VillaJay

It's a media driven world now, if jack is out for 3/6/9 months or whatever, why not just state it and temper expectations. We shouldn't respond to rumours but the lack of transparency around injuries is strange, if it's to keep the other teams guessing around his injury status, i still don't see the point, we need to be more than Jack FC. The best sides in the world would miss a player of Jacks quality but the track record of villa and injuries in general is strange, Jack, Barkley Engels, Hause etc., Have all been missing for what we're told is weeks and ends up being months and it just fuels unnecessary rumours.

Mcginn with the iron bru

I'm a smith fan, but he's fuelling the conspiracy theories, the modern social media fan wants info right away. He's injured, that's it, it's obvious the original injury was 6-8 weeks and Smith should have just said that's what it is, anything less would have been a bonus.

Had an excellent 10 against spurs and great to see him get 30 mins today, changed the game, moreso than trez, has a huge ceiling and Ive always struggled to see how he gets slated most weeks, looks to have a higher ceiling than Ollie for me. Stronger, good touch and the goals will come, still only 23. I think some people expect finished articles at 21 or they're on the scrap heap.

I read a brilliant comparison this morning, we are "like the Corrs without the women" with Jack missing. Hopefully back fit for Fulham.

Frustrating player, but got real talent and sometimes despite those 89mins of frustration you feel he can come up with a moment of class when chasing a game. Was surprised he came off ahead of Trez last night. 6 goals and 3 assists in about 17 games worth of minutes this season is not a bad return. If we're to progress, having someone like him to challenge a starting winger instead of Trez/El Ghazi is what we should be aiming for.

He's out of form, for sure. But he's shown since end of last season/start of this season how good he can be and miles better than westwood ever was for us! Like any good side, good players need to be playing with good players, too many out of form/missing and the rest of the team suffers. Dougie is a good player, but he's still young and needs a settled midfield around him, I don't know what our 3 are supposed to be doing. Jack whilst good last season, still had plenty of average games. He's stepped up another level this season with better players around him and I don't think Dougie will ever get near Jacks level but he should be able to relied on as a solid top 10 premier league player.

I don't think anyone is excited about the prospect of finishing mid table after the start we had, but the reality is that's the level this squad is at. It's a chance for us to finally show some stability and build on this side in the summer.

Beaten the defending champions 7(Seven!)-2, Arsenal twice, Leicester and built a solid defence whilst playing some top attacking football until recently. If we can finish on 50+ points it will have been a solid season with plenty to build on.

Form has been poor, but a couple of untried 17 year olds aren't the answer to making us a top side, we're 10th and inconsistent but that's the level the side is at. Dean has done a great job so far and until we have a team of top 4 level players and sitting in 10th, I find it hard to see what more can be expected.

I still think Keinan needs to be playing games on loan somewhere, but when we're not creating anything in a game, Keinan offers much more than Ollie. I think there's a player there, I've heard Jack saying in an interview he's so strong in training and a good touch, I can see that in his limited cameos, he just needs games, but probably won't get enough game time here right now.

Our first 11 is probably a 10-12th place side and that's where we'll finish. We need 3-4 quality players to push to a top 8 side and keep grealish. In reality outside of Jack, Emi and Konsa every other player can and should be improved on if we can.

We've also had to do it at a time when player prices have been at an all time high. Maguire 80m, Joelinton/Haller 40m and so on.

Shakespeare came in during pre-season

Not great today, but spurs just had that bit of extra quality on the pitch. Better players than trez to call on and grealish today and we'd be a better side.

Only ever seems to get 12 mins but always looks strong, good touch and involved, yet somehow gets slated every time. Did more in those 12 mins than watkins.

Can't believe trez stayed on instead of him

I sort of agree, I think he's a little too quick with his thinking sometimes though and feels a bit rushed or frantic as a player, but some of that is what makes him what he is. I like him as a player but he's a top 8/12 player as you say or a decent squad player for a top 6 side

Brighton were turning down 35m+ offers for Ben White who had never played in PL, Tarkowski valued at 40m+, AWB went for 50m+ and had done less than Konsa. Konsa is barely 23 and played over 150+ career games and only getting better. I'd say he's worth around 45/50m right now and id be tempted to cash in on him if a 50m+ offer arrived. We need to get better at selling our best assets for good money and re-investing in the next Konsa/Cash/Watkins types. If we sold one a season it would help us re-invest and build a sustainable team

The bbc needs to move on from Garth Crooks if they have any ambition of being a top broadcaster.

It's a failure from both, Bruce had unprecedented tools at his disposal, the best team in the division, wages and funds yet he still failed. He is part of this whole mess, if we hadn't beaten barnsley 3-0 in September last year, Bruce would have been sacked and rightly so. We need forward thinking and Bruce and Xia aren't part of that. Takeover is the clubs only way forward and I'm not sure if even that is enough.

Statistical look at Villa vs Swansea http://tinyurl.com/8u4ktoz

A great prospect who hopefully will push on this season, been better than bent so far this season i think. Seems to get shots away without having many touches in the game, only had 15 touches against Swansea but got 4 shots off the most of any Villa player that game.

looks like he could be a top player for us, his workrate is brilliant and that will make him a fans favourite alone but needs to do a bit more with the ball when he has it, I think he can offer a lot of the qualities Milner brought to the side except without that added quality Milner has.

The team looked hungry straight from the off against Swansea, we didn't sit back and went at them straight away. Already you can see the influence Lambert has had on the team and their is still much room for improvement which is good.