7392craig

I play an online RPG called Star Trek Online, there are tons of different ships and configurations but the simple rule is play to your strengths and don't attempt to compensate for the weaknesses. That is, if you have an all out attack cruiser make sure you plough all the energy into your weapons. The ship will take damage as it is not designed to soak up phaser fire, it is purely designed to dish it out and destroy the enemy before they can destroy you. This is the method of thinking Villa need in my opinion, we need to go out and absolutely pepper teams because we know 100% that we are going to concede anyway. Tim tries to sure up the weaknesses at the cost of attacking, it's not worked so lets just go for it from the start. For the Love of God TIMOTHY, just **** go for it! thats it you solved it, all we need now so is an attack cruiser playing number 9!! Liverpool did it the season they nearly won the league, they always conceded one or two, but they almost always outscored teams. Now I'm not saying we're going to finish up the top of the league doing this, as they did, but it certainly should be our way of thinking. With the creative players we have it's definitely playing to our strengths.

Guzan bacuna random supporter from crowd richards amavi (swap for ball boy at half time) veretout gana gabby and Sinclair whilst strapped together at the waist grealish some guy selling the big issue (he'll run around asking the players to buy a copy because he "just needs a couple more quid for a hot drink". This will will inevitably be more movement than we receive from Gestede.

A serious question, does anybody actually believe we'll sack him any time soon? We do have a history of hanging onto managers too long.

We really need a manager with proven premiership experience. No more gambles on up and coming managers, managers with one good season or anybody whose managed well in other leagues. I'm not asking to be shot up the league, just somebody who'd instill some stability, who'd make us at least hard to beat. As opposed to being the team everybody wants to play against. Yea, heaven forbid we went for someone like Pellegrini or Koeman or Pochetino. All those crappy managers that had no Premier League experience prior to taking their first job in the Premier League. I never said we couldn't get a great manager from another league, some of the greatest mangers we've seen have come from other leagues. But many of them don't work when they come to the prem. Would you take the gamble? As opposed to somebody who knows the league, the teams, the opposition managers? I wouldn't, we're not in the position for that, safe is the key right now. We won't attract any event managers, home or abroad in the championship.

We really need a manager with proven premiership experience. No more gambles on up and coming managers, managers with one good season or anybody whose managed well in other leagues. I'm not asking to be shot up the league, just somebody who'd instill some stability, who'd make us at least hard to beat. As opposed to being the team everybody wants to play against.

Anybody else worried that by the time he's gone we'll be unsaveable? Even if a good manager came in? If that were even possible, a few people have already said its not a job any proven manager should be taking. Are we the poisoned chalice?

I think that's Tim's plan, but it could easily not work, if we go a goal down then there's nobody on the pitch to create the chances we'd need to get back in the game. Let's hope Rudy pulls a worldy out the bag.

Not convinced at all, but I'm tired of seeing us 1-0 down in the first 15 minutes so hopefully all that negativity will stop them scoring. I can't see us getting a goal without stoke making a balls up.

You also predicted a heavy home defeat to Small Heath, 3-0 wasn't it. Was I on my own in predicting a defeat to them? Still one more for my fan club it seems What happened to you, man? You used to be so positive ;)

Gestede is awful, no existent would be a positive. The ball just bounces off him.

I work with loads of blokes who are mostly noses, they've all been giving it the big one but have admitted they're nervous, edging on not confident. But they know their team is going to work their arses off and fight for it, so they are definitely in it considering all the pressure is on us. The atmosphere today has been almost tangible, something hanging in the air, full of adrenaline and nerves. I'm nervous but excited, confident we have the ability but not that we'll do the business. I wish we'd just drew Crystal Palace instead.

I've been saying we should give it time, and we'll come good in the end and I do think we will. But I'm afraid this game has come too soon, 3-1 noses I think.

I think the players have to take most of the blame. I know the tactics have been wrong at times, and the substitutes baffling, but the effort from the players is hardly inspiring and their sense of urgency is non existent. Look at the way Leicester's players reacted to going 2-0 down, they worked their b******s off, could any of you imagine our players doing that after going even a single goal behind?

I see no reason why we can't play both, the problem is that having a pairing of Westwood and Sanchez behind them offers no support. We need to play Westwood OR Sanchez, with either Gana or Veretout behind. That way we're not asking for miracles from our 3 most attacking midfielders. Westwood for me is not a DM, he is too lightweight for that role, he is rolled far too easily and his shying away from Morrisons shot that lead to their goal highlights this. In isolation Sanchez is getting over worked he needs help from another player with DM qualities......To make matters worse Westwood has no goal threat either, so I think his contribution is a bit limited/weak. I do agree, I only think it should be one or the other as Sanchez has a lot of mistakes in him, and his passing at times is abysmal. This partnered with Westwoods failings makes a very shaky set of DM's. I guess it's down to preference who you'd like to partner Gana/Veretout.

I see no reason why we can't play both, the problem is that having a pairing of Westwood and Sanchez behind them offers no support. We need to play Westwood OR Sanchez, with either Gana or Veretout behind. That way we're not asking for miracles from our 3 most attacking midfielders.

I know I may be one of the few still defending him right now, but everybody needs to relax. It is still early, I know the points aren't there but apart from today the performances in general have been good and are certainly improving. If we are still in this position at Christmas, I'll start to worry. But the season has barely begun and there is plenty of time to put points on the board. Teams get out of it with a few weeks to go, we have over 30 games to climb. I know it's not been great but the signs of a good team are there, give it time and you'll see.

We'll go 2-0 up, concede 1, then score two more #ITK

I couldn't have put it better myself

3 things I want before this game starts. No Bacuna, no Sanchez and Westwood off corners. Also I wouldn't mind seeing Gana and Veretout together in the middle, how long before Veretout is 'ready'?

I'm not too mad looking back on it. I'm still bewildered how Bacuna gets a game and I think Sanchez is incapable of any improvement. But I do think we'll be fine, the team is strong this year, full of talent. Sherwood has been great imo, the only thing letting him down is his substitute decisions, but they are a major fault and costing us points, but I think he'll learn soon enough.

I hope Bacuna is dropped soon, he is a woeful liability of a footballer. Sanchez looked like he was playing for Leicester at times, no leader in the midfield at all.

We look great so far, need to be careful backing of their midfielders when they attack. I want Jack's babies.

http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~4992235,00.html I'm quite looking forward to seeing this lad play. Do hope he moulds himself into that RB role as I feel it's a bit of a weak position for us. I don't mind Hutton at right back to be honest, I wish we wouldn't persist with Bacuna at right back as he is a liability in defence Bacuna is a liability in attack.

It seems silly after all this time, but I just never noticed. 44,417 posts? Devotion to the cause Stevo (I put a thumbs up, but emoji's are now banned on here) On topic, I miss the Old villa Talk where I could post untold amounts of emoji's That's what happened when you spend 10 years being a sad bastard and having a boring job sat in front of a PC all day. With nobody monitoring your internet usage... My situation is similar. Im a sad bastard who sits in front of a set of robots every day. With nobody monitoring the lack of work I'm doing. I tend to be a bit of a VT stalker during the day though, my poster self only comes out after work.

I'm not sure what your age has to do with it. You don't need to change anything I think it's more an issue of how it's working on the iPhone. As smileys are working but the 'emoji' keyboard on the iPhone isn't. It's really not a problem though. It was just a bit of playful banter. I don't know what that is. Was it working before? Are you using a browser or tapatalk? I was using the browser, but I've tried Tapatalk too, it doesn't work on either. Was it working before? Is this fixed now? It was working before. Many of my posts have been complemented by the use of hilarious emoji's in the past.