skarroki

A player who split opinion on VillaTalk, what a rarity. Good luck to him, hope he goes on to prove the doubters wrong. Think the Prem is a bit too much of a step up for him but I'll wait and see

A couple of people mentioned how good Ben Marshall of Blackburn was on here if I remember correctly? Out of contract in the summer and looks likely to move to Wolves for £1mil cos Blackburn just want to cash in, what with their words removed owners. Think he has real quality and would be a great option to have in the squad for that price

I think we are in luck in the respect that Bruce normally goes into a new club and brings in a nasty, bruising midfield player or 2 for his side and they become mainstays of the side. With Villa though, we already have someone like Jedinak who I think he would have loved to sign anyway, and some real talent for this league in attacking positions. Someone like Lansbury will really add that missing block that goes between Jedinak and the attack that we sorely miss. With someone like him, I feel like we could even play 4-2-3-1 if we can sign Brady too and McGregor for goalie. I'd take those 3 as our only incomings to be honest. A new right back would be icing on the cake but I'm not sure who's available on loan who we could get. I don't want anyone as good as De Laet permanently, cos then we'll potentially have to replace them both if we go up.

Think he'd be best to go out on loan to a league 2 team this time. He looked out of his depth, not necessarily because he won't make it but more with the physical demands of lower league football, especially in defence. Walsall have been lucky to have some very good defenders for their league over the years so he is also probably compared to these and that won't help. If we could send him to someone like Notts County, who are in desperate need of new players and especially defenders, that could be a good move. Grealish I'm sure would endorse the club although a lot has changed since he was there. The expectation levels would be to simply not be as bad as the current lot so wouldn't take much.

As one example of many, Guzan was excellent when we lost 8-0 to Chelsea, it is possible. He created something out of nothing which is what he has to do with the midfield, or lack thereof, currently playing for the club

The absolute maximum amount of games we would be without the pair of them now is 5 league games, and even then, the chances are one, if not both, will be back before the end of January. This means signing a striker who's good enough to get McCormack out the side for 4 or so games. I just think with Bruce's comments around having too many strikers at the club, to then sign another one for 4 games would be madness. Would show a complete lack of faith in McCormack. The only way I think it would work well is if we brought in someone on loan from MLS, like the Keane deal. An experienced head to come in for 8 games or so and hit the ground running, but not upset the squad balance for too long.

I know it's a while ago but this is a response to an article linking us to Johnstone

I don't think even with strikers shifted, we need to bring in another striker. Especially one that pushes Kodjia back out of position. I like the look of the suggestions apart from Johnstone in goal, I'd rather go for someone like McGregor at Hull who now isn't playing but was great for them under Bruce in the Championship and hopefully his advice and experience would rub off on Gollini. Hernandez would have been a good signing, but he's agreed a new long-term deal at Hull recently and they were already asking for a bonkers fee in the summer. I like Lansbury a lot and think he's a good option, but I don't think it's likely to happen with all the buzz around him and other interested parties. It might seem like a lazy link, but I would really like to see us go for Daniel Johnson. He's a very good midfielder for Preston, he's versatile, bags of pace and keeps going till the final whistle. Great left boot on him and gets plenty of goals and assists. Never looked like making it when he was at Villa going out on loan, similar to Robinson there, but regular game time has meant he's flourished. Another player who effortlessly made the step up from league 1 to the championship and he's not got as much attention as Hourihane, so could go a fraction cheaper.

I'm really not happy with Johnstone coming in at all. Watched him a few times playing for Preston and frankly wasn't that impressed. I know they wanted him back in the summer but only wanted him permanently, whereas he was only willing to join on loan. Had no ambition to move away from United and forge a career for himself. Since then, he's barely even played in PL2, has signed a contract extension and Dr. Xia responded to a fan saying we would never agree to take a young goalkeeper on loan, specifically Johnstone, when we have our own good young goalkeeper in Gollini who needs to play games. Not sure what has changed to make this transfer so widely talked about.

Judging by how it was laid out on Twitter I'd say we'd gone for a 4-2-3-1 formation, but I think with the players available a 4-3-3 with McCormack in the false nine role is the best way to go Something like: Bacuna Gardner Westwood ________ McCormack ________ Adomah __________Grealish

So looking at the rumours and likely transfers swirling, I'd say our potential strongest XI would be Johnstone Jenkinson - Chester - Baker - Amavi Jedinak - Lansbury Adomah - Grealish - Ayew Kodjia Think we need a better natural left winger, a better, more experienced goalkeeper than Johnstone and a solid young centre back to add depth to the position. That would mean 5 signings to bring into the team. Presuming Gestede goes, possibly Ayew, but I'd prefer him to stay. Then maybe shift some of the deadwood like Cissokho, Richards, Agbonlahor, Kozak etc. And we'll have a much more trimmed, balanced squad available. Make it happen Brucie

I think that is completely true. Looking back, players like McCormack and Elphick look great on paper, plenty of experience and captain's, but you have to build your defence or attack around them and we haven't had the players to accommodate these kind of players. We signed captain's and experienced players rather than building a team. It feels a bit like going on football manager and signing every good player you see for a deal. Then you look at a squad sheet and see 7 strikers, 4 bad centre midfielders and 3 centre backs and think, wish I'd planned this better.

We should do everything we can to get Pontus Jansson in January I think. £3.5mil from Torino in January is a bargain. Already obviously happy to play in the championship

If we want a fourth centre back, £3.5mil for Jannson??! Please please please!

Have I missed something? Isn't Gestede off to ACN anyway? So it wouldn't be leaving us light cos he wouldn't be here either way.

Pretty sure that guy is going to China for silly money, unless Xia is using his contacts tov get that guy in on loan once the deal to China is done

I've never seen a Jose Mourinho side win 1-0 unconvincingly. They score, shut up shop and strangle the other team for the match. He will obviously have had a couple of lucky wins in his career but most of the trophies he's won have been built on 1-0 wins that were never in doubt. In my opinion of course. Unless you're being sarcastic and it's flown right over my head.

I think the point is that you rarely have one without the other. Winning is the be all and end all, but no team has won a league and you look back at their season and think "didn't they play badly and scrape past most teams" We are winning now and that is good but we won't continue to win if we continue to play like we have. Frankly, this December we have not got the absolute minimum points we should have got. We've played the easiest games possible this month, Norwich, QPR, Wigan and Burton should be wins in the bag before we walk onto the pitch. To have scraped past 3 of these without really deserving anything, and lost the other is worrying.

Also, not the usual fan in this respect, but I tend to feel happy after a game when I'm walking from the ground thinking "if we play like that every week we'll give any team a real good game". Even if we've lost, if we've played well and simply weren't good enough, or unlucky, or whatever it was. I just want to see consistent performances that match the ability of the playing squad. At the moment, and for about a month, I'm thinking "if we play like that every week then we're a good team away from a battering". It's not all doom and gloom, we've got good players and a good manager. But there's work to be done before turning this team into a cohesive unit.

I know people don't pay attention to the manager in a press conference, but that's what is giving me hope here. We're playing badly and grinding out wins with poor displays, but at least the manager is acknowledging that. Show's that he's not happy with how we're playing and the performances of certain players. At least he sees what we do, and he's not signing us up to play this horrid "style" of football for the foreseeable future. Think we'll know by January 31st whether or not we'll be making a real fist of the playoffs push

My go-to excuse is the dodgy geezer at the bar must have spiked it for a laugh.