Rightdm00

Wow Randy Lerner's last big F you to the club was selling Villa to that fraud of an owner. What was his fit and proper test? " Tony Xia please pat your head and rub your tummy."

Were you around for the MON years? Then you would remember us starting the season on fire, MON naming the same 11 every week and just when a Champions league spot was within our grasp those 11 players would lose game after game due to fatigue. This board complained every week as MON named an unchanged side. Rotation is a necessity in the Prem even more now that every team is required to play a pressing style of defense. Not rotating players is definitely going to end up costing us. Thankfully this season our only worry is not finishing lower than 17th.

That article makes a couple great points especially the one about Nakamba being the first line of our defense. It then throws in that awful line about Nakamba being an average at best because he completes 84.5% of his passes. As others have mentioned that's a joke of a stat if you are trying to say Nakamba isn't Prem quality. Still, our midfield has been very porous all season with teams not having to work very hard to get the ball into our final third. I am pretty sure Ming's wishes he didn't have to make multiple goal saving blocks a game. Dean took the first step to address that issue by moving Grealish to the wing. The next step, especially versus stronger opposition, will be pairing Douglas with Nakamba and using both of them to help defend the middle 3rd. Also, just to be clear Nakamba is definitely a prem quality midfielder. I would almost venture to say that outside of the Top 6 we have the best midfield in the Prem.

I mean what else is he supposed to say? He is in a brand new country, a brand new team, new culture....I could go on. The last thing he wants to do is create a flash point. Many minorities grin and bear racial issues when the only other option is to stir the pot. That is why it's important for the Club and other stake holders to speak out, have Nakamba's back in a sense. The response by everyone involved has been spot on so far. Which as a black kid who was always the only little black dot in the team photo's it's been great to see.

And in the 3 Prem games before the last 2 we allowed a total of 1 goal. Our defense is more than adequate to maintain our Premier League status.

Barnsley played a suicidal high line and made that Brentford front line look AMAZING! Hopefully he kick's on from that game and justifies a move by the winter window.

This article pretty much shows that Mcginn is pretty much playing off of Wesley sometimes even ahead of him as the second striker. He really isn't doing a lot of the midfield work, which is fine because he is our #1 goal threat, but it shows why we had to get that extra midfielder in the lineup. Can't wait til we get that double pivot lineup. Douglas & Nakamba with Mcginn, Grealish, and one of our wide men behind the striker. I feel going forward that will be our preferred formation.

Exactly. He just signed a new deal right after the window closes. If he leaves it will be for a stupidly high fee.

You defend from the front. Once we have an attacker running at our back line that means two lines of defense have already been played through. Currently we sorely lack steel in the middle of the park. Teams have been playing through our midfield with regularity this season. I'm pretty sure that was the main reason Jack got pushed out wide. Connor is probably fine at home as Nakamba's partner but on the road it has to be Douglas. You could almost make the point we need another pure DM to break up play as neither Douglas or Nakamba really fit that role. I know it sounds crazy after spending $140 million but the January transfer window will be key to our relegation fight.

Moving Grealish to the left was pretty much the #1 suggestion on VT after our midfield got overrun vs Arsenal. Deano makes it work and makes us all look like tactical geniuses . Having a manager like Deano who is always thinking of ways to make his team more progressive, more attacking is a blessing.

I have to admit on first viewing I thought he shinned it. On replay I had to eat my words. Fantastic touch and placement.

And people were on here banging the " Tammy is to sleight wont be physical enough for the Prem." As most people know toughness is a state of mind as much as it is how strong/built you are. I'm assuming this play acting that Wesley pulls must have worked in other leagues he has competed in but it just aint happening in the Prem. His second half performance was just abysmal. We play a lot of American Football over here in the states. Seeing someone get knocked out from a collision, sadly, is pretty commonplace. The player goes limp upon impact. That's actually the most dangerous part for the impacted player. They go limp, the head makes a bee line for the ground and the arms do nothing to lessen the impact. Other times their arms go into what's called the fencing position where the player is laying down on the ground but their arms are stuck straight out like he is looking for someone to give him a hand to get back up. Wesley somehow took that shot to the face, no doubt painful, was conscience to react, throw has hands towards his face but somehow once on the ground he's out in a very comfortable yet comical looking position. It was embarrassing and we had to concede possession once play was restarted. Honestly if Wesley had actually been knocked out cold and Aston Villa's doctor sent him back out there they should all be fired. Wes is a bit soft, I really hope Dean has a talk with him after today. That crap has to stop.

Got bullied as the game went on. On the first goal Ashley Barnes damn near ripped his shirt off to get to that ball before him. Still as a defender you have to be stronger than a shirt pull. No major complaints but he will have to be stronger going forward especially against cynical teams like Burnley.

Putting Jack out wide in that free role was the first step. Now just have to find the proper midfield combo. I am 100% with you that Nakamba and Douglas will be 2 in the double pivot. Playing Jack, John and only one of our wide men also means we don't have as huge of a need to find another wide man in the January window. We can focus all of our resources on another striker and maybe another midfielder if the right deal shows up.

Which we can fix in the January window if need be. If we had major issues say like cheap owners, a clueless manager, or multiple holes in the squad I would be panic stations. But this team just needs some fine tuning. You have to be good enough to get a lead to then throw one away. These 7 games we have shown that the Prem isn't to big for us and that we can hang with pretty much anyone bar maybe ManC and Pool. The issues with this team can easily be fixed given the resources of our Owners and the know how of our managerial team. Until our Owners pull a Lerner or Dean goes all Steve Bruce i'm keeping the faith.

That was a typical Hourihane performance. If he doesn't get goal or assist it's hard to find his imprint on the game. I would rather play Douglas so Grealish doesn't have to drop deep all the time to start the attack. Connor has alot of great traits but if everyone in the midfield is healthy I think he makes the 18 but not the 11.

I think maybe a few on this forum needed to have more realistic expectations. Dean said at the start of the season the goal was to stay up. And that he would go out to win every game. We've done exactly that. Name a game where we weren't in til the end? A promoted team who's own CEO said we are a year ahead of schedule, what exactly were you expecting? We finished fifth in the Championship ffs. Their's no God given right to a comfortable mid table finish in the Prem. We are in a fight with about 10 other clubs that desperately want to stay in the Prem like us. Many of them, think Burnley and Bournemouth, have been in this fight for years. While Villa is just getting started. We are 7 games into the season and we are one point off our target position on the table. By no means should we be happy but the way some talk on here you would think we are 20th still looking for our first goal.

We have a defender winning the physical battles, always seems to be in the right spot and then put the ball on his feet and he calmly pulls off a Cruyff turn when under pressure to retain possession. This team has some issues, namely the midfield being far to easy to play through at times, but Ming's isn't it.

Dominated the first 45 but second half again Dean leaves the changes to late. Trez comes on but only due to injury and Davis, as others have stated, was 20 minutes to late. Moving Jack out to the left and giving him a free role was a masterstroke. Gives me hope that Dean has no problem changing it up when needed. It's still early days and we seem to be up for every opponent. Can't really ask for much more. 17th is the goal and I still have faith Dean can get us there.

Playing Connor and Nakamba allowed John to stay forward without us sacrificing the midfield. Going forward I think that is the way we have to play. This is the first game Jack and John both looked completely comfortable in their positioning. More of the same Deano.

Jack in a free role on the left was everything I hoped it would be. He was interchanging with Connor on the left, dropping deep, just popping up everywhere. By far his best game for us. If only he had brought his shooting boots.

Wants the ball to feet but that's not what we have him up there for. I'm ready to see Keinan get a run out.

Davis should have been on after Wesley got knocked out. Dean leaves it to late again IMO. We come out flat and he does nothing to shake it up til it's too late. I love how Dean sets us up to start but our 2nd half performances leave alot to be desired.

He is a **** player but he is also only 21. He doesn't even turn 22 til the end of the season. Jack at 21 was the same way blowing either red hot or Ice cold. If it takes Douglas 3 years to come good then even better for us. Hopefully the buyback either has expired or it's like 45 million. Also I like the idea of Nakamamba, the more mature player, shouldering the majority of the responsibility at the DM spot while we find Douglas about 20-25 appearances. Douglas has probably never experienced pressure of this level before. Not only premier league football, arguably the highest level of the sport outside the Champs league, but a relegation fight. A fight where every mistake is amplified. And guess what young players do, yep they make mistakes. What I'm saying is keep the faith with Douglas. Their is a definite player in there. Hopefully our club and supporters give him the proper atmosphere to grow and find that next level.

It's bad, like really bad. I fully agree that he brings alot to the pitch but when you have a striker scoring 1 in 3(very average) then you need other people to chip in with a couple goals. We probably need 5 goals each from El Ghazi and Trez. I can see El Ghazi getting his but I have no idea how Trez even gets his first goal.