that's theBruce legacy for you - being forced into buying yet more players and ending up with a squad bigger than Uranus.
Poor substitution tonight the Hogan one.
the fundamental problem is Smith hasn't got enough players who can play in the way he wants them toie control, pass, movethe defence are playing out from the back as we saw last night, but none of them are comfortable on the ball so they tie themselves in knots and look awkward the rest of the team bar a couple just struggle with the ball at there feet and lose possession to quickly Ball retention is a massive part of Smiths football philosophy but many of our players are just not capable in that department and I fear never will beSmith will have to find players who can play his way, whether we bring them in over time or find them in the youth squads I don't know I'm delighted with the new direction, and I love what Smith is at least trying to do, that's a positivebut I'm not going to pretend the cards he had been dealt are good enough when they are notthat's not being unessesarily negative it's just what you can see on the pitchthe stats last night re shots and the ball hitting the post etc, we can talk all we like about how a second goal would have changed the game but that's what we did with Bruce make excuses when the reality is we were second best at actually controlling and passing the ball especially second halfI don't buy this 'best squad in the championship' stuff, unfortunatly for the way Smith wants to play they arnt as good as the ones he leftit's only a negative if we don't change and move in the new direction, but Smith had been bought in to do just that so that's the positive, I refute claims of people last night being overly negative when it's clear at least to me he has been handed a group of Bruce players with poor ball retaining skills, the good news is he's been bought in to change that and I believe he can and will
Ball retention is a massive part of Smiths football philosophy but many of our players are just not capable in that department and I fear never will beThis is not a dig at the poster - just a general comment - I do not believe any Championship player is incapable of this, they are (no matter what you think of them) professionals and professionals can be coached to be better.Let's see if we improve in the months leading up to January, as every Villa player knows that barring FFP, we have the money to replace them. The ball is in their court.