Mjvilla

The England squad is announced Thursday, not today. 2pm

One particular example against Newcastle frustrated me like the original poster stated. He got himself one on one against the full back and it was just so blatantly obvious what he was going to do. Cut inside, where there were more defenders, and have his shot blocked. I don't mind him having a shot, but he needs to be more creative in finding a decent angle for a shot or a clearer shot. I don't think he has the ability to do that and that's where he will fail and not become good enough, in my opinion.

But isnt this just the sign of a young, inexperienced and completely new squad, that lacks quality in depth... Inconsistency? Could we enjoy the development we've shown and trust that we will continue to develop based on what's happened in the last couple of years? I've taken the final sentence away because I completely disagree that we are 'half arsed'... see paragraph above.

It's not black or white. It's not gung ho or park the bus. You can go away to these teams and give it a go. Like we did at Old Trafford. Without throwing everyone forward like Leeds. West ham barely laid a glove on Man Utd, it was a bit limp and pathetic. There would be uproar on here if we played in such a way. At not one point in the game did I think west ham would get anything from the game. I thought we were going to get something from the game at old Trafford. Would much, much sooner play how we did and give it a go then put in a limp display and lose 1-0 when aiming for a 0-0. On the subject of recruitment, some good points made by all but I feel that if we made as many mistakes as other teams do last summer, we would be a championship team this season and probably a record low points tally. We had to build a squad, we had such little room for error. West ham can afford to take a £20m loss in 18 months and still be doing well. Because their squad has been built and developed over many years. Ours hasn't, we are in the early stages. It's why, I think, Dean deserves some leeway and why I think we will continue to improve. It's also why we are so inconsistent in our performances of late, a lack of quality in depth goes hand in hand with it too. I'm loathed too criticise anyone in the coaching staff and it's because of the development in the last 2 years. I get criticised for mentioning the last 2 years, but it has to be considered because of the unprecedented level of upheaval Smith and his staff have had to deal with. And yet we still sit in the top half of the premier league. For the first time in how long? If a number of posters want to continue to pick holes in Smith, go for it. I'm happy for him to keep proving you all wrong, it's fun to watch him do so!

I understand that it is more likely to hit the first man for those reasons. But the regularity with which it happens, across premier league football is higher than should be for elite footballers, in my opinion.

Watching West Ham was horrible tonight. They will probably finish higher than us this season. But doing what Moyes is doing and doing what Smith is doing, I see our ceiling as higher. We can go further than west ham if we continue to build the way we do. And play the style we do. West ham parked the bus tonight, no doubt. They may have defended well, but they still lost. I'd always rather go down trying to win a game.

This is one of my pet hates watching professional football. Not just villa, but all sides. How many times do we see a corner hit the first man? Extremely frustrating to watch.

They plan in Zagreb on thursday evening aswell as arsenal tomorrow. Be interesting to see how mourinho shuffles his pack. I'd expect full strength tomorrow. How much football can Bale play at the moment. Finishing his feet again but fitness will be the concern. Having said that, they are a very good side when on song an have certainly found their flow in recent weeks. Will be a tough test, for sure. They are a good side.

Main difference being that Bournemouth went down and Burnley won't so can demand a bigger fee. £20-£25 mill is what they'd ask for in my opinion. Not worth it at that price. Would be a decent shout at half that.

Probably looking at £20m plus on a 29 year old with an 'ok' scoring record. Not for me.

It's tragic to watch.

Why not?

FTFY

With the team news we have, I'd expect 2 changes. Cash in for Elmo and el ghazi for trez. Keep the midfield 3 the same, it worked well, particularly first half against wolves. They will be ugly to play against so we need to earn the right to win. That midfield 3 gives us the balance of being able to earn the right to play and being able to play when we can. We can get at these behind their full backs, I noticed west brom had a lot of joy in the channels. Perfect game for cash to come back and overlap traore and give targett a bit more freedom to get forward too, particularly with a hard working midfield 3.

So, if it's that injury, why say he's ill? It's the previous times this has happened. Every single other club knows which of it's players are out and for roughly how long. It'll get to the point, however, that clubs will look at our injuries and see what we've done before (Engles, Barkley, Jack, probably more?) and they will think 'hes not likely to be back' and thus prepare that way anyway. I don't see it as 'understandable', when it's common practice to put a rough timescale on it. Will other clubs really change the way the play? 1 or 2 might (west ham for example) but I think most clubs will play the same way with or without jack. A club is nothing without its fans so you should be as open an honest with them, as best you can. I may be barking up the wrong tree, but this doesn't feel like openess and honesty. We were told it was a shin injury and he may be back for Leeds (first week), that was now 3 weeks ago and the excuses have been mounting up since. The online rumours were 6 weeks, which is beginning to look more accurate by the week. Will he be fit for spurs, or will we hear another excuse? My money is on another excuse. I pray I'm wrong.

Certainly is a bit funny this. A few of us said 'he won't be back untill after the international break', and that's seemingly more and more likely. This dragging us fans along is a bit tedious in all honesty. They don't have to tell us anything, absolutely anything. But when a number guessed it would be like this, there's a potential problem with that.

Irrespective of money spent, Smith had to build a whole squad due to many years of mismanagement. It's skews our spend, without question. None of the mismanagement is on Smith. He's has completely recovered us as a side. I have a question for you and I know the answer... how many managers have taken a midtable championship side to a midtable premier league side, building a complete squad in the process, in 2 years?? Want me to help with the answer?? I can, honestly. You seem so intent on downplaying anything Smith does, and it takes away from valid points you have actually made recently. I firmly believe we could challenge top 4 next season and you would complain we finished 5th and not 4th. Unless, of course, we change manager and bring Potter, Bielsa, Ancelotti in. I'm sure top 10 would be an incredible achievement then.

So, Smith overachieving and Potter underachieving then. Well, well, well. Also, I presume this table doesn't include players out on loan at clubs? I think if it doesn't, then we would slip down a couple more places.

I, too, don't see the point of a wind up. I don't think it is a wind up. When I see certain posts, I think I do need to think more about your second paragraph. This is a very true statement. I just see the disrespect toward Smith, from this and many other posts and it frustrates me. I keep talking about last season and the season before because we need to think about all this when looking at posts like the one I quoted. Not in relation to constructive criticism. Is it fair to say 'we can be too soft in the middle sometimes'.. yes absolutely. I wouldn't bring up Smith's achievements then. Is it fair to say 'smith is a muppet' or 'smith has hit his ceiling' or 'hes not going to be a top tier manager and he's doing a good job for someone else to take over in a few years', no it's absolutely bloody not. When talking about these sorts of things, I think it's ok to talk about his past achievements over previous years with us. Why not, what else can we base what will happen in the future? A single game in isolation? Which was disappointing? Or year upon year of progress and development on and off the field? None of this is in anyway a dig at you tro, btw. Don't want to come across that way.

Thanks John. If I remember rightly, the weather was pretty wet when they went on that trip? The beacons can be brutal, I live about a half hour drive away. They are an amazing place. Would've been a real eye opener for them. A great idea for a bonding trip. Love to hear little snippets about this kind of thing.

Posts saying 'we give the ball away too much' are absolutely fine tro. I'd agree, we can be very careless at times. These sorts of posts aren't the issue, not in the slightest. Areas which we can improve. It's this kind of one that gets people's goats. And it's from multiple sources across multiple threads. The ratings and reactions thread, the match thread, the Dean Smith thread, virtually any thread it remotely links in too. Absolutely baseless rubbish. Not when you consider the base was a game in isolation against Sheffield United. This happens alot. It didn't take me long to find the kind of post I thought about when I read your post.

If you don't have players that can find the net regularly, across the park, then you won't be a top top team. They either need to recruit or find a way that their current players find the net more regularly. It's not a coincidence they keep losing games and not scoring enough. That's a theme. Just had a look, maupay with 7 is decent. They have no other player with more than 3 goals. Macalister with all his good play, 1 goal. Trossard, 2 goals. Lallana scored his first goal the other day. Gross, 2 goals. Alazate, 1 goal. This is a running theme across their team. Are they all suddenly going to score 6/7/8 goals a season? They are in a relegation battle for a reason.

The problem is, starting el ghazi and trezeguet isnt the answer. Traore, despite being out of form, still creates our best chances and that's the most important thing when we don't have jack.

Very misleading stats to me, I get very frustrated when we have good positions and he shoots from 20/25/30 yards. Quite often wasting our good position by shooting high and wide or a weak shot towards the keeper. Burnley at home was the prime example of this.

I've noticed how, now you're not getting so many bites, you've reverted to asking questions to get responses. You've clearly been waiting to make this post for quite some time, it's funny though that despite him being 'shit', he's still created the best 2 chances in our last 2 games. Better finishing is more assists and goals to the already pretty decent tally he has this season. Do I think he is good enough to take us to top 4? No. He's not consistent enough for that. Do I think he's our biggest threat when jack isn't available? Absolutely yes. He's our second best winger behind jack and absolutely must play. He is not 'shit'. He's assisted and scored a decent tally this season. I'm 'shit', I play at the lowest division in my local league. Bertrand Traore is not. Now please stop plugging the narrative you began in the summer, blindly and allow him to carry on creating our best chances per game.