Sam3773

Hopefully into Villa time now. 3 goals, incoming.

Decent results around if we can pull a rabbit out our ass..

Elphick inexplicably reminds me of Rodney Trotter.

Defended well but we've had to. Attacking players have barely got involved. Feels like the good ol' days of not having a midfield. Really need some creativity in that midfield.. Get the kid on.

Beginning to wish he got left back at the hotel.

Well, that's a team..

If we've proved one thing here, it's that I have too much time on my hands.

I love the idea that some genuinely believe Pep Guardiola himself could walk in, hit the ground running, and get Neil Taylor, Mile Jedinak and Alan bloody Hutton to play exciting expansive football. Aston Villa - 6 managers in 5 years.

I certainly can. Gregory: P:19 - W:15 - D:2 - L:2 - PTS: 47* Little: P:19 - W:6 - D:8 - L:5 - PTS: 26 Atkinson: P:19 - W:9 - D:3 - L:7 - PTS: 30 * What an unbelievable start. Just to caveat this one, Gregory came in, in February and only had 9 games of that season so his stats have a summer in the middle. Still an unbelievable run of form.

What's funny is last season aside, "no fight and looking like a bunch of strangers" has pretty much summed this club up. Let's throw Smith onto the McLeish, Lambert, Sherwood, Garde, Di Matteo, Bruce pile and twist again. Eighth time lucky.

I'm in a similar boat - I optimistically wanted Brendan Rodgers and cited concerns with Dean Smith prior to his appointment. I do, however, believe if Rodgers were on 19 games with the same result, there would be many more people wanting to give him time. I can only put that down to experience and form. Rodgers can't rubbish because he's proven at other clubs, something Smith doesn't have to back him up sadly. Where we differ is with the players. I don't believe they're good enough, especially to play the football Smith wants, with a high tempo requiring a more youthful set up. There are, of course, exceptions where we have played very well, but we had those moments under Bruce. The odd 'Lord mayor's show'. While I remain frustrated that we're not competing and the performances have been poor, Smith has to get summer for me, unless we go on a long spate of losses now. It would leave us in the same boat come October if he has a poor start next season, but it's only right he gets to drill his methodology into the team over the summer break, and bring some fresh legs into the team. The alternative is another rinse and repeat, and another manager some won't agree with. Currently though, I really do think he's doing as good with this squad as any manager could do.

I think that's a bit of an exception because of how they played, or didn't, for the last manager. They were seriously underpeforming before. Can you say the same for our players?

The first 19 games of our last two managers: Smith: P:19 - W:7 - D:8 - L:4 - PTS: 29 Bruce: P:19 - W:7 - D:5 - L:7 - PTS: 26 Just for interest, how were the first 19 games under arguably our best manager for years: O'Neill: P:19 - W:5 - D:10 - L:4 - PTS: 25 What about other high flyers? How were their first 19 at the clubs they're managing? Farke: P:19 - W:6 - D:6 - L:7 - PTS: 24 Jokanovic: P:19 - W:5 - D:6 - L:8 - PTS: 21 Add in to the mix, because you can, the 'excuses' of a widely injured squad with no settling, the complete lack of a defensive set up when he joined, operating under tight FFP restrictions in January, our best player out for most of that time and a chocolate goalkeeper, and he hasn't done too bad. But no. We're Aston Villa Football Club and unless our manager hits the ground with 19 W's under his belt, it's bedsheets out at dawn.

To be fair, he wasn't overly tested for 86 minutes. Good positioning for Hourihane's free kick but very little otherwise. For those 8 minutes we really tested him, he was dire. A better keeper and we don't get the point. In terms of our players, I thought we had moments of looking OK, but nothing more than fleeting moments. Whelan and Green changed the game and added more desire into the mix. If they don't start on Wednesday I'll be very surprised. I dunno. I watched 86 minutes of us looking like a league 2 team trying to perform a cup upset away from home. We were dire and most of that, in my opinion, was a lack of desire, pace and talent in midfield other than McGinn.

I dunno, I think it probably says more about the opposition goalkeeper's lack of ability.

Mad game. We were awful. One of their goals shouldn't have stood, we should have had two penalties but we got the point. Unfortunately it doesn't and shouldn't take away from the performance. Which was dire.

What. The. F...

Really struggling to keep some faith here. Really struggling.

Well we look awful. Worse than awful. We have absolutely nothing about us.

Amended just now. Watch Smith's post match interview.

Smith switched from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-5-2 at Walsall for the 15/16 season after little success with 4-2-3-1. He put Jedinak on against Reading switching the system up to allow Carroll to go further forward. That was his plan B after identifying a lack of service to the striker.

I really did try..

Apparently the Sheffield United game was the target for his return and he was meant to be well in target.

Just covering some of the idiocy from the transfer thread, condemning our signings before they've kicked a ball. Odd. Can't see any of them now he had a good game.