roonst83

Iain Dowie has said that Tammy was shaking hands with tean mates on the pitch and smiling at the end. Hope this isn’t as bad as we all fear. Will be a very anxious wait until we find out.

I was wondering about this. If he gets two yellows against Bolton does he just miss one game? Or as he will have picked up his 15th booking would the three game ban be upheld? Surely, there’s measures in place to stop teams being clever with deliberately getting yellows to offset the length of suspension. I’d play him as usual until he picks up another yellow then rest him for playoffs, assuming we make it.

I hear what you’re saying but how often does he do this in a game? Rarely, if atall in most games. He has shown glimpses of quality but nowhere near enough to, in my opinion, be worthy of a start. He benefits from not having great competition for his place in Adomah.

Bannan was criticised for not being up to Premier League standard which is far removed from Championship. At this level, and as shown on Saturday, Bannan can run the show from midfield and is very effective indeed. Green would, in my opinion, look much better in League 1.

Sadly just don't rate Green. He doesn't seem capable at this standard for a team trying to get promoted. For me, his final ball is usually what let's him down (but he did great for McGinn's goal the other day) and he doesn't seem to have the confidence or ability to take a man on. We always look weak down our right with Green starting and he doesn't have any cohesion or understanding with Elmo that I think Albert has. (FWIW, I also think Albert is massively limited).

Absolutely spot on.

This is a carbon copy of the goal he scored this season away at Blackburn in the 94th minute. He's got a wand of a left foot and so deadly from set pieces.

Absolutely pathetic mindset form that Wednesday "fan". Its all just jealousy isn't it. Grealish is a top player and plays with a smile on his face and has the ability to glide past players with ease and, as he's shown recently, score some beauties. The consensus amongst the unintelligent is that he dives despite the fact he is the most fouled player in the league. Football fans are largely idiots and these sort of comments vindicate that. What worries me is if this absolutely moron can feel the need to assault Grealish at 0-0 when the ball merely goes for a corner then what may have happened if he scored in front of their fans at their end? Anyone saying things like "he asks for it", etc is an utter idiot and devoid of any intelligence or decency.

Agree. I just don’t think you lose any quality by having McGinn in in place of Glenn.

Bruce sadly couldn’t get a tune out of this season’s Villa team with Grealish. Smith’s last couple of months of dire performances have been on a par with the win percentage Bruce achieved this season, yet this coincided with the absence of Grealish. With Grealish available Smith can seemingly get us playing, scoring and winning far more effectively than Bruce could. I was surprised just how much we fell offf a cliff without Grealish and a lot of that falls at Smith’s feet but Smith has, in my opinion, shown in his time here that when he has Grealish he can get us playing the way he intends and the players around him react to that and are subsequently improved as well. Bruce was undeniably very effective last season and did really great for us and made us a threat. But I honestly feel if we didn’t lose Jack for the past ten weeks then we would at least we in the playoffs positions. Big issue is us almost inevitably losing Grealish next season means we risk going back to being rank average unless we can successfully fill that void.

It’s a tough decision to make but it doesn’t seem right if McGinn is on the bench. As much as there’s plenty of merit in keeping a winning team, it’s no guarantee that it will automatically produce the same outcome in the next match. You have to weigh up the next opposition (and in this case, the importance of the derby) and plan for that specific game. Whelan was great today, really great actually. But I think you can’t just use today in isolation for making a decision in picking/keeping a player. You have to assess the performances over the course of the season, and McGinn has arguably been our most consistent player this season. I feel Whelan is more at risk of making key mistakes than McGinn so I’d throw McGinn in.

But with a much tighter defence.

A fantastic display by a hugely dominant Villa team. What a difference it makes having Grealish back. We passed the ball, we moved, we made space, we supported each other in attack and defence, we hunted, we pressed and we created chance after chance. Having Jack drop deep and being able to hold the ball was a the real difference to me. He gives us that composure we’ve desperately lacked, as well as the natural ability to glide past players with ease and bring others into play. I’ve been having battles with a friend of mine who is a perpetual “Smith is clueless” and “Smith out” person, and continully state how I feel that when we have the right players in our team and the right balance we are an attacking force as good as anyone in the division. Today showed that. (I absolutely do feel that Smith should have picked us up more points in the last two months, by the way, but I could see how with our best team we get the best out of our manager). I am certain, as I was back when we were playing the likes of Derby, Boro and Baggies away, that we’d be at least in the playoffs. That hope absolutely faded the moment we lost Grealish. Now he’s back, it feels as if it’s probably all too late but whilst there’s a glimmer of a chance we have to keep going. So many great performances out there today, notably Grealish, Hourihane, Adomah, Elmo, Whelan, Mings etc. We played with great confidence, vigor, and belief throughout and looked solid at the back. Derby were poor and have injuries and are on a bad run of form but we looked great from the first whistle today. That early goal just set us off. And Grealish’s goal was just sublime. I was pleased to see us keep attacking in the second half despite our big advantage and we should’ve had more goals for sure. I was surprised we got Jack for 70mins, I’m sure adrenaline helped carry him longer but I thought Carroll filled the Grealish role quite well too. Gutted to lose Elphick and it’s just typical that we get Jack back and look great and then lose another key player who has helped sure us up at the back. Him and Mings have partnered well. Hope Hause can do a job there although I’m worried about having Taylor back at LB. A fantastic win today and a really great performance that shows just what we can be with the right personnel and correct balance in the team. We need some confidence going into a very tough game at the Sty next weekend. It’ll be a very different game to today but they won’t fancy playing us much either after seeing our result today. Well done to the boys, to Smith and the coaches and to that absolute beauty of a man called Jack.

I cannot see us winning again this season. Absolute heap of shit. Poor from Smith again and the players clearly aren’t playing for him or the fans. The final nail in this atrocious wreck of a season will be the inevitable loss at the sty, with the only slight fortunate part of that will be it will be a meaningless game by then anyway. It hurts much more when it is a shock. This has come to be expected so just feels yet another “meh” moment.

Absolutely abysmal

Have no idea whether to look forward to this with slight optimism after our comeback last night or utterly dread it after our terrible performance for 80 mins last night. Either way, the Sky cameras will be picking it up and likely hoping for an upset for Smith on his return. Most unlikely result based on past couple of months is a Villa win. We always do poor away to Brentford. Probably a draw and we continue to drift. Need a win but struggle to see it with the players we have, the lack of cohesion we are displaying and the lack of grit, bite and determination that we have been showing of late (barring a last ten mins last night). Ultimately these games are becoming more and more insignificant as we go on dropping points and missing opportunities. Some time soon we’re going to need to get a win again on the road. Wednesday would be ideal.

Jammy f*ckers

Whilst I agree with the fact that those players listed are mostly poor there’s not many other better options available at the moment.

Has this guy ever played a full 90 mins for us? He’s absolutely ineffective.

Pains me to say it but they’re a far better organised and balanced team than us at the moment (and have been for a while) and seem to play as a team. In midweek when they went down to ten men you could see how they stuck together and kept pushing forward. I fear we’d absolutely crumble in the same situation. Not looking forward to the game at the sty. They’re long overdue a win against us and on the basis of our current results it’s hard to fancy us for a win.

Yeah saw it today. I was wrong. Last season when it was boarded up must have been the refurb.

Pretty’s sure this is closed now. Could be wrong but seem to remember last season it wasn’t there.

Need another win to try pick oursleves up after our recent slump. It’ll no doubt be another tough and close game but we need to be winning this if we’re to have any chance of making the top six. We controlled possession and pressed well against Ipswich and need to do the same away to Reading. Unless we bring in any strong new recruits I expect a similar starting XI to yesterday’s game. With some tough teams to come we need to be getting maximum points against Reading. May be able to counter more as the home team will want the ball. But, then again, I thought the same about our last away game at wigan. Tammy to become the first Villa player to score 20 league goals since the 80s? Let’s hope so. Shame about the reduced allocation for this as we always fill the 5,000 away end, but hopefully or fans will be right behind Smith and the boys to help us get the must needed win. Until we get Grealish and Tuanzebe back we know we’re seemingly much weaker but we have the players to take the win here and need to find a way to do so.

Painful and nervous last half hour. We missed a whole host of chances and should’ve easily wrapped this up. When they scored a belter to get back in it we seemed nervous and far from convincing. Needed the result, I had us down for 2-1 but should’ve been much more comfortable. Overall we probably played with better intensity, pressing and passing in the first half to sixty minutes and created more opportunities than lately, but we were playing bottom of the league and we should’ve been out of sight. Tammy could and should have had a hatful of goals and missed some sitters for him. A clean sheet would’ve been ideal as we did control the game but we ship goals so easily I’ll just take the win and be content with that for now. Long way to go to get us in playoffs as there’s so many teams above us and some with games in hand. We’re desperate to have Grealish back but it’s going to be a big ask to make playoffs given how many goals we continue to ship.

I said at the start of this thread if we lose it’ll start to get ugly for us and Smith and it has. Utter utter shambles. Terrible all round and no place to hide for Smith and players. No plan. No idea. Out battled, out fought and outplayed by the league’s worst form team. Taylor, El Ghazi, Bolasie, **** Whelan, Thor etc all absolutely **** awful. Tammy didn’t touch the ball. We’ve fallen off a cliff since Baggies and Grealish got injured. And the triple substitution was just pointless, bizarre and massively harmed an already under performing team. There’s no sign whatsoever of us winning against anyone. Players look utterly terrible and Smith has a lot to answer for. Absolutely dreadful. Feel like top six has gone purely because we aren’t even showing a glimpse of controlling a game and winning a football match.