GeordieVillan

Players confidence must be shot to bits right now. New manager bounce needed, but also one that can continue for the rest of the season at least.

I would take Big Sam right now. If all he has done is say "there are ways around third party ownership rules", then I can live with that. I have no doubt he would get us organised and get us into the playoffs this season.

Can't believe what's happened so far this season. Our summer was much better than anyone could have ever expected - new owner with cash to spend, new manager and assistant with good track record and experience at this level, a host of exciting new signing including players to solve our goal scoring issues, a lot of "deadwood" being moved on. What has happened has been ridiculous, and most of the blame has to fall at the feet of the manager. The only blame that shouldn't go to the manager is some of the stupid individual errors that seem have been ingrained in us over the past 5-6 years. I don't want us to become a Leeds or Wolves type club that a change a manager without giving them enough time, but this season is in danger of being a disaster. I disagree with most, I think our squad is good enough for automatic promotion. The problem is RDM had totally underestimated the quality of the championship and the tactical knowledge of his opposition managers. This is not a time for Keegan-style cavalier football. We need to be solid and give out attacking players a decent platform to work from. As it is, the defence is always exposed, and the pressure is always on the attack to score because they know the defence will give sloppy goals away. I would sack him now, if I knew we had a decent replacement lined up. As it stands, we can still make the playoffs.

Every single player in our team was crap first half, Kodjia the best of a bad bunch, but they all improved second half. Im on the fence with Jedinak for another couple of games, I think he will come good.

Sadly he's been a common factor in Villa's midfield for the past few years, possibly the worst midfield in my 30 years following Villa. He still has a role to play, but I think it should only be as back up or from the bench.

If I was RDM, on Tuesday I would have Gestede up front and Kodjia right and Ayew left. If McCormack is fit, then he plays as no.10 (or the tip of the midfield 3), otherwise we play Adomah and move Kodjia inside. Jedinak and Tsishbola in the middle. Bacuna and Amavi as full backs. Playing Gestede creates space for the others in a way which I've never appreciated until the last 3 home games. I don't think we can play both Ayew and Grealish together, they both want to occupy similar space and both hold on to the ball too long. Adomah needs to be patient I think and take his chance from the bench. Follow my advice RDM - we will win some games and you will save your job.

He needs to play on the left of a 3. He more than anyone benefitted from the change of formation. He also benefits from having Amavi behind him rather than Cissoko, because Amavi attacks more and when he does attack it is isn't just an overlap, he cuts inside and also looks for 1-2s with Ayew, although Ayew doesn't ever return the ball to him, which is a bit frustrating.

I thought he looked better when he moved out wide and he had more of an opportunity to run with the ball facing goal, and it certainly helped the team. I have a feeling that we are going to need Gestede as a focal point in our attack this season, and Kodjia may end up playing wider in order to help the team click.

First half he had no protection and was overrun 2 to 1 by Yedlin and Ritchie. Second half Ayew played the role he is used to and offered some support, and I think Amavi did well, although you could see his frustration at Ayew for not returning the ball to him at times. I much prefer him over the alternatives, and he's only going to improve this season and he gets fitter and gets his pace back.

I was thinking this morning that this is a must win game, and I can't believe we have a must win game already this season. But then I thought, it doesn't matter where we are in the league, we probably would have gone into this game thinking we have to win (unless we were top). We need to win, we need to lay down a marker and show that we've got a clinical edge to us and that we can step up. So far we've shown that we have a softness (conceding late goals), but we're no pushovers by any means, Ipswich battered us for the last 20 minutes and we dug in. We've also dominated games and not taken our chances, and that needs to change. It may sound crazy, but this could be a season defining game. If we win, then we are unbeaten in 4 and are set up nicely for the Barnsley game in midweek, and hopefully we catch them out. Newcastle will have also lost 2 on the bounce and we will be alot closer to them. If we lose, then I think confidence will be low and we might struggle against Barnsley, and conceivably we might be 15 points off the pace this time next week. I'm going to go for 3-1. I think we will come out of the traps quickly and score a couple of goals in the first half.

We still don't cross the ball, ever. We still don't have enough bodies in the box. We still can't breakdown teams who sit back and defend. We still massively lack a system that allows our creative players to be creative. We aren't going to get to the playoffs we continue in this vain.

What a great moral dilemma question. What level of crisis is acceptable in order to stop your players going away in January?

I expect all of our new signings to play pretty much every game if they are fit. They are RDM's players, he will trust them over the lads who were already here and got us relegated. I think Grealish will be preferred over Ayew if he's doing the business, and once fully fit Amavi will come in at LB. The bench looks pretty good all of a sudden! Gollini De Laet Elphick Chester Amavi Adomah Jedinak Tsihbola Grealish McCormack Kodjia

He might prove to be a very good signing for Boro. Sadly he never really had a chance last year because of injuries mainly, so we won't know what he could have done. And now that he no longer wants to be at Villa, there's no reason to keep him. I wish him well and hold no grudges - I don't expect any of these guys to have any loyalty to Villa, we are a stepping stone. If they can't step up from us, they move on to an alternative step!

Potentially a massive piece of a our promotion puzzle. Finally someone who looks like they can cross the ball, and also that they actually want to cross the ball. This is the first time we've had a player like this since Ashley Young and Marc Albrighton. Great news for Gestede and McCormack. Great news for Grealish as it looks like we'll have threat on the opposite side of the pitch to him as well. And, perhaps great news for Ayew, if he doesn't leave then he has one of his buddies coming to hopefully settle him down and help him score some goals. Another good bit of business for RDM. It seems we have the money, and we are using it buy proven quality at this level. If we can get promoted and then do the same next year (buy proven quality at Premier League level), then it will be the first time we've done that since MON, and we will be fine.

To be fair - he did well when he first arrived....

Would be very surprised if he stays. But you never know.

Potentially a great bit of business. Scored a load of goals for a very average team, and we have just bagged ourselves a guy who should score 15-20 goals this season even in our team. If you even watch his goals - not many of them involve loads of great build up play, a lot of them are out of nothing or a simply pass, and he seems to score all kinds of goals. If we actually manage to get a system that works for us, he might score more. A player like this can make a massive difference. When is the last time we signed someone you could describe as a proven goalscorer (albeit he is proven at championship level)?

I don't believe that he's made this announcement without anyone at the Club knowing about it. He's training with u21s, has a massive presence at the Club still and is obviously still very well connected. The fact they have tested his fitness suggests they are at least considering it (rightly or wrongly). Very naive to think the Club was caught by surprise with this announcement.

The fact he replied to that email was a bit of class. The way that he joined and left the club was dignified and in many ways inspiring. I hate to say it, but he's "one of us". It makes it all the more gut-wrenching that he's gone.

Would be a lovely story if it becomes a reality, and a bit of a fairytale if he leads us to promotion. But, assuming thats not the case, this is just another example of the farcical PR and marketing etc. associated with us at the moment. Can we please just have a media lockdown for the rest of the season and retain a little bit a dignity for the next few weeks. There is no reason why the club needs to do anything other than the bare minimum which the FA/Premier League require in terms of media duties. Other than that, the playing and non-playing staff should all be instructed to keep their mouths shut on TV/Radio, newspapers and online through Twitter etc. While I can't speak for every fan, I think we've had quite enough for this season.

My only hope now is that we take Newcastle down with us by somehow beating them at VP. Sadly we will probably assume the doggy position and allow them to give us a good old fashioned rogering.

I think the anger probably stems from the fact that these are professional guys that havn't just worked at football clubs. They are not players (or to a lesser extent managers) who are traded commodities, they are respected people in the world of business and politics. Either they have been misled when they accepted these roles and now don't want to tarnish their own reputations, or the landscape has changed massively in 4 weeks and they feel they no longer fit in. Either way, I think they are angry because they came into this with a long term vision, and they aren't used to having roles like this for a short time only or being treated with the lack of respect that seems to be ingrained in our club. I suspect these guys would only quit as a last resort, and its incredible that this has happened so early in their tenure.

This is absolutely mental, can't believe it. The one diamond in this massive pile of shit was this new football board that was going to lead us into a bright new area. My take on this is all based around the fact it seems we need a "radical solution". I think that solution involved paying off certain members of the playing squad that are the rotten core of the club in order to get rid of them, and I suspect Lerner has vetoed this because he doesn't want to pay them off and lose out on potential transfer fees. Bernstein and King have probably pointed out that noone is going to want to buy any of our players, and they have then reached an impasse. I would be surprised if this is also related to the redundancies of non-playing staff as well. The circus continues.

He's an idiot. But if he starts playing and doing the business, we will all get over it very quickly. If he doesn't, this tweet will be another line in the story of his failure.