Sam3773

Thank God that should be our last game without our slick haired midfield messiah.

Must be terrible. He hasn't played a game in ages. Can't believe we signed a player who, based on nothing but assumption, must be poor. Today was a rare very good game. I'm sure. That'll be the first and last time we'll see him be our best player and look like an absolute rock in defense.

OK I'll do a positive. Our first clean sheet in over a month. Mings looked one of our best players. Thought Smith made the wrong sub though. Kodjia should have replaced El Ghazi who was awful for a good hour.

Tell me you know of a duller game of football and I shall call you a liar.

I'd like to see the new lad Carroll on for Whelan. I could see Mings getting frustrated with Whelan and his constant passing backwards.

Everytime there's a loose ball I find myself clearing my under 9's coach voice and shouting "ONE OF YOU!" as 3 Villa players go for the same ball. As a side note, El Ghazi is looking lively, but can't receive a ball to save his life. And Mings looks the business so far.

No one tell him about last season.

Good team. Adomah is the right move currently. His tracking back is better than most to help Taylor.

I wonder what proven, regularly starting players we could have got with the £4.50 and winning scratchcard we had to play with. The same people citing disappointment with the 2nd fiddle, promising players we've signed on the cheap, are the same that would moan that the club isn't being ran well if FFP sanctions hit in March. How's a club meant to rebuild when focus on the long term when no one let's them. Nah, sod it. Let's go full Xia again, blow 30m in January to chase a play off spot and then hope to hell we get it, because of we don't, we'll be moaning about how poorly it's all been ran. Now I need a beer.

Amazing how a club mentality from 'splashing the cash' needed to switch to 'bargain hunting', which is has, and very few are happy/writing these players off before they've kicked a ball based on injury, lack of game time, etc. LB aside, I think it's been a reasonably good window. I think Mings starts now to give Chezzy much needed time out. Hause for cover. Could we have done with a LB? Absolutely, and it sounds like we tried. Some midfield cover in there too, where we have been light on talent. I'm most impressed with the build up to next season because, let's not hide from it, that's what we've done with this window. We haven't chucked the kitchen sink at a final push, but been sensible and kept an eye on 19/20. And the preparation is great. We have a reportedly top RB coming in, a number of older players off the books and our top youth talent will be back, but with 4 months of adult football under their belts. This window, ladies and gentlemen, was a run up to next season, and from that angle it's been pretty damn good in my eyes.

Was never a blanket policy. In fact, in Smith's recent interview he's said you need a balance with some experienced heads.

Some of you lot need a beer. At least Kalinic made it into the country this time, so as far as January windows are concerned, we're on the up.

Everton have said Bolasie executed a clause in his contract to return. We wont have to pay anything.

Steve Bruce, a well known defensive manager, had 11 league games this season with us. The team kept 1 clean sheet and shipped 18 goals. 1.6 goals per game conceded. Smith has had 16 league games, conceding 25 goals with 5 clean sheets. 1.6 goals per game conceded. Both were without Tuanzebe at CB - Bruce out of choice, Smith out of force. Both conceding 1.6 goals on average. Scored? Well in Bruce's 11 we scored 19 goals or 1.7 average. Under Smith's 16 we've scored 31 goals or 1.9 on average. So what have we learned? Well we knew the defense Bruce put in was rubbish and that's still the case. Naturally, we haven't signed any starting defenders yet. Naturally we are scoring slightly more under Smith. Not much though and considering the injury to Grealish isn't awful. I dunno, it's almost like both managers are using the same squad of limited, somewhat aging players and what we need is a period of stability under a proper coach for, say, longer than 15 bloody weeks.

If a RB was on the cards, we'd have recalled RDL, I'm sure. LB next I reckon and hope. As long as it's not Fuchs.

Wonder if he's just become an 'Adidas Athlete'... Fair play, lad.

Plot twist: Seen a couple of people say he turned up for training today. It's like Eastenders, this.

Andre 'the giant' Moreira. I'll let you off, its easy to forget he's a thing. Edit: oh you meant in a match day squad.. Yeah, no worries of that.

You're not on about Moreira, are you?

Do we have a Hause thread? I'm starting a Hause thread. Finally signing today it looks like. Anyone know how he is as a player? Wolves fans seem to like him.

Charity Shield is technically a friendly apparently so it's fine for him to play for Wolves. I'd believe this story to be honest and will be surprised if we see him in a Villa shirt again now. That being said, the service he's received has been a bit of an embarrassment of riches and he's missed more than he's scored. Another striker could also do well with our squad. I wouldn't write the season off just yet..

2 points behind where we were this time last season. Rail card is firmly at the ready. Just the small matter of a 7 game win streak now..

5 points to the top 6, January transfer window up to bring in a defense and a run of easier fixtures. You lot talking about next season. Enjoy yourselves. I'm going to dust off my rail card ready for another trip to Wembley. Quitters.

I've had better days.

This all started from a random Twitter account. I'm still fully expecting him to start.