman it doesn't really matter who bought the players too many of them just not up to it unless Garde can invest wisely we will go down with less than 20 Pts ,nobody can say he isn't the right man for the job of he makes poor decisions in jan we all can get on his back until then he can't be judged.

He is poor nothing seems to go for him at all always seems to make wrong decision ,on a positive he tries hard and never hides but he is struggling in most games

Much better than Richardson at LB but a traffic cone would be more useful than Richardson .Still though like Bacuna think he offers us something positive when he plays