Villarocker

Him and Kodjia seemed head and shoulders above the rest of our team tonight.

Jedinak was very poor in parts but he did improve towards the end, especially when Tshibola got into the game. I'm sorry but Westwood is the common denominator when trying to work out why our midfield has been so weak and non-creative for the last few seasons. He just offers nothing of any note during most games he plays in. He needs to be replaced permanently and so does Gardner, as he is pretty much the same type of player. We need to sign a dynamic midfielder or two in January to accompany Jedinak and Tshibola.

His subs mystified me tonight. Should have taken off Westwood when Tshibola came on. I don't think he lacks ideas as he's tried many formations this season. I just think he's looking for the right formula. I'd stick with him. I think Villa fans would enjoy the season more if we took the following views: Keep calm unless we drop anywhere in the bottom 3. See how the season goes and hope for a chance at promotion. We will go up in the near future but I think this season may prove to be too soon. I'm willing to wait unless it gets desperate this season, which, it isn't yet.

I liked the signing of him but he was shockingly poor today.

Villa fans are just so fickle! How the f***is he meant to pass the ball accurately when he's wearing half a mohair jumper on his chin?

I think that the Newcastle game is the most important game we've played so far, simply because it's against a side that we came down with and will arguably be the best set of players that we've come up against so far this season. A win could be huge for Di Matteo as it would (should) give the players a massive confidence boost but, a loss could really be bad for the group especially if it's a big defeat. I'd imagine that, after a shaky start, Di Matteo will set up the team in a manner that suggests he's putting more emphasis on not losing rather than going all out for a win.

I was watching the women's Triathlon highlights (replay) from Liverpool and on the run-in for home there were two women going head-to-head. Suddenly, about 200m from home, the Australian girl makes a sprint for it. The commentator says something that cracked me up and it went something like: "McShane's really opened up her legs here and Learmonth's going to have to dig in"

I think this lad may also prove to be very good in the future but I'd have chosen someone more experienced for this season in the Championship. I just think it's a bit of a gamble throwing such a young lad in to the pressure situation we find ourselves in - trying to go up first attempt. I do think he's going to get beaten by one or two free kicks that aren't exactly worldies, unless he sorts out his positioning.

Westwood just brings nothing but bang average. He's got nothing that stands him out in a game. He just glides peacefully through a match and then you wonder if he played when it's over. Having said that, now that he's seen his own blood for the first time, at Ipswich, he might just now go out and show a bit of grit to his game.

Probably right but against Ipswich we started with 6 players that were at the club when it got relegated.

0-0, 1-1, 2-2 etc = still no improvement 1-0 = Meh 2-0 = About time 3-0 = I should think so, we spent £60m ffs 4/5/6-0 = We were lucky AND The Toon had an off day

You just cannot beat a bit of good old positivity

You called your tumble dryer Aaron Tshibola? Glad I'm not alone in doing stuff like that. I named my car Gabby when I bought it because it was sleek and fast - it's now knackered, expensive to run and slow as f***!

What's Alfred Hitler got to do with it?

I think that, out of the usual front four, Grealish is the one who should worry most about losing his place. There's very little end product and as much as Ayew can frustrate fans he is also the one who seems to be the most creative out of him and Grealish so far this season.

Not sure if I agree that Villa History is the worst manager. He won shit loads of trophies in his time!

Out of interest Rich, who would you like to see replace him?

Baker and this guy must have come from the same gene pool.

I've got a feeling that there will be a lot of folks saying similar things about Adomah as they have about Ayew, once Adomah has had a run of games.

After spending £60m, and bringing in 9 new players, it's scary that we still managed to start a football game with 6 players that were at the club last season. In fact, we finished the game with 5 if them still on the pitch. Is it any wonder we didn't win? If we had played a top Championship side, or any Premier League side, we'd have lost today. You can argue that we defended well but we didn't look comfortable at all and that last 10-15 minutes is probably the most one-sided I've seen in a very long time. We needed 4 new defenders, 3-4 new midfielders and 2 new strikers in the summer. I'd have kept Guzan if it meant bringing another centre back in. We definitely needed another holding midfielder and I cannot believe that the management team couldn't see that, and that's my biggest problem with RDM. I still don't want him gone because I still feel it's too soon but if we drop into the bottom 3 at any time he needs to go immediately.

I understood the 352 formation at the start and a few folks on here suggested it after the seriousness of De Laet's injury was announced. I think the players will need time to adjust to it so that will need time to settle. The switch to 442 was clearly because he started to chase the game but that meant we had to leave more space at the back and the pressure piled on afterwards. Got to admit that it was far from pretty today and we almost fell for a sucker punch as Ipswich got braver towards the end and you could almost tell they knew we would get the jitters. The only surprise was that we didn't concede but blimey did they try their best to score at the end. Just need to bear in mind we started with 6 players that were part of the club when it got relegated. I'm sure that must hold some significance.

McCarthy clearly gave this team talk before the game: Keep it tight and show no attacking intentions until 80 minutes then go all out attack because they always concede after 80 minutes. Seems a great game plan for anyone playing us to be fair.

The fact RDM started 3-5-2 told me he hadn't got total faith in playing Bacuna at RB so wanted extra cover in defence. I don't blame him for that. He's then switched to 4-4-2 to try to look more dangerous but that hasn't worked out either. We all need to remember something, 6 of the starting line up are survivors of the cull and were at the club when relegated.

That's in if in target because that keeper of ours takes up shit positions on free kicks and doesn't seem to bloody learn!

Bet365 currently offering 8/1 for an Ipswich victory, crazy odds considering our recent history.