MarkLillis

That last paragraph... We are five points off top six right now with 19 games to go. We are challenging!

Me too Very underrated during his time here. Not the most spectacular of players though I think Eric Cantona would have described him as a “water carrier”

lol We are all the same. I find it funny that some clubs still have fans that think "We are xxxx F.C .....the best fans in the country!" We never boo/moan/have low attendances....

10 years ago this week we were 4th in the Premier league.3 points behind leaders Man Utd. What a disastrous decade. I know we have been lower in the league but who could have guessed back then all the heartache that was to come.

This is a really good call, but I don't agree that it is 100% down to Grealish. Any player (not just Connor) on the ball needs an option or multiple options to pass too. I thought just before Christmas we were starting to show a real authority in matches because of our movement and wilingess to get on the ball. This was not just Jack though....so what has gone wrong?

Get well soon

Is it fair to say that he can only address the problem of Jack Grealish being out injured by buying a like for like player? For example Bradley Dack or Romaine Sawyers. Without this type of player our midfield goes completely missing. It first became obvious to me against Leeds,looking at the center circle there were no Villa players in it on many occasions. We need to tweak our style a bit until Jack is back!

Onto to my point. What I would really like to get away from us afternatch interviews where our manager (whoever he is at the time) highlights that he knows about a particular issue,say workrate for instance as spoken about recently by Dean Smith. He then states we will work on it in training etc. So I have hope that we know what is wrong....and it will get better. Next match the highlighted issue is actually worse!!! This has been going on for ages,under a variety of managers or is it just me?

Sorry don’t know what happened here please do not let this crap post spoil your enjoyment UTV

Yes this is probably closer to the truth. The standards set by Villa over the last decade have lowered our expectations so much we now cannot recognise if we actually have signed a good player or just someone who is just a bit better than the ones we already have but still not really an improvement....

I think he cant possible be as bad as his debut performance suggests. If he was he wouldn't have got past stage one on the road to becoming a professional footballer, let alone have made it and have two transfers. The only way is up for him now.

I’m not sure this guy strengthens our defence in anyway other the being another “body” I can’t say I have seen him play well for us since his debut.

This is worth a whole thread, Surely the most criminal waste of a football opportunity ever?

Adam Reach has played well in each of the matches I have seen him play in,he looks a good solid player and he can score from anywhere. He was on my list in the summer but Bruce y didn’t see eye to eye with me so it wasn’t to be

Wolves fans will find a reason for letting a young promising defender leave. I can remember doing similar for the Gary Cahill sale.... Lets hope this turns out in the same way.

His wages mean nothing to me. However if his decision making skills in important positions were upto scratch I would say he’s worth that yes.

Is playing in the Community Shield not ruling out a move to another club then? Jose Mourinho seemed to think it was fine to list this down as a achievement, many clubs also list it as an honour so surely its a competitive game?

It isn't the first time its been mentioned as most of you have picked up on it... Our midfield struggle to track runners. Sometimes our full backs struggle to track runners also. Its our biggest problem at the moment in my eyes, (apart from the elephant in the room which is Jacks injury) when we play on the front foot we leave gaps on the pitch. The players have to be able to recover and recover quickly or we are exposed when we turnover possession. Dean Smith absolutely knows this and I am sure we will be fixing it this January

Whilst a do agree with the fact that other teams should have a inferiority complex about us.The fact is they don’t, they just hate the fact they we think they are inferior.... No one remembers our history, our top six finishes and our great teams except us. So they all think “who the **** are Villa they are nothing special”

We lost at QPR in a game where we performed very well and should have won. As already pointed out by others Forest scored with the 5 shots they had on target to earn a draw. If you ask me other teams are lucky that we are not 3rd and serious contenders already UTV

Did anyone else make the mistake of getting the train to Witton instead of Aston? My brother and I usually get off at Witton so we did the same yesterday (really should have known better but though "how bad could it be")..... The train was full of them but to be fair they didn't sound to confident before the game, a couple of songs about Aston being a shithole and the usual KRO stuff. Interesting how more than one of them could be heard to say that they wished they didn't have to play us and that they hated this game.

Last season after 15 games Fulham had 19 points and they were in 16th place..... After 25 games they were 12th on 36 points And started to surge up the table after that because after 35 games they were one point behind Villa on 62 points in 4th place Of course they finish 3rd as we know.

Of course the result was disappointing, The way we played at times was far from it though.Under Bruce we struggled to see any pattern to the team play (i was a fan so i looked really hard!) Watching the early Smith offerings i would say that soon we will see a side to be proud of. A side that is obviously playing a style of play that the manager has thought about and developed. Its possible the Bruce plan (big players,doing special things) would of worked but he blew it after the Wolves match. Who knows the future may be brighter now under Smith than if we had gone on and secured promotion under bruce last season.

Who cares what other clubs think! We’re Aston Villa we’ll do what we want! *oh,ok I see what you mean ?

Which is steady.Is it not?