Indigo

Our squad can be of a standard that would be doing well to avoid relegation and Smith can also be doing a poor job of not getting more out of them. The two aren't mutually exclusive and it's too simplistic to just say the squad isn't good enough. The manner of a lot of the points we've dropped is more of a problem than the fact it's happening at all. I personally expected to be in this sort of position at the beginning of the season but that doesn't mean the way in which we've found ourselves here hasn't been utterly ridiculous at times. We've taken 2 points all season off teams in the top 10 (according to the commentary anyway), so by virtue of that I think it's fair enough to say that there isn't a lot of quality in the bottom half of the table and in cases such as that effective coaching can be enough to get you over the line. I reiterate again that all things being equal I think our squad isn't up to standard on the whole, but despite that so many of the points we've dropped this season can be chalked up to a lack of organisation or flimsy mentality, and those are absolutely things you can look at Smith for and question whether another manager could have done more. We frequently bottle games from winning positions, particularly against the bigger sides, in a season where numerous teams around us have managed to pull at least a couple of results out of the bag. We've largely done well enough against the rest of the league that if we hadn't blown at least two of those games we'd be in a position like Brighton's and looking at this run in a lot more positively. We also just have no identity as a team and that's something that's often the difference between sides that do and don't stay up in the relegation battle. Say what you will about Bruce and Newcastle but they know what they are and stick to it, I couldn't even tell you what type of side we are and it's reflected in performances like today when we look constantly bereft of any sort of ideas both on and off the ball. Regardless of quality that isn't something you see in effectively-coached sides. I like Dean and do feel sorry for him in the sense that he was largely let down by the summer's business. His usual style of football is one that's reliant of productive wingers and ours are garbage at Premier League level sans Grealish, whose having to move to the left subsequently made us weaker through the middle (made even worse in the period where McGinn was injured). Suso and Purslow's approach was borderline arrogant and dangerously lacking in any sort of short term pragmatism and I wonder how much we're paying for it now. Despite that sympathy though I do think Smith has a lot to answer for himself because some of these issues are bigger than him not getting the exact DM and left winger he wanted.

We have such a timidity that most other sides in the league don't. As much as Burnley, Newcastle and the like get stick for just sitting back, don't literally let teams freely attack them. We're 1-0 up and just standing off would-be 50-50s, not closing heavy touches etc, basically just hoping the opposition don't make something happen rather than doing what we can to prevent it being easy for them. I'm not too despondent about our position because I was expecting it and more than happy with the idea of finishing 17th, but it's the manner of it that kills me. I like Smith but as much as he has a sub-par squad to work with I struggle to see what kind of identity we have and those are usually the teams you see get relegated.

We can't just hoof it back to them aimlessly for 45 minutes and expect to hold out here, we've got to at least attempt to give them something to think about or else we're asking for it.

Douglas Luiz What a guy. He's been great in these couple of games so far, granted not had much to show today but he seems to have improved the defensive aspect of his game positionally. Absolutely shameless smash and grab that but we'll take it all day. In the probably unlikely event we hold out it'll be huge, more than the already huge 3 points it'd be.

This is mental They are miles better than us so it's to be expected that they would dominate, but what are we actually doing. Rarely seen a team at this level look so bereft of any ideas or options on the ball for such an extended period of time in a game. Poor Keinan. Though judging from the last couple of minutes we've clearly been rope a doping them the whole time.

Nothing came of it but stuff like that little sequence of play there kind of sums up why we've been so easy to play against. After their throw in Alonso was stuck by the touchline, seemingly with nothing on, with 4 Villa players around him and he was still able to handily play a pass straight in to Giroud. There's very few teams in the league that afford such an easy ride in scenarios like that.

A lot of people spent the summer turning their noses up at the idea of signing Cahill because there was this infatuation with "hidden gems" and Brentford players, but I have the feeling we'd have been a lot better off with him and Mings as a centre back pairing.

Not ideal results so far, hopefully they don't continue in the next two games. Either way we need to start actually putting points together ourselves instead of hoping other sides will help us out. If we'd been doing things right over the course of the season we wouldn't have to bemoan the likes of Brighton pulling results out.

Guilbert and Engels injured? Assuming it's a 4-3-3 I'm surprised to not see Elmo playing seeing as it leaves us starting two left-footed centre backs which just screams uncomfortable for whoever is on the right. God I've missed questioning what's going on after the naming of a starting eleven.

I'd moan about VAR if I thought there was a chance we'd have done something in this game otherwise. Love Dean and what he's done for us but this is genuinely horrendous. Defending like this runs seeping than playing staff unfortunately.

Given the circumstances you couldn't have really expected much more from us yesterday, we were always going to have to ride our luck and make the best of any that came our way given how much of a better side City are, just a shame we didn't get much of the latter. Unfortunately I'm finding it hard to take the positives I should be out of it because it's just another example of us being a nearly team this season against one of the top sides, when we failed to get results/build on almost getting them vs Arsenal/Spurs/Liverpool etc it gives me less confidence that we can turned yesterdays performance into results going forward. Hopefully we can though and McGinn's return can spring some more life into us also. We need to get on it quick given the disastrous results around us in the league at the weekend.

Sad to see TVV go, was definitely my go-to. Disagreed with Dan's shouts from time to time but they were always quite reasoned a had a good dynamic going, you could kind of see it coming though even if the given reason for it here has only just happened. Good for Tom anyway, as said above he comes across as a great person so all the best to him. Any decent alternatives out there? I gave Dan's one on The Athletic with Gregg Evans a go but as much as Evans seems a nice guy I wasn't really arsed listening to him justify the million strikers he was linking us to at the time. It might be better now that we're out of the silly season of the transfer market.

It made sense to play him here to get his match fitness back up, but he's clearly made out of wafer unfortunately for him and our striking options.

The thing that has been the biggest red flag for me recently is both how we deal with being pressed and also go about doing it ourselves. I love Smith but it does worry me that for a manager who has a reputation for playing a possession-based style our ball retention is awful whenever a side presses us both home and away (obviously to a lesser extent with the former). At the weekend we'd try to play it out from the back and would have no real options or movement once they pressed, which ended up in endlessly hoofing it out for throw ins and just inviting more pressure on ourselves. Defending is about more than just dealing with the other side's attacks, and we're making the defence work more than they have to by being pressured into losing it in dangerous areas. Same goes for when the opposition has the ball. Compare how Brighton with 11 men often found it so easy to play it out against us at Villa Park with how much we struggled at The Amex. Southampton was a similar story. We're not making teams work as hard for possession as vice versa and it's making life a lot harder.

Not really having the claim that people only dislike personal attacks when they're directed at someone they like. Bruce had well and truly burned bridges when his time was up with us, still doesn't really justify a lot of "fat and useless" shouts from fans, same with some of the stuff that Nyland got prior to his injury last season which was honestly a bit embarrassing to read, regardless of how poor his performances were. I know social media is a law unto itself but the case was the same when Villa posted a happy birthday to Neil Taylor last year, torrents of personal abuse for someone whose only crime is not being up to standard at left back. Every fanbase has it but I really don't think we help ourselves sometimes.

I mean all going well he's not even going to play is he, but as we've seen over the past month or so playing with a recognised striker is just better for the overall balance of the team than playing without one (despite Engels apparently being a better option up front than Wesley...), in which case getting him in on a free in case the worst happens isn't the stupidest decision in the world.

Love Chezzy, he's been a quality player for us and what's more sacrificed who knows how much of his career to play when Bruce's sheer negligence meant he felt he had to. I'd love for us to keep him in whatever capacity, be it as a player or his post-playing career, but if he wants to play first team football that should be respected as it's probably the least we owe him...BUT doing so without a replacement in some shape lined up seems worryingly careless on our part. If we're playing a back 3 then 4 first team centre halves is pushing it a bit, here's hoping it doesn't bite us on the arse but this is Villa so I look forward to Lansbury having to deputise there at some point.

Can't lie, I'd still rather Reina in the final if he continues as he has vs Brighton/Watford, but I love when players of ours mug off the more (putting it nicely) miserable sections of our fan base. Between Hourihane getting boo'd and bouncing back last season to the worst keeper in our history having a stormer tonight. Good times.

Kourtney Hause just liked this on Twitter, and what is this thread for if not baseless speculation...

Put respect on this man's name

Love this guy. Some of the criticism is fair in that he can be inconsistent, and gets caught napping on the ball without moving it quick enough at times, but that's the kind of thing you'd expect from a 21 year old that is in his first season in the Premier League. Under normal circumstances it'd be less of an issue as he'd be eased into life in the league but unfortunately our situation dictates otherwise so he's having to learn the hard way. He's our best (fit) midfielder outside of Grealish though, and I think he should play more often than not as for his occasional faults he just offers us more on the ball than our others do in terms of retaining it and actually providing an option. It's more than you can say for other players but he never shies away from showing for the ball, one of the faintest silver linings from the Watford disaster was him showing some bottle when others didn't and even at 3-0 always dropping for and demanding possession in the shallow hope of making something happen. Until Drinkwater gets up to speed (if he can) Luiz does what he's been brought in to do better, he showed that when he came on and the KDB-lite assist for Jack just topped it off.

My man Douglas Luiz Quality goal

I'm not one for getting on individual players' backs, but considering how much some people are I think Konsa has gotten off pretty lightly this season compared to others. I don't get it with him to be honest.

Struggling to understand how often we're failing to simply keep the ball in play here. Almost every pass down the line has gone out for a Brighton throw in.

This is best for all but I can't help but feel a little bit sad that he won't be around anymore. He gets a lot of stick I'll never agree with and was a great servant to us, could have been even more so if not for the injury. There wasn't much enjoyable about that first season in the Championship but he almost single-handedly provided a silver lining, and despite being back-up to Tammy he still had his moments to help us get promoted too (equaliser vs Blues, a huge part of why the tide turned in that Rotherham game). Not quite at Premier League level at this stage but no shame in that, sometimes we can get so caught up in football that you can forget about the actual entertainment side of the sport, so I appreciate his character as much as anything else. His maverick style of playing the game could frustrate but on the whole he was more productive than not, and certainly did more for us than most in a difficult few years. Massive love for Kodj and all the best to him.