roonst83

Pretty sure the commentator mentioned it was only his 4th

Slight unfair given Bruce only managed us in the Championship.

Didn’t expect anything other than a loss tonight. Our confidence was completely blown apart by the last ten mins of the Wolves game and I feared the impact that could have on us going forwards which is proving to be the case. I didn’t like the look of the midfield from the off. Guess our hand was forced but as soon as we had to bring Young on you just knew we were dead and buried. Simply not good enough. Had no game plan at all and we can’t get the beat out of Bailey when he has his back to goal every time he receives the ball. There was no press, no tenacity, no bite, no fight and no quality from us. But if you can’t control the ball and play from the midfield then you invariably lose football matches. Our whole midfield was utterly awful so our front three can’t be any form of a threat as they’re not getting enough time on the ball. Our ball retention had been our biggest Achilles heel all season. We’re much better balanced with Luiz. Until we get back to pressing teams high up the pitch then we’re just not going to win anytime soon as thats our only way of winning the ball. Our playing out from the back is absolutely abysmal and we resort to lumping it. For me, this was as bad a performance as against Watford. And that day it was clear from the team we put out that we wouldn’t win. Not sure where we go from here. Need to grind a win out sometime soon as losing fast becomes a habit. Pressure is on Smith. Was always going to be the case and I always felt this season would be his last. I’ll be amazed if he makes it through to the new year. I hope he does because I think he can turn us around but the owners won’t be too patient, understandably. Always felt it would get worse for us before it gets better and that seems to be the case. Focus now feels like it’s to stay up. To do so we need much better application, desire and a game plan and if we can get back to performing well we can hopefully start to look forwards again. Need to stop this rot as soon as we can.

Sending off means he instantly gets his place back. Would’ve been interesting to see how he would react if he was out the team for a few games. Hope being dropped was a wake up call for him.

So was there any truth in the rumour he kicked off? Or just usual Twitter hearsay?

Absolutely dreading this. They’re too big and strong for us. Arsenal bullied us so Hammers definitely can. Soucek and Antonio guaranteed to score. Just do not in any way see how our midfield gets the better of theirs and that’ll decide it, in my opinion. Hope we get back to 433.

Someone on Twitter said that the video Preece was talking about was old footage from a month or so ago

In our experience, this usually has absolutely no positive effect for us and teams tend to bizarrely do better when they have less time between games than we do.

Assume we’ll be keeping the 5-3-2 given that it’s unlikely we’ll have Bailey or Traore available. We need to find a way of getting the best out of Watkins and Ings. Playing them both together seems to nullify both of their attacking qualities and neither seem to be able to get though or behind a defence. As always, our midfield is crucial to this game. McGinn seemed better when given more licence to get further up the field. I expect Buendia to start after impressing against Wolves and his perfect through ball to Ings’s chance is precisely what we need from him as and when he gets a sniff. If we can score early then their fans may get on their backs. Although if they smash Palace on Monday then they may be more buoyant. My main concern is how fragile and sloppy we became as soon as we conceded the first goal against Wolves.

Inevitable as soon as the first went in. Horrible.

I absolutely wouldn't. Young shouldn't be starting games for us. He's useful cover but I'm always against having right footed players as a left back. Young also isn't any quicker than Targett, or marginally so, at best. Adama is a threat no doubt but Targett gives us a lot on the ball and much better balance having him as LB. Plus, if we play three at the back then there's less reliance on Targett taking care of Traore as Mings or Tuanzebe will be asked to cover. We should be looking for what our LB gives us going forwards and not just worrying about how we defend. The way we play we ask our full backs to push forward and contribute to the attacks. Targett is much more valuable to us going forwards and crossing etc from the left than Young. Young simply plays very simple, often sideways, passes most of the time. He has got a good brain but I think having Young over Target will completely nullify our offering going forwards.

Agree. Traore has all the tools to completely eclipse Anwar. He is one of the most skilful players in the league and has showed he can both create for others and score. We need to see more of him.

Proud. Immensely proud. Most pleasing thing for me is how well a 'second string' team can play and to the same style we want across the first team. This bodes really well for when we start those players as it means they can hopefully seamlessly slot into the first team and play the same way. We should've won last night, had by far the better chances and couldn't be more proud of our youngsters. Archer impresses me greatly, along with JPB and Chukky, both of whom look the real deal. Finally, we're owned and managed with sense and with a future vision of the club from the youth to the first team, we feel much more collective and that certainly shows.

Literally just signed a new contract on the weekend.

Agree 100%. I'm proud to have Mings captain. I just wish he's cut out those mistakes and fulfill, what I feel is, his greater potential.

That's definitely a good observation about Mings trying to cover others. He's has a natural leadership instincts, no doubt. I also agree re Hause. Dient put a foot wring last season when called up and I always find he's our biggest threat from set pieces.

For me this issue is fans often try to label or pigeon hole players as one thing or an other. Mings is both an excellent leader and a player with great qualities, but he is also a player who loses focus and concentration during games, which has proved costly on a fair few occasions. Mistakes will always make more headlines than solid performances, particularly as a defender. But let's not pretend Mings's mistakes are something we should just accept because he also shows qualities during games. That mistake on Saturday night cha need the rhythm of the game as was a mountain for us to climb. It changed our dynamic and the game was effectively lost from there. Mings needs to cut these lapses in concentration out of his game and I hope the coaching staff are taking him to task over it. If they're not then that's a wider issue that would be concerning. I feel Konsa's ceiling is much higher than Mings and personally feel, similar to Rashford, Mings's positive public perception enhances the reputation of his footballing performance. Are we better with Mings in our team? Yes. Does he make too many costly mistakes for my liking? Also yes. Mings has never had the pressure at Villa of fighting for his place, a position he earns himself despite the mistakes over time, but with more competition for places and if we continue to recruit well he should be challenged more firmly for his position, in my opinion.

Ollie is our most important "defender". His high intense press is so crucial to us in getting the ball back from the opposition and transitioning into an attack.

Agree completely.

Well City will dominate possession in most games so that’s less surprising. What I meant was in comparison for how much (how often) he received the ball for Villa against our other players will far outweigh that against City. He’s used less as they have top talent all over, whereas he was our main top talent so everything went though him.

He’s looking good at City, but barely touches the ball anywhere near as much as he did with us, which whilst that misn’t a surprise given the wealth of talent at City, it’s still something that will irk a player like Jack who always demands the ball. He gave the ball quite sloppily on a couple of occasions which was uncharacteristic of him and despite being 3-0 in the first half Pep was going ballistic at him for it. He’s not used that before as he had carte balanche to do whatever he wanted without reprimand at Villa. It’s things like that which will push him to developing as a player.

Can't see it being anything other than the same starting XI that faced Newcastle. Midfield needs to definitely stay the same as there was far more balance last Saturday than against Watford. Just feel so beaten down by our constant injuries to key players so not expecting to see Watkins or Bailey at all. Expecting Smith to be fairly aloof in the press conference about both but would be surprised if either made an appearance. Extremely tough game against a well drilled very confident team who will want to show their old manager what he's missing. Need performances and influence from Buendia and as lively as Anwar looked last night, he's up against top level opposition now so needs to be much more present and involved.

I agree and also suspect (and hope) I won’t. My comment is based purely on what I’ve seen not what I am yet to. This (lack of creation of chances) was also a huge Achilles heel for us last year without Grealish so is something I’m hoping we get better at when we can eventually field our strongest starting XI of the new era.

Result was all that mattered today. If we’d have lost today after the shocker last weekend then it’d start to get ugly very fast. We’re off the mark for the season which is great. Didn’t play great atall, as noted by Smith, but got the job done. Midfield had a much better balance to it. Ramsey stood out with a very mature performance given how little starting roles he’s had. McGinn got my nod for MOTM as I thought he bossed the midfield at times, got stuck in and kept the flow moving as best we could. Mings was up for the battle with Wilson and came out on top. However he was miles better in the air for us than on the ground. Lost his man and stopped playing to the whistle for Wilson’s one-on-one which if that would’ve gone in really could’ve been a spring board for another poor result. He recovered well and contributed to both goals. But he worries me with his lapses in concentration and focus. Contributed more in attacking areas than normal which I’m guessing is the work of the new set pieces coach. Hope so. Mings should be more of a threat than he usually is so hopefully we see more of this from our captain. We naturally lacked pace and intensity to our play as we were missing the likes of Watkins and Bailey who will help out counter attacks. It was a tad end-to-end in the first half when I’d’ve liked more control but we slowly started getting a grip on things and Ings’s goal was just sublime. A real finish that was. Pure instinct and a perfect execution. Credit to Mings for the set up. Sexond half I felt we were much more measured and only looked vulnerable after going two goals up. I’m always disappointed when I see El Ghazi starting but he can take a spot kick for sure. All credit for that and for staying so composed after a lengthy delay to the penalty. Bruce claiming “nobody in the stadium thought that was a penalty” wasn’t really true but either way it was a clear pen and it certainly wasn’t the “natural position” that Bruce claimed. Stone wall. I was grateful to Anwar for that. He does score important goals for us. Buendia was largely ineffective. Doesn’t have any pace of note and couldn’t quite get into the game enough for a £40m playmaker. I’m putting it down to him getting used to the new squad and system and hoping he comes good but I’ve not seen anything to get excited about yet. But I am impatient, like most. A few hairy moments after we scored our second goal and we got let off by VAR for the penalty. Crazy by Martinez really. Lucky to get away with that. Would’ve been nice to bag a third goal but we didn’t really look like doing so but saw the game out well enough bar the odd decent chance for Newcastle. A better team would’ve made today a lot harder for us. Was grateful for the win and hope we can get players back fit and push on from here. I worry about our lack of ability to carve open the opposition and create chances. We’ve barely tested the keepers in the last two games and it does feel our pace and intensity has dwindled since last season but I’m hoping that’ll change the more the team gels and when we get Watkins back and Bailey and Budenia up to speed. Traore will help with the craft too hopefully. As well as Ramsey played I’d still like to get a natural and experienced no.10 in and also a DCM which has clearly been a target for us. We need quicker links between defence and attack to keep up momentum for counter attacks and a no.10 would do that. Not sure who but we do need to replace Barkey’s position. Great to win today. As I stated at the start of my synopsis, the result was all that mattered after last weekend. And great to do so in front of a full house at VP.

Whilst I don’t expect this to happen at £50m, it seems very likely that JWP is interested in the move, else this would’ve been squashed a long time ago.