ejvilla

Great to hold on. Youngsters blooded & looked good. McGinn & Marvellous had great games. Konsa solid at RB - great decision to nullify Son. Kane anonymous. Bale no impact. Amazing the difference when Jack went off. Spurs reorganised as Winks had been man marking him. Gave them an extra midfielder. We had tons of space for other players when he was on. Top marks for Dean. Pity about missed chances, but fully expected to lose a couple of late goals. Dean's changes prevented that. Top 6 next year with a few extra pros & some luck with injuries.

Best manager since MON, and if you think Smith is one-dimensional, you don't remember MON's glory years. Incredible results year on year. Poor form of late, but 25% of the season without our best player. At the start of the season, teams gave us no respect, so we ran riot. We've been figured out and are now limited by the playing staff, who are either mid-table quality, or relatively young. Luiz is 22. Konsa, Wes, Cash, all under 25. The squad will improve through maturity without a single signing. Add the youth and a few quid spent in the summer and 21/22 is gonna be great fun. Villa fan captain, villa fan manager... this is what we've been dreaming of. It's a journey. We're not even halfway there. The only manager I'd consider over Dean, is Pep.

I was sure this was "F-ing sh*t pass. F*ck off Konsa. F*ck off man" after a hospital pass from Konsa that put Mings under pressure.

Generally happy with today's performance. I was glad to see McGinn pushed further forward after his performances for Scotland. Unfortunately, Sanson and Luiz weren't able to hold the midfield, so he didn't have a platform. This is why I thought it was a good call to bring on Nakamba when it looked like Sanson was injured - with a tougher midfield, McGinn may have had more influence. AEG is still a kid and blows hot and cold. Today was very cold, but he'll get better. Traore was very frustrating in the first half. There's something not quite clicking with the 4231... our wingers and fullbacks are competing for the same areas of the pitch. Fullbacks want to overlap, but wingers don't want to feed them. It must be very frustrating for them. It made me think we'd benefit from an AC Milan style 4321, xmas tree formation... mcginn & barkley, with Luiz, Nakamba & Sanson behind, fullbacks bombing on. Only when Grealish is out obviously. Cheap goal from a Mings mistake, but we were so cagey up until then. Seemed fearful of taking posession outside the back 4. This has been a problem for months, but is a common theme in the prem this year. Build up is so slow. Everyone seems like they're playing an individual game - looking for a killer pass or dribble instead of working as a team. This is inexperience. Davis changed the game and created a huge amount of space. Fulham are a physically weak side (except Mitrovic). Even Ramsey & Trez were able to bully them. Cross early, cross often... should be our motto - Trez is always at the back post - love him for that. Watkins will be in the 6yd - hed score another 10 this year if Targett & Cash crossed first time. Still - a wins a win. Didn't see a route back. Smith played a blinder by going with Trez, Davis & Ramsey - incredibly brave to leave barkley on the bench. UTV

Goals came from mistakes. Otherwise both teams evenly average. We've no quality in final 3rd. You knew we weren't going to score before the match started. Good to have Cash back. Back 5 are excellent, but had 2 howlers today. Ball just won't stick up front and final ball is consistently dogshit. Dwelling on every pass. Taking extra touches. Sanson looked better 2nd half. We got considerably worse when he went off. Barkley offers too little. Ramsey would've been a better change, but I would've left Sanson on & maybe changed Luiz/McGinn. Trez has no end product unless he's storming the far post for a 6 yarder. Maybe swap him with Cash. We know we need 2/3 good forwards. No surprise.