wilko154

It's a good point and all very true. But there is a reason why we have stopped pressing as a team, and there is a reason why the team looks so tired all of the time. When we have the ball we don't have anyone who can get their foot on it and hold it, play the passes that help to retain possesion, carry the ball forward; when you have players who can do this it gives the whole team a breather as the high pressing they have been doing is stopped. Instead we now spend most of the game without possesion, or when we do have it we completely waste it; it means that our players spend more time trying to play a high pressing game early on and then can't see it through for the entire game. The problem is, as I have said before, we haven't changed our game plan since Grealish and Tuanzebe have been out and we now don't have a team capable of playing in the way we are trying to get them to play.

I imagine the Bradford fans weren't too sad to see him go... in fact I bet they didn't give a toss seeing as though he was managing Brentford. Since Smith left Brentford they have nosedived down the league table, although over the last 5 games they have picked up a fair few points to drag them away from a relegation battle. The honeymoon period is definately over, by DS hasn't been a massive failure at all. He's shown exactly why we brought him in as manager, he just doesn't have the squad to implement the football style he wants. He has been massively let down by the lack of squad depth in certain areas, something we were all aware of over the Summer transfer window and the dealings Bruce made. It's far too early to be saying it's the final straw, it could well be the kick up the arse that the players need.

He looked out of his depth because we asked him to play the number 8 role with Scott Hogan ahead of him. We tried to shoehorn him into Grealish’s role. Had we set up the team with two midfielders and O’Hare free in the number 10 role with Kodjia or Davis for him to play off he would have benefitted massively.

This is the criminal side of the management team for me though. We’ve now played 5-6 (possibly more) games without Grealish and haven’t come up with a way to play without him. Instead we’ve just pressed on playing the same way as when he was in the squad and dictating games. Its a massive worry, no team can rely entirely on one player. Smith either needs to change the formation and way we play until Jack is back or he quickly needs to bring someone in who can also play the same role.

Can anyone tell me what the point in having an academy is? We have players in our first team who are clearly not good enough yet they play week in week out.

I give up tonight. I thought the split in the fan base had healed after the Bruce debacle. Four months later and we are split again. It's not going to happen overnight, and Smith needs time to sort out the mess he has inherited. Another manager isn't going to be able to fix this without at least two transfer windows under his belt. I'm as disappointed in today as anyone but in Smith I think we have the right man for the job. His players have let him down massively today.

Don't get me wrong he was horribly bad when he came on but... He should never have been thrown in at the deep on end on his debut whilst 1-0 down and under pressure. He's not played much football lately, and to come on from the bench and be expected to get up to the games pace straight away whilst being subjected to an onslaught was ridiculous. He tried to go forward and play out from the back but whereas Tuanzebe normally does it and releases to Jack, we had nobody available today. He will be fine at Villa, but it was crazy for Smith to chuck him on like that. Even crazier when we were 1-0 down with two strikers on the bench!

I don't think going up would be a problem at all. We would be able to invest some serious money into the team with promotion, and even with relegation we would receive the parachute payments and our FFP worries would be clear for another 2-3 years. Not really an issue though as there is more chance of Huddersfield winning the Premier League than us getting promotion this season.

I'm pretty worried that it's now January 12th and we have only seen Hause come in (Kalinic was done in December) Did we not have shortlists of players for left back, defensive midfield and midfield? I honestly expect us to sign someone this week. Personally would do this now: Recall Andre Green - Our wingers aren't doing it, Kodjia is injured, bring Green back and let him have a go Sign a left back this week - I never want to see Neil Taylor play again, I hear Mitch Clark was injured today. This has to be a priority Defensive midfielder Centre midfielder - replacement/alternative for Jack Give Doyle-Hayes & O'Hare first team opportunities Sell Bjarnasson Sell Whelan Sell Jedinak

He's so bad it hurts. I remember for a time Stephen Warnock was absolutely shocking at left back, but he was so bad it was actually funny. This just isn't funny... The worst part about Taylor being bad is that we don't have another left back, even in the U23's. We are a professional football club in the second tier of English football and we don't have a spare left back in the whole club. How does this happen?! Even my local parks team have two left backs to choose from!?

You can't sack a manager at the start of a rebuilding project for a few poor results. The players were largely to blame today, along with the poor squad inherited from Bruce. The midfield was absolute garbage and we only had Whelan available to bring on. If you sat in the Holte End over Christmas you would realise that some of our fans are deluded in where the football club are at this stage. They moan and groan when we knock the ball around at the back, they complain when we go sideways to retain possession. Our fanbase is demanding for more than we can currently give them at the moment. Understandably we aren't been given a lot to cheer about but there has to be a realisation of where we are at right now. I watched Leeds on Friday night and they are a million miles away from where we are currently at.

Just what we need, another dinosaur

Absolute nonsense. You're saying a German manager gets a two year window to change a football club, Dean Smith gets no time at all because he was once an Aston Villa fan. The fact he knows this league is meaningless if he doesn't have the players he needs to suit his style of football. We don't just automatically get instant success because we are Aston Villa. We are an average Championship team who have wasted a lot of money on some very average football players on high wages.

He's got to be given time to rebuild. We can't just keep jumping from manager to manager. Building a team here to suit a style, sack the manager then start a new rebuild to suit a new style here. This club is so broken, yet our fans keep demanding we go out and win every game with Barcelona style football.

We can spend, we've already spent money this window. Bolasie is pants, I would rather bring Green back and give him a go on the left. Grealish will bring in 30-40 million, that could bring in 4 new high quality players. He would be a massive loss but could help build the team with the money.

Smith has now been hit hard by the instant change in fortunes when he took over. We went from playing desperately abject football under Bruce to bossing games with energetic, high pressing, possession based football. It's now becoming clear that it was a new manager bounce as well as the overhaul in tactics that helped produce those perfomance's. Tuanzebe and Grealish obviously helped immensely. We've now fallen back into the performances we were being subjected to under Bruce and suddenly people are getting on Smith's back. We have to remember this is still Bruce's squad, a depleted squad from last season. We have some very good players, but they are mixed in with some past it players, some individually good players, and some very average/poor players. Unfortunately we have more of the latter than the former. We have to get behind Smith and give him the chance to implement his style of football and bring in the players to help him do this. It's not going to happen overnight and it most likely won't happen this season. Promotion was an outside chance this season, and whilst it's disappointing that we will lose players like Grealish and Abraham, the long term goal of Aston Villa rebuilt and playing football to be proud of is the overall goal.

I know we have been banging the play the kids drum for a while and last week it didn't go well, but I would honestly give it a chance now. The midfield is the problem area now, we are so soft in the middle that we get ploughed through at every opportunity putting pressure on a weak backline. We have to get players on the ball that can keep possession, hold the ball and drive forward with it. The wingers are offering very little and Adomah looks completely shot. Kalinic Hutton Elphick Chester Taylor Hourihane McGinn Doyle-Hayes Bolasie Abraham Green Bree needs game time but we don't have the luxury of blooding him in a weak backline currently. We need to switch back to Hutton for the time being. Hourihane has been poor in the midfield but he is slightly better than Bjarnasson, we have no other options. Doyle-Hayes is one of the best midfielders in the U23's, between him and O'Hare they can provide the energy we need in the middle next to McGinn until Grealish is back. Personally I would recall Green from Portsmouth. El Ghazi, Kodjia and Adomah are so inconsistent we may as well give Green a chance to show what he can do. We need to change something because at the moment it just isn't working.

That team is absolutely dire. Elmo is the worst right back we have. Hutton isn't a left back. Jedinak is past it. Lansbury is injured. Abraham and Kodjia has been tried and doesn't work.

And chuck them in with 20 minutes to go in a game we are trying to get back into...

You are right about that, Bjarnasson is terrible.

Who would you play in midfield then? And who would you have appointed as manager?

Smith's problem is he's trying to play his style of football without Grealish and Tuanzebe in the side who were vital to what we were doing. He's now continued to try and play it and our defenders and midfielders just aren't good enough to execute it. He needs to change the way we are playing instead of just pressing on with it, it doesn't have to be long term but just until we have players who can hold and play on the ball.

Yeh I get that, but given time and a couple of transfer windows and he got us to the playoffs. We just never progressed after that. I understand everyones frustrations though, we seem to be going backwards and the substitutions are farcical.

Calling for Dean Smith's head after a defeat, absolutely pathetic. It's becoming like the Facebook groups on here. Get a grip guy's, the bloke needs time and transfer windows to sort out this absolute mess of a football team.

You can't write him off as a manager because of a bad performance today. He hasn't had a full window or summer window yet. The midfield and defence are massively letting us down at the moment and as of yet he hasn't been able to recruit any players to fix it.