weedman

On 13/01/2019 at 01:37, USA_Villa said:

Honestly, he should never ever play for Villa again. I said it two weeks ago, he is lazy, slow and is just not sharp enough to play the fast paced game that Dean wants. 

He wasn't fast or sharp enough to play the type of game SB wanted, let alone DS. Nowhere near good enough at this level 

6 minutes ago, Indigo said:

While I agree with the general sentiment re: our blooding through of young players, some of the examples given are without context and a bit disingenuous. We were a Premier League team when we let the likes of Lichaj, Johnson, Bannan etc go. Just because they'd possibly get into our team several years later now that we're a middling Championship team doesn't suddenly make it an enormous oversight that they were let go at the time, especially considering that they themselves play for middling Championship teams

This is the point I made ages ago as well and I couldn't agree more. We can't keep a youth player indefinately just in case we get relegated in the next 10 years 

On 12/01/2019 at 23:25, Indigo said:

Another reminder that some people actually wanted him dropped earlier this season.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

He was playing pretty crap early in the season tbf, he only really started playing well again when Smith came in. 

Also, while he's a big player for us and obviously a huge loss for our team, our recent performances aren't just down to not having Jack Grealish. We're not playing out from the back at all, not pressing as a team, not passing and moving, not finding triangles and passing areas, Jack isn't the only player required to do all of those things, the whole team needs to do it for it to work, and no one is atm

1 minute ago, OutByEaster? said:

Wigan are missing their two best players.

 

This. Sure we don't have Grealish, but neither do Wigan and they're pummelling us. 

Our defense is absolutely all over the place, completely disorganised and every ball over the top is a chance because our full backs are 5 yards higher than our center backs. Its basic stuff. 

El Ghazi needs dropping, I just can't see what he offers, 99% of the time he gets the ball he just gives it away. 0.5% of the time he completes a simple pass, and 0.5% of the time he does something useful. It's not worth having him on the field

2 hours ago, mikeyp102 said:

Madrid have just paid £20m for someone with less than 10 first team appearances. Munich are paying more than that for Hudson Odi, less than 20 appearances. Prices are inflating all the time. 

I still say £25-30m is all he'll go for unless he proves himself in the PL first, prices are crazy but they aren't quite at £50m for someone who hasn't even proven he's capable of playing in the top flight

45 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

I would tend to agree, but let's face it we all know Tammy is good for it, it's only a matter of time before he gets a decent scoring record in the premiere.

He does need to prove himself, will he?? I think without a doubt and it's a question of when not if he does. If he proves it next season, he's done it early and bumps that 50 million fee up more..

The thing is, if he went to a mid table team (ie not one of the big boys), and scored 20 goals next season, getting into the England squad on the back of it, would he be worth more than £50m then? I'd say maybe, but probably not. 

You don't pay "finished article" prices for potential, even if you're pretty confident he'll reach that potential because there's a lot of risk and virtually no benefit. If he reaches it you can't sell for a profit because you've already paid a premium, and if he doesn't reach it you've wildly overpaid for a player that isn't good enough. 

If he's sold before proving himself in the PL he won't get anywhere near £50m, £25m maybe

On 10/01/2019 at 13:06, villalad21 said:

Depends if Hutton will keep playing week in week out, if he is, regardless in what position he plays we will be nowhere near playoffs

That's a bold statement considering last season he was an integral part of our team which reached the playoffs...

22 minutes ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

I think the talent is there with those players, Hourihane has been a resounding success, McCormack has barely played for us, I wouldn’t write him off. Lansbury is beginning to show his true form, I still think Scott Hogan can come good too

Hourihane, agreed, despite his flaws and his critics you really can't say he hasn't been a success for us, a central midfielder that scores and assists regularly is an asset to any team

McCormack, for many reasons, talented or not, has proven to be a huge failure nearing Micah Richards level, now playing in a terrible Scottish league having played in an even more terrible Australian league last year, I think its safe to call him a failure 

Lansbury beginning to show his true form? Poor last year, injured all this season, returned as a sub before getting injured again after about 5 minutes, back after that injury in a 20 minute cameo and is now injured again. If his true form is looking fairly good for 20 minutes before being injured for a few weeks...then he still hasn't actually proven he's capable of that yet as he's only managed it once. 20 minutes is about the longest he's managed to stay injury free this season isn't it? He has a long way to go before he starts "showing his true form", unless his true form is terrible, in which case he showed that plenty last season

Loads of people seem to think Hogan will come good, until he plays, and he's awful, and he gets dropped again, and then after a couple of weeks someone says "I think Scott Hogan will come good, he just needs service", then he plays, and he's awful, and blah blah blah, but that ever so interesting never ending circular debate is for his thread so I'll stop now 

As this is his thread I'll finish on Lansbury, I think he's actually technically a pretty good player, he can ping the ball around well and would be well suited to the DM role that Smith plays providing he can 1) stay fit for more than 5 minutes and 2) actually put in a few consistent performances, rather than an odd 20 minutes here and there, which evidence so far suggests he can't. Hopefully Smith et all can get this out of him but I have serious doubts about that based on his career to date. I also noticed he seemed really quiet in any video I've seen with him in it and he doesn't seem to have that desire to really impose himself on games. He has to, for lack of a better term, "man up" and show some desire if he's to have anything of a career with us

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Ha! I must be only person in the world that likes Robbie Savage. I think he’s a funny guy.

I actually think he's OK these days, still a bit of a knob, but I get the impression most of that is to wind people up so they call in or engage on social media etc. 

Back in his playing days was another story however and he definately earned that headbutt 

56 minutes ago, Mazrim said:

Still think we'll get a DM. Arguably as crucial as new defenders. And a couple of full backs if you're asking.

I actually think if he can stay fit we'll see Lansbury playing in that position a lot this season. I've not particularly rated him especially in his time here but he ticks a lot of boxes and actually looked pretty good against Swansea (limited time when we were already basically down and out so hard to tell) but seems like the type to fit into a DS system 

We really don't need to be spending our money on strikers. Under Bruce we played very defensive football, and therefore required top quality forward players to "work their magic" and get us goals. The onus was fully on defending, so the attacking players needed to be exceptional. 

Under Smith we play a far more attacking style, so the attackers don't need to be as good because we have greater numbers forward and create more chances - this means the defense is exposed so we need exceptional defensive players to "work their magic" by stopping the other team, as they won't have the cover that a SB team provides.

We need to be going all out for defensive players. LB, RB, CDM on top of the GK and DC we've already got. And they need to be good.

We've got the likes of Kodjia, Adomah, Bolasie, El Ghazi, Grealish, McGinn, Hourihane, even Hogan or Davis or RHM to step in. It's more than good enough for a team that regularly opens up and commits 5 or 6 players to attack. When that happens our defensive players have been Hutton, Taylor, Elmo, Nyland, Elphick etc. Even our better players Tuanzebe and Chester have struggled and we're just horribly exposed

If you play defensive you won't concede many but need exceptional forward players otherwise you won't score many either, playing attacking is the opposite, and we should be able to sacrifice the attacking quality to bring in exceptional defensive players or we will continue leaking goals like crazy and leave ourselves no chance of promotion

37 minutes ago, Robtaylor200 said:

Went today with the lad

It was one for the ticket history so I can get to Wembley again if we make the play offs

That's all I have to say about it 

I did this with my Mrs, only the 2nd time I've managed to get her along and last time was a 0-3 against bloody Wigan. I've decided she's cursed 

14 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

For starters.

One was here for 2 years, one has been here for 15 games.

I really don't see how much needs to be explained.

I'm sure someone else will go into all the other obvious details such as style of play, signs, tactical nous etc.

OK but no one was saying Bruce needs a pre season after 2 years were they? They were saying he needed a pre season before he'd had a pre season, in the same way that people are saying Smith needs one now. And again, I agree that Smith needs time to implement his style and bring in players, but the same was also true of Bruce.

Its not a big deal, it just bugs me that in season 1 of Bruce, people said "he needs a pre season and to bring in some of his players" and they were roundly ridiculed for this point of view, and now in season 1 of Smith, people are saying "he needs time to bring in his players and implement his style" and it's completely accepted by all

With your last paragraph I don't really see how it's relevant, but I'm not in any way arguing Smith is worse, I'm not in any way arguing that we should have kept Bruce and I'm not in any way arguing that we don't need new signings before we can pass judgement. My point is simply, both managers have totally different styles to the men they replaced (RDM-Bruce was attacking to defensive, Bruce-Smith is defensive to attacking) and both styles require different players, it's absolutely right that Smith be given the time to bring those players in, but why were some people ridiculed for suggesting the previous manager get the same treatment? 

Again, it's not really a big deal it just bugs me, not worth derailing the thread over so I'll call it a day there

10 hours ago, S-Platt said:

Also he is trying to get meat and 2 veg players brought by the previous manager to play the beautiful game.  Give him the chance to sign footballers and things will improve.  

I've seen posts like this constantly, and I'd like to say firstly that I fully agree, the squad desperately needs signings (although I have doubts Smith will be the man actually making them) and we really do have to reserve too much judgement until its more "his" team...however I really need someone to explain how this is any different to when people said "Bruce needs a pre season/summer transfer window" and were absolutely ridiculed for it

Its absolutely the same thing, they both rock up with a vastly different style to the man they replaced, and both seem to have suffered similar problems getting the players to play their way (in Bruce's case this was "solid and unspectacular", and in Smith's it is "open and exciting") yet it seems to be a readily accepted consensus that Smith needs time to bring in his own players, but anyone suggesting the same for Bruce was mocked

I really don't want to compare the 2, because Bruce was terrible this season and Smith has brought a lot more to the table and I'm not here arguing against Smith or for Bruce, but it really irks me and I really hope the same people that used the expression "mythical pre season" are not the same people that are reserving judgment until the end of next season for Dean Smith (even though you really do need to reserve judgement until he's had more time to implement his style and bring in more suitable players, the same was true of Bruce prior to this season where the lack of any summer planning is clearly costing us) 

7 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

It's the ref's job to enforce the written rules, not make it up as he goes along like this word removed did. 

The rules state you can't kick off until the referee blows his whistle. Theres nothing in the rules that says he has to blow his whistle once everyone's in their respective half's 

3 minutes ago, a m ole said:

what were we fuming about after their goal?

I thought it looked as if we wanted to take kick off quickly as QPR were all back in their own half celebrating (like Blues tried to do to us but Jedinak wouldn't move) but the ref said they couldn't and had to wait for the whistle. Good reffing I think there, it may not be in the rules but we can't be that unsporting just to get an advantage over QPR ffs, it's not the bloody playoff final 

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

I checked the Leeds forum a couple of weeks back discussing us as a threat and i saw people referring us as "Vile" which is a direct insult and lack of respect to me.

What are their beef against us? Don't understand it

This point has been made twice now and twice completely ignored, so I'd like to highlight it again. 

Everyone who is not a direct rival refers to Leeds as Leeds. Apparently half the league refer to us as "Vile" 

37 minutes ago, BigRed said:

What I think you’ll find now teams, are noticing you’re in form, teams won’t come to win at Villa Park they’ll come not to lose. You may say we aren’t blowing teams away so must mean we’re going to drop off, that’s not the case. It’s more that teams come to nick a point as they know if they opened up we’d blow them away. I imagine you’ll face the same until the end of the season

The best defensive team in the league with the best defensive manager in the league set up not to lose on their own turf recently against us. We won 3-0. 

Defensive teams won't be a problem for us, with our ropey defense it's the attacking teams that will cause us more problems so if teams are about to get scared and set up more defensively I'd say that bodes pretty well for us 

5 hours ago, Cjay said:

We are both wrong actually, it was 4-3 to Forest.

Sending off in the 68th minute you scored 71st and 75th and they scored again 82nd.

I do try to be right before i say facts lol my bad.

Just to clarify this, we scored from the free kick that forest conceded which left them with 10 men. They had 10 men for approximately 2 seconds of football when we equalised and given that the man sent off wasn't marking Abraham it had absolutely no bearing on the equalising goal. Also we were absolutely battering them at that point and it was only a matter of time before we scored anyway 

It's a sign of how well he's doing that even with these fantastic performances it's genuinely hard to pick a MOTM, we're doing everything as a team and that's credit to Smith and his coaching 

1 hour ago, AntrimBlack said:

Yep. Tells me there are 1 or 2 CB's incoming in January. 

Or Jedinak is 5 weeks away from fitness and will be back at CB once fit

1 hour ago, KHV said:

He was only at fault for the last goal. However that cost us 2 points.

I thought that but if you watch it back as Grabban has the shot he moves slightly over to gather it comfortably then it takes that nick off Tuanzebe which diverts it through a tiny gap and in, its actually a really unlucky goal to concede 

16 minutes ago, romavillan said:

Ouch, the 6-1? Yeah I seem to remember some space in behind!

Was that the game that Bacuna played that unbelievable through ball straight to their striker to score? 

4 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think you’re being too kind mate. He is out way out his league! If he opts to remain in England he’s standard is probably league one. 

He wont cut it in this league with any team. 

Theres a good reason he has spent the majority of his career in Norway. 

You're probably right. As a keeper myself I tend to cut other keepers more slack than they probably deserve, but he does do some things well, his distribution is really good, and some of his saves have been brilliant (and not the run of the mill saves you'd reasonably expect keepers at this level to make, but some real "can't believe he's saved that" saves) 

I agree he's not good enough for where we are or want to be but I do think he's capable for a lower Championship or higher league one team, he's also looked a bit better as he's settled in. He's cost us so many points this season though so I think he'll be one of the first out of the door if a half decent keeper becomes available, and it'll be no real loss when he does go