Indigo

Remember when he was overrated

Having him back at all is a massive boost. I suspect these will be the last 12 games he'll be a Villa player for so it'll be good to see him play as much as possible. He wasn't at his best at the start of the season but was still our best player, just received unjust criticism based on the expectations placed on him. Particularly once he found form he was levels above anyone in the side and it's really been felt during his absence.

Feels crazy that 10 years has already flown by. Remember that day very well, after throwing the Europa League there was a sense that we had to make good on our promise in the league to justify it. We were on course for a fairly routine win that day - Carew's goal in particular being a highlight - until we royally Villa'd it. I didn't actually see the Whelan goal as only being 15 at the time I had to bow to my dad's seniority when he insisted we had to leave early. Thought it was a job well done until we were walking outside the Doug Ellis and Stoke fans suddenly started going ballistic...

The fans have somehow managed to be even worse than the team this season.

Ball got played through to him at the edge of the box, he was clean through one on one with Buckland but panicked and blasted it over upon receiving it.

If ever there was a sign that confidence is shot it's that from El Ghazi. Jesus Christ. Clean through on goal and does that. Tammy Abraham must be wondering why he's even bothering with this shite.

I despair for certain sections of our fan base at times. I understand that every club has them and you can't help it, but this season alone has reflected so poorly on us. Cabbage Gate was embarrassing, today with Hourihane was ridiculous, and even comparatively minor stuff I've found myself cringing at like the needlessly personal and insulting replies to Villa putting a tweet up wishing Neil Taylor a happy birthday the other week has contributed to this borderline if not already toxic atmosphere. Sometimes we don't help ourselves.

The longer we give the likes of Hutton a pass for "trying/passion/giving it 100%" the longer we'll remain as shite as we are. There are Sunday league players that try their hearts out every week but I wouldn't have them playing for us at right back. He was a liability in the Premier League and he's gone on to be just as much of a liability at middling Championship level. Roll on the summer.

If there's a way of disproving your own point that our squad is good, then listing Alan Hutton as evidence for it is the way to go about it.

I think the signings have been good and we're in a better place for them (do not understand the complaints about Carroll at all myself), but christ on a bike I cannot believe we're going into the business end of the season with Hutton and Taylor still as our first choice full backs. I'm counting down the days until this hellish existence ends.

Fits Smith's style to a tee and never looked out of place in the Premier League whenever I saw him. Bit confused to see people complaining about getting him instead of Fer when we need a specialist deep-lying playmaker and Carroll is one while Fer isn't. It'll be like having a Hourihane that actually looks for the ball off the back four to start moves, and will allow Hourihane to move further forward where he probably belongs. Still a bit lightweight defensively but between Ryan Woods and McEachran, Smith didn't tend to use players in the position that didn't fit that description so it's a move that actually makes complete sense. I despair at our full back options but otherwise this hasn't been a bad window overall.

Can't say I ever thought too highly of him in the Premier League but for where we are now he'd be a pretty good addition, certainly relative to our squad currently anyway. Not sure where the notion that he's an obvious fit for the DM position we've been lacking in though? He's a bit of a physical presence but he's never really played there to my knowledge and has mostly been either a centre or attacking midfielder. As we've seen with Hourihane, Smith evidently doesn't mind trying players in different roles so I wouldn't be surprised to see him played there, but I dunno if he's necessarily the player that offers the defensive aspects of that role.

Fer has become the new Nigel Quashie in terms of being a perennial relegator of teams, not sure he has the best of reputations from his time with his clubs in the Premier League. Would obviously be a good addition to our midfield in our current state though, but he's really not a defensive midfielder and if there's one thing we're crying out for it's (a good, mobile) one of them and a left back assuming Mings is actually to be used at CB, so it's a bit weird that the talk is of him and a right back we're apparently going to send straight back. We'd be stronger than we started the day off as though so c'est la vie I suppose.

Alan Hutton couldn't do a better job than Nicklas Helenius at right back.

That's fine, and I don't particularly rate him either, but it doesn't really change the point.

But all of that means it makes more sense for us to keep and play Bree rather than loan him out. Elmo and Hutton are poor, aging and probably won't be here come next season - why have either of them ahead of Bree in the pecking order then? Give Bree the run of game time here and see how he gets on. It's not like we're loaning him to a League 2 side, we signed him from a Championship team he was playing well in and are apparently considering loaning him to a Championship side. He's clearly at least capable at this level so why not play him for the remainder of the season instead of two players who aren't of any more use than him that have absolutely no future here in comparison.

If Bree has a future at the club and Hutton and Elmo don't beyond this season then what is the point in loaning Bree out exactly? Give him the minutes here if that's the case and make him the first choice right back for the rest of the season. Best of both worlds as he gets the minutes he needs but he gets them here rather than going out on loan and then having to attempt to find his feet here again. If we're working towards next season and only hopeful of a play-off place then surely playing a player who will be here and not persevering with two that won't fits the brief. Hutton and Elmo are both shite too and obviously the salient point is that it keeps both of them out.

That pair of Chalobah tweets just sum up how pointless it is to try to base anything or have any expectations of off what any of these lot come out with. Best port of call is just checking back tomorrow and praying we've gotten in a midfielder and a left back at the very least.

If certain fans had their way, we'd have a team every week that would contain Alan Hutton and Scott Hogan. A truly terrifying thought.

To assume Bolasie going back is indicative of some kind of wholesale change in approach being made seems a bit idealistic. It was under this ownership that his loan (or more to the point - wages) was sanctioned after all, and by all accounts his return seems to have been his decision rather than ours. It does appear Smith and co won't be the types to make such moves in the future, but January is always a difficult time to get anything right transfer wise, much less to the extent we need, so I've become resigned to the eventuality we'll have to hold off until the summer before making any real judgement.

It took us going 2 down and him getting in some petty scrap for him to wake up, and even then he wasn't impressive by any stretch. Honestly couldn't wrap my head around his performance today, it smacked of a massive lack of confidence but you can't afford to have your deep-lying midfielder shirking responsibility when you want to play the way Smith does. It's times like this where I can afford sympathy for a manager because Hourihane actively avoiding picking the ball off the centre backs, aka his job, and having so little awareness of what's around him that the crowd has to scream at him to turn in possession when he has about 10 yards of space behind him rather than facing his own goal and knocking it straight back to Chester/Elphick...I'd imagine it has him tearing his hair out. I normally have a bit more time for Hourihane, and despite the frustrations he also adds a useful option to the squad, but that today was shoddy and individual performances that demonstrably hinder the entire team can't be made up for with a good set piece delivery.

What the **** was that today. I've seen some shite at Villa Park but christ that really was up there. Groans every time the ball fell into his path in a promising position because you just knew what the result was going to be - gash.

Apparently Sheffield United was the aim for his comeback. Just a matter of how quickly he heals up fully I suppose so they can't really put an official date on it. Could be anytime from that game to Brentford the following week to WBA after. Hopefully no later than that otherwise this season really is a write-off (if it's not already rendered that in the meantime). There is absolutely no way he stays if we don't go up. Love for the club or not he really would be mad to stall his career for another season. As much as I wish he would he's far too good to persevere with the Championship any longer just for our sake.

He was injured for the majority of his time at Portsmouth. Whilst he was out they were top of the league with two of the best performing wingers in it in Curtis and Lowe, so they were hardly going to immediately drop them once Green was back fit (which has also only happened recently, it's worth adding). Remains to be seen how well he'll go on to do here but to base anything against him off his game time at Portsmouth would be extremely harsh.