Indigo

The problem is the players playing in front of him re: releasing the ball quickly. When there's a pass on he gives it and often gets credited for perfectly weighting passes, but often times the runs being made are lacklustre, Elmo is a good player but not exactly blessed with offensive prowess as a winger, and Adomah's have been poor all season. When there isn't a pass on it's hard to keep it moving quickly. McGinn is equally as "guilty" of this as Jack is also for the exact same reasons though doesn't tend to come in for the same criticisms.

Bringing Hogan on seemed weird under the circumstances alright, even discounting the fact he was shocking anyway. Not the most discouraging loss we've had all the same, not that that says much. You can see what Smith is trying to implement but he's barely a week into the job and had to prepare for two games, one of which last night away from home to a team further along than we are in a similar type of style. I think we'll get better as the games go by but it's clear that some of our players just aren't suited to the game he wants to play, on the ball at least. For a team that wants to play a quick, short passing style we have too many players that aren't dynamic or capable of taking the ball on the move. I think Taylor has played well defensively but on the ball he's too static and slows everything down, and the less said about Hutton the better...he's the one that needs dropping more than anyone. Elmo is a perfectly good full back in this system but again he's a bit limited as a winger when we're attacking. We'll get there eventually but I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being a case of just taking stock until January, if it's possible for Smith to do some dealings. I really don't think we're far off personnel-wise it's just that some of the players that don't fit really do hinder us, we just haven't had enough effective outlets when we're attacking so are struggling to kill games off.

I know he gets cut a lot of slack because he "gives 100%" but I can't believe he's still starting for us in 2018. He's not good going forward, he's not good defensively, he's not quick, he's awkward on the ball, and he has been for years now. For all the laughs about the amount of right backs we have at our disposal I can't accept that he's the best of them.

Absolutely embarrassing cameo. The laziest player on the pitch by an absolute mile once he came on, and to think of the amount of stick Kodjia gets for apparently doing the same thing...

Set pieces aside he played perfectly fine, albeit far from his best. He's going to come in for undue criticism as he often does now but he was at the centre of everything positive we did going forward with little help from anyone around him. He's 23 and isn't the type of player that is going to win a game by himself, which is essentially what we ended up relying on him to do by the end of the game.

How many Jedinaks would it take to head a clearance with the requisite force for it to fly straight into the opposition's net?

There are times where he gets caught on the ball in positions where my heart is in my mouth, and for some of the stick Grealish gets for holding onto it too long I think McGinn can be even more guilty and in more dangerous areas at that. But on the whole you can't really say anything other than he's been a great signing for us, the guy's engine is non-stop and he's the type of midfielder that will really suit the type of style Smith will be looking to implement. Think we're a quality deep-lying player away from having a perfectly balanced midfield to go with him and Jack.

Yesterday was very promising. He's only had a few days with the whole squad so the wheel wasn't going to be reinvented, but there was enough to show that we're already moving in the right direction. We were hanging on a bit at the end but for once it wasn't through completely voluntary means, and more so because we'd ran ourselves into the ground playing a pressing game that was completely new to the players. We'll probably have to get used to some drop-offs late in games considering this is something that is being implemented in the middle of a season, I remember reading some Leeds players in the summer saying that Bielsa's methods were extremely taxing physically in terms of getting used to them so I can imagine this is a similar scenario only at a worse time. Still and all though, if we can be a bit more clinical that'll be less of an issue, and who would've thought that playing defensive players in their normal positions would aid our defensive problems slightly.? Even the substitutions were encouraging, taking forward players off for other forward players so we'd have more legs on the pitch to keep up the way we were playing as best we could, as opposed to sticking on a defensive midfielder or a left back for a striker and inviting a team onto us. Not allowing myself to get carried away, and we're still going to have plenty of shaky moments, but at least we're going the right way about changing things and not doing our best to pile calamity onto ourselves which is a start.

Think some of the reaction to yesterday's performance is harsh on him. It's difficult to critique and especially write off a player based solely off of brief cameos, and if anything I'd say what he has shown in them has been more encouraging than discouraging on the whole, considering how long of a layoff he's had. Yesterday was poor, but he's barely had any minutes at all and was introduced to a game where the momentum was with Swansea and he struggled to pick up the pace of it. Still and all he would have had a great assist to his name had Abraham done better with the header at the back post, which I think the consensus is he should have, and suddenly Bolasie's performance would've been viewed in a better light through no added work of his own. Reserving my judgement for now but personally I'm expecting him to come good for us. I'm a bit concerned as to why he's still only seemingly able to play 15 and 20 minutes here and there but hopefully he can get at least an hour under his belt against QPR (would have him over Adomah myself) and then we'll have more of an idea of where he's at.

Jack literally drives the team forward more than any other player in the side by an absolute mile. It's genuinely astounding that out of all the things to criticise him for that that's something that would be mentioned.

Can't really complain too much about the team, not only has he only been in the job less than a week but he's only had the whole squad to work with for a matter of days. Expecting wholesale changes to the line-up is a bit unfair. Although I'm surprised Bree and El Ghazi haven't made the squad at all. What's going on with Bolasie though? How long is he going to need before he can actually start a game? He's had a good few cameo appearances now (and played well in them, importantly) on top of another week plus now to get his fitness up with the international break...surely he could at least play an hour now?

He's certainly likely to be a more useful option under Smith than he has been up until now, still don't think that makes him a better player than either of Abraham or Kodjia though.

I have my reservations about Henry but at the tail end of Bruce's time I'd resigned myself to accepting anything that came next as long as there was a change so as much as I'm sceptical I'm willing to be patient and see what happens. What I don't understand is how up for a combo of him and Terry as his assistant many seem to be. JT would definitely be a good addition as part of a wider coaching staff, if nothing else because of how widely accepted it is that he has a massively positive impact on the dressing room, but supplementing a completely novice manager with a completely novice coach sets off alarm bells for me. Assuming Henry gets it, which it seems he will. Still don't believe the Rodgers links but think it would be amazing if we could get him.

Not that it would happen or is even being looked into but just out of curiosity would people rather Wilder or Smith if it were a straight choice between them? I feel like being a Villa fan might be the only obvious advantage Smith has over Wilder.

Moyes is a completely busted flush, why would we risk trying to turn around the complete downward spiral his career's trajectory is on? Would be absolutely baffling to give him the job, for all the moaning about his style that would ensue, at least Big Sam has some recent pedigree of performing well in jobs at a decent level, whereas Moyes has had four mishaps in a row (granted he turned West Ham around slightly...after fans literally storming the pitch at one point). I think all of the decent names mentioned like Rodgers and Fonseca are completely unrealistic, so I'm a bit pessimistic as to what might be coming next, but Jesus I think Moyes might be bottom of the pile for me.

Voted for Rodgers but think there's absolutely zero chance of it happening. Regardless of how big of a club we are for the Championship he won't be going anywhere beneath the Premier League.

Bruce leaving was the right call but at the same time I'm very apprehensive as to what comes next as no (realistic) names mentioned fill me with complete confidence. It ranges from complete unknown quantities but with name value like Henry and Arteta to Big Sam and Mick McCarthy who, even if they performed better than Bruce, would still provide much of the same football. Same goes for Dean Smith really, I know he's completely revered around here but he's not really done anything to suggest he would be a great fit for our aspirations. Fully aware that this reads as though I'm looking for some 100% fit that doesn't exist in the real world but this is what Villa have done to me and I'M WORRIED OK.

I've been as patient with him as I can this season after he managed to curry enough favour from last year, but I've gone from on the fence over him leaving (simply because of the dearth of obvious and suitable replacements out there, mind) to willing to accept whatever comes next as long as there's some kind of change. 1 win in 10 against the level of opposition we've been playing with our squad is past the point of unacceptable. Needless to say the lack of numbers at the back is an issue, but we don't exactly help ourselves do we? Last night I couldn't believe how we came out for the second half. If you're a side as top-heavy as we are then you have to play to your strengths and ensure there's as little defending to do as possible, and in the first half we did that. Defensive frailties weren't exposed because Preston weren't given the chance to do so - we played on the front foot, kept them pinned back with our far more talented midfielders and forwards and deservedly were two goals up. Quite why we abandoned that after half time and invited Preston onto us is absolutely bizarre and we got what we asked for. You have to expect that team's will come into the game more - or at least attempt to - after half time under those circumstances, so shifts in momentum are fine, but you ride that out and gradually get back to taking control over the game. There was no sign of that on our end, rather we voluntarily limited ourselves in a desperate effort to hold onto something we easily could have built on. That was shocking and has summed up the way things have gone recently, the equaliser and subsequent penalty hammered home even more how ridiculous and haphazard we are. The personal insults are genuinely embarrassing and some people should really give their heads a shake for some of the vitriolic nonsense they've come out with, but we're past the point of Bruce being able to rescue this and it's best we get shot of him as soon as possible while there's still enough time to put a run together to get us challenging again.

At this rate I think the collective rising blood pressure of this thread would've caused a moderately sized earthquake had we not actually won. Jesus.? Happy Tuesday lads.

Nyland Elmo Tuanzebe Chester Taylor Bjarnason Hourihane Grealish Bolasie Abraham El Ghazi That'd do me, if Bolasie still isn't quite ready for a full game I think I'd prefer him starting to coming on seeing as Adomah is completely out of form and I don't particularly agree with this seemingly collective idea that Kodjia can start games from the wing.

Personally I'd have him over McGinn at the moment.

Yeah, Jack wasn't wrong to expect a run in behind there rather than Adomah for some reason just staying directly in front of the defender's path.

He was on the shoulder of the defender making a run in behind him, if McGinn had spotted him/not taken an age to make his mind up Abraham would've been through on goal.

I prefer Elmo to Hutton at right back for the most part but he doesn't offer enough as a winger. He doesn't go further than the edge of the box and even at that he's hugging the touchline completely, too much is being expected of Abraham so far if we're not going to get bodies around him.

Considering the whole style of play seems to be built around sticking the ball of Abraham's head, the quality of balls in from Adomah and Elmo...Jesus.