Pelle

Now I hope that we at least can agree on getting off DS's back for not playing him.

So I think it might be time for it tonight

I know no one will care, but I've had my last night at work for this decade. No more work for me untill January 7th next decade. Feels allright.

Yes, Hogan is loaned out to stoke.

I call this a text book youth team vs. senior team. The youth team were full of energy and ran around chasing us all over the pitch. Clearly and obviously more motivated but with less skill. The esnior team, our players, did what was needed and had a calm night. Sure, Nyland had to make some good saves and I gave him MotM, but after our first goal there really wasn't any doubt. We never came out of 1st gear and we really didn't need to either. Job done. Even though Kodjia scored twice, or a hat trick if he really touched the first one, I think this game showed why he's not in the team. He's quite selfish, doesn't work for the team and most of the times when he has the ball nothing comes out of it. Yes, 3 goals are quite obviously very good. Can't really ask for more than that, but most times he tried to do it all himself and lost the ball. And against better teams there won't happen more than today. BUT, he's hungrier for a goal than Wes and will get into scoring positions more often. So if we're screaming for a striker scoring loads of goals then yes, he's the better option, but for another kind of forward Wes is probably more what Smith wants from that position. Even though he hasn't been very good of late. Still good for both player's confidence to score tonight. That won't hurt any of them. And a hattrick is always a hattrick, no denying that.

Yeah, but for how long? Let's say the defending team gets hold of the ball and passes it around like an italian defence for a few minutes, should they still go back? Or interrupt? Not saying you're wrong about this, I just wonder when it's getting too long between the possible offence and the ball going out of play. Normally the ball doesn't stay in play for long times, but it happens. I think it's quite fair to say that the "clear and obvious mistakes" is not followed, for good and bad.

Yeah, our penalty was definetely a good example of VAR working. But for how long back can they check VAR? They had a check for a penalty for sheffield united too in the first half (I think) and that was when the ball was dead which I think was about a minute later. That felt ridiculous. The ball obviously didn't touch Hausse´s arm, but if it had they'd brought the play back about a minute.

Yep, that was poor. Really poor. I feel a bit worried, but I don't feel the panic. But we were definetely too static. We only reacted, if that, whilst they acted. Their 2nd goal was a perfect example of that. Fleck kept on running into the box and our players were watching when the pass came our players started to run but by then it was too late. He got the ball with no Villa players within the space of 5 yards and could calmly bring down the ball and put it past Heaton. The whole game we were waiting for the ball and they went for the ball. We need to change that. But right now we are around where I expected us to be. We're in a relegation fight and that's what I expected us to be. The most worrying thing right now is that we're getting worse. We've hit the bad form just in time for a crucial string of games. Typical Villa.

Yeaj, I'm sorry, you mentioned it once after JV said that he'd played in the CL, then you had to add that he played for a weak Ass side and in a micky mouse league. And that's quite telling, 7th best league in the world is according to you a mickey mouse league. As said, no need to put words in your mouth. In this thread you've said some seriously stupid things all by yourself.

Yes, and he played in the CL which I can't see that you ,memtioned specifically at all.. I don't need to put stupid words in your mouth, you do it quite well yourself.

Much likely, yes.

Well, it's kind of what you said when you said that before he came to Villa he'd only done it in a shitty league against bad players, and since he's played in the CL it must mean that CL is a poor league. But the belgian league isn't a bad league. Worse than PL, yes, but not poor. Most likely one of the top 10 leagues in Europe, top 15 in the world. But this is the modern football fan for you, they watch the top teams in the CL and think that's the standard, the rest are poor players and clubs. But it's a step up for him and he hasn't adapted very well yet, but there's no way to tell wether he'll be able to or not. Right now it's quite easy to see that he's low on confidence too..

That he'd be voted out by 99% of the fans doesn't necessarily mean that he's the worst player we've got.

Didn't we play Leipzig in a pre season game? But on the other hand, if you're to believe some in this thread then CL is quite a shite league too.

Kind of the whole point with this thread.

Probably our most talented player after Grealish. The question is wether he can turn that talent to be the real deal or not. I think he will. First step is probably to always give 100% in tackles. And realise that he hasn't got as much time in PL as in many other leagues. If he and Nakamba kan adapt to this league we might have a great midfield in a couple of years together with Jack.

Marie Fredriksson, the female part of the swedish pop duo Roxette, has passed away at the age of 61. Sad but kind of expected.

It's quite funny. No, it's quite sad. Actually it's kind of pathetic that after we're beaten 4-1 at our home ground the most growing thread is the thread about our striker. And we played against the best defence in the league. Some say that if we'd had Tammy we'd be 6 now. I say that we score enough to be 6th but we concede far too many goals. Our attack is quite decent and he's a part of the attack. What's his attributes? Well, he's rather stromng and keeps the defenders occuoied making space for the other players for one. He's quite good at finding a pass at one touch (No, I don't mean that the times he can't control the ball is passes. I actually agree with the criticism that he's bad at trapping the ball is poor). It's not often it opens up the defence, but it gets the attack rolling on. That's another. He's far from great. But seriously, he's part of the one thing we're good at, attacking and scoring goals. It's not despite we have him, it's not because we have him, but he's a part of it. We wouldn't be scoring that many goals if he was half as bad asome on here claim. We simply wouldn't. If we were then the rest of the players would be almost world class and only one of them comes close to be that. He's playing his part in what makes us going. That's his main task. What he's not a main part of is the defence. And there are only 4 teams who've conceded more goals than we have, and two others that have conceded as many. We're joint 5th in shipping goals, or joint 13th if you like. This is where our main issues are. Not scoring goals, but conceding them. Smith is most likely more concerned about how we do than us fans. He's a fan himself and he's got one try at what is probably his dream job. Believe me, he wants success more than any of us do. And he knows better than any of us how to get it. Will he get it? We'll see, but it won't be for being stubborn and not seeing what we can see. And definetely not at this stage. The odds are on him, not us in here. Someone mentioed that he had a chance to shoot against leicester but opted for the pass to Elmo and it all went to nothing. In my book a legimit thing to chriticise, but that's what bad confidence can do. If you're low on confidence you don't dare to do anything on your own. You fear making mistakes. You hardly dare to do anything yourself. Better to pass so you're not the one who loses the ball. I'm not saying that he's defenitely low on confidence, but if I was to bet I'd bet on that. I too want another striker in January, but I'm far from giving up hope on Wesley. Not after 16 games, And especially not after a run where we've played against manure, liverppol, citeh, chelski and leicester. 4 yaers ago I'd never thought I'd add leicester to those teams. And that manure would actually be by far the worst of them. With suggestions like McGinn and Engels up top as that wouldn't be worse, I really hope that I'll never see you complain about a manager playing players out of position, but I'm quite sure you already have. And for the last, where did you all expect us to be by now? Top 10? Top 6? Top 4? We're about where we should expect us to be this season.

Good timing on that one.

Schooled by a very good team.

I wish I was good at something.

He needs to work on his concistency. Apart from that I think we have one of the most talented midfielders outside the top 6 and apart from Grealish. Who we coincidentially also have.

Criticism is fair. To say that he's not getting into the box often enough is fair, IMO. I think he's quite often coming too far down in the pitch. I mean, he works hard to get the ball, but should leave it to the mid's and defenders. Saying he's struggling to trap the ball is also fair. He can do a lot better there. And a few other things. But it's quite frequently you can read that he's just shite and just isn't a football player, and that's just nonsense. And when some say that they don't care if he scores plenty of goals from now on he's shite anyway, then you know that he's not getting a fair chance. That's just ridicilous. I don't think it was a misstake not to sign another striker, I think they tried but it didn't happen. But we definetley need one. At least one. Kodija isn't good enough and Davis is injured. We ca't even give him a breather. He could do with some rest and to get some burden off his shoulders. But he can't get it atm.

So what if they're only tap ins?

Was about to say that the linesman in the arsenal game must've been blind, but the I thought that maybe he was told not to raise the flag for offside in such a situation. But still, that was a clear offside. Upon that the replay showed that though it was a freekick he didn't stand in line with the defenders.