MaVilla

was it a 2m loan fee for El Ghazi?, with a 5m buy clause at the end of the loan?

Any idea what his salary is at Villa?

I do wonder if a) Smith will try and buy him, and b) whether El Ghazi will actually want to join us if we do or dont go up.

Do we also have a 15m clause on Bolasie at the end of his loan????

to be honest i owuld prob pay 5m for El Ghazi if he continues to impress, prob would pay more than a couple of million for Bolasie, mostly due to his age etc. (and also not the 70/80k wages....nuts)

Really good today, looked potent going forward but just as important he got back, tracked and threw in some good tackles and interceptions, really really impressed.

El Ghazi, bolasie and Abraham are quite the forward trio for this league.

WHAT

A

PERFORMANCE!!

in all seriousness we scored the equivalent of 30% of all goals Boro have conceded this season.....

El Ghazi was pretty decent also, and on top of that he even tracked back and helped defend etc, really impressed With him and the whole team!

We absolutely schooled them....

Very good first half we mostly bosses them.

But we need to stop dropping back at times, and we are only one up for all that possession and forward play.

Good overall but we prob shod have been 2 up by now and taken a bit of pressure off.

OMG NYLAND!!!!!!

good cross by El Ghazi ans literally no-one in the box......

we are losing our sh*t currently, we need to calm down and just do what we were doing before!!!

omg lol at El Ghazi, what a bit of skill it deserved a goal

ok we are arent playing the same since the goal, we need to stop sitting back and just continue doing what we were doing b4 we scored.

we deserved that goal, we have totally schooled them for the first 20 minutes, lets hope we keep it going.

So currently we sit 10th.

A win will take us back up to 8th and 3 points off the playoffs.

A draw will take us 9th and 5 points 0ff the playoffs.

A loss will keep us 10th and 6 points off the playoffs.

Bolasie and El Ghazi start, interesting.

1 minute ago, villalad21 said:

I believe he is.

Might be unpopular opinion but i think Elmo would do a better job as a whole. Hutton's defending qualities is questionable at best.

Personally I think Elmo should be RB and Hutton left back  (drop Taylor to bench), when all 3 are fit and not suspended etc.

Personally my current first 11 would be:

                     ---a goalkeeper ---

Elmo ---- Tuanzebe ---- Chester ---- Hutton

       Grealish ---- Bjarnason ---- Mcginn

         Bolasie ---- Abraham ---- Adomah

With jedinak, El Ghazi and Kodjia to switch in and out dependant on the opposition.

El Ghazi to possibly replace Adomah in the first 11 dependant on whether he can show real ability and that he deserves a start.

Isnt Hutton banned this Saturday vs Boro? (5 yellows)

just watched the goals, seriously, the 4th and 5th goals that Nyland conceded were seriously terrible.

I literally dont understand what he was doing for the 4th......like.....seriously what the hell was he doing?

The 5th, should never have conceded that at his near post, never ever ever ever.

the first 3, not sure he can be blamed specifically.

Also....we need to sign Lolley, he's a very good little player.

/me puts positive hat and rose tinted spectacles on....

Nyland obviously did us a great service tonight, by deciding to allow 5 goals in, he had consciously decided to force our forwards to give us the fans a spectacle of our attacking prowess, i have no doubt as Nyland conceded his 3rd, he thought, "there is more to come from our forward line, we need to concede a 4th to ensure the fans get their money's worth ", and in good faith and for the good of entertainment decided to ship the 4th and then the 5th, thus forcing the wider team to copious displays of attacking play.

Thus....ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY NYLAND< MAN OF THE MATCH  for ensuring we had our hearts in our mouth and were entertained......."ARE YOU ENTERTAINED!?!?!".

/me serious

WTH Nyland ARRRRGHHHH.

well, we didnt lose, should have won, but we showed some fight to get back in it from 0-2 down, then went 5-4 up, and threw it away, lol whats going on

Fair play to AV, we are scoring goals, isnt that FOURTEEN goals in the last 4 games????

Chester.......urgh i really dont rate him tbh, Nyland ........urgh, and Hourihane, not keen on him in the DM role, yes he can pass a bit, but the last 3 or more games all i see him doing when he should be tackling/closing down is throwing his hands up, not getting in there or just shirking defensive stuff, i really dont see Hourihane working in that role.

I honestly think if we replace Nyland and Chester, get a new LB and a proper DM who can place a pass AND defend, we will be a force.

im sure there are going to be some negative ppl, but 3 points off top 6 currently.

Great attacking display, but wtf happened to the defence?!?!

My word he could have stuck a hand out and saved that what the hell was he doing....

5 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Yes but that didn't suit my narrative I am sure they would have picked up again if he'd have stayed, their form earlier in the season suggested they were a lot better than their last 10 results. 

Lol gotta love the narrative

3 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Fulham tried to change things too quickly. You can't buy virtually a whole team and expect them to gell from the off. Dean Smith doesn't strike me as a man who panics. 

So would you blame Fulham (whoever sanctions and buys players) or the manaher for their issues then?

Pity a progressive manager paid the price for a club wide mistake.....or at least what looked like a wider club mistake.

7 minutes ago, sidcow said:

What I don't understand is how, if the system at Brentford was down to their massive over achieving, and nothing to do with him,  how come he's turned us from drawn 3 lost 3 won 1 before he came to lost 2 and won 4 since (whilst at the same time playing much better teams than during our poor run) 

AND Brentford with their amazing system have plunged down the table with lost 5 won 1 since he's gone.?

Answer is because Smith is an excellent manager who is using tactics and knowledge to make our excellent offinsive players play superbly and our poor defenders play adequately. 

No system here folks, just talent. 

 

Weren't Brentford also on a 4 or 5 winless streak for DS's last 5 games in charge or somethin???

27 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

I feel utterly confident with Dean Smith as our manager. Taking into account the financial backing, I really believe he will take us to some giddy heights. As for the football he's serving up, it's an absolute joy to see us playing so confidently and always looking to be on the front foot.

I really hope we learn our lessons and dont implode on DS if/when we have a bad run, i mean look at Fulham, nice footballing team last year and a bad run in the PL and they sack their manager.

I agree totally that DS is the right man to develop the team/club/style, i just hope we dont forget that in 6/12/18/24 months, and knee jerk like so many clubs (inc us), have done in the past, we need to learn some of our own lessons, and i do think DS being recruited is us realizing some historic mistakes and finally starting to fix them.