Tomaszk Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 2 hours ago, hippo said: I think Lambert kept us up with a lesser squad. Fair. A man in Benteke who could score PL goals on his own is very rare though. If we'd had any old average striker like Jay Rodriguez or Samatta all season we'd have picked up 9 or 10 points more before Christmas IMO. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 2 hours ago, sharkyvilla said: I think it was the squad last season that was the problem. It meant we had to do far too much in the summer. 100% Which is why despite some wobbles and post game anger I've had ultimately I think sacking him is incredibly harsh We got promoted when we weren't ready and followed it up with some bad buying No one comes out of this season smelling of roses 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thabucks Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Made my position clear that I think Smith is the one who shoulders most blame. We have no cohesion no style of players or game plan and it was always going to be a difficult job but I see it as the team should be set in the managers image and play to his ethos. You will always get individual errors over a season and mistakes will be made by all. For me Smith has made fistfuls of mistakes and has failed Somewhat in coaching the team to put up at least some fight or learn from mistakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 For me it’s the squad, we brought too many ”projects“ and we needed an additional striker. Going into the season with Wes, Davis and Kodjia as our only strikers was criminal. Surprisingly that hasn’t been our real downfall it’s been conceding goals. Too many of our projects aren’t ready. Yes I understand Smith gets some of the blame but when I look at the options he has we do look weak as the opening post leans towards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 No one ever went to all this mindbending acrobatic bother to defend our previous managers that struggled in the premier league who had nowhere near the advantages that Smith has had this season. If the squad isn't good enough he's partly to blame for that, he even admitted himself that it was his decision not to sign Maupay, and he has a say in all the signings, he also went to watch Nakamba and Trezeguet play at the AFCONs as well. Besides the squad is good enough to be performing better than they are at the moment as they proved earlier this season. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 We must be wary of "it was always going to be difficult" - if it was easy we could give anyone the job. The question is can he do the job required ? - not can can he have a good stab at it under the circumstances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 (edited) Mostly the squad though Smith has to take some of the blame to balance with the credit he got last season. He is a bit of a stubborn coach and inexperienced at the top flight. I don't think he has ever decided on a settled team and formation- mostly because the players are not good enough for this level of play. We might be stuck with a lot of this players as most are on good fat long term contracts. From the championship and below most squads are made up of players on short term contracts or loans, making it easier to throw it in the bin and start again. Apart from the few obvious star players who we could sell for good money, a lot of these players will stay on in the Championship, so in the usual Villa fashion we will probably end up using our parachute payment to pay other foreign clubs to take our players on loan. Peak Villa. Edited June 29, 2020 by The Fun Factory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 1 hour ago, Nabby said: I think the difference with Lamberts squad is we had Benteke and even Gabby who could get goals.As bad as our defence has been with a 10-15 goal striker we would be doing better , if Wes had stayed fit we might have had that. You mean Lambert brought benteke - where as Smith signed off on Wesley and Samatta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 3 hours ago, hippo said: I think Lambert kept us up with a lesser squad. Lambert had one of the best strikers in the league. Gabby during the lambert era is better than any striker we currently have. He also had delph who is better than all our current players apart from Jack. We'd also been an ever present in the premier league, not spent the previous few years in the championship. No way this squad is better than those. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 6 minutes ago, DCJonah said: Lambert had one of the best strikers in the league. Gabby during the lambert era is better than any striker we currently have. He also had delph who is better than all our current players apart from Jack. We'd also been an ever present in the premier league, not spent the previous few years in the championship. No way this squad is better than those. Ehh I don't know about that, we were regularly fielding the likes of Clark, Baker, Lichaj, Herd, Bannan, at the same time even. Also Delph in the first Lambert season wasn't very good. Westwood and El Ahmadi were our main midfielders. Not sure if they're better than Luiz/Nakamba. However the importance of Benteke can't be understated. 19 goals for a team battling relegation are invaluable. As brilliant as Jack is, he can't create goals out of nothing like Benteke did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 20 minutes ago, DCJonah said: Lambert had one of the best strikers in the league. Gabby during the lambert era is better than any striker we currently have. He also had delph who is better than all our current players apart from Jack. We'd also been an ever present in the premier league, not spent the previous few years in the championship. No way this squad is better than those. But Lambert had benteke because he brought him I know susso is our recruitment man now - but I wouldn't imagine any of the players were signed against his wishes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Think we should add a poll - with both not being an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 7 minutes ago, Keyblade said: Ehh I don't know about that, we were regularly fielding the likes of Clark, Baker, Lichaj, Herd, Bannan, at the same time even. Also Delph in the first Lambert season wasn't very good. Westwood and El Ahmadi were our main midfielders. Not sure if they're better than Luiz/Nakamba. However the importance of Benteke can't be understated. 19 goals for a team battling relegation are invaluable. As brilliant as Jack is, he can't create goals out of nothing like Benteke did. Also seem to recall we went on a mini winning streak when benteke was out with injury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 7 hours ago, sidcow said: I don't think our recruitment was anywhere near good enough. That said we were better and have got worse so both, but mainly for me the players are just not good enough for this level. We way overpaid on most of them too. Newly promoted teams always start well and then revert to the norm, sure Norwich even beat City Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 18 minutes ago, hippo said: But Lambert had benteke because he brought him I know susso is our recruitment man now - but I wouldn't imagine any of the players were signed against his wishes. Going way off topic, but I believe we had scouted benteke under Mcleish and then we signed him after he was sacked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Grealish, Heaton, Mings, Luiz on current form and start of season McGinn would get into some other Premier League. Maybe El Ghazi, Hourihane, Targett and Nakamba be squad players Smith hasn't had a great season either but I don't think Klopp or Pep makes this team that much better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 25 minutes ago, Keyblade said: Ehh I don't know about that, we were regularly fielding the likes of Clark, Baker, Lichaj, Herd, Bannan, at the same time even. Also Delph in the first Lambert season wasn't very good. Westwood and El Ahmadi were our main midfielders. Not sure if they're better than Luiz/Nakamba. However the importance of Benteke can't be understated. 19 goals for a team battling relegation are invaluable. As brilliant as Jack is, he can't create goals out of nothing like Benteke did. Yeah, maybe benteke over shadows a bit. I think a few quality players can make up for the lack of quality. We don't have that at the moment. We've got all the average to poor shit and only 1 really star in jack. Its a shame Jack isn't a 20 goal striker. We'd be safe now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 In my opinion Watford don't have a relegation squad on paper. I just hope they don't remember that! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penguin Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Is our squad any worse on paper than Sheffield United’s or Burnley’s who are both going to stay up comfortably? I’d say us and around a third of the table have a pretty comprable squad strength. The amount of games where a needed change is obvious to every one but Smith and then the inevitable happens is for me the main reason we are where we are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted June 29, 2020 VT Supporter Share Posted June 29, 2020 5 minutes ago, DCJonah said: Yeah, maybe benteke over shadows a bit. I think a few quality players can make up for the lack of quality. We don't have that at the moment. We've got all the average to poor shit and only 1 really star in jack. Its a shame Jack isn't a 20 goal striker. We'd be safe now. Well when you think about it. If we had a striker who had 19 goals. Or for that matter one who had got 10 and one who had got 9 we would probably be miles away from the relegation zone by now. I'm also massively disappointed with number of goals from our central defenders. We've had more than our fair share of corners and edge of box free kicks but our men up from the back seem to never get near them. It can't be that ALL the balls have been bad. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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