Pimlico_Villa

Giroud is likely available and would be perfect.

His injury record is another factor why top teams won’t buy him. He consistently misses chunks of seasons through injury. If England selection had been next week, he would have played today, especially given it is a TV game.

I think it is an essential priority, as well as some quality out wide.

I don’t think we’ve ever had a worse player than him. Like playing with 10

But why not wear one today?

Anyone know why Liverpool refused to wear a poppy on their shirt today?

Cannot head the ball, can’t hold the ball up, can’t control the ball, has no physicality and doesn’t get any refereeing decisions. A complete and utter waste of space.

Not good enough to start, but a good impact player to bring on after 70 mins.

Thought he wasn’t interested at all today. Davis did more in 5 mins than Wes had all game.

I actually think he could play as a Striker.

At Arsenal, yes. Yesterday, though, he was constrained as two subs were injury related. He should have brought Davis on earlier though

On the protecting the lead post 65 minutes point, I think we need on-field game management from the players. Yes Smith can instruct from the side lines, but there needs to be a player who can martial and orchestrate on field. Mings is the only one with true leadership qualities and would like to see him step up and do that. I also think we need to introduce a more possession-based style of play when we are leading after 60 minutes. Approach at the moment is to just keep on trying to score more and more, which is nice to see, but not very efficient. It’s also why we are tiring. More of a style issue than a fitness one, really.

Should definitely have brought Davis on sooner. Coming on on 87 is pretty pointless. It might be that he looks at the calibre of player he has on the bench and just doesn’t trust or rate them.

Did he touch the ball in the box yesterday? Not sure he did! For sure, he is being carried by this team. I think his price tag will mean that he gets longer to prove himself, but I’d play Davis next week. I know Davis isn’t much of a goal scorer, but he can hold the ball up, which means our midfield have an extra option.

I’d like to think that it is because under Smith we almost over prepare for how we are going to attack teams, doing our research meticulously and then sticking to that approach throughout the game. So, such as in the WHU game, when they went to 10 and brought on an extra defender and set up differently, it meant we didn’t know what to do or how to get at them because that wasn’t what he had prepared for. It’s also maybe why our subs don’t often seem to have an impact. I think if we had more quality in the team, players would have the creativity themselves to react to that sort of situation and figure it out without needing instruction. Instead, we just stick to the script. But that is what puzzled me on Sunday - their sending off was in first half, so we had HT to be given fresh instructions. Bizarre. Maybe, because we seek to play at a high tempo, when opposition goes to 10 then maybe some players think it is time to have a breather. That shouldn’t be the case, though.

I can understand the success of last season fuelling the optimism for this one, but we’re pretty much playing a different game this year. The PL punishes inconsistency and technical incompetence severely, this isn’t a league where you can get by on heart. This is why I don’t share the optimism. For all the talk of great support and getting behind the team, that counts for nothing. We lack quality, composure, fitness, pace and tactical nouse. Beneath our starting XI we have players that have no right being anywhere near the PL and Elmo coming on on Sunday epitomises this perfectly. All round, Smith and these players are just too green. He said on Sunday “...to close games out by going to get the next one”, in which he is referring to goals. That to me shows he doesn’t understand the PL. To close out games in this league you don’t need to score another 5, you have to be intelligent in possession and manage the game. It’s an honourable approach, but not for the PL. For every positive development we make, this inexperience and lack of quality means we’ll get an Arsenal-like situation. Unless Smith gets up the curve quickly and we supplement the team with proper quality and pace in January, then I just don’t see the optimism.

Also, his half-hearted tackle once he'd tee'd up Chambers was uncharacteristic. Thought he could have done more to get there, especially as it was his error in the first place

Owners want to see development and all they are seeing is horrific incompetence. These aren't the sort of guys to dwell in the past - this is their personal capital at play and they won't be sympathetic.

I know he would consider us a step down in calibre of club, but with the quality of our owners and the backing they can provide I think we could convince Mourinho. He has already won everything in European Club football and might be up for the challenge.

This season, I'm talking about. No point in comparing this with last season as it is a different game. Even in that 6 game period, he has made repeat mistakes and has not been able to game manage. I don't buy into this "we look good in patches" claim as that is completely pointless and not the right way to look at it. All that matters is playing for the duration of the game and being consistent.

Agreed. Just wish that, as Captain, he would focus on getting our performances up rather than bang on about playing for England. He should have orchestrated things on the pitch yesterday and stopped us dropping deep. For a Captain, he really lacks any organisational capability and is very much an individual. And, BTW, it’s only really us that rate him so much. Am yet to come across a fan of another team that has as high an opinion.

I didn’t think this to start with, but am quickly realising it. Huge spend, with nominal return. After 6 games last season, Fulham were on 5 points

I would cut him some slack if I could see progress or development, which I can’t. Same old mistakes costing us. Also, 6 games is 15% of our season and included at least 2 must-win games, far too big a period to just write off.

So he has confirmed that Luiz was left out of the squad for tactical reasons. That is a complete and utter shambles and an unforgivable error. If we keep Smith then we are almost certainly going to be relegated. This man has only ever talked a good game, constantly recognising the mistakes in his post match but never actually reconciling them. His tactical incompetency is undoing all of the hard work everyone else at the club is putting in and makes that £100M we spent a huge waste of money. Anything less than a convincing performance against Burnley and he has to walk. We are already stranded.

He might have played well in parts, but that wasn’t a Captain’s performance. As Captain, he should have made sure we didn’t sit so deep and for that he needs to be more vocal and commanding. There is only a certain amount Smith can do, so if it wasn’t tactical for us to sit deep, then would have liked to see Grealish command/organise our formation on the pitch.