Lowest point.

[Chris Smith]

This thread is symptomatic of the times we live in. Rather than looking at it as a period of transition with new owners and a recently appointed manager everything appears exaggerated in significance. Three different owners and five different managers since February 2015 are the sort of thing we used to mock other clubs for. Then you throw in the churn of players and boardroom appointments and yet we appear surprised that it translates into inconsistency on the pitch.

The current lot may or may not get it right but I think we just have to be patient and reign in our expectations a little to give them the time needed to fix the mess. That doesn’t mean we cannot be angry at performances like yesterday but perhaps put it into context of also winning three nil away at Middlesbrough only a month ago where maybe we got a little carried away in the other direction.

[Villa75]

Let's not split hairs. That performance, and result - against a really poor Wigan side - is right up there with the most disappointing/pathetic/clueless ever.

I honestly don't know what Smith is doing with these guys during the week.

[Clampy]

This thread is symptomatic of the times we live in. Rather than looking at it as a period of transition with new owners and a recently appointed manager everything appears exaggerated in significance. Three different owners and five different managers since February 2015 are the sort of thing we used to mock other clubs for. Then you throw in the churn of players and boardroom appointments and yet we appear surprised that it translates into inconsistency on the pitch.

The current lot may or may not get it right but I think we just have to be patient and reign in our expectations a little to give them the time needed to fix the mess. That doesn’t mean we cannot be angry at performances like yesterday but perhaps put it into context of also winning three nil away at Middlesbrough only a month ago where maybe we got a little carried away in the other direction.

Very well said.

[Fred Crump]

Couldn’t agree more

[Ads]

Aye Chris is right.

[walsall villain]

That’s true Chris and it’s how I would wish to react but yesterday I just felt angry and disappointed.

[old man villa fan]

This thread is symptomatic of the times we live in. Rather than looking at it as a period of transition with new owners and a recently appointed manager everything appears exaggerated in significance. Three different owners and five different managers since February 2015 are the sort of thing we used to mock other clubs for. Then you throw in the churn of players and boardroom appointments and yet we appear surprised that it translates into inconsistency on the pitch.

The current lot may or may not get it right but I think we just have to be patient and reign in our expectations a little to give them the time needed to fix the mess. That doesn’t mean we cannot be angry at performances like yesterday but perhaps put it into context of also winning three nil away at Middlesbrough only a month ago where maybe we got a little carried away in the other direction.

My feelings as well,  Chris.

[ChicagoLion]

Good perspective Chris.

[Villa75]

Nice words, Chris. But I've read similar, a number of times, about all of our failures over the last, God knows how many, years.

We can't sugar coat that performance, on the back of the Swansea one. In simple terms, the manager has had no positive reaction from the players since Swansea, and we have to be very concerned about that.

I'm pretty sure this squad has been lauded as "the best in the division", many times by many on here.

I have recently posted, somewhat tongue in cheek, about the many predictions of "15 points from the next 5 games" . But why would so many predict that if, as it transpires following yesterday's game, we actually have a "poor" squad?

For me, we have a decent squad for the division we are in - as well we should have after the time and money spent on it - and we should never really be out of the top 6.

The fact we're struggling so much has to be down to how this squad is being managed and motivated. My worry is this. Now the honeymoon is over, do the players think they've been given another dud/easy ride? Once that happens, we're fucked.

[boozey182]

Now, I wasn't there yesterday, and I appreciate that makes everything slightly less raw for me, but this doesn't really feel like the lowest point. Despite yesterday, I still think we're moving in the right direction, but the last few weeks have highlighted how far away we are at the moment. The few weeks in November/December when we really found our stride seem a long time ago at the moment, but let's not forget how good we were then. We were playing football how we've all been crying out for since, well, for longer than I can remember. And it was working, and it was wonderful. We will get back to that point, but it will take time. Let's be honest, it will take until Jack gets fit again.

Don't get me wrong; over-reliance on one player is obviously a huge worry and a major weakness. I guess the plus point is that it's so blindingly obvious, that it will have to be addressed, but that might not happen until the summer. Until then we need to get Jack fit and hope he can carry us to the playoffs. As my brother said last night "he has done it before". And if we do get into the playoffs this year, I'd still fancy us against any opposition if we're up to full strength. And by that, of course I mean 'if Jack is fit'.

I think we might be slightly exaggerating how good we were last season. My recollections are that we were a plodding, difficult team to play against, that heavily relied on our skillful players to create something. We were better defensively because we played a lot more defensively, and could benefit from having Chester (our best defender) playing in his best position, and our fullbacks had plenty of support from the midfield. We would almost certainly not have got beaten yesterday with last season's team, but nor would we have gone on our pre-Christmas run. My guess, with the same injuries we've had this year, is that we'd probably be slightly worse off than we are now. Not by much, but certainly not significantly better. It was a team that was going nowhere on the short/medium/long term.

Dean Smith has made plenty of mistakes, in my opinion, over the last few weeks. But anyone who thought it would be any different was kidding themselves. He's got a lopsided squad that wasn't created with playing decent football in mind, and he's ploughing on with his philosophy despite frequent evidence that many of our players can't do it - just look at their penalty yesterday. Until he can get in more of 'his' players one of two things will happen; we'll go on making sloppy mistakes and getting poor results, or things will start to click (again) and we'll start seeing the type of football that we saw a glimpse of a few weeks ago. I don't know which will happen, but I do know I have more confidence in Smith than I have in all of our managers in recent memory, and I'm more excited about him getting it right than I have been about any of the the others.

So, to wrestle this ramble back to the topic, this is not our lowest point. (If you're looking for a literal answer, that would probably have been in the summer when we were a couple of days away from administration.) We are in fact, on our way up. It's just we haven't got that far off the ground and we've plateaued somewhat. We need to keep going though, because we've made such a hash of all the other routes that we're running out of other options. So let's take a deep breath, and follow Dean into the unknown. We can't lose our nerve now, this guy is the one. (And I should know, I've followed a few...)

[Lastfootstamper]

I'm a Villa fan. I flatly refuse to rein in my expectations, thankyouverymuchindeedy.

Low point? Far from it, personally anyway. Despite the last couple of weeks, and us making it hard for ourselves to avoid an unprecedented fourth season in this division, I'm optimistic and hopeful about the future.

Even just since 2010, I'm about on an optimism par with how I felt:
-When twatting West Ham without O'Neill
-Just before Houllier fell ill
-At the end of Lambert's first season
-When Sherwood arrived
-When Xia arrived
-After Wolves

Hmm, upon review, I appear to like to set myself up for disappointment!

But for me, nothing now compares to the abject emptiness I felt when walking out of Wembley in 2000, and again 15 years later.

[ROBBO]

Reigning in expectations? I expect every Villa side to at least put the effort in that's not expecting too much surely. There were players out there that closed down at half pace, Bolaise if he hasn't got the ball can't be bothered and Hourihane is frightened to put his foot in. The players I make allowance for are those that are plainly very poor footballers.

[pauliewalnuts]

This is bad but it's nowhere near as bad as 86-7, stood there with 12,000 others rattling around in the ground watching European champions of four years previous decay in front of your eyes in what seemed like a wanton act of self harm.

I am old enough to have been around during the descent into the third division but too young to remember it but for all the nostalgia of taking 300,000 to Port Vale, I bet the long term decay that led to that wasn't much fun either.

[ChicagoLion]

my dad coming home from the game that relegated us in 1967 sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands comes to mind.

[Villa75]

Not being quite as old as some of you, this is the longest period of shitness in my supporting lifetime. Fucking years and years of it.