WallisFrizz

8 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Some of these comments are bordering on the embarrassing. Smith watches his players every day and knows his best team.

The reason why Nakamba does not start every game is that he is not really that good despite his work rate,  and I fully expect he will be gone in the summer. Barkley and McGinn are better players even if he they are out of form. Mings is far better player than Hause. They are fine as back up for when players get injured or suspended but so far Smith's team selections have done ok this season surely?

There is a case that we need to have  a better overall squad in the future especially if we ever qualify for Europe but that argument is for another day.

I don't think we have played that well since our covid break but we are still picking up wins and points. We are doing fine. In fact more than fine.

I agree that Barkley and McGinn in decent form are better but disagree that they are a better choice than Nakamba when they are in woeful form.

21 minutes ago, TRO said:

bang on.

Yet I thought Luiz was one of the better ones. Sanson, Luiz and Nakamba next game?

Agree that Trezeguet needs lessons in acting and timing if he wants to win us an unfair penalty.

5 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Really thought we weren't a one man team this season.

But turns out if you stop Jack you stop Villa.

West Ham and Brighton both nullified him and we look hopeless without his influence.

We’re not a one man team because our defence and gk have been fantastic and we are picking up points. Jack is off it (I don’t think Brighton nullified him, I think for whatever reason he’s not firing on all cylinders) and that has impacted our attack but we are capable of scoring without him being involved, we just have to remember how to do it whilst he recovers his form. 

13 minutes ago, chips'ngravy said:

It felt harsh when Barkley was put straight back into the team in place of an in form El Ghazi and is proving to be one of the few mistakes Smith has made this season. Whether Barkley was ready or not he should've been made to fight his way back into the first eleven. That he wasn't has been to the detriment of the team, not only with his below par performances but also with the effect it's had on El Ghazi. 

El Ghazi is clearly a confidence player, as his woeful return against West Ham showed, and we perhaps could've ridden his purple patch a while longer with the added benefit of giving Jack an extended run in the middle had Barkley been pressuring him from the bench. We now have both players underperforming when if handled differently could have been making match-winning contributions. 

I have some sympathy with Smith as he sees Barkley as the player with the bigger skill-set, which I'd agree with, but it's hard to argue he's put it to effective use on a regular basis and his bias is an assault on the meritocracy he aspires to create within the squad.

The glimmer of hope being that when he started El Ghazi against West Ham, it was on the right, so could still return to the left with his confidence intact

6 hours ago, Zatman said:

I said it in the West Ham game he looks like he is carrying an injury. He hasn't moved as much since that game

Starting to agree. Something is up with him and it is really bad timing for him with the next international break coming up as Maddison, Barnes, Foden and Mount are all in fantastic form and are banging goals in. 

1 minute ago, DCJonah said:

Not a great game but an important point. Most teams will have bad spells at certain points. Look at Liverpool and spurs, expensive players, huge squad and still have runs where they struggle. Why should we expect difference. 

The most important thing in my opinion is that the defence has stayed solid throughout all of this. 

No idea how Barkley gets singled out when you look at how bad even Grealish played last night. I do think Dean will change things up for the next one. 

 

Grealish played one of his worst games for us. I don’t even think it was being marked out of the game or anything, he was poor generally, gave the ball away and lacked any spark. That said, people are far more forgiving of him than Barkley because he deservedly has huge credit in the bank with the fans. I’m not a Barkley hater and up until recently (about 9 hours ago) would have been open to buying him at a reasonable price but now I’m hoping that we haven’t agreed to start him every game provided he is fit. Think he would benefit from being an impact sub for a couple of games, and maybe earn his way back into the team that way.

To finish on a positive tho, it’s great to see Mings get some regular praise as I think he’s having a great season for us. The rest of the back 4 were also reliable, Douglas Luiz was improved on his return and Emi outstanding.

What was so disappointing was how unmotivated they seemed. I’m not saying they were, but they certainly looked that way. 
 

Liverpool and Spurs had just lost, we had a golden chance to make serious progress up the table, there should have been cup final levels of performance and energy but they were started so slow and didn’t improve. 
 

We’ll only be able to use the “never mind, we’re only 4 pts off 4th/games in hand etc etc” for a week or so more unless Smith gives them a serious shake up  and gets them playing that lovely football that we’ve enjoyed all season. I don’t buy that we’ve been found out. I think we’re doing this to ourselves and can definitely improve. 
 

Cash injury is a huge blow tho. I love Elmo but he is going to have a torrid time against Leicester and Leeds.

Emi deserves that Golden Glove, he has way more to do than Ederson who will eventually win it. 

15 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

you know what i find weird, in 21 games we have won only one ONCE if we concede a goal.....

11 wins, 10 of them clean sheet wins, the only win where we conceded was the 7-2 versus Liverpool.

Of all other games where we conceded any goals....at all, we drew 2 and lost 8.

Thats weird....

That’s mental, but surely not a stat that will persist throughout the entire season...at least that is what I will now tell myself if they score.

14 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

James Justin did his ACL. Huge blow for Leicester.

It is. I feel for him, he’s been having an amazing season and stood a good chance of an England call up. 
 

I don’t think we’re at Leicester’s consistency levels just yet so I like them being a thorn in the side of the Project Big Picture bunch. 

I totally get the need to integrate Sanson and I’m not impatient to see him but given that he was playing regularly until a few weeks ago doesn’t he risk losing match fitness/sharpness if we don’t get him involved more? Genuine question.

Looks like they’re resting a few players tonight unfortunately. Connolly, Bissouma, Maupay all on the bench.

59 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

I also think even if he doesn’t get the job he needs to leave us at the end of the season anyway. I absolutely don’t blame him for wanting to take the next step but we’re not here to provide him with a cushy little number whilst he permanently job hunts elsewhere.

I now wish to retract this statement I made earlier...

17 minutes ago, Johnnyp said:

Good luck to him if he gets it. I'm a villa fan though and more invested in us going forward than i am John Terry's career. We'll move on sharpish and keep the eye on the next game.

Yeah, I’d be disappointed if he goes but I’d wish him well. That said, if it looks like having an extra man on the coaching team has been a bonus this season then I hope we’re lining up a replacement in preparation for his departure. 
 

I also think even if he doesn’t get the job he needs to leave us at the end of the season anyway. I absolutely don’t blame him for wanting to take the next step but we’re not here to provide him with a cushy little number whilst he permanently job hunts elsewhere.

That was a great interview, I hadn’t seen it either. The interviewer was good. I did not know that he had met up with Jack and John McGinn on holiday in the summer before he signed!

Ollie seems a lovely lad, never ever going to say or do anything controversial which is no bad thing.

1 hour ago, Dante_Lockhart said:

Yup. And Burnley. So many points I expected to get, but then again we got some points I didn't expect us to get so swings and roundabouts.

We need a comfortable win here if we're serious about pushing for Europe. Be even better if we can dick Leeds a few weeks later too.

Agree, Villa keep letting me down when I think we stand a good chance of getting maximum points from a game and then throwing these random surprises in like a double over Arsenal. 

In a nutshell, it’s a totally winnable game providing we don’t mess it up. Also shouldn’t underestimate them as they are better than their position would suggest.

Finally, god yes, we owe Leeds big time. Somebody gag Gabby and tie his tweeting fingers together in the run up to that game. 

Football Focus, 06/02/2021: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000s4zm via @bbciplayer

7 minutes ago, KevinRichardsonsMoustache said:

Would love to see this: is there a link to the interview anywhere?

Search football focus on iPlayer.

Just on Neil Taylor, Jack did an interview on Football Focus with Dion Dublin at the weekend (think it was on whilst the Arsena game was on so saw it on iPlayer), he was talking about how youthful the team were but took time to mention Neil Taylor and Tom Heaton as being excellent professionals and doing everything right. Thought that was nice.

Brilliant work from Traore.

27 minutes ago, Junxs said:

I've never been a fan of loan signings, mainly because when they are out of form they never get dropped. The big clubs insist you play their players.

We looked a really good team with Jack in the middle and were destroying teams whilst Barkley was out the side with injury before covid kicked in.. since we've come back we've been awful and Ross has started every game

I don’t necessarily disagree but he was also present in several of our best performances and wins of the season. He was definitely poor last night but I think it would be unfair to put the post Covid bad form entirely on his shoulders. I think it’s been a combo of too little training, too many games in a short space of time and yes Barkley’s reintroduction.

Plus we also shouldn’t ignore the fact that Decembers fixtures were largely against bottom half sides and the post Covid teams have mostly been against better teams. 

We need to get through the Arsenal game, rest  and regroup and yes consider what our best starting 11 now is (although surely this would differ depending on the opposition).

29 minutes ago, Lichfield Dean said:

Personally I think that tonight just showed that no matter what an opposing team does to stop Jack (and even if they do a fantastic job like tonight) he will still find a way to unlock their defence. He had a really really difficult task last night and still managed a great assist and a handful of chances. I thought it showed his battling qualities and never-give-up attitude. (I admit he did make a few uncharacteristic errors on the ball as well but he isn't a robot)

It was certain other players in the team that let him down.

This, so many people saying that Coufal stopped him and West Ham stopped Jack. Well they clearly didn’t because he had an assist and created other chances. Yes, it was probably his hardest game for a while and certainly not his best but to be fair to him he’s a grafter and never gave up which resulted in a goal. Jack can’t be stopped and I am pleased that Ollie is back in the goals as that partnership will continue to be fruitful. 

I think we’ve looked poor since the Covid break. Did some great defending against Man City, had an average performance against an awful Newcastle, defensively poor against Burnley (tho some lovely stuff in the first half) then lucky v Southampton. We look a completely different team to the December one. 

Smith calls him Ghazi I’ve noticed.