KMitch

Huge U2 fan?!?!?!?!?!!?!?! Uck!!! I've changed my mind... Smith OUT!!!

My MOTM. He was immense in that deep-lying playmaker role today. Broke up play, pulled the strings, and the goal was just icing on the cake. If he can be consistent in this role, he's going to save us some money in January.

With our owners? 40 mil will be a drop in the bucket, if we go up. It'll be a signal of intent to the rest of the league that we aren't messing about and this isn't Randy's Villa that they remember.

Agreed. It baffles me that Bruce didn't play him at CB... Axel & Abraham are two of the types of signings I can see us making going forward under Smith/NSWE. Young, highly-rated, motivated, and aren't content with playing U23 football at a "big" club.

Sidwell was poor for us? I certainly don't remember him being in the same conversation of shit as Ireland was... Maybe you're thinking of Nicky Shorey, who was one of the best left backs in the league at Reading, then came to us and became shit... Didn't we go on a streak of like 14 games where Sidwell started and we didn't lose? I also remember MON playing him much deeper than the role he had at Reading, and while he wasn't destroying teams every game, I wouldn't go so far as to call him shit.

Fully agree. I feel like we've had a collection of players over the past 10 years or so who could have done a job for us, if we played a different system at the time or didn't have a revolving door of shit managers who completely dismantled the team every season. This just goes to show you how important it is to have a consistent playing philosophy all the way from the academy to the first team. You'll know early on if a player isn't going to fit the club's system and scouts will continue to scout the same types of players, regardless of which manager is at the helm that season. We're so far behind everyone else and it shows. I'm really pissed off about all the former academy products who never even played a game for us in the first team who are now regularly playing in the Premier League/Championship. Who was the last manager we had who actually took a chance on a crop of our U23s? Houllier? I remember him rotating in players like Albrighton, Bannan, Weimann, Herd, Hogg, Clark, and Baker quite regularly. None of them got any game time under MON, except for the "Moscow Incident", so it was pretty radical for GH to roll the dice on these players vs the bench of cloggers MON signed (NRC, Beye, Sidwell, Collins, Dunne, etc.). Except for Herd, they all play Premier League/Championship football today for other clubs, while we keep dumping money into "bargains" who never work out or over the hill "leaders" who don't contribute enough for what we paid for them.

There or abouts...

Norwich are pressing the Hell out of our defenders because our team clearly isn't comfortable passing the ball out of the back yet, and they're looking to capitalize. There was one throw in near our corner flag where I counted 8 Norwich players within 20 yards of Taylor trying to take the throw. Hopefully, Smith noticed that too and will reiterate to the team to not be afraid to go long if they over commit the press. Very nervy half for me. We could have been 2-0 up or 3-0 down, depending on how some of the chances fell. Nyland looks like a different man all together under Smith so far.

It only took him until his mid thirties before he learned how to pick a cross...

I meant at least until we can get some cover at CB in for rotations.

You're right. My bad. For some reason, I thought he was left out of the squad.

TBH, as much as I like Thor and his work ethic, his position is the weakest in our midfield right now and I can see us bringing in a starting player this summer to fill that ball winning role. Birkir would struggle if he didn't have McMilner next to him in the midfield. With McGinn out next match, it will expose just how fragile we are in the center of the park.

Maybe it means nothing? Maybe it's just he first week and Smith & co are still assessing the squad?

Nobody has anything to say about Taylor's performance today? He actually looked like he has played football before. I thought he was pretty solid at left back. Nothing glamorous going forward, but he wasn't a calamitous mess at the back either. It's something for him to build upon. If we can keep everyone injury free, our Defense might not be as big of a problem as we all feared it would be, at least until January.

He was solid today and looked like the player Manure fans have been raving about. Hopefully he can stay injury free until January.

He looked like a different player in front of goal today. Great saves all around. His kicking needs a lot of work, especially if we're going to start playing the ball out of the back, but he was a major reason why we got the 3 points today. Keep it up, son!

The first half was the most complete performance our squad has given in a long time. Dominated possession, looked threatening every time the ball moved forward, and our defenders quickly won the ball back before Swansea could do anything with it. Unfortunately, as good as the first half was, the 2nd looked more like the Villa we've watched under Bruce and were lucky to come away with all 3 points there. It's still a remarkable improvement on things. I'm really looking forward to what Smith can do with the team over the next few months. Hopefully fitness levels go up and the whole team continues to look more comfortable in possession. It's early days, but things are headed in the right direction. UTV!!!

This kid is going to be a star. He'll win the Premier League golden boot at some point in his career. Strong, fast, works hard pressing, and always seems to be in the right place at the right time. One of the chances that fell to him in the 2nd half today surprised me that he was even able to control the ball, let alone get a shot off. Benteke is the only other Villa forward I've ever seen do stuff like that consistently. Give the squad a couple of months of Deano's attacking movement training at BMH, and Tammy will be scoring 2-3 a game.

Elmo & Hourihane are tied for the most assists in the Championship now (4 each). Arguably his best performance ever in a Villa shirt.

McMilner... I love this guy.

He's 3rd in the league in chances created (averaging 2.1/game). 25 in 12 games. Hourihane is joint assists leader (4 Total) with McGinn & Elmo in the pack right behind him (3 Total each). As shit as the team has been playing "Bruce Ball", we've still been creating chances in the midfield.

I don't know... I'm still skeptical and will still reserve judgment until we see some action over the next year or so. Maybe it's just due to the fact that we've heard the same promises from the past 2 owners and 3 CEOs and they mismanaged the club to where we are today.

After all the other names we were linked to in the past 48 hours, I’m not going to lie, I was a bit deflated to hear the news that it’s Smith. I’ve only ever heard things about him that were posted here on VT, so my perceptions are a bit skewed. That said, I logged on to a Brentford forum to see what they’re saying about the news and they sound like we all did when Milner left. 90% of the posts were overwhelmingly positive, talking about how he was one of their best ever managers, knew this was bound to happen eventually, and wishing him the best. The other 10% called him a c***, don’t understand why he joined us because we “have no money”, and hope Villa are relegated as retribution. I’ve heard over and over again by VTers that Brentford fans couldn’t be bothered by Smith and don’t think he’s the reason why they’ve been successful recently. That doesn’t appear to be the case at all over on their forums. Anyway, welcome and good luck, mate! Not a flashy foreign name, but he’s one of us!

This is gold... hahaha

So, he knows slightly more than **** all? I don't buy it.