CrackpotForeigner

Me too, but we also need to choose a manager.

I don't think we need to go full Big Sam at all. We have a good squad of players now. They are better than this. By far. Get someone who has some sort of track record, someone who is prepared to work on a short term rolling contract. Only the brave would apply.

Agreed. He's a very good player. But I'd still maybe have a go starting Ayew in his place.

Not a lot of games, but we were supposedly released from the burdensome yolk of the previous manager. We'd just avoided relegation and were building towards a cup final. Where did all the good momentum go if it wasn't pissed away by a mouthy manager? He's since spent a fortune on players and we still show no signs of having a team who are prepared to bust their arse for the manager, we're seeing strange selections and substitutions, and we aren't winning games.

Tom Fox should be looking for a replacement now. Hopefully we won't need a replacement, but so far it looks likely that we will. Better to have someone lined up.

I think the point is that by the end of the season we were freefalling faster even than Newcastle, which is a bit of a worry when you're supposed to have momentum on your side.

Ouch. I don't know what it's like to be a pro footballer, but you'd have to think that Tim's attitude here is petulant and not exactly calculated to best keep the dressing room on board. I'm seeing signs of this having happened at Villa, based purely and entirely on TV footage, so not exactly scientific, and I very much want to be wrong. Only the football and results will tell the story.

Westwood is a 6 or a 7 every single game. The main reason he's out of fashion at the moment is that the team have been losing, not because of any failing of his as far as I can see.

We don't, and we're never going to have a good home record while the other 19 teams regard us as pussycats. Make them FEAR the mighty Villa. Let defenders and defensive midfielders defend.

Sorry but I don't think a player who strikes fear into the opposition is ever a luxury you can't afford. The more the better. The more fear, the more mistakes, the more goals.

If this is true it's a disgrace. No place at Villa for RW if true: Not just for being so bloody wrong, but for saying it to someone outside the club.

For me, this is. Mainly because our players cost three times as much as they did under Lambert and look about three times better. We were going down under Lambert, and he had to go, but there's some doubt in my mind as to whether we've replaced him with better.

I have nothing against Tim. I enjoy his mouthiness up to a point, and I wish him the success that his excellent transfer work deserves. But what we're seeing (and hearing for that matter) is raising alarm bells, especially since he has never managed any team for a full season, ever. Tomas summed up the reasons for having misgivings better than I could four posts back.

If I were the management I'd have said to him "Look, we're sending you out to get match fit. FFS don't make fools of them or they'll kick shit out of you and you'll be injured again. Just stay out there for 90 is all we want"

Maybe they did, or he decided to anyway

I agree. Don't get me wrong. Plenty of scope for improving Villa's chances by being a clearing. The biggest clearing of all is probably Mourinho, and his record's not too bad.

You're right, this doesn't have much to do with Ilori, except maybe to say that what the manager says about him is probably in Villa's interests first and factual second.

Benteke himself has said that his form was improving anyway, although he did add "Yeah he helped me a lot, but...". I don't think anyone was surprised that Benteke started scoring goals when he did. My guess is the manager didn't have that much to do with it.

I think we probably would still have gone down if Lambert had stayed, but right now it\s looking as though he was possibly the better long term option.

Come now everyone. If calling Traore a development player isn't a clearing in the woodsey thing to do then I don't know what is. That's hardly a character assassination.

And we've replaced Delph, and although we haven't replaced Benteke we pretty much have replaced his goals. The rest of the squad cost three times what it did under Lambert, and looks the more talented for it. So recent games make you wonder whether Tim is managerially and tactically dodgy to the point of losing the dressing room, or whether he and the squad are just learning the ropes together.

As far as his subs go, I would sum it up like this: Whereas nobody could see why Lambert made the subs that he did, anyone can see why Sherwood shouldn't make the subs that he does.

This. Sherwood seems to have a rule of only risking one of our four good players at any one time.

He had better turn it around quickly.

He has spent three times as much per player as Lambert, and to his credit he has got good value. But as others have said, he has no track record. He has never even managed a team through a full season. If he isn't getting this squad to perform, he probably doesn't have what it takes. Giving the team time to gel is one thing, but his team selection and subs are baffling, such as not playing Carles Gil. If we only have one creative player on the pitch at a time it's going to be a lot easier to play against. Liverpool were there for the taking yesterday and we blew it IMO.

Tim's a shrewd operator all right. If you want to look good as a manager you need to change the game with subs. Best way to do this is to leave heaps of good players on the bench

What about working on a marketing strategy for cherry cakes? Is that even real work? It's arguably less productive than putting the cherry on the things.

I was struck by a story in the news where an aid agency is in trouble because a couple of their volunteers went swimming while on their overseas trip and got swept away by a rip current.

It's a tragic story, but the thing is that the aid agency is in trouble for not having done a "Risk Assessment" on people going swimming.

Now I don't know if the answer to the thread question is yes or no, but if it is yes then I hold the Risk Assessment mentality partly responsible. How to make sure we're all safetified to within an inch of our lives?: Make Risk Assessments relevant to everything including scratching your arse. Lawyers and insurance companies will thank you for it.

Afaik he flatters himself to think that he's a natural midfielder, but really his best position for us is RB, or RW if we're having one of those.

I hope he's universally acclaimed as a genius by this time on Sunday, for however long it lasts.

Me too. He's an inconsistent liability much of the time, but he's also one of our more creative players after Gil, Grealish, Traore and maybe Ayew, and as a RB he's our second best option as well as our most attacking option there. Not consistent enough to be allowed to play in midfield though. Overall an excellent squad player to have imo.