tom_avfc

11 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

If the roles had been reversed you would be saying Max deliberately drove into the back of Lewis. 

He slowed down and yes made it difficult for him, what was he supposed to do?

The right result in the end and all down to the last race 

Give the place back like any normal F1 driver would. He’s not supposed to make it difficult for him - he’s supposed to give the place back. 

How does anybody support Max Verstappen? Has to be the most petulant F1 driver in history.

1 minute ago, sne said:

Considering he's getting flak every time things are not working I think we could give him this one.

The defending from corners has been much improved the last couple of games too.

26 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Tasty play off draw. One of Italy, Portugal or Turkey arent going

Surprised FIFA didn't do a redraw

Don’t the winners of the Italy game play the winners of the Portugal game so only one of those teams are going?

1 minute ago, DaveAV1 said:

Do you really think that managing to stay up was what NSWE had as this season’s target? I accept we have been unlucky with injuries but that’s a fact of life for all clubs at some point in a season. I’d also like to think that expecting to lose any games shouldn’t  be an attitude that any manager should have, certainly not one who wants to work under this regime. Equally that doesn’t mean that you expect to win any game either, but there should always be an expectation to have a plan that gives the team a decent chance as a bare minimum. 

As above I was replying to a post that suggested the situation was “more serious than people realised”. For me the situation was that we were likely to finish lower mid table which given losing our best player and a negative net spend in the summer is probably what I’d have expected going into the season.

For what it’s worth I think we’ll finish around 12th-14th and I think we’d have done the same without sacking the manager. Anything above this would be a good achievement from Gerrard although obviously we have a January transfer window to change this.

14 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

Just get the feeling that the board were looking for more than 1 point per game, which is effectively what they had been delivered throughout the 2021 calendar year. Don't think individual results had that much of an impact vs the overall performance over a longer period. 

Oh I completely agree. To say the situation was “more serious than people realise”, as the comment I was replying to did, suggest that we’d have gone down with Dean Smith. Personally I think we’d have ended up around mid table once players came back/ settled in.

Off topic but I’d also say that if the board expect much more than mid table then they probably shouldn’t be aiming to have negative net spends in summer transfer windows. 

30 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I don't think people realised how serious the situation actually was.

The board wouldn't have taken action IMO otherwise.

A win against Palace would make me feel much better, but they are absolutely flying.

Let's hope agent Benteke understands the assignment.

We’d just lost 5 in a row albeit 3 of those were games we’d be expected to lose.

Even after losing 5 in a row we were 1 point below the point per game average that would keep you up 9 times out of 10.

We hadn’t been able to name our first choice 11 once all season, had numerous players to come back from injury and a number of high quality signings who were always going to take a bit of time to bed in.

Our squad is considerably better than at least 5 other teams in the league and when our first team players began to come back we were always going to improve.

I’d have backed us to stay up with or without sacking the manager.

Had we not managed to throw away the most comfortable lead in the most ridiculous fashion against Wolves this thread would never even have been opened.

Just now, Jono62 said:

Conte working wonders. No pressing at all.

I’m not sure what changed for him to take the job but he should really have stuck with his initial decision not to. Not even close to the right squad for him to get playing how he likes to.

2 hours ago, useless said:

Have to say I didn't think he was that bad yesterday, there have been much worse performances from players playing on our left win in recent seasons. It seems to me because he lost the ball a few times people are focusing on that and forgetting the good that he did, another way of looking at it is he had a much better game than Ings, yet is getting more criticism than Ings because people are focusing on a few bad moments, Ings didn't have any bad moments because he didn't get into the game.

He also was completely isolated when he received the ball 9 times out of 10. It’s hardly a surprise that a player who is out on the wing on his own with 3 defenders around him gives the ball away more often than not.

Ings didn’t look very fit to me with the overhit touch when played through and his general pressing not being there. Playing in not your natural position when the striker isn’t offering much help isn’t easy.

For me Watkins up front should be one of the first names on the team sheet. He’d get enough goals and he leads the press so well. The signing of Ings for the money he cost is one that I struggle to get my head around when Watkins showed the consistency he had last season.

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

We don't just need better, we have better. Marv isn't playing if Luiz is fit. How many teams around midtable have considerably better backups? I wouldn't be aggrieved if we replaced him, but I don't see us signing a considerably better player to warm the bench

I think there’s games where we would be more suited to having a defensive midfielder like Nakamba (obviously a better one) rather than Douglas Luiz.

The first signing I’d be making would be a better ball winning defensive midfielder to give us this option. Even if that means playing this new defensive midfielder alongside Luiz it just gives us so much more flexibility with what we do in midfield.

1 hour ago, picicata said:

I think, frustratingly for some, SJM will be one of Gerrard's favourites

I don’t think it’s about having favourites to be honest. He’s just far better than the alternative options in our squad. Our midfield has no strength in depth so whoever the manager is, McGinn is likely to be in the starting eleven in almost every game.

12 minutes ago, hong0311 said:

Do you hang around in your office when you are on holiday? 

I’m not sure my holiday from an office job is equatable to a professional footballer with seemingly bad fitness/injury issues with a couple of weeks in between games.

I’m only questioning whether it’s a great look to the new manager to see a player who’s season hasn’t really even began because of injuries etc. choosing to spend his time out of the country rather than be around the club.

I think DDID put it better than me above to be fair but I’m more comparing it to the stuff that was seen with players like Trezeguet and Wesley who regularly had videos/photos with Villa fitness staff putting in the hard work to get fit.

Now maybe Sanson is doing his utmost to get (and stay) fit and this trip to Disneyland was the best use of these couple of weeks but the impression it gives isn’t great in my opinion.

1 hour ago, Nigel said:

I don't understand all this thinking about hes going to jump ship.

He has a contract at the club, and no ones going to buy him.

Also from his point of view there's a new head coach,  Its a complete new start for everyone.

 

 

Given that he chose to go to Disneyland rather than be around the club knowing that a new manager was going to be in I’m starting to question his attitude to be honest.

Surely making a good impression whilst players were out on international duty would have been in his best interests if he was seriously bothered about making it at Villa.

For me he’s either the most unlucky player with injuries or he’s just not motivated.

I would add that he also seems to be a beneficiary of the classic “player not playing gets better” thing. He didn’t really show a great deal in his limited minutes on the pitch but to some people he’s the saviour of our midfield issues.

Not to write the guy off obviously but it’s hardly been a success story so far for him.

FIA frantically looking for another rule to hand the GP to Verstappen? Must be something surely! 

How can that not be a penalty? Hamilton was clearly ahead and without steering sharply to the right they’d both be out of the race now. 

1 hour ago, newhavenhibby said:

2 positive things I have witnessed about Gerrard whilst watching him up here are firstly, you will see some passion on the touchline and he will tell it as it is and tell the media so. He doesn't accept being second best.

Secondly, he does seem to possess good man management and that could be seen with him and the loose cannon Morelos. Never any stories of dressing room tiffs / feuds.......always seemed a "happy" squad.

So he’s like a younger version of Dean Smith? 

2 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

Don’t you get it? From 16th to 14th with only 27 games remaining is obviously outstanding. Not competent, not decent. Outstanding. Such a marked improvement rarely happens in football.

We have to serve out the platitudes properly to undermine the previous manager in this thread. 
 

That 2 point swing to finish above a wonderful Brentford side would be the most exceptional achievement any Villa manager has accomplished in my lifetime.

Lets be honest we’ll probably finish somewhere around the 11th-14th place that I’d have backed us to finish in with Smith when players are back from injuries and bed in. Anything in the top half would represent a very good 27 games for Gerrard but to me is unlikely with the squad we have.

8 hours ago, WHY said:

I like McGinn both as a player but especially as a person, genuinely seems a good bloke. It’s hard for me to say this but wouldn’t be massively bothered if Newcastle came in for him in Jan, think we could cope without him and have Newcastle’s trousers down at the same time. They will be desperate, think we could get £30 odd million for him. He’s the type of player they will look at and their fans would welcome it, if they thought they were getting one over on us.

We need midfielders as it is without shipping out one of our only competent ones. I’d be looking to add more strength into midfield to allow McGinn to play his game more effectively.

I think McGinn more than anybody (bar Dean Smith) has suffered from our lack of investment in the midfield over the summer. Missing Douglas Luiz means that we just don’t have the players to field a Premier League level midfield at the moment.

4 hours ago, briny_ear said:

Trouble is on current form we are on course to get 23-4 points from these remaining games.

Needs some improvement.

I would like to see us trying to grind out a few draws against superior teams for the next couple of months.

I mean on current form (last 5 games) we’d get 0 points from the remaining games. If you go back 5 games we had 10 points from 6 games and were on track for 63 points over the season.

It’s amazing how quickly a bit of a shift in form can change the outlook of a season. With the players we have to come back from injury I’d back us to get a few more than 28 points from the remaining 26 games and make this thread look a bit silly come the end of the season.

I’d have backed us to do this under Smith and pretty much any manager to be honest. If the new man can’t achieve this then we’ve got the appointment and the decision to get rid of Smith terribly wrong. 

4 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

I wonder if they already had qualms about Smith and decided to hold the money.

I don’t see this to be honest. People keep referring to them as ruthless. If they had qualms about Smith then the Summer was the time to get rid of him with £100m coming in to add to the transfer funds for the new man.

1 minute ago, allani said:

In 2020 we played 32 matches, won 12, drew 7, lost 13, goals for 44, goals against 45 with a return of 43 points.

In 2021 we have so far played 35 matches: won 11, drawn 6, lost 18, goals for 41, goals against 52 with a return of 39 points.

Which part of that data set suggests that things are being taken in isolation?  35 matches is pretty damn close to a whole season.

Smith has made a tremendous contribution but our performances over the last 10 months have been going backwards.  I'm sad and disappointed that he couldn't kick on but them is the facts.

We’ve just lost 5 matches in a row. Take it back to after the Man United game and your 2021 stats read played 30 matches: won 11 drawn 6, lost 13 - near identical to 2020.

Smith has been sacked for his form over the last 5 matches. I think it’s not absurd to suggest that, given we’ve been unable to field two centre midfielders at times in this 5 game run, he may have been able to turn this form around if he was able to play anything close to his first eleven.

9 minutes ago, Kbdrum88 said:

Maybe this is me being sentimental as I like Smith and genuinely think turning a 1 player support show to team was going to take a season, and he's a villa fan so bleeds claret and blue like us all.

 

But I can't help the feeling where it might take dean 4 years to get us where a great (mercenary) may in 2 years, but whilst they'd be gone in 5 years if lucky Dean would of been here for the 20 and had a fergie legacy. Football especially with owners without owners is very results based, but people need to realise we've gone from relagation/administration fodder to an attacking team in 2/3 years. An Argentinian and Brazilian international in the ranks who would of said that 2 years ago. I think short term eyes have blinded our longterm view on this one 

It’s just modern football though isn’t it. Success has to be immediate. 3 years of constant progress is ignored because of 5 games of dreadful form( with half our team having fitness/injury problems). People start wheeling out stats on calendar year losses ignoring that we’ve spent a total of 0 weeks in the relegation zone in that time.

He over achieved massively last season and wasn’t really backed in the summer (anyone could have told you the midfield was 1 or 2 bodies light going into the season).

Smith will be the fall guy for the mess ups in coaching and playing staff recruitment since Grealish left. How much input he had on these changes would be interesting to know. I’d imagine he wasn’t the one suggesting breaking up his back room staff from a successful period but you never know I guess.