Ratings & Reactions: Norwich v Villa

[MrBlack]

Game was lost the second Tammy got injured. I suspect Smith brought Hogan on based on a memory of what he used to be able to do, but the Villa version has never been able to work up front on his own.

I don't think Kodjia would have been much better though as the ball virtually never reached that far forward. It's almost like the psychology of losing our threat meant everyone stopped trying.

Norwich pressed us incessantly, credit to them for their fitness levels so definitely had an impact on our ability to play. Would be nice to see the same from some of our players.

No McGinn was evident.  Feel like Bjarnasson could become a very useful player through the rest of this season with his style fitting Dean's approach, and Whelan and Jedi's clearly not.

Not surprised or disappointed, the next 2.5 months will be much the same unless we can get special dispensation to sign a gk on the grounds of the current crop being unusable.

 

[Rugeley Villa]

19 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I thought we looked comfortably the better team in the first 45. 2 forced subs early on  didn't help.

I thought we may have edged, it, but were made to work very hard for it. Norwich pressed us all game. 

Edited October 23, 2018 by Rugeley Villa

[westholmevillan]

4 minutes ago, terrytini said:

Noticed what ?

That we more or less gave up innthe second half ....no energy, no desire and no passion!....just like many on here posted in the match thread!  That's what we noticed...didn't you?

[terrytini]

1 minute ago, VillaCas said:

A touch unfair? He can only work with what he’s got and at the moment that’s not good enough. 

We need to stumble through to January and hope our new sporting directors famed contacts deliver the goods 

No, just an observation.

Actually I don’t think we are as bad as you do, I don’t think we will stumble through, but regardless, he still has to have a plan for when his main plan stops working.

[Spoony]

2 minutes ago, Bunnski said:

Wasn't happy to see Hogan come on instead of Kodjia and he did nothing to prove me wrong. Bad decision by the manager. We've a lot of out of form players and are in desperate need of more quality, at the back especially.

 

Tuanzebe motm

I really believed Hogan would be fired up and would pull it out of the bag, so I backed that decision. I nearly put money on it. He just seems to have completedly regressed as a player. 

[terrytini]

Just now, westholmevillan said:

That we more or less gave up innthe second half ....no energy, no desire and no passion!....just like many on here posted in the match thread!  That's what we noticed...didn't you?

If that’s what you mean we all noticed, how do you know Smith didn’t ? You said “ we all noticed why didn’t he “ ?

[westholmevillan]

5 minutes ago, villa89 said:

Jesus give the man a chance. Two of the substitutions were due to injuries and he can't be blamed for basic mistakes made by the players. 

He shouldn't need a chance ....if we can see on here what's happening 'on the pitch' then so should a well paid manager!  

[osmark86]

2 minutes ago, westholmevillan said:

He shouldn't need a chance ....if we can see on here what's happening 'on the pitch' then so should a well paid manager!  

Count to 10 mate, then go to bed and have a good rest.

Edited October 23, 2018 by osmark86

[westholmevillan]

I, and many others would have slated Bruce for picking Whelan.  So Smith can't be excluded from criticism! Went one up and then sat deeper and deeper!  Does that sound familiar?

[villabromsgrove]

You can see that our players (apart from Abrahams and McGinn when avaliable) are less fit than their opposition counterparts (El Ghazi looks half a stone heavier than when he joined us) .... that affects the way we play.

Several older players will not adapt to the "Dean Smith" style of football. They are simple to old and set in their ways.

Key players like Grealish are playing at half pace and taking half a dozen touches which allows the opposition to comfortably recover their shape.

You cannot press at half pace .... McGinn needs to give a masterclass in training this week!

Smith and Co have their work cut out changing the mentality of this bunch of players. It all starts with fitness, so we'll have to be patient with things for the next few weeks before these players get anywhere near fit enough for concerted team football.

It's a crying shame that two years of tailoring training to cater for old heads and legs has left us dysfunctional as a team, but that's what friendly five a side's and bib tag will do to you over time. Even our loan players have succumbed to the gentle pace of our retirement home regime.

We saw our default negative football surface after less than 15 minutes tonight, which showed that the players are still doing their own thing.

It will change, but it will take time. UTV!

 

[MackHaakon]

We're quite quite bad but I guess the future is bright. I don't really care about the result, I just want to see a process moving in the right direction.

We have too many players that let themselves be dominated by energy and fight. Hunger beats talent if the talent isn't enormous and it isn't in our case.

If this was football manager I would: remove Hutton, Elmo, Taylor, Whelan, Adomah, Bjarnason. Get a CB with leadership skills and a cool head and relieve Chester of the armband (looks uncomfortable). Insert youth, Doyle-Hayes, O'Hare, Hepburn-Murphy and Clark. Rage quit after four hours.

[Talldarkandransome]

I think we all need to remember we are changing everything. Not just who takes the pens, but everything. It's gonna take time, we'll need a few January, probably ones that are more suited to Smiths style of play and then another few in the summer. 

If Spuds come in for Grealish again I'd personally let him go, I spent most of the second half rolling my eyes at him falling over like a drunk and taking awful corners. He might be one of our own but he ain't one of mine. 

[VillaCas]

6 minutes ago, terrytini said:

Actually I don’t think we are as bad as you do, I don’t think we will stumble through, but regardless, he still has to have a plan for when his main plan stops working.

I think we 4 players minimum to compete with the top six. I think we will scramble a few points together and hopefully come stronger in the new year if reinforcements arrive

I’ll be delighted if Smith develops a coherent plan A in that time, let alone a plan B 

 

 

[westholmevillan]

2 minutes ago, osmark86 said:

Count to 10 mate, then go to bed and have a good rest.

What's that all about?  This is a debate so if you haven't noticed I suggest that it's you that needs to lay down, and give you're head a good wobble in the process! Sleep well!

[striker]

By the sound of it I'm glad to have missed this.

January's transfer window going to be very important to Villa now.

[terrytini]

Just now, striker said:

By the sound of it I'm glad to have missed this.

January's transfer window going to be very important to Villa now.

First half was fine.

[Xela]

Meh 

[smg]

Win 4-0 Friday we go 6th happy days

[westholmevillan]

20 minutes ago, Spoony said:

Wow. Two games dude. Two.

No, it's NOT too soon to see what everyone else on here can see.....and he gets paid very well for it! Basic schoolboy errors.  An experienced manager can change tactics during a game. I, and numerous others on here slated Bruce for not being able to do that (quite rightly) so it's the same for Smith.  

[stegzy]

Tuanzebe man of the match for me with Grealish next. Think unfortunately a lot of our falling apart was due to Hogan, although I can’t blame Smith as he had him before and I think he was probably a far better player then, he only managed 3 touches in half an hour.