DakotaVilla

It’s our expectations that have to change. We have absolutely no right to “expect” 18+ points out of those fixtures with the imbalance and defensive weakness that exists in the squad coupled with the Long term injuries to Axel and Grealish. If we do get 18 points+ it will be due to getting our transfers in very early - which has never really happened before - and more miracles from Smith.

So how many points do you think he would have got out of the run of games after he left? can you say with confidence we would have won a single game considering the poisonous atmosphere that was already filling Villa Park? Fortunately, we sacked him so don’t have to play this game for real.

He had a very good game. To paraphrase the manager in his post game comments .... It’s amazing what a bit of competition can do.

These guys have a plan and are working to it. we signed an international calibre keeper a week before the window opened. We’re not being linked with anyone publically which would suggest that targets have been identified and are being progressed professionally. No doubt they have a number of FFP compliant scenarios if we don’t go up. The real question is whether selling Jack, the keeper, McGinn is part of that plan or not. Time will tell.

That’s only because of the minor miracle smith has performed so far. We would be in the bottom three had Bruce remained in charge.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. That genuinely made me laugh out loud. Guarantee he will come back for Elmo and Jedinak instead.

The best contribution Steve Bruce has made to Villa is still to happen. Hopefully when he becomes Sheff Wed manager he can buy back some of the overpaid and limited players that he stockpiled here. Trust in Bruce - we all know that he’s a one trick long ball pony.

Normally it’s the second weekend in March so he’ll definitely have triggered the 2 game suspension by then.

It was a decent pen but an excellent save based on analysis of where Bony typically hits his penalties. Smith referenced this in his post match comments.

Time for a tactical yellow against QPR so that he misses the Swansea and Wigan games.

You’re clearly not watching the same game as some of us.

But he’s working hard for the team and tracking back ..... unlike Kodj.

Issue is our fullbacks and static midfield. Bring on thor for Whelan and the man kodj for Ghazi after 15 min.

Elmo starting the way he finished against Leeds so far

Defensive strength = 10% Attacking strength = 100% Time to just go full bloody Kevin Keegan mode. 4-3 to the villa.

It’s relatively easy to defend when the whole team is set up to avoid conceding as opposed to actually trying to score goals and win a game. The base limiting factors of some players (Elmo, Taylor, Hutton) and our squad (centre back and left back cover) are now becoming apparent when they are actually asked to play Football. some may argue that Smith should be realistic and set his team more defensively. In the short term that might be sensible but in the Long run it’s counterproductive to trying to introduce a completely different and far more progressive style of play. I applaud Smith for what he’s trying to do and think that come mid Jan we will be far more comfortable re the play off spots. Automatic was always a pipe dream considering the severe structural issues and abysmal start that Bruce left us with.

You mean just like Hogan did against Boro when he came on?

And at centre back. Also important for us all to remember that it wasn’t smith that created this imbalance. I’m sure many of these issues will be resolved come mid/end of Jan. We then will be the team that no one wants to play and should get to the play offs with a strong run from when the reinforcements arrive.

I pray to god that Bruce gets the Wednesday job. He’ll take a few of our deadweight off us straightaway and that will help to give Smith the headroom he needs to bring in some proper players. Hopefully he can start by taking some of his aging right backs and Jedinak.

Scott hasn’t really had a chance yet under Smith due to Tammy’s great form. He’s typically been a late sub. An attacking high press, recycling the ball quickly bolaise, kodj and or Ghazi will work for Tammy. To get the best out of Hogan though you need to be playing through balls through the middle and the only player we currently have who can really do that for him is Jack. O’Hare has the potential to do that too. Either way, the issue against Leeds second half wasn’t Scott. We didn’t have the ball and when we did get the ball we didn’t keep it well enough. Towards the end we started panicking and reverting to “Bruceball” - smith has only had a couple of months to influence some players who have been playing hoof ball for years and quite frankly some players that are not capable of playing this way. We need to strengthen the defence clearly but I doubt smith will just be focussing on that. I’d wager he’s looking at getting ball playing defenders that can contribute to the Attack as much as they can defend. Going back to Hogan, there really is no point in selling him unless someone makes a stupid offer - which they won’t. He’s a luxury player at this level if the team is not built around him but could give us great variety in Attack with Tammy, Kodj IF the players become intelligent enough to realise that we have to mix up our normal style to get the best out of him.

The manager was basically saying that the players on the pitch are not playing to his strengths. He clearly knows Hogan’s strengths having got the best out of him at Brentford. Once Smith gets more of his players in, I’m confident that we’ll see much more of the Hogan that we thought we’d bought. I’m not even going to deal with the Bruce comment. It takes a special kind of idiot to blow 12m on a player so wholly unsuited to a one dimensional, lump it up the pitch “style” of play.

I may have imagined this But in the press conference he specifically said that the team didn’t play to Hogan’s strengths when he came on ... and that they should know his strengths considering they’d played with him for two years. Hogan will be very important for us towards the end of the season and next season if we don’t go up.

I find it difficult to question the performance of a right back when he is asked to play at left back. Round holes, square pegs and all that. I expect Smith to fully rectify the situation in January by bringing in another leftback.

I will be far happier if Elmo is fit. Our back 6, playing in their regular positions are the footballing equivalent of the Bank of England. Johnstone elmo Terry Chester Hutton Jedi Good luck in breaking that down Fulham - especially with snoddy, adomah and conor’s Defensive contribution.

Us staying up those two seasons was pretty much entirely down to Benteke.