wilko154

Think Bjarnasson would offer more in the high press playing centrally.

Thought Taylor's been pretty solid. Tuanzebe has been immense. Whelan doesn't offer as much as Bjarnasson and he's struggling, although some of the balls to him don't help. Grealish is too far forward a lot of the time and need's to be sat in the gap next to Hourihane. Hutton started slow again but is growing into it.

Would love him & Hogan to come off the bench and show what they can do, potentially would be like two new signings.

Have to say I was massively impressed on Saturday, the difference in the way we played football was outstanding in the short time he had with the players. Things that impressed were: Playing out from the back consistently. Chester and Tuanzebe were dropping into the sides of the box when Nyland had the ball, it immediately gives an option for an out ball with both full backs already higher up the pitch. It also pulls in the whole opposition team as they look to stop the out ball, and mark the midfielders who are waiting on the edge of the box for a ball out. For too long balls out from the back have been lumped forward and come straight back at us. Players in the right positions. Taylor and Hutton both in their correct positions, with Tuanzebe at centre back. Grealish being played centrally with two wingers on each side. The whole team looked more of a unit from this, Taylor deserves some credit as he was brilliant at left back and it made a massive difference having a left footed player in that position. Confidence. The confidence in the team was clear to see. Nyland and Taylor both had strong games, and Tuanzebe looked very assured at centre back. Chester also looked much more relaxed. Consistently playing this back 4 will now allow them to grow even further and become a defensive unit that we really need. Pressing. We pressed for around 70 minutes before some of the team tired, Smith then made the substitutes to continue this but they weren't too effective (Kodjia/Bolasie). Pressing isn't something we have done enough of and we usually invite pressure onto us especially in the closing stages of a game. McGinn was exceptional in this role and it really plays to his strengths. Things I hope we now look at and begin to change: Set pieces need working on. At the start of the season McGinn was putting some incredible balls into the box from corners and free kicks, since then we seem to have Grealish or Hourihane taking the majority. I wouldn't mind McGinn being given more of these along with getting some work done on set pieces in general. The amount of corners we waste from under hitting, or over hitting balls into the box is just daft. Leave a man up top for opposition corners. Just leave Grealish up there, he's hardly going to win a header and it immediately gives us an out ball, or something for the opposition to think about when the ball comes out. Currently the ball is cleared and they have plenty of time to either smash it back in or start another attack. Hutton was decent in the second half, but he was poor in the first half (possibly from not playing right back for a while). Given some time this season I would like to see Bree brought through and given a chance to take the right back spot. Passing was at times off, but Smith has mentioned this in his pre-match interview and I think this will be worked on soon. Abraham was the worst for this in the first half giving away possesion a few times, that being said he had a good game.

For me: Nyland Hutton Tuanzebe Chester Taylor Bjarnasson Hourihane Elmo Grealish Adomah Abraham Bunn, Jedinak, Bree, Lansbury, Bolasie, Kodjia, Hogan

Spent hours on FUT Squad Battles this week, got myself up to Elite and opened two premium player packs and one mega pack this morning... all average players. Officially done with FUT this year.

I think it depends if there is a recall option included in the loan. If there is an option you can only take it up during the loan window in January.

I don't think that is the case at all. The midfield were starting to tire in the last 10 minutes and it needed some fresh legs, both Bjarnasson and McGinn still had a bit of energy and had done well breaking up the play all game. The substition is one we needed to make on Saturday, but is also a substition Bruce wouldn't have made previously. I've seen a lot of people on Twitter slating Grealish for his recent performances, saying we should have sold him whilst we had the chance. He will come good. He's being playing in a poorly setup side, Saturday's overall performance was a marked improvement and with more time with the squad we will see everyone start to put in better performances, Grealish included.

He was poor on Saturday, he didn't track back to help out Hutton at all and waited for the ball to come to him instead of moving for it. On the ball he is normally very good and showed glimpses of it at times, but for this team to work they need to be hardworking and Bolasie currently isn't.

So a player having a good game doesn't change your opinion on him? He's had a poor start but will now begin to improve with a settled back four in front of him. Are you going to hold the first two months of his Villa career against him?

I can't believe some of the comments I have read after today's game. Granted we are not the finished product, but from recent performances and today's performance it was like night and day. From the off today we have played football out from the back with an intent to keep possession. I can count the long balls on one hand there were that few. For Smith to implement those changes in a week of training with half a squad is absolutely superb. Give him some more time to work with them properly and we could begin to see something special here. Second half we were always going to drop off the pace a bit as Swansea counteracted what we were doing, that will be fixed in time. The performance and the result were both better than I expected and I can't see how anyone can have any complaints. Nyland was great in goal. both him and Taylor looked to have an instant boost of confidence today. McGinn was superb, absolutely immense in every aspect of his game. He will be a massive miss on Tuesday.

Unfortunately Gabby gave up on Villa a few seasons before Bruce came in. Sorry to hear about your mum mate.

I was heartbroken with the way he treated the club. How can anyone feel sorry for a professional football who played for his boyhood club yet went missing in the season they were relegated? Look at the state of him during our relegation season. This guy was being paid £50,000 per week at the time the club needed him the most.

Agreed. It's the Twitter and Forum keyboard warriors that turn the quickest on managers. It happened on here last season where people were against Bruce even when we were in the top 6. I go home and away and it's only been the last 4-5 games where the fans have started turning, yet even up until Bristol City the away fans were divided between getting behind the team and rallying against the manager. Personally I think Smith will get a 1-2 months grace here before the fans start worrying about results. I also don't think he will need it with his and his teams tactical ideas combined with the first team we have. Just playing players in their correct positions for a start will help!

Personally I would rather see Whelan in front of the defence mopping up mistakes, unfortunately Jedinak is now too slow and he gets caught out on the turn. Aerially he is superb, and so he needs rotating with Whelan in the appropriate games until we can play without a defensive midfielder in their mould.

Of all the ways to announce it...

The main thing about the 3 games in 6 days is that teams above us WILL drop points. These are the run of games we dropped points in last season and eventually cost us automatic promotion. I'm not expecting the team to play in a completely different way but I'm hoping that Smith will at least organise them differently and lean on an attacking intent rather than a defensive policy. Over the next few games we have the chance to sort out a first eleven to move forward with, and more importantly make a statement to the rest of the Championship.

Chester hasn't been good but it's true that he hasn't been part of not just a settled centre-back partnership, but a complete back 5 partnership. We have changed goalkeepers, right backs, centre-backs and left backs this season. The other reason he has been so poor is due to Bruce setting a team up not to lose each week, he set us up to defend when our defence is the weakest aspect of our team. If Smith can get us playing attacking, possesion based football through the middle; it immediately takes the pressure off the back line and you'll see Chester start to put in some top performances alongside Tuanzebe. A player doesn't go from being one of our best players for two seasons straight into being poor without reasons for it.

I think PES started out as the indie game to rival FIFA, and although at one point the gameplay was better it never became the number one football game due to the licensing issues.

The problem comes from fans writing him off after one poor performance. Last season prior to injury he was brilliant, it was always going to take him time to get up to speed. Now, with the operation he's been able to have at Portsmouth, I think he will recover and get back up to speed with them ahead of next season. The same thing is currently happening with Nyland, he's been written off by fans off the back of some poor performances, yet he's come into England and played in an badly setup team with a poor defence. As for the academy, we have some great young players coming through in O'Hare, Doyle-Hayes, Clarke, Suliman.

Unfortunately it's all dependant on the result. If we lose on Saturday then the majority won't return to Villa Park for a while... Fortunately I think we will improve drastically over the next few games.

Granted he has seemed slow on the ball this season, but it's happened because in most games so far he has had next to no movement around him. Trying to pick out passes to team-mates who are stationary makes it a harder job and he then ends up holding onto the ball for too long. Last season he had the movement of Snodgrass and Adomah on each wing and so when he drove forward he could slip balls through to them. Jack will benefit from having wingers out wide in El Ghazi, Bolasie and Adomah who are always looking to receive the ball in space. He will also benefit from a player like Hogan who is always on the move. He's also been played out wide this season, along with having to drop deeper in games to pick up the ball. This doesn't fit his game, he's a player that needs to be given the ball in the centre of the pitch so that he can drive forward and pick out passes to players around him. As far as passing and moving goes I would say Grealish is the best player we have at this. He just needs a team built around him to bring the best out of him, instead of being shoehorned into positions to ensure he is in the first eleven.

Streaker

To be honest I'm quite glad we don't have to hear more about the 'Villa engine' which clearly was never implemented two years ago. I think in the next few months we will hear more about youth development, analytics etc... currently we need to look at the current season and try and get ourselves back on track for promotion by Christmas so we can start planning for the future. Granted every club should always be planning for the future, unfortunately as a club we have been a complete car crash for a long time now and it will take time to straighten us out.