I would have agreed with this until I saw how much better we look with Targett in the team and also how bad Taylor was against Burnley.
I think Taylor is at his best (which is just about adequate) when he is a regular.
Playing as a number 2 and he seems to turn to shit. We saw the same under Bruce.
edit: its like I said in pre season. If everybody hopes he never has to play then he isn’t even good enough as a number 2.
There seems to be a pattern of Smith gets criticised. Somebody then defends him. A discussion ensues about Smith.
But then somebody calls the first fan a Smith hater. Somebody then says you are not allowed to criticise Smith on this thread. A discussion then ensues about this. (Same for Grealish thread).
This pattern continues until it’s match day again.
In my opinion it seems to be it’s all about the result for a lot of people. We win he got it right. We didn’t he got it wrong.
Do you honestly think he has us playing that way?
If he had previous for setting his teams up to play deep and defend I’d agree but we all know it’s not his style. We’re newly promoted and most of this team have never played at the level before. We’ve had only 2 games against 2 teams in the current bottom half and we won them both.
I think it’s very harsh to say Smith had us playing scared and defensive.
The fact Smith has persisted with him even when he has looked very poor in some games probably suggests he is.
Davis has looked sharp in cup completions but Wesley must look a lot better in training to keep getting so many more minutes.
Totally agree. Questioning all good. I questioned his late subs myself.
But when he starts getting called a muppet, accused of sticking with Wesley because he signed him, doesnt know how to manage leads, has terrible game management skills; isn’t listen to Terry etc etc.
That’s when you think give the guy a break. He has done wonders for the club. He deserves some trust.
I hope the fans turning on him can start trusting him again. I know most always did but some really did start to turn on him already at was disappointing to read and sometimes even felt like February again.
I stand by what I said though in that it shouldn’t affect his confidence if he was dropped. Also wrote how he shouldn’t be dropped based on a bad performance but Davis should play if impressed in training.
Never wrote him of as a player, just felt he was under pressure. Fair play to the lad for how he answered the critics. Now he has to keep it going.
Superb performance and thoroughly deserved. Scored 5 could have been more. Shaky defending at times but we kept them out. Mings, Grealish and Wesley the obvious contenders for motm but for me Nakamba was fantastic today and an unsung hero.
For all the Villa fans that said we would lose today. Shame on you!!!
We look shaky against a strike-force that has banged in 6 against city Liverpool and Chelsea combined. yet we haven’t conceded. Im glad you’re finally happy and it should thankfully last 2 weeks now