Ratings & Reactions: Crystal Palace v Villa

[pacbuddies]

1 minute ago, villalad21 said:

Because ignoring a problem is easier than facing a problem.

Do not get fooled by our point tally. Look at our form in 2021.

We are not far from being a team battling relegation again.

That's why Smith needs to go sooner rather than later.

[sheepyvillian]

Why is it that good dry, humour is often wasted on VT ? Where's Phil Silvers when you want him ?

[HKP90]

6 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Leeds aggression and stone hard mentality is what we need to replicate.

We looked at the beach today. A Bielsa team would never. He would not allow it.

Again, this incredible manager who is showing Smith how it should be done has guided them to…..ONE PLACE ABOVE US!

Picking up a whopping 4 more points!!

F**k it you’re right, lets sack Smith and spunk another 100 mil on a rebuild. Involving Bamford.

[vreitti]

39 minutes ago, pacbuddies said:

He got everything wrong. Reminiscent of last season.

Yeah he probably should've started Salah, De Bruyne, and Fernandes. Oh wait... 

[TRO]

1 hour ago, HKP90 said:

Sure would be nice to have a DM, don’t you think??????

Yep.

[Jas10]

17 minutes ago, allani said:

I'm not desperate for us to sack Dean.  But there are plenty of worrying signs that he needs to address.  Our form since January has been awful - if you applied our points per game since January over a full season we would be 17th.  We don't have the fourth worst team / squad in the division.  There is only so long that you can praise our first 10 - 13 matches without getting worried about the last 20.  I've said before that had our form been more consistent during the season (i.e. we were 11th with the same number of points but the results had been more evenly distributed) I'd be pretty happy.  But we can't just ignore our form (in terms of both results and performances) since January - just as we can't discount our form at the start of the season.  Today kind of summed our season up - brilliant in the first third, poor in the second but failed to address the obvious concerns and being "happy" because we were still ahead and then awful in the final third.  Smith needs to prove that he can turn this around because if we start next season badly I'm not confident in his ability to turn it around.  Last season I think everyone at the club assumed we were down, relaxed and we suddenly picked up some massive results.  He's had 2 seasons in the Premier League now and yet is still making the same mistakes.  I'd rather get rid of a manager before they let us down and replace them with an upgrade than wait until they fail and we are back in another relegation battle.  Not sure we are at that stage yet but the question marks about Smith are getting bigger.  Similar to McGinn for me.  Been a big part of getting us to where we are but huge doubts about whether they are what we need to take us to the next step on the ladder.

I’m not overlooking our poor form and performances either, it has frustrated and annoyed me. But there are a number of factors as to why we tailed off so much since we returned from the Covid outbreak.

He hasn’t let us down yet so why expect him to in the future? For the reasonably minded, he’s actually exceeded expectations and progressed quicker than anticipated too.

I don’t think the solution would be to sack Dean and I don’t think it would be right. It would actually be unfair, kind of senseless & disloyal and disregard his performance in his job as so far as progressing us as a team and club - we have gone from a team struggling to get out of the Championship and wasting millions to what is essentially a midtable team to within the space of, what, 2-3 years or so? And having to completely rebuild a squad in amongst that time - that should not be overlooked.

These things take time and we are in a healthy position, we will spend big and kick on next season and with hopefully a lot less disruption.

We need to be a bit patient. We can do better and we will.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Jas10

[sheepyvillian]

That's it for me . Nothing more entertaining than over the top complaining.  Thanks for the giggles. Oh yeah, and long live Deano.

[smg]

2 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Again, this incredible manager who is showing Smith how it should be done has guided them to…..ONE PLACE ABOVE US!

Picking up a whopping 4 more points!!

F**k it you’re right, lets sack Smith and spunk another 100 mil on a rebuild. Involving Bamford.

Don’t forget Nuno at Wolves he’s the dogs aswell, perhaps we should get both of them in as joint managers/ head coaches etc.?

[villalad21]

Just now, HKP90 said:

Again, this incredible manager who is showing Smith how it should be done has guided them to…..ONE PLACE ABOVE US!

Picking up a whopping 4 more points!!

F**k it you’re right, lets sack Smith and spunk another 100 mil on a rebuild. Involving Bamford.

They are a newly promoted side. We have spent how much again? Yet Bielsa is doing it with players who have been playing in lower leagues.

We barely scraped to 17th in our first season.

 

[smg]

1 minute ago, villalad21 said:

They are a newly promoted side. We have spent how much again? Yet Bielsa is doing it with players who have been playing in lower leagues.

We barely scraped to 17th in our first season.

 

He has been building that squad in the last few seasons, he has had time.

[sheepyvillian]

10 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

The season started last August? 

Just tell yourself, it's fickle time. I'm definitely going now. Chow.

Edited May 16, 2021 by sheepyvillian

[HKP90]

8 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

They are a newly promoted side. We have spent how much again? Yet Bielsa is doing it with players who have been playing in lower leagues.

We barely scraped to 17th in our first season.

 

See that’s funny, because Transfermarkt say they spent 95.2 million pounds on transfers this year. With Rodrigo costing 1 mil less than Watkins.

That’s on 14 players, a full team and half a bench.

But it’s still the same team as the Championship, sure.

And Rodrigo has scored 6 goals from 24.

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by HKP90

[pacbuddies]

1 hour ago, Robtaylor200 said:

No doubting we all love Dean he is one of own,

Sentiment gets you nowhere in football. Too many fans giving him a free pass and an easy ride just because he's a Villa fan.

[villalad21]

2 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

See that’s funny, because Transfermarkt say they spent 95.2 million pounds on transfers this year. With Rodrigo costing 1 mil less than Watkins.

That’s on 14 players, a full team and half a bench.

But it’s still the same team as the Chsmpionship, sure.

Yeah but only Rafinha has featured much of their signings. 

He's been doing it mainly with his championship players 

[Jas10]

6 minutes ago, smg said:

Don’t forget Nuno at Wolves he’s the dogs aswell, perhaps we should get both of them in as joint managers/ head coaches etc.?

Well here’s the thing, I actually thought our fans were better than Wolves’ but I am being disappointed.

Many of them are a bunch of self entitled, arrogant and fickle pricks. Loudmouths. They were a nothing club until Nuno came in and they were singing his praises all day and night. And now, at the first sign of something that may possibly resemble a stumble, they want him out and are constantly expressing their pathetic anger?!!! Just turned on him...

Why do so many believe that it is possible and that they are entitled to the fastest and most immediate road to success?

I mean, everyone says that this is the best or most competitive league in the world so.... is it easy to finish higher and higher every season and just blow every other team away?

It bothers me that some of us are starting to behave like that towards Smith, but, here’s the thing, we haven’t even stumbled under Deano. It’s been constant progression and success.

So WTF?

[HKP90]

1 minute ago, villalad21 said:

Yeah but only Rafinha has featured much of their signings. 

He's been doing it mainly with his championship players 

Rodrigo has made 24 appearances. The exact same number as Jack.

Raphina 28 apps

Costa 22

Harrison 34

 

[TRO]

1 hour ago, briny_ear said:

The frustrating thing is how we can attack with pace, harass defences and score good goals, yet almost immediately switch to phases where we fall back and don’t even defend well. We gave Palace so much time and space in midfield and in front if our box today, it’s no wonder we lost. Can’t anyone in the coaching team do anything about this? This isn’t about individual abilities, it is about how they play together as a team.

Would have given AEG MOTM for his super goal but he fell away a bit in the 2nd half so it’s back to Emi again for his super save. Watkins came a close second for his energetic and skilful consistency. But he needs to be scoring more goals. Maybe should be a bit more selfish.

I like the look of that Eze. Wonder if he’s for sale?

 

He was a decent prospect, when he was a QPR....caused us a few problems a 2/3 seasons ago....had a good game at Villa park in 1-3 defeat....after the good Wolves game, I think.

[allani]

8 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

I’m not overlooking our poor form and performances either, it has frustrated and annoyed me. But there are a number of factors as to why we tailed off so much since we returned from the Covid outbreak.

He hasn’t let us down yet so why expect him to in the future? For the reasonably minded, he’s actually exceeded expectations and progressed quicker than anticipated too.

I don’t think the solution would be to sack Dean and I don’t think it would be right. It would actually be unfair, kind of senseless & disloyal and disregard his performance in his job as so far as progressing us as a team and club - we have gone from a team struggling to get out of the Championship and wasting millions to what is essentially a midtable team to within the space of, what, 2-3 years or so? And having to completely rebuild a squad in amongst that time - that should not be overlooked.

These things take time and we are in a healthy position, we will spend big and kick on next season and with hopefully a lot less disruption.

OK but playing Devil's Advocate - has Smith improved us or has £150m of better players improved us?  I think the squad is better than last season (I can't see that anyone can deny that).  Was it better enough to explain our start?  No.  Is it bad enough to explain our recent form?  No.  There are at least 6 teams that (on paper) are weaker than us and yet our form since January has been on a par with 17th (where we finished last season).  We are making many of the same mistakes this season (with better players) as we did last season.  At the very least we are making the same mistakes now after a 20 odd game run of poor form as we were in January / February when it first started.  I don't like chopping and changing managers.  I was disgusted that Leicester sacked Ranieri - yet in hindsight it was the correct decision.  Just as sometimes Smith refuses to make subs because we are doing OK and then leaves it too late and we've lost the game.  If we wait until we are in the **** before we make a change it might be too late and the new manager might not have enough time to turn it around.  I'd much rather spend £150 million with someone like Ancellotti in charge.  (I know we are not going to get him - but if Everton can attract a manager like him then there is absolutely no reason why Villa couldn't).  I think Smith deserves the summer but if we start next season poorly and he still refuses to make changes in matches when things are going against us there can be no excuse.  By then our owners will have spent £300 million plus on players and the "our squad isn't good enough" excuse is no longer acceptable.  I hope you are right and next season we are a different prospect - but my niggling concern is that improvements will be because the playing staff is better and that we're not checking whether our coaching team are outperforming their squad.  I have everything crossed for another step forward!!!

[OutByEaster?]

It's a tough game of small margins.

10th - build a statue.

11th - build a bonfire.

 

[HKP90]

Just now, OutByEaster? said:

It's a tough game of small margins.

10th - build a statue.

11th - build a bonfire.

 

Expectation is the most damaging of human conditions.