villalad21

Not sure 38 pts will be enough this season. Probably will be, but this league has been so unpredictable so far.

Agreed, at least until Davis returns. Dean Smith just needs to bite the bullet, brush his stubbornness aside and accept that Wesley isn't anywhere near good enough at the moment. You can say all you want about JK but he does make runs into the box and does get to the end of crosses.

100 % he would. The most important thing he would do is to sort out the big gap between our midfield and defense.

Kodjia may not work as hard but at least he get at the end of crosses and makes runs into the box. If he can just do that it would be a big improvement already. We put in plenty of crosses but Wesley is nowhere to be seen.

It has nothing to do with JT. It's Smith who set's up the shape and giving instructions. It's Smith who is telling our midfielders to bomb forward leaving us exposed at the back.

Him having a bad shot would be an improvement. Can't remember him having a single shot since the Norwich game.

I can accept that. But if we look at our last 2 games we have also been outfought.

The very least i am expecting is more aggressiveness from our players. We are currently losing too many second balls, losing too many 50/50 duels. We are too easy and predictable to play against. Our midfield are all weak, they are pushovers at the moment and they get bullied far too easily. It's disappointing when i see teams wanting it more than us.

Pedro is a winger isn't he? We need a damn striker. Pedro isn't the answer to the Wesley crisis.

People go on about modern football has moved on and Bruce's style of football is dead. And yet here he is in 2019. Beating Man U, Spurs and drawing against Man City. Sitting comfortably mid table with a mediocre side.

I think the only manager i would get over Smith that is semi available is Benitez. I agree with continuity but it has to be with the right manager. The defensive concerns this season still make me un convinced that Smith is the right man moving forward. These next games will be season defining though. If he keeps doing the business against the teams around us i can't complain much. I love how good of an attacking threat we are but i hate how easy it is for the opposition to get chances against us. I know i go on about this all the time but we can't keep ignoring the shot against stat. Smith even mentioned it in his post match interview. We can't keep giving away 23 shots every game.

Would be such typical Villa to get relegated when we finally get in proper owners that have every intentions taking us to the next level. Not even sure the owners would stay around if we were to get relegated.

If he had some attributes he excelled at there would be something to work with. But that's the problem. After watching him for 16 games i still have no idea what his main strengths are. Benteke is a good comparison. Came from the same league and similar in age. At least with Benteke we could see his strengths. Strong, could hold the ball up. Great header of the ball and also had a good first touch.

Because they are Burnley a little club with next to no resources. It's a miracle he's kept them up as long as he has.

I don't understand this. Smith's had success with strikers like Hogan and Maupay before. I'd like us to go for that type of striker. Why did Smith have a change in approach?

Not really. That run of games is a really small sample size considering he's managed hundreds of games.

Why? Sheff Utd aren't exactly known as a possession based team. Norwich almost had 60 % of the ball against them

If Engels and Konsa does well in his absence i can see Mings having a hard time getting back into the team.

I think they'll lose to Everton and everyone will be on Ole's back again.

Memes aside though. Sheff United lost to Newcastle and only got a narrow win against Norwich. We shouldn't fear them. Game prediction: 2-2

The thing with Trez is he got good movement. He so often get into good scoring opportunities. He can control the ball, he can dribble past players which creates space for others. Don't see why he can't do a job as a number 9.

We will probably have to get some unexpected wins if we are to stay up. We're not going to win against the teams around us every single time. Even Lambert and McLeish manged to get some wins from the big 6 every now and then. And without them wins we probably would have been relegated. Even Bruce has gotten 2 wins and a draw against MAn U, Spurs and Man City.

But in contrast to Smith, Dyche actually knows how to organize a defense, the foundation to any successful football team. Apart from that 10 game winning run Smith haven't showed he is able to do that, even at Championship level. Also his stubbornness with Wesley and 4-3-3 is killing us at the moment. I'm all for consistency with the right coach, but if Smith is unable to improve us defensively he won't be the right man long term.

Smith is actually doing more harm to Wesley than good by keep playing him. His confidence is completely shot. His team mates is starting to not trust him and the fans is starting to turn on him.

I just think the timing on that new contract was wrong. If Smith takes us down he should get the sack imo. Because it proves he doesn't got what it takes at this level. Im not Smith out btw.