Rolta

Talking about smoke and fire, Aaron Banks must surely now regret trying to pre-empt his appearance in the Russia report.

It's hardly the actions of someone guilt-free.

1 hour ago, Hobbit Feet said:

I love our rose tinted glasses on here. People do realise it’s no forlorn conclusion Watford will get stuffed by city, they could even potentially take points. We will draw or beat Arsenal even though Watford have no chance against them on the last day. And then to top it off we will get a result away against West Ham even though everyone has been saying they have a far superior squad than ours And shouldn’t be in a relegation battle. 

If England were in a world cup final against a better team would you be as critical of people looking for reasons to hope we might win? There have been a lot of odd results this season—it's not as if the things being described are impossible. A lot has to go our way, but they can. It's entertaining at least.

7 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

They also had to do some crazy running against city on Saturday and to a lesser extent against Liverpool last wed.  
 

They may be better than Villa but their legs will be feeling it no matter what the case is.  Fine margins at this level of football 

My Arsenal friend just pointed this out. They've had 30% possession or something in their last two games.

1 minute ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Just on your edited point, didn't realise the season was only 5 games old....

I was going to leave it as you love holding the stick at the wrong end. I can almost imagine you juggling one. And you're definitely coming across as if you want 'to get confrontational' as you say.

OK, so you seem to want Mings to get the same critique as El Ghazi. The thing is, he did get stick, back when it happened months ago. I did it myself. I remember. I don't think Mings is the worlds greatest defender, and I said so to people when he got his England cap. But he has also been our best defender—we missed him when he was injured in a critical part of the season when we actually had a chance to get some results. I picked 5 games because that's the quickest thing I could get on google, but we've looked far more solid since the restart, which is a good proportion of the season.

Yeah, we've not been great defensively, but that's not just on Mings. I guess if you think that's all on Mings then continue as you are.

For clarity, what's your point again? Oh, yeah, Mings should get the same level of critique (as in ripping to shreds) that El Ghazi got.

6 minutes ago, Villan_of_oz said:

And our defence isn't solid.....

So which one of your vague points is your actual point, and do you mean the words you say? 'If AEG can cop the VT wrath for missing that sitter then TM deserves the same critiquing for some of his blunders this season.'

EDIT: Just had a quick look and in the last 5 games our defence ranks 10th= in the league.

6 minutes ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Wow my friend, I was putting forward some thoughts on a player on a internet forum. Pent up rage much?

I don't do vile hatred of players and wouldn't promote, you accusations are wild and off the mark.

I said, 'I'm sure that's not what you're actually doing.'

Perhaps I should have made it clearer that this was how your post came across to me, more than what I actually thought you were doing. I have no rage. It just seemed a funny thing to bring up, and maybe using El Ghazi was a poor example because he has been getting vile abuse. And the tackling stat is, as pointed out, a really odd one to use because obviously a solid defence does a lot of shielding, marking, positioning work to avoid having to tackle. When someone pointed that out to you, you said, '66 goals conceded, there is nothing misleading about the stats.'

As I say, you definitely came across a certain way.

18 hours ago, Blasterpocket68 said:

Really had smith been a little more conservative at the start of the season we would be clear of the relegation scrap. Managers pick and coach teams, over the course of the season luck injuries balance out, lack of basic coaching and game management are his responsibility.  Since the restart he has adopted a different approach , had he done this in December we might be in a stronger position. His players his responsability!

A slogan (EDIT: or a cliche) isn't a fact. It's just a slogan (or cliche).

1 hour ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Willing to admit that it not be a stat to use for judging his season. 

However my eyes have told me he hasn't had a great season. If AEG can cop the VT wrath for missing that sitter then TM deserves the same critiquing for some of his blunders this season.

So El Ghazi gets some pretty vile hatred and you don't think Mings has had enough? So you produce a stat that means nothing to get the fire going?

I'm sure that's not what you're actually trying to do really. Mings has been good since the restart. He also made a few mistakes earlier in the season, but he's been good a lot too. We also missed him massively when he was injured. 

Sorry I just can't get myself worked up into a VT wrath. 

Unfortunately for El Ghazi the miss was in a highly emotional moment in a game that felt more crucial due to time running out. It was ott though.

40 minutes ago, Only2McInallys said:

 

Unfortunately Arsenal winning last night was bad news.They will rest players for their final game against Watford so l can see Watford getting something from that game.

 

There's another way of looking at it. They played a big semi final yesterday and are playing again on Tuesday. They'd surely rest players now, then use the Watford game as preparation for the final.

3 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I get the negativity for obvious reasons.

However I don't understand the purpose of posts like this.

Why would we bother supporting the club if we never have any hope for anything?

If England were playing in a world cup semi and the other team were much better, I'm pretty sure MCU would still have a little hope and be looking for reasons to be optimistic (presuming he's English).

7 minutes ago, MCU said:

Hey no fair, I’ve just been called an ‘arse’ for saying something not nearly as bad as this. 

(FTR I couldn’t agree more with you)

Wasn't there a bit of irony in what he said?

1 hour ago, Demitri_C said:

You saying it doesnt make it correct either xann. 

If i said labour fans were pricks there would be outrage on here.

 

I'd find it ironic if it was a from a supporter of this government.

4 minutes ago, momo said:

People are so optimistic

While there's hope why wouldn't you at least entertain it?

So much unexpected stuff happens in sport, and we're definitely not out of it yet.

1 minute ago, TheMelvillan said:

I think he meant the ball played prior to that 

I don't think that makes a difference. It was a new phase of play. He was onside for a long time.

5 minutes ago, omariqy said:

Just watched the chance back. He was 100% offside in the build up so pretty sure it would have been chalked off anyway 

Bit small, but it's not offside at all.

1 minute ago, useless said:

Can't remember one person ever blaming Steve Round for our poor form under Steve Bruce, they were both being blamed for their share of the blame and rightly so. And so it should be the case with Smith and Suso, they're both responsible.

One person was in the Championship with Grealish and Abraham and the likes. It's crazy how toothless we looked.

The other is in the Prem with Grealish, sure, but also no strikers who can score. We also did a complete rebuild. Tougher league.

It's not the same thing.

2 minutes ago, useless said:

It doesn't really matter which players he chose or didn't, frankly it's a ridiculous excuse, his job primarily is to coach the players and set up the team in order to win football matches, as is the role for managers at every club, if he doesn't manage that to a satisfying degree then he will eventually lose his job. You can't even use the excuse that the squad isn't good enough, as they've shown earlier in the season and in the last two games that they're much better than they've shown since January.

No  excuses for one win in fourteen.

What I said wasn't an excuse. I was just pointing out you didn't know for sure what you sounded so sure about. As for excuses, how about us not having strikers who can score?

3 minutes ago, useless said:

Smith has played his part in the recruitment, he turned down the chance to sign Maupay and scouted the likes of Trezeguet and Nakamba at the AFONs, not sure why peopel keep ignoring that. if he keeps his job I suspect part of the deal will be that he gets less of say in recruitment, being as though he's partly to blame for this season's squad.

You don't know what number choice Nakamba and Trezeguet were. Just because he saw them doesn't necessarily mean they are on him (also never saw mention he went and watched Nakamba).

4 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

Does anyone have access to The Athletic? I’d like to read that article 

Me too.

1 hour ago, striker said:

Why have Villa got rid of several of their young players when there is a distinct possibility of relegation?

Young players like O’Hare, Murphy and Ramsey if gone too would have been very good squad fillers in the Championship.

I think O'Hare refused a contract. I guess they don't rate Hepburn Murphy, who last I heard was in the Derby reserves.

EDIT: Wow. He signed for Pafos in the Cypriot top division. So maybe he's just not very good.

https://pafosfc.com.cy/archives/4454

2 hours ago, Follyfoot said:

It’s more a reflection of the opposition that somebody like Boris Johnson could have had such a landslide victory in the last election than anything else

There is no way this Tory government and BJ were the clearly sensible, rational-person's alternative. My opinion of course, but I see this Tory government (as in this version of the Tories) as one of the most horrendous, self-serving groups of people possible.

But anyway, I'm sure it's been said many times before.

39 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

There are reports el ghazi is getting a lot of abuse from our fan base on his social media. 

If true we really do have some right dicks in our fan base. As frustrating as it was with his miss he didnt delibrately intend to miss did he?  

Also el ghazi bloody is the reason we got promoted with his goal at Wembley. I dont agree with social media abuse that's taking it too far

Sad to hear. At least if he plays none of them will be in the stadium to put him off!

3 minutes ago, Farlz said:

Well now we need Saints and City to do us huge favours. How we keep being gifted chances I don't know. 

We've gifted teams chances by missing open goals and letting in stupid goals too to be fair.

1 minute ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

That game at Watford was a real low point. Its actually sickening how many chances we’ve had with man advantages this season. 

Just had a look at the team. Jota, Lansbury, Hourihane. No Mings. We definitely weren't at our strongest.

Hourihane has his place, of course, but that's not a pacey team.

Just now, Farlz said:

Bloody hell the result yesterday now hurts even more 

**** heartbreaking.