villanmac

2 minutes ago, Raymond said:

Can someone tell me what we do at practice? Because clearly defending corners is not on the list. 

You can't defend corners with only 2 players who can jump (center halves).

Regardless of tactics our team is basically Mings, Grealish and Mcginn. We need all 3 to be on it to win games. The rest of the team are just periphery players, airy fairy...good when the going is good but not good enough or with enough character to affect the game themselves. Passengers.

The level of pressure on those 3 is ridiculous and it was never sustainable. It's why we'll go down imo. It's so disappointing because with them and Heaton we had an incredible core and even if we couldn't get the quality in this summer we just needed some solid burnley style players around them to stay safe this season. 

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

This just makes me question Smith even more. Shocking if true.

 

We are an absolute shambles at the moment. 

3 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

He's not alone to be fair, there is a whole clique...

The whole team are performing garbage, because they don't trust him... apparently.

I know your view on this and what you say is logical. In normal circumstances I would agree that a poor player couldn't have that impact on the whole team. However, Wesley really is extraordinarily bad enough (again I know you don't agree) to be an outlier.

You can carry a player for a while and work around limitations through tactics but over time  it is going to wear on players having a front man you cant trust and fully expect to **** things up. God knows as a fan its frustrating to watch, for a player under the pressure of playing in the premier league and running the hard yards it must be soul destroying. But you'd have to view Wesley as bad I personally do to believe that to be the case. 

Edit - F**k I thought I was in the Wesley thread.

I see Watford have Troy Deeney back. Watch him bully us over Xmas. I wouldn’t discount a resurgence from them now.

29 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

"Can't pass, can't run, can't shoot, can't trap a ball, has ZERO footballing ability"

In before the "yeah he did it in a horrendous league against terrible defenses".

That ain't the point, it's either he has ZERO footballing ability or he does. It's either he is capable of doing those things or he can't.

Although a Villa fan on fan cams did claim he couldn't score against Under 9s. Which would make more sense if he hadn't already scored.

No I'm not trying to pretend like he has been good either, but I'm not going for the absolute hyperbole surrounding the lad and the total disregard for how the performance of the rest of the team and confidence might me affecting him.

To say he needs to be dropped as he ain't doing it is one thing, to dramatically claim he is absolutely useless and will NEVER amount to anything is another.

The other classic I saw was "He was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time for his goals (tap in - which was of course pointed out)". Which doesn't even make sense as in the same breath the poster said him never being in the right place was one of the problems

After watching him this season he honestly looks shit to me in that video now

This is massive blow.

He's made plenty of mistakes over the last few weeks but he is still by far and away our best defender. He will be a big miss for us, particularly at defending set pieces and crosses which he is phenomenal at and i think he is plastered over some cracks in that department. We are relying a lot on Engels now (as it isn't one of Konsa's strengths imo)...the rest of the team are useless at it.

I would also say that as good as Engels and Konsa have looked (Konsa less so), i think a big part of that is having Mings next to them. He can compensate for the weaknesses in their game. I felt that way about Tuanzebe last season tbh.

“I feel Jonathan Kodjia’s game is more suited to the Premier League than it was the Championship. I think he can be a big player for us this season. Those were Smith's words on the eve of the season. 

I'm not a fan of Kodija myself but decisions should be made on what's best for the team and just having a player upfront capable of trapping a ball would improve everyone else's performance.

He's looked like an absolute competition winner all season.  I'm a massive Smith fan but his judgement on this one is worrying. I thought the Andre Green persistance last season was bad but this one has be perplexed. 

I got lambasted for saying it early doors but you can see Mcginn and Grealish hate playing with him. And again....it ain't Wesleys fault, he's not the one picking the team or making the signings. 

Just now, PieFacE said:

Grealish acting like a bit of a clearing in the woods in the last 10 minutes.

He's **** pissed off, I don't blame him.

Just now, KenjiOgiwara said:

And this is basically it. Spot on. We are doing quite well, but we are starting every single match with a major handicap. 

Exactly how I've felt all season. It's got to point where its just sabotage now.

Konsa is everything brentford fans said he was. Hopeless positioning 

Wesley a **** liability in our own box. I hate this, I don't even want to be so vexed with him he justs needs dropping for his own sake.

He's brilliant on the ball obviously but since Engels has been out we've suddenly become very suspect at defending crosses. 

16 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

To be fair I also backed Scott Hogan for much longer than I should have, so iys not an exotic name thing. Lol

You must be the patron saint of lost causes.

If his name was Richard Walker and played the way he does no f**cker would rate him. 

His performance today was as much as I could possibly have hoped from him to be honest. I literally don't expect anything from him as an attacking threat. That's how bad he is. 

Frustrating not to get the win there. We got penned in again 2nd half, bit of a same old story feel albeit without the usual kicker of late winner from the opposition.

The he's worth the admission fee alone cliché was made for Grealish. He's so good to watch even when the team isn't fully at it. He reminds me of Frenkie de Jong at Barca, they are just on a different page to everyone else and when you watch them the similarities in style are uncanny. The stage is set for him to absolutely run the show at Old Trafford on Sunday.

6 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

I aint even watched the bloke. Its half the people on here who call him shit in defence of Wesley.

56 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Not a number 9.

If anything he is playing like a number 10. Dropping deep to feed it to our wingers.

He's just not a premier league footballer, plain and simple..all the excuses in the world - false number 9's, numbers 10's, comparisons to shit footballers (Joelinton, Haller), great footballers (Drogba, Benteke for us) or anything else aint gonna change that.

Fair play to him, he works hard and has done amazingly well to get to the level he has with his ability but the excuses made for him are seemingly inexhaustable. We can get away with playing him against the shite ie the Norwichs, Newcastles, Everton, West hams etc. but anything above that is just pure folly. 

33 minutes ago, Spoony said:

I think he’s my least favourite player ever to play for Villa. I hate watching him. 

This.

Its absolutely painful watching him. Heads should roll for this signing alone. He's not a footballer.

We were always gonna be **** with those 3 non entities up front. No way you're going there and doing **** all with that piss weak joke of an attack.

Jesus h Christ. Wow.

Happy for him though.

I've bitten my tongue on this gimp, but he's absolutely taking the piss this time round.

How the hell is Grealish up against Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford and Callum Hudson-Odoi? Even if he is, there's only one of those three who should be ahead of him.

Its clear he'll never rate him. He has this obsession for steady eddy players without any outstanding attributes cos it reminds him of himself probably. 

"He was very close and just has to keep playing the way he is."  Well how the **** does that work?