flashingqwerty

If he's lost the dressing room then he's done

McGinn, 6 touches and lost possession 4 times...

If I'm truly honest, I would rather not keep Mings in the first 11 he has been so poor. What's clear is that we need a leader at the back and a real captain, as he is really not good enough for the job. Given how good West Ham are right now, I'd be looking to line up as below Martinez Cash. Konsa. Hause. Mings McGinn. Tuanzebe. Luiz. Buendia. Ings. Bailey. Gives us some options and removes the poorest of our first 11 in Target, takes some pressure off Mings, and gives is more aerial security. Tuanzebe as DM is a risk, but he had some good games there in the past, and he's shown me he isn't comfortable at center half. Still think we'll lose though. 0-3

If West Ham were the one's in dire form and we were the one's in great form, I'd agree about the change of fortune. However, it's rarely Villa that end good runs - we're the soft touches that end poor runs!

Highlights what a colossal failure not bringing in an additional midfielder was over the summer. Was our biggest weakness last season and continues to be this season

Personally, I think Aerial prowess is Konsa's biggest weakness

How does a team put in that performance at Old Trafford and play so badly since? Embarrassment to the club, players, manager, coaches, the whole lot. Anything less than 6 points from the next 3 games and the axe should fall.

I don't agree. The introduction of Ramsey in particular I thought was a bad move. I know a lot of people rate him, but I see him coast through games a lot, especially without the ball. I think that was the opportunity to change our shape. The Cash injury was another such opportunity. I've not been impressed with Young so far either and felt a change of shape would have enabled a better player to be introduced. Ifs and maybes...

You could just as easily put that progress down to luck if you were so inclined. We conceded more shots on average last season that any other side and our actual goals conceded was much lower than our expected xg. This season, we are still conceding a lot of chances but our actual and expected are much closer - so this isn't a new problem, it's the actualisation of something that has been there for a while

He's not remembered them in the past so I for one will not be holding my breath

Fully expect us to get turned over, so hopefully that means a win. Fully expected us to beat Wolves and we lost,,, so...

The game called for more than 'like for like' changes. Manager should know his players well enough to be able to judge that.

Players absolutely have a lot to answer for but so does the manager. Took off our 3 best performers and failed to change the system when the game clearly was moving away from us. Terrible game management, and shows Dean still has a lot to learn and a lot of work to do. Will be astonished if we finish top half this season.

Didn't say I thought it would did I? Believing something needs to happen and expecting it are two very different things But we're not winning this unless something changes

Meh performance so far Changes needed at half time

WhoScored appear to have been very generous to Villa, meanwhile many other publications have the same three players rated a 5, which is more in line with what I saw, and more in line with the stats. Villas 3 cm's had an average passes between them of 22 each, Tottenham had an overage over 50. Pass completion Villa 72% Spurs 85%, hojberg attempted and completed more passes, through balls, crosses and long balls than our 3 combined So I have no idea how they rated them so similarly. Similar trends can be seen across all the stats.

If he doesn't, then we have a bigger problem...

That's not an issue with options though is it? It's signing a player who doesn't fit our style of play and shoehorning them in anyway. All 3cms were poor all game, he could have changed that long before 80m to try and change the game and chose not to because he has favourites.

So when you sit and watch our 3 cm's get beaten to every 50-50 and totally outplayed and overrun, you don't think "I should change this"? Spurs are in dire form and we're there for the taking, and at least 4 of our starting 11 choked. A few early changes could have turned the game, but we'll never know now cod DS doesn't do early changes despite how much he goes on about options, different ways to play, etc. He has his favourites and only changes when late in the day, and not to change the game. It's frustrating and he needs to learn from this.

I'm not too worried by today's result. What bothers me more is how much Dean talks about all the options he has and how it allows us to play so many different ways and to change things up. Well, it needed changing today, and he waited until 80 minutes to change. Too little too late. For me, Nakamba had to play today to give us extra steel in the middle. Today was an excellent example why so many wanted us to sign another centre mid - too often we get dominated in that area because Luiz, McGinn and Ramsey are all too similar and none offer any real steel. Spurs have been on a dire run of form, and good old Aston Villa gave them the win they needed to pull out of it. Biggest plus, Ollie scored.

I pity the fool who brings that up

"If you have a problem (poor run of form), if no one else can help (lost to relegation fodder), and if you can find them....maybe you can play The A-Team (Aston Villa)" I think we will win today, but I could not help post this To clarify, this was posted on another forum in reference to Villas ability to be the team to end other teams runs of bad form.

Great performance by the lads during the game. A little spoilt by terrible goalkeeping by Steer in the shootout. Very schoolboy going so early. Great to see Archer score again, there's a player in there - very exciting!

I have a terrible feeling that we will regret not making additional signings this summer. Hope I'm wrong...

Whilst these players improve the squad, none of them are a specialist LM, so we have not replaced Grealish, none of them are anywhere close to as good as Grealish and will not occupy 2/3 defenders as Grealish did, creating space for others, and none of them address the biggest weakness of the team last season, which was our cm's. I'd say we are 2 signings short of being a better side without Grealish, and with our injuries and south American contingent, we are unlikely to see our best 11 on the pitch together many times this season.