Hobsons Choice

Christ, are we the most negative despair infused fanbase in the league, or is it just this messageboard? Genuinely good luck to you, but I’m out of here until we either go down or stay up. I may also in the meantime enjoy watching football.

That’s a bit unfair. Smith has never hidden when we’ve played shit.

And we lost. What’s your point? We played good stuff against a top side and scored twice. Today we’re playing Southampton. We have it in us to score, if we score we can get something from the game.

Putting my tin hat on here, whilst we are obviously playing cack, at times we played some great stuff against spurs in the first half, and that was one game ago. We need to make some changes here, and Soton are right up for it, but we spanked Spurs at times. We can still get something out of this.

This thread is ludicrous. Big Sam? Jesus Christ.

That’s garbage surely. I remember Levy taking the p***. Just because you put in a low ball offer doesn’t mean it is in any way realistic. He can think he ‘nearly signed him’ as much as he wants.

Sweet. Express making s*** up as usual.

I have Mark Bosnich’s and a couple of others (Maybe Ugo?) autographs somewhere from a pre-season friendly away against Falmouth Town in 1995 or 1996. It was all quite embarrassing. I was about 15 and all the players looked pretty bored. All polite tho’.

Sure I heard somewhere that we would be the second team to do it? Stand to be corrected. I’d settle for boring 3pts tbh

You realise that getting results is no excuse for wrongdoing? Actually maybe in these dark times that’s not true any more.

Might have a better team. Not a better club. Everything successful about them came from shady Russian gangsters. When I was a kid they had the same sort of status as West Ham or Crystal Palace now.

Jack has a £60M release clause? Clicky

Interesting. Is that a public website, i’d like to check a few players.

I’m not sure we need an overhaul. We did some hard yards last summer to bolster numbers and clear out our ageing squad. I think we just need to add some quality in key positions, using what we have as backup/rotation. Same if we go down really, but from a less prestigious list of targets. I think if we go down, we’ll be well placed to dominate the Champ.

That Sean Dyche bit cracked me up.

That’s fair. I’d want better crossing from both wingbacks, as they are your primary width. Plus if you have one wingback who can play on both wings, he’d need to be as good with both feet, cos cutting back will kill any momentum during the counter attack.

We need better crossing.

If we stick with 5 at the back we need proper wingbacks

Me too. Is Engels pace really so bad that it undermines our press? I'm not sure he's that slow. Plus, who says it's the central CB of the 3 that has to step out with the ball? If we don't think Engels is up for it, we could still allow one of the others to do the ball carrying, and let Engels drift over to cover. I thought Engels looked good most of the times I've seen him, and fwiw I still think he's going to have a massive part to play before the end of the season in some capacity or other.

Do you not think that players with both technical aptitude and psychological resilience will be playing for top sides? When you drop down the leagues you may have to prioritise one or the other, as players are more limited. We’ve not been a draw for top talent for years. Couple that with the fact that being without technical ability in a league as strong as the Prem, you will be found out, and I can see why our recruitment has prioritised technical ability. Take probably our best player last year, McGinn. He was peerless in the Champ. His main attribute was his work rate and ability to harrass the opposition in midfield. Take him to the prem, and whilst he’s not been bad, he’s not hit the heights.

I've been watching Villa since the early '90s, and the only players that I can remember during that period that could get into the starting 11 of virtually any team in the Premier League and be successful like Jack could right now were Dwight Yorke (who I maintain is the best player I've ever seen in Villa colours), arguably Bosnich, and possibly Milner. Maybe Delph at a push, although he did not massively stand out in that City side. Other players, such as McGrath, Southgate, Ugo, Angel, Merson, Olaf, Laursen, Carew and Benteke were brilliant for us, but were not attractive to the big teams because either they were on their way down after a career at the top, or were in some way limited, which excluded them from the top sides. The exception is Benteke, who could have walked into any side, but for some reason did not adapt when he had the chance. I don't think Jack is Benteke, I think he could do it anywhere, and that's why he's special. He's probably the best i've seen since Yorke. I also think he's shown real class in not moving this January, because I have no doubt agents were banging his door down, and if he leaves in the summer I would wish him the very best for his career as he's earned his success and done the hard yards in the Championship for us whilst being clattered by no-marks.

ITSOTP

We used to play 5-3-2/3-5-2 often during the Brian Little era, and we played some tremendous football. Personally don’t think we have the ideal full backs/wing backs for it atm though. If you have the right wide men and ball playing cb’s it doesn’t have to be overly defensive either. Shifts the overload to wide midfield areas

Boooooooom!

Quiet on here and I can't watch tonight cos i'm working. How are we playing?