DakotaVilla

8 hours ago, A'Villan said:

Fair enough. I disagree, in part. I see us as stronger this season than last. So if we nearly went up last season, why not this one?

• Terry was absent for a third of the season in 17/18. We had defenders like Samba, Elphick and Baker in the team.
• Grealish was absent even longer than Terry was, Josh Onomah played in his place, playing over two thirds of the season.
• Davis played over half the season for us. Now we Abraham, Kodjia and Hogan all ahead of him.
• Yes Snodgrass was great and Adomah scored 14, though Green was the backup. Now we have Bolasie, El Ghazi and Adomah. Improved. At least it should be.
• We now have McGinn who adds impetus and dynamic that previously wasn't there.

I agree the keeper situation is less than desirable and god knows why we opted to take that route. Apart from that though I see no reason why promotion was possible last season but unobtainable this season.

Defenders - at least we had covering defenders last year. A blind person could see that we have had a serious downgrade in this department so far.

midfielder - at least we had some cover for Jack last season. 

Bolaise and El Ghazi - were totally unfit/unproven before they started hence the inconsistency. 

The rest of the midfield - Bruce essentially used them as a second line of defence hoping for some miraculous attacking play from Jack or Snodgrass. The fact that none of them (Jedinak, Whelan, Hourihane, Bjarneson)  can pass a ball and don’t have the athleticism to get past a man or move into space is hardly smiths fault. At best the only one that will still be here in 12 months is Hourihane.

Attack - agreed, that this is a serious upgrade on last year. 

31 minutes ago, hippo said:

on a 'one off' - no you can't blame the manager for individual errors. However the manager needs to put a system in place to minimise such errors and keep them to the absolute minimum. Ultimately the manager is accountable for results . I accept its early days for DS  - But you can't take him out of the equation   and say "ah well Hutton "   , "ah well elmohady" 

So, with the players available, who else should he have played in those positions? 

The dinner lady?

7 hours ago, kurtsimonw said:

Out of position for the goal, but he's not called Alan Hutton so I don't suppose it matters. 

The issue was that both fullbacks were out of position at the same time. Normally when one is bombing forward the other would drop back to provide cover so that the 3 man defence can spread itself across the vacated space. 

i can understand why bree was out of position as the ball was on his side of the pitch and he was following the runner (in the absence of a midfield that seemed bothered to do this) but Hutton’s positioning was absolutely criminal. Only reason this idiot should get to stay in the squad post January is that he can cover (I say that very loosely) both full back positions in event of a red card or injuries.

I like Mcginn and it’s absolutely no surprise that he looks 5 x the player when Jack is next  to him sharing the load.

Unfortunately since Jack’s injury he’s had to do the work of Bjarneson and Hourihane which is why he is so knackered.....whilst the other two both swan around the pitch looking for set pieces to take. 

Whelan does the graft when he plays but is so limited going forward.

A proper DCM and Jack alternative will allow us to get the best from McGinn. Hourihane can benchwarm and BB can do one.

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

No one is paying 25 mill for a championship player

Leicester (Maddison) and Spurs (Sissoko) say hi. 

In order of importance, I think we still need:

- Left back  - that can defend (and attack). A poor mans Amavi would be perfect.

- CDM. An agile tough tackler than can also keep possession and recycle the ball. An FFP compliant Gueye please.

- CAM - An alternative for Jack the next time he gets hacked out for a period of games. Romaine Sawyers or a decent run of games for O’Hare to step up.

- CB - A huge, pacey man mountain that can pass the ball would be great. Failing that the boy from Wolves would be OK as fourth choice.

Outs

Definite - Elmo, Jedinak, Lansbury

Potentials - one of Kodjia or Hogan or anyone else that Steve Bruce is stupid enough to want and pay good money for after he gets the Wednesday job. 

Kodj has never shown any inclination to work to a system or for the team.

He’s great at this level if you just let him do his thing and absolve him of any wider team responsibility.

In the premiership you just wouldn’t survive with a player like that as he would get 5-10 goals max. 

It’s clear Smith doesn’t see him as a Long term player so Id sell him if we had a ten/twelve million plus bid (come on Wednesday) and use the funds with the existing budget - to seriously upgrade our defense, midfield and grealish alternative.

We’d be much stronger for it and would still have Davis and Hogan as Tammy alternatives. Admittedly a huge gamble on Tammy staying fit. 

Smith’s apparent “defensive weakness” at Brentford should also be seen in the light that this is a manager that knows you have to win games to get out of this league and draws are pretty much next to useless. 

We may end up losing some games as a result but in the medium/Long term it will deliver more wins.

If only grealish and axel were fit then maybe it would be that easy. In the mean time, my personal preference is to win every single game 1-0 with a last minute winner if possible. It’s the grit and desire to win that will eventually get us promoted.

Both. And let’s sell jedinak and Whelan to Wednesday. 

So that’s the FFP workaround. Low initial fee with a big cut on future profit which works fine because if we get promoted we’d look to replace all the first team - bar grealish and Mcginn maybe - within 6 to 18 months. 

We play sheff wed on sat 6th April subject to TV changes.

that should give smith plenty of time to get the new signings in and the team clicking. Also should Bruce plenty of time getting Wednesday playing hoof ball.

Can’t wait for us to absolutely batter them. 

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.

On 27/12/2018 at 01:29, Dave-R said:

Read an article today suggesting if bruce goes to Wednesday then he will come knocking or should knock for bree and o'hare.

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.

5 hours ago, robby b said:

I don't agree that it was a woeful penalty, I won't call it fantastic, but I agree with the BBC that it was firmly struck and heading for the corner. It was a great save from Nyland, he dived down really quickly and got two strong hands to it, at full stretch.

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.

3 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

Elmo and Hutton are there regardless.

Bree is not grabbing his chance at all. His whole body language says that he doesn't want the ball, he's just here to help until new boys come in in Jan.

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

1 minute ago, Razor said:

El Ghazi has been anonymous again, Kodjia needs to come on. I knew people were getting carried away with El Ghazi after a single good performance. If we don't win this then even the playoffs will be looking unlikely. 

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.