villadodo

I don't think he is arrogant. I saw an interview with him where he was trying to answer the questions but clearly finding it a bit uncomfortable. He's only 21 its only natural to find it a bit awkward having to make conversation with total strangers who think they know you because they've seen you playing football. He probably comes across that way because so many other footballers seem to be unnaturally confident and have had loads of media training.

I wouldn't worry too much about what Newcastle are doing. If we finish below them we are 100% down. Better they took points off Brighton. Plenty of time for our team to start clicking.

For anyone concerned about the ability of our team to stay up this season let me reassure I have just spent 90 minutes watching Newcastle vs Brighton. Brighton completely dominated that game without ever looking like scoring. Passing and moving beautifully until they got to the Newcastle penalty area and then running out of ideas. Not disappointed at all that we missed out on Maupay he looked selfish and bang average. Newcastle are exactly what you would expect of a Steve Bruce team. No attacking cohesion whatsoever. Standing miles apart and punting the ball in the general direction of a teammate. Completely reliant on a moment of individual brilliance. Fortunately for us they don't look like they have an individual remotely capable of providing a moment of brilliance. We need to step up our own performances but definitely nothing to fear from these two sides.

I am wondering whether at some point Smith might try moving Jack back onto the wing and bringing Conor back into Centre Mid. Jota, Trez and El Ghazi have all struggled so far. Grealish has also not performed to his best level in centre mid this season. I also feel we have missed Conor's set pieces and goals. However it is hard to find a place for Conor in centre mid ahead of Grealish and McGinn and Nakamba looks like a more solid option in defensive midfield.

To be honest I don't think VAR is the only problem it is the ridiculous nature of some of the rules of the game. Why is the goalkeeper not allowed to stray a millimetre off their goal line? If they dive straight along the line they will crash into the post. Why is the strikers toenail not allowed to be past the last man without being offside? It is surely impossible for the striker to know exactly all of their body is onside when they are moving at speed without starting their run well in front of the defender. What happened to the rule about handball having to be deliberate? In the City game today the ball brushed Laporte's arm it was clearly unintentional.

My opinions why Dean Smith is the best manager we have had for years. 1) Tactics and coaching Sometimes I think people exaggerate the importance of tactics and coaching like they are a magic bullet that can win games on their own. If you have shit players you are not going to win regardless of your formation or how good your coaches are. Smith does the simple things well. All the players know we are going to play 4-3-3 and know exactly what their roles are so if we get an injury that player can be replaced seamlessly. There is no random chopping and changing like Bruce deciding to play 3 at the back on a whim. I actually don't think Smith does anything particularly special tactically but we are organised, have a plan and he doesn't sabotage the teams chances with strange decisions unlike previous managers. 2) Meritocracy Smith bases team selection on meritocracy. I guess it was surprising to see Taylor, Elmo and Hourihane in the starting line up against Spurs but actually it makes complete sense as following on from last season it is still their shirt to lose. The only position Smith frequently rotated last season was Adomah / Green because neither of them performed consistently well enough to keep the shirt. Players were only replaced due to injury or bad performances e.g. Tuanzebe for Hause (injury) and Hourihane for Whelan (performance). The player who came into the team always kept their place if they performed well. We have seen numerous managers in the past persist with selecting their favourites despite prolonged periods of underperformance e.g. Weimann and Gabby under Lambert which led to Albrighton leaving. Albrighton put in some great performances during the brief cameos he was given by Lambert and its hard to imagine the same situation happening under Smith. It must create a great competitive edge when no-one's position is safe and everyone has the opportunity to keep a first team place if they perform well. 3) Round pegs in round holes Smith selects players in their strongest position and only deviates from this approach unless there is no alternative e.g. Hause covering at left back last season when Taylor was injured. We all know Bruce loved to select players in random unfamiliar positions which reached its disastrous peak at the start of last season when Tuanzebe became RB, Hutton LB, Jedinak CB, Kodjia LW, Elmo RW... WTF! I clearly remember feeling the same frustrations with both Lambert and McLeish. 4) Personality Obviously this is a bit more difficult to judge as he could easily be a different person behind the scenes. However he always comes across as an amiable, humble and intelligent guy who loves Villa. Bruce made his own situation worse by antagonising the fans. Di Matteo was robotic. Garde realised he'd made a horrible mistake. Sherwood was a clown. Lambert was dour. McLeish couldn't shake off his past. Houllier was respected by the fans but not the players according to Petrov. Its hard to imagine anyone taking a strong disliking to Smith. 5) Conclusion Dean Smith is our best manager in years because he does the simple things well. The Premier League is a massive step up for our squad and there is only a certain limited amount the manager can do to impact results. Ultimately much of our performance this season will come down to the quality of recruitment we have done which is based on work from our scouting department, Pitarch and Purslow not just Dean Smith. If the going gets tough and Smith starts to get scapegoated I just want to remind you all of the list of our other recent managers Bruce, Di Matteo, Garde, Sherwood, Lambert McLeish, Houllier... etc. It is a lot easier to find a crap manager than it is to find a good one!

Lets be honest if a player is a top performer in the French, Dutch, Belgian, Turkish, Portuguese or Russian top tier or the English Championship then they stand a decent chance of being ok in the Premier League. Some of those leagues have a few standout teams but in general the standard is pretty much on par so it doesn't make a big difference where they come from. We've seen in the past a player can have years of experience in the Premier League and still look bang average in the Championship e.g. Bacuna, Westwood, Taylor, Weimann, Baker. I guess they just got lucky to spend so long in the PL without being found out.

I know we all love Mings but Bournemouth must be absolutely delighted. They have brought in £30m for two surplus players! Meanwhile we had to pay McCormack to get him to leave and we will be lucky if we £2m back for Hogan!

I managed to find the stats you were talking about. Looks like he had quite an injury hit season. Also the year before he was hardly used other than as an option off the bench. He is only 21 so he is doing well to get a reasonable amount of game time in La Liga and is only going to improve. I completely agree that based on those stats I would be shocked if Smith was planning to rely on him to start every game. Expecting him to be another rotation option like Konsa, Hause, Hourihane, Jota, El Ghazi.

Not sure if this has already been answered but not seen it anywhere. Last season he started 16 league games and made 7 substitute appearances for Girona. I've seen lots of comments both on here and in media saying his loan was a huge success. If it was such a big success then why was he not involved more particularly as Girona were relegated? Any ideas?

It's funny that because I was under the impression he was younger as well but looked him up and he is actually 28 which is only 1 year younger than Sturridge. They are both very injury prone but I would say Sturridge is a much better player with a better goalscoring record if we had to choose one. To be honest I wouldn't be keen on either of them and I don't think the club is even considering these type of players.

I thought he was poor. Not anticipating some of the crosses into the box. And there was a strange moment where he just stopped playing to have an argument with Hourihane. First game of pre-season so lots of time to improve.

They are a kind of weird chav / hipster hybrid. They certainly look like no one I have ever seen watching or playing football. I will not be buying the new kit. I like the colours of the away kit but nothing else. The marketing campaign is just stupid. Repeatedly saying the word 'iconic' does not make it so. Would be more accurate if they substituted it for 'disappointing'.

Well at least this season he will definitely be there or thereabouts... the relegation zone.

Wish him all the best but poor signing for Forest in my opinion. Great character, lovely guy, good player for a couple of years but really starting to live up to his uncle Albert nickname in that last season. I think we got promoted in spite of him rather than because of him and he only stayed in the squad for lack of a viable alternative. It was like pass the parcel at the end of the season between him and Green with both of them trying their best to be dropped for the next game.