VillaFaninLondon

Don’t think we look any better than last season.

Scandalous that we haven’t even looked like scoring against a team that’s had 10 men for most the half. Sort it out Dean!

Grealish has been w*nk.

It’s so frustrating watching our ponderous football.

Great save but we’ve got to step it up. We’ve been b*llocks so far against 10 men.

Wow.

Good news. Next Rashica announced please.

Come on, Leeds play decent football. On Bielsa, he took Leeds from 13th to 3rd to 1st with very few changes to the squad and dominating virtually every game throughout the season. Given Smith is defended for getting us up as he did, Bielsa's achievements are phenomenal with Leeds. But let's leave it there as to be honest I couldn't care less about them either. Wolves play good football, they can pass but don't pass for passing sake and against the better teams (like City or Spurs) they let them have the ball and blitz them on the counter. They are a pragmatic side, and one I'd like us to emulate. Against bottom half teams around our level, I'd like us to try to get the ball down and play and open them up. That's what we should be doing. So I agree with you that against better sides with better players playing football isn't going to work. But we can't just sit back, let them have the ball, and have no game plan. That's why we need a lot more pace in the side and hopefully we are getting that with the players we're bringing in.

So how would you describe our style? I would say a generous description would be gung ho, but gung ho shouldn't mean having possession stats only higher than Newcastle and Burnley who are pretty much long ball teams. Wolves for example are a counter attacking team primarily but ranked around midtable for possession stats. As I say it needs to improve. Of course it helps to keep the ball if you have better players (look at Cit£h), but Leeds don't have a team of stars and can do it easily. It's about pressing, fitness and composure, all of which can be taught. Plus we have plenty of quality midfielders who can play a technical game.

I agree to an extent, the football initially improved but what has disappointed me most about Smith is the lack of possession we have in games. Last season only Burnley and Newcastle (I believe) had less possession than us in the Prem. I remember us playing Brentford when he was their manager and they were usually very good at keeping the ball and pressing, which makes me think it was more a systemic club thing than Dean himself. This season we have to be much better at keeping the ball. Leeds under Bielsa against Liverpool had more possession than one of the best teams in Europe that press all over the pitch. Last season against Liverpool we had about 30% possession in both games against them. It's disappointing. We do however tend to have a lot of shots on average per game (we were ranked approx 10th last season I believe). This season we need to work on keeping the ball and having a decent shot count, it should see us improve. I agree on the short term thing but would make a couple of points: Bruce brought in McGinn on the cheap which was an exceptional piece of business. He also brought in Tammy (albeit on loan) without whose goals we wouldn't have gone up.

For me this is spot on. We will always have different perspectives (all fans do), though those who go on about their 10 game winning run fail to realise we won 2 out of 13 prior to that with Dean in charge. Those who argue he took us up a year ahead of schedule fail to realise we weren't far off playoffs anyway and he had a very strong squad. Those who argue he kept us up fail to realise we were knee deep in it largely due to his management and failure to tweak the system for so long. But I fully appreciate it was a difficult task last season incorporating so many players into the squad and he did very well getting us out of it at the end. This season is fairer to judge him on. We have to steer clear of relegation and the first half of the season is largely favourable in terms of fixtures. We need to be well clear of relegation by Christmas given the second half of the season is tougher, hopefully we will be.

Of course Smith being a Villa man adds romanticism to his story and it's nice to be run by someone who understands the club. At the same time, I don't think being a Villa man should have any bearing on whether he stays in a job or not. He's been very lucky walking into a job where he's so well backed financially, he wouldn't get that at many Prem clubs (Burnley, Sheff U, Southampton, West Ham, Fulham, West Brom). He's been backed financially for 2 summers now. For me, if Dean gives us a stable and progressive season and we end up 12th-14th, I'll back him sensibly. If we're struggling to stay up again I think he will come under enormous pressure and rightly so. I hope it's the former. With the current squad, I'm not confident it won't be a struggle again. Signing Rashica would make a big difference, and I really want Terry to help out by convincing Lampard to give us one of their fringe players even if just on loan. Someone like Barkley, Loftus Cheek or Tammy back would again make a massive difference. Interested to see how tonight goes.

I didn’t realise we had to wait for Traoré too, thought his visa was already done but just needed to be registered. It’s certainly not ideal but let’s hope it doesn’t affect our results in those first two games

Yeah I understand these things can be complicated, it’s just the ongoing nature of it that’s frustrating.

I actually thought we were mad paying so much for Watkins, but it does suggest we’re willing to pay to get the players we want. Watkins will need support having never played at this level before. We all bemoaned our wingers last season, and we’ll be starting the game tomorrow with one of Trez or El Ghazi because Traoré was signed too late to be ready and the other winger we want is still training with his club. FWIW I think Rashica is worth more than £20m. He’s performed outstanding at Bremen for 2 seasons now against top teams in a tough league. I don’t want to criticise the club but was hoping this would be done by now. Hopefully this week it will be.

It seems odd if we are haggling over a fee of £18m for this guy but had no qualms paying £17m up front for Traoré. I really, really hope we get this done this week. Maybe an announcement tomorrow before the game. Please Villa get this done. I’m confident this guy will be a huge improvement on what we have and link up so well with Jack. I’d honestly just pay £20m+ ASAP and get it done, the guy will be worth a lot more in a couple of years.

Agree but I think it's important we get a positive result tomorrow. It's only the first game of course but I think it's important we start well to build momentum and hit the ground running. Of our first 8 home fixtures 7 are against teams we can beat (Liverpool the only one you'd say we'll almost certainly lose). Sheff U finished 9th last season and had a fantastic season, one of the best in their history and certainly their best in the Prem years. They'll be very hard pressed to better that and as I said I do think this season will be more of a struggle for them, but at the same time we must respect them for what they did last season and match their effort and work rate from the off. UTV

Reading a few more comments this morning shows how out of touch they are about us. Saying we were lucky to get promoted, lucky to stay up, lucky not to go bust. Should be grateful to finish 17th, blah blah blah. How about we flip the other side of the coin and say we were ridiculously unlucky from 2011-16, to go from challenging for a European place every season to flogging our best players and replacing them with shiiiite like N'Zogbia and Ireland who went from high performing Prem players to cannon fodder, battling relegation every season and then losing our place in the top league for the first time in nearly 30 years. Or how rather than being lucky to go up, we underperformed for most of the season then turned it on in the final dozen games with clearly on paper probably the best squad in the league. Or how we were lucky in the game against them but totally unlucky against Palace and Arsenal away to come away with nothing and lose three key players in the space of 2 weeks in December/January which completely derailed us. And no, 17th is not the goal this season thank you very much. We may have had a bit of good fortune over the last 2 years but it's been long overdue. If we're looking at lucky teams you only need to look in the direction of Chelsea and Man City who are run by oligarchs.

Quite right. I think they should focus on their own team rather than slagging off ours and our fanbase. Too much hatred in football which isn't necessary.

I realise Brexit is a contentious issue and apologise for any offence caused, if indeed I did. I think it has destroyed the country but that's down to David Cameron and for another topic of conversation. Some of the tone and language the Sheff U fans use was scarily similar to what I had seen on Twitter re the EU post referendum, however. But my comment was made more in jest than to be taken seriously. I actually think if you look over the comments on this thread there is absolutely nothing said about Sheff U that is derogatory in any way. It just makes their retaliatory comments even more unjustified and repulsive and angers me.

They are a bunch of neanderthals on there, remind me very much of the tools on Molineux Mix. Probably the sort of people that voted for Brexit. I take their point that we escaped relegation narrowly, but we had an extremely disappointing season. They had a season much better than expected (most had them to go down in 20th IIRC) and had their highest finish for as long as I've followed football I don't want to harp on about the past, but many of them forget that finishing top half is nothing new to a club like us and narrowly avoiding relegation, even under the shambles of an owner like Randy Lerner, was seen as failure. We now have wealthy owners who are willing to invest to move the club forward and have again put in a lot of money this summer. They expect to see results, or the manager will face a lot of pressure. Personally, I think it will be a tough game and we will have to work hard for victory. But equally anything less than a win will be hard to take especially considering they have lost their last five in a row and we showed good form at the back end of last season. Given their comments (which are much more aggressive and condescending than any of ours) I hope we effing stuff them. Need revenge over the last 2 humiliating defeats at their place.

Personally, I think we have to forget about what other teams have done in the past who finished 17th, etc. At the end of the day, we stayed up and have owners who are investing in the club to take us forward. They won't want another struggle like last season, let alone to see us get relegated. Probably completely different scenario to all those teams who perished the year after finishing 17th (including us, who had Lerner destroying the club and who that summer had sold 2 key players in Benteke and Delph and replaced Ron Vlaar with Lescott). What worries me is we're third favourites to go down with the bookies. They seem to think only Fulham and West Brom will be worse. Is this fair? Clearly we're investing in the team, we've kept Grealish, Mings, Luiz and McGinn are still here, and we've added what looks like a very good GK in Martinez. If we add Rashica that would make a core of very good first team players, but depressingly that signing seems to just not be happening for one reason or another. The other players we've brought in look like risks - Watkins is coming off the back of a good season but isn't proven at this level, likewise with Cash, and Traore has had a poor season at Lyon. I do find myself somewhat underwhelmed by our transfer activity, particularly with the amount of money we're investing. We clearly have significant resources but struggle to attract proven top quality players - whether that's the manager, finishing 17th, wages, I don't know. Maybe a combination of all 3. Ultimately, where we finish this season comes down to the manager in my view. He appeared to finally learn from his mistakes last season when he tightened us up just in time to stay up, but overall his tactical awareness and in game management were below par for most of the season. I look at our squad now and even though I've said we need more proven quality, I still think a competent manager could get our team finishing in the upper reaches of bottom half. Dyche can get Burnley into the top half (he's actually done it twice with them in 4 years since promotion) and their squad of players isn't exactly star studded let's be honest. I think more will be demanded of Smith this season after being so well backed again and if we are flirting with relegation he'll be gone. I want him to succeed as one of us, and the final few games of last season give me some hope he can, but I'm yet to be convinced. Many of our rivals also think he's the reason we will struggle again and I think they have a point. If he does end up gone I'd like to see us bring a truly noteworthy manager to the club like Leeds and Everton have done in their appointments. All in all, I hope we do well and finish near to midtable. I think that can be achieved if we can make a couple of really big statement signings (which I've heard the club is trying to pull off) and I hope Dean can steady the ship. Let's see what happens.

Makes you wonder why so many were happy to finish 17th last season then.

Very good players is strong to say the least. Decent squad players no more no less I'd say. And I say that as someone who likes Conor and Trez and has defended them in the past. Don't want to see either sold, but at the same time I don't want to see them in the starting 11 much, because if they are in there it means we haven't strengthened as we should have done and will probably be battling it out down the bottom again.

I think Sheff U will struggle this season and anything less than 3 points is disappointing. I think the game will tell us a lot about the season – win and get off to a good start and hopefully that momentum pushes us on to have a good season. Anything else and we could struggle again. If we pull off our reported targets in time we could line up like: …………..…….…Martinez…………………… Cash/Fred….Konsa….Mings….Targett …………….…Luiz………..SJM………………. Traore…………….Jack……………Rashica ……………………..Watkins………………….. Looks a strong enough team to win. However, Rashica looks unlikely as keeps going round in circles and we’ll be hard pushed to get Traore sorted by then too. So unfortunately could see Hourihane and Trez in the line up again.