Rightdm00

Landed wrong during Burnley's goal. Twisted his knee. Given that he had torn an ACL before I really hope it's only a twist.

Fully agree. Outside of Pool and ManC no one is playing better. I woke up everyone in my house with that second goal. I'm trying to think of another goal he's lashed in like that. One isn't coming to mind. Just shows how he still has more to show.

I usually ignore you but pissing on a performance like that is so annoying. How is Smith supposed to change it? El Ghazi has been poor, he brought on Kodija and we went down to 10 men. What is Smith to do? You had enough fun these last couple games let us enjoy this one.

Really didn't see that. Burnley went all out attack. Of course we are gonna be on the back foot. We had a clear cut chance to go up 3 within 5 minutes. We just didn't take our chances in the 2nd half. Honestly we just don't have the pace to play on the counter. Hopefully we address that this month.

A little more solid every game. More of the same Douglas.

You could tell he didn't have all his pace available but he was a rock just like always. Love the big man. We look so much more solid with him back there.

That pass to Luiz in the build up to the second was sublime. That injury looked bad in slow motion. Please don't be out long kodija is .

Yep, whatever Turkish side wants him needs to hurry up already. The American announcers were questioning his fitness even though he came on with 3/4 of the game gone. Dude is just lazy.

Fair play to Dean and everyone on here who called for 3 in the back. In the future a Konsa, Engels, and Ming's back line is a rock for away games. Also you could tell Ming's isnt completely healed from that hamstring but he gutted it out for the full 90. Love the big man.

Yeah that's the one I don't get. Why is Wesley immune to rotation. What will it take for Kodija to get a look.

Yeah it was really startling to see how nervous we were versus Norwich. What happened to that team that was putting in performances win or lose? One point was Mings going down. He was a big loss as alot of our possession started with him winning the ball and not hoofing it up field at the first sign of pressure. Another, is just how young we are. I didn't think it would matter all that much but imagine what would have happened to our team spirit if we took a 9-0 loss. Southampton had the nous and experience to shake that off and keep grinding out results. It's the main reason why Chelsea are so up and down this year. This is why I hope we go the experience route this transfer window. I think our talent levels are high enough to stay in the Prem. It's our know how and fire that seem to be lacking.

Not just his defense but without him our ability to build out the back is practically nil. He is our second best player by far. Also, notice how much hate Target has been getting now that his security blanket has been missing. Ming's returns, we sign a new striker and winger and I think we push back up the table.

He was so deep. I swear he dropped into the back line a couple times. Okay on a serious note why does Dean love to play it wide and pump in the crosses buy a striker in Wesley who can't head the ball at all. Baffling.

Great performance until the last 10 minutes where it seemed like the nerves started showing through. At 21 that's not surprising. That type of pressure packed performance is how you grow as a player. More of the same Douglas.

Some of the players were so nervous. Not a pretty win but hopefully it's the shot of confidence we need going forward.

That through ball to Trez was our best pass of the season so far. Just looked up Jack's age 21 stats. He had 5G 2A in 20 starts and 11 sub appearances in the championship. That's a pretty unremarkable season. Very few players are ripping up trees at age 21 and the ones that do we surely can't afford. Jack is probably now probably twice the player he was at 21. I see the same path for Douglas. He just need's game time.

Jack was very isolated versus Sheffield and I think our hoofing out the back was a major reason why. Who do we have up top to win those balls? Hause was serviceable, nothing more.

Yep, I can't find the tweet but Mcginn is tops for longest passes played. He never takes the simple option. Can't figure out if that's a Mcginn thing or an instruction from Dean.

He's gifted possession on at least 3 occasion with those cross field balls. If we make a change it has to be Lansbury. I vote Douglas only because I would like to keep the midfield tight and keep Jack away from picking up that 5th yellow.

Really hard to maintain possession, build out the back with Hause hoofing everything but it's 0-0. So good so far

On the NBC American feed they thought it was Leicester's bench. It looked that way to me as well. It' seems like the most obvious answer. Occam's razor and all that.

Looking at shots conceded isolated like that just isn't a good stat. Considering that blocked shots, shot's that are shanked 30 yards over the goal and slow rollers your nan could save are all counted as equal shots. It's pretty hard to determine much from shots conceded without added context. Understat.com does a good job of tracking expected goals for and against. Give it a look. It will show that Villa concede a bunch of low quality shots every game. Still not a good defensive team but shots conceded isnt a real pressing issue.

I've looked back 10 years and am tempted to go back another 10. Only one team has gone done with a less -20 GD since 2009. Usually the 18th placed team is sitting somewhere around -25. This is the main reason I'm not worried about the drop right now.

I said our first 11 was top ten quality. Problem is you have to name 18 players to a match day squad. Our bench is probably the worst in the Prem and that has been our undoing time and time again. It's probably the main reason we are one of the best first half teams and and then one of the worst 2nd half ones.

Fully agree. I would go so far as to say our first 11 is easily top ten quality and a prolific striker away from top 6. The drop off though is very steep as soon as you get to the bench. Its probably why Smith persist so long with his starting 11 every game. That's why I'm content with survival this season. Next summer we can work on building a prem quality 18 man squad.