tom_avfc

I'm not sure you can seriously be suggesting that Grealish was taking the mick out of the decision in the United game. He was attempting to win a penalty and deserved a yellow card. Its frustrating as he is a player who likes to win free kicks and being caught diving isn't going to help him in future matches.

I think the point about transfers is completely fair. Nobody has any idea as to how much involvement in any transfer dealings that he has but you'd like to think that he's at least consulted before we buy somebody. With regards to the squad - I think they are exactly as shit as they look now. We set up OK with a decent plan and have generally looked pretty good for the first 20 minutes or so of games. We then concede (normally to poor individual mistakes but yesterday to a terrible decision) and completely lose it. We don't really look like scoring and we have mistake after mistake in us. We've won seven games this season and I'd argue that more than one or two of those were pretty lucky undeserved victories. We looked better when we didn't have so many injuries at the start of the season. With each injury we have sustained we've in turn had to play Nyland, Davis, Hause and Taylor, none of whom were considered good enough to be first team regulars in the Championship. We have one genuine quality player who since lockdown has been nowhere near as effective as pre-lockdown for whatever reason. Our subs bench consists of players who weren't particularly good in the Championship and we have nobody who can make any impact when coming on (barring Elmo's goal against Newcastle). I genuinely think its impossible to argue that we are not within the three worst squads in the league. We've looked OK since lockdown without ever really looking like scoring goals (I don't think we carry any real goal threat in the squad to be fair) and with silly mistakes thrown in as usual. We look on a par with Watford, West Ham and Bournemouth since the restart but their much better individual players will lead them to pick up more points from similar performances.

I mean without the penalty nobody has any idea what happens. Goals change games of football. We were the better team up to the penalty and lost our way afterwards. I don't for one second believe that Smith will not have spoken to the players about their response to going behind but its difficult especially in the circumstances. Do I have an issue with Smith mentioning the penalty post match? Not at all - its the big turning point of the match and he will have been asked several questions specifically about it. I guess its easy to pick positive things out of a manager's post match interview when his team is doing well and easy to twist anything a manager says when his team is performing badly.

In which case I completely disagree. It would take a miracle worker to keep a team in the Premier League which has had to start Nyland, Hause, Taylor, Hourihane, Nakamba, Davis on numerous occasions. The squad is poor for the level we're at. Bournemouth, Watford and West Ham have far superior squads to us and sit very few points ahead of us.

That's the thing, I'm not sure we actually would. The players are nowhere near good enough for the league that we have found ourselves in. If we get one injury then we rely on players like Davis, Hourihane and Hause who weren't particularly good in the Championship. I just don't think this squad is capable of anywhere near what some people on here seem to think. I guess the more important question is whether we'd have bought this squad if Pochetinno was manager. I'd like to think he'd have been able to assemble a better squad initially.

This is where I've been at for most of the season but I think last night was the turning point for me where I'd now get rid of it. If the people can't use the system properly then there's no point in the system being in place. If there had been no VAR last night the decision is still wrong but its an explainable wrong decision made in the heat of the moment. Its far more frustrating when we try and use technology and still get to the wrong decisions. I'd go back to how it used to be now. If the ref makes a mistake then he makes a mistake but at least its not compounded by ridiculous mistakes with the replays available.

I hadn’t seen that decision before. That’s as bad as ours I think. How have both of those not been overturned?

Yeah he’s just a very good football player at only 18 years old. Has everything about him to kick on and fulfil the massive amount of potential he has. This United squad as a whole is very good to be fair. For all the stick Ole was given, he’s done a very good job there.

The only way it’ll be different if we’re back in the premier league is if we have a squad capable of competing at that level.

This for me too. The players at the club are nowhere near the standard needed to stay in the premier league. I genuinely don’t think they can achieve much more than what they’re showing.

He genuinely looks like someone who already has a move agreed. The lack of effort is something that he’s never shown before.

If there’s a chance someone might buy him at a decent price we should probably stop playing him now. He’s going to play himself out of a move otherwise.

We had little chance here in a fair game but that decision makes it almost impossible.

I’d actually be tempted to not come out for the second half. The games gone anyway. How can such a blatant decision be got wrong?

What is the point in this? If that decision today isn’t being overturned then there is literally no point in us having VAR.

Yeah big two points dropped for them given the way the game went. They look similar to us in that even when they’re the better team they can’t win games of football.

It’s the same team as last week other than a change of striker.

Yeah that decision is a shocker. Was checked and not given. It’s not an issue with VAR it’s the terrible referees that are using it.

Looks pretty good so far here for me. Haven’t seen too much of him to be fair but whenever I have he’s impressed.

To be fair its pretty worrying the number of adults who feel the need to log onto Twitter and hurl abuse at a guy for his football performances. If anyone above the age of 14 thinks that it's an appropriate thing to do then I despair to be honest. He's not a very good football player, probably one of the worst I remember at the Villa. However that doesn't give people full reign to act like they are on social media.

When you say using common sense here what you mean is guessing.

I think this is a decent point but it doesn't take into account that the house is probably going to cost you more as a result of this. I'm not convinced that the £10k that you're saving in stamp duty isn't going to be added on to the price of the house that's being sold. If you incentivise a lot of people to start looking to buy a house again then you're going to push up the price of the houses. This again makes it more difficult for those not on the property market to get on it. Someone earlier said that people linked to the housing market will be happy. I'm sure some will but there's also going to be a lot of people sat in expensive properties that are looking on delighted with this policy. I'm not convinced that this measure targets the people that need money the most is my basic point I suppose.

I'd argue that if you're in a position to put £500,000 into buying a house that there's people in worse positions who could do with assistance a bit more in the current climate. I know its one of a number of measures being put in place but given we could be going into a period of mass unemployment couldn't we bit a bit cleverer and more imaginative with economic policies to ensure that help gets where its needed most. The one of a kind Monday to Wednesday "eat out to help out" scheme doesn't feel like its going to go too far in ensuring struggling sectors don't collapse. I guess I'd call the whole announcement pretty half arsed and I'm not sure it achieves what it was supposedly aiming to do. I get it that if I was looking to buy (or more importantly maybe sell) a house I'd love the extra money this is going to give but I'd question whether enough is being done for those who are going to be impacted most by the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

I don’t know how much responsibility any particular person has for the players we’ve signed. I’m not sure anybody really does. I’d assume that given we have a recruitment team in place they’d be the ones recommending a lot of these signings particularly those signed from abroad. I’m relatively happy with the way smith sets the team up on the majority of occasions. I just don’t think this team has any more in it than what we’re seeing.

Everyone’s crying that we don’t make any changes and the players on the bench are so bad that when we bring them on we always get worse. Smith can’t win. He’s been dealt a rough hand with the poor recruitment strategy and I genuinely don’t think anybody could keep this squad up.