Delphinho123

He’s done enough to be able to get away with one bad game. He’s had a very good season and well worth his place in the side. Needs to be much better next game though.

Agree with all of this. It’s almost like we’re spoilt for choice in certain positions and he’s too scared to drop certain players. If we have to start with Ings, Tuanzebe, Watkins or Buendia on the bench then so be it. We don’t have the presence in midfield to play with Buendia as a 10 and the 3-5-2 doesn’t work for a plethora of reasons. That leaves a 4-3-3. Its pretty much the only formation we can play with the personnel we have at our disposal. The club decided not to bring in another central midfielder in the Summer which somewhat limited our options and now we have to live with that. ———————Martinez——————— Cash——Konsa——Mings——Targett ————————Luiz————————— ————Sanson——McGinn————— Buendia————————————Bailey ———————Watkins———————— I know some might prefer Ings over Watkins and that’s a fair shout but Watkins was superb last season in this formation so give him a chance this season in it with Bailey and Buendia playing outside of him. Ings is a good player, I just feel Watkins pace, energy and pressing works well in this system. It’s about balance. As long as we play that formation, I think we’ll finish safely in midtable. Smith will lose his job if he keeps shoehorning players into the team, I said it could be a problem the moment we signed Ings.

Needs to start the next match. He’s fit, he’s training, he’s our no.8. He starts and we need to see what he’s about.

Spot on. Doesn’t take a genius to realise that Targett is a very competent left back but a bang average/poor wing back. Smith is his own worst enemy at times. He’s going to cost himself his own job if he doesn’t start seeing the obvious.

Few cracks starting to appear now. We all knew we needed a central midfielder un the Summer but it looks as though we spent all that money on Ings. Buendia isn’t a 10 and the answer to our issues in midfield. Sanson needs to come good.

Potentially some harsh truths in this statement I’m afraid.

This too is a worry for me, especially as I was desperate for us to sign him. He needs to start from the right in a 4-3-3 in the next match with Bailey on the opposite side. Hopefully that brings out the best in him and it’s just a case of him playing out of position that’s causing the poor form. Smith needs to move back to a 4-3-3 now. We can all blame injuries as to why he has persisted with the 3-5-2 this season but I’m a believer that you work to a specific system and if you get an injury, one player just slots in for another. At the moment, we seem to want to accommodate certain players without playing to our strengths. Smith will be gone if this continues. The pressure now is growing, whether you agree with it or not. He needs to find a way of winning consistently without Grealish.

This made me lol.

We are not in a position to have that much quality up front at that price and on those wages when we needed to improve the midfield. It doesn’t make sense and it’s going to cause us issues.

So true. The Ings signing has completely derailed us. It didn’t need to happen at all. And before anyone says we needed a second striker, I agree, we did, but did we need one for 25m on 120k a week?

He’s persisted with Ings and Watkins when it hasn’t worked for 10 weeks or so. Whether you love him/hate him, he is not seeing the obvious things in front of him. Who knows what happens with Smith over the next few weeks and although I’ve defended him a lot, f*** me, stop being so f****** blind with the changes we need to make. There are so many things he could do differently but doesn’t. Thats what’s so frustrating about it all.

Pretty much sums up where I’m at with it. They had no plan for Grealish leaving and (see kit launch) it’s derailed us. Ive said it a million times before. Smith struggles without Grealish and it’s been like that since day dot.

Lol.

A fair point.

Ok, fine, drop him then? Either way, it isn’t working. One of them needs to be dropped and we need to go back to playing the formation we’ve been most successful using in the PL.

You just give yourself a problem with that signing. For large parts of the season they’re both going to be fit. Then what? I’d dig out my old posts if I could be bothered but I said at the time, the signing felt weird. It had no method behind it. I wasn’t excited anyway by it. Worrying times.

Just seems like one to appease the fans. What was the thought process behind it? Watkins was one of our best players last season and we play one up top. Ok, we get injuries, but you don’t change the entire system for one player. Just buy a decent young striker (eg. Alvarez) to fill in when needed, and keep the same formation. Its all over the place at the moment I feel. Might be Smiths fault, might not be, but we were fine with Bailey and Buendia to replace Grealish, but the rest of the money should have been spent on areas we need to improve, like central midfield. Anyway, Smith is going to get pelters for this and I really want him to pull through.

I said it at the time, but was shot down. The fact it was announced the same day Grealish left wasn’t a coincidence. They rushed it through and I don’t think there was a plan behind it. Watkins was fine in a 4-2-3-1 and so was the rest of our side. Yes, there have been injuries, but it all seems a bit random.

Smith is going to get hammered for this. This feels like after the game against Leicester where we lost 4-1 or whatever it was. I really do wonder about the Ings transfer. It seems to have completely messed our balance up.

Last chance saloon for this formation. And I’m sure Smith has told them that.

Please, go on.

He may never properly recover. I never rated him tbh but it’s very sad and unfair Mee can put a challenge in like that, potentially take a man’s livelihood from him and go unpunished. Feel very sorry for the bloke. Ultimately, football feeds his kids.

The majority of people I know want to see that team. It just seems to be the most balanced until Bailey is fit. When Bailey comes back, I think one of Ings or Watkins will drop to the bench.

I’d really like to see a midfield three of Luiz, Sanson and McGinn given a few games.

This I agree with. He gets time. There is nobody I would like to succeed with more than Dean Smith. Smith is just as much a Villa fan as Grealish was and we were desperate for him to stay. We should be desperate for Smith to do well with Villa. Yesterday, as hard as it is to see now, could be a blessing. It could create character. If we’re ever two up again, we’ll know what not to do!