Relegation Thread Version...99?!

[VillaChris]

We need to win 10 games from 27. With expected defeats, that will probably be 50% win ratio.

Way beyond this squad. Hope is we can scramble a win or two before January so we're not too far adrift and then sign some proper players in the transfer window.

[Vancvillan]

Remi can not turn water to wine. Impossible to keep this squad up, absolutely impossible. We need at least three first team players in January, a lot of luck with injuries and hope that other teams don't pull much further ahead.

The squad is awful, not just the first XI whatever XI it is you desire. I've seen a few of our 'best XI' suggestions and all of them are awful because the players aren't good enough. Richards and hopefully Okore might be good enough for defence, Amavi is very promising, Gil and Traore might make an impact and are better than Grealish. Ayew looks to have something about him finally but still doesn't look like an out and out striker. The rest are barely Championship quality. Lescott, Richardson, Sanchez, Gabby and Gestede woukd struggle to get in to a league two team.

Most worryingly is we're so rubbish that some fans thought tonight was good in parts! The lucky goal and four minutes we pressed them is not signs there is a good team in there!

I don't mean to pick on you but this is indicative of the kind of hyperbole that's getting thrown around right now. Gestede banged in 20 league goals for Blackburn last season but you're suggesting he would have to drop down four tiers to get regular football?  He's no world beater, but he could do a job in the right set up against the right opposition.

And that's been our biggest problem so far - tactics and team selections feel like they've come from a dart-throwing monkey hidden in the basement of VP.

Can we stay up?  It's a big ask but it's possible if RG get's a team playing with belief and plays to their strengths.  It'll be a fight, but no need to abandon all hope just yet.  He might turn out to be a complete muppet, or he might turn it around.  It's certainly not impossible that we'll be playing Prem football next year.

 

 

[Mantis]

I think a lot will depend on confidence. The problem at the moment is that confidence is clearly through the floor (thanks Tim).

[jackbauer24]

Remi can not turn water to wine. Impossible to keep this squad up, absolutely impossible. We need at least three first team players in January, a lot of luck with injuries and hope that other teams don't pull much further ahead.

The squad is awful, not just the first XI whatever XI it is you desire. I've seen a few of our 'best XI' suggestions and all of them are awful because the players aren't good enough. Richards and hopefully Okore might be good enough for defence, Amavi is very promising, Gil and Traore might make an impact and are better than Grealish. Ayew looks to have something about him finally but still doesn't look like an out and out striker. The rest are barely Championship quality. Lescott, Richardson, Sanchez, Gabby and Gestede woukd struggle to get in to a league two team.

Most worryingly is we're so rubbish that some fans thought tonight was good in parts! The lucky goal and four minutes we pressed them is not signs there is a good team in there!

I don't mean to pick on you but this is indicative of the kind of hyperbole that's getting thrown around right now. Gestede banged in 20 league goals for Blackburn last season but you're suggesting he would have to drop down four tiers to get regular football?  He's no world beater, but he could do a job in the right set up against the right opposition.

And that's been our biggest problem so far - tactics and team selections feel like they've come from a dart-throwing monkey hidden in the basement of VP.

Can we stay up?  It's a big ask but it's possible if RG get's a team playing with belief and plays to their strengths.  It'll be a fight, but no need to abandon all hope just yet.  He might turn out to be a complete muppet, or he might turn it around.  It's certainly not impossible that we'll be playing Prem football next year.

 

 

I would hope it's clear that it is not meant literally, it is a mechanism used to highlight how bad they are in comparison to the rest of the squad and the league as a whole. Obviously they are not bad enough for League Two, in the same way people proclaim x player shouldn't even earn a wage as a footballer or the referee must be blind or we hope they give 110%... 

Sorry, should I just say they're all doing a better job than me so well done to them all? In fact every player today played better than any of the people who write on these boards ever could. Clap, clap, hooray for everybody.

 

 

Except Richardson. I'm better than Richardson.

[danceoftheshamen]

I don't think this squad is strong enough in all honesty, i've thought that a good while and i think the mucking around with poor players being picked by Sherwood and now K Mac says all we need to know.

We lost all the best players at this club in the summer in Benteke, Delph, Cleverley & Vlaar. The replacements are just basically not as good as it stands and added to that the remaining players, who are our most experienced Premiership players like Gabby, Richardson, Richards, Hutton, Westwood, Lescott and i guess you have to add Clark & Guzan are basically, with maybe the exception of a still somewhat error prone Richards, frankly just not good enough.

Also our hottest prospects in Grealish & Gardner are either perennially injured, just simply not up to it or have an attitude issue by the looks of tonight.

As for the new guys

Ayew is looking the best prospect but took a while to get used to the division

Amavi has promise but is error prone

Veretout appears unfit

Adama Traore can't get a sniff

Gestede is a one trick pony

As for the experienced guys

Guzan = weak & error prone

Hutton = average at best & a liabiltiy

Gabby = none existant (Why on Earth is he Club Captain?)

Westwood = Below average at this level

Lescott = Past his best

Clark = Back to his level from the season before last i.e. Awful

Richards = Best of the bunch but even he's error prone

Richardson = I don't actually need to say anything

So with all that the only player left is Gil who is our classiest player in my opinion

So how exactly are we supposed to build a team from that shower?

For me this is the nearest i can get to a decent line up:

.................................??????

Richards.........Okore........?????........Amavi

Traore.........Gil.........??????..........?????

.......................Ayew.......??????

 

Subs: Guzan, Gestede, Lescott, Sinclair, Sanchez

Even with this team ideally i'd be gradually working in Ayew & Traore rather than Starting them. It's shockingly bad! I'd even put Senderos in at the back if he was available although that looks like a non starter now too.

 

 

 

 

 

[Skruff]

------------------Guzan(?)--------------------------------------
Hutton/Crespo--Richards-Llori/Okore-Amavi---------
-----------------------Westwood/Sanchez-------------------
---------Vertout/Westwood---------Gana-------------------
--Aadama/Gil------------(Gil)-----Gil/Ayew/Sinclair----
-------------------Ayew/Gestede------------------------------

I'd like to see these players in some sort of combination depending on form and/or opposition. I'd stay clear of the rest of the players we got at the moment.
In something what might be 4-3-3,  4-1-2-3, 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1.
Most importantly we need a first 11 that gets settled and used to playing with each other, or at least a spine of 8-9 players.
With a gameplan and some smart subs and a manager that can get the best out of our new players I think we'll be be fine.
 

 

 

 

[Wainy316]

We're almost 2/1 to stay up. Gotta be worth £100.

[Delphinho123]

Relegation would be much easier to stomach if we were playing our best team and losing every week, that way I'd just accept we weren't good enough and we deserve it.

Doing it the way we're doing it is just bizarre. Benching your best players and millions of pounds worth of players and depriving the fans of any flair is just upsetting.

To think, a handful of people within the club are paid thousands and these handful of idiots can't even pick the right starting XI.

Up the villa. I'll be there in the championship cheering them on, long after the cretins who've sent us down have gone. 

F*** off Lerner, Fox and co.

[Ingram85]

[myb]

I have 2 glimmers of hope... 1 is that we haven't yet been beaten out of sight and have had spells in every game where we have looked like we may just sneak something out of it.

The other is that we have not seen anything like our strongest 11 this season. From the starting 11 last night I would make a minimum of 7 changes. That gives the team a whole new look. 

[Woodytom]

An utter joke of a football club who thoroughly deserves to go down and will.

How many times in the last 5 years have we just rolled over and been beaten. By far and away the easiest team to play against in the league.

Complete lack of heart, desire, mental toughness, brains and skill.

Not that I'm bothered anyway bit friends and family have stopped mocking me for the way things are at villa. They just feel sorry for us now. Pathetic.

[Richard]

Half the players on the pitch last night demonstrated no professional pride and some of the rest just aren't good enough

[Jareth]

I heard KM on the radio saying we need something like Champions League form in order to stay up - which is not actually true. We need only just over a point per game from now on in, to finish on approx 35 points which has meant relegation for the last few years. Achieve marginally better than that and we are safe.  I think the guy cannot handle the pressure and along with his old mucker Sherwood as leaders of a team, all they have done is transmit stress and panic to their players and made some awful selections. All Garde need do is not be as terrible - no wonder he fancied the job. 

[markavfc40]

We need to win 10 games from 27. With expected defeats, that will probably be 50% win ratio.

 

 

That is making it sound a bigger task than it is for me. We need to win one more game than Sunderland and Newcastle, win one and draw one more than Bournemouth or win two more than Norwich. Three of those 4 things sees us safe over the next 27 games.

I have heard some real OTT crap as to what we need to do to stay up including we need top 6 form. Given that the team 4^th bottom is averaging 0.7 points a game and the team 5^th bottom 0.8 points a game I would not be at all surprised if 35 points kept you up this season. Maybe even slightly less. I think 32 points from 27 games sees us safe. That points per game ratio would see you get 45 points over a season. It is hardly the stuff of miracles is it.

Many have blamed a poor manager for our poor start and believe that we have a decent squad. If that is the case and we now have a decent manager then clawing back 4 points and overhauling three teams in the next 27 games is certainly achievable.

The worry for me is that it will take time for Garde to settle in. Much like when Sherwood arrived last season though we don’t have time. If Garde does need more than a month to garner his first win then we have chosen the wrong man to get us out of this mess. Unless of course the club have spent 50 odd mill that poorly over the summer that no manager could now save us. I have everything crossed that it was a case of a poor manager not being able to get the best out of his players.

 

Edited November 3, 2015 by markavfc40

[rubberman]

If Garde puts a sensible team out to start with, that will be a step in the right direction.

Taking £50m worth of players and benching or dropping them from the squad entirely is not likely to help our position.

We just escaped relegation last year and lost 3 of our best players from that team as everyone knows well.  To then play that exact same team and expect us to win is absolutely mental.  Whether the new players are up to it or not, we know for an established fact that the leftover ones aren't good enough on their own.  There is no point in playing that side - just beyond belief.

[AshVilla]

Can we just pick a team and stick with it for more than one game ffs

Stop changing the entire team every game

Of course i'd change from the team last night because it was a complete and utter joke but a bit of continuity please

[TRO]

I don't think this squad is strong enough in all honesty, i've thought that a good while and i think the mucking around with poor players being picked by Sherwood and now K Mac says all we need to know.

We lost all the best players at this club in the summer in Benteke, Delph, Cleverley & Vlaar. The replacements are just basically not as good as it stands and added to that the remaining players, who are our most experienced Premiership players like Gabby, Richardson, Richards, Hutton, Westwood, Lescott and i guess you have to add Clark & Guzan are basically, with maybe the exception of a still somewhat error prone Richards, frankly just not good enough.

Also our hottest prospects in Grealish & Gardner are either perennially injured, just simply not up to it or have an attitude issue by the looks of tonight.

As for the new guys

Ayew is looking the best prospect but took a while to get used to the division

Amavi has promise but is error prone

Veretout appears unfit

Adama Traore can't get a sniff

Gestede is a one trick pony

As for the experienced guys

Guzan = weak & error prone

Hutton = average at best & a liabiltiy

Gabby = none existant (Why on Earth is he Club Captain?)

Westwood = Below average at this level

Lescott = Past his best

Clark = Back to his level from the season before last i.e. Awful

Richards = Best of the bunch but even he's error prone

Richardson = I don't actually need to say anything

So with all that the only player left is Gil who is our classiest player in my opinion

So how exactly are we supposed to build a team from that shower?

For me this is the nearest i can get to a decent line up:

.................................??????

Richards.........Okore........?????........Amavi

Traore.........Gil.........??????..........?????

.......................Ayew.......??????

 

Subs: Guzan, Gestede, Lescott, Sinclair, Sanchez

Even with this team ideally i'd be gradually working in Ayew & Traore rather than Starting them. It's shockingly bad! I'd even put Senderos in at the back if he was available although that looks like a non starter now too.

 

 

 

 

Brilliant summing up.

we do owe it to ourselves to talk the thing up......but equally to admit it looks grim.

I did see a marked difference  when Gil came on I'm staggered why the coaches take so long to decide on the obvious.....its absolutely mind blowing.

 

ps I think there is a quoting system error here

 

 

Edited November 3, 2015 by TRO

[pas5898]

WARNING SLIGHTLY OPTIMISTIC POST!!!!

We completely deserve to go down, no doubt about that. Its a miracle we've survived this long!

BUT!!

People saying we need 10 wins from 27 etc......We are only 4 points from safety, I cant see Sunderland, Bournemouth or Norwich getting 8-10 wins from 27 this season? Newcastle is 50/50. They have good players but a shocking manager. I think it will be a ridiculously low total to stay up this year.

We have a horrible run of fixtures coming up. If we can keep within touching distance of safety in the next month we have every single chance. (we must beat Watford at home at the end of this month). From the 19th of December our run of fixtures are :

Newcastle (a) , West Ham (h), Norwich (a), Sunderland (a), Palace (h), Leicester (h), Baggies (a), West Ham (a), Norwich (h).

Every single one of those games is winnable. Im not saying we will win them, but theres definitely a good amount of points to be made. After that we also have Bournemouth and Newcastle visiting Villa park.

The club deserves to go down, but personally I don't believe its all over.

 

Edited November 3, 2015 by pas5898

[vandaq]

Think it's definitely doable to stay up but it relies on Garde not flopping horribly

[romavillan]

It's definitely doable, we're looking at 1 and a third points a game (so WDL every three games on average) to get to 40 points or 1.2 points a game to get to 36/37 points. 1.2 is 6 points every 5 games, so either WWLLLL or WDDDLL. That's surely not that hard if Garde can hit the ground running and impose a style and get this group working together. If he is to be a success here and keeps us up, surely we'd be looking at more like 1.5 points a game in the near future over a season. If we stay up we just cannot consistently be as bad as we have been over the past 4 years. At least not if Garde is a success. If Garde fails then the best we can hope for is coming straight back up or staying up by the skin of our teeth followed by more of the same next year....