VillaFaninLondon

A lot of our players are due a goal, maybe tonight a number of them will get it.

If AEG and Cash are fit, they should be starting. Trez hasn’t scored all season and Elmo isn’t first team quality. Sanson over Ramsey for me too. Let’s hope DS has got it right. Really should be winning this tonight.

Failure to win tonight would be a massive disappointment given how poor Newcastle have looked even with a fit team. With no Saint Maximin (best winger), Wilson (best striker), Schar (best defender) and Almiron they are severely weakened and this is a good opportunity to get our season back on track, but as the Sheff U result shows we are capable of allowing out of form teams to scrape wins against us and we can't allow that to happen again. With a rejuvenated Spurs up next after this game it's important we get three points tonight imo. We haven't won up at St James's Park for a while so it's about time that changed. We have to take the game seriously and match them for effort, our lack of creativity without Grealish is a concern if they sit back (which they almost certainly will) so we have to press with intensity and try to score early, and have to start being more ruthless in front of goal and taking our chances which we don't seem to be doing currently. Having Cash back is a major boost as Elmo really isn't up to this level, but it's going forward where we've been poor rather than at the back. How nice it would be to see us win 2 or 3-0 tonight, haven't seen us win like that since Christmas time.

Barkley you absolute tit. We are living so effing dangerously, we’re **** shite these days.

Desperate for a goal so we bring Davis on.

Once again we can barely string three passes together this half, it’s pathetic.

We have got away with blue murder there. Need to wake up FFS!

We are dreadful at taking set pieces.

F sake Watkins, just hit that.

About time we saw a good performance really. What baffles me is how we can barely string three passes together these days. We often hear how we've had a great season but in actual fact we've had a great third of the season (up to Boxing Day) where we were averaging 2 points a game. Since then we've averaged just over 1 point a game which as far as I can work out would have us hovering just above the relegation zone. We also hear how we're overachieving, we're not. Expected goals, points, goals against etc is actually around par for where we are, if anything it's probably slightly lower than it should be. Maybe in comparison to where we were last season we are overachieving, but we strengthened in summer and players like Luiz, Konsa, Targett etc are a year older and have improved considerably. The main concern is performances. In pretty much every game in 2020 this season, we either matched our opponents or dominated the game, with the exception of Leeds at home. In 2021, that hasn't been the case. In fact, over the last 5 games, we only dominated one team in our last game, a team that is rock bottom and had 10 men for over a third of the game. We were sub par against Brighton and Leicester (despite having more rest than both of them as they had played midweek), and got 2 scrappy wins against Leeds and Arse. Our sub par performances started even with Jack in the side, but now he's out despite some writing him off I really pray Barkley can get some form. He's our most creative player after Jack and when he's firing he's a quality player. If he stops doing silly flicks trying to look good and focuses on having an impact in the final third, he may be able to help us while Jack is out. But sadly he's looked nowhere near on it in the last 10 games or so.

Yes unfortunately we're not playing them at a great time as they've started carving out some results recently albeit without scoring many goals still. Similar to the Leicester game when we played them a week early (before Maddison and Barnes had got injured). Hopefully the City defeat will have knocked some confidence out of them. It's clear since January our form (and performances generally) haven't been right and when I told someone this on here a few weeks back they told me to give my head a wobble. Strange what some people see and others don't.

After the worst result of the season on Wednesday, you'd hope there would be a response. However, despite Wolves' position in the league, they still have good players in most positions and this will be once again a tough game. Wolves don't score many goals (which has been compounded by Jimenez's injury) but then neither do Sheffield and we contrived to allow them to score on Wednesday night despite our defence being miserly on the whole this season. Elmo's inclusion in the team is a worry, Neto for me has been Wolves' best player this season. It really is a shame Cash isn't fit. Clearly this will be a game of very few goals but it's clear that whoever scores first will win as we never come back from conceding the first goal and if we score first we more often than not win the game. So I hope to God we start well. We usually win when I don't watch but on Wednesday that superstition died so I may have to watch this one. Hopefully it's not 90 minutes of hell and we turn up.

Here we go. Out again tomorrow. After Wednesday's appalling defeat against the worst team in the league, we have more disappointing news. Smith said he was hoping he'd be back for Leeds which was clearly just a lie so as not to sound any alarm. When he was out for 3 months last time we got smoke and mirrors every week about the extent of the problem. Wouldn't be surprised if he'll miss most of the rest of the season which if that is the case Smith has to get the team functioning without him however he can otherwise these poor performances will continue and all the club's good work this season will be for nothing. This is the time we really need an in form Barkley so I wish he'd bloody well step up to the plate.

I agree, I'd still be disappointed not to finish top 10 in all honesty given how we performed up to Christmas where we were on course to finish on 75+ points. But 12th I could take as it is still where Jack said we were aiming to finish and therefore in line with the club's goals and progress on last season. If we're being honest all of the teams above us with the possible exception of West Ham are better on paper than us. Below us you could make the same argument about Spuds, Arse and Wolves. We're better than all of the bottom 7 and of similar quality to Southampton I think. Therefore, 12th is about right of where we finish, but also means we have had a bad end to the season which is disappointing. Regardless of where we finish, we need to identify the weak links in the team in the summer, get it addressed, and progress again next season. Top half at the minimum should be the aim for 21/22 and pushing for a top 6 spot.

I think if we finish 12th that's ok, if we finish 15th that would be an appalling drop off in form regardless of whether Jack is fit or not. I look at the teams around us and to use your term I think it's 'highly likely' Spuds and possibly Arse finish above us as they are teams capable of going on good runs. Leeds and Wolves is 'possible' they could finish above us (if they manage to find some consistency and our form continues to be shaky). Southampton I believe is more unlikely than likely to finish above us given their own lack of form and points behind us so 10th-12th is most likely I think. If we were to finish below all those sides above + 2 of Palace, Brighton, Burnley and Newcastle that would be a almighty fall and quite rightly a lot of stick for the manager and players to collapse like that. DS was doing a fantastic job up to Xmas (and I have to be careful what I say here because any criticism of the manager seems to lead to stinging reproach among some of our fanbase), he's still doing a good job as we're 8th with a game in hand but recent performances are a worrying sign of stagnation and it's up to him to address this and find a solution to get us performing again. We've all mentioned changes in personnel to get more energy into the midfield, it may also mean changing formation because the 4-2-3-1 is the same one he's used all season and teams now know exactly how we will set up.

Basically a terrible first half followed by a reasonable 2nd half where at least we made a go of it. If any of our players out there had a bit more creativity we may have grabbed an unlikely point, but despite having a lot of the ball in the last 20 we didn't really create anything tangible. I get the claims that Leicester are a good side, they are, but they barely got out of 2nd gear today and showed far more energy in the first half than us despite playing a game over in Europe less than 72 hours before ko. Inexcusable first half performance. The midfield really needs to be assessed because it's like we didn't have one for half the game today. Barkley just looks lazy and disinterested, Luiz gives fouls away needlessly, Trez and AEG don't have enough quality. McGinn has also been poor for a while but looked better when pushed further forward today (apart from his poor shooting). Sanson and Ramsey both looked bright and we played much better when they were introduced. Smith has to assess the midfield and make the necessary changes for the next game. Elmo also looked a real weak link at RB and it's shame Guilbert was so out of favour and sent out on loan as I think he's better than Elmo. It's obvious we again need to bring in better quality in the summer, a proper DM is needed plus another winger, striker and two new full backs. Our backup players aren't good enough if we want to be pushing for Europe next season.

Yes, avoiding relegation is a given now, but for some of our fans it seems to be fine to finish wherever. The higher up we finish the more likely it is we can attract some quality players in the summer to take us forward. Finishing 14th would quite frankly be awful given we'd pick up hardly any points from here on in.

Shame that we've dominated these last 15 mins since Sanson and Ramsey came on but created little. Point was do-able here. Sanson and Ramsey have made us look so much better though and if he doesn't look to change things next game he's lost the plot.

Go for de Paul instead.

Just doesn't seem to be much urgency in our play despite only needing 1 goal to get a point.

Our ball retention is appalling.

Always was really.

Nakamba is limited but does his job well and did very well in the 2 games he came in. Luiz is constantly giving fouls away in dangerous areas which Nakamba hasn't done when he's played. Sanson was signed and has barely featured at all, still hasn't started a game despite us looking so flat recently. Beggars belief really.

They're better but if our players worked a lot harder this game would be closer. We're not a bad side ourselves when we actually play to our best. Leicester also played a game with most of this team less than 3 days ago over in Prague. That takes a lot out of a team.

Well, they're not.