Okonokos

I think there are better strikers out there that would cost a lot less.

He's gone on loan to RB Leipzig.

Not looked through this thread so don't know if he's been mentioned but my number one target now we've stayed up would have to be Milot Rashica. I watched quite a bit of Werder Bremen this season and he's a star in the making. Apparently he wants to stay in Germany but we have been linked with him over the last few days.

For me, we demand no less than £100 million. We literally have no reason to sell him so if nobody can pay us what we think he's worth then they can do one.

Yeah, I'm treating it as the end of that horrific chapter and now the start of a hopefully more positive one.

Correct. He didn't. Almost as if they knew how bad a decision it was...

That seems so long ago now but I remember it so vividly. I've never been so angry after a match and I said at the time that it may be a factor on the last day of the season. It would be gut wrenching. Kevin Friend had better not show his face at Villa Park ever again, the useless scumbag.

Exactly. Leeds blatantly cheated that day. We did nothing yesterday.

So, for those interested. Following on from my Championship win on the last day of the season with Villa in FM19, this just happened the following season... Took us 10 years, but we got our revenge!

It's a joy to watch. The 4th goal was a thing of beauty, even if the defending was shocking.

Mainz are hilariously bad defensively. If Leipzig keep up this intensity it could easily be another 8-0.

I think Gotze was an awesome player. Looked to have so much natural ability but when your body lets you down like his has, there's no amount of ability that can help. One of the players I feel genuinely bad for.

Do you know what actually went on with Klinsmann? Seemed to come out of nowhere when he quit.

On course to smash England's goal scoring record too. 21 in 20

Decided to give FM 19 another go and try and get Villa promoted using the August 2018 squads database. I never usually do games as Villa manager but fancied the challenge. Blitzed the first season in a few days and here's the result... It agonisingly went to the final day of the season, with me needing a win or Blackburn not to win. Never been so nervous in a game of FM before.

Looking forward to the match tonight. Werder Bremen have always been my German team so hoping the break has done them good. Expecting the atmosphere to be similar to a Man City home game though, unfortunately.

The defensive form disappeared because we got promoted to one of the hardest leagues in the world. It's a massive, massive step up. Also, because we had an almost entirely new defence and goalkeeper, some who had never played in this country before. It would have been absolutely amazing if that defensive form had continued into this season. It would have been almost unrealistic to expect it to have continued. I didn't include before the start of our 10 game winning run because I was responding to you saying: Your point wasn't referencing the results before that. I just wanted to make the point that our winning run was not down to phenomenal offensive play. We weren't winning games 5-4. We were winning games 2-1, 1-0, 3-1 etc. We were incredibly solid and compact right down the spine of the team. I vividly remember watching us week after week during that 10 game spell. Sometimes we didn't play that well, but we had so much steel, so much fight and desire in us. So much so that I couldn't see us losing games at all. It was a joy to watch. Mings in particular looked like a fully grown man defending against 12 year olds. It was absolutely unrecognisable from the team earlier on in the season. The only difference between the team earlier in the season and the solid defence towards the end was the fact that Smith had January to get some of his own players in. He used that chance perfectly and he turned us from the third worst defence to the joint second best. Whether you like Smith or not, that is a fact. This all goes back to the original point by villalad21 that I was responding to when he said: He was saying that even though we got promoted under Smith, the football we played was too open. However, the stats clearly say that we weren't too open at all. In fact, it was the opposite. That is the only point I was making. Nothing to do with this season, which is a totally difference kettle of fish. I was just purely saying that the evidence is there that Smith can get a team promoted playing defensively solid, so if given the chance to again, I believe he can. And I really hope if we do find ourselves in that position, we use the Sean Dyche at Burnley model and give him the opportunity to learn from this season and come back stronger.

Yes he did. He started the season absolutely on fire whilst Grealish started slowly. McGinn was being linked with teams here, there and everywhere on the back of his performances and he regularly got in the team of the week for the first couple of months. He played 9 games before the injury on international duty. He scored 3 goals, got one assist and got 4 man of the matches. His first 9 games ever in the Premier League.

For the last month before his ankle injury he was playing through a thigh tear picked up on international duty. He was barely training and having daily injections. That's why he went off the boil. Before that international break he was on fire.

The injury to Heaton (and also Wesley) on New Years Day was such a blow. We were so good that day. Played some great stuff at times and looked like we might have turned a corner. Just our luck that we get 2 ACL injuries in the same game to bring us crashing back down. Nobody can deny we've had bad luck with injuries. How many teams can say they've lost their first choice GK and striker to season ending injuries and in every game since the start of December have had at least one of their three best players missing? (Mings and McGinn).

Good post. Also, about the bit in bold. I'm convinced that if possible we would have signed Tuanzebe last summer, either permanently or on loan. I think Smith would have wanted to keep that defensive partnership of last season together but unfortunately there was no way Manure were going to sell or even loan him out again (Same could be said for Abraham). So he had to look elsewhere. Which is such a shame because after watching the replay of the game today, it reminded me what a cracking centre half Tuanzebe is. If things had been different our defence might have had a bit more continuity from last season and may have been more solid.

It's not hard is it? I've provided actual proof that a hastily assembled Smith Villa side CAN defend well in the Championship and produce automatic promotion contender form over the course of nearly half a season. But that's not good enough evidence and instead we must judge it on the season in a much harder league instead!

I wouldn't call that phenomenal offensive form. Norwich on 39 is closer to phenomenal. I'd say ours was very good but we were actually more impressive defensively. We looked so solid, had grit and determination to see games out. We didn't hammer everyone 5-0 at all.

But you said we play too open in the Championship under Smith. I pointed out that he turned our defence from third worst to second best in the league in one window, so imagine what he could do given a bit more time, say like a full summer window. There's every reason to expect that he'd have us playing defensively solid.

So would you have preferred that he didn't get us promoted with the joint second best defence after his first window just so he could prove it over a full season in the Championship instead then?