2021/22 expectations

[dubbs]

43 minutes ago, Zatman said:

If we finish 11th and blood 3 or 4 youngsters thats a good season. Its obvious the club and board believe in this youth setup

As long as the kids are good enough that's fine with me.  We'll start looking at adding bits of real quality rather than buying several players each window. 

[pintpotvilla]

On 12/08/2021 at 09:50, Peter Griffin said:

I think that is the very thing we failed to do last season and is a weakness that Smith has. We either win games in style or we lose games. I don't recall too many games where is was a 50/50 game or the opposition had the upper hand and Villa emerged as victors. We need to continue to win our games we are dominating but we must start grinding out results when we are on the back foot

Wolves A, Leicester A  Southampton A Chelsea H Spurs A Sheff Utd H  for instance were all games that we could have lost but ended up winning

[MrBlack]

8th -12th depending on our luck with injuries.  Based on the luck we've had this season so far 12th would be a good result.

Shame we couldn't get the players the club wanted to bring in to complete the squad but would rather we didn't panic buy or gamble on players we didn't want,  or players that are way overpriced. 

Hopefully the youth that we need to rely on when we lose players to injury/ suspension/ International duty step up and deliver on their potential. 

[Zatman]

5 minutes ago, dubbs said:

As long as the kids are good enough that's fine with me.  We'll start looking at adding bits of real quality rather than buying several players each window. 

Of course but is only one way to find out if they are good enough

[tomsky_11]

41 minutes ago, pintpotvilla said:

Wolves A, Leicester A  Southampton A Chelsea H Spurs A Sheff Utd H  for instance were all games that we could have lost but ended up winning

Leicester and Sheff Utd there was nothing in it from an xg perspective. 2-1 win was a fair scoreline against Spurs according to xg. Southampton away fair enough but then the home game, even going 4-0 down (quite unlucky all 4 efforts were unstoppable) we had more than enough chances to win that. Then there's a whole bunch of other games that went worse than xg for us: Brighton H, WHU A, Burnley H and A, Leicester H, Sheff Utd A, WBA H

[Sulberto21]

I'm always a little more pessimistic than optimistic therefore I think we'll win the League only with a game or two to go.

Add to that the League Cup and finally the FA Cup. 

Poor window. If we bought a proper DM I'd think we'd win both cups by the quarter finals and the league by April.

 

 

(I think we'll finish 7th-9th). 

[Sulberto21]

55 minutes ago, pintpotvilla said:

Wolves A, Leicester A  Southampton A Chelsea H Spurs A Sheff Utd H  for instance were all games that we could have lost but ended up winning

We grew into that game, it felt like a genuine top of the table clash and we took charge from minute 65 onwards. We had plenty of chances throughout the game. 

[tomsky_11]

1 hour ago, bobzy said:

But surely the correct answer would be literally any of the teams could finish above us?  Why does it matter about producing a list of likely teams?

It's not unreasonable to consider the question of who'd likely finish above us when suggesting we will drop places, especially given how far behind us the rest of the teams were last season. And when its hard to say that any of those teams have drastically improved, or that we will somehow fall off a cliff.

 

[Jbvilla909]

8 - 13th, a good FA cup run would be great, Leicester showed once again it can be done. Not saying we are that level but we should atleast try and go for a cup. Think that maybe an easier route into Europe too...

[bobzy]

7 minutes ago, tomsky_11 said:

It's not unreasonable to consider the question of who'd likely finish above us when suggesting we will drop places, especially given how far behind us the rest of the teams were last season. And when its hard to say that any of those teams have drastically improved, or that we will somehow fall off a cliff.

I just don't understand why it would matter.  It's incredibly, incredibly rare that places 8 to 17 are occupied by the same teams in the same position.  At one point last season, Southampton looked like serious top 6 contenders before their form dropped off a cliff and they finished some way down the table.  Wolves had a very disappointing season and would've hoped to have finished higher than they did.  Brighton played some cracking football and were unlucky to end up where they did.

Any one - or all three - of those teams could easily finish above us this season.  Similarly, we could finish ahead of any one - or all three - of Everton, Arsenal and Leeds this season.  The league is so competitive that almost anything can happen.

[commander]

i think off the back off the poor start and already being 5 points down on equivalent fixtures last season. the fact we haven't improved DCM  which was imperitive, and out left wing being weaker, no specialist right back cover becasue we've got rid of Guilbert I think we'll struggle. Smith hasn't proven able to get resukts without Greaish and in the first 3 fixtures could have hardly had any better opportunity. This will need to change asap.  
We have lots and lots of positives youth players will alll be class I do believe, but i think we'll struggle at the start. 

 I think we'll be in the bottom 4,5 of the league after 10-12 games and it's whether we give Smith the boot or not? Europe will be well out the window by then. if we get rid of SMith (I hope he can turn it arund) and get someone competent in then a top 10 finish will be salvagable.

I think we're underprepared and i think off the basis of the first 3 games we'll continue with terrible results before we get better. WIth the run of Chelsea A, Everton H, United A, Spurs A, Wolves H, Arsenal A, we could be looking at 5 or 6 points ffrom 10 games which would be a complete disaster. 

[bobzy]

14 minutes ago, commander said:

i think off the back off the poor start and already being 5 points down on equivalent fixtures last season. the fact we haven't improved DCM  which was imperitive, and out left wing being weaker, no specialist right back cover becasue we've got rid of Guilbert I think we'll struggle. Smith hasn't proven able to get resukts without Greaish and in the first 3 fixtures could have hardly had any better opportunity. This will need to change asap.  
We have lots and lots of positives youth players will alll be class I do believe, but i think we'll struggle at the start. 

 I think we'll be in the bottom 4,5 of the league after 10-12 games and it's whether we give Smith the boot or not? Europe will be well out the window by then. if we get rid of SMith (I hope he can turn it arund) and get someone competent in then a top 10 finish will be salvagable.

I think we're underprepared and i think off the basis of the first 3 games we'll continue with terrible results before we get better. WIth the run of Chelsea A, Everton H, United A, Spurs A, Wolves H, Arsenal A, we could be looking at 5 or 6 points ffrom 10 games which would be a complete disaster. 

I like that we're going to struggle because of a weak squad, but that changing manager would ensure a top 10 finish  

[tomsky_11]

8 minutes ago, bobzy said:

I just don't understand why it would matter.  It's incredibly, incredibly rare that places 8 to 17 are occupied by the same teams in the same position.  At one point last season, Southampton looked like serious top 6 contenders before their form dropped off a cliff and they finished some way down the table.  Wolves had a very disappointing season and would've hoped to have finished higher than they did.  Brighton played some cracking football and were unlucky to end up where they did.

Any one - or all three - of those teams could easily finish above us this season.  Similarly, we could finish ahead of any one - or all three - of Everton, Arsenal and Leeds this season.  The league is so competitive that almost anything can happen.

Lol no it doesn't matter. But this is a discussion around expections for the season in which people are suggesting where we will finish with some suggesting higher and some lower, so it would be interesting and perhaps add to the discussion to hear people's thoughts (if they have them) on who might move up or down for us to go the other way, especially given how far ahead we were of the teams below us last season. I mean, you've given some suggestions in this post as to who might move above or below us and why, which is great.

[commander]

19 minutes ago, bobzy said:

I like that we're going to struggle because of a weak squad, but that changing manager would ensure a top 10 finish  

lol yes - not explained very well by me! I think he (Smith) is party to why the squad is weak in places - didn't buy a DCM, natural left winger and he chose to let Freddie G go.

I think a potential change of manager might help us in that he would seek to adress the above. 

I would dearly love Smith to prove me wrong he's been great but I think he might've taken us as far as he can and I don't think he's adressed how piss weak we are in the middle (and conceding so many shots to the opposition).

[tomsky_11]

22 minutes ago, commander said:

i think off the back off the poor start and already being 5 points down on equivalent fixtures last season.

One bad half against a newly promoted side with an impressive home record and a game ruined by significant last minute absences and a shocking ref.

25 minutes ago, commander said:

the first 3 fixtures could have hardly had any better opportunity

We've had a load of injuries, illness and fitness issues after a distrupted preseason and haven't got close to seeing our first choice XI in action yet.

31 minutes ago, commander said:

the fact we haven't improved DCM  which was imperitive,

Would have been nice, but hardly imperative. Our midfield is no worse than last season (when we did pretty well without a DCM) and if anything should be better.

34 minutes ago, commander said:

out left wing being weaker

Maybe, but not sure the drop of is that big (because Bailey is quite good) and we'll be much improved on the right wing. Across those two positions we could well be about as good as last season, but I'd argue with better balance in the team.

37 minutes ago, commander said:

no specialist right back cover becasue we've got rid of Guilbert I think we'll struggle

We're highly unlikely to struggle because we didn't have a specialist right back on the bench. Cash plays most of the season and the impact will be little to nothing. Axel and Konsa can both cover and worst case Kesler probably gets recalled. I'd have liked to have kept Guilbert but he clearly didn't fancy being back up and it showed when he did play, so can understand why we've let him go.

41 minutes ago, commander said:

Smith hasn't proven able to get resukts without Greaish

Entirely understandably we'd have a worse record when our stand out player, around which our entire attack was built, was unavailable. But we didn't have the likes of Bailey, Buendia, Ings when he was out before.

[zab6359]

6 minutes ago, commander said:

lol yes - not explained very well by me! I think he (Smith) is party to why the squad is weak in places - didn't buy a DCM, natural left winger and he chose to let Freddie G go.

I think a potential change of manager might help us in that he would seek to adress the above. 

I would dearly love Smith to prove me wrong he's been great but I think he might've taken us as far as he can and I don't think he's adressed how piss weak we are in the middle (and conceding so many shots to the opposition).

Bailey will play on the left wing that is why he was signed, Guilbert was signed for a season in the Championship simply not good enough at the level not his fault we were promoted ahead of schedule. Whether we desperately need a DCM is debatable I can see both sides of the argument. 

Smith will definately prove you wrong we will not be in the bottom 5 after 12 games no chance, we have improved the squad it may take some time for them to gel and play our best first 11 but I'm expecting a higher finish than last season.

[bannedfromHandV]

12 minutes ago, commander said:

lol yes - not explained very well by me! I think he (Smith) is party to why the squad is weak in places - didn't buy a DCM, natural left winger and he chose to let Freddie G go.

I think a potential change of manager might help us in that he would seek to adress the above. 

I would dearly love Smith to prove me wrong he's been great but I think he might've taken us as far as he can and I don't think he's adressed how piss weak we are in the middle (and conceding so many shots to the opposition).

Dean Smith is not solely responsible for signing players, in fact, I’d say he’s not even 50% responsible but you crack on…..you might find a better response to this on Facebook.

[Hank Scorpio]

I think midtable would be a good achievement with the squad depth as it is.

[VillaChris]

10th would be fine for me now. Obviously want to do better than that but it's still a place higher than last season and top half.

No new DM is frustrating. Hopefully one turns up in January and team isn't way down the table. We can certainly still win games when everyone is fit.

[VillaChris]

2 hours ago, pintpotvilla said:

Wolves A, Leicester A  Southampton A Chelsea H Spurs A Sheff Utd H  for instance were all games that we could have lost but ended up winning

Fulham aswell considering we were 1 down and hopeless until the 70th minute mark.