KJT123

I had sort of taken a playoff spot for granted. Now that's starting to look like a struggle.

Starting to get really concerned now.

Adomah is just a nothing player these days. Good option to have off the bench when we're defending a tight lead perhaps, but if we want to score goals, Bolasie and El Ghazi should be ahead of him.

Quite excited for Bree getting his chance in his natural position. Could be the start of a good run in the side.

Did you miss the bit where he came on against Stoke, scored and won a penalty to get us back in the game? He also set up Hourihane's goal against Leeds with a lovely piece of skill. He was bizarrely subbed early in that game and for some reason has only played two minutes since.

How many more points are we going to drop from winning positions? Can't take our chances when we get them, capitulate when faced with any pressure. Not a particularly good combination if you want to be successful in the playoffs.

When I say better on the ball, I mean Bjarnason is more likely to lift his head up and play a defence-splitting pass. Whelan on the other hand can't wait to make a simple 5 yard pass to a defender.

Bjarnason had a good run in the side through September and October where he proved that he offered more to the team than Whelan. He didn't look good against Leeds but he was making his first appearance since returning from injury where he missed seven matches. Bjarnason isn't as good defensively but he's so much more capable with the ball than Whelan. When Whelan plays it's quite clear that he restricts us.

@RCCelta received an offer from @AVFCOfficial by Nemanja Radoja. At 23 hours, we counted it on @aocontraataque. The player always said he wanted to play in English football. In this case it would be in the Championship, in the Second English, but by the hand of a historical club

Norwich and Leeds can **** off

Pathetic.

Very clear to see that we missed Grealish. Nearly all of our attacks came through wide areas and crossing rather than Jack making runs through the middle of the opposition's midfield and defence. It meant that we were more reliant on Hutton and Elmo, and that's never going to work is it, particularly when Stoke were playing for the draw until they got the first goal. I think if Jack isn't back for the next match, O'Hare needs to come in, or at least someone that can play in the same position.

More points dropped. Full backs not good enough, particularly Elmo. Frustrating as our promotion push seems to be stalling.

Linked to Romaine Sawyers according to Pete O’Rourke (think he used to work for Sky Sports) https://www.footballinsider247.com/exclusive-aston-villa-line-up-saunders/

Given the squad and the way we're playing, we simply have to be aiming for automatics. I'd be disappointed with play-offs.

If results go against us, which given the fixtures could quite feasibly happen, we could be in ninth spot by the end of tomorrow, four points off the playoffs and 10 points off automatics. On paper, tonight was a decent result, but 2-1 up going into added time we should be seeing out the game. Could be very costly.

It seems like every time we drop points, it's because of him.

Could've been a monumental three points. Disgraceful how the assistant can't see the handball.

Two ways this match will go: We come out and score early, push on and win by two or three. Or we fail to take our chances and WBA score a late winner. Come on, boys.

So, how many are we gonna score this time lads?

Taken from the excellent Experimental361 site

Look at petulant little Derby. Not going their way and they try and break legs. Pathetic.

This will be a thrashing. 5 or 6-0.

This is the first time in a while that I’ve woken up after a defeat disappointed, but for the right reasons. Normally I’m angry at the players for not putting the effort in, angry at the manager for setting up the team poorly, or angry with the style of football that we played. This morning I feel empathy for both the players and the management. We pressed high up the pitch from the first kick, we played on the front foot, and we passed the ball out from the back despite some of our players clearly not being comfortable with it. The signs in the last three games have been very positive – the players are clearly buying into Smith’s ideas and it will only be a matter of time until we start converting our dominance into wins. Convincing wins at that, too. Our defence is the problem and I’m not sure we’re going to be able to fix that until January. Instead, given that in our last two games we’ve been unable to break down the opposition’s defence while trailing, I suspect in training over the next week there will be a focus on creating chances. In Bruce’s tenure we have relied on individual moments of brilliance to score goals rather than slick passing to carve open a defence. You can clearly see that there has been an emphasis on patience in the final third in the last three games. The ball will go wide, and instead of swinging in a cross to nobody in particular, we’ve tried to play around the box until a chance opens up. It’s a completely different way of playing and it’s going to take time to master. We now have an extended period of time on the training pitch until next Friday. Against Bolton, I think we’ll see a team that are a lot more confident going forward, to the point where we’ll be able to create plenty of clear-cut chances and rack up a big scoreline.