Lerner's Driver

Agree it wasn't ideal, but Mings' still had more than enough time to make the pass. He just did his typical thing of being too casual. It's like in his brain he assumes the ball will go where he wants it to, without concentrating enough to make sure it does.

Poor finishing and brainfart defending equals a 3-0 loss and plenty to worry about in my opinion, you clearly don't agree, which is fine, but that's wtf I'm talking about. Makes no difference how well you play in between if you show those qualities at either end of the pitch. I said there were positives and there were, no dispute. We killed ourselves, as Villa nearly always do.

Result not surprising and to be fair, nor was the ultimate reason why. Mings' mistake killed the game and he was also at fault for their third. It does keep happening and the negative outcomes are often telling, so there will come a time when he will have to pay for those mistakes with his place in the team. Particularly in the first half, we showed some decent attacking intent and worked a few chances, but our finishing throughout was dire. McGinn back to giving the ball away. Steer does not inspire confidence and is not good enough in my opinion. Overall, some positives from the first half, but plenty to worry about too.

Better than expected. Ramsey great thrusting runs. We look good on the break and while pressing their back line. We should at least be level. Final shot or pass is letting us down badly.

Well yes, it might feel like it's helping, but it's still largely pointless, particularly while the things being moaned about are often moot or unreasonable.

I think the source of most recent Villa fan angst is the realisation that we aren't going to do a Man City and relentlessly spend our way to glory. There are plenty of good reasons why we haven't done that, but our rise in recent years has been such that many of us have either subconsciously hoped, or even fully believed that we were on that path or something similar. It does hurt to have that feeling of continuous progress taken away (or slowed down a bit), but that's where we are at and we all just need to wise up and accept our journey is different. What is the point in moaning about something you can't control? You just come across as an entitled twonk.

I agree we didn't want to overpay, but also think we needed to shift someone first and if we had, then we probably would have paid what they wanted.

Fair enough that you don't agree with the club that he is amazing.

Not sure that is true to be fair. There definitely are/were better players than those we've already got who were available to buy. We didn't buy them because we had to shift one of ours first and the buyer wasn't forthcoming at the price we wanted.

Not sure I get what you are saying? "It works for Leicester so why not for us" (agreed - no argument), "If something amazing comes up they will splash the cash, but why should they for a Ward Prowse for example" (isn't he amazing? The club thought he was worth bidding for)

Not much evidence of that so far, but the had a tough start.

Was there a word missing from your last sentence?

That is what plenty on here believe, yes. I don't, but I do think the heavy bulk spending is now done and any new additions will be strategic.

The thing about there needing to be a fee for one of our midfielders before we brought another one in is interesting for a few reasons because: (a) it suggests we were ready/willing to listen to offers on McGinn, Luiz or Nakamba, (b) FFP limits dictated our reticence to spend more. It wasn't that we wouldn't spend again, but that we couldn't.

The guy created the account precisely because he knows you and others feel that way.

Top half is the expectation this year, I would have thought.

Haven't heard it for a while and it would be a mistake to say it again until we have some semblance of our preferred team on show. If Europe being the aim is said again then Smith will definitely be under pressure.

Delphino is bantering you by using the contemporary lingo, innit. As is his wont.

Not if you think about it.

Freakish logic in full effect. The fat lady is warming up mate.

I imagine the expectation has already been dialled back by the board this season.

Maher says we are done barring an unexpected late twist. Not expecting any more ins.

Not sure we should be signing him if he doesn't.

Agreed, it was enjoyable.