useless Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 One thing that made me wonder about Smith was a comment he made about Grealish in training, can't remember the exact quote but said something along the lines of Grealish sometimes speaking up and changing things if a training session wasn't to his liking, it was intended to praise Grealish, but I thought it made Smith come across as quite weak, if you have a player dictating the training. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 1 minute ago, NeilS said: I think it comes down to character and leadership on the pitch. I don’t think we have much of either in abundance. We are the nicest team in the league to play against. We really do lack in this area as well as technical ability. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 4 minutes ago, DCJonah said: We are the nicest team in the league to play against. We really do lack in this area as well as technical ability. Grealish shouldn’t be captain - we lack leadership throughout the team and need to be much tougher mentally and physically 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyM3000 Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 43 minutes ago, useless said: If you'd have said to any of us last summer that the likes of Hause, Hourihane, Davis, Elmohamady, and Nyland would be getting regular game time I think we would have wondered what was going on. Been saying this for a while, if we get relegated I'd be concerned if these lot are playing for us in the Championship. Nyland is battling it out for our 3rd choice keeper spot, Hause was a squad filler, Elmo was kept purely because we had to keep some players. We got promoted too quickly, the squad needed a good shake up in the Championship, it needed obliterating when we got promoted and we just couldn't afford to do that. Smith is certainly at fault, we can't have a CB playing RB, it never works and it ruins any threat down that right hand side. We have Elmo on the bench but a CB out of position is a better option? This is an issue. We have to score goals, we have a big man up front who can head the ball and nobody to cross it in for him. I thought Trez and El Ghazi would be decent options for us but El Ghazi has been below average and Trez outright awful. Our inability to defend has also caused us to not take as many risks going forward and we started packing the CM more, it hasn't really helped. We need to win games and you can't do that without scoring goals so we may as well go for it now. Elmo, Konsa/Hause, Mings, Targett as a back 4 until Fred is back. Let Luiz just sit in the middle with McGinn and Grealish, stick Trez/El Ghazi on the wing with Davis up top. We need more of a threat, they might be crap wingers but with two of them on and proper full backs behind them they might get more space and means their defenders have something else to worry about, it will free up space for Grealish. I'd rather go down trying to play some football than this shit we have to watch. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 (edited) 34 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said: £10m is peanuts, that's why the players we bought with PL experience like Mings, who actually barely had any experience, cost £23m, Heaton who is in his 30s cost more than £10m, Targett cost about £14m, Luiz I guess you can say came from a PL team but cost £15m despite actually ever playing a game. How much money would we have spent buying other PL players? Cahill is such a red herring and I get fed up every time he is brought into the conversation, just because he played for us for a bit doesn't hide the fact that an established team from basically down the road offered him money that would probably have made him our highest paid player, he was 33 and barely played in a year, he's not even a Brummie so I doubt he actually has that much affection for us given O'Neill scrapped him so early in his career. Gary Cahill has joined on organised outfit......if he had joined us, he would probably have been pulled all over the place. Mings cost what he did, because at the time he was showing form that got him in to the international team....his club realised how important he was to us and played hard ball.....supply& demand at work. My understanding is Heaton cost £8 mill Targett is well over priced. I believe spent with Nous, £10 mill can buy a lot, even in the Prem, there are plenty of examples, for it not to be a one off. Its more about having the ability to assemble a team, with round pegs in round holes...etc. some managers have an ability to promote from the lower leagues and bring players on or second tier players and remodel their careers.....when, lately, have we transformed a player at BMH.....probably John McGinn, counted on one hand. most of our players get worse after they arrive, not better. Edited June 22, 2020 by TRO 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 5 hours ago, Eastie said: Not just unrealistic fans though was it, also the CEO Our ambition is to surprise people. Outside of Birmingham there will be people who don’t follow these things closely, who think we are just another promoted team, who will struggle and likely go straight back down. “No-one, not least me and (boss) Dean Smith, believes that is the case. I could not be more confident in the team. I think we are going to have a fantastic season.” https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/aston-villa/2019/07/18/aston-villa-target-two-or-three-more-signings-with-summer-spree-set-to-continue/ He would've been sacked ages ago if this was a hard expectation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Truth be told as much as we don't want it, I think because of the poor recruitment last summer, we're going to have a summer of upheavel whichever division we're in. Go down and a number of players will want to leave not just the ones we rate but some of the others too, and some of them we might want improve upon even as a championship club, and if we stay up will need to make a number of changes if we're to have any hopes of improving on this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 15 minutes ago, useless said: One thing that made me wonder about Smith was a comment he made about Grealish in training, can't remember the exact quote but said something along the lines of Grealish sometimes speaking up and changing things if a training session wasn't to his liking, it was intended to praise Grealish, but I thought it made Smith come across as quite weak, if you have a player dictating the training. Hmmmmm. Its my overall worry here.....I have heard too many things, similar. He seems out of his depth......too easy going and affable.....The team mirror him. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaFaninLondon Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 54 minutes ago, useless said: If you'd have said to any of us last summer that the likes of Hause, Hourihane, Davis, Elmohamady, and Nyland would be getting regular game time I think we would have wondered what was going on. Exactly. All average Championship level players and I'm surprised they're even still on our books let alone playing regularly. Unfortunately we have a lot of work to do with this squad whether we stay up or go down. We could certainly have done with signing 1 or 2 experienced PL players but people forget that we went down that route the last time we got relegated when we signed the likes of Lescott and Richards at the back who were absolutely appalling. For me the main issues are lack of quality signings (regardless of age/experience) and the inability of the manager to build a coherent team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 I think Davis is very decent, but last summer most us were expecting him to go out on loan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 31 minutes ago, rodders0223 said: Hardly surprising. We put in truly abject lacklustre performances and he comes out and he tells us we worked them really hard Ouch!!! Its like deja vu for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 20 minutes ago, Eastie said: Grealish shouldn’t be captain - we lack leadership throughout the team and need to be much tougher mentally and physically He is many things.....but not captain material. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 6 minutes ago, useless said: I think Davis is very decent, but last summer most us were expecting him to go out on loan. One of the few, i would build a new squad with, if he can stay, free of injuries. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Dont think making Mings captain would change much to be fair. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaFaninLondon Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 (edited) 9 minutes ago, useless said: I think Davis is very decent, but last summer most us were expecting him to go out on loan. Davis could be good at this level if he could just finish, his all-round game is fine, but he hasn't got that striker's instinct to find the net and was struggling to score with us in the Championship (though I'll admit his game time hasn't been great and he's struggled with injuries). A loan would have been good for him to a decent Championship team, he might have started scoring regularly and come back to us a different beast. Edited June 22, 2020 by VillaFaninLondon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 7 minutes ago, PaulC said: Dont think making Mings captain would change much to be fair. He is one of the few with a mean attitude......we need that running through the team. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 7 minutes ago, TRO said: He is one of the few with a mean attitude......we need that running through the team. He is also not very good at this level. No other defenders has made more mistakes leading to goals than Mings. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gurru991 Posted June 22, 2020 Visiting Supporter Share Posted June 22, 2020 7 minutes ago, TRO said: He is one of the few with a mean attitude......we need that running through the team. I'm a big fan of Mings but I haven't seen that mean attitude lately. He needs to be ugly to be effective. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVTuco Posted June 22, 2020 VT Supporter Share Posted June 22, 2020 Doesn't matter who the captain of this sorry bunch is. Put the armband on Mings and nothing changes. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Mings has comfortably been our best player after Grealish, maybe McGinn would have been better but he's been injured. When/if we go down wouldn't surprise me at all to see teams like Leicester, Wolves and maybe Everton take an interest. And lets not sell ourselves short and pretend he isn't very good, if he goes we should be asking for a big fee for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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