JPJCB

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

I think this is all the explanation you need. Great insight into clueless ole’s tactics

It’s far more rationale and fair minded from what I’ve seen than OGS’ reaction- the general consensus is that we deserved to win. It tells you something when the manager is more childish in their reaction to a loss than the online fan base as it’s typically the other way round (certainly is for us!)

Our big advantage here is in midfield where we’ve shown in recent games that we can actually win that battle using this formation (stark contrast to last season). Fred and mctominay are lower level PL players at best and McGinn/Ramsay need to be in their faces every time they get the ball and win it high up the pitch

Someone a few pages back said he reminds them of Robbie Keane. I think that comparison is spot on. Very similar combo of being comfortable dropping much deeper and linking the play while also having a real poachers instinct. Very interesting player

He’s a great runner with the ball, a great ability to just glide past defenders. Really excited to see more of him this season

Was gonna say the same. Articulate, not biased and actually shared some genuine insight (e.g the stuff about godfrey’s defending for the Bailey goal)

Needs to push on this season. Relatively solid at right back but if he doesn’t show a bit more going forward and cut out the silly errors I’d think we need an upgrade for next season

Lukaku looks more a finished article now than he did at Utd. He’s still got a god awful first touch but he’s better now at focussing in what he does best- I.e finishing off moves- rather than trying to get involved in the build up where he doesn’t add any value. He’s the type of player who ironically probably plays better when he only gets 20 touches a game vs when he has over 100