Where do you think we will finish?

[Daweii]

I'm not sure where our weaknesses are anymore as the team has changed so much..

I think the defense and the keeper look worse when midfield and the strikers don't do their job well, now you may say "well duh!!" but 4 of the 5 games so far this season we should have been 2-3 goals up if not more by half-time. When you have midfielders and strikers not taking chances the defense look worse when the inevitable pressure comes.. So I'm not sure where our weakness is.

I am more inclined to say that the weakness was in attack not defense and hopefully we have improved that with Adomah and Kodjia coming in, but who knows we will find out on Sunday if yet again we have 16+ chances and only score once.. That to me is our issue. Yes Gollini making a mistake would still be concerning but when you're 4-0 up it matters very little. The issue is these mistakes in goal and defense cost us three points because of wasted chances further up the field..

 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

3 hours ago, omariqy said:

Top 10 for me. I think it is a massive ask to go from 17 points to a promotion in such a short amount of time.

If a team with a first 11 assembled for over £70m finishes 10th in The Championship, then heads will roll and I might just about give up on football forever. 

[VILLAMARV]

I'm totally in the top 10 camp atm. I think it's more a case of us hedging our bets a little. This newly formed squad on paper could win this league. I don't think any of us seriously think we're in danger of relegation anymore. But as @omariqy said going from 17 points 3 wins 8 draws and 27 losses to promotion form is a huge, huge ask. Pointing to the new personnel and characters in the dressing room is hugely relevant, but then so is the fact that it's basically a whole new first 11 learning to gel. It may take a while.

I think RDM's minimum requirement is to make the play-offs. If he doesn't he'll surely go.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

16 minutes ago, VILLAMARV said:

I'm totally in the top 10 camp atm. I think it's more a case of us hedging our bets a little. This newly formed squad on paper could win this league. I don't think any of us seriously think we're in danger of relegation anymore. But as @omariqy said going from 17 points 3 wins 8 draws and 27 losses to promotion form is a huge, huge ask. Pointing to the new personnel and characters in the dressing room is hugely relevant, but then so is the fact that it's basically a whole new first 11 learning to gel. It may take a while.

I think RDM's minimum requirement is to make the play-offs. If he doesn't he'll surely go.

If they can't rid themselves of that loser mentality now then we're stuck with it, maybe forever. We could conceivably put out a first 11 on Sunday that consists of 9 new players plus Cissokho/Amavi and Grealish. You could swap Adomah for Ayew, Kodjia for Gestede, either way on paper that team will be market valued in the region of £80m. 

You say it might take them time to gel but they have been doing enough to blow teams away, it just hasn't really clicked yet and there have been a couple of defensive lapses that need ironing out sharpish. If that failure continues beyond the next few games then there is something desperately wrong, either with recruitment or the management team. The manager himself has said it will take 10-12 games for us to really start flying, now he has set the target he simply must hit it. 

It will take a couple of wins to get that necessary momentum. Football, like much of life, is fickle and when those 2 wins come (which they will, soon) then it's up to the coaching staff to keep that going. If they can't and this squad finishes 10th then personally I will be absolutely gutted and I'll be judging my own sanity following such a hopeless rabble. 

It won't happen anyway, we will hit our stride and finish in the playoff spots. 100%. We will challenge for the title...

Hedging your bets is for losers  

[tonyh29]

Champions or RDM should walk / be fired

 

Harsh  ? no not really  ... with the money spent there can be no excuses  and I doubt Dr T will be that understanding either

[VILLAMARV]

Im delighted to be surfing the wave of optimism like all of us. Long may it continue! I agree we've been unlucky so far and been quite dominant in matches without that bit of luck.

If you look at the Championship tables over the last decade If your loss column is in single figures come the end of the season you're unlucky not to get in the top 2 (especially Brighton last year) but pretty much guaranteed a play off place.

I totally agree when they click we'll be going on a nice unbeaten run for change.

[striker]

15 hours ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

If a team with a first 11 assembled for over £70m finishes 10th in The Championship, then heads will roll and I might just about give up on football forever. 

Can't see Xia being happy with a mid table finish for the Villa. Not after spending that kind of money. De Mateo can use the turnover of players to excuse iffy results for the first 10-15 games but after that if Villa don't at least look like making the play offs then I can't see De Mateo holding onto his job.

[Delphinho123]

With the money spent, play-offs is an absolute minimum. RDM should rightly lose his job if he can't do that with the players he has at his disposal. His honeymoon period is coming to an end now and any more results like the one at Bristol and the fans will turn. 

[VILLAMARV]

18 minutes ago, striker said:

Can't see Xia being happy with a mid table finish for the Villa. Not after spending that kind of money. De Mateo can use the turnover of players to excuse iffy results for the first 10-15 games but after that if Villa don't at least look like making the play offs then I can't see De Mateo holding onto his job.

I agree on the 10-15 game marker. That takes us to the end of October.

[Demitri_C]

If we miss out on play offs I think RDM will be sacked, god would be awful if we missed out and then pearson got derby promoted 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

4 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

With the money spent, play-offs is an absolute minimum. RDM should rightly lose his job if he can't do that with the players he has at his disposal. His honeymoon period is coming to an end now and any more results like the one at Bristol and the fans will turn. 

A result like that will happen from time to time, we've no God given right to avoid those days. The vast majority of fans understand that. 

I blew up on the walk back from Ashton Gate to the pub. A rant of absolutely epic proportions. However once I'd had my piss and sat down with my pint, it dawned on me that the vast majority of my rant was aimed at last year's team, an Aston Villa from a different age. Also that the first 45 minutes was the best football we've played in nearly 5 years. 

Sure, if it happens again against Forest the pattern will concern me and there may be one or two idiots who will turn, those who have been and always are looking for any excuse. However, I accept that it WILL happen again at some point as it will to every team in the land this and every season.

Part of the onus is on us as supporters to get over the hangover, remember what football is like and go with it. All pull in the same direction.

[omariqy]

I get what people are saying about a whole new team but we are only a few injures away from having Baker, Bunn, Hutton etc starting. There is something still wrong at the club for me. The way we lost leads at Huddersfield and Bristol City just makes me a bit nervous.  I hope to be proven wrong.  I also think we are weak in midfield. We need to play 3 in there for me as none of our midfielders are good enough to play in a 2. Tshibola may be but he needs to stay fit first.

[BOF]

1 minute ago, omariqy said:

I get what people are saying about a whole new team but we are only a few injures away from having Baker, Bunn, Hutton etc starting. There is something still wrong at the club for me. The way we lost leads at Huddersfield and Bristol City just makes me a bit nervous.  I hope to be proven wrong.  I also think we are weak in midfield. We need to play 3 in there for me as none of our midfielders are good enough to play in a 2. Tshibola may be but he needs to stay fit first.

I agree that there are certain positions where a key injury sets us back more than an injury somewhere else might.  But this has been 1 window.  We've done 25 transfer deals in this window.  We were never going to come out the other side with everything including full strength in depth sorted.  And we've already had it from the horse's mouth that there will be deals done in January too, including loans around the ACN players etc.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

16 minutes ago, omariqy said:

I get what people are saying about a whole new team but we are only a few injures away from having Baker, Bunn, Hutton etc starting. There is something still wrong at the club for me. The way we lost leads at Huddersfield and Bristol City just makes me a bit nervous.  I hope to be proven wrong.  I also think we are weak in midfield. We need to play 3 in there for me as none of our midfielders are good enough to play in a 2. Tshibola may be but he needs to stay fit first.

Most teams in this league are only a few injuries away from having some pretty average players starting for them. Baker is a proven player at this level, hopefully @JamesBCFC can confirm that. Steer > Bunn? Again Huddersfield seemed to rate Steer. They kept having him back at least. Bacuna > Hutton maybe? 

My point is that yes, squad wise we have a few holes. So does everyone else. Though having Steer, Baker, Bacuna, Gestede, Westwood, Gardner, Green, Amavi and Adomah to step in as first line of cover ain't all bad really is it? Lyden? Richards? Hepburn Murphy?

Your wish to play 3 over 2 in midfield is a tactical decision that I don't agree with. Certainly not for starting games. We should continue to go out there to blow teams away, as we have been trying to do. If your argument against us finishing high up the table is tactical then that's down to the manager. Which is fine if that's what you believe and it would likely cost him his job.

The squad is good enough.  

[JamesBCFC]

Baker is good, and seems to have got over injury issues (I believe he had them before joining us, can you confirm, or is it just a rumour I'd heard?). However there were 3-4 times last season where he had to be subbed or he would have been sent off.

I like a hard tackling defender, but at times he is just downright reckless or not thinking. Against Blackburn at home last year he was sent off early in the second half, but could have been gone before half time.

He was at one point a part of the worst defence in the league, however so was Aden Flint and he isn't a bad defender at this level, I think the problem was our overly attacking mentality at the time. Baker is a solid player and if we didn't have Magnusson here then I wouldn't have minded Baker back. (That said it is early days and I firmly believe Magnusson is an upgrade, but he is a starter and Baker is your backup so I'd be concerned if your backup was better than our starter)

[Midfielder]

9 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

If we miss out on play offs I think RDM will be sacked, god would be awful if we missed out and then pearson got derby promoted 

Point 1 there agreed. We have yet to see the other side of Tony. A businessman of that wealth is by no means a pussycat. I hope we don't ever have to see that side. But,  Cellino at Leeds he surely is not. 

Point 2 agreed again. I didn't want Pearson here , just my own opinion. Sure, he would be a hard man getting bett out if the bomb squad. But, we only have a handful of floaters left from the bomb squad that hopefully we don't have to resort to using. Thus, Pearson was the man for our old squad, one that's mostly gone. As for Derby I have nothing against them as a club but I hope they finish a lot further down than we do. It is a good sub plot this season to hopefully beat Pearson. 

I voted play offs. Which could be a painful finale. Also, voted on the basis of a dream recently that was vivid enough to know the opponents at Wembley were Huddersfield and that Elphick scored header from a corner in injury time of extra time, went nuts ran into the crowd near me in a Stuart Pearce Euro 96 penalty converted moment. Don't pay too much attention though as Andy Townsend took the corner in a Muller shirt. 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Midfielder

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Top man @JamesBCFC. Thanks. 

Sounds like Baker to me and it sounds like he's found his level. A lot of Villa fans have it in for him for not looking decent next to Ciaran Clark. Personally I've always rated him, as much as you can rate a player of his kind. 

He has **** ups in him, but as back up he's more than adequate. 

[TRO]

On 5 September 2016 at 18:02, dont_do_it_doug. said:

If a team with a first 11 assembled for over £70m finishes 10th in The Championship, then heads will roll and I might just about give up on football forever. 

I think that is a safe shout......the first bit, I mean.

[Seat68]

Below mid table, just above relegation. Much much better next season. 

[thunderball]

I think we will click and the goals will come, just like Benteke's start for villa, slow then BOOM!

With the evident commitment and investment we should walk to promotion but that is not being disrespectful, this is a very different league to the PL, and is very competitive in the top half, but we are one of two teams that are like Man Utd, Man City or Chelsea in this league - we can spend to ensure we have the best in the league (don't mention Chelsea and Man Utd last season!).

The rest is down to RDM and his staff, there in lies the question, but so far I am confident, other than the Bristol game we have been unlucky and should be 4-6 points better off than we are. We are still not far away in terms of points, with a long season ahead and much added quality in the window. We should and I expect to finish top 2, but I suspect play-offs.