Stratvillan

That implies I dont know how good he is. I'm not going to give up hope because he is injured. Of course we'll miss him. I dont think crying about it is going to change anything.

Some of the responses here are pathetic. We're Aston villa FC, not Jack Grealish FC. Every team in the league would be weakened without Grealish. The lack of faith in Emi, Konsa, Mings, Luiz, Watkins, is bizarre. What are some of you going to do when Jack leaves, take up fishing? We may lose today, we've also lost with Jack in the team. If we lose it doesnt mean we are a 1 man team, barkeley is crap, or Smith has his favourites. It'll mean that Leicester City were better than Aston Villa.

I'm sure there was a poster who suggested his son does it? I'm sure he picked someone who didnt play one week. Theres almost this belief that it's the role of villa, west ham WTC to act as nursery clubs for the supposed big 4. Palace haven't sold zaha, west ham haven't sold rice, we haven't sold jack. The worlds changing, theres so much money clubs arent under the same pressure as we were with Milner etc. Obviously if the player wants to go...... But Emi, to mancity /pool I dont think so.

I do think we need to do more for our ex players. Theres a belief that footballers are rich, but that's a modern thing. There's fans who tidy up graves (fortress villa? Etc). I know there's an ex players group, but we should do more than a photo on a screen at the end of the season. We can sing HEITS which is lovely, but we could and should look after the people who made our club. The current team stand on the shoulders of giants.

Go on. Dazzle me with the stats. I'll say again I dont rate Barkley, I wouldnt sign him. I just love the general notion of stating things based on 10ish games. I dont even know how many games hes played, and I dont care. I love all of VT btw.

All managers use subs late. How many sub at half time? You have a superior knowledge of ds than me if you've followed his subs, pre villa.

Or brighton tired and ran out of ideas? I'm not disagreeing but there are alternative explanations.

Where?

I'd agree on Barkley, I'm not a fan. Are you genuinely saying we would have won tonight if we swapped nakamba and Barkley?

For every one of these complaints tgeres an answer, but not necessarily a better team. Our subs bench was worse than Brighton's. Yeats where we are. I agree we could start nakamba or swap Barkley, but it is much of a much ness . Put pep in charge of that team, honestly what would be different.

Thought emi was excellent clean sheet 12, 1 behind man city. Thought back 4 were good. I'm not a fan of Luiz, but thought he was the better of the deep 2. Do we need a deep 2? Thought the front 4 didn't see enough of the ball to make a judgement. To me playing Barkley and Traore causes us problems. Like a pre lockdown performance, with a better defence.

I read that quickly and thought you said wesley!

Mare not mate.

I agree, it's not that Barkley is having a mate, it's the formation isnt allowing us time on the ball. Sanson or nakamba would help.

Could we drop Ross, and play Dougie, SJM and marvellous. One of our few week stats is shots conceded. Playing a number 10 like Ross (not blaming him), but it leaves us open. Marvellous sitting and the other 2 taking it in turns to go forward?

Let's face it, we can argue about team selections etc, but realistically 7 of the team pick itself, back 5 and jack and ollie. This means theres only ever 3 mid and 1 winger up for grabs. We've 3 wingers, traore is probably better than trez and el ghazi, but rotation will happen. In midfield there's luiz, mcginn nakamba, ramsey Sanson, barkley. Sanson needs to settle in, ramsey needs sub time, so it's really 2 out of the first 3. I really dont get how people can be so up in arms when 1 gets dropped - I don't there's much difference between the three of them tbh. The one that surprises me is Barkley, ive not been massively impressed of late. I think we'll find he had covid, and had it bad. He looked like a bloke playing 5 a side on a stag do weekend, in the West Ham game. I wouldnt have started him today.

Good balanced post. A voice of sanity in what I'll imagine will be a sea of crazy.

Agree with 3 and 4 Point 2 players arent going to come out and congratulate VAR. It's generally accepted it's a flawed system, but you'll rant at it when it goes against you that's not hypocrisy that's human nature.When I drop a jar of jam on my foot I swear at the jam jar, if I dont drop it, I dont swear at it. Thought the repeated use of your is interesting when talking about our team Hmmmmmmmm.

Aah go on then, I'll bite. _50 /10 - I think you may be exaggerating slightly, especially after a win. Prime Bruce - smith has taken us from midtable to promotion to survival to edge of Europe - comparison to Bruce is no longer relevant. Players will be dead on their feet. - they've just had 3 weeks off. Seriously - I think you make some insightful points, but this is just, well...........

Great result. One of our worst performances this season Disappointed at Smith's use / non use of subs.

Was he?

This thread is like it's written in code.

That's a stat and a half. 300 seconds, we had possession for 90 seconds, they had 210 seconds. That's about the amount of time to take a goal kick!

Most goals are soft in some way. I can think of an awful lot if goals weve given away this season which have been top corner. Look at yesterday Goal 1 soft Goal 2 lucky Goal 3 good goal. We could both justify our position. You could also view it that we create a lot of chances. Glass half empty / full.

Was going to suggest we need a striker, butthen I read the previous 3 pages!