Blasterpocket68

1 minute ago, Wurzel said:

Do we train?

No they all have cars 

1 minute ago, Wurzel said:

Do we train?

Just now, villa89 said:

Dean's meltdown moment. Wheres that panic button? It's already broken after being pressed so much. Changing formations, wingers swapping sides, sticking the big man up front. Smith's just guessing at this stage. Rabbit. Headlights. 

But his one of us 

We’re dooomed

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

It ain't gonna is it.

Need to remember Southampton are pretty shite, no real biggy even if we pulled off a win.

if only our spell is over I feel 

2 minutes ago, PaulC said:

Yes our best player by a distance second half. 

Great value for money

Martinez great save

Another free kick out of the coaches top drawer 

1 minute ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

El Ghazi comes on again

Absolutely shocking 

Midfield FFS we need a midfield 

1 minute ago, rbcuk said:

Pretty pissed off we can’t make 5 subs like they do in Europe could do with that tonight, embarrassing again McGinn is not good enough for a 2 man midfield 

Yep just nothing in midfield wingers not supporting and  poor going forward 

1 minute ago, thunderball said:

This commentary is dreadful

And the football

Bailey is like a headless chicken - so exposed on the left

11 minutes ago, alreadyexists said:

Feel like we’ll win this one… don’t know why, just feel like we will. 
 

I don’t think it’ll be enough for many fans though, I honestly think DS has lost the fan base a bit now and there isn’t much that’ll get them back.

I don’t think so , despite the recent results the actual crowd haven’t got on his back . (Yet) 

let’s hope we don’t get there, really tough tonight with out Douglas L. The game will be lost and won in midfield! I would take a draw !

54 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

I do feel if Watkins and Ings played in the Mane Salah roles and we had Buendia as a false 9 we might get some results. It'll appear like a 4 3 1 2 type formation. Which can adapt to a 4 3 3 with Buendia wide right. 

I feel we have the squad to be fighting for the top 6 places. We just don't have the manager to get us there.

Ings and Watkins are not Mane Or Salah , different types of players. 
 

we’re no where near the top six  with any manager in charge. We’re desperately short in midfield . 

3 hours ago, Peter Griffin said:

I don't believe that would work with the elite managers. Pep is on 25m a year, we offer him 35m and he won't come to us. He wants to compete at the highest level just like players do and the elite managers already have enough cash that a pay rise won't have any material impact on their life. Same goes for Klopp and Conte etc. But a manager like Potter would leave for the money imo

It did with Man City totally in the football wilderness went from Erickson Rob Mancini Pelegrín’s to Pep , there pretty elite managers. 
money talks 

anyway as I alluded we’re not on this strategy.

2 hours ago, Laughable Chimp said:

The problem is that the odds of us attracting a top manager whilst Dean has us as a consistent midtable club is minimal. Look at the teams that you expect to be midtable by years end, how many of them have managers that were considered top managers when first hired? Hell, Newcastle have all the money in the world and it looks like they're getting Eddie Howe. 

If we're waiting around for a top manager to become available to want to come to Villa, we'll be waiting forever. Its just not happening. And even if a top manager became available, this forum will throw a hissyfit if we sack Smith when he only has us at comfortably midtable. So 2 rare events have to coincide for it to be "acceptable" to sack Smith. Smith has to severely underperform and a top manager has to be available and want to come to Villa. Both events have to happen simultaneously. The idea that its only acceptable to sack a manager if and only if that exceedingly rare scenario happens is ridiculous. 

 

Money talks - you offer any manager enough they will come . 
if the owners are really serious they could sell the project to any manager with the appropriate resources to back him. 
This Depends how Hungary and how quickly they want to get there. 
Dont think they are looking at a quick fix building sound foundations progression with good youth set up. 
it’s unlikely that Dean will be sacked based on the strategy we are on , unless the obvious poor form continues into the new year. 
let’s hope he turns this all around … 

2 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Not 3 5 2 

On 03/11/2021 at 12:08, tomsky_11 said:

I don't think we've had it at all as bad as other teams. Only teams with fewer everpresent starters are Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City. I'm going to guess this is more down to intentional rotation of squads with much greater depth and a lot of enforced absenses. The only teams we the same number of everpresent starters are Liverpool (better squad rotation) or teams below us in the table (Watford and Newcastle). Probably also worth noting the two of the teams with the most consistent starting line ups are ones we've just faced in WHU (8 everpresents) and Wolves (5 everpresents and 11 players starting 7 or more games). I think its fair to say enforced absences have impacted us more than most, especially it probably impacted most in our first three games which were probably our most winnable. Ironically, the need to get some consistency in the starting lineup has probably cost us too, as to only times we've made no changes from the previous game were Spurs and Arsenal, games in which us playing 352 probably suited the opposition more that us.

IMO it's unfair to write off winning away to Utd for the first time in forever, creating most of the better chances, restricting them to mostly poor efforts from distance and keeping a clean sheet as riding our luck. Disagree Everton was dreadful before Bailey as well, it was an even game for 60 and then killed them last 30. Not sure the first 60 were helped by McGinn being in a daze for half of it before had to go off either. And hard to knock another clean sheet.

I missed the Wolves game so can't really speak for the perfomance, but from seeing the highlights and speaking to others it sounded like a draw was probably fair, we were somewhat affected by late injury/fitness enforced changes that hindered ball retention and defensive solidity and all 3 of there goals had elements of luck to them, the last one especially. Wolves it would seem being one of the more settled teams in the league and now 3rd in the form table suggest this game wasn't as easy as some perhaps thought either.

Disagree with this, we were improving before half time and I think every chance of getting something from this one before the sending off. It wasn't like we gave up high percentage chances for their first half goals either. We had 30 mins with 10 men before they scored, in this time we created the best chances so we were hardly soon picked off. When they did break for their third we were effectively down to 9 players with Nakamba off, just after our own decent counter had been stopped by the ref, and you could argue at least one of their players involved in the goal might have been given a red card just before it on another day with another ref. More fine margin stuff that ain't on Smith.

I agree we need to get back to a shape and style of play that we've seen be effective before under Smith, not just and Villa but multiple times when his Brentford side demolished us. And I fully expect this to come once we actually have some stability in terms of availability of our best players. Sure he's responsible for the team selection and the way we want to play, but that doesn't mean these things aren't also impacted by things outside of his control, of which I feel there have been many. And it's not like we haven't seen several dramatic upturns in form under Smith before after periods affected by key player absences.

Do I agree with every decision Smith has made so far this season? No. Do I understand how he came to most of these decisions even if I disagree with them? Yes. I personally wouldn't have wanted us to move to a 532/352 but given the opposition when we switched and the players we had available I get it. I wouldn't have stuck with it so long after, two wins from three and a decent performance in the defeat and I can understand why he stuck with it for Spurs given this and the need to get some consistency. Wolves was a system match so made sense to stick with it. Annoyed we didn't change it for Arsenal but feel we might have if Bailey was fit enough to start. At least he changed it at half time and we looked a lot better after that, though I'd have liked to him to have risked changing it sooner by moving Axel into DM given how bad that first half was.

I'm not sure results in the last 4 games, given the issues we've had and the opposition we've faced, justifies complete ignoring what Smith has achieved with use so far, which is quite substantial given our recent mangerial history. And as I mentioned before, I don't think the net result of six points from the last six games is that far off the expectations of most on this forum before those games, so is surprising to me how much opinion seems to have shift against Smith.

I guess it’s all perspective and opinions as fans . As I have said I like Dean Smith and respect his achievements at villa. I personally feel taking injuries ref and var in justifications over the course of last 12 months things just are not right . 

6 hours ago, tomsky_11 said:

Voted back him for foreseeable and honestly don’t get how this is even under discussion, never mind that more than half of the votes are veering towards getting rid.

Two things that are especially bugging me about this discussion: 1) the sense of impending doom from some when we are in 15th ten games into the season, and 2) there seems to be little to no consideration for a whole bunch of factors outside of Smith’s control that have clearly affected the season so far.

On the first point, we are in no danger of relegation right now, we won’t be anytime in the near future, and until this scenario looks at all likely, I don’t get the worry. Are we below where I’d expect us to be? Absolutely. My view preseason was somewhere between decent midtable and a push for 5th-7th. I think this was at the higher end of the predictions on here. But I’m really not worried about where we are right now or the recent performances, because as per my second point, for me there’s a whole bunch of mitigating factors that seem to be getting little consideration from many.

The biggest of these is the player absences meaning we’ve not had a settled XI all season, and we still haven’t seen our best XI play once yet. For comparison, by this time last season we’d had  the same 9 players occupy the same starting positions in every game. This season so far it’s 2 if you count Cash at RB or RWB/RM as one position. The other player is Konsa who misses Friday. I can’t imagine any other teams this season have had such enforced disruption to their line up. For this alone, I actually think we could easily have been worse off than we are.

Add to this:

- we’ve had to try and fill the massive hole left by selling by far and away our best player

- one of the key replacements for him, and IMO the only player we’ve got who can scare the opposition like he could, Bailey, has barely played and probably still isn’t fully fit yet

- turnover of coaching staff

- disruption to preseason, games cancelled, etc.

… and to me it’s not at all surprising we are where we are.

I’m not getting hung up on the last four games either. Spurs game was basically decided by one world class player. I don’t think going 352 helped either but given availability and coming off the back of the Chelsea, Everton and Utd games I get why Smith stuck with it. Wolves I missed but get the impression late injuries forced changes that didn’t help us, and all the their goals were helped by varying degrees of luck. Arsenal first half was terrible and IMO was a lot down to our 352 playing to Arsenal’s strengths, but at least we changed it at half time and looked a lot better. Take away some dodgy reffing and we start the second half only 1-0 down and much better set up for second half.

At this point is probably worth mentioning that the 6 points we got from the 5 game Everton to Arsenal run was within the expectations of over half of those that voted on the last “next 5 games” thread on this forum. 89% thought we’d get 7-9 points or less from those games and we were a 95th minute massively deflected goal away from that. That kind of margin seems fine enough that few could be too surprised by where we were at after the Arsenal game, but apparently not judging by how opinions on the manger were already shifting by this point.

I’m guessing few thought the WHU game would be easy either, even with a full squad. More injuries, both before and early on in the game made it even harder still. Despite this I felt the first half was ok. Chances seemed fairly even by the end of the half and their goals were somewhat fortunate. Red card and some other poor reffing second half made defeat inevitable, but even a man down we looked pretty good until their third. Had it stayed 11v11 we’d have had every chance of taking something from a team who now sit 4th I the table. That to me doesn’t feel like the kind of game people should be coming out of thinking the manager’s time is up. 6 points from 6 games against teams currently occupying the top half of the table, especially with all the issues we’ve had, isn’t even close to sack the manager time for me.

I’m not calling for Smiths head but take issue with some of your comments. 
yes we have had some injuries but so have other teams. We have not been playing fantastic all season . Man U we rode our luck Everton we had a short spell with Bailey on otherwise we were dreadful against them . We have been really poor as a team since Wolves debacle when we fell apart . I appreciate confidence is low but it’s the managers responsibility alone  to tactically put the the team on the park. We have looked devoid of attacking ideas  clueless defensively . The players look lost . If we had 15 players out against WH we would have lost , yes we had a spell when we went down to ten men but we were soon easily picked off on the counter attack . 
I’m all for Dean been given time but we have to see the basics return to the team structure . He is responsible for the team performance and results . He is responsible for the coaches and the dressing room. 
The dean smith villa fairytale holds nothing for me it’s a results business he has to turn the  current slump around quickly, hopefully with  a good performance and 3 points against Southampton Friday. 

1 hour ago, KentVillan said:

Something that puzzles me…

None of us really knows how Purslow, Lange, Suso, Smith, Terry, ROK, Shakespeare, and so on break down in terms of responsibility for what’s happened.

We have a rough idea, but we don’t know (eg) who drove the Ings signing, who thought we could cope without another DM, who signed off on Wesley, etc.

So given how hard it is to work out what’s happening at our own club. How are people so confident that they know how good Graham Potter is?

We’ve been here before when Lambert arrived with plenty of promise, as a highly rated manager of a lower half PL side.

You look at Benitez and Ancelotti at Everton, both Champions League winners, and maybe that gives a hint of the complexity of the challenge.

I’d obviously take a better coach with a better win % and some trophies to his name. Of course I would. But I guarantee it’ll be the same people here in a year or so saying we need to sack him and bring in the next flavour of the month manager. It’s just so predictable.

The owners are very wealthy and  still hopefully ambitious for the club . I guess we will find out how ambitious if we were to change manager with potentially the new man . 
 

I believe however they will stick with Smith thru this current poor spell . 

Disgraceful lack of respect , we still have a manager last time I looked . 

38 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

Glory years is an interesting one. When SGT 1st came to us from high flying Watford, we were only 5/6 years from being Champions of Europe and the old first division was a far more even playing field than now. That was some idea of getting back to being a big club and the chance of becoming league champions was real - sadly the English FA took him and ruined him. After that Big Ron bought in big name players but without a real eye to the future and once Manure won the 1st PL, the momentum shifted. We had a penny pincher in charge so we always seemed to be shopping in the bargain basement rather than going for it. It was a huge missed opportunity 1992-2002 or so, to cement ourselves as one of the elite but Ellis didn't have the vision or the balls. Essentially we've been also rans ever since.

I think people talk about us a big club and as a big opportunity in the same way they do Newcastle - large fanbase, bags of potential, completely starved of success.

We have great owners now who seem to be prepared (at least so far) to put their money where their mouth is. The league is so skewed to the CL teams though (they even get money if they don't qualify for a year )that really challenging and becoming a force is really unlikely whoever is in the dugout to be honest.

I really like the Dean Smith story - his support, his dad, and his families ties to the Villa. He gave us that amazing 10 game winning run with exciting football. Got the best out of Jack, has improved players. I want him to succeed and quite honestly if we don't improve on last years position then so what?  Doesn't mean he won't improve it next season. All this clamoring to get someone else in after a 4 game losing spell just smacks of the "want something new" society - "I want a shiny new name" and guess what, if in 10 games they are doing sh*t the same people will demanding another manager,

If we get Fonseca, or another "some name from Europe" then, meh. It's just another reason to be less and less interested in a game that I used to love.

Agree but if the owners are really serious and want to compete we have to move forward. I Like the Dean Smith Story but feel we have all become over obsessed with him . Football is about money and success . 
you either try to compete or you just make up the numbers and become a feeder club for the CL contenders in the league. We are the latter at the moment and that’s not going to change.

1 hour ago, KMitch said:

That performance was poor, but West Ham's first two goals were statistical anomalies (XGs of 0.12 & 0.04 respectively).  The soft red card didn't do us any favors, but there are a lot of positives to take from this performance:

• Smith stopped playing 532
• He benched Mings for poor performances
• He started Bailey
• Ollie found the net again
• Buendia looked like a good player in his actual position (on the right in a 433) and got an assist (MOM for me)

 

Red cards happen , we’re fortunate it wasn’t potentially 2 . 
Smith had to stop 5 3 2 simply wasn’t working - should have happened a game ago

Bailey been injured had to start when fit

Ollie finding the net is a positive but forced on him with the the Ings absence

Buendia showed glimpse of a player - and clearly wasn’t happy when he got pulled by smith- storming down the tunnel 

Cash for me was clear MOM 

I want Smith to succeed but all your positives are weak from the game Sunday . We can agree the luck wasn’t with us but the shape of the team the tactics with and without the ball we’re appalling. The substitution I didn’t understand. The only period of sustained momentum and fight was when we went down to 10 men. That was another bad performance taking away the red card and poor ref decisions. 
Hope he turns this around but as many fans have pointed out  the problems are really mounting and the demeanour of our players is a major concern. 

Loosing 4 on the bounce happens , but the way we have lost them Is most alarming. West Ham was always going to be difficult, but  our best period was when we went down to 10 men . Like most I hope smith can turn this around , but fear he may already have lost the dressing room . Players demeanour just isn’t right . 
The owners patience may be very tested with another defeat against Southampton. 
 

8 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Keyboard warriors? 

Done my penance, VP will never change 

If that’s how you feel about villa fans maybe it’s time to move on . VP has great atmosphere but the players are the spark to ignite the fans . Slagging off VP fans crazy . Plenty of spare seats over the other end of 5he city ,