Tomaszk

Good player but he's very much a main man for Monaco. He'll also be on a fortune and would probably want an increase. Be a great signing but shouldn't be looked at until a striker is sorted IMO.

Fair enough, I disagree. All those players to me have shown a few times, some more, that they can play football. Haller would be so good for us, he's exactly what we need in that sort of target man that drops a bit deeper role. The only comparison I have for Wes is Gestede and Bowery who the ball used to absolutely bounce off like a wall when they tried to control it. Bowery jumps to mind more because Wes does work hard running down defenders and that's all Bowery ever did "well". Agree with bold bit. Though we don't need someone to hit the ground running. It'd be great obviously, but just some good performances and some hope of development would be good. He looks truly terrible, there's just nothing to work with, and I'm gutted about it. Need to stop starting threads, think my last two have been Wes and bloody Kalinic.

26% possession for Newcastle. Was it another smash and grab? Didn't see it but relieved Steve Bruce is nowhere near this club. Don't let trolls ruin the site. That guy has been doing nothing but talk us down since Smith was here. I don't know who he is, but it's really annoying to watch him derail thread after thread. Very surprised he hasn't been banned.

Get back to the Mings thread with your insults please. You've got to contain them in one thread or you'll be unbearable.

This really is top notch. Hope we have to same huge upswing in performance when Wesley is replaced like Taylor was. It was like we'd had a weight lifted off our backs and could breathe. I reckon it'll be even more noticeable with a striker as well. Purslow really has to work some magic to get some funds released for a striker. We're almost all there. We're looking good in almost every game as a whole team and we've got a central striker giving us nothing. If anything, actively breaking down most plays when he's involved.

Iheanacho and Kean are miles and miles better than him though. They've hardly had any minutes, and when they have, even when not playing well, you can see they can control and kick the ball 90% of the time. Wes needs 4 passes into him to trap it once. The market is silly at the moment yes I agree. It's certainly not his fault he cost £22m. If he was £2m, maybe there would be less frustration? I will say though I genuinely can't believe how bad he is. If he was a punt from league 2 for £500k I'd be disappointed because he looks like he can't play football. How on earth has £22m been agreed? Has he gone off a cliff during the summer? Maybe he's the sole player at Villa who has managed to go backwards under Smith.

I'm seeing it more Andre Green right now. "Occupying space" is class. Such a funny phrase to praise him.

I'm telling you, he's a joke this guy.

It's almost like...goals for him and getting his confidence up is almost bad for the team. The goals are lovely jubbly, but the confidence he gains doesn't calm him down to play more with the team. It just means he shoots and tries to beat his man more often when he should be passing. That was such a great chance, the players in the box and Elmo on the overlap were fuming.

Would love so much for him to start up front.

Overall decent performance I thought tonight. They were really pushing us and we stuck to our guns and kept playing. They did the usual hatchet job on Grealish and McGinn, and as usual it was only 2 cards when it could have been 5 or 6. We are a striker away from being comfortably mid-table. Purslow and Smith need to get into the owners and go and beg for some January money. A good striker and we're staying up no problem.

I thought he was better tonight than Old Trafford.

Have you ever seen anyone this bad who went on to be good? I honestly can't think of anyone. I've yet to see a worse striker this season in the league. I'd swap him for Joelinton (who everyone was laughing at because we dominated Newcastle) in a heartbeat.

He's literally only of use when we're on top in games. That's when he makes things happen. The game far too quick for him tonight. Kante was fantastic and monstering round midfield.

This is vital. This isn't a player struggling to adapt. Well, it is. But, also, this is a player who can't control or kick the ball.

What have Sheffield Utd got to do with anything? Tammy wouldn't be such a monstrous, farcical step up for them because they've got a few actual footballers available up front. It's not about Tammy, it's about Wes. We'd probably have 4/5/6 more points if we had Oliver McBurnie ffs. Huge black mark on the record of the recruitment team this signing.

Without seeing him or knowing his name...can he be worse than Wes? £22m, Christ.

Played Doug.

The issue is very much Wesley's inadequacies, just as much as depth. We had to buy 10/11 players with £140m, it was tricky to build a squad in the summer. If we'd signed a footballer to play up front, we'd be fine. As it is, we signed a Wes and have put ourselves in trouble.

Are you saying we'd have won with Tammy? Because swap the strikers from those XIs and yes, I agree with you, we'd have won that. A great effort from the whole team tonight.

Game of opinions. Yours is wrong.

Works very hard. Very little understanding of space and timing and positioning and much of anything to be honest. Wasted the chance to get back in it by not putting Elmo in.

Welcome back John.

100%. It happened with Taylor and it's happening with Wes. You can keep a left back out of attacking play, but it's hard to avoid your central striker.

Yes, numbers. Yeah but have you watched Wes play? He can't control the football.