OxfordVillan

I’d say that Grealish is very much a Guardiola/ManCity type, he’d soon be viewed as one of the worlds elite under Guardiola. Without getting too carried away, what does DeBruyne do that Jack can’t, except showcase his talents at a top of the table club? Who would ManUtd prefer, Pogba or Grealish? Jack is proving what we Villa fans already knew, that he is a unique and outstanding talent. He’s priceless to us, impossible to put a figure on. What I would say is that if media were talking about McGinn at £50m, then starting figures for Grealish are far above that. I repeat, there is no one else in the game with the same talent and skill set as Jack. I keep hearing pundits compare Jack with Maddison but they are very different, Jacks influence during games is bigger than Maddisons imo. As is being proven this season. Ppl have spoken of Maddison at £60m. It’s not inconceivable that in 7-8months jack could be a 9figure footballer.

Big test for the owners, do they dig deep and get us a forward that we can reasonably say is tried & tested (think Mitrovic) or do they continue with the buy potential template? We have to get our next CF signing right, ditto CM. We must seriously improve the spine of the team through the middle.

The club made their choice, we were mostly very happy with that choice. It would not be wise to fold at the first bump in the road when things are getting tough. We have to hold our nerve and make sure individuals learn from mistakes, at ALL levels of the club. It’s clear to all that we need two or three better players as a matter of urgency, so let’s see what January brings and back the manager fully thereafter. This current malaise is as much of a test to the owners as it is to the players and management, everyone must be pulling in the same direction. The club had been in a decade of decline and didn’t look any better in February of this year, then things turned around quickly, as we all know. It won’t be that easy in the Premier League but we’re hardly isolated and cut adrift, an upturn in confidence with one or two players returning from injury and perhaps one or two new players can change things quickly.

Absolutely no chance of Grealish staying at the club if we were to be relegated, you should remove that from your thoughts ASAP to save yourself any unnecessary future heartache. Pundits across the media are now touting him as a certainty for the Euro20 squad, and in a few cases urging the bigger clubs to get offers in. They’ve finally recognised his talents as different & unique to anything else England have. If he stays injury free then he’s a £60m+ player at seasons end, possibly £70m+ after the Euros. He won’t be playing championship football next season. We’ll struggle to retain him beyond the summer if we remain an Premier League club, let alone a championship club.

I have to say that I think Targett is a bit of a bottle job. When the going gets tough he gets going......away from the game. In our situation now I’d play either of Taylor or Hause ahead of Targett.

With respect, id suggest it’s almost impossible to replace Wesley with anything worse?! Currently providing zero goals, zero assists, zero attempts at goal. Does it get any worse for a CF than that?

We need power, pace, & athleticism in CM & CF. They are the 2 areas most vital for us to improve on imo. Finding improvement at CF shouldn’t be too difficult with what we currently have. We could actually do with a couple more players in at CM in truth, we are so weak there. Fingers crossed we have a good January transfer window.

Have to agree. I’ve said previously that it looked to me like Wesley was, unfortunately, beginning to drag the rest of the team back. You could see other players have lost confidence in him. That we’ve so under used an alternative to Wesley is neglectful. Almost any alternative would be a positive, I don’t accept the argument put about by some that Kodjia doesn’t care or is no improvement on Wesley. I do think it’s been mistake by the manager to continue with Wesley, it’s proved detrimental to both team and individual. We don’t write Wesley off, we spend time getting his confidence and game improved out of the spotlight and see what he can bring in his 2nd season, maybe even towards the end of this season. But 100% we have to get someone else in now or we will very likely get relegated.

Yes. We’re naive, we’re whingers. We have players who wave their arms around whilst walking after not getting a free kick. That has to be eradicated straight away, and that has to come from the manager. We have to adopt a no-excuses culture. Quickly.

Weak as piss. No use whatsoever in crunch games with opponents scrapping for their lives.

I just want to see some change from him. I want him to succeed. He has to become more ruthless. He’s continued with one or two players and a system that we cannot fulfill for too long. We keep repeating and expecting different outcome. Madness. Playing how we do with Wesley isn’t working, if we continue with the guy we’ll get relegated. Make changes.

We basically need him called up to the England squad where he can showcase how good he is around other good players and thus take his value up to the £60-70m level, if not more. Because he won’t be with us beyond this season. Ditto Mings & McGinn. We’ll end up having to sell all 3 and hope it brings in circa £140m.

I’m afraid to say that I’ve seen no evidence this season of our ability to change tack during a game to suit the circumstances. And that reflects badly on the manager and coaches. We need to see better, and quickly. We are atrocious at the moment.

Can anyone explain why we haven’t seen fit to get Kodjia on with a man advantage? Surely when they went down to 10 men you get an extra striker on and do everything to pin them back? I’m bemused by our insistence on a rigid philosophy over everything else.

I’d imagine the last few games might be some sort of record for a CF when you register zero attempts and zero assists from a bunch of games? Anyway, it’s gotten to the point where we’ll have to go crazy in the stands when it looks like he’s having a go for goal.

I just hope that this is the game Wesley gets a rest (dropped). Task Kodjia with sticking to playing between Watfords CBs and giving us an option when breaking, which we’ll have plenty of opportunity to do. Just stay up front on the CBs FFS. .................:...Heaton................... Elmo......Konsa......Hause....Targett ElGhazi.Luiz.Grealish.Hourihane.Trez .....................Kodjia.............................. 4-5-1 into 4-4-1-1

I’m underwhelmed with Targett, I think he’s pretty poor defensively. Lots of examples yesterday of Norwich creating opportunities down our left side with Targett seemingly easily bypassed. Unpopular opinion but I’d go with Taylor or Hause at Watford with the simple instruction to do defensive work, don’t concern yourself with trying to create, just look after the opposition right sided attacker. We have to be more solid defensively a lot more of the time. I think we have to accept that we have one LB who can attack but is a poor defender, and another LB who cannot create at all but is better defensively. In times ahead we’ll need to buy or produce a better LB. I think that when everyone is fit there may be a case in some games for playing Konsa & Hause as the LB& RB either side of Mings & Engels to give us a more physical back 4, let the likes of jack & ElGhazi etc do the creating whilst remaining strong at the back. Staying in the Premier League this season trumps philosophy, and we need to eek out every single point, including games where we’re not expected to. A lot of us supporters thus far this season seem to have accepted getting nothing from games such as City as absolutely fine. That has to change.

Watching Spurs v Brighton. How we could do with a Sissoko in our CM. Big, strong, as well as creative. Something similar to Sissoko in CM and a lively CF would transform us imo.

..........................Heaton........................... ........Konsa.......Engels.........Hause........ .........................Nakamba....................... Guilbert......Luiz..........Lansbury.....ElGhazi .........................Grealish............................ .......................Kodjia................................ Thats what I’d like to see us utilise with what we have as I think it could suit us.. I don’t think Norwich are particularly strong in the wide areas at all, ElGhazi was effective on the left last season for us. We won’t, however, do anything like this. I’ve a horrible feeling we continue with 4-3-3 and try to put in players that simply don’t have the tools required for the system.

As captain he needs to gather the players together in training and start throwing a few **** into them. There needs to be one hell of a conversation between everyone on Monday to clear the air and make everyone understand some minimum requirements, take some responsibility for their own performances. Management included.

When you have a player who doesn’t look like causing the opposition defenders a single problem, let alone scoring, can you really refer to them as a CF? Because in Wesley we have a guy who doesn’t win headers in the box, doesn’t get shots off, doesn’t make runs that break the line. Doesn’t cause the opposition defenders any problem at all in the final 3rd. I don’t see how we survive if he is our CF for the remainder of the season, he just isn’t doing anywhere near enough. Maybe he’s doing what he’s being asked to do, in which case the management really ought to come out and say if that’s the case, and admit they’ve got it badly wrong. We do seem to have a set up where it looks like the main focus of the CF is to bring others into play. Which would be a major flaw, IMO.

Let’s just hope they’ve got something really good up their sleeve for January because we’re in dire need of “ready to go” quality in vital areas. If it’s a case of we have to go with what we’ve got, or we buy more potential, then we are down IMO. Start praying.

It’s difficult to gauge, given the opposition. Wesley took his goal well, Kodjia took both his goals well. I don’t think either player is the silver bullet for us this season, but it’s obvious that they play very differently. It’s what you prefer. I prefer a forward that stays predominantly forward and looks to break between opposition CBs, I think that way you keep the opposition a little further back rather than allowing them to squeeze up on a forward that much of the time plays almost as an advanced midfielder. It’s a better form of defence as well as being more dangerous going forward, if you like. I think we don’t cause opposition CBs anywhere near enough problems, I always want my forward pushing up near the halfway line when we’re defending, pressing the CBs so that they can’t squeeze up for fear of the forward breaking through. I’m not so bothered about my forward dropping deep to help out, for me we’re better helped having him keeping the CBs occupied as far upfield as possible. Just what I prefer. We’ve just got to be less predictable, change things a little more often than we have been doing.

I’d like to see something different for this game, we should use it as a trial game. I wouldn’t play McGinn at all, I’d leave him at home. Ditto Wesley, leave him out the line up completely. Grealish on the bench, let’s face it we really can’t afford him to pick up an injury against a youthful LFC team out to make a point.

If we could get Phillips for something around £20m then I’d take £40m+ for McGinn in a heartbeat. Phillips is exactly the type of physical CM that we are crying out for, and we’d have money left to go towards a frontman that we also desperately need. I do wonder if McGinn has been unsettled by the ManUtd talk that won’t go away? Phillips & Mitrovic for a McGinn is something that I think would be very good for AVFC at this point in time.