Villarocker

But, when you aren't doing enough and coming in for criticism, you absolutely have to score that sitter. He is doing nothing to help himself or the team. I wouldn't sub him today as its one of his better efforts but he's fast approaching being dropped and once he's out Kodjia will easily out-perform in to keep him out.

Heaton poor on the shot for the goal after Hause was slow to go out to the shot, Konsa's attempted clearance was blocked after Elmohamady passed it back to him when he simply could have played it down the line. Question; did Wesley or Jota show for the ball down the line? Regardless, a few of them played a part in that goal. But, mistakes apart, the biggest was that Wesley missed an absolute sitter.

The defence is the problem together with the striker. Although, today, Wesley has been better. Targett gets a bit of leeway from me the last several games because Grealish hasn't done what he's done today and that's to track back. But, by him doing that, we lose the best of him playing more central. Smith has to stop playing Grealish left and also needs to get a grip in defence. He can easily sort this today by playing Kodjia wide left and move Grealish inside behind Wesley. He needs to take Lansbury off.

Changes were needed but not sure I'd have persisted with Wesley. If I did, I'd have gone with Grealish in the middle still and put Kodjia out wide left to add another dimension to our attacking threat. Jota is quite slow so maybe we could have gone with Elmo there and Guilbert at right back?

You mean..... our midfield needs beefing up? I wonder if Norwich would be interested in selling us Trybull?

I don't know who Deano but, you need a hard-working centre forward who can hold the ball up, a tall, athletic centre midfielder, and, another winger/attacking wide man who can play either side.

Great performance and without doubt the man of the match.

Sorry but the guy is just rubbish and needs to be taken out. I not saying he's never going to be any good but, if we keep persisting with him, especially if we bring someone else in, it will be a major contribution to our relegation as that's where we're heading unless we have someone playing up front who can do the necessary stuff that strikers should do such as holding the ball up to allow others to get forward, attack the near post, run I to the channels, bully defenders etc. He has the physique to be a good centre forward but I don't think he's got the brain/nous to play that role. I don't know where that leaves him to be honest. He needs it coaching into him.

What did you expect when Man Utd have Solskjaer in charge, Arsenal are still missing Wenger, Spurs are settling in a new manager and Chelsea have a new manager who has 3 or 4 of last season's Championship playing for them. They are all there to take points off and any team that fights will have chance to take points off them all. We should have had more points from those opponents than we have.

Hourihane (the goal), Heaton, Jack and the two centre backs have been good and the only ones who can hold their heads high.

One of the many mysteries.

Wesley booked for the third time this season. It must have been for loitering or littering - something like that.

For a striker Wesley is deeper than a Chilean miner. We didn't buy a centre forward.

Luiz has the ball out wide right and has two Villa players inside of him asking for the ball so what does he do? He tries to dink it around the opponent, fails, then fouls him to try to win back the ball.

I'm gonna call that Buendia or Cantwell will score for them because we have no natural defensive midfielder on the pitch.

Norwich have come out fighting, realising they're playing against a team low on confidence and energy.

We should be losing this game.

Someone called it right. When we have the ball our nearest player is too far away. We're not working together as a team. This is very ugly and right now we look like a team destined to go down. Watching Wesley try to be a centre forward is like watching a poodle run in a greyhound race. He's just not that sort of player. I actually don't know where his best position would be right now. Maybe in the stands?

Luiz is not my kind of midfielder. He's far too static.

I had a dream on Christmas eve that we lost today and Smith got sacked the next day. I hope it wasn't a premonition.

Our defending his appalling and we will concede today. In fact, we're so bad at defending set pieces I can see that troll Hanley scoring. Watching that last Pukki attack, 4 Villa players chased him down and left Tettey completely unmarked on the opposite side of the box. That is schoolboy at best.

I find it very difficult to understand how a supporter of Aston Villa could look forward to watching the finest player we've produced for an eternity going to play for another club. Jack leaving might also bring with it the demise of our own club but, hey, that's OK just as long as you can watch Jack Grealish playing for a Spanish giant in the Champions League several times a year.

I agree with chipsngravy's post about Jack needing to be moved back to the middle behind the striker. Our attacks will come down both wings then instead of just down the left where Jack is supposed to play.

Very sensible post. We will add to the squad in January and our new players will gradually settle more and more, although their confidence will suffer the more they fight relegation. But, some people would rather change the manager and coaching staff and hope that the changes can get better performances and results from the same group of players.

You're right about the midfield not offering much protection. You could also be right about JT. I guess you could also argue that defence starts from the front and let's face it, the ball does seem to be coming back far too quickly and easily.