JPJCB

Still a big fan of his but for me he’s the weakest link in our defence. Good on the ball and generally solid but he has a tendency to lose his head a bit (the sending off at home vs Man City was a good example). And he’s not adventurous enough going forward as others have said 

On Bluemoon, they're lamenting Mendy, Ake and Cancelo's performances. I double checked and those three cost £50m, £40m and £60m respectively. I think that **** me off about them more than the outlandish fees for Grealish/Kane who are genuinely world class players. They spunk astronomical money on players who are bang average and inflate prices/wages in the rest of the league as a result - I remember the Ake one in particular being a joke as no one seriously expected  him to even get in the team yet they spent £40m on him. 

Would anyone seriously pay more than £10m for Mendy after that horror show of a performance today?

Weird performance from Jack. A few nice touches and barely gave the ball away as usual but I couldn't work out what position he was supposed to be playing. At times it looked like Sterling and Grealish were both playing as left wingers - maybe some Guardiola genius move that didn't come off. Alternatively, for all his claims that he prefers playing centrally, maybe Jack just can't help himself but drift over to the left. 

I think his performances have been off in general ever since he came back from injury at the back end of last season both club wise and internationally. Commentators/pundits haven't really noticed it because he still has a couple of magic moments and an exquisite touch. But he just seems to lack any impetus/tendency to grab the game by the scruff of the neck like he did for us at peak form. Might just be that he's not the main man for England/City but I do wonder whether that shin issue is persisting because his england performances at the Euros were nowhere near as good as his ones against Wales and Belgium previously for example

Three things I'd like to see done in response to that game: 1.) drop Targett given he's not fit; 2.) shore up the midfield to get some solidity; 3.) start bailey. On that basis, I'd go with this for the next game:

                Martinez

Cash  Konsa  Mings  Young

  Mcginn  Nakamba  Luiz (or Ramsey/Sanson if doug isn't ready)

  Buendia   Ings   Bailey

I'm actually pretty confident in our ability to create/finish chances on the basis of yesterday and that front 3's track record. But something isn't right defensively just now so we need to do a bit of a project restart mentality and focus on keeping it tight in the midfield so that the front 3 can express themselves further up the pitch. 

11 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Clearly AEG and Young playing yesterday weakened us, that was obvious before the game started, and you would expect Bailey and Traore or Ollie to come in for the next game. 

 

I worry for Smith though. Watford are one of my picks to be down there at the end of the season and I haven't changed my opinion after yesterday. Yet they thoroughly outplayed us and deserved to win. 

 

He has always relied on Grealish ever since he became our manager nearly 3 years ago - even in the Champ he couldn't buy a win without him. And while Nakamba, Luiz and McGinn are good squad players, the fact he still hasn't invested in the CM area since we got promoted (other than on a permanently injured Sanson) is absolutely ridiculous. We have £100m from the sale of Grealish, we could quite feasibly go out and spend £40-50m on a really top player in that position but the vibes I'm getting are we're happy with what we've got. Brainless mentality. 

Completely agreed.

the back 5 is arguably top 6 quality as could the forward line if the players click. But the midfield is comfortably bottom half 

5 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

One guy can't solve this problem.

This is a collective problem. It's not down to 1 or 2 players. The system is wrong and the formation is wrong.

Smith needs to revert back to what he knows best which is 4-3-3. Need to grow a pair and drop either Ings or Watkins

Watkins wasn’t playing yesterday….

23 minutes ago, Jareth said:

Best part of the Ings article is that he's been targetting one final move for some time, he's going to be so motivated to get into the England squad and leave his mark on the prem - he will hit the ground sprinting

It just struck me that him and Watkins are probably around equal in the England striker pecking order (Ollie probs just ahead). Healthy competition there but hopefully not a source of tension! 

I'm mentally preparing for a loss purely because:

1. Newly promoted team playing at home bounce

2. Grealish replacements not yet fully embedded so we're likely to be worse in the short term before we improve

3. Disrupted pre-season with key players (Mings, Targett, Martinez, Buendia, Ings) not getting as much game time as we'd like. 

That said, I'm excited to see the start of a somewhat new era, particularly buendia and bailey (if he gets on)

Saka and ESR are quality but it's a bit mad how much they seem to carry that Arsenal team when they're basically 2nd year academy grads. The lack of responsibility from the senior players is astonishing and the fact Xhaka is captain says it all. 

Just imagine where they'd be if Saka and ESR hadn't come through? Probs kicking around 13th/14th

1 minute ago, DJ_Villain said:

Dunno about that.

Tammy scored against us and refused to celebrate… and he was only with us on loan for half a season.

We did (and some of us - including myself - still do) give a toss about him… but he never gave any reason or conjured any illusions that he was going to stay with us for longer than he was contracted to.

But I honestly think Tammy is cut from a different cloth to He Who Will Not Be Named…

If a goal were to be scored against us  was to cost us a place in Europe… or possibly relegate us… I think the latter would celebrate if it meant he won a medal… or he could curry favour with fans of his new employer

I think we're agreeing to a large extent. We cared about Tammy but he left on good terms (or at least not on bad terms) so no one gave him any grief. It's not a surprise in my book that he didn't celebrate against us on that basis. 

My point is that, if grealish gets a ton of grief at VP (which I fully expect him to), I can definitely see him celebrating in response if he scores. The Rooney comparison that someone mentioned earlier is bang on point in that respect. He still clearly cared a bit about Everton as he went there later in his career - his badge kissing/celebrations were likely a response to the abuse he got on the day

29 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Can see why we tried to sign ESR. I think he actually looks better than Jack did at 21.

Yeah agreed, closest player I've seen to his style. Partly because, like Jack, he's also not that pacey but makes up for it with a fantastic touch. Interesting to see whether he kicks on in the same way. They look a similar level at they're equivalent age (ESR maybe even edges it as you say) but Jack really pushed on from 23 on and became a much more physical/direct player which rounded out his game

TBH, I think the most reliable evidence of how Smith will use Watkins/Ings is what he did in the last pre-season game (against the Italian team whose name I can;t remember) - i.e. Watkins leading the line; Ings as the no 10/SS type player. It didn't work quite as well in the first half (though Ings did still get a goal) but I suspect Smith will persist with it to see if it clicks over time. 

I fully expect us to start 4-4-2 the first few games with Buendia right, Bailey left and Ings/Watkins down the middle

2 hours ago, Troglodyte said:

There's absolutely no way he'd celebrate scoring against us. It doesn't take class or intelligence - every footballer does it to the extent it's actually just boring. Had a week-long trial for a team when you were seven and you've scored a winner against them to win your current side the league? Don't celebrate. Zzzzz.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he did to be honest and I think for a lot of players it depends on how they feel in the moment. It’s looking like the reception will be particularly brutal along the lines of Barry (rather than Milner for example). It wouldn’t surprise me at all in that environment if he decides in the spur of the moment to do a big **** you to the villa fans. I reckon one reason why the players with a tenuous previous connection to the club don’t celebrate is because none of the fans give a toss about them so don’t give them any grief 

Part of what makes Watkins' role next season tricky to work out is that he's probably in the best shape of anyone in the squad and basically never gets injured. You can imagine that Ings will be in and out given injuries and I'm sure Buendia/Bailey will have their knocks etc. so you'd rotate them around to an extent. But Ollie basically never misses a game if last season is to go by so to shift him/bench him you'd be actively moving him from his best role up front to accommodate someone else. FWIW for that reason, plus Smith's strong relationship with him, I think he plays comfortably over 30 games next season as the main striker with some combination of Ings, Bailey, Buendia, Traore, El Ghazi, JPB and maybe Young in the 3 AM positions behind

3 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

Id have any of our back 4 over Utds any day of the week 

Can't tell if this is a joke. Do you mean you'd have any of our individual  back 4 players vs any of theirs? Or our total back 4 vs their total back 4?

Either way, I think Maguire for Mings and Shaw for Targett would improve us (despite how good Mings/Targett are). It'd be a toss up between Wan Bissaka and Cash (the former edges it defensively but the latter attack wise). I'd undoubtedly take Konsa over Lindelof but it'll be Varane this year who will surely improve them. The best composite 4 would likely be: Shaw, Maguire, Konsa, Cash so not obvious either way

26 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

That's been the prevailing consensus among other fans, that he somehow did us a favour by staying in the Championship with us. Oh you mean the guy who couldn't get in the team ahead of Scott Sinclair the season we went down? Or the one who tried his best to piss away his career the following season? No credit given to Villa for sticking by him nd dragging him out of the mud. It smacks of people who have no clue what's been going on at Villa in the last few years (not that I would expect them to), and all it does is perpetuate the notion that good players have no obligation to stick with their teams and repay their faith and investment. 

agreed - there's a bit of a narrative that grealish was turning down moves to other clubs to stay/help us. The reality was that no one wanted to sign him when we went down because he was a typical inconsistent young player with off field issues. Spurs came in for him in 2018 and all the evidence suggests he would have gone if they'd paid up. Then last year when he signed a new contract in light of utd interest he got the release clause put in so he could go at a later date. I'm not bitter about that - it's a cynical business - but anyone who thinks Grealish was at villa for as long as he was out of choice is deluded

1 hour ago, Spoony said:

I don’t think any of us thought he was worth £100m in terms of talent, just £100m to us as he was our talisman, captain and impossible to replace (at least as a single player).

All in all the price was right for everyone. I do get the feeling he will flop though.

I think in terms of pure footballing ability/potential the £100m is slightly inflated (which is maybe what Purslow mean by setting a release clause they hoped no one would meet). But once you factor branding/marketing potential I think his value comfortably is above that - he almost added £20m to his value from his PR during the Euros alone which took his stardom/celebrity status beyond anything I'd seen for a Villa player. I actually wonder whether his agent pushed him a bit on that front - i.e. "the £100m is a bit steep so get your face out there a bit more to boost your worth" -  he seemed to be doing interviews every day during the Euros and far more than any other player which was a bit odd for a someone on the bench. 

There's a bit of a missed opportunity there for us because keeping him post Euros would have potentially been massive for boosting our brand/base globally. But once players get to that degree of stardom the player then becomes way bigger than the club which maybe isn't healthy. I wonder if City aren't actually the best choice for him in that respect - Guardiola 's undoubtedly an outstanding coach but I'm not sure he's ever had to handle such a massive individual brand/personality before (Messi was much younger/humbler when he worked for Guardiola).

Grealish always struck me as much more of a Utd type player in that respect who have a history of handling those big star brands (Beckham, Ronaldo etc.). 

2 hours ago, Cizzler said:

We haven't been great previously at getting transfer money for academy products (JG aside...). 

Liverpool sold Harry Wilson for £12m this summer, he's a year older than O'Hare. I'm sure they milked him for loan fees too. Sometimes I think we've sometimes been a bit too quick to let players go.

I was quite surprised we let him go to be honest - I can't remember whether we got any money for him or whether his contract just ran down? He always looked pretty decent in the cup games he played

I thought he looked great today. A little clumsy at first but he's the type of player where  as soon as he gets the ball out of his feet anywhere near /in the box there's a chance of a goal. Constant threat

Evening mods, 

I've been following/reading VT since 2007 - I don't know if that makes me the longest ever reader without being a poster but whoever beats me deserves a trophy!

Lifelong Villa fan - had a season ticket in the 08/09 season where we came closest in recent years to CL football. Travels and work have taken me away geographically from my beloved west midlands but my love for Villa has always remained!

I think the grealish stuff has provoked the switch from reader to poster - there's so much I wanted to say about that scenario and so many 'nods', 'likes' I wanted to add to VT posters, that now felt the right time. Hopefully my membership can be accepted in that spirit!