Tomaszk

Back to Portugal for him soon with another £3m in his back pocket. Stunning work if you can get it. Nice boost today to see him getting such a trashing.

Another tasty hook away over his own head today. I'd like one of them a game please Bjorn.

Taken from post elsewhere... It'll be interesting to see the difference new full backs make, going forward and holding possession it'll be noticeable I think, huge upgrade. I'm totally against Smith in this decision. Taylor and Elmo out thanks. Spending over £10m on a left back that isn't better than Taylor at everything is not good, I'm not sure what's going on. Taylor isn't a "defensive full back", he's a crap full back. This defensive stuff has appeared from nowhere as people try to understand what the hell we're doing. He wasn't a defensive full back when Championship wingers danced round him for three years.

It was actually so bad I was laughing quite a bit. What the hell was he doing?! He came wandering a few times actually. Back in your 6 yard box Tom.

Yep, I mean pressing an opponent when they have the ball and we don't. We did loads of it for me. We also aren't Man City.

Horrible regression today. Not just bad, back to being scared of responsibility bad. Stupid aimless passes, not even caring where the ball is going, just making sure he doesn't get tackled or kicked again.

Couple of sparks, but we need more fire. I think he should step back a bit, back to basics. Get the ball under before trying expansive stuff. He's trying plenty before he's even got the ball, this isn't Belgium, these teams are good, it's OK, don't worry. King and Wilson really effective today, quickly bouncing off a big centre half, getting a 40-50 clip forwards down, and laying it off. Suddenly they're now playing right outside our box instead of in their own half. Feels like Wes is more thinking he'll get it down, nip round someone and rake an incisive ball though to make a chance. Would like to see him compete more with CBs on hopeful punts. They're often only played when we're clearing lines under pressure, but he isn't getting near them, you don't have to always "win" it, but stopping them having an uncontested ball will help us get up. Fighting a losing battle if he doesn't improve.

I was wrong, it wasn't at 2-0, it was at 1-0. We pressed ferociously after our keeper had given away a penalty after 90 seconds, we were all over them. The first 90 seconds nothing had happened. Did you see the game? Honestly, I'm just wondering. We worked so hard that first half trying to right wrongs, can't believe anyone would say we weren't pressing. Think we paid for it at the end to be honest, lacked a bit of bounce last 10 mins.

Horror first half, too slow. Stood up, got on the ball, and played second half. Pleased for him to score. That's the player I want, not interested in bottlers hiding away. Don't want to lose possession so go backwards all the time, get tackled once so flick it off constantly, play it safe every time so you never lose the ball, get pressured so hide behind opposition. Doug did none of that.

I'll just float as well I think that was a bit of a hospital ball to Doug Luiz. Trezeguet not to blame there, but if Doug had just controlled it, he was under incredible pressure in a horrible position and would probably have lost it anyway. Like I said, he was rushing everything trying to get us back into the game, don't think he saw what he was playing the ball into there.

Not interested in that. Go and sit out if you're scared to get on the ball, scared to cross, scared to fail. If Targett is worse than him, and we play either LB in back 4 we're going down.

Did you see the game today? We pressed an insane amount first half once we'd decided to start after being 2-0 down. We need to learn to "rest on the ball".

We deserved something from that game. Two bad errors, and and a very lucky deflection in off the post meant we were 2-0 down from the off. There was frustration but determination. We dominated much of the match. So many half chances. Billing had had 3 or 4 yellows in the first half alone. That Wes thing was a pen another day, VAR certainly wouldn't have stepped in to overrule. It'll be interesting to see the difference new full backs make, going forward and holding possession it'll be noticeable I think, huge upgrade. I'm totally against Smith in this decision. Taylor and Elmo out thanks. Spending over £10m on a left back that isn't better than Taylor at everything is not good, I'm not sure what's going on. Taylor isn't a "defensive full back", he's a crap full back. This defensive stuff has appeared from nowhere as people try to understand what the hell we're doing. He wasn't a defensive full back when Championship wingers danced round him for three years. Sick of seeing Elmo get it and float the ball down the line to no one, or crossing it to no one, he had a great run at the end of the season last year and that's been it for him. A good run of matches where we were demolishing opponents where he could cross it onto Tammy's head and didn't have any other responsibilities. I agree with what I read elsewhere, the better players should be gelling now. If we've signed full backs worse than Elmo and Taylor, we are going to get relegated. Just a note that we also have Mings, Engels, Hause, Konsa, Chester(?), we can do three CBs and attacking wing backs if we're worried about the new lads defensively. Not one to rush to yet, but I hope it's in the back of Dean's mind. The run last year watching us name the same team and shape every match, playing trash, and not winning was very glum. Positives: The team are with him. Huge effort today. We deserved at least a point, the performance was not bad, and yet loads of room for improvement. Negatives: Need more danger in our moves. There was too much crossing with no one in the box. So easy to defend against. If Wes doesn't lift it, I'm not sure how much better we can play than today.

The manager is also persisting with Neil Taylor. We're all wrong sometimes

Has elevated the standard. Being a great player means you have to be better Jacko. It'll come. Fear for us looking this toothless though. Obviously mugs all over will lay the blame at Grealish's door for others playing badly, or Villa not winning. He's the star. He's the only player some have heard of.

Great attitude. Just needs a bit of polish. Feet go too fast for his head sometimes. But today he was really pushing it as we were basically 2-0 from KO. I think some of the sloppiness was enforced.

Can't believe he's in the team again. Genuinely surprised, couldn't see him playing more than 10 games for us this year.

No Marvelous or Guilbert on bench.

Team: Heaton Elmo Engels Mings Taylor Doug Luiz Grealish McGinn Trez Wes El Ghazi Here we **** go Dougie!

Definitely first choice. Pat Roberts will likely see more minutes now. Plenty of ability but his defensive work leaves a bit to be desired for me.

Keinan will be getting minutes tomorrow I think. I sincerely hope it's experience time with him coming on for a coast 10 mins with us at 4-0 up.

Dion Dublin doesn't help things like this by inventing Grealish is 6' 2"!

We need confidence and big balls from all early on. Get on the ball, get playing, get the crowd going even more, Jack and John will lead this well I think. Won't take much tomorrow for confidence to spread or diminish, got a big game feel I think. Three years out and we're back. Trezeguet to bag a brace, Hourihane off the bench with the third.

May have hit the bar/post? Sure it was the home game though. * Start of this clip.* No, just saved. Joe Lolley being sold a great chocolate fish there.

It was in that crazy 3-3 first half forest at home. Gasps around me in the north stand. What a footballer.