villanmac

Nice to see the amount of goodwill towards him. He was brilliant yesterday. I too thought the question from the interviewer was unfair but he is a bit of poster boy for Sky, they couldn't stop putting the camera on him and talking about him before, during and after the game. I like how honest he is with his own performances admitting that he hadn't been as good as he was before the lockdown. He did the same earlier on the in the season. He has look a bit frazzled at times over the past few weeks but just like at the beginning of the season its took him 5 or 6 games to get back to his best and he is coming on strong now at just the right time.

Just when city look like they might be getting momentum..drinks break

It does though, even if we lose by one it becomes very difficult to finish above Bournemouth if they win next Sunday.

It's a funny one. Having the game tmoro night is in theory an advantage because we have the opportunity to get some points but it could be argued that we'd be better off without it (and just have played 37 games) as it could do a lot more harm than good!

I think Bournemouth are still in with a decent shout. Taking Watford out of it for a moment. Unless i'm missing something, If we just lose to Arsenal by a goal we drop below Bournemouth on goal difference. We then have to beat West Ham by a goal more than Bournemouth beat Everton. (which I could see them doing) Obviously if we lose 2-0 to arsenal that becomes beating WHU by more than 2 goals more (Bournemouth win 1-0 we have to win 3-0). A point is crucial tmoro night.

That moment summed him up Coward

Tbf that was us previously. Then we turned so shit we couldn't even get into winning positions in the first place to lose points from.

Hopefully this gives citeh a kick up the arse before the Watford game.

ffs Man City have been a disgrace today, not been arsed one bit.

Look at what Smith started with in June: Strikers :Davis, Kodija Midfielders : Mcginn/Hourihane/Grealish Defenders :Taylor Hause Guilbert, Elmohamady Keeper : Steer, Nyland, Kalinic You can't have Mings and El Ghazi if you are giving him stick for the money he spent in the summer as they are included in that outlay. By the way that's in June - so we had a small window to build and coach up a premiership squad. What he started off with is mid-table championship stuff - if you don't believe it, imagine what taking Abraham, Mings and Tuanzebe would have done to us last season. The money was spent awfully that's on Smith and Suso but the amount has to be viewed in the context of what we started off with.

Bloody hell, we never learn. Up there with giving Lambert and Gabby 4 and 5 year deals after starting the season well 4 games in. Oh and Shays 5 year deal at 35. Should have said we'll look at it at the end of the season, being cruel.. hes a villa fan, its the best job he could ever get. 4 year/5 deals have no upside for the Club.

That was my view half way through the season and cant say its changed, the squad is just shit. Fair play Luiz has stepped up but as i say it was never sustainable relying on so few players carrying us all the time. I honestly think the drop off in form of Mings, Mcginn and Jack was inevitable with so little support. With such a low opinion of the quality of our players i just cant get on Smiths back too much. Wouldnt be gutted if he was sacked but i cant call for it.

Sorry yeah, I edited it straight after. I remember it being an awful depressing time going to watch us and automatically thought of Bruce being in charge.

Was against QPR on new years day, and he'd been a regular for most of the season up to that point. A couple of weeks later he had his last game when he got hooked off against Hull with nothing left in the tank. Smith shipped him off and he went to Belgium then.

Bollox. I've seen him live come on as sub at villa park go on a 30 yard sprint and them spend the next 3 minutes blowing out of his arse. He couldnt handle the tempo, pressing and workrate at that level. His quality is obvious.

He is right about the fitness though. I'd say none of our players from that Farmers league in Belgium were up to speed of the premiership, some never will be. It is awful. I was actually in a pub in Brussels earlier this year and by chance saw Bolasie playing live for Anderlecht on the tele. It was one of this first games for them and he looked about 10 years younger than he had been the month before! I've just looked at his stats for them...17 games 6 goals. That's from a player who looked shot in the championship. Says it all.

Exactly. Spurs were sh*t when we played them opening day and Newcastle went on to beat them away a couple of weeks later. Arsenal were in disarray (and with 10 men) - f**ked that one up too. Chelsea in December were shocking and West Ham and Bournemouth a week either side of that game beat them. We've also had enough opportunities against the crap teams too and had plenty of luck along the way (West Ham down to then for last half an hour, great chance to go on and win that but could barely muster decent attack with one man advantage). Losing to Brighton at home, they go down to 10 after about 35 mins, they still look the better side for much of the game and we squeak a last second win. Bournemouth who are awful... again they go down to 10 men and we barely get a shot on target against them. Fair play there was a rousing 2nd half at home to Watford but we still lucked out with that Konsa/Mings goal in the last second. Table-wise we have looked in with a chance of surviving for so long because we had our two Norwich games in the bag by the 26th December. It gave a false impression and now Watford / Brighton/ West Ham are getting their chance of a customary win against them we are getting cut adrift to our level which is alongside Norwich and Bournemouth as the worst teams in the league.

But for a last second deflected konsa goal and a Matt targett winner against 10 men Brighton we'd of been down ages ago. Utterly shit team, deserve it.

It just hit me that we actually went into a premier league season with this as our attack (strikers, wingers): Davis Wesley Kodija El Ghazi Trezeguet Jota Jesus Christ, thats horrific.

Chelsea have f**ked us so many times this season (yeah i know we've f**ked ourselves)

Has to take a fair chunk of the blame for putting such blind faith in Suso imo, and his policy re: loans. It has to be said that the premiership only allows you two loan slots at any one time so it wouldn't have been a game changer but with the rebuild we needed we should have been maxing that quota with he best two loans we could get out hands on. Anything to take a bit of pressure off the ridiculous rebuild we needed to perform. He made a big song a dance at the end of the season about how loaning players was a terrible business model and how we weren't going to that in the future, because teams say, ‘Well, you improved them so now pay more" (i.e. like with Mings). However, we would've finished bottom half of the championship without Tammy, Axel and Mings so you can't moan that much when they do 'too well'. Not saying it would have improved us that much but to dismiss it out of hand was naive and perhaps an indicator of the cockiness regarding recruitment and the difficulty of the premier league.

He's gonna have to own the fact he doesn't have a decent winger and go Grealish / Samatta / Davis up top. Couldn't care less if it isn't their ideal positions, it at least gives the opposition 3 players to think about because at least they have something about them. It gives us Nakamba, Luiz and either Hourihane in midfield (Mcginn is a million miles off the pace) which is a bit more solid and gives us a chance to play our set piece taker. All this coaching and tactical bollox but with a squad like ours the old Harry redknapp 'get your most effective players on the pitch' philosophy is needed.

Newcastle have Man City in the Cup on Sunday night which will mean they will down tools for Bournemouth next Wednesday. Still fuming how we sleep walked through that game last night. Any team fighting for their lives should have won against that shower of shit.

This is shameful for a team supposedly fighting for their lives.

Grealish gonna turn up thís summer?