Keener window-cleaner

It's good they dont have Maddison and the Murphy brothers anymore, they were all real threats. Really looking forward to this one!!

"Most of the work we've done this week has been without the ball" "We'll also work on possession in the coming weeks because we were a little bit loose on the ball. We can't be like that at this level"

Clearly a 4-3-3 to me, Grealish-BB-McGinn in the middle, Albert left wide forward, Elmo right and Abraham in the middle.

His performance levels dropped the last games, so it was wonderful to see him back with the same spark that he had the first games. So important for us, the complete midfielder. I remember one of the gentle Hibs supporters who came on tho the forum said he had the "strongest bum" he had seen, or something like that. I thought it soundes funny at the time but now I understrand what he meant! He makes these kind of Ice Hockey bum-tackles all the time, and has an impressive ability to protect the ball, also with his arse!

That's how I saw it, trying to save the corner.

Haha! It would require us to put together four passes in a row right, hence the lack of stats over the last years ? Today we did that several times though!

One example, somewhere in the middle of the first half he made a sublime pass with the outside of his right foot that slicked the left side line and set Adomah free, which then led to a clear cut scoring opportunity for us. There are often no stats for that, but it's such passes only he can make. The opponents know that so it means they double or tripple up on him (no stats for that either), which opens up space for the other players. Even if he doesn't score or assist, he is so valuable for the team. Playing in a mid three he will take more part in the build up play which I think suits him best. It will also mean he will get less chances to score, but will on the whole will be more valuable to the team. The mid three unit of Grealish, BB and McGinn put in, at least for 45-60 mins, the best combined midfield performance I've seen in a long while. Grealish played a direct part in our goal, and I don't know in how many of our chances he played a part in the build up. Moreover he put in a real shift working hard defensively as well together with BB and McGinn, which meant not only that we kept a clean sheet but also that our front three could play higher up the pitch. To criticize him or be disappointed after that performance is not fair imo. He played a big part in one of our best performances (at least for the 45-60 mins) in a long while. We took a first win under Smith in front of a full Villa park, it's happy times and he, one of our own, played a big part in that. UTV!

There are not many better things than seeing one of our players coming back from a bad spell, being questioned (rightly so), and then go out and make a motm-performance and winning us the game. Keep it up Nyland!!

Hands up, he played really well as a wide forward, we looked very good when he was on.

Didn't he say in an interview before that his prefered position was to the left in a mid three? I think Deano has got it spot on there. He gets more involved in the build up play, where we need his wonderful passing ability. With him and McGinn on either side of the central mf, it gives them space and freedom. It was some good play between them. It does however put quite much responsability on them to work defensively as well, but still suits us very well. Thought he was excellent!

The front 3 unit we had in the first became disjointed when Bolasie and Kodjia came on, but I guess it's partly because they haven't had as much time on the training ground. We looked a little bit nervous towards the end, but on the whole what a fantastically promising performance! Think I'm gonna write it 100 times in different threads but the 4-3-3 suits Grealish and McGinn o so well! And suddenly it just looked like we had a settled team, passing the ball! Even our defence looked solid!! What was that!?!

Close call between McGinn and Nyland for mom, but I give it to Nyland as he made a couple of match winning saves and deserves credit to come back strong after his recent performances.

He is still off the pace, clearly has quality but needs to be drilled. Too many times he neither pressed nor followed his man but stood still doing neither, giving them both time and space on the right. We looked much more solid when Elmo played there (I must admit having complained about Elmo playing wide forward!)

I love his manners on the side line, calmly supervises that his team carries out his game plan. No need to shout and bark when you are well prepared and the players know what to do. Dean Smith's claret and blue army! UTV!

Abraham needs to cut out the complaining though, encourage your team mates instead!

I think Nyand has been good, a great save on what should have been a goal for them, he passes it short and contributes to the build up play. He has had a couple of misskicks, but at least one was under preassure. Good stuff so far and nothing to complain about at all imo. Luckily there havent been many crosses, I think thats where he has looked most shaky before.

Well organised, mid 3 and front 3 working as units, we are creating a lot, and are pressing well defensively. This formation will leave us a bit open when Grealish and McGinn goes forward so a lot of responsability on BB. But my god do I prefer this and that we let a goal in than the turgid sit back and defend and kick it long/in the channels!

I think it's a great first half! Very very promising!

This is very promising, I hadn't expected such instant improvements. Plays 4-3-3 as I see it, nice to see how the front three presses as a unit, and the next mid three follows up as a unit. Seems to bring out the best of Grealish and McGinn who gets quite much space and freedom. You can see that the players are instructed to pass first and foremost, not many chance balls in the channels or hoofing at all.

Is that a 4-4-1-1 with Elmo and Adomah on the wings? Or 4-2-3-1?

Yeah the gk is a tough one, perhaps safer to play Bunn, or gamble and give Moreira a chance.

That would be my team as well, with Bolasie the only question mark, is he fit enough to start? Could as well pick Adomah or Kodjia in that position depending on who lookes most up for it.

I can't remember last time I had such a good feeling before a Villa game! No matter what the result will be the future is bright!

If you look at the stats of Championship strikers you'd see that very few have scored loads of goals year in and year out. Tammy Abraham is in my view probably the best Championship striker, but he has also just had one season of scoring goals (a purple patch?) and that was a couple of years ago. Kodjia has had two good seasons, but didn't score many last season. Dwigt Gayle has had one season of scoring many goals. The ones that have been fairly consistent have been Britt Assombalonga and Lewis Grabban, but they have also had seasons where they haven't scored many. So if scoring 21 in 33 doesn't make you terrific, but you need to do it year in and year out, well then there would hardly be any players we could say are terrific Championship players. As I said before I agree that it's difficult to rate him at the moment and I'm not sure if he will have the opportunity to come back to the form he had before.

I did and I stand by it, it also helps to read it in the context in which it was said. You have repeated this a couple of times now, but you still haven't answered my previous question who you think is a terrific Championship player? As you quite firmly stand by that Hogan isn't, it would be interesting to know who you would say is.