Teale's 'tache

This is The Athletics reporter for Villa, unfortunately seems to throw a tiny bit more weight behind the rumours

Piatek would be incredible, I'd even welcome the silly goal celebration!

Everyone has their price, but Hourihane's is not £6m. Certainly not in the situation we are in, and certainly not to a relegation rival.

Everyone has their price, but Hourihane's is not £6m. Certainly not in the situation we are in, and certainly not to a relegation rival.

Habib Beye was pretty bad, he was on crazy money at the time from what I can remember...

And Freddy Bouma!

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jan/03/aston-villa-double-injury-blow-wesley-tom-heaton-ruled-out-season-football By Smith's quotes in the Guardian it safe to say we were looking at some players anyway, the injuries have just speeded things up, I can't imagine we were looking at keepers before the Heaton injury though so maybe we are going to keep faith with Nyland?

I would imagine they have had plenty of meetings in the lead up to January, and will have identified targets, but losing two first team players for the season (confirmed this morning) will have thrown a spanner in the works, and so the meeting tonight will be to discuss how our plan needs to be adjusted to accommodate that.

It's going to be an interesting window, we have obvious needs but I would imagine not a whole lot of hard cash we can throw at it due to FFP. In the summer it felt like we'd managed to do the work of three transfer windows in one, and probably weren't expecting to be so busy in January, but 3 key injuries later and here we are. Striker has to be the priority, we don't have enough options as is and the options we do have aren't good enough to keep us up, I think that's pretty clear to everyone. A Batshuayi loan seems to suit all parties, but it will be interesting to see if we can convince them to put an option to buy clause in there and if so at a sensible price, it's the kind of thing that could hold up the transfer and we really don't have the time to mess around with this one. Keeper is a curious one, I wouldn't be too surprised if we put our faith in Nyland, at least until Steer is back, it feels like a bit of risk but it will be difficult to bring in another Keeper of Heatons level and influence during this window, especially on loan which would be our preference. Buying a keeper in the middle of the season is rarely ideal as it takes a while for them to build up the chemistry with the defence in front of them so we may be better off sticking with what we have, but much will depend on who is available, just please not Joe Hart... Midfield is an area of the squad where we are strong and as the new formation only requires 2 central midfielders I can't see us bringing anyone in here, unless the perfect deal drops in our lap, you never know, but I don't think Drinkwater is a good idea, hopefully that's just paper talk. I think we will be in the market for a winger/second striker type player, gives us a bit more flexibility and takes some of the pressure off El Ghazi and Trezegeut. I'd love Benrhama, but it's not a deal I can see happening in this window, Bowen again would be nice, but won't come cheap. I'm not sure what the other options are but we definitely need something here. Thought Smith, Purslow and Pitarch did a great job in the summer, they have their work cut out again now so let's see what they come up with!

The Daily Fail article is pure conjecture, there's nothing new in there other than their complete misunderstanding of finance in football and FFP. We've had a massive increase in income from TV money, then 'spent' a lot in the transfer market, but that is to be paid over the next 3-5 years, we pay something like the third lowest in the League in terms of wages, have increased sponsorship deals .etc The sale of the stadium put us in the black for last seasons accounts from my understanding, so there's only the season before where we reportedly lost ~£30m that will count in this FFP cycle, the limit in the Premier League is ~£60m over the three season cycle, so in theory we'd still have ~£30m of wiggle room for this season. That's just my very basic understanding, in truth nobody is going to have any idea until the books are fully released for last season. I for one trust our owners and CEO to get these things right, not some no name journalist that wants to push Grealish/McGinn transfer rumours over January. Standard of football journalism in this country is toilet.

Must admit, despite being pretty optimistic so far this season, the none performance at Wolves has me a little worried. Desperately need something from this game, especially considering the upcoming fixtures. If we can keep out of the drop-zone until mid-December then the fixtures begin to look much kinder. Newcastle are on a nice little run, and got a bit of confidence going so they won't be easy to beat. We are 12 games in now, about time the lads gave us a full 90 minute error free performance. UTV!

Work with a bunch of Wolves fans, they think they'll most likely play the kids, understandable when you see the games coming up and their injury list. Will be interesting to see how strong a team we put out though. Jack obviously won't play, Smith has said Davis and Hourihane definitely will, McGinn and Mings could do with a rest really, Engeles has been carrying some kind of knock for a while it seems so you'd imagine he'll be rested, the rest really depends on how strong a team we want to put out. I find Wolves under Nuno are usually well organised and difficult to break down and then spring quickly on the counter, I'd expect the same tonight, even with much changed personnel they will be difficult to beat and pose a threat. We should be expecting plenty of the ball against a team sitting deep, so it could be a good audition for whoever wants to try filling Jacks boots for the foreseeable future if his injury is worst case.

I think we'll play a bit of a mix to be honest, there will be some counter attacking, there will be some long balls, and if we are allowed at any point, a bit of possession football would be nice to take the pressure off, it's important as a team we manage the game correctly and choose the correct style of play to suit the situation. The reason I think there's a chance the fullbacks could be changed is mainly due to positional discipline, Taylor stays as close to Mings as he can and avoids going over the half way line if at all possible, Elmo gets forward a little more from full back but also tries to tuck in next to his center half, Guilbert and Targett are both better footballers but leave a lot of space in behind them. If Smith wants to shut down the space down the sides of his center halves and on the wings in general, he may go for the more experienced duo, he may may go the other way and maybe use an extra defensive midfielder to give the attacking full backs more cover. Depends how he wants to play it. As for team/formation, something like this... I'd love to of kept Hourihane in for his set pieces, I just feel Luiz is a better with the ball at his feet under pressure, and we'll need to be keeping hold of the ball as much as we can.

I don't think we can really use Wolves result at City as a blueprint. Their game is built around a solid defence with minimal mistakes, and they made great use of the freakishly quick player they had available, our defence is not as miserly and we don't have a player with the raw pace of Traore. We don't have enough genuine pace on the counter to really bother them, I wouldn't advise a high press against them either, having a high press means you have to have a high defensive line or you will be leaving too much space between the lines, so we are going to have to play this a bit smarter. Pick our moments when to go forward and when it's best to sit in and ride out a storm, there will be opportunities to counter but we'll need to pick which ones to take and how many bodies to commit forward and should they breakdown get back in to position quickly, the whole team will need to move up and down the pitch together to negate space between the lines. Serious organisation is needed. We need to be smart in possession, and work hard off the ball for each other, they are going to press us like crazy but if you can get it through that press then you can really get some joy, so expect a lot of squeaky bum playing it out from the back shenanigans... Wouldn't be too surprised to see both full backs changed, positional awareness and discipline will be vital especially on the wings, although the current incumbents have done nothing wrong so it would feel a bit harsh. It's not impossible, there are many ways to win a game of football, kind of feel like we are going to have to score at least a couple to get anything from this though.

Tempted to create a new Villa crest with the lion standing over the corpses of multiple Premier League animals... but I really don't have the time!

I think iconic is a bit strong, we've only had this specific lion for a little over a decade, and I think it was tweaked in that time as well, maybe if we'd always kept the lion the same colour throughout time it'd be more 'iconic', but the truth is we've chopped and changed and a number of other clubs and brands use a lion as their main device, so I'm not sure we'd get away with just a lion, but that's just my opinion of course, and design is very much a matter of opinion!

I would say yes, playing a defensive midfielder doesn't just cover anyone breaking through the midfield, they should also drop in to the back line when we attack, this allows the full backs to bomb on safe in the knowledge we are leaving three players at the back that can shuffle across to cover their flank. Not having that cover restricts you to having either only one or neither of your fullbacks being able to push on. If you want to play Guilbert and Targett in the same team I would argue you need to have a defensive midfielder. This is especially true against Burnley who play with two strikers, if we had no defensive midfielder and both full backs pushing on it would only take one Burnley player to break the midfield line and we would be outnumbered.

I'm not going to go as far as 'must win', Burnley are certainly no mugs, but we need something from this game. What I really want is a full 90 minute performance, not one good half, one bad, no 15-20 minute lapse that costs us. I feel if we can just maintain the level we've got to in most games for the full 90 minutes we'd of picked up plenty more points. I'm not sure I'd make too many changes, Targett for Taylor possibly, Hourihane I'd like on the pitch but it doesn't have to be from the start. Grealish and McGinn both run themselves in to the ground the first hour or so every game, and bringing him on for one of them with 20-30 minutes to go if we need a goal seems like enough time for him to make an impact. Psychologically if we take the lead in this game we really need to hold on to it, if we don't I feel like it may begin to have a negative effect going forward.

Fully agree with this, it's a nightmare draw for them at the worst possible time. They really don't have the squad to handle all of the games they have incoming and surely can't just chuck out a team of nobody's to play against one of their local rivals, especially in what looks like becoming a potentially winnable competition, their poor start means they can't afford to rest players in the league, and I don't think they can rest players in Europe after waiting so long for it, losing their first game of the group stage hasn't helped them any either. Nuno's got some tough decisions heading his way by the looks...

I understand the frustration and the disappointment but there's a long way to go yet. It was always going to be a difficult start to the season because of all the new additions. There's cause for concern sure, we need to manage games better, try to control games more, we need to be more ruthless, we need to have a bit more belief, and in truth we could do with a bit more help from the officials, seems weird to say that after they have sent off opposing players in the last two games but both refs then gave us nothing for the remainders of those games, maybe trying to even it up, then factoring in the non Billing red card, the non Lansbury goal and the none penalty in this game, we've been on the end of some real shockers so far and it would be nice if they evened up sooner than later. I get the criticism of Smith but I don't think it's that straight forward, I think the players have a case to answer as well, they have to take responsibility for some situations, and make the correct decision more often, both individually and as a team. The subs bench isn't full of world beaters, making a sub is not guaranteed to impact the game in a positive way, I saw a stat during the West Ham game that we were joint top in terms of goals from subs over the past year, so Smith isn't a complete mug. He has made mistakes, and that is to be expected, he's new to this league too, how he reacts to those mistakes is going to be very important. We've been competitive in every game, a bit of luck, or a decision here or there, and we could be in an entirely different position. We aren't terrible, but we aren't particularly good at the moment either. We're inconsistent, making errors, and disjointed, and it's going to be this way until we start putting together 90 minute performances, it's all fits and starts at the moment. Isn't that exactly what you'd expect from a team with so many new players and light on Premier League experience? It's going to be a right scrap for us, for likely most of the season. I have faith they will come good, but there are going to be more bumps in the road. My main concern at the moment is fitness, we seem way behind on fitness, compared to pretty much every team we've faced. It gets to an hour gone in a game and we don't seem to have enough left in the tank to have an impact on the game. I'd love to see some stats on this, are we running too hard the first hour? Do we cover more ground than other teams? Is the system asking too much of some players in this League? We're 6 games in now, you'd of thought even if we weren't 100% at the start of the season we should be by now, do we do enough fitness work between games? Worrying...

Well, it was a bit... meh. I don't think either team played particularly well, we gave the ball away far too often, and in promising positions. However, at least when we gave the ball away it wasn't in dangerous areas which we have be prone to do. This disrupted our rhythm a lot, and resulted in a disjointed game with neither team really have sustained spells of pressure. We did create the better chances and at least managed to work their keeper multiple times, West Ham for all of the good attacking players we said they had before the game were poor going forward, just as culpable as us of making the wrong decision in the final third. The one thing they did do well (in the second half mainly) was to get the ball back to front quickly through our midfield, which I'm sure is something Smith and Terry will be looking at in the coming days, it was too easy to get the ball to their front three without having to play a long ball. On the plus side we looked solid at the back, the work rate from everyone was very very good, people have mentioned Guilbert gifting away possession and then busting a gut to get back and retrieve it, but he wasn't the only one, I saw El Ghazi, Grealish, Nakamba, and McGinn all do the same thing over similar/shorter distances. So as frustrating as it was that we were so poor on the ball, at least the players seemed to acknowledge their errors and try to atone for them. We'll need that kind of effort and ownership of responsibility for the rest of the season. We need to be much better on the ball though and I'm sure they all know that, we are still bedding players in to our system and it really shows at times. It's not only on the ball though, one of the reasons we lost possession so much was that the movement around the ball wasn't there, wasn't good enough or wasn't quick enough. We need to sharpen up, it will come, we just need to be patient. I think it's disappointing because if we'd of played well we'd probably of won the game, it was there to be won, but I don't buy in to all the doom and gloom. Yes, we need to improve going forward, but we created more and were more threatening than a much vaunted West Ham attack so it's not like we were completely toothless, star man on WhoScored? Fabianski. Our second highest rating on WhoScored? Grealish. I'm not saying we were great, but we weren't as poor as maybe it appeared. We have the potential to be much much better, and it will come with time, we've so many new players that need to get up to speed with the system, and they are doing it in one of the most difficult leagues in the world, we'd all like more points and maybe we even deserved a couple more, but I for one expected us to struggle a bit for maybe the first quarter/third of the season, what is important at this stage is that we continue to pick up points while we get all of these new players up to speed.

The Hammers look good going forward, we'll do well to contain that attack, though they are a little weaker than us at the back I feel. Whichever way you slice it we'll need a good performance to get anything from this game, and a full 90 minute performance would be nice. There's been too many 20 minute spells where we've lost concentration and made mistakes which have cost us, we have to eradicate those spells as soon as we can. I think this could be a high scoring draw, so pile in on 0-0!

Is it just me or is there a bit of a media silence on the Grealish incident? I know it got heavy focus on MOTD and some other TV shows, but online, the usual places I go to like The Guardian, Football 365, BBC Sport have no real mention of it at all, other than a side note at the end of a match report. In the Guardians 'Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action' our matches talking point is some meeting Hodgson had with the board after the game?! Is that really the biggest talking point? Sure there wasn't something else that happened that might generate discussion? If the incident happened in a game involving the top 6 teams we'd be hearing/reading about it for weeks, especially because of the international break, but such a controversial decision which is raging along on Twitter with every man and his dog having a say is supposedly not news worthy? ... just seems odd.

Match fixing has occurred in pretty much every other major league in the footballing world, with the amount of money in the Premier League I think it would be just as naive to assume it doesn't happen here. Why wouldn't it? I'm really not one for conspiracy's, but we've dealt with incompetent referees in the championship, this doesn't feel the same... and I can't quite put my finger on why. Just an open question to everyone, what would have to happen during a game before you'd believe a match was being fixed?

Haven't taken them yet, a little too young at the moment, one is 4 the other 6 months.