M_Afro

If we are (and it’s a big if) putting all of our eggs in the JWP basket then that is total madness. He is not the type of midfield player that we do desperately need, you have to pay an English premium, a long contract premium and a my club do not want to sell premium! Add to that the fact that we will never be able to recover much of the transfer fee and the deal makes even less sense! I also think that he is almost the exact same player as Sanson but with a set piece boost. I genuinely hope that we don’t do this deal. The crazy thing is, there seems to be several, much more suitable deals, to be done. If (another big if) we could sign Sarr and Doukoure for the same price as JWP then we should just do it. They are both young incredible football players who are tailor made for English football. Both their values will increase significantly in time. If it’s JWP or nothing, then it’s nothing for me. Play 4-3-3 for the season and see where it takes us. Keep the money in the bank until the right player becomes available. Southampton have a massive chance of getting relegated. If they do, JWP will be available for £20m next summer.

I have just made myself watch the Watford extended highlights again, basically looking for some little rays of hope. Bailey for sure gave cause for optimism but not much more than that. What was so bloody frustrating was the manner of the goals that we conceded. I have heard people say that they were avoidable but I think it’s much worse than that. The fact that a PL team conceded any of those goals is shambolic. It was almost harder to let them in than to stop them going in. Utterly shocking. Without doubt, a large reason for the goals was a complete lack of football intelligence from the players. So many of them made poor decisions and failed to read/understand the danger that they faced. It’s impossible not to lay a massive amount of blame on the coaching though. The distance between the full backs and the centre backs was massive. The distance between the two centre backs was massive. The distance between the centre mid and the defence was massive. We failed to execute simple tactical fouls. All of these things must come down to coaching. That was a defence and centre midfield that knew each other very well so you can’t make excuses for a lack of familiarity. Therefore they must have been following instructions from the coaches. Utterly mind boggling. Is any of this due to Terry leaving? I do wonder whether JT kept Dean in check with a bit more pragmatism? Whatever the reason, I hope our new coach has a more defensive slant. I am all for attacking football but it needs to be done with responsibility. Saturday was under 13 stuff. I bet Watford don’t score 3 or more in a single PL match again this season.

I wonder if we could convince Fulham to loan Anguissa to us? It might suit them more than selling him and might work well for us too from a ffp perspective.

It annoys me that he still uses a translator. I know it shouldn’t but it does. Buy into Doug ffs.

Lost possession 26 times on Saturday. The most by any player in the league apparently! That’s quite an unbelievable stat. I hope he’s getting some practice in this week

This is a massive season for Smith. The expectation from the club is a push at Euro qualification. That’s a massive ask for us. It probably means a 10 point improvement on last season. I know the fans may think that’s an unrealistic target to set but that is clearly the target of the board and has been stated by several parties including Dean. It’s hard to assess how achievable the above is until the players have settled down and we have finished our business but Saturday was deeply concerning. Smith made some big errors. This is not hindsight talking because I felt the same as soon as I saw the team. If we’d set up 4-3-3 and started with Bailey, Ings and Emi up top and SJM, Marv and Ramsey in the middle then there’s no way we would have found ourselves 3-0 down. He also should never have waited until half time to bring on the extra CM. It was so obvious that the change was required. There were lots of other mitigating factors that can rightly be made to excuse Saturday and certainly made things harder for us but the initial set up and failure to react to the situation quickly enough are 100% on the manager. What’s more concerning is I fully expect him to continue with either a 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-2 formation which I just can’t see working.

I know that Dean said we are finished in the market but there is absolutely no way that there’s any truth in that. We will be working away on at least 2 more and possibly 3 further players. Whether it comes to fruition or not is another matter altogether. The ambition of the club has been made clear. European football is the aim. That’s been stated by Dean, Purslow and several players. Our squad has no chance of achieving that as things stand but a couple of players in key positions and a bit of luck with form/injuries gives us a chance. I suspect that they still want a GK, a DM and possibly another CM. Whether we can get the players we want, at the right price and shift some players out will dictate where we end up.

This is what really gets on my nerves. City do not need Grealish. I don’t think he even suits their play. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is a bit average for them but they have come in and totally derailed us just because they can! Infuriating

We absolutely have to play 4-3-3. The front 3 is Bailey, Ollie and Emi. The back 4 at the moment is Young, Mings, Konsa and Cash (needs to improve otherwise Axel gets the shirt). Then we play a 6 and two 8’s. At the moment that is Dougie at 6 and SJM and Sanson as the 8’s. This is the best and most balanced team we can currently select. Ideally we will sign a proper 6 who can start ahead of Doug. Trying to shoe horn Ings in will not work. Certainly not against a top 10 team or anyone away from home.

Anybody who thinks he is in any way a premier league player does not understand football. He does not have the basic attributes to be successful in an ambitious team. He scored a few goals last season but contributed almost nothing else. He never creates anything. He is easily dispossessed. He gifts the ball back to the opposition constantly. He is poor positionally. He does not read the game. He lacks physicality and courage.

He is a kid with potential. He definitely should not be starting for us. That is not having a go at him. He may well turn into a great player but he is a young inexperienced up and coming player at the moment and nothing else. If he is starting matches for us then our management, who have had millions of investment, have totally failed.

True

Of course we missed Grealish but that midfield two will never work. It was exactly the same last week against the Italian side. It was only after Ramsey and Conor came on that we improved. Not good enough.

Needs to play right hand side of a front three. He also needs a midfield behind him capable of getting the ball to him quickly and accurately.

Agree. He is right hand side of a front 3.

It certainly was. We played a 2 man midfield consisting of a £2.5m and an £8m signing. It was always destined to be destroyed. Dean is blaming the lack of intensity of the players but it was poor tactics and poor players that cost us. If we start the same team again next week, they will get destroyed again.

Ings is a good signing but he shouldn’t be starting. We can only play 1 striker and that should be Ollie. Ings is first reserve and super sub. If Dean tries to play both Ollie and Ings then we are in big trouble.

That’s pretty much how I would go apart from I would play Targett and move Young to right back in place of Cash. Targett was poor today but I think he is a very good player. I would also play Ollie in place of Ings. I suspect Dean will stick with a 2 man midfield and I suspect we will lose again.

He’s a really good player Ty. If we had 11 at his level we would be much better than we are. He does seem to have a bit of a weakness on knowing when to attack the ball and when to back off. The second goal today was a classic example. He left it far too late before closing down. I have noticed it a few times with him. Only a minor complaint to be honest but I’m surprised Terry never got into him about it.

Liverpool obviously didn’t read the script. Apparently it’s really difficult to go away to a newly promoted side on the first weekend of the season. Ha ha ha.

They seem to have done much better since he left! I also don’t care what he has done elsewhere. I only care about Villa. The team’s performance without Grealish have been woeful. Not average or even poor. Absolutely woeful!

Dean has never been able to get results or performances without Grealish. He got it totally wrong today. He talks about a style of play but never actually manages to deliver performances to back it up. These are all indisputable facts. Now, I really want him to prove me wrong here because I love the man. He is one of us and a top bloke to boot but I predict he will be gone by Christmas, along with any chance we have of a top 10 finish. His inability to understand the importance and composition of a coherent midfield is his biggest weakness. It will be his undoing and sadly all of ours too.

We need to be totally ruthless here. If we can, we should sell AEG, Conor, Marvelous and Luiz. Hopefully that would raise somewhere between £40m and £50m. Buy 2 centre mids for about £60m. Maybe £15m for Cheick and £45m for another top midfield player from abroad. Also get Alvarez in as a bench option forward. Money in £40m to £50m. Money out £70m to £80m.

Targett was awful because he was left totally exposed by a non existent midfield. That’s totally on the manager.

We need to play 4-3-3. Usual GK and back 4 (although you could make a strong case for Young at either full back). A front 3 of Bailey, Ollie and Buendia. A midfield three with two holders (still to be procured) and SJM playing as the link man. That leaves us a problem as Ings doesn’t get in but so be it. If we try and shoehorn people in we will continue to be rubbish. That means we need to buy two centre mids. I would buy Cheick and a left sided version of him. We then have balance and a solid spine. It won’t happen and Smith will continue to show horn his favourite players in and it will ultimately lead to his demise.