SeanO

This is imo our best 11 at the moment but I doubt Sherwood agrees. Westwood will play as will Gestede, also I'm not sure Hutton will keep his place with either Bacuna or Ilore possibly taking his place. They are doing very well at the moment but if we are ever worried about playing Leicester then I give up! We'll either win, lose or draw imo

I like this if only for the reaction of 3 bin dippers who I work with. First they hate that Benteke has signed, earlier in the transfer window they were going on about not paying more than 20m for Benteke as he's not good enough for them. The dirty looks I received after laughing at their blank expressions when they paid 32.5m made my day, even though I think Benteke will do well for them. And now this, they all hate Loveran's and wanted Ilore to replace him, now they want Rogers out!

Benteke struggled when he first joined. It was only the second part of the first season we started to see him come good. I keep reading this. He got nine goals in his first nineteen games, including his first in his first fifteen minutes for the club. He looked raw and he missed a few chances, but it was as good a start as any Villa striker has ever had. Nowt to do with Ayew that, but this comparison to Benteke's start thing is odd. I agree, Benteke looked good from the start. Okay he missed his 1st real chance but his 1st goal was sublime. I've no idea why JA is being written off, he has bags of talent and looks physically strong. All he needs is time to get used to the PL and he will be fine. I can only guess it's our concerns that we are short of a decent striker that's causing the ott reactions towards him after just 3 games. If Gabby can score at this level the Ayew has nothing to worry about. I'm confident Ayew will have a big part to play for Villa this season, personally I'm a lot more concerned about the ability of Rudy Gestede than I am about Jordan Ayew.

Hard to disagree with this post.

Before the window opened some people were concerned that Sherwood had never actually signed a player, well he has now signed 13! I can't recall a busier summer for us, has he brought wisely? I guess we'll know by May however even if it goes tits up I won't be blaming Sherwood for who he has signed because imo he has exceeded my expectations and then some. The real hard work starts now for Sherwood, making this sqaud gel. Get that right and we'll be in the top half, even with a low net spend.

He's good but he's not great yet. At his age, new quicker league, new language, new team etc are all going to make things difficult but if he's good enough to learn from his mistakes then we will have an excellent player.

I've just read a couple of posters blame Guzan for the free kick farrrk me what's going on in your heads? I also noticed no one has said anything about the player who gave away the free kick who just happens to be the same player caught in possession last week that gifted Palace their win that Guzan also got the blame for. Amavi has shown some good thing's but he's not above criticism for his poor play. Good energy but if I were the opposition manager he would be the full back I'd want to attack as his positioning isn't the best. We had the majority of play against a awful Sunderland team, with Gil in place of Bacuna from the start I think we might have been out of Sunderland's reach before half time. Gestede started poorly but improved as the game went on, however if he's the answer then the question is wrong. Before the game started I thought we would struggle to create chances and it would be another boring VP performance but the team were better than I gave them credit for however it was obvious to most people watching that we are still going to struggle without a quality CF.

Disappointed but not surprised with the line up, if Grealish had of been fit I'm sure it would have been different but it feels like 2 points dropped rather than 1 gained. We go again.

Frustration, the line up was always going to make this difficult to break Sunderland down. We've created a bit more than I thought but not enough. Poor result.

Better than I thought but is it because Sunderland are shite? I'm also enjoying watching a game at VP....words I haven't used for a long time. Sinclair is on fire, Bacuna? with a free roll in midfield?? We look like a team trying to find some confidence, so far so good.

**** that I wanna concede the season. Can we just get relegated now? FFS - you do realise that we've got players injured/unfit, right?I'm sure he does, are you seriously saying that's our best 11 from the players he has to choose from? That line up has just given Sunderland a big boost. Given fitness and the game on Tuesday night, it could possibly be yes. I can't agree that even with injuries and illness that that's the best line up at home to Sunderland. Against one of the Sky teams I could perhaps understand playing defensive but this is a game we should be on the offensive from the off. Gil or Cole should be in for Jack imo. Come on Villa prove me wrong (again lol) But what if Gil isn't fully fit? That was my point. Yeah I see your point but we don't know that it's just an assumption based on him being tired after Tuesday night. Anyway we will soon find out if this line up is good enough to win today.

**** that I wanna concede the season. Can we just get relegated now? FFS - you do realise that we've got players injured/unfit, right? I'm sure he does, are you seriously saying that's our best 11 from the players he has to choose from? That line up has just given Sunderland a big boost. Given fitness and the game on Tuesday night, it could possibly be yes. I can't agree that even with injuries and illness that that's the best line up at home to Sunderland. Against one of the Sky teams I could perhaps understand playing defensive but this is a game we should be on the offensive from the off. Gil or Cole should be in for Jack imo. Come on Villa prove me wrong (again lol)

Hell, why bother playing the rest of the season... We're just going to get relegated with that kind of lineup... I just love better fan crap. Just because we don't agree with you doesn't mean we want to lose, we all want this club to win every game. I really hope I'm completely wrong but I just don't see any creativity in that line up.

FFS - you do realise that we've got players injured/unfit, right? I'm sure he does, are you seriously saying that's our best 11 from the players he has to choose from? That line up has just given Sunderland a big boost.

I just don't get Sherwood. Is he playing for a draw with that line up? Who is going to create the chances? I really hope I'm wrong but this now looks like it could be another boring VP game.

I've no idea what wages Evans will be on but I know his 1st contract at MU was for 50k per week (from a close family member of his). Would anyone like to find out given our financial situation that we were paying Evans (if we signed him in place of Lescott) upwards of this? I've never really rated Evans but even though I've never taken to Lescott I can see the merits in signing someone with his experience. I'll still be very surprised if Albion would sell to us given the hatred from them towards us, never understood that from them as I've never thought of them as rivals like Blues, obviously we are a big deal to them.

He'll score tomorrow. Quote me. Is Amanda Acquah flying over then? I doubt he will get a look in tomorrow (on the pitch) but it's way too soon to be writing him off.

Lambert, we are laughing at one of your signings. If one player summed up Lambert it was this useless t###. In the same way that CNZ sums up TSM time....and we are still paying for that!

So because posters don't mention that he had four good games every post they forget? I really rate Sanchez, even if he's having a bad game he never hides. A starter for me.

Close but no cigar.................yet. Buy a goalscoring forward and we are going to have a good season, fail to do so and we are in big trouble.

He was never good enough as per a lot of players we have signed with Lerner at the helm. I wish him the best at his new club though as he tried his best.

Very disappointing but it will take more games before the team gels. We need a real forward, Gabby's career at this level is over and from what I've seen of Rudy his may well be also. Bacuna isn't a RB, Guzan's distribution is very poor, Gabby doesn't score, Westwood is ?....same crap, season after season. We are hoing to battle in the lower half again unless someone like Austin signs before the window closes. Very poor from Sherwood, I love to ask him his thoughts on taking our best player off ahead of so many other's who should have been off before Sanchez. A lot of work still to be done.

Everyone. Gabby needs to step up or leave.

He looks like he could run all day but I haven't seen him other than a few minutes so don't take anything from that. I'm finding odd that TS is talking about player's not being fit, why not? Ok he has no control over what happened prior to arriving at Villa but our 1st team didn't look fully fit against MU. Are they genuinely not fit or are they being flogged in training? Anyway I can't wait to see him, Grealish and Gil in the 1st team.

Funny, I find it quite exciting and have more hope for the team than I have for a few seasons. With the old squad we knew they weren't good enough and each season would be a struggle to avoid going down. With this one there is at least a chance we have bought in some genuine skill and creativity and, once they settle in, we could have a decent run. That might be wrong and we might struggle but that's no different from the past three seasons at least, so what's to be scared of? It's not like we've shed a load of award-winning stars from the squad. Simple, we go down. Maybe it's because of how the last 4/5 seasons have gone that I'm concerned. I'm excited as well because I think we will be fine but it's going to take time for the squad to settle.