QldVilla

Of course you have, but rather than put together an intelligent comment/methodology to support your opinion, it was, he lost his first 3 games. Im still waiting for a clear and concise opinion based on fact as to why Mellberg won’t be a good manager. I’ll leave it with you.

Thanks scoop, but I don’t know why your telling me something I already know. Maybe if you did a little more research than Wikipedia, you would a little more about his coaching.

Maybe have a look at what he was doing as a manager since 2015, not 3 matches into a new position. Maybe the issues were there before he was appointed and needs time to address them?

Your right it is a massive job, but we also aren’t the club we were and we need to change the narrative if we want to be successful again.

Don’t know if Martin is interested in coaching, but believe he should be involved in the club, whether as a team manager, player officer etc.

Personally, if we are in the Championship, I’d like to see Mellberg as the next manager.

The club needs a coherent long term plan, rather than rolling the dice with a different owner each time.

I don’t know if sacking Smith is the best option, as I believe the clubs issues are far more complex than one issue. The club wasn’t ready to go back to the PL, hence having to spend a lot of money on unproven PL standard players. I have no doubt most of them will eventually reach that level, but they were never going to do that as a group who individually needed those 30-40 games experience at that level to be competitive. It’s not just talent and fitness, it’s the psychology as well. There wasn’t enough depth in the squad to rotate players, hence when major injuries occur, there wasn’t an adequate replacement. The one thing we had in the Championship was leaders, they may have been at the end of their careers, but they were respected in the squad. You can’t manufacture leadership, Heaton and McGinn provided some, but the change in squad mentality was glaring when both went down to long term injuries. Back to Smith, with all that against him, some bad referee calls, he still has the chance, although very slim, of keeping this team up. The worst criticism I can lay at Smith is that maybe he wasn’t ready as a manager for the PL, and that’s not really a criticism, you just don’t know until your in the heat of the fire. Maybe he would have never been ready, but I don’t believe the clubs position is of his own making.

We just need to be patient. If you look close enough the 1% are starting to appear. It is frustrating from afar as referees have cost the team points, a little naivety has also cost the team points. It's slowly coming together and we will start to put some performances together and pick up points.

Maybe this question has been asked before, but why doesn't building a new stadium come under FFP?

Didn't Villa make a formal complaint about him after a match a few years ago?

Agree. I have said numerous times it would take 6-10 games for this squad to come together, and nothing has changed. There’s been some little glimpses of what we are working towards just like last season when Smith came in. We just need to be patient. Maybe we’ve been unlucky, but this is the PL and we need to make our own luck. But I’m confident it will all come together.

Agree, take him with a pinch of salt. The bigger picture is if the PL thought they could get away with a token we support the ref comment they are wrong. The media have picked this up as it highlights the inadequaties of VAR and it use to support referees in correct decision making, not support them no matter what. Is Mr Friend that insecure that he can't admit he got it wrong?

BBC Football - Garth Brooks Team of the Week. Quote: Jack Grealish: I don't normally select players on the losing side but on this occasion I must make an exception. Jack Grealish not only gave a captain's performance against Crystal Palace but was robbed of the part he played in providing Villa with what would have been an impressive and justified equaliser. Kevin Friend's shocking decision to disallow Henri Lansbury's 96th-minute goal after Grealish's brilliant run ranks amongst the worst decisions I've seen in years. What Friend didn't see (and I did) was Grealish get bumped by Wilfried Zaha as he entered the box which propelled Grealish to the ground. You actually see Zaha (hand raised) appeal to the referee to say no penalty. This was truly an outrageous decision. Did you know? Grealish has created the most chances of any Aston Villa player in the Premier League this season (eight), with all but one of those coming from open play. Spot on!

For me Hutton always wore his heart on his sleeve and I respect that. I liked what I've seen of Guilbert so far, and will only get better with more games under his belt.

I was watching it at home in Brisbane and had goosebumps from the atmosphere.

Outstanding performance again, just quality.

He just rolled the sleeves up tonight, thought he was awesome.

THought him coming of the bench was a good move by Smith. He's been struggling with the pace and physicality of the PL, but coming on when the sting was out of the game allowed him to show what he can do. Should give him confidence, but think he may be better as this type of player.

He was a monster tonight, really happy for him. He got under Mina's skin and turned him inside out a couple of times.

I understand the point people are trying to make, and a few weeks ago probably would have agreed, but seeing some of the comments by pundits, media etc, it could have been Doncaster who was promoted (no disrespect). While their is respect for the club, 3 years out of the league and the comments have been it will be tough for Villa to survive, we spent money we'll do a Fulham, even Purslow was having to explain the clubs position on Sky Sports and very little respect has been shown. Even a couple of self professed pundits have said, if you don't remember who Villa are...? Are you kidding?? And I don't believe the players nor coaches would buy into this a bigger game analogy. It's eleven players against eleven players. We are a newly promoted club and we have to earn the respect of opposition teams and fans all over again. For 70 min we held Spurs and if we had a little more smarts we walk away with a point, we dropped 3 points against Bournemouth due to errors. I look at it as we dropped 4 points due to errors from our own players and IMO that's how the coaching staff are looking at the performances so far as well.

If he starts on a Friday, It will be interesting to see how he performs against Everton as he will be under a lot more pressure than the second half against Bournemouth on the weekend, who appeared to be happy to sit on their 0-2 lead. Looks a very good player, but still needs time to adapt to the league and Everton will be a different challenge.

We just need to be patient and back the manager and players it will happen. I said from day one it will take 6-8 games to bed the squad in, and there's been enough shown that we aren't that far away. We probably dropped three points today from a poor start, not through Bournemouth's great play, but silly errors. Ita frustrating but patience is needed.

He came on when we were under the pump, I thought I saw glimpses of a very good player, but he will need time to adapt.

Great debut and will only get better.