PaddytheVillan

Utterly terrible. At fault in some way for all 3 goals.

We are not totally cut adrift. But the way we now play, we soon will be. 

I hate myself for saying this but we have to let Smith go and give ourselves a chance at survival. We are far and away the worst team in the league. We will face FFP ruin if we go down.  We have to take a risk. 

Utterly pathetic. We deserve to go down. Only Villa could be the worst team in the league after spending £100m. I hate this. 

Utterly appalling first half. We are a one man team and that one man is out of form. Ergo, we are appalling. 

Enough said about our defence. Reina just ridiculous.

Our defence is embarrassing. What value does Terry bring? 

If we play like we did against Leicester in any of the recent games, we'll probably lose. We massively rode our luck, and I suspect a team with Champions League ambitions will not be so profligate again. They had something like 40 shots against us in two games.

Without wishing to state the obvious, we need to shore up the defence. And I really, really don't want to hear anyone "taking positives" if we lose in the last minute. 

21 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

I'd play Elmo over Guilbert.

We need his crossing.

Yeah perhaps. It's a tough call, Guilbert is much more energetic and better at tackling, but Elmo's crossing, marking and positioning is better at present. Suspect Smith might go your way, he certainly seems to trust Elmo. 

Our previous results mean that a game where a point should suffice needs to be a win. You can thank the results / performances vs Southampton (twice), Bournemouth (twice), Watford etc for that. 

Team should more or less pick itself. Switching back to a 433 should benefit us, it's clear Smith was never fully on board with 3/5 at the back. 

Reina

Guilbert Engels Mings Targett

Nakamba Hourihane Luiz

Grealish Samatta El Ghazi

47 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

So frustrating to lose to Spurs given they've lost two since playing us (and Son hasn't played in any game since). That's one I'll look back at end of the season if we go down by a point.

Can see Chelsea being a similar type of game so they're nearly as bad conceding goals from corners as we are and looks like Tammy will be injured. Need to be on the right end of the margins this time.

For me it'll be the Arsenal game. We played them at their lowest moment, when we had a full strength team. We were 2-1 up and they were down to 10. We decided to sit back and allow them to score 2 late goals against us. I'd say at least 1 point thrown away, but probably 3. 

Really really hope that isn't a serious injury for Grealish. Terrible decision for the corner. Should've defended it better, we cant keep giving away sloppy set piece goals. Nakamba should've been sent off and Trezeguet is not a footballer. 

Engels and Mings very assured at the back. Need to find a way to get Samara some service and get Davies in the lineup too.  Loved the effort and commitment from the lads.  

Another trophy opportunity gone. 24 years. We have to channel this effort and commitment into survival. 

Concerningly, the team that beat Derby in May last year is better than our current team. Obviously nothing we can do about SJM injury, but he is clearly better than Luiz or Drinkwater, Tuanzebe is better than Engels or Konsa (Hause was just a backup), Abraham was definitely better up top and I'd even take Adomah over Trezeguet. 

With the exception of the humiliating s***show against Southampton, I don't blame Deano for this; he doesn't have full control over who we signed, and as we did last time we were relegated, we spent a large sum of money on players who are

a) not very good

b) not ready to be relied upon as starters yet or

c) both.

Other than Heaton, our new players have been a bit of a disaster. It would be hard to say any of them have had a "good" season - Nakamba, Guilbert and Targett have shown their potential in flashes, but that's it. Suso is the person I blame for this. 

Sickening to see Jarrod Bowen coming on for our relegation rivals, when we have two very poor options out wide. He's a Villa fan and could have been ours. 

A reason why we'll finish below West Ham: they have Felipe Anderson, Snodgrass and Bowen, we have El Ghazi and Trezeguet. 

Luiz was appalling, again, today, on a field of 14 poor peformers he still stood out to me. 

Reina

Elmo Engels Mings Targett

Hourihane Nakamba Drinkwater 

Grealish

Baston Samatta

Guilbert, Luiz and Trezeguet in particular do not look good enough at this level. But it feels mean picking on individuals, a truly awful performance from all 14 of our players who stepped out onto the pitch today. 

We've been bad in several games this season, but always had a couple of good patches.

This game, we were utter garbage from the first minute to the last, and the second goal summed up the game. 

Norwich 20th, Villa 19th, come May. 

After bottling game after game against the better teams, we're going to give 6 **** points to Southampton and Bournemouth, and probably Palace too. 

0 attempts against this bang average opposition is completely embarrassing. We look like conceding every time they win the ball back.

Our finances will be in big big trouble back in the Championship.  

2 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Smith is not a bad coach and we win some good games. But this game yet again is proof he is not the man for us. The inconsistancy of this team is killing us.

4 defeats in the last 5 will be fairly consistent.

Every one of our players apart from Grealish panic when they're closed down and either put a team mate under pressure or lose the ball. Awful, awful to watch. Saints should be 3-0 up. 

Southampton leagues ahead of us. We are going down. 

This season, I'm torn. El Ghazi is clearly a better player, but Trezeguet works a lot harder and arguably adds more in more games, when El Ghazi disappears.

Next season I hope we'll keep him if we go down, or sell him if we stay up. 

Must win for me. I'm sick of hearing about how well we've played against the big six and the better teams - simple fact is we've bottled all the games and dropped points. We can't rely on picking up any points against the City, Chelsea and Liverpools of this world.

This makes games like Southampton away a must win. It's going to be really tough; I'd say they have a better squad than us. But we have Mings back, and we have Grealish who will be the best player on the park. Our defence owes us a big, disciplined performance.

I'd  have to go:

Reina

Konsa Mings Hause

Guilbert Nakamba Luiz Targett

Grealish Samatta Trezeguet

9 hours ago, Zatman said:

If Champions League in between then Klopp will have no issue throwing games like he did in the cup

They won't throw away the chance to go the whole PL season unbeaten. 

This for me is the one area that I blame Smith for, without a doubt. Luiz, Nakamba and Hourihane are far better options. Smith seems to believe that if we play him enough, it's worth the initial hit we'll take, as he'll get close to his 2015 form. He's costing us time and time again, and Smith appears to be quite stubborn on this, which I have to say is out of character.

It was a punt, it hasn't paid off, it's time to accept that and not have him as first name on the teamsheet after Jack...

We should survive if we can beat Southampton (A), Sheff U (H), Newcastle (A) and Palace (H), as well as picking up a couple of draws against either United, Wolves, Leicester, Everton or Arsenal. 

It's a massive ask, and something has to change in the way we defend. What value is Terry bringing as AC? We can't keep freaking out and inviting pressure for the last 15 minutes, that has come back to bite us time and time again. We can't keep panicking when we are closed down by the opposition. We can't keep giving the ball away in our own half, and we certainly should give up on this weird experiment of playing Drinkwater in the hope he gets match fit and winds the clock back five years. The problem is that probably none of our CBs are quite good enough at this level other than Mings. Konsa will be one day but still makes a lot of mistakes. It could as easily have been Konsa giving away that goal as Engels. 

If, IF, Grealish and Mings are fit for the rest of the season, and McGinn returns and is in his best form, we could do it. 

I'm naturally a pessimist as my posting history will tell you. I can't help it. I just wish that being a pessimist didn't also make me a realist, but it has. One things for sure, we need the fans behind us for those crucial home games. We really can be the 12th man.