Peter Griffin

Yeah, the work rate is much more these days and also the standard of fitness is really high too. Also, the players are such valuable assets to a club now they don't want to take any risks or at least as few risks as possible. I am sure some of the injuries that keep players out of games these days would have received a kick in the arse by the manager if a player claimed they had that injury 20 or 30 years ago

That's not quite the case though. More games, more money and now players are earning tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds every week.

I have never been to The Emirates but it doesn't seem to be able to get much of an atmosphere regardless of what is happening on the pitch. I think if it does get toxic that would be more directed towards Arteta and Edu rather than the Villa. Let's hope it is a good game and we come away with 3 well deserved points.

I really hope u are right. It will be an enjoyable Friday night if we do. I don't mind losing (too much) as long as we put in a strong showing for the entire 90 mins and try and win the game

Wow, I do think Dean is on thin ice at the moment and he does need to improve but I would think he has this season without that worry unless we flirt with relegation (u are making me think about it now). I think this evening will a fairly cautious game. Dean won't want any madness like against Wolves and that may result in a bit of a boring draw. I would love to see us play 433 and really go for the win but I can't see that happening

I know the feeling but I am a glass half full person so I am saying to myself that we will win this evening and it will make my weekend even better. In Ireland this weekend is a bank holiday weekend so Monday off and today our Covid restrictions are relaxed a little more and pub closing times are extended and we are now allowed to order a pint at the bar as opposed to having table service only. So 3 points please and I can enjoy another step in returning to normality

Yeah, I think Smith shows his maturity and experience by not washing his dirty laundry in public. It is just something a manager should never do imo

I think we will have to agree to disagree on that. No two business or sports clubs are identical and will have different people and processes. Benchmarking still works as it enables you to get a view how you are doing against your competition. It something isn't measured it can't be managed!

And they finished 3rd in the league, the season before they finished 1st.

If being pedantic about the wording I think 'anomaly' may be a more fitting word for the collapse.

It may have been a joke

He is hoping for the sack so he can move up to the North East to add to the swelling pension fund

I do a lot of that too. Why is it not comparable. AVFC is a business, we should absolutely be benchmarking against other PL teams and more so against teams more comparable to AVFC i.e. not the likes of Man City or Norwich. I would be shocked if people at AVFC did not benchmark every aspect of our team, players, coaches and gaffer. Why do u think it is not comparable?

What is Not really?

I completely disagree with saying it is the right answer. Obviously, there are difference between clubs with funding, board etc but that is the same in all walks of life and in all businesses. Why do you think businesses benchmark themselves against other companies?

It makes sense to compare how we are performing against our competition. All companies whether sporting or otherwise benchmark. It is good business practice. From a footballing fans perspective it makes total sense to debate and discuss how effective your manager is. The manager makes a huge difference in a club. Just look at Steve Cooper. He took over at Forest relatively recently and in the last 6 games they have the highest points return in the entire league. Under Hughton, they had the very close to if the lowest points return in the league. That is a crazy turnaround and it absolutely down to the change in manager. Comparing manager to our peers and competition makes sense

What manager(s) would be most appropriate to compare Smith to? or is a critical comparison not allowed?

I was going to give you a like but I don't like the post, but I do agree with it unfortunately

Well, I have just discovered you are a fan of Soucek too and from your previous comments it is clear that we both want to see the same type of attitude/workrate/intensity/bite or whatever adjective we refer to, I tend to just refer to it as a Roy Keane attitude but I think you correctly added Patrick Vieira as another appropriate descriptor. Tim Ir does show some of this attitude but I have to confess that the amount of times I have seen him play is limited. I would love us to sign another Gareth Barry

I wasn't suggesting 4231. AEG-Ollie-EmiB as the front 3

West Ham were place ahead of us in the league table with 1 point more so they were the nearest to us. Also, the changed their manager in Dec so it is show the effectiveness of Moyes.

We also have ElGhazi. Emi B could play right, AEG on the left with Ollie in between and Ings dropping back. There are lots of options for Dean to play 433 and he elects not to play that formation. We can't have a team that can only play 433 when Bailey is fit

That point was already corrected, it was the home game that season I was referring to. It is probably a more apt game to use as the game in May included Moyes' Jan transfer dealings

That is something I would love to know the answer to. A caveat to b) would be that he may agree it is an issue this season but could believe he has the youth coming through and we should be okay next season and he is also potentially relying on Sanson's fitness

@Vive_La_Villa I was just looking at the teams and I think the key differentiator between Hammers and Villa over the period is Soucek. He is a rock in the middle of the park and links play really well. Moyes signed him on loan in the Jan window that year and made it permanent for 14m in the summer. That was a bargain of a purchase. I wonder where Deano's Villa would be if we had of bought Soucek instead of Nakamba