roonst83

I know it’s tomorrow in Australia already but care to elaborate?

Firstly your response was a tad rude which is uncalled for. But leaving that aside, you also seem to pigeon hole me with my views in a collective with other people who I have no idea who you mean. “You guys” etc. I speak for myself and don’t spend hours scrolling back through the thread to find other people who may or may not share my opinions I couldn’t care less and stand on my own with my views. And, in my opinion, my views make sense and are always well balanced. You also seem to have some delusions of grandeur in that the opinion and counter arguments you and others have are somehow more valid than mine or the others you seem to categorise me with. I won’t take the bait by responding to the nonsense comments of “do you not understand the word tactics” etc. And despite it being exhausting having to re-justify your own opinion on a forum which encourages that very thing from it’s contributors, it’s Sunday evening, my boys are in bed and my missus has Love Island on so I’ll indulge it; My opinion, and the place I’m coming from is that we spent £33m making Oli Watkins our main striker in a three-pronged attacked. Smith only plays one striker through the middle and Watkins was excellent in that role last season. Yes Watkins can be useful out wide but we have acquired specific wide forwards to fill those positions. Therefore, Watkins is our starting striker so there’s no role to “upgrade” as you put it, and spending £40+m on Tammy doesn’t make sense, to me, in my opinion, as far as I’m concerned etc etc, as I can’t see Tammy coming to a club unless he’s getting the starting role. Last time he played for us he was guaranteed that main striker role and now he isn’t. Tammy won’t, in my opinion again, want to join a team where he has to be rotated. He’s had that at Chelsea and will feel he should be the starting striker for us. It makes no sense for us to move Watkins out wide and I can’t see us paying £40m for someone who won’t start for us. If it does happen and we sign him the I’ll be pleased. I like the guy. I just don’t see it happening and we have other areas to prioritise.

Anyone else not remotely excited by the prospect of getting of Tammy back? Don’t get me wrong he was great for us in our promotion season. But despite being on loan he was pushing for a move to Wolves when Grealish was injured and only stayed with us after Grealish lied to him about how imminent his return from injury was. Add to that we’d have to spank another £40m for a striker in a position where we spent £33m only a year ago in Oli Watkins, and who was a top performer for us, and I just can’t see how this makes sense.

Was hit or miss in the Championship. Same goes for in the Prem.

Ultimately, Wes’s reputation improved more when he was injuried with a broken knee than it did anytime he was playing. Samatta’s performances gave fans the illusion that Wesley was what we missed when, in truth, the big man only ever showed glimpses of some quality, but most of the time he looked lost on the pitch and off the pace. To lose your head in a pre-season game shows a lack of control over your emotions, perhaps built up by the frustration of not playing (well) and struggling to get himself back to where he feels he can be after his injury, but I do worry about how much he can be an asset for us as and when Watkins isn’t available. That said, I am interested in seeing him play in a ball playing Villa team rather than one that lions it up to him as we mostly did in the 5 months he played for us in our first season back. I just don’t think we’d ever sign him now if we didn’t already have him. Would obviously love to be proven wrong.

When people say "lush".

So is this different to being a claret member? Is this an additional subscription for priority tickets etc whereas avtv membership is for full match replays and behind-the-scenes footage etc?

Can you see Smith throwing out his 3 man attacking set up that he’s always had and that has got him to where he is now? I’m not so sure. I can only personallysee Tammy maybe coming if we sell Grealish and that’ll be to try and mask the sadness with some romantic notion of Tammy’s return to a place where he is loved. Even then you’ll have to either shove Watkins out wide to accommodate him, which I can’t see happening, or Tammy sits on the bench which I also can’t see happening. Smith only goes 4-4-2 in the last ten mins of a game when we’re losing. I struggle to see him throwing up his strategy and formation for Tammy. Would be very interesting if Tammy does land and I’d always be excited to see him back at VP.

But where does he play? I’d be keen to get Tammy back if we didn’t have Watkins but they play the same position. I just can’t see us spending £40m so we can shift our top goalscorer out wide.

I just don’t get this rumour to be honest. Watkins was signed for a hefty sum of money to be our central striker and delivered for us last season. Smith will keep 3 up front with two wide men. We won’t spend £40m for a backup striker and Tammy won’t sign to not start. A non-starter for me. Will be amazed if this happens and I’d rather us use the reported £40m elsewhere. Tammy will go to Wolves.

Completely agree with this. “All business” was a perfect description of Mings’s performance and when he cuts out the lapses in focus and sloppy mistakes he really does stand out. Hause has been great when used this season and I personally feel he always looks our biggest threat at scoring for us from set pieces.

Just how it sounded when I first heard the commentator say his name

Such a good away performance. Better than Everton perhaps, and similar. We should’ve had about 6 goals and once they scored we took control. McGinn was excellent and Nakamba improved after his mess up. Our defence stood up to everything and Konsa looked very assured at RB. We stifled Kane and Son all game and stopped the supply. Did great. Grealish showed again how everyone lifts their game when they play with him; Traore and El Ghazi notably. Watkins just doesn’t stop hustling, so good. Subs were great when they came on. There’s some excitement building for Trouble Maker for sure. Even after Grealish went off we created more good chances although, naturally, our control of possession dropped abit. Great to finally beat Spurs and to win from going behind away from home for the first time since Arsenal away opening day of the season when Tony Moon wrapped up a 1-3 win in August 2013.

Back to his best today. Reminded me of how he played in the Championship; dominating the middle, driving forward. Was important for him to be played further up the field where he is undoubtedly better, and having Grealish helped lift his and everyone else’s performance. MOTM today.

Looked to me like Watkins was going down before any contact was made. He was looking for it 100% so hard to back him there. However, Kane, Salah, Pogba and Mane would all have got a pen.

I watched his game with my brand new twin boys who arrived Saturday morning. Made it home in time and despite feeling completely overwhelmed and being tied up in feeding, I was adamant me and my boys would be cheering us on. Unbelievably delighted with the win and though we played some beautiful stuff throughout and for the first time since Burnley away in January we created multiple very good chances and should’ve been out of sight by HT. Traore showed his craft and silky skills but always had a positive end result out of those moves, Barkley looking much closer to the player we had back in December, much fitter and sharper and was very unlucky with his effort that struck the post. Our midfield and defence worked tirelessly and for the first time in a good while we managed the game out with such ease after El Ghazi’s beautiful strike. This was a reminder of the style of play Smith wants from this Villa team, lovely and fluid with the players finding each other in completely in sync. We’ve struggled massively without Grealish but against Everton we showed we can hold our own. Excellent performance throughout and stops us simply dwindling and fizzling out. Players need to be playing for their places and they played that way last night. It was the first time that my goal celebration and jubilation wasn’t muted by VAR, but one of my 36 hour twin (Villa) boys who I was feeding when Anwar found the top corner. I was silently screaming for joy. Best weekend ever (for me). UTV

Lesson learnt I’m sure. Impressive and quite staggering if this is the first red card of his career as he is fully committed at all times. It was completely stupid of him and he lost his head at clearly been frustrated at losing the ball to Foden. It happens. Generally our discipline on yellow cards across the team seems to be excellent and Smith will have torn him a new one after the game for sure as it ended any slim chance we had of getting something out of the game. Cash has been a revelation for us this season and we’re significantly better with him. I’m confident he’ll learn from this. Our biggest issue is that we have no suitable cover for him which magnifies the anger at losing him.

Completely agree. He’s the epitome of a flat track bully in that he shines against inferior opponents but doesn’t lay a glove or have any real impact on a consistent level against the better teams. Anwar and Trezzy are similar in that regard and that’s why without Grealish having to rely on those three severely weakens our attacking threat.

Dreading this. Can’t see anything other than a victory for Baggies.

Unlikely as we were to get something out of the game before our sending off, Cash made certain of our defeat by his completely reckless and needless second yellow. City miles ahead of us tonight. Foden was class and City weren’t troubled. This season is really petering out and we look a shadow of our former selves without Grealish. He’s the only player with any composure, whose passing is always accurate and who can slow the game down and keep the ball. No Grealish. No party.

I know what you (and others) are saying. Opinions are always split and, as such, what constitutes someone being discerning is completely subjective and as we’ve both said, the outcome and result will skew people’s take on performances. I personally think it was a much better showing that at Newcastle and Sheff Utd. We looked more of a threat when we got into dangerous areas but we lacked key decision making as I stated. That said, I think we were sloppy in places and so were our opposition. I’m far from pleased with the result, of course. I just think the performance against a team with some top players, wasn’t as bad as some people feel. We were much more troubled and Martinez was much more worked against Southampton away than we were today.

100% this.

I wasnt suggesting you are or aren’t usually positive. I don’t know you atall. It’s just opinions and reactions in general are more rife after a loss. I’m gutted with the loss and how it unfolded but we weren’t being peppered all second half and came closer than Liverpool to scoring through Trezzy’s effort off the post, before they bagged the winner. In my opinion, and that’s all it is, we were far from poor and I doubt people would’ve felt the same had Trezzy had scored and Trent hadn’t. Fine margins which we were on the wrong end of.

Was expecting a comment of sorts. We kept them at bay for most of the game and they scored an injury time winner. Had we have hung on for a draw at the end people would mostly be applauding a decent hard fought result. With better decision making in key areas we could’ve won that and not lost, that’s all I’m saying.

We played well today I thought. Deserved a draw and with better luck (Trezzy’s chance) and better decisions in the final third we could’ve won it. Had to get out and close Trent down for their (inevitable) winner. I was screaming for us to push out as we seems to lack the desire to defend for our lives after Martinez’s save. Think we’re better when we are set back and counter. We should do this against everyone whilst we still won’t have Grealish.