M_Afro

McGinn is no world beater but he is miles ahead of Ramsey at the moment. Ramsey is young and inexperienced and the fact that he is anywhere near starting matches for us is due to a system failure not his incredible performances. He doesn’t start for any other PL team. McGinn gets in any team in the bottom half.

You can get virtually 3-1 on a Villa win tonight. Firstly that’s absolutely depressing that the bookies think we are so poor! Secondly, fill your boots boys. We are due a massive slice of luck. We are not nearly as bad as our recent performances. Southampton are garbage. Score first and we win this by at least 2 clear goals.

We will win tomorrow. Probably a horrible performance and a scrappy/lucky 0-1 victory. They are garbage and will probably go down. They struggle to create chances and are not particularly physical. It will suit us and we will win.

Are Luiz, Ings and Sanson definitely out? To be honest it might work better for him. It does give him an excuse if we do lose. It would also give him a big plus if he gets a win despite the absentees. The way we have been playing, this is a likely lose fixture whatever!

Whoever is in charge in January please sort our midfield out. It’s the root cause of most of our problems at both ends of the pitch. Two carefully selected new midfielders would totally transform our team. I would even sanction the sale of Ings and McGinn if it meant we could end up with a quality and balanced midfield in their place. It’s absolutely critical!

Ha ha. Well that would be nice. If it happens I will happily donate £100 to a charity of your choice Sir.

We may well beat Southampton on Friday but it won’t change anything. Our poor form will continue as it has whenever we haven’t had Grealish to get us out of trouble. The greatest barometer for the near future is the recent past. Anybody who thinks otherwise is just clutching at straws. I understand why people are so desperate for Dean to be successful. We would all love that. However, I remember watching an animal programme once and the Vet said that his greatest skill was not knowing how to save an animal but understanding the point at which it was better for the animal to let them go. I genuinely believe that it’s better for Dean to go now. His reputation is still relatively in tact and his legacy with the fans is safe. Let it rumble too long and it jeopardises his and our futures.

I think the DM article is likely to be nonsense. Where would they have got their information from? Have we ever leaked stuff to the DM before?

She’s working nights. Gotta get my kicks somehow

I have just forced myself to watch the highlights from yesterday. The lack of effort from the players made my blood boil. Every single goal that we conceded involved some (mostly multiple examples) of half arsed defending. Smith is not doing himself any favours whatsoever but the players are not helping. I am sick to death of Targett and his half arsed attitude but he is not alone. Young, Marv, Hause, Buendia, Bailey, Emi, Konsa, Watkins all had pathetic half arsed play that led to goals yesterday. Infuriating.

Fair enough. Do you have some stats that offer hope? In my mind the stats are pretty damning but the performances speak for themselves and don’t rely on anything deemed to be selective. Something rational to cling to would be appreciated.

His only answer to stopping the rot previously was the return of Grealish from injury or a global pandemic. One of those is not going to happen again and hopefully the other one won’t either.

I did say he was a sub in 2 of the games but he was nowhere near match fit. I may have got the Burnley timing wrong but I am pretty sure the stats are correct but I will check later when I get chance

We did lose Grealish but the manager was given £100m to make the team better without him. We are much worse. Lost 60% of our matches so far. Any manager comes under pressure after that especially as there are absolutely no signs of progress. He is gone now it’s just a matter of timing.

It was poor from Bailey but no way Targett should let an average defender beat him so easily and get away a shot with no resistance. He was so slow to move it was just way too easy for the defender who simply shifted the ball past him and got his shot away unchallenged. Not good enough at all.

I just did a fag packet calculation and it’s early, so I could be wrong but I make it 25 league games in 2021 where Grealish hasn’t started (I think he came on as a sub in two of them). Our record is 6 wins, 6 draws and 13 defeats! Or, 24 points from 25 games. Our wins are Leeds away (no Phillips for them), Everton away, Fulham home, Newcastle home, Everton home and Man U away. We have somehow managed to lose to Sheff Utd, Crystal Palace, Burnley and Watford. We were also incredibly lucky to scrape a home draw against West Brom during this period! We have never really looked like scoring many without Jack but at least last season we were still keeping it fairly tight at the back. This season we are not creating chances and we have become incredibly easy to score against! I know that some people are more patient than others but I really can’t see any hope under Dean. The stats are just too damning. There is absolutely no chance of him turning it around in my opinion. We can struggle on hoping that he will do something that he has failed to do in his time which is find away to play well without Jack. Or we can try something different.

The fact that Dean has had 3 years and over £300m and has never been able to consistently play well without Grealish is all anybody needs to know. Another few weeks is not going to change that. It’s time to move on.

This is true unfortunately. We should let him go this week and start the search for a new manager immediately. Let Shakespeare take charge on Friday in the hope that he can get a bit of a response and then appoint the new manager as soon as possible during the international window. This gives the new guy 2 months to assess the squad before the transfer window.

We have got a decent squad of players but it’s just a bit unbalanced. Sign 3 or 4 players in key areas and we would be really good. One centre mid (2 if I was being really greedy), a 10 and a left back and we would be sorted. I’d happily let a few go to make that happen even if it was some of the so called big hitters like Ings and McGinn.

Beer for me…..oh and cake

Fair play. Insurance job? Some attempt to get around ffp?

I do think that he has a bit of an unfortunate body shape but he is definitely not in top condition!

I really like Mings and was surprised that he got dropped today. His form has been poor but no worse than Konsa or Axel and he’s our captain. It’s an odd decision by Smith so I can only think that there must be more to it than just form. Anybody heard any rumours?

How is this guy still getting a game? Wrong defender dropped today in my view. Targett looks like a competition winner. A slightly overweight one!

Totally agree with everything you’ve said. Smith has never addressed it and it’s his biggest failing. Whoever is in charge in January must sign at least one and maybe even two decent central midfielders.