JPJCB

It’s interesting looking at the table. Despite only winning 2 of the last 7 we’re as high as 11th and of the 6 teams we’re yet to play so far only 2 of them are top half (city and Liverpool) with the rest lower half (Leicester, Leeds, Burnley, Norwich). I.e our fixtures have been comparatively difficult so far. So assuming the table doesn’t lie, you might expect us to be more like 8th or 9th come halfway through the season. a related note- this also puts the 5 losses in a row in a bit of perspective. 4 of those 5 teams are now in the top 7. So it’s maybe not as bad in hindsight as it felt at the time. none of this is particularly scientific but made me slightly more optimistic

Going through the early days of this thread out of curiosity and found this classic...

Could be a midfield diamond with Nakamba at the base; buendia at the tip behind Ings/Watkins; and McGinn/Ramsey at LCM/RCM

I’ve sometimes wondered whether he might ultimately be better as a CM for this reason

The bloke leading him around the trading ground comes up with some classic lines you’d expect to hear in a sketch about working for Norwich: ”it’s quite nice you see cause it’s not *too* big…” ”oh and there’s a vegetable patch over there….”

I think he’ll benefit most if gerrard does the same thing as at rangers and plays two narrow number 10s behind the striker. Suits where buendia likes to play

Smith played him as a 10 at times and he was completely anonymous

Has Mancini shrunk in the wash?!

He’s had mammoth like performances under Smith. His problem is that he has no consistency and can veer from absolutely outstanding top 4 PL performances to championship performances within a week

If he was still at villa and only had 1 goal and 1 assist this season he’d be nowhere near the squad by now

Striking how distinctive the style is to be fair- lots of give and gos; one twos, lay offs etc. Of any player in our squad, I think buendia would benefit most from that, and potentially ings

For me, that analysis just shows how important the wolves game was. Hold that lead and we’re comfortably top half having had 4 solid/good performances in the previous 5 games. You’d have been right to be optimistic as a fan at that point. instead, an unprecedented collapse in that game has triggered the worst performances we’ve ever seen from a smith villa team. Quite astonishing how dramatic the difference between the two scenarios

Not as bad a second half a performance as might have been expected in those circumstances. But for me, conceding in the first 10 mins, then again within 5 mins of scoring (spurs game deja vu), and then inviting all kinds of pressure in the first 5 mins of the second half tells you all you need to know - terrible game management. Not keeping it tight at the right times. That's the big difference this year compared to last year - mentality. We've had a number of games where the team has fallen to pieces under not much pressure. Ultimately that's a coaching issue rather than anything else (Terry's departure might have impacted). Also some worrying signs of the positive culture Smith was rightly praised for starting to break down in recent weeks - e.g. Buendia and Sanson tantrums. Not looking good. I'm a smith defender overall but don't see him lasting much longer at this rate.

Have all the sky sports pundits forgotten the names of our players? I’ve heard “the defender” and “the keeper” as well as “mcgill” and “Bondia” so far

Or same formation as before but with buendia as a direct replacement for Ramsey?

We should just be banning these repeat offending countries from fans attending matches (and maybe even the teams themselves participating) until they can demonstrate they’re sorting it out. The predictability of it is depressing and needless

We hear about them catching COVID all the time? Why is this any different?

The players refusing to be vaccinated in the England set up should be named and shamed

I agree with the original poster here. For me the key thing holding Jack back from reaching his potential is his lack of cutting edge in front of goal. For a player who’s so good on the ball and plays as far forward as he does he should be getting far more goals but his shooting/finishing isn’t at a top level frankly. Started all 7 of city’s PL games as part of the front 3 but only has 1 goal (where he basically deflected it in) which says it all

I don’t really see much risk of another club coming in for Deano and that video above is partly why- he’s just not seen as an exciting, dynamic choice. Our gain in the end. I think it’s more likely if he continues to succeed that he gets the England job. And, hate to say it, he’d be great at it because his key strength is building the culture of the organisations he works in

Exactly- the grealish one was particularly egregious because he was so obviously one of the top 2 or 3 English players in the league but could barely get on the bench at times. Made me think that even if non top 6 teams had players like messi playing for them theyd still be overlooked

Here’s the crucial hypothetical. If Konsa played as well he’s currently playing and was in the Chelsea/ AC Milan squads would he get in the England squad? and by the same token, if tomori played for us would he get selected over him? I’ve no doubt the answer would be yes for the first and no for the second and that’s why the England set up stinks

It’s interesting cause despite them not clicking we’ve played really well as a team using a formation that gets them both in the team. I think we’re at a stage where, even if Ings and Watkins aren’t clicking, they’re causing so many problems for opposition defences with their mere presence that it’s creating chances for the 4 players behind them (Targett, Cash, Ramsey, McGinn) all of whom have had much more attacking threat in the past few games. Very exciting to think how we might improve further when the Watkins/Ings combo starts to sync which it surely will in time and with Danks on board

One thing I absolutely love about Smith/this team: when we’ve beaten big teams we’ve done so having genuinely deserved to win. I’m used to us beating teams in a smash and grab fashion even when we were competing for top 4 under O’Neill. The aim was to keep it tight, defend deep and nick a goal. But if you look at when we’ve played those equivalent teams under Smith we’ve gone out not just to win but to be the better team across the park. The 7-2 against Liverpool a great example. Yesterday another example (albeit more even). And for me the 3-0 victory at the emirates last year was the single best villa performance I’ve ever seen (albeit against Arsenal). Can anyone say they’ve seen us play as well against the “top” teams as we have in those three games in the last 20 years? Absolutely love the man

Can we well and truly banish the “can’t get us winning without grealish” claims now? Three excellent performances and two excellent wins in a row all against top teams. Time to get optimistic