Trickster

Conor wasn't quick enough to get to it to be able to do more with it, his starting sprinting movement is really laboured, not his fault, but it just is. I don't blame Conor or Wes for the ball not falling to him. If Wes was ahead of him, people would be saying why didn't he drop back for the cut back.

Lost Mane for the goal too. Unless it's specifically in games where we will be on top and has some chances of shots, he offers very little starting or off the bench.

Lot of hindsight really. He wouldn't be able to carry the ball at pace for McGinn's chance and isn't anywhere near as good at getting close to opposition as McGinn. He didn't have his best game but Conor wouldn't have added anything and indeed it would have made the rest of the midfield work a lot harder such is his lack of pace going after players.

The foul where he hacked the Sheff utd player down after he ran past him summed him up, he moves like he's running through treacle and rarely ever moves anything fast enough to be ahead of the opposition, be it running or passing. By the time he's played the pass, any space he saw is gone by the time his foot connects with the ball. Even when he had good goal stats, he wasn't having good games When games go by when he doesn't have 'open play' assists or goals, his game is laid out for all to see. This is why I think Smith needs a substantial amount of time to weed out the likes of Hourihane, but can't at the moment when other options aren't great.

If you weren't trying more passes from a deep midfield position compared to a no.8 type then there would be something badly wrong. Hourihane did ok tonight, but McGinn has long passed out Hourihane in what he offers the team over 90 minutes. He'd be too slow in that position against better teams as well, not that other options are any quicker. Could be a position where someone else is brought in January.

Nothing from Smith has ever given me any impression he is like Lambert or has an 'afraid to lose' mentality. If anything its the opposite that Brentford sometimes leave themselves a bit exposed because they attack so much. Smith's personality is quite different from Lambert too, much more steely and less 'friendlier'

That stat about not since Milner is fair enough, he had a good goalscoring season last year. It has to be said in a poorer league though of course, it's only slightly comparable considering the shocking centre mids we've had since that time. I'd just rather midfielders play very well in midfield rather than needing goals to bump up their performance in a slightly false way. Saying that there'll be no complaints from me if he keeps scoring and gets 10-15 this season. I just think the games when he doesn't score tells more overall.

A lot of those assists were for Barnsley. I'm not knocking him as a player but I don't think his performances make him a certain starter. He has played in a whole lot of our dire games where our midfield have been wafer thin where we have been murdered and ran through with ease. He gets the plaudits when he scores, but quite a few of those goals was from average to poor performances. Stats can elevate poor performances too high imo.

He has played that deep lying playmaker quite a bit for Villa really. That was an excuse about why he only had 2 assists last season. He does an ok job, but I don't know in what sense he could be one of our most effective players. He'd actually be a very good player if he had more pace but he gets caught out so much because he's a treacle runner, like most of our midfield tbh.

He scored a set piece, which is great of course, but he is only starting week in week out for me if you can guarantee goals most games because his general play doesn't offer enough. Saying a player is a certain starter because he scored from a dead ball I always find a strange reason. He might deserve his chance to reclaim his spot because of it but it wouldn't change my mind much about him playing every week.

The Sunderland example is the extreme one though, most teams who get relegated don't do that. We may have come down in a state but that state soon turned to spending loads of money, much, much more than Ellis has been willing to do at Sunderland. If we had been down in Sunderland's position with our spending it would have been beyond horrific and would have been the worst performance ever in the Champsionship from any team considering the spending.

His tracking for the 3rd goal was shocking. He runs like he's going through treacle, once you are passed him he's done.

Was very slow to play the ball at times, not a pace thing just to generally kick the ball and playing passes he seemed to take an age sometimes. For a quick lad running, he strangely dips up and down to the speed of effort he'll play the ball.

Hope it's not gonna be more of that 'he does the things that go unnoticed' He passes the ball a bit.....and very little else. I'm surprised to some he's a comfortable starter, his goals mask a lot of his performances imo. When the team loses and he doesn't score it's laid bare to see. He's not lazy or anything like that but he's really slow to cover ground because he's quite a slow runner. When you have 2 or 3 of those in midfield it's really shown up. Lansbury should be at least getting a shot in there at this stage.

Thought he was very average and below it for a lot of the game. The goal will get him favour of course but he's always one game away from a really poor performance imo. Needs to show a lot more and be way more in control at home next week against QPR. He wouldn't last very long in the Premier League at all, I'm surprised anyone would think he'd be up to the pace of it. I'm not sure why he's average performance are a lot of the time bundled in with the teams ones, as in the whole 'neither did the rest of them' kind of thing. He's playing a really important position and hasn't impressed that much. His goal return has saved him a lot of hassle imo.

I'm surprised some thought he played well today. I thought he was quite lacking to be honest. I think it's at a point now where winning free kicks and not doing much else is seen as having a good game. He lost loads of 50-50 balls and anytime he collected a ball from a pass that had someone near by it he was dispossessed. Sure, he has nice little runs and plays a nice pass but nowhere at all threatening. For me he still looks like a boy out there playing at times, a lot of midfielders in this league are more dynamic and quicker than him and also influence games more than him despite having poorer payers around them. You could see Sheffield U. leaving him have the ball and letting him take his time to decide where to play it, mostly a sideways pass. He doesn't move the ball quick enough with a first touch to be that 1-2 type of player that a lot of people think he is imo. It's still early yet though and he's first start in a while so I hope he finally comes good and puts all the nice little stuff he does together in threatening areas and with some sort of end product.

He's been a big part of the good results this season, some knee jerk reactions to a performance where probably only Chester was solid all evening. Tactically in the first half any attacking midfielder would have struggled living off scraps. In a home game against Milwall he keeps his place for me. Lansbury has shown nothing to be able to just come back into starting place, and Grealish will ease his way back into the team somewhere, but he's the epitome of the 1 performance in 4 etc that some have mentioned about Onomah.

This whole 'some called it from the start' thing, of course there were, every managerial appointment has a chance of going either way and every appointment has some who dont agree with it. Despite what's happening now, Bruce's appointment made sense. It's turned out worse than most could have thought though, there's been zero evolution in the team throughout his tenure. Whoever comes in next, no matter who it is, will have some who thinks it'll be a bad move as well and they will either be proved right or wrong, even though it's half guesswork.

Jota might be off to Birmingham after all, Sky reporting it.

Jota to Birmingham off apparently, couldn't agree personal terms.

I know retrospective can dig up different feelings on players depending on whether they are doing good at other clubs but Sinclair was anonymous in a considerable amount of games for Villa, how many times was he taken off after doing **** all? He always 'looked' like he could do more but rarely actually did. Doing well in the scottish league is hardly a sign of a player at all to be honest, pace in poorer leagues is a huge advantage but in higher levels you'll get found out if you don't have the brain to go with it. He hardly got a game for WBA either as well.

Snodgrass?

Had a poor enough game today, probably his poorest for Villa. With Baker sold there would always be this revisiting on decisions etc as always goes on with bad results. Chester was much better than Baker last year imo, unfortunately he'll somehow retrospectively have played better now that he's sold and Villa are doing poor. Chester is a superior defender and I'd argue he carried Baker at times last year. The amount of times he was around the back mopping up were numerous.

They aren't D's, they are wads of cash.