2021/22 expectations

[VillaChris]

18 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

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.

He has his say unless Suso and now Lange both have massive hard ons for Brentford players. For a manager/head coach who has no say in transfers....we don't half sign loads of players who used to play under him. This summer is case point, probably 20-30 up and coming CBs we could sign from european clubs and we get Axel back on loan (and I rate him).

At Brentford he signed Rico Henry and Romaine Sawyers within six months of joining from Walsall and they have even more metric set up to signings so he obviously still wants some say and that's far enough.

Also rumours back in Jan 2020 he pushed to sign Drinkwater over Nzozni who Suso had recommended that window as the DM.

Edited September 1, 2021 by VillaChris

[maqroll]

2 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Also rumours back in Jan 2020 he pushed to sign Drinkwater over Nzozni who Suso had recommended that window as the DM.

[romavillan]

Anything over 55 points is solid progress looked at in the wake of a certain Gresford deciding he didn't love us anymore.

We've had a poor start, but an understandably poor one given the preseason we've had and injuries. So it's already a bit more uphill than it might have been but Smith is a very good coach, he has some better raw material to work with for the most part than last term and I'd expect the end result to be a more balanced side that wins the ball back high up the pitch, transitions quickly and scores goals. The key to how many points we get is how late we click and then how lucky we are with injuries.
 

[romavillan]

4 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Also rumours back in Jan 2020 he pushed to sign Drinkwater over Nzozni who Suso had recommended that window as the DM.

What's your source for that?

[bannedfromHandV]

1 hour ago, VillaChris said:

He has his say unless Suso and now Lange both have massive hard ons for Brentford players. For a manager/head coach who has no say in transfers....we don't half sign loads of players who used to play under him. This summer is case point, probably 20-30 up and coming CBs we could sign from european clubs and we get Axel back on loan (and I rate him).

At Brentford he signed Rico Henry and Romaine Sawyers within six months of joining from Walsall and they have even more metric set up to signings so he obviously still wants some say and that's far enough.

Also rumours back in Jan 2020 he pushed to sign Drinkwater over Nzozni who Suso had recommended that window as the DM.

Who said he has no say? 

[jim]

6 hours ago, romavillan said:

What's your sauce for that?

Julie B.

[string28]

I think we may do better now that we have Aaron Danks really good coach will push us more.

[Villaphan04]

NBC showed a brief discussion on each team and where they stand after the deadline. Thought that the 2 Robbies + Ornstein were pretty fair and balanced in talking about Villa. (Not sure if everyone could view this video.... they made it their podcast for the week as well)

 

 

 

[Spoony]

Gotta say, overreaction or not I can’t help having all of my excitement blown out of the water after all the Grealish drama, not actually investing fully in the window (we are still short when we had so much time to build properly after a quick start to the window), all this shit with our Argentinian players, so many injuries, miraculous recoveries to play international football, coaches leaving.

Just all feels like we are regressing. Possibly a total overreaction from years of Villa PTSD but I can’t help but feel that way. 

[villalad21]

6 hours ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

I can help with the math!

If we get more points than 3 other teams we will stay up. Get more points than 13 other teams and we will be in Europe.

 

So you reckon we’ll stay up this season? 

[picicata]

The fun of Maths. International breaks throw up the oddest and most pointless of conversations.

Nearly time for the Chelsea game thank the lord!

[DCJonah]

9 minutes ago, picicata said:

The fun of Maths. International breaks throw up the oddest and most pointless of conversations.

Nearly time for the Chelsea game thank the lord!

You'll be wishing this insane conversation was still going on when you see the reaction to the team sheet.

[VillaFaninLondon]

I think the frustration is we go into a tricky run of games with only 4 points, when if we looked at those first three games before the season started we'd be looking at 7 points minimum if not 9. I just hope for Dean's sake that players who were unavailable before are available in the coming weeks because we need them.

The next four games are Chelsea (a), Everton (h), Manure (a), Spuds (a). The next four after that are Wolves (h), Arse (a), W'Ham (h), Southampton (a). Hypothetically, if we had our strongest team for all those games (which we won't), I would predict: Chelsea - L, Everton - W, Manure - L, Spuds - D, Wolves - W, Arse - D, W'Ham - D, Southampton - W. So I make that 12 points from 8 games with our strongest team available (i.e. Bailey, Traore, Watkins, Sanson + the Emis) and that may be generous tbh. 

Even if we took 12 points from those games, that is 16 points from our first 11 games which is reasonable but no better on average than last season. So my hope is key players return asap - if they do, we should kick on; if they don't, we could be deep into the bottom half with over a third of the season gone. 

[HKP90]

We as fans are always thinking over much too short a timescale. Over a season injury crises, international breaks, they all even themselves out. A decent team, which is what we have, will do ok. 

I won’t be worried if we are in the bottom half in October. I will in February.

[nick76]

16 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

So my hope is key players return asap - if they do, we should kick on; if they don't, we could be deep into the bottom half with over a third of the season gone.

Yeah and that’s a bad place to be but it’s not as if there hasn’t been mitigating circumstances.  We know when fit and/or available we have a strong team so relegation isn’t going to be an issue.  This may well be a 13th/14th place season and that won’t be because Smith is bad but factors like Covid, Grealish, International FA stuff ups and injuries to players Ollie, Bailey and co.  Against Brentford we had something like 8 potential first team players out, there is nothing Smith could do about that.  

Things just haven’t gone our way so far this season and that happens. We wanted progression but things seem to be against us at the moment.  We may claw it back but we may not.  We had a bad second half of the season, last season but great first half, that maybe the opposite way around this season.

[villalad21]

22 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

I think the frustration is we go into a tricky run of games with only 4 points, when if we looked at those first three games before the season started we'd be looking at 7 points minimum if not 9. I just hope for Dean's sake that players who were unavailable before are available in the coming weeks because we need them.

The next four games are Chelsea (a), Everton (h), Manure (a), Spuds (a). The next four after that are Wolves (h), Arse (a), W'Ham (h), Southampton (a). Hypothetically, if we had our strongest team for all those games (which we won't), I would predict: Chelsea - L, Everton - W, Manure - L, Spuds - D, Wolves - W, Arse - D, W'Ham - D, Southampton - W. So I make that 12 points from 8 games with our strongest team available (i.e. Bailey, Traore, Watkins, Sanson + the Emis) and that may be generous tbh. Even if we took 12 points from those games, that is 16 points from our first 11 games which is reasonable but no better on average than last season. So my hope is key players return asap - if they do, we should kick on; if they don't, we could be deep into the bottom half with over a third of the season gone. 

I think you are being generous.

Don't think we are taking anywhere near 12 points from that, especially considering the injury situation.

I think we lose the next 4. Wolves I can see a draw. Arsenal could have a new manager by then so could get tricky. Can't see us beating West Ham. Southampton should be winnable.

But one thing is for sure. Smith got one hell of a job in front of him in the coming weeks.

[Rolta]

2 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

I think the frustration is we go into a tricky run of games with only 4 points, when if we looked at those first three games before the season started we'd be looking at 7 points minimum if not 9. 

 

I just hope for Dean's sake that players who were unavailable before are available in the coming weeks because we need them.

 

The next four games are Chelsea (a), Everton (h), Manure (a), Spuds (a). The next four after that are Wolves (h), Arse (a), W'Ham (h), Southampton (a). 

 

Hypothetically, if we had our strongest team for all those games (which we won't), I would predict: Chelsea - L, Everton - W, Manure - L, Spuds - D, Wolves - W, Arse - D, W'Ham - D, Southampton - W.

 

So I make that 12 points from 8 games with our strongest team available (i.e. Bailey, Traore, Watkins, Sanson + the Emis) and that may be generous tbh. 

 

Even if we took 12 points from those games, that is 16 points from our first 11 games which is reasonable but no better on average than last season. 

 

So my hope is key players return asap - if they do, we should kick on; if they don't, we could be deep into the bottom half with over a third of the season gone. 

My word, I didn't realise those were our next fixtures. I am so much less optimistic this season, and that's a fresh hit! 

[Rolta]

49 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

I think you are being generous.

Don't think we are taking anywhere near 12 points from that, especially considering the injury situation.

I think we lose the next 4. Wolves I can see a draw. Arsenal could have a new manager by then so could get tricky. Can't see us beating West Ham. Southampton should be winnable.

But one thing is for sure. Smith got one hell of a job in front of him in the coming weeks.

And I'm sure you won't take the bolded things into account.

[danceoftheshamen]

This season just has a bad feel about it already. Nothing is rolling for the club at the moment. The Grealish saga put an awful stink about proceedings before a ball had been kicked, pre-season was a mare with cancellations and players late back/injuries etc, then injuries hit us cruelly hard, covid took some players out & then we had Argentinagate and still we are nowhere near knowing how good we can be with everyone fit & firing. 

It'll take a while to sort this all out sadly and with the run of games upcoming we will likely be playing catch up for most of the season.

I think it's called... " having a stinker".

I just hope we drag through the quagmire and discover that once all fit we actually have a decent team which makes a late push for the top half or something.

It's looking like it's all about next season even at this early point as crazy as that sounds.

Hopefully we pull off a couple of miracle results and stay hangng in there after the next 8 games & get everyone gelled and firing though.

[tomav84]

3 hours ago, villalad21 said:

I think you are being generous.

Don't think we are taking anywhere near 12 points from that, especially considering the injury situation.

I think we lose the next 4. Wolves I can see a draw. Arsenal could have a new manager by then so could get tricky. Can't see us beating West Ham. Southampton should be winnable.

But one thing is for sure. Smith got one hell of a job in front of him in the coming weeks.

so on the basis that you think we'll lose the next 4 anyway, if that does indeed happen, there will be no reason to criticise smith right?