Who do you hold accountable?

[Genie]

3 hours ago, villalad21 said:

West Ham finished mid table under Big Sam after getting promoted through the play offs didn't they?

There will be riots in b6 with that goal scoring, winning games and avoiding relegation shite.

We Villa fans would rather watch the current brand of sexy total football even if it’s not quite as effective. We hold the “Villa Way” brand of playing the game the right way above all else. It’s un-negotiatiable.
 

[Stevo985]

All of the above in varying amounts

[villalad21]

1 minute ago, Genie said:

There will be riots in b6 with that goal scoring, winning games and avoiding relegation shite.

We Villa fans would rather watch the current brand of sexy total football even if it’s not quite as effective. We hold the “Villa Way” brand of playing the game the right way above all else. It’s un-negotiatiable.
 

Nothing wrong with attacking managers.

But managers that has nothing but mid table to their names should never be approached for the Villa job.

[Genie]

1 minute ago, villalad21 said:

Nothing wrong with attacking managers.

But managers that has nothing but mid table to their names should never be approached for the Villa job.

Because... we’re better than that? 

[villalad21]

1 minute ago, Genie said:

Because... we’re better than that? 

If the long term aim is to become a top 8 Premier League side, Dyche and Hughton will never achieve that.

But using them as a stepping stone wouldn't be a bad idea.

[DaveAV1]

1 hour ago, tinker said:

Maybe it is the players fault. For me it's a clear sign, when simple set plays are ineffective game after game , of things not going right on the training pitch or the players are not following their training routines on the pitch.

If you watch our throw ins ( my pet hate) we lose possession time after time , delay them and allow the opposition to regroup then  throw them high into a non dangerous area , 50/50 situations. If your going to do that then do it in the oppositions box were winning possession offers a goal scoring opportunity. 

Our wingers are the same, they hardly ever cross the ball early, Man u was an exception, especially early on.

I could go on for ever about simple parts of the game that we are getting wrong time after time. Teams like Sheffield UTd have built their success on keeping things simple and effective, playing early 50/50 balls when the opportunity arises and never lose possession from throw ins unless their thrown into the opposition's box.

I largely agree with what you’re saying. I’ve been going Villa Park Since the early 70s and think I’ve been moaning about our throw ins and corners pretty much every year since! We had a brief period under MON when we knew how to take a corner and under Saunders we knew how to do everything. Otherwise a good set piece is a rarely seen thing from us. 

I’m not trying to let the coaching off the hook, but the players at this level should be able to make some decisions of their own. I don’t think that there’s one single issue or person to blame, it’s a collective fail. 

If I did have to give a single issue that I’d put the majority of the blame on, then I’d say that we’re much too soft, both mentally and physically. 

Edited July 12, 2020 by DaveAV1

[Genie]

3 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

If the long term aim is to become a top 8 Premier League side, Dyche and Hughton will never achieve that.

But using them as a stepping stone wouldn't be a bad idea.

I wasn’t suggesting we gave Allardyce a lifetime contract.

You have to have the correct tools for the job you’re doing, not the job you’d like to be doing in 3-5 years time.

(btw Dyche finished 7th season before last).

[NoelVilla]

Randy Lerner, the idiot who thought it was a good idea to sell to XIa(Steve Hollis?), Tony Xia.

The three above take a joint 4th place.

[Demitri_C]

35 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

If the long term aim is to become a top 8 Premier League side, Dyche and Hughton will never achieve that.

But using them as a stepping stone wouldn't be a bad idea.

I think we wont ever get back to the top with the pl in its current format. The tol sides are too protected.

If dyche could establish us a pl side like Burnley thats goid enough for me witb maybe a push for europa.

Dont think ill ever see villa any higher than challenging for a Europa in my life time 

[pacbuddies]

For the last decade we have had a succession of naive owners that don't know when to pull the plug on a manager and a whole raft of incompetent managers. Things will not improve until both of the above failings are eradicated.

[NSmith22]

Suso and a lesser degree Purslow/Smith. I want continuity for once at the manager position. Suso needs to be replaced full stop and our recruitment team needs to be evaluated as well. 

[MrSmirch]

A 16 year old with with an iPhone, transfermarket.com and a decent knowledge of the last 3 editions of football manager could have assembled a better squad than Suso. 
 

 

[Blasterpocket68]

They ALL need to go !!!

[Chindie]

All of them to certain degrees. The main culprits being Smith and Suso.

Suso presided over a rebuild that was totally required and buggered it up. We needed a tonne of players and we didn't get players that have performed and crucially didn't strengthen enough in key areas. Everyone knew we were short up front from the moment the window closed with 3 strikers which were comprised of a young prospect that hadn't looked a goalscorer at any level, a player that blew hot and usually cold at Championship level and a young player making a huge step up. You're heavily reliant on one of them turning into a huge success or the rest of the side chipping in a lot of goals. Then when one of them gets injured we were ****. And you could see it coming.

The blame can be mitigated a little by the sheer fact we had to buy a load of players and didn't have an unlimited pot to use. So you end up going with value players and inevitably they're not all going to work out. But still the recruitment has been dire.

Smith was handed a tough job as a result. And as the season has gone on he's had it made harder with horrific luck with injuries. But his job is to make that side perform and we clearly haven't. The players aren't great but there's been so many bad performances, so many things that just haven't improved game to game, and certainly since Christmas we've been unmitigated shit. Combine that with the fact that, a club record run aside with a very strong side for its level aside, we've never looked particularly good under Smith and it's hard to feel like he's hard done by to suggest he's not done a very good job.

Purslow's biggest fault would appear to be giving Smith a new contract far too eagerly. I don't think he's done a great deal else wrong - the system of recruitment isn't inherently wrong it's just the staff have failed. Otherwise I find it hard to blame him for much - not everything has to be wrong at the club and while Purslow's manner is very... easy to hate... I don't think he's done much wrong.

And the players obviously haven't performed. But again find it hard to really blame them. Some just aren't good enough. They've clearly not been coached that well. And yes there's been tonnes of individual errors, but that happens to every side.

As is the blame is really on the recruitment and the coaching, and ultimately both should go.

[tomav84]

i think all 4 are accountable, therefore i selected purslow, as the buck stops with him. he recruited terry and smith, he recruited suso, and signed the cheques on every signing. it's been a **** up of catastrophic proportions and really he's the one to blame ultimately

[DJ_Villain]

We should have kept players like Jedinak and Hutton on... Seasoned veterans who have played at the top level before...

 

To let them go as well as rely completely on almost a brand new squad of players who had never played in the Premier League was incredibly short sighted

[useless]

Both Hutton and Jedinek have retired because they can't find new clubs, what we should have done is to have found equivalents to them but slightly younger. In January we were being linked to Nzonzi, a few signings like him in the midfield and defence, in the summer would have served us well

[DaveAV1]

4 minutes ago, useless said:

Both Hutton and Jedinek have retired because they can't find new clubs, what we should have done is to have found equivalents to them but slightly younger. In January we were being linked to Nzonzi, a few signings like him in the midfield and defence, in the summer would have served us well

At least we got Drinkwater. 

[MattVillaPortsmouth]

For me it a little bit of everything, the way I see it:

- Promoted 1 year to early, I don’t think that was in the plans.

- A lot of the players (imo) were on the list for a year in championship to get us up (Konsa, Jota, Targett et al) as we had to fill the squad so got them in.

- We then took a risk on a few, those who (again imo) would stay if relegated (Wesley, nakamba, Luiz, trez).

- We wanted that 1 Top Drawer player - just don’t think we could convince the ones we wanted or were massively priced out of it (which in one way is a plus).

What we banked on was an early ‘run’ of form, a few surprise results to help everyone settle in (language early season was definitely  a barrier for some) It just never happened, football can be very much a ‘momentum’ thing especially for those without A squad of worldies.  

Injurys and League position scuppered January plans, And again resorted to taking risks (what we don’t know is who made the final calls on Drinkwater, Samatha, Borjan).

On the pitch, the way our Forward never seems to be the furthest forward, or how we play it round the back until we get closed down and mings rush clears or we get to half way line and turn back, how we don’t pass into space and rarely move the ball quickly is 70/30 Coaching/Players, at some point even if you are coached/Set up that way, players can take on some responsibility.

I don’t think (on paper) we are in the bottom 3 in quality, even taking off my claret and blue tinted glasses I feel we SHOULD have had enough to be around 16-14 place.  We lack a natural Leader on the pitch.

So whose accountable - Board -> Smith -> Players 

I kinda want smith to stay, but I would want a better number 2 and a leader in the squad. If we stay up, I think even 2-3 shrewd signings and we have the makings of a decent mid table team.  If we go down I don’t see many leaving (Grealish, Mings only) and we then go from +1 on the plan to -1 year.  I don’t see many managers out there in our reach who would be any different (calling for Poch etc in plain crazy).