allani

Too many players thinking that they are worthy of being in the top half of the table. Someone needs to be ripping them another a$$hole at half-time. If we play like this next season we're back playing in the Championship. Smith needs to be getting more out of the players and the system or he needs to change something.

Not exactly a massive vote of confidence given that we are playing against a team that should be relegated this season. We need some inspiring summer signings because relegation next season after the excitement of the start of this season would be a gigantic kick in the testicles.

Double movement by the defender. 100% more a penalty than the one that VAR didn't review against Kane. Kane had lost the ball. Watkins was favourite to win the next ball until the defender's second movement brought him down.

So why keep playing the same midfield and the same formation if it isn't working?

So whose job is it to tell our decent players that the season isn't over yet?

Fixed that for you

"We have the basis of a great team. So we don't need to replace anyone who hasn't been pulling their weight since January." Also not inspiring anyone to think that they need to put some ****ing effort in to make sure they are still pulling on the claret and blue next season.

So when Smith says we don't need many signings this summer - what exactly is he looking at? There are claret tinted glasses and then whatever Smith is wearing...

The ball is usually in front of Grealish when he goes down...

I agree with almost all of the rest of your post. I don't think that it was a rash challenge / penalty. If you look at the lines that Kane and Cash are running they are never coming together in a month of Sundays. Cash has slid in to block the cross - his "line of attack" is nowhere near where Kane is going. Kane has lost control of his feet and "fallen" into the line that Cash has taken. He has no control over the ball at the point that contact is made and if the ball wasn't out when contact was made - there is no way he gets to the ball before it does cross the line if there is no contact. It is an appalling (but typical) Mike Dean decision. I think the trouble is that the guys in front of Doug aren't on the same wavelength a lot of the time so they aren't making the space for the early ball. He looks better when Jack is about because Jack spots the right movement to open space either for him or one of the other players ahead of Doug. He does seem to lose confidence in the quick ball if a couple go awry and then, as you rightly say, does tend to try and play it a bit safer by dwelling on the ball and then kind of getting himself into a bit of a hole. I don't think it helps that he is carrying McGinn so much at the moment either (both defensively and offensively). Oh and he needs to just have a crack at goal more often. We know he can hit an absolute screamer. Watkins is so isolated at times - much like all our strikers have tended to be in recent times. I'm beginning to think that we need a striker and to then either (a) play Ollie down the left, pushing Jack into the No 10 role or (b) keep Jack on the left and get Ollie to play in the hole. A front 4 of Ollie, Jack, Bertie and Tammy / Eduardo looks pretty tasty. If Wesley gets back to fitness then I think he could be a great option coming on to either make it closer to a 4-4-2 (by replacing the No 10 role) or just changing the angle of attack in the same formation. Still need to bring in a new winger who can slot into that 4 should anyone get injured or to put real pressure on Bertie. Maybe Bertie off the bench (if we can keep him motivated) would be a real super-sub type option? Sorry but we are - at least in terms of an attacking force. Almost all the forward players play better when Jack is on fire. No-one else seems able to grab the game by the scruff of the neck when Jack is out or not playing well. First few matches I thought that maybe Ross was the answer but he's so far off form at the moment it is untrue. I think that is why I think a proper No 9 and allowing Ollie to run around like he does at the moment but still having someone in the box threatening the goal area gives us more options than just the "pass the ball to Jack" option.

Poor again. We just pose no threat going forwards and if Plan A doesn't work we don't have the ability to change it. I think we have been behind in 12 matches this season and we've lost 11 of them. Since January we've played 15 games and scored 12 goals and only scored 2 goals in a match twice (one of which we lost). 15 points from 15 games is slightly better than relegation form but not massively. We looked amazing in the first few weeks but I am worried that we just don't seem to be able to dig ourselves out of a hole. Obviously I'd have bitten your hand off if you'd said we'd be where we are at the beginning of the season. But we can't just sweep 2021 under the carpet and say that we're just on a bad run. The bad run is now almost 3 months long. I'm worried that unless we strengthen significantly over the summer that next season could be a real struggle. If we start badly next season can we turn it around? What happens if Martinez, Konsa, Jack or Watkins get injured early on? Obviously it takes a while to build a stable PL squad but I think our form early on papered over just how much work is still needed.

Barkley should have finished with two assists - can't blame him that the people he put through failed to score.

How badly does McGinn need to play before he gets dropped / substituted? Last minute of the match and he makes no effort to close down his man / block the cross.

Not really. We have lost 10 matches this season. No team above us has lost more.

Watched Roma a fair bit over the last few seasons and Dzeko is a no go for me. Firstly he will want "guaranteed" CL football (so will see us as too big a gamble). Second I imagine that he will want massive wages. Thirdly there is no way he fits into our system - he always looks like he wants to be the centre of everything ("me first, team second" type attitude). He's a pretty decent finisher (although I think that he should have scored more at Roma) but spends a lot of time walking around to conserve his energy. If you need a talisman target man then he's a good bet and will score a fair few goals. But we'd have to change our style a lot to get anything out of him. I might be slightly biased against him - he did after all break several records a couple of seasons back. But I don't think he'd fit in to what we seem to be building, we'd not get the best out of him and I am sure he thinks he is well out of our league. So I'm not seeing much positive in this link.

Even better imagine that Sanson is better than McGinn and that after 60-70 minutes the opposition glance over to the touchline and see McGinn getting ready to come on!!!!

Also think that he buys Jack a bit more space as suddenly the defenders have two people to worry about. He's always going to make touches / passes / lay offs that don't work because they are inconventional / unexpected. But they will also sometimes unlock the defence and create a chance. I think he and Jack could develop an incredible partnership - they just look like they are on the same wavelength and the more they play together the more those little tricks will start to come off.

YYYYYEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!! What a result. Thought today would be a case of us coming back down to earth. But the better team nicked the points in the end. What an amazing transfer window. Cash in on another level to any right back we have had for a decade. Martinez - three clean sheets out of four. Ollie does so much work and makes space for our attacking midfielders. And Ross gives us that second real goal threat and a bit of swagger from an attacking midfield role. Trez is putting in a real shift. McGinn's best match for months. Wow. Just wow!

Starting XI looks good enough for a fairly comfortable mid-table position. Second XI looks like it would struggle to survive in the Championship. And that is our current dilemma. A bad run of injuries or suspensions and our bench / team starts to look flakey. Add one or two of tonight's line up into our starting XI and it shouldn't be too bad - but three or four, or a couple in the same position (i.e. both centre backs) and suddenly we look poor (although to be fair the same is true of most clubs outside the top 7 or so). Another big signing and a couple of up and coming prospects from the Championship still needed to give us that little bit more depth. Then next season we should be in the position of only looking for two or three quality additions each year - especially if the investment in the young'uns starts to come good.

Exactly. Trez, Ramsay, Wesley, Davies and Hourihane all now look like quite decent options now that we are not reliant on them. I am trying hard not to get too excited. I can't remember the last time Villa's front six were this good (on paper). I think Luiz is the man to look out for. Even before the lockdown I thought he was always two steps ahead of his colleagues and made "mistakes" because he was expecting other players to do something that they then didn't which caught him out. Have better quality around him will (I think) mean that some of the dinks and offlays that it looked like he wanted to make will now come off. Also beginning to look much harder to defend against - you can't just stick 2 men on Jack and nullify our threat. He will need to adapt his game slightly too and remember that (hopefully!!) it isn't now all down to him. Which in turn should actually make him more of a threat.

So I was a bit worried about moving Grealish inside in a midfield trio of Luiz, McGinn and Grealish. Rightly or wrongly I just felt that the better teams would get on top of the three. Suddenly a midfield trio of Luiz, Barkley and Grealish looks like one that could give anyone a game - especially with McGinn as cover from the bench. Now I can definitely see the need for a quality wide left option. Could be hugely exciting.

McGinn is a hell of a player to bring on after 65 minutes!

TEAM B (1930-1970) GK: Nigel Sims (1956 - 1964: 308 appearances, 0 goals). Sims joined a struggling Villa in 1956, helping the team avoid relegation, before winning the FA Cup, promotion back to the top flight and the inaugural League Cup. A keeper not short in confidence or self-belief he wrote “Without being brash, I know… I was as good as anyone, if not the best” (In Safe Hands). Rumours that both Man Utd and Arsenal tried to sign him (the latter in a deal that would purportedly have been world record fee for a goalkeeper at the time) suggest that his skills backed up his words. He was also the first ever winner of the “Terrace Trophy” voted for by Villa supporters. RB: Stan Lynn (1950 - 1961: 323 appearances, 38 goals) Nicknamed “Stan The Wham” he has renowned for his powerful shots (one of which knocked out Cardiff’s keeper, Graham Verncombe). He was the first full back to score a hat-trick in the top English division (v Sunderland). However, as well as being one of the first “modern” right-backs in terms of attacking strength he was also a fierce defender "The memory of Stan The Wham will always be mainly concerned with how he used to stand off the winger he was to mark, and if the ball would go to that winger, in would come Stan with his sliding tackle and take the ball and the player over the touchline." (Lerwill-Life.org.uk). Ouch!! CB: Harry Parkes (1939 - 1955: 345 appearances, 4 goals – this excludes an additional 144 matches played during WWII). This selection may prove controversial as Parkes is best remembered for being “one of the best uncapped English full-backs” (Obituary, Independent). However, he was very much a utility player – apparently, the only position he didn’t play in for Villa was left back – so I am confident in picking him in a more central role. He was a real character on and off the field and was voted Villa’s most popular player of the 1940s (in a retrospective poll in 2000). “Parkes offered a vein of near-metronomic reliability, proving a taxing and tenacious opponent… quick and strong in the tackle, he never shirked a physical challenge and he was also ahead of his time in that he enjoyed an occasional foray into opposition territory.” (Obituary, Independent). CB: George Cummings (1935 - 1949: 232 appearances, 0 goals – excluding 189 matches played during WWII) (Captain). OK, OK… so I have picked another full-back in the centre of defence and at 5ft 10 and 13 stone not a particularly big full-back at that. However, as the leader of Villa’s famous post WWII defence I am confident that “The Icicle” (so named because of his ability to remain calm under pressure) would adapt to a more central position. When I read about his ability to read the game, his tactical awareness, his leading & marshalling of the back line, him being a powerful header of the ball and his “never say die” attitude – I was reminded of a certain Paul McGrath. Listed at 30 in Villa’s Fab 50 (see official site) I couldn’t not take the calculated gamble!! LB: Charlie Aitken (1959 - 1976: 660 appearances, 16 goals). Villa’s all-time record appearance holder, having represented the club in 129 more matches than any other player (for the record that is more matches than the Villa careers of: Gavin McCann {129}, James Milner {125}, Ray Houghton {121}, Derek Mountfield {120} or Dalian Atkinson {114}). Only 7 players have reached 2/3 of the appearances made by Aitken – Gareth Barry (440), Tommy Smart (451), Nigel Spink (460), Joe Bache (474), Allan Evans (475), Gordon Cowans (527) and Billy Walker (531). I picked him for Team B rather than Team A purely because he spent more time playing in the top flight in the 1960s. RW: Johnny Dixon (1945 - 1961: 430 appearances, 144 goals). Johnny Dixon was the Villa captain when we won the 1957 FA Cup and provided the cross for our crucial second goal. He apparently originally wrote to the club for a trial just because he liked the name Aston Villa! A goal every three matches is an incredible return. But he was also well known for his ball control, precise passing and commitment. “(John Dixon) may not have been the Villa’s most dominant captain, nor was he their most talented player. But no footballer can have worn the club’s claret and blue colours with more pride or dignity.” (quoted in Obituary, The Guardian). CM: Danny Blanchflower (1951 – 1954: 155 appearances, 10 goals). Danny’s time at Villa was (unfortunately short-lived) and so I have to admit that his presence in this line-up is to a large degree based on what he achieved at Spurs. It feels wrong to select a player who was voted the greatest ever player in Spurs history into a team representing the best of Aston Villa. However, I feel that he would be the perfect fulcrum for this team – with his leadership, exquisite passing and ability to dictate the pace of the game. He once said that “The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish.” Which is exactly what this team is modelled on. I am prepared to compromise on the ethics of Villa greats in order to include greatness. CM: Alan Deakin (1956 - 1969: 270 appearances, 9 goals). Deakin came through the Villa youth set-up to be one the best of the “Mercer’s Minors”. Unfortunately, he struggled with injuries throughout his career (he only managed to play more than 30 matches in a season twice). Without these injuries his Villa statistics would have been significantly better. He was also extremely unlucky to not win any England caps – in almost any other era than the early 1960s he would have walked into the team as either the left sided centre half or in a more advanced inside left / left midfield role. I have chosen the latter based on his tackling and passing abilities. LW: Eric Houghton (1927 - 1946: 392 appearances, 170 goals). Houghton has been described as “Mr Aston Villa”, before that title was assumed by another character in our history (but that is another debate for another day). He was signed originally as a striker before being moved to the wing. Although he has a lasting reputation as a dead ball specialist (he scored 58 penalties and 30 direct free-kicks) nearly half his goals still came from open play. “When Eric Houghton kicked a football, it was sensible not to stand in its path… He established a reputation as one of the most destructively powerful marksmen the game had seen.” (Obituary, Independent). With Stan The Wham’s “Booming Boots” on one side and “Houghton’s Howitzers” on the other – I am not sure there would be too many takers for a spot in the defensive wall for any free-kicks won within striking distance!!! ST: Tom “Pongo” Waring (1928 - 1935: 226 appearances, 167 goals). Quite possibly the first name on the team sheet for Team B. A legendary striker with a strike rate of a goal every 1.35 matches (comfortably better than even Harry Hampton’s record) he scored 49 league goals in 42 matches in the 1930-31 season. There is an excellent summary of Pongo’s career at https://ryanferguson.co.uk/blogs/planet-prentonia/the-life-and-times-of-pongo-waring. A true legend of the club he would have certainly challenged Billy Walker’s record if his Villa career had not been prematurely ended. I actually struggled quite a lot with the selection of Pongo’s strike partner. George Brown (126 apps, 89 goals), Dai Astley (173, 100), Frank Broome (151, 91) and Tony Hateley (148, 86) were all strong contenders. But in the end, it was a straight choice between Peter McParland (1952-1962: 340 appearances, 120 goals) playing in a more fluid role with Houghton, Dixon and himself interchanging between wide and central positions and a more traditional centre forward in the form of Gerry Hitchens (1957 – 1961: 160 appearances, 96 goals). In the end, I decided that the romance of Italy, trumped the romance of the FA Cup. ST: Gerry Hitchens. Although Hitchens took a while to settle at Villa, his scoring exploits afterwards were phenomenal (52 goals in 77 matches). This resulted in an England call up, a goal within a minute of making his international debut and a double against Italy that helped earn him a move to Italy (along with John Charles, Denis Law and Jimmy Greaves) with Inter Milan. He became the first player to be capped by England whilst playing for a foreign club, was top scorer for Inter as they finished runners up in Serie A and claimed the No 9 shirt (ahead of Jimmy Greaves) at the 1962 World Cup. Had Alf Ramsey not introduced a policy of only selecting home-based players, Hitchens’ form in Italy would probably have earned him a spot in the 1966 squad too. “Arguably the best number 9 ever to wear claret and blue… became England’s most successful export to Serie A.” (The AVFC Blog).

Best thing to do with 15 seconds of the game left is to shoot high, wide and handsome. No chance of the keeper catching it and punting the ball upfield to give them one more chance.

First I find myself agreeing with Piers Morgan and now I'm agreeing with @rayk...... The world has spun off its axis!!!