Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: PeterWithesShin on December 08, 2019, 03:53:50 PM
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Erm.
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Humiliating, dreadful performance all round. Dean had a really poor game as well.
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First time this season it looked like we let our heads drop, how we bounce back from this is vital.
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After that I would definitely change Almo,Wesley, Louis and one from Al G or Trz. Bring back Engels, Fred and Conor. Could do with a striker to add. Didn't think Nakamba was the worst and should have stayed on.
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First time this season it looked like we let our heads drop, how we bounce back from this is vital.
Yep completely turned it in today.
Dean really needs to develop more varied game plans.
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First time I’ve ever left Villa Park with 10 minutes to go.
Where to start with that shambles.
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No pressure on the next few games then. To be fair I did think this would be one of the most difficult games of our recent fixtures, we were nowhere near them
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Can everyone take stock before conceding relegation in early December. We've been soundly beaten by one of the best sides in the country if not Europe at the moment.
Had a really bad run of fixtures, and if anyone thinks we WEREN'T going to be in a relegation battle after coming up through the playoffs, you're having yourself on. We've looked good in all but one of the games against teams we are ACTUALLY competing with this season.
That doesn't mean there haven't been poor mistakes from players and management today - but can we get a bit realistic
Sorry mate, but this is blind optimism. We’ve played almost all of the other sides in the league, spent the GDP of a small country, and are hovering around the bottom three.
I’d be optimistic and a little more patience if I could see at least small improvements in performance, team selection and subs, but frankly, we’re not. If anything we’re going backwards.
Being plucky underdogs will not keep us up. Smith and the players need a rocket. And fast.
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Wesley will play in the next game. What does Kodjia need to do to at least be given a chance? That was simply dreadful and massive dumping on our fragile confidence and on our reasonable goal difference.
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Begs the question why our new owners decided to give Dean a new contact.
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First time I’ve ever left Villa Park with 10 minutes to go.
Where to start with that shambles.
Yes it as dreadful.
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For me they were comfortably the best side we've faced this season. Add in that we made a load of stupid mistakes, had a number of players below par and we're probably lucky it was only 4.
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First 10 minutes I was more than happy with.
Shots, corners, decent passing.
After that oh dear indeed.
Whole Mings thing was massively self inflicted.
Still to only go in 2-1 down wasn't bad at all. We were still in the game if we didn't deserve to be. To then concede a very soft goal from a corner just after HT was typical us and killed the game. Afterwards it was a case of how many Leicester wanted and somehow it was only one. Heaton stopped it being 6 or 7.
Leicester are a very very good team. Judging from comments on the match thread seems many watched them for first time this season and got a shock at how good they actually are. The FBs flying forward and midfield rotation they've been doing since middle of September. Will finish comfortably in top 4 unless they get massive injury crisis.
We got properly schooled today. It happens I'm afraid. Newcastle lost 5-0 at Leicester in late September and they've only lost two games since and one was to us.
We need a response in Sheffield. The big success of today is not being 18th after spending most of the afternoon there on the live table. Norwich losing is also good in the long run.
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Add Leicester to the list of teams I absolutely hate, beating us.
Spurs, Liverpool, Wolves, Chelsea, and now that lot. ******.
Not good enough at all. Smith is a stubborn fucker, but if he doesn't change, he'll be out, sadly. I hope that isn't the case.
Thank god I'm not back home, having to deal with a Leicester wankfest.
A rubbish game. Not a single player deserves a single plaudit. Maybe Guilbert. He's been my favourite player this season.
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Southampton gave up 9, we could've easily done the same barring Heaton.
Quickly losing faith in the manager, don't care for the romantic love-in anymore. No player accountability, poor substitutions, dropping points every other week, shit efforts.
Newcastle are up to 10th with Brooce at the helm and a crap side.
GET WESLEY THE HELL OFF MY TELEVISION SCREEN. Absolute do nothing waste of space.
McGinn, Elmo, Luiz all shit today. Will Dean ever make an adjustment? Its the same game plan week in and week out and it isn't working.
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We were second best to a very good team, good job Heaton had a good game because it could have been a lot worse.
Lots of misplaced passes and Leicester's midfield dominated. We need to pick ourselves up now and put in a decent performance and soon.
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Hard game, Leicester being a top 6 side, we've now completed our run of difficult games, pretty much what you would expect to happen has happened, exception being Man U, now the easier games and the pressure is on to turn this around and maximise points from these games and get us back to safety.
Got some real conundrums to sort out here, what the hell do you do about Wesley, he's just not at the races and we are desperate for a goal scorer.
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They're better than us but we played like headless chickens and showed an almost total inability to get the basics right. One or two decent attacking moves in the first half but that was about it. To be honest, only conceding 4 flattered us.
I can't think of any genuine positives to take from the game; in fact there is a lot to be worried about.
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Taught a lesson today and need to learn it quick.
Striker(s) in Jan, we knew that in August.
Another CB
Pick the best players every time.
The manager needs to be less stubborn.
Be more fuckin professional on and off the field. The Mings thing today was shocking.
It's December and it's the first time we've been dismantled so there is plenty to work with but i feel that much of what has happened is bought upon ourselves.
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Totally outclassed. Too many of our passes are hopeful rather than accurate. If Grealish wants to get in the England team ahead of Madison he's got some work to do. Wesley isn't doing well at all. McGinn also very poor. Merry Christmas.
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Wesley will play in the next game. What does Kodjia need to do to at least be given a chance? That was simply dreadful and massive dumping on our fragile confidence and on our reasonable goal difference.
I’m fairness to Wesley he got absolutely nothing as well. They were all rubbish today.
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I have to question anyone (including our manager) who thinks it’s a good idea to choose Elmohamady over Guilbert. Is that based on the former being judged to have done ok in Wednesday’s defeat?
Elmohamady is an average player and a poor defender. Guilbert is a good player and a good defender. He was available and fit today. What could poosibly justify not playing him?
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I forgot about Heaton. He deserves a mention.
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Shit.
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Vardy, striker who holds the ball up, offers himself, runs odf the shoulder and can finish. Wesley, none of the above.
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Wesley will play in the next game. What does Kodjia need to do to at least be given a chance? That was simply dreadful and massive dumping on our fragile confidence and on our reasonable goal difference.
I’m fairness to Wesley he got absolutely nothing as well. They were all rubbish today.
You get what you give. Even when we do cross the ball in he's no where near it. He can't get around a defender off the dribble. He has terrible instinctual movement and can't hit a ball from distance.
He's good at one thing, trapping a ball off a goal kick and then promptly passing backwards.
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I have to question anyone (including our manager) who thinks it’s a good idea to choose Elmohamady over Guilbert. Is that based on the former being judged to have done ok in Wednesday’s defeat?
Elmohamady is an average player and a poor defender. Guilbert is a good player and a good defender. He was available and fit today. What could poosibly justify not playing him?
God only knows but a few more baffling decisions like that will soon see the manager out of the door.
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We are doing the hard work for the opposition. So many of the goals conceded are from sloppy passes or individual errors.
So frustrating.
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Vardy, striker who holds the ball up, offers himself, runs odf the shoulder and can finish. Wesley, none of the above.
A 1mil, non-leauge striker vs a 25mil Brazilian with Champions League experience. Who'd have thought..
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If he starts Wes up front on his own in the next game, I’d happily see him sacked.
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They're better than us but we played like headless chickens and showed an almost total inability to get the basics right. One or two decent attacking moves in the first half but that was about it. To be honest, only conceding 4 flattered us.
I can't think of any genuine positives to take from the game; in fact there is a lot to be worried about.
Yep I expected us to lose. I didn’t expect to play as badly as that. 4-1 flattered us.
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Totally outclassed by an excellent side. 1-4 didn't flatter them. Poor team selection and tactics again from Smith, Konsa is frankly out of his depth at this level currently and was destroyed again today. Targett absymally poor again. Complete circus with the management of Mings injury from the player and the bench, cost us a goal and possibly aggravated the injury.
Two of our midfield three, McGinn and Luiz, constantly caught out ahead of the ball. Application from both of them nowhere near good enough but tactically the midfield three were set up wrong. Hard to criticise our only player of any use today, Grealish, but his indiscipline seeped through to the rest of them.
15 points from 16 games and out of the relegation zone on goal difference. Poor.
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Not nearly good enough. Even remotely.
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We've had more poor games recently than good ones - Wolves, Chelsea and today v Leicester, which is worrying - irrespective of the opposition.
We've got no real threat in their box - crosses are either useless, or nobody gets on the end of them.
Our midfield has become porous and as a consequence we are defending far to much and far too deeply.
There's nothing wrong in admitting that - after all it's his first season as a PL coach and most of the players are new to this level too.
It's time for action, because doing the same thing over and and hoping for a different result isn't working.
He needs to sit down with his coaching staff and try and work out what to do with the squad he's got, review his tactics and team shape and come up with something different.
And let's hope we can find a few gems in the January window.
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If he starts Wes up front on his own in the next game, I’d happily see him sacked.
Maybe not sacked, but a Purslow interview stating they're exploring all their options to improve would do.
ACCOUNTABILITY.
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A Brummie Red has just posted '"Potato Head" up to 10th now. 👍" on one of my Facebook posts. Fucking cheek!
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Shambles.
Proper 0 out of 10 rubbish from Targett and Wesley. It cannot be stated enough just how piss poor Wesley is. A completely hopeless, talentless lump. No pace, no ability, nothing. Wank.
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I can think of nothing worse than an interview like that.
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One of our big problems is the midfield isn’t really doing anything. They’re neither defensively solid or producing anything creatively. They’re just passengers and they need to take more responsibility.
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Sometimes you have to hold your hand up and say they were better than us. Well played Leicester. It gives us something to aim for.
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I can think of nothing worse than an interview like that.
What did he (DS) I presume say?
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Totally outclassed by an excellent side. 1-4 didn't flatter them. Poor team selection and tactics again from Smith, Konsa is frankly out of his depth at this level currently and was destroyed again today. Targett absymally poor again. Complete circus with the management of Mings injury from the player and the bench, cost us a goal and possibly aggravated the injury.
Two of our midfield three, McGinn and Luiz, constantly caught out ahead of the ball. Application from both of them nowhere near good enough but tactically the midfield three were set up wrong. Hard to criticise our only player of any use today, Grealish, but his indiscipline seeped through to the rest of them.
15 points from 16 games and out of the relegation zone on goal difference. Poor.
Agree about the Kings debacle and lack of tactics to counter Leicester's obvious threats. Also agree that midfield didn't get anywhere near Vardy.
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A Brummie Red has just posted '"Potato Head" up to 10th now. 👍" on one of my Facebook posts. Fucking cheek!
Bruce hasn't had the opportunity to make a mark on that team yet.
That's Benitez's team.
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Should've gone for Maupay.
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Yes very frustrating and embarrassing but Leicester are the second best team in the Prem on current form and apart from Heaton and perhaps Jack they were better than us right across the park. Yes we lost the ball in daft areas and were not able to deal with the speed of Leicester's front two but what do we expect we are just back. If there is a criticism to be made it is in our failure to sign more than one striker and to be honest our lack of a plan B (again). We have no pace in the middle up front so we need our quicker players to join in better and we also maybe need to try something different up front. Just to easy for good teams to stifle any attacking threat we have. And we need to stop the sloppiness in the middle - today 2 or possibly three goals came from errors that led to Leicester by-passing our defence. There seemed no plan in place to counter Vardy's runs and none of our so-called defensive midfielders were seen anywhere near him when it is clear as day that he makes those runs by dropping off. So I'd say we were beaten by a better team today and by not having the tactics in place to hold them up.
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Shambles.
Proper 0 out of 10 rubbish from Targett and Wesley. It cannot be stated enough just how piss poor Wesley is. A completely hopeless, talentless lump. No pace, no ability, nothing. Wank.
Targett and Elmo were the worst.
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A Brummie Red has just posted '"Potato Head" up to 10th now. 👍" on one of my Facebook posts. Fucking cheek!
Bruce hasn't had the opportunity to make a mark on that team yet.
That's Benitez's team.
Maybe he'll take Elmo off our hands in Jan?
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Wesley just waves his arms around like Sherwood on the touchline. He's not very good, needs loads of work to his game, time to adjust and a change of formation.
In other words, isn't the right player at this time for this formation.
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I can think of nothing worse than an interview like that.
What did he (DS) I presume say?
It was in reply to villadelph
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Wesley is a player devoid of confidence. I don’t believe he’s as bad as he’s shown. He’s been let down by recruitment, he should have been gradually bedded in.
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I can think of nothing worse than an interview like that.
What did he (DS) I presume say?
It was in reply to villadelph
Would you mind elaborating?
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I Just don't see Wes as a striker, he drifts around the game and the opposition box, trying to stretch defences, that's what he does naturally, for me a striker is what was playing for the opposition today, in Vardy, one thing and one thing only on his mind when he gets the ball, that's what we need, perhaps if we can get a player like that, Wesley will come into his own as a support attacker.
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Wesley is a player devoid of confidence. I dont believe hes as bad as hes shown. Hes been let down by recruitment, he should have been gradually bedded in.
I agree Paul. Needed to be rested a while back, now he's completely shot of confidence and a million miles away from the Everton and Norwich performances. I think our naïve summer recruitment is beginning to bite us now.
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What does Douglas Luiz offer. I don’t think he’s broken sweat for us yet. Conor must feel pretty hard done by to not get a game, especially with McGinn being in poor form.
Wesley is just a joke.
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Shambles.
Proper 0 out of 10 rubbish from Targett and Wesley. It cannot be stated enough just how piss poor Wesley is. A completely hopeless, talentless lump. No pace, no ability, nothing. Wank.
I agree with you. I want to see people try to explain what he gave us today, or what he's given us the last few games. He needs dropping immediately but he won't be, as DS appears averse to even subbing him off. This could get messy if Dean stays stubborn about it, I like him but he obviously knows by now a majority of fans are extremely frustrated with Wesley. Not giving Kodjia or anyone a run instead is just bullish and stupid IMO.
Targett was woeful, as was Elmo, as was Konsa tbh. He is still a Championship centre-half and he showed it today, got found wanting multiple times against Vardy and Iheanacho.
Most galling thing was Maddison getting protection from the ref where Grealish didn't. They are very similar players who do very similar things - to treat one differently than the other when he goes down under pressure is just stupid. How many bookings did we pick up today? I lost count.
Overall - really, really poor. Sort it out Dean.
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Would you mind elaborating?
Seemed pretty clear to me, but i'll simplify it, it would be fucking stupid to do an interview like that.
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Would you mind elaborating?
Seemed pretty clear to me, but i'll simplify it, it would be fucking stupid to do an interview like that.
Spending 100m+, pissing points away and being safe by goal differential is pretty fucking stupid also..
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Very poor today but they are an excellent team. DS got his selection wrong though as Guilbert should have started, as should Engels.
As fans we were crap also though, atmosphere was terrible.
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Can everyone take stock before conceding relegation in early December. We've been soundly beaten by one of the best sides in the country if not Europe at the moment.
Had a really bad run of fixtures, and if anyone thinks we WEREN'T going to be in a relegation battle after coming up through the playoffs, you're having yourself on. We've looked good in all but one of the games against teams we are ACTUALLY competing with this season.
That doesn't mean there haven't been poor mistakes from players and management today - but can we get a bit realistic
Sorry mate, but this is blind optimism. We’ve played almost all of the other sides in the league, spent the GDP of a small country, and are hovering around the bottom three.
I’d be optimistic and a little more patience if I could see at least small improvements in performance, team selection and subs, but frankly, we’re not. If anything we’re going backwards.
Being plucky underdogs will not keep us up. Smith and the players need a rocket. And fast.
It is literally the opposite of blind optimism. And also the opposite of the sensationalism you see on here in comparison to this time last weekend when everyone was "Oh look how far we've come in a year".
Our last six games. City-Liverpool-Newcastle-United-Chelsea-Leicester.
In four of them, we have been beaten by teams, that in our current position, we cannot possibly define our season on. 4 points from 18 is about what anyone with even remote knowledge of the gap between top and bottom in this league would have confidently predicted us picking up !
We have spent 100m in a few months - Leicester have been rebuilding this team over three years ever since they won the title. £100m and we're just about able to keep our heads above water this season.
It doesn't excuse the mistakes of only having a 22 year-old with no PL experience as your only striker. Or Mings trying to "run off" a hamstring... But if we want to stay up, the players and management are going to have to be pragmatic and have perspective - and make sure we get the points we need in the next five games, which are all eminently winnable.
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Good team Leicester. Very good team. Perfectly set up to play away from home.
No shame in losing to them. They’ll turn over far better teams than us this season that’s for sure.
Onwards.
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Would you mind elaborating?
Seemed pretty clear to me, but i'll simplify it, it would be fucking stupid to do an interview like that.
Spending 100m+, pissing points away and being safe by goal differential is pretty fucking stupid also..
Stupid individual errors are costing us.
Even today we had plenty of decent attacking opportunities.
I'm again very disappointed but you have to allow for the fact this is a very inexperienced team.
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Very poor today but they are an excellent team. DS got his selection wrong though as Guilbert should have started, as should Engels.
As fans we were crap also though, atmosphere was terrible.
Agreed, I've never heard a packed VP so quiet. We were poor. Leicester fans wind-up merchants, but credit to them for singing all game long.
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Would you mind elaborating?
Seemed pretty clear to me, but i'll simplify it, it would be fucking stupid to do an interview like that.
Spending 100m+, pissing points away and being safe by goal differential is pretty fucking stupid also..
And yet nowhere near as fucking stupid as the interview you want.
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Can everyone take stock before conceding relegation in early December. We've been soundly beaten by one of the best sides in the country if not Europe at the moment.
Had a really bad run of fixtures, and if anyone thinks we WEREN'T going to be in a relegation battle after coming up through the playoffs, you're having yourself on. We've looked good in all but one of the games against teams we are ACTUALLY competing with this season.
That doesn't mean there haven't been poor mistakes from players and management today - but can we get a bit realistic
Sorry mate, but this is blind optimism. We’ve played almost all of the other sides in the league, spent the GDP of a small country, and are hovering around the bottom three.
I’d be optimistic and a little more patience if I could see at least small improvements in performance, team selection and subs, but frankly, we’re not. If anything we’re going backwards.
Being plucky underdogs will not keep us up. Smith and the players need a rocket. And fast.
We held our own against the best team in Europe. Today we capitulated. The worry is we only have 10 mins of decent play where we press just like the lambert years and it either means we score then bottle it or burn ourselves out. Yes Leicester are a quality side but we completely undermine ourselves and I’m losing patience. It isn’t about unrealistic expectations but we get a point at Man U then lose to a below par Chelsea and don’t turn up today. I don’t know if we will be relegated but the team need to sort it out, Wesley needs dropping as to be honest having no forwards would offer more than he does.
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Would you mind elaborating?
Seemed pretty clear to me, but i'll simplify it, it would be fucking stupid to do an interview like that.
Spending 100m+, pissing points away and being safe by goal differential is pretty fucking stupid also..
Stupid individual errors are costing us.
Even today we had plenty of decent attacking opportunities.
I'm again very disappointed but you have to allow for the fact this is a very inexperienced team.
Can you call them "opportunities" really? We had 1 shot on goal. At home. We were shit, mate.
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Would you mind elaborating?
Seemed pretty clear to me, but i'll simplify it, it would be fucking stupid to do an interview like that.
Spending 100m+, pissing points away and being safe by goal differential is pretty fucking stupid also..
And yet nowhere near as fucking stupid as the interview you want.
What are you scared of?
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For me they were comfortably the best side we've faced this season. Add in that we made a load of stupid mistakes, had a number of players below par and we're probably lucky it was only 4.
We've been saying the same thing all season. At Spurs stupid mistakes let them back in the game late which we ended up losing. Against Bournemouth stupid mistakes gifted 2 goals and we lost that. In every game we have lost stupid mistakes have cost us. Even in the win vs Norwich a stupid mistake cost as goal. The question is why are we still making stupid mistakes week after week? Why has a manager like Steve Bruce, who we all saw hardly has an amazing team managed to do what is needed to climb to a very solid mid table position. Or Chris Wilder not having spent much at all over the last few seasons got his promoted side to a very solid top half position. This comes down to the manager, who is revealiong himself to be both naive and dare I say it arrogant in his unwillingness to adapt. His stubborness to continue to persevere with a CF who is struggling is mind boggling. If it's not working try something else. Change things up. This is not going to end well for Dean Smith because new contract or not if we start to get detached from the mid table postions then he'll be gone.
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Why the fuck would I be scared of an interview. If they decide he's not the man for the job then they should sack him, i'm just not needy enough to demand an interview saying that.
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The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
We need a change of striker - it may undermine Wesley's confidence (that's DS's job to handle), but repeatedly playing him is undermining the whole team.
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Don’t blame Wesley for being crap at the moment.
Blame the board for thinking they could get away with this forward line in the transfer window.
Unforgivable.
Saying that, I’d drop him for Trez as a forward. All this big centre forward holding up balls stuff is so old.
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For me they were comfortably the best side we've faced this season. Add in that we made a load of stupid mistakes, had a number of players below par and we're probably lucky it was only 4.
We've been saying the same thing all season. At Spurs stupid mistakes let them back in the game late which we ended up losing. Against Bournemouth stupid mistakes gifted 2 goals and we lost that. In every game we have lost stupid mistakes have cost us. Even in the win vs Norwich a stupid mistake cost as goal. The question is why are we still making stupid mistakes week after week? Why has a manager like Steve Bruce, who we all saw hardly has an amazing team managed to do what is needed to climb to a very solid mid table position. Or Chris Wilder not having spent much at all over the last few seasons got his promoted side to a very solid top half position. This comes down to the manager, who is revealiong himself to be both naive and dare I say it arrogant in his unwillingness to adapt. His stubborness to continue to persevere with a CF who is struggling is mind boggling. If it's not working try something else. Change things up. This is not going to end well for Dean Smith because new contract or not if we start to get detached from the mid table postions then he'll be gone.
Don't forget Palace, Arsenal and Wolves.. just unacceptable.
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Well that was tough to watch. We tried to match a much much better team and they murdered us.
We are far far too open and far far too naive. First time we have been hammered first time the heads dropped and first time this season I am genuinely concerned.
Root cause is we concede far too many goals and at the other end we have a striker who isn’t anywhere near good enough at this level
I would suggest by New Year’s Day we will know whether we are able to stay just above the drop zone or whether we are deep into a relegation battle
Dean Smith has to take stock and learn and learn fast. We cannot keep gifting silly goals away. The mings situation was very very poor management and smelt of player power
Tough day and we have to come out fighting otherwise we are heading into real trouble
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For me they were comfortably the best side we've faced this season. Add in that we made a load of stupid mistakes, had a number of players below par and we're probably lucky it was only 4.
We've been saying the same thing all season. At Spurs stupid mistakes let them back in the game late which we ended up losing. Against Bournemouth stupid mistakes gifted 2 goals and we lost that. In every game we have lost stupid mistakes have cost us. Even in the win vs Norwich a stupid mistake cost as goal. The question is why are we still making stupid mistakes week after week? Why has a manager like Steve Bruce, who we all saw hardly has an amazing team managed to do what is needed to climb to a very solid mid table position. Or Chris Wilder not having spent much at all over the last few seasons got his promoted side to a very solid top half position. This comes down to the manager, who is revealiong himself to be both naive and dare I say it arrogant in his unwillingness to adapt. His stubborness to continue to persevere with a CF who is struggling is mind boggling. If it's not working try something else. Change things up. This is not going to end well for Dean Smith because new contract or not if we start to get detached from the mid table postions then he'll be gone.
He hasn't got another striker. Kodjia is no good post-injury. Let's see what we look like in February.
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Why the fuck would I be scared of an interview. If they decide he's not the man for the job then they should sack him, i'm just not needy enough to demand an interview saying that.
Management has to improve, on field production has to improve.. that's the CEOs job, to make sure that's happening.
If you want to stay in this league people have to be held accountable. I don't know what goes on behind closed doors and an interview would provide some insight into that.
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Don’t blame Wesley for being crap at the moment.
Blame the board for thinking they could get away with this forward line in the transfer window.
Unforgivable.
Saying that, I’d drop him for Trez as a forward. All this big centre forward holding up balls stuff is so old.
We'd all like another striker but think what spoilt fuckers we sound blaming the board after the amount they have spent saving this club from the total mess it was in.
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Would you mind elaborating?
Seemed pretty clear to me, but i'll simplify it, it would be fucking stupid to do an interview like that.
Spending 100m+, pissing points away and being safe by goal differential is pretty fucking stupid also..
Stupid individual errors are costing us.
Even today we had plenty of decent attacking opportunities.
I'm again very disappointed but you have to allow for the fact this is a very inexperienced team.
Can you call them "opportunities" really? We had 1 shot on goal. At home. We were shit, mate.
We had plenty of chances.
I'd say we were very sloppy, Leicester very good.
Frustrating but we'll get there.
Nothing to be embarrassed at as a promoted side.
Arsenal, Man utd, Everton and Chelsea should be embarrassed- Leicester are so much better.
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For me they were comfortably the best side we've faced this season. Add in that we made a load of stupid mistakes, had a number of players below par and we're probably lucky it was only 4.
We've been saying the same thing all season. At Spurs stupid mistakes let them back in the game late which we ended up losing. Against Bournemouth stupid mistakes gifted 2 goals and we lost that. In every game we have lost stupid mistakes have cost us. Even in the win vs Norwich a stupid mistake cost as goal. The question is why are we still making stupid mistakes week after week? Why has a manager like Steve Bruce, who we all saw hardly has an amazing team managed to do what is needed to climb to a very solid mid table position. Or Chris Wilder not having spent much at all over the last few seasons got his promoted side to a very solid top half position. This comes down to the manager, who is revealiong himself to be both naive and dare I say it arrogant in his unwillingness to adapt. His stubborness to continue to persevere with a CF who is struggling is mind boggling. If it's not working try something else. Change things up. This is not going to end well for Dean Smith because new contract or not if we start to get detached from the mid table postions then he'll be gone.
He hasn't got another striker. Kodjia is no good post-injury. Let's see what we look like in February.
We simply don't know that for sure because he hasn't been given a run of games. He seems to do ok for Ivory Coast whenever he goes away with them. I would give him two or three games because he will need to get into things but he offers a very different way of playing. That or we stick AEG up there with Trez out wide. We simply have to play a different way because this, right now is not working.
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Why the fuck would I be scared of an interview. If they decide he's not the man for the job then they should sack him, i'm just not needy enough to demand an interview saying that.
Management has to improve, on field production has to improve.. that's the CEOs job, to make sure that's happening.
It does, it does and it is.
I just don't need an interview as i'm confident that the latter is and will happen.
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Teams at the bottom of the do not string 3-4 wins together on the bounce for a reason.
If we can get minimum 9 points from the next five, we will be in a much healthier position. It does not take a massive run of results to be in a much healthier position in the league as it is so tight across the entire bottom half.
The worry is whether or not today knocked confidence. We'll know within the first 45 minutes of the next match how good a manager Smith is and this group of players.
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Shambles.
Proper 0 out of 10 rubbish from Targett and Wesley. It cannot be stated enough just how piss poor Wesley is. A completely hopeless, talentless lump. No pace, no ability, nothing. Wank.
Targett and Elmo were the worst.
Yeah.
I can’t stop going on about this. What sort of a twat thinks it’s ok to choose Elmo instead of Guilbert? That on it’s own makes me doubt Smith.
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Don’t blame Wesley for being crap at the moment.
Blame the board for thinking they could get away with this forward line in the transfer window.
Unforgivable.
Saying that, I’d drop him for Trez as a forward. All this big centre forward holding up balls stuff is so old.
We'd all like another striker but think what spoilt fuckers we sound blaming the board after the amount they have spent saving this club from the total mess it was in.
This is very true...I stand ashamed. But it was so obvious that it could bite us on the arse.
Of course they probably tried for someone else. And rightfully we will never know because business should be private.
I’d actually play Wesley deeper. Not as a target man and play the ball to feet.
But that’s why I’m not a manager!!
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Teams at the bottom of the do not string 3-4 wins together on the bounce for a reason.
If we can get minimum 9 points from the next five, we will be in a much healthier position. It does not take a massive run of results to be in a much healthier position in the league as it is so tight across the entire bottom half.
The worry is whether or not today knocked confidence. We'll know within the first 45 minutes of the next match how good a manager Smith is and this group of players.
Not looking forward to going to Bramall Lane with the way our defense is playing.
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Teams at the bottom of the do not string 3-4 wins together on the bounce for a reason.
If we can get minimum 9 points from the next five, we will be in a much healthier position. It does not take a massive run of results to be in a much healthier position in the league as it is so tight across the entire bottom half.
The worry is whether or not today knocked confidence. We'll know within the first 45 minutes of the next match how good a manager Smith is and this group of players.
Correct, this will be a defining moment in the future of Dean and his career at the club, he needs to dig deep, get the players focused and get some points in the bank, then we deal with the transfer window, stay up.
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There must be a striker in our reserves?
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There must be a striker in our reserves?
You would think there is a striker somewhere in the club.
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Heaton - Alright
El Mohamady - Shite
Konsa - Shite
Mings - Shite
Engels - Shite
Targett - Shite
Guilbert - Shite
Nakamba - Shite
Trézéguet - Shite
El Ghazi - Shite
McGinn - Shite
Douglas Luiz - Shite
Grealish - Alright.
Wesley - Shite
Dean Smith - Shite
Fans - Shite once they realised we were shite (seemed like it on the telly anyway).
Studio presenter lady on RMC - Shite (but would not say no if asked.)
Weather - Shite
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For me they were comfortably the best side we've faced this season. Add in that we made a load of stupid mistakes, had a number of players below par and we're probably lucky it was only 4.
We've been saying the same thing all season. At Spurs stupid mistakes let them back in the game late which we ended up losing. Against Bournemouth stupid mistakes gifted 2 goals and we lost that. In every game we have lost stupid mistakes have cost us. Even in the win vs Norwich a stupid mistake cost as goal. The question is why are we still making stupid mistakes week after week? Why has a manager like Steve Bruce, who we all saw hardly has an amazing team managed to do what is needed to climb to a very solid mid table position. Or Chris Wilder not having spent much at all over the last few seasons got his promoted side to a very solid top half position. This comes down to the manager, who is revealiong himself to be both naive and dare I say it arrogant in his unwillingness to adapt. His stubborness to continue to persevere with a CF who is struggling is mind boggling. If it's not working try something else. Change things up. This is not going to end well for Dean Smith because new contract or not if we start to get detached from the mid table postions then he'll be gone.
He hasn't got another striker. Kodjia is no good post-injury. Let's see what we look like in February.
We simply don't know that for sure because he hasn't been given a run of games. He seems to do ok for Ivory Coast whenever he goes away with them. I would give him two or three games because he will need to get into things but he offers a very different way of playing. That or we stick AEG up there with Trez out wide. We simply have to play a different way because this, right now is not working.
We've just had a run of games against the best teams in the country (and possibly continent/planet) plus Man Utd, Wolves and Newcastle. We're not as good as them. We knew that.
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Is there any indication that money will be made available in January? I'd say that there's a pretty good argument to be made by the chairman that Smith has had enough money already.
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Is there any indication that money will be made available in January? I'd say that there's a pretty good argument to be made by the chairman that Smith has had enough money already.
True, but then the CEO has to live with the consequences of making and acting upon making an argument like that, horrendous.
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I'd be amazed and disappointed if we didn't bring in 2 or 3 players, I doubt we'll be spending £100m for example but I fully expect we'll be doing some business, or at least will be trying to as one thing I do believe is we won't do any panic signings.
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Can't really see Smith getting another striker in order to drop our record signing that he signed.
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I'd be amazed and disappointed if we didn't bring in 2 or 3 players, I doubt we'll be spending £100m for example but I fully expect we'll be doing some business, or at least will be trying to as one thing I do believe is we don't do any panic signings.
Appreciate this is all conjecture and what might be, but rumour has it that Liverpool could offload Shaqiri in January, just a thought.
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Is there any indication that money will be made available in January? I'd say that there's a pretty good argument to be made by the chairman that Smith has had enough money already.
True, but then the CEO has to live with the consequences of making and acting upon making an argument like that, horrendous.
It's bad signings that cost managers their jobs mostly. Not saying that Smith ought to be sacked, but his signings aren't performing.
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Is there any indication that money will be made available in January? I'd say that there's a pretty good argument to be made by the chairman that Smith has had enough money already.
True, but then the CEO has to live with the consequences of making and acting upon making an argument like that, horrendous.
It's bad signings that cost managers their jobs mostly. Not saying that Smith ought to be sacked, but his signings aren't performing.
Aren't they Suso's signings?
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Is there any indication that money will be made available in January? I'd say that there's a pretty good argument to be made by the chairman that Smith has had enough money already.
True, but then the CEO has to live with the consequences of making and acting upon making an argument like that, horrendous.
It's bad signings that cost managers their jobs mostly. Not saying that Smith ought to be sacked, but his signings aren't performing.
Agree, bad signings, expensive signings and not making them work, then its curtains.
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Is there any indication that money will be made available in January? I'd say that there's a pretty good argument to be made by the chairman that Smith has had enough money already.
True, but then the CEO has to live with the consequences of making and acting upon making an argument like that, horrendous.
It's bad signings that cost managers their jobs mostly. Not saying that Smith ought to be sacked, but his signings aren't performing.
Aren't they Suso's signings?
Over the summer they did try to make it apparent that it was a team effort and they had a plan all along.
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Granted Leicester are/were very good, but I cannot think of a single positive to take from this afternoon, from team selection (bizarre) through to performance, individual and collective. I don't know who it was, but one of the posters on this post match thread was of the view that this was at least the last in our run of 'difficult games' - errm, Sheffield United away next, not a difficult game?
Of many disappointments on such an afternoon though, the lowlight was possibly our 'captain's' senseless but thoroughly deserved yellow card, in the last minute of a game that was already lost.
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We were like headless chickens today. Guilbert should of played but it would of made little difference.
Were conceeding atleast 2 a game, many of them have been avoidable.
Big big period coming up for us now, but going forward we need to get over the superiority complex that we seem to hsve against the better teams.
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We are a lazy team without the ball - far too open and leave acres of space. Vardy must have thought Christmas had come early.
Smith needs to make us harder to play against. For all the demands for another striker it’s not scoring goals that’s our problem, it’s looking like we will concede every time the opposition go forward.
A big 3 weeks coming up.
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Poor today gave poor goals away but overall MF just never got into the game .McGinn has gone off the boil and Luiz too slow on the ball .Team selection I'd question Elmo but would have likely had the rest the same despite spending 100mil we are short of quality.Houraine as good as he was against Newcastle was hopeless against Chelsea and Luiz came on and looked better.
Lansbuy and Kodjia are just making up spaces on the bench neither are good enough , Kodjia I think will be sold in Jan whilst he still has some value.Transfer window we need bodies in and if they have to be loans so be it worrying about developing other teams players comes secondary to staying up IMO
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For me they were comfortably the best side we've faced this season. Add in that we made a load of stupid mistakes, had a number of players below par and we're probably lucky it was only 4.
We've been saying the same thing all season. At Spurs stupid mistakes let them back in the game late which we ended up losing. Against Bournemouth stupid mistakes gifted 2 goals and we lost that. In every game we have lost stupid mistakes have cost us. Even in the win vs Norwich a stupid mistake cost as goal. The question is why are we still making stupid mistakes week after week? Why has a manager like Steve Bruce, who we all saw hardly has an amazing team managed to do what is needed to climb to a very solid mid table position. Or Chris Wilder not having spent much at all over the last few seasons got his promoted side to a very solid top half position. This comes down to the manager, who is revealiong himself to be both naive and dare I say it arrogant in his unwillingness to adapt. His stubborness to continue to persevere with a CF who is struggling is mind boggling. If it's not working try something else. Change things up. This is not going to end well for Dean Smith because new contract or not if we start to get detached from the mid table postions then he'll be gone.
He hasn't got another striker. Kodjia is no good post-injury. Let's see what we look like in February.
We simply don't know that for sure because he hasn't been given a run of games. He seems to do ok for Ivory Coast whenever he goes away with them. I would give him two or three games because he will need to get into things but he offers a very different way of playing. That or we stick AEG up there with Trez out wide. We simply have to play a different way because this, right now is not working.
We've just had a run of games against the best teams in the country (and possibly continent/planet) plus Man Utd, Wolves and Newcastle. We're not as good as them. We knew that.
And somehow with the exception of Liverpool and Leicester all of those upper echelon teams have lost games to teams they should not have based on their status in the game, and yet we managed to lose all of them bar Man U. Newcastle have beaten Man U, Spurs, Bournemouth, Sheff Utd and drew with Man City. You work with what you have. We all know Steve Bruce is limited as a manager but he's made best use of what he has whereas Smith just hasn't. We are simply dreadful defensively and a player like Mings, who we would all hope would be the leader of the group has been the most careless of them all. Why hasn't that been corrected? And what the fuck is Dean Smith doing playing Elmo over a fit Guilbert today?
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While i fully agree that it was always going to be big ask to turn leics over its more the manner of the capitulation that's worrying... i've tried to give Wesley the benefit of doubt (and time) but i have very grave doubts if he will cut it at this level
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best players I saw on the pitch today were -
Cowans, Nicholl, Aitken, Mcnaught, Little, Bremner
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For me they were comfortably the best side we've faced this season. Add in that we made a load of stupid mistakes, had a number of players below par and we're probably lucky it was only 4.
We've been saying the same thing all season. At Spurs stupid mistakes let them back in the game late which we ended up losing. Against Bournemouth stupid mistakes gifted 2 goals and we lost that. In every game we have lost stupid mistakes have cost us. Even in the win vs Norwich a stupid mistake cost as goal. The question is why are we still making stupid mistakes week after week? Why has a manager like Steve Bruce, who we all saw hardly has an amazing team managed to do what is needed to climb to a very solid mid table position. Or Chris Wilder not having spent much at all over the last few seasons got his promoted side to a very solid top half position. This comes down to the manager, who is revealiong himself to be both naive and dare I say it arrogant in his unwillingness to adapt. His stubborness to continue to persevere with a CF who is struggling is mind boggling. If it's not working try something else. Change things up. This is not going to end well for Dean Smith because new contract or not if we start to get detached from the mid table postions then he'll be gone.
He hasn't got another striker. Kodjia is no good post-injury. Let's see what we look like in February.
We simply don't know that for sure because he hasn't been given a run of games. He seems to do ok for Ivory Coast whenever he goes away with them. I would give him two or three games because he will need to get into things but he offers a very different way of playing. That or we stick AEG up there with Trez out wide. We simply have to play a different way because this, right now is not working.
We've just had a run of games against the best teams in the country (and possibly continent/planet) plus Man Utd, Wolves and Newcastle. We're not as good as them. We knew that.
And somehow with the exception of Liverpool and Leicester all of those upper echelon teams have lost games to teams they should not have based on their status in the game, and yet we managed to lose all of them bar Man U. Newcastle have beaten Man U, Spurs, Bournemouth, Sheff Utd and drew with Man City. You work with what you have. We all know Steve Bruce is limited as a manager but he's made best use of what he has whereas Smith just hasn't. We are simply dreadful defensively and a player like Mings, who we would all hope would be the leader of the group has been the most careless of them all. Why hasn't that been corrected? And what the fuck is Dean Smith doing playing Elmo over a fit Guilbert today?
And yet we looked incredibly comfortable against Newcastle and far better than them, winning convincingly. Indeed we have generally played well against teams around us all season.
As ugly as it may be this season, winning purely against the teams you "should" do is enough to keep you up in this league, where the gap between the top 6-7 teams and rest is so wide. It hasn't been 40 points to stay up for a decade - more likely 35-38. I still feel we're at about par for where most of us deep down expected we would be this season, despite the bad recent run. If we stay up by 1 point on the final day, that is job done. And then we can begin to expect more upsets and big results, IMO.
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I won't do a megaquote Toronto, but I agree with your last point. The thing is though that, when faced with a better team, there will always be mistakes that you can point to that will be the cause of the defeat. Good teams make inferior teams make mistakes.
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Can't really see Smith getting another striker in order to drop our record signing that he signed.
He is far more likely to get sacked if he actually had that mindset.
Wes should've been signed as more of a back up and learn the premier league that way. I really don't think we're doing his confidence any favours by continually starting him when he's struggling. Even Benteke had the odd time when he lost form and we put him on the bench to get him going again.
The transfer fee is irrelevant given mid table prem teams sign strikers for 30-40m. 22m isn't really that much anymore when you consider we were signing likes of Hogan, Kodj and McCormack for 12-15m in the championship.
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There must be a striker in our reserves?
Apart from Kodjia, you mean? There is. Cameron Archer. 17 years old but apart from his excellent cameo appearance and performance against Crewe in the Carabao Cup, he is largely untested at this level. Then again, he can hardly be worse than Wes and would probably offer more.
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Very disappointed!
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Whoever signed Wesley, whether that he Suso, Smith or both need sectioning. He is quite possibly the worst centre forward I’ve seen down there in 30 years of going. Even if you take the price tag out of it; he offers precisely zero. He couldn’t trap a bag of cement. We will sleep walk towards relegation without significant investment in attacking areas.
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That was piss poor.
Word team selection, poor performances all round.
Of particular note: Targett bombing forward then strolling back into the space we vacated for them. Mings and Konsa both frighteningly bad. Wesley jogging around putting zero effort in. McGinn looks dead on his feet. Luiz loses the ball way too much.
Leicester are excellent but they just put four past us whilst barely getting out of third gear.
No signings in January = relegation, I’m afraid.
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3 key moments the match
-El Ghazi miss
-Keeping Mings on when it was clear he needed to go off
-Giving Evans the freedom of Villa Park to score.
Leicester are a good team but we really need to wise up quickly. Wesley was awful but it's unfair to blame one person. Super John needs a rest and Jack hopefully won't play that poorly again.
Christmas is going to be absolutely crucial and they desperately need our support.
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Can everyone take stock before conceding relegation in early December. We've been soundly beaten by one of the best sides in the country if not Europe at the moment.
Had a really bad run of fixtures, and if anyone thinks we WEREN'T going to be in a relegation battle after coming up through the playoffs, you're having yourself on. We've looked good in all but one of the games against teams we are ACTUALLY competing with this season.
That doesn't mean there haven't been poor mistakes from players and management today - but can we get a bit realistic
Sorry mate, but this is blind optimism. We’ve played almost all of the other sides in the league, spent the GDP of a small country, and are hovering around the bottom three.
I’d be optimistic and a little more patience if I could see at least small improvements in performance, team selection and subs, but frankly, we’re not. If anything we’re going backwards.
Being plucky underdogs will not keep us up. Smith and the players need a rocket. And fast.
It is literally the opposite of blind optimism. And also the opposite of the sensationalism you see on here in comparison to this time last weekend when everyone was "Oh look how far we've come in a year".
Our last six games. City-Liverpool-Newcastle-United-Chelsea-Leicester.
In four of them, we have been beaten by teams, that in our current position, we cannot possibly define our season on. 4 points from 18 is about what anyone with even remote knowledge of the gap between top and bottom in this league would have confidently predicted us picking up !
We have spent 100m in a few months - Leicester have been rebuilding this team over three years ever since they won the title. £100m and we're just about able to keep our heads above water this season.
It doesn't excuse the mistakes of only having a 22 year-old with no PL experience as your only striker. Or Mings trying to "run off" a hamstring... But if we want to stay up, the players and management are going to have to be pragmatic and have perspective - and make sure we get the points we need in the next five games, which are all eminently winnable.
Keano I agree with everything you’ve said above and these are literally some of the only sensible comments made on here. We got battered today by the only team capable of stopping Liverpool this season. They may only be Leicester but they won the league 3 years ago and whilst we have be in the championship they have got to the QFs of the champions league and been regulars in top ten or above in the league.
Saying all that some poor selections today and performances, but some ‘fans’ on here who I’m not always convinced go to games, calling for Smiths head are just f**king stupid. How’s that helped Watford this season or Everton, Fulham and countless others in recent years. What our club needs is stability and for all fans to pull together. 10 months ago we were a bang average mid table championship side, the best run we’ve ever had got us up and we had to buy a new team. If anyone on here thinks ending the season 1 point above relegation isn’t a success this year, they seriously don’t know anything about football. The players need VP rocking over xmas
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Video nasty (https://www.skysports.com/football/a-villa-vs-leicester/report/408131)
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Sort the defensive and striking problems quickly or our stay in the prem will be a short and very expensive one. Probably better add the midfield to that as well. Deano has to start earning that nice, fat new contract.
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I can't see the owners willing to gamble the future by keeping DS if this continues. We are blinded by the romantic 'he's one of us' attitude. While I agree that he might not have made the signings - some of his selection and the lack of response in front of him is a la Bruce. Have we honestly witnessed any spark of genius in his tactics? Has he improved any player? How can JT coach our defence, when it looks like we will concede any moment? Maybe it's early days but I fear that if the January window goes by with no changes and DS is trully 'found out' as a Championship manager....it might just be too late. Unless we are kept up by worse teams below us....
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Mings staying on potentially cost us the match Wesley gets worse by the week, McGinn again fails to show and jack was badly found out
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Wesley will play in the next game. What does Kodjia need to do to at least be given a chance? That was simply dreadful and massive dumping on our fragile confidence and on our reasonable goal difference.
I’m fairness to Wesley he got absolutely nothing as well. They were all rubbish today.
Absolutely nothing? Apart from that delightful ball whipped into him in the second half that just needed a tap in but like usual he was nowhere near it. Any other striker apart from this donkey scores.
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3 key moments the match
-El Ghazi miss
-Keeping Mings on when it was clear he needed to go off
-Giving Evans the freedom of Villa Park to score.
Leicester are a good team but we really need to wise up quickly. Wesley was awful but it's unfair to blame one person. Super John needs a rest and Jack hopefully won't play that poorly again.
Christmas is going to be absolutely crucial and they desperately need our support.
This, this, this and this.
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I forgot about Heaton. He deserves a mention.
Heaton might end up being the signing of the season, excellent keeper.
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Wesley will play in the next game. What does Kodjia need to do to at least be given a chance? That was simply dreadful and massive dumping on our fragile confidence and on our reasonable goal difference.
I’m fairness to Wesley he got absolutely nothing as well. They were all rubbish today.
Absolutely nothing? Apart from that delightful ball whipped into him in the second half that just needed a tap in but like usual he was nowhere near it. Any other striker apart from this donkey scores.
He’s reactive instead of proactive. On the other end of the spectrum is Vardy.. who we all witnessed today is ready to flip the script on a game at any moment. JT should make a phone call to Drogba and see if he can tutor Wesley.
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To describe that performance as pants would be an insult to underwear. It could have been even worse - they hit the woodwork twice and missed a couple of chances too. So many poor performances across the whole team with the exception of maybe Heaton. I'm not sure why Deano persists with Wesley - at least give Kodjia a chance if only to prove us wrong - and why Elmo over Guilbert?
It pains me to say it, especially after that scrote Vardy gave it the big ears in front of the Holte after scoring the first, but Leicester were very good - great pressing, good movement, players all knowing their role, all comfortable on the ball, creative, and deadly on the break. Losing to teams like Leicester won't define our season - but we need to make sure we bounce back over Christmas in the supposedly easier fixtures.
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We are a lazy team without the ball - far too open and leave acres of space. Vardy must have thought Christmas had come early.
Smith needs to make us harder to play against. For all the demands for another striker it’s not scoring goals that’s our problem, it’s looking like we will concede every time the opposition go forward.
A big 3 weeks coming up.
Luiz and McGinn are key to this problem. Both of them appear a lot more interested going forward than holding their position and/or running backwards. When the alternatives are Hourihane and Lansbury it's clear we have to invest in another more combative mobile option in there.
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Don’t blame Wesley for being crap at the moment.
Saying that, I’d drop him for Trez as a forward. All this big centre forward holding up balls stuff is so old.
Smith is too stubborn to drop Wesley and play with a false number 9. He has ONE plan for matches and sticks to it whatever the scoreline is. Then around 80 minutes he'll finally make a sub, which nine times out of ten is the wrong option anyway.
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How awful must Kodjia be during training to not get any minutes instead of Wesley??
We carried too many passengers today. SJM is an absolute shadow of the player he was.
One thing I noted when we had a corner at 1-3. AEG was trying to get on with it while Konsa was ambling towards the box, talking to someone behind him as he went. The corner came in, Konsa was still nowhere near the box, they broke. Bang. Goal
The whole thing today seemed to suggest we were scared, and we never had the belief we could win.
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File that one alongside Palace, Arsenal 2nd half, Wolves, Chelsea.
It's a good point about not working hard enough without the ball. Leicester's team is full of confidence and better than the one that won the league but we helped them along the way.
Smith's refusal to either substitute Wesley or omit him altogether is staggering. I'd sooner play El Ghazi down the middle or try Kodjia as it hasn't worked for weeks and weeks.
To think that Brighton paid less for Maupay than we did for Wesley and someone at Villa thought Maupay was overpriced!
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Well, if we go down this season I don’t think it will because we are utterly shit, like a few years ago.
We just ain’t anywhere near good enough.
On a plus point, after 20 odd years of a crap PA system in the DE upper, they have finally installed a system that can be heard.
One positive from today I suppose.
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To think we nearly beat Liverpool only a month or so ago with a performance full of desire and no little skill. Where was that today ? And we didn't have Jack against the the scousers!
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This was a debacle. Leicester gave us the runaround and as been said already they could easily have had 8. However good can come from this if Dean Smith is willing to learn from what went wrong.
Leicester were fabulous in possession and tigerish out of it. Too many of our players stood off and let the opposition play. Our intensity (look at Everton yesterday) is lacking and we just make it so easy for teams to play through us.
Dean needs to set us up to be forceful and assertive. We are currently too passive.
The difficulty is knowing how to change things with the personnel we have. John Mcginn looks completely shot at the minute, Douglas Luiz is playing at a pace more suited to the Italian or Spanish game and Wes is out of his depth. He is an easy target but his lack of mobility and touch makes it so much harder to build attacks. Yes, we have scored a decent number of goals but Wes hasn't been involved in many of them.
We need a complete re-think. The next 4 games are huge and we have to take at least 6 points from them. Will Dean Smith be willing to change things? We'll see.
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This was a debacle. Leicester gave us the runaround and as been said already they could easily have had 8. However good can come from this if Dean Smith is willing to learn from what went wrong.
Leicester were fabulous in possession and tigerish out of it. Too many of our players stood off and let the opposition play. Our intensity (look at Everton yesterday) is lacking and we just make it so easy for teams to play through us.
Dean needs to set us up to be forceful and assertive. We are currently too passive.
The difficulty is knowing how to change things with the personnel we have. John Mcginn looks completely shot at the minute, Douglas Luiz is playing at a pace more suited to the Italian or Spanish game and Wes is out of his depth. He is an easy target but his lack of mobility and touch makes it so much harder to build attacks. Yes, we have scored a decent number of goals but Wes hasn't be involved in many of them.
We need a complete re-think. The next 4 games are huge and we have to take at least 6 points from them. Will Dean Smith be willing to change things? We'll see.
Complete rethink?
No, we've had plenty of positives - even against teams that are considered amongst the best in Europe.
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Well where to start with that....
I felt we were unlucky to be behind at half time but we got destroyed second half.
Heaton - 8 MOTM (again) good saves and he stopped it being embarrassing.
Elmo - 3 really poor, appalling crossing and he was shown up several times. He’s patently not good enough for this level as a starter.
Konsa - 5 showed his inexperience at times with poor positioning and distribution
Mings - 5 not really on long enough.
Targett - 4 good first 30, tailed off badly, really badly.
Nakamba - 4 cant see what the fuss is about to be honest, looks limited with the ball and never really got hold of Madison from a defensive perspective.
McGinn - 5 usual energy but his use of the ball was atrocious.
Luiz - 5 meh
El Ghazi - 2 absolute disgrace. No commitment or effort and Chilwell had him in his back pocket pretty much the whole game.
Wesley - 4 he tried, but his lack of composure at times meant he gave the ball away.
Grealish - 6 tried but poor distribution and blind alley running meant he was less than effective.
Engels - 6 composed but lacks pace but issues were elsewhere in the defence.
Guilbert - 5 not really on long enough
Trezeguet - 5 not really on long enough
Deano - 3 good start but totally outthought once Rogers got his diamond system working. As soon as they went to 3-1 a quick tactical change and they locked the game up, Dean made no response other than changing personnel in a system that wasn’t working or making headway.
We need to get back to basics with this team, it’s all very well trying to go toe to toe with these top of the table teams, we need to build from a much more solid base. We also lack pace below our first choice 11. Our crossing and deadball delivery was really poor, those times we got free on the left in the first half hour resulted in pretty much no clear cut chances despite being at the byline. As for El Ghazi and Elmo on the right, I despair.
See you all in Sheffield next week.
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Read a lot of posts bemoaning Hourihane not starting today.
He was totally anonymous against Chelsea. No way he made a case to start today. We got hammered today, ergo the players on the bench would have been better. That's not how it works though.
Similarly Trezeguet. Yes he scored Wednesday but up till then he touched the ball three times in total. Again reasonable to pick AEG.
Personally I'd have played Guilbert over Elmo but I could see the reasoning.
Hindsight is 20:20 always, but a team picked after the final whistle is never going to lose.
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Basically, I hate fucking losing; I don't think we're doomed though.
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I don’t understand when he plays Luiz and Nakamba why it’s not 4-2-3-1. I don’t think either of them understand their role in the midfield at times. Neither of them played with much defensive discipline today.
Leicester counter attacked numerous times and within a couple of passes were running at our back four.
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I don’t understand when he plays Luiz and Nakamba why it’s not 4-2-3-1. I don’t think either of them understand their role in the midfield at times. Neither of them played with much defensive discipline today.
Leicester counter attacked numerous times and within a couple of passes were running at our back four.
Yep, really unsure on the roles people are playing.
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Can everyone take stock before conceding relegation in early December. We've been soundly beaten by one of the best sides in the country if not Europe at the moment.
Had a really bad run of fixtures, and if anyone thinks we WEREN'T going to be in a relegation battle after coming up through the playoffs, you're having yourself on. We've looked good in all but one of the games against teams we are ACTUALLY competing with this season.
That doesn't mean there haven't been poor mistakes from players and management today - but can we get a bit realistic
Sorry mate, but this is blind optimism. We’ve played almost all of the other sides in the league, spent the GDP of a small country, and are hovering around the bottom three.
I’d be optimistic and a little more patience if I could see at least small improvements in performance, team selection and subs, but frankly, we’re not. If anything we’re going backwards.
Being plucky underdogs will not keep us up. Smith and the players need a rocket. And fast.
It is literally the opposite of blind optimism. And also the opposite of the sensationalism you see on here in comparison to this time last weekend when everyone was "Oh look how far we've come in a year".
Our last six games. City-Liverpool-Newcastle-United-Chelsea-Leicester.
In four of them, we have been beaten by teams, that in our current position, we cannot possibly define our season on. 4 points from 18 is about what anyone with even remote knowledge of the gap between top and bottom in this league would have confidently predicted us picking up !
We have spent 100m in a few months - Leicester have been rebuilding this team over three years ever since they won the title. £100m and we're just about able to keep our heads above water this season.
It doesn't excuse the mistakes of only having a 22 year-old with no PL experience as your only striker. Or Mings trying to "run off" a hamstring... But if we want to stay up, the players and management are going to have to be pragmatic and have perspective - and make sure we get the points we need in the next five games, which are all eminently winnable.
Keano I agree with everything you’ve said above and these are literally some of the only sensible comments made on here. We got battered today by the only team capable of stopping Liverpool this season. They may only be Leicester but they won the league 3 years ago and whilst we have be in the championship they have got to the QFs of the champions league and been regulars in top ten or above in the league.
Saying all that some poor selections today and performances, but some ‘fans’ on here who I’m not always convinced go to games, calling for Smiths head are just f**king stupid. How’s that helped Watford this season or Everton, Fulham and countless others in recent years. What our club needs is stability and for all fans to pull together. 10 months ago we were a bang average mid table championship side, the best run we’ve ever had got us up and we had to buy a new team. If anyone on here thinks ending the season 1 point above relegation isn’t a success this year, they seriously don’t know anything about football. The players need VP rocking over xmas
Yes . This. Excellent post, thank you
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We were doing reasonably ok until the first goal went in and after that we were always on the back foot. At times we passed it around quite nicely but we’re way too open when we’re not in possession.
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Read a lot of posts bemoaning Hourihane not starting today.
He was totally anonymous against Chelsea. No way he made a case to start today. We got hammered today, ergo the players on the bench would have been better. That's not how it works though.
Similarly Trezeguet. Yes he scored Wednesday but up till then he touched the ball three times in total. Again reasonable to pick AEG.
Personally I'd have played Guilbert over Elmo but I could see the reasoning.
Hindsight is 20:20 always, but a team picked after the final whistle is never going to lose.
You are right about Hourihane. Out of possession in particular he is a complete passenger and is barely visible. His dead balls though are way ahead of anybody else even Jack. Maybe we can send him on like a field goal kicker in American Football..
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Just how crap was Targett again today. He's one of the slowest players I've seen at Villa, and watching him chasing after their forwards in vain was a really sad sight. Another dud it would appear.
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Just how crap was Targett again today. He's one of the slowest players I've seen at Villa, and watching him chasing after their forwards in vain was a really sad sight. Another dud it would appear.
Like Elmo, he’s all right going forward. Unfortunately both of them are defenders.
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By the end he wasn’t even bothering to run back into position. Unforgivable.
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Outclassed, pure and simple
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Leicester are a really good side. Hopefully we can be at that sort of level within two or three seasons.
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Cue lots of posts about how we'd be lucky to have him, blah blah...
But Jamie Vardy has a face I'd never get tired of punching
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Cue lots of posts about how we'd be lucky to have him, blah blah...
But Jamie Vardy has a face I'd never get tired of punching
I wasn’t keen on the chants about his missus, though.
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Cue lots of posts about how we'd be lucky to have him, blah blah...
But Jamie Vardy has a face I'd never get tired of punching
I wasn’t keen on the chants about his missus, though.
That was always going to comeback and bite us on the arse.
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Cue lots of posts about how we'd be lucky to have him, blah blah...
But Jamie Vardy has a face I'd never get tired of punching
I wasn’t keen on the chants about his missus, though.
He brought that on himself by being a c**t after scoring the first
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Leicester are a really good side. Hopefully we can be at that sort of level within two or three seasons.
I hope so too, but one thing is that if we do go down then we can write that off, as all the better players will leave and also the idea of a 'project' or 'work in progress' goes to waste, as it'll be almost like starting from scratch again.
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Just how crap was Targett again today. He's one of the slowest players I've seen at Villa, and watching him chasing after their forwards in vain was a really sad sight. Another dud it would appear.
Can't defend and his character is very suspect when under pressure. 16m for a Southampton reserve, appeared crazy at time.
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Just how crap was Targett again today. He's one of the slowest players I've seen at Villa, and watching him chasing after their forwards in vain was a really sad sight. Another dud it would appear.
Remember in the 2010 (I think) World Cup when England played Germany and there was an excruciating bit where Gareth Barry was trying to catch Ozil but looked like a pensioners running for a bus?
That’s what Targett looked like today.
He’s shockingly slow.
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Cue lots of posts about how we'd be lucky to have him, blah blah...
But Jamie Vardy has a face I'd never get tired of punching
I wasnt keen on the chants about his missus, though.
He brought that on himself by being a c**t after scoring the first
Wasn't at the game, but I'd assumed his 'cupped ears' celebration was the result of stick he'd been taking before then?
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Cue lots of posts about how we'd be lucky to have him, blah blah...
But Jamie Vardy has a face I'd never get tired of punching
I wasnt keen on the chants about his missus, though.
He brought that on himself by being a c**t after scoring the first
Wasn't at the game, but I'd assumed his 'cupped ears' celebration was the result of stick he'd been taking before then?
Not that I heard. It was because he miskicked and it looked like he'd missed the chance at first I think. But he's still a twat.
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Leicester City have over last 4 seasons rebuilt half their team but they did it from the incredible positon of being league winners and then CL quarter finalists.
It's a little different doing it from position of play off winners.
We would have to make 4-5 top class signings in next two seasons to be even close to that level by end of 21-22 season. I await to being pleasantly surprised but simply don't see it with the strategy we have.
Certainly the ownership and management structure will be tested now. The easy part was actually getting out of the championship.
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Vardy is king of the chavs. Great striker, awful wanker.
Thought it was Maddison who cupped his ears at the fans though as we were giving him grief as he came over to take the corner that they inevitably scored from.
Maybe they were both at it. Of Vardy and Maddison I'd honestly rather see the latter get his arse handed to him, he was a maggot all day today.
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Leicester City have over last 4 seasons rebuilt half their team but they did it from the incredible positon of being league winners and then CL quarter finalists.
It's a little different doing it from position of play off winners.
We would have to make 4-5 top class signings in next two seasons to be even close to that level by end of 21-22 season. I await to being pleasantly surprised but simply don't see it with the strategy we have.
Certainly the ownership and management structure will be tested now. The easy part was actually getting out of the championship.
They won the league 12 months after very narrowly avoiding the drop. Having rebuilt their squad.
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Vardy is king of the chavs. Great striker, awful wanker.
Thought it was Maddison who cupped his ears at the fans though as we were giving him grief as he came over to take the corner that they inevitably scored from.
Maybe they were both at it. Of Vardy and Maddison I'd honestly rather see the latter get his arse handed to him, he was a maggot all day today.
Yeah they both did it. Vardy stood in the net in front of the Holte and cupped his juggy ears. Twat.
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He's some player though.
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He's superb, playing a high line against him was as fucking stupid as playing a high line against Arsenal in the FA Cup Final.
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Can everyone take stock before conceding relegation in early December. We've been soundly beaten by one of the best sides in the country if not Europe at the moment.
Had a really bad run of fixtures, and if anyone thinks we WEREN'T going to be in a relegation battle after coming up through the playoffs, you're having yourself on. We've looked good in all but one of the games against teams we are ACTUALLY competing with this season.
That doesn't mean there haven't been poor mistakes from players and management today - but can we get a bit realistic
Sorry mate, but this is blind optimism. We’ve played almost all of the other sides in the league, spent the GDP of a small country, and are hovering around the bottom three.
I’d be optimistic and a little more patience if I could see at least small improvements in performance, team selection and subs, but frankly, we’re not. If anything we’re going backwards.
Being plucky underdogs will not keep us up. Smith and the players need a rocket. And fast.
It is literally the opposite of blind optimism. And also the opposite of the sensationalism you see on here in comparison to this time last weekend when everyone was "Oh look how far we've come in a year".
Our last six games. City-Liverpool-Newcastle-United-Chelsea-Leicester.
In four of them, we have been beaten by teams, that in our current position, we cannot possibly define our season on. 4 points from 18 is about what anyone with even remote knowledge of the gap between top and bottom in this league would have confidently predicted us picking up !
We have spent 100m in a few months - Leicester have been rebuilding this team over three years ever since they won the title. £100m and we're just about able to keep our heads above water this season.
It doesn't excuse the mistakes of only having a 22 year-old with no PL experience as your only striker. Or Mings trying to "run off" a hamstring... But if we want to stay up, the players and management are going to have to be pragmatic and have perspective - and make sure we get the points we need in the next five games, which are all eminently winnable.
Keano I agree with everything you’ve said above and these are literally some of the only sensible comments made on here. We got battered today by the only team capable of stopping Liverpool this season. They may only be Leicester but they won the league 3 years ago and whilst we have be in the championship they have got to the QFs of the champions league and been regulars in top ten or above in the league.
Saying all that some poor selections today and performances, but some ‘fans’ on here who I’m not always convinced go to games, calling for Smiths head are just f**king stupid. How’s that helped Watford this season or Everton, Fulham and countless others in recent years. What our club needs is stability and for all fans to pull together. 10 months ago we were a bang average mid table championship side, the best run we’ve ever had got us up and we had to buy a new team. If anyone on here thinks ending the season 1 point above relegation isn’t a success this year, they seriously don’t know anything about football. The players need VP rocking over xmas
This.
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He's some player though.
Great player. Knobhead of a man. He didn't get any stick at all before he scored, yet still acted the prick.
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Just how crap was Targett again today. He's one of the slowest players I've seen at Villa, and watching him chasing after their forwards in vain was a really sad sight. Another dud it would appear.
I said at the time and certainly while watching him in pre-season that it was a really odd signing. He’s not quick, he’s good no better than that going forward. He’s decent defending, and yet given what kinds of players we all thought Dean Smith liked, Targett just didn’t fit the mould. Yet we lashed out £14m on him. With Guilbert on one side I’d have thought we would have got someone of that type for LB. Yet alarmingly to start the season he couldn’t beat out Neil Taylor FFS
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‘Fans’. Lol.
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Like others' comments I thought we were v poor today, and one could see how good Leicester are. At least they are keeping Liverpool in range (just). Wesley couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo. Luiz had 3 shot opps in the first half and each time fluffed a fancy pass, was easily dispossessed more than once. Grealish looks like he is playing 5 a side on a Friday night, protests everything like a kid - even his own missed passes, doesn't direct any of his team mates re position or effort, never a captain and burdened by it. Accordingly we seem lost in every department, looking like a championship side on a PL excursion. Not 'worried' as I still enjoy it, but these things are self regulating if not corrected.
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That was rubbish, don’t mind getting beat, but like Wolves away we did not compete. Our 11 on their day can give anyone a game, but if anyone is not on it we look lost, our squad is not good enough and we need at least a striker in January. Dean needs to get hold of this quickly. On a side note the bloke in front of me booing Marc when he came on why?? Marc didn’t do anything wrong, we didn’t offer him a contact. Back to the game not good enough.
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Just back. Not read the thread yet.
Leicester were superb, fast strong and very well drilled. Difficult to say if they were better than Liverpool as we made so many unforced mistakes today all over the pitch in all areas.
Once I knew we were going to lose, within a few minutes, it was interesting to watch how they set up to dominate us, push the full backs right up and control the game wherever the ball is.
A few positives, Jack was still the best player on pitch, with the right investment in the right players at the right time, that could be us
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I think Albrighton got a decent enough round of applause when he came on.
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I think Albrighton got a decent enough round of applause when he came on.
Good to hear. Loved super Marc!
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He's some player though.
Agreed, his movement was as good as I’ve ever seen. Why he needed to stand in front of our fans and cup his ears is strange.
The chants about his wife, on a day like today, were to me beyond the pail, we should always be better than that.
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He's some player though.
Agreed, his movement was as good as I’ve ever seen. Why he needed to stand in front of our fans and cup his ears is strange.
The chants about his wife, on a day like today, were to me beyond the pail, we should always be better than that.
The ones about her being a 'grass' were funny, but I was disappointed to hear that turn to 'slag'
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He's some player though.
Agreed, his movement was as good as I’ve ever seen. Why he needed to stand in front of our fans and cup his ears is strange.
The chants about his wife, on a day like today, were to me beyond the pail, we should always be better than that.
No idea about the chants about his wife, but he's one of the few players I've ever seen who, when that long through ball gets played, is practically guaranteed to score.
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I think Albrighton got a decent enough round of applause when he came on.
The bloke next to me was moaning about that, querying why we were clapping a Leicester player.
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Vardy is king of the chavs. Great striker, awful wanker.
Thought it was Maddison who cupped his ears at the fans though as we were giving him grief as he came over to take the corner that they inevitably scored from.
Maybe they were both at it. Of Vardy and Maddison I'd honestly rather see the latter get his arse handed to him, he was a maggot all day today.
Yeah they both did it. Vardy stood in the net in front of the Holte and cupped his juggy ears. Twat.
Young and Gabby used to do it all the time in 08/09 after goal celebrations. I have no issue with it anyway.
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Also, it's clearly a bad idea to wind him up.
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Also, it's clearly a bad idea to wind him up.
The chants were after he’d scored and he decided to play the goat in front of the Holte. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.
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I think Albrighton got a decent enough round of applause when he came on.
Not by me he didn’t, very odd if you ask me. Marc was good for us and good luck to him
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Went to the game earlier. Thought we were at least competitive in the first half and created some decent chances with El Ghazi missing a sitter. We looked very vulnerable throughout though and after Evans scored their third, we looked like a beaten side.
Was impressed with them though. The diamond formation they played meant they always had an extra man in midfield and I thought their full-backs were impressive, especially Chilwell who was excellent.
For us, it might have been a tough game at the end of a tough week or it might be a sign of something more concerning. The second half performances are beginning to follow a pattern now, which needs to be addressed.
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I think Albrighton got a decent enough round of applause when he came on.
Not by me he didn’t, very odd if you ask me. Marc was good for us and good luck to him
Why? Did you think him coming on tipped the game in their favour?
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‘Fans’. Lol.
Ha ha yeah!
I remember all those great teams across the world winning trophies left right and centre because ‘fans’ pulled together. ‘Fans’ pulling together never won anything.
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I left a game early once and the team has never recovered from it. I’m a terrible ‘fan’.
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There was some great ear-cupping on 93 minutes at Everton (cf. Messrs Young and Lauren).
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I rarely ever go now. Only to sell H&V and blag a free/cheap ticket if I feel like it. Atrocious fan.
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There was some great ear-cupping on 93 minutes at Everton (cf. Messrs Young and Lauren).
It's clearly different when we do it.
No-one said we had to be fair. F*ck fair.
His wife's fair game, the jug eared twat. Or so I'm led to believe.
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Also, it's clearly a bad idea to wind him up.
The chants were after he’d scored and he decided to play the goat in front of the Holte. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.
Goats and horses! VP is optimal for pasturing.
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Also, it's clearly a bad idea to wind him up.
The chants were after he’d scored and he decided to play the goat in front of the Holte. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.
Goats and horses! VP is optimal for pasturing.
There’s a gag in there about bovine defending but I’m annoyed enough as it is.
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Players not prepared to do the dirty stuff, happy to bomb forward but them amble back, several times.
Elmo over Freddy, wtf?
Douglas is piss weak in the tackle, gets brushed off way too easily. Nakamba and SJM anonymous.
Thank goodness for Heaton today.
Unforced errors, poor selection of passes, woeful crosses and no-one in there anyway.
Wank.
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A big positive to take if you look at what can be achieved with a solid youth system, sound big buys and taking hungry players from other bigger clubs.
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I think Luiz and Marvellous are not the midfield ass kickers we hoped for.
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They sell high and buy low and take small steps forward with every transaction. Then they sell the low for high and buy low again and take more steps forward. We need to do the same, and we’re in the early stages of doing just that by loading up the squad with ‘potential’. The key is for the fans not to get too upset when favourites get sold.
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Leicester were very well organised, very quick to spread wide when they won the ball, very quick to flood the centre where they hadn’t. Very reminiscent of Ajax
Rogers had a better plan than Dean and carried it out with better players.
Shit happens.
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Leicester were very well organised, very quick to spread wide when they won the ball, very quick to flood the centre where they hadn’t. Very reminiscent of Ajax
Rogers had a better plan than Dean and carried it out with better players.
Shit happens.
Their final ball was pretty much always excellent.
We didn't really have a final ball - fair amount of arseing about on the edge of their area, no penetration.
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Fucking hell, I know we were shit today but let's not throw in to doubt everyone and everything over this. They won the league a few years ago, we couldn't even win the championship. We were as poor as they were good, a bad day, lessons to be learned all round but keep things in perspective. We simply have to apply ourselves better, we are too open with this formation and not clinical enough.
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Fucking hell, I know we were shit today but let's not throw in to doubt everyone and everything over this. They won the league a few years ago, we couldn't even win the championship. We were as poor as they were good, a bad day, lessons to be learned all round but keep things in perspective. We simply have to apply ourselves better, we are too open with this formation and not clinical enough.
Yup, no disagreement here
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I think Luiz and Marvellous are not the midfield ass kickers we hoped for.
Something tells me City won't be exercising their buyback clause anytime soon.
£15m now seems a little questionable.
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Fucking hell, I know we were shit today but let's not throw in to doubt everyone and everything over this. They won the league a few years ago, we couldn't even win the championship. We were as poor as they were good, a bad day, lessons to be learned all round but keep things in perspective. We simply have to apply ourselves better, we are too open with this formation and not clinical enough.
Losing to Leicester isn't the end of the world, but we've also failed to beat Bournemouth, West Ham and Burnley at home.
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He’s struggling with the pace of the PL, lot of good players do.
He’ll come good
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I think Luiz and Marvellous are not the midfield ass kickers we hoped for.
Something tells me City won't be exercising their buyback clause anytime soon.
£15m now seems a little questionable.
Guardiola rates him highly, and didn't want to lose him, hence the clause.But I guess you know better.
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Fucking hell, I know we were shit today but let's not throw in to doubt everyone and everything over this. They won the league a few years ago, we couldn't even win the championship. We were as poor as they were good, a bad day, lessons to be learned all round but keep things in perspective. We simply have to apply ourselves better, we are too open with this formation and not clinical enough.
A million times this.
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‘Fans’. Lol.
Ha ha yeah!
I remember all those great teams across the world winning trophies left right and centre because ‘fans’ pulled together. ‘Fans’ pulling together never won anything.
Sorry for using the term but glad I amused you. ‘Supporters’, ‘unrealistic moaning negative gits’ whatever suits instead of fans then. The idea that people watching inside the stadium can’t have a positive or negative influence on the team is bizarre. I don’t care if you’ve been going to villa park for 5 mins or 50 years, if you believe none of us helped villa over the line last season then I’m not sure why you bother going if you do go.
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We’ve played some of the best teams in the world over the last 20 games and have been gubbed once, deservedly, today.
If this time last year, you’d have been offered being beaten at home by the team second in the PL, I’m guessing few would have turned it down?
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We’ve played some of the best teams in the world over the last 20 games and have been gubbed once, deservedly, today.
If this time last year, you’d have been offered being beaten at home by the team second in the PL, I’m guessing few would have turned it down?
It's the manner of the capitulation, it could have been 8 or 9. We were utterly hopeless.
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Rodgers has managed Liverpool & Celtic two huge football clubs in big,big games. Dean Smith has managed Walsall and Brentford. They have Vardy we have Wesley, nobody expected us to win but at home 4-1 is not good enough, it was the manor of the defeat that was the problem.
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We’ve played some of the best teams in the world over the last 20 games and have been gubbed once, deservedly, today.
If this time last year, you’d have been offered being beaten at home by the team second in the PL, I’m guessing few would have turned it down?
We're out of the bottom three on goal difference, and our football's getting worse. We're conceding 1.75 goals a game on average, and making mistakes all over the park. And we have Wesley.
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I think you are being overly dramatic, I’d say 6-7
And we could have had another one, which balances things a bit.
They are a fantastic side and we needed to be at our best to match them, as we were nearly, against Liverpool, we were shit and were deservedly hammered today.
Our season won’t be defined against the top 6
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We’ve played some of the best teams in the world over the last 20 games and have been gubbed once, deservedly, today.
If this time last year, you’d have been offered being beaten at home by the team second in the PL, I’m guessing few would have turned it down?
We're out of the bottom three on goal difference, and our football's getting worse. We're conceding 1.75 goals a game on average, and making mistakes all over the park. And we have Wesley.
Plenty to work on but I’m sure we have the right man in charge to turn it around. I’m happy to be here, a year in front of plan.
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I thought 0-3 in the pre match thread so I’m really not surprised. We make mistakes and Leicester are the best team in the league for punishing mistakes with their forward line.
My biggest concern is Wesley and Dean Smith inflexibility, it’s cost us dearly this season and we can not afford it now. The next 8 games are make or break now and it’s largely of our own making.
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Remember it was only 7 days ago we went toe to toe with Manure and people were disappointed we didn't win. The league is very up and down. We are 17th, which isn't good enough but ultimately this season is about staying up. Taking a dicking by Leicester isn't nice, it's fucking Leicester but we are coming from such a shitty low base that we've got to go through days like this without over thinking things and making drastic demands that aren't good in the long run.
Elmo shouldn't be first team.
Wesley isn't good enough at the moment.
Douglas is too airy fairy.
Hourihane's delivery is too good to turn down.
The lone striker isn't working out.
Engels is easily one of our 2 best center halves.
We got a lot of basics wrong today, starting with the selection. If it keeps on happening then people are right to call in to question what the thinking is behind strange decisions but as it is in a tight league that could have seen us go 12th today and being managed by someone who took over a shambles and somehow got it together I think patience would be a better approach. Especially as we have a series of games which are going to define our season and togetherness is important to get the right result.
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I think Albrighton got a decent enough round of applause when he came on.
The bloke next to me was moaning about that, querying why we were clapping a Leicester player.
He got very warm applause when he came on in the Holte upper.
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Fucking hell, I know we were shit today but let's not throw in to doubt everyone and everything over this. They won the league a few years ago, we couldn't even win the championship.
Neither did Sheffield United yet they have 7 more points than us and only narrowly lost to Leicester. I think we've got an excuse for everything to be honest.
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Comprehensively (and depressingly) dicked by a side that know how to play & thrive in the top division. As much as I like & appreciate him, Dean Smith continues to display a naivety that will get him the sack sooner or later. The minted owners must shirley have got the knives out of the drawers: with a view to getting 'em sharpened pretty bloody soon. We're relegation fodder as it stands. Meh.
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Fucking hell, I know we were shit today but let's not throw in to doubt everyone and everything over this. They won the league a few years ago, we couldn't even win the championship.
Neither did Sheffield United yet they have 7 more points than us and only narrowly lost to Leicester. I think we've got an excuse for everything to be honest.
So the reality is we are utterly shit and going down? We aren't one of the worst 3 teams in this division. Judging by performances, points or whatever methodology you want to use.
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my own target was to be out of the bottom 3 after the Leicester game and we are, just
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please,please change it up against sheffield Dean
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Really starting to question DS judgement, we play the quickest forward line in the premiership and he leaves our quickest defender on the bench and plays our slowest defender. Thought Engels did okay when he came on Heaton was excellent and Jack tried to get us moving but at times doing too much, every player except those three were diabolical, mystery as to what's happened to JM he is a shadow of the player at the start of the season. Will someone ask Dean why Hause is never selected cannot fathom that one. The plain truth is that we have some players that are simply not good enough big Wes included but the cupboard is pretty bare looking for replacements. At the moment odds are evens for relegation but lose Grealish for a few weeks and we are down.
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Mine was at least 20 points by Christmas, it's going to be touch and go. We've lost a lot of ground in recent weeks but we've had a tough run of fixtures mostly against the league's best teams. What counts now is that we pick up some serious points in the next batch of games. If we could start the year on 20+ you'd back us to get to the 36 or so usually needed.
I think Norwich are done. Hopefully, any Watford resurgence is short lived or better still, non-existent. Then it's anyone's. I'd hope Saints are the team but Bournemouth and Burnley are on horrible runs themselves. Could be tight for a number of teams.
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my own target was to be out of the bottom 3 after the Leicester game and we are, just
I'm with ya John, but does that really cut the mustard? I'm not sure tbh, but I doubt our owners will be as acceptant of our present sitch. We're increasingly looking like a side that failed to gain automatic promotion for obvious reasons...
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I’m 50/50 on things. I agree pw that just above the relegation zone heading into a period of ok fixtures and an opportunity to add a striker is good enough.
I also didn’t expect to beat Leicester or Chelsea. What’s worried me is the quality and attitude on show in both those games. Without Heaton having two of his best games for us we could, maybe should, have been done by 5-6 goals in both. The players look tired, ill disciplined (was it 6 yellows today?) and fractious.
Edit - sorry, John not pw
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Played one of the best and established Premier League sides and got a tonking today for sure with below par performances all over the place.
But I’d be far more worried if we get a performance like that on Boxing Day against let’s face it a more comparable level of opposition.
This season I think the reality is that we’re competing against the bottom half of this league this season.
Not the top half.
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We were awful today, totally lacking in desire, fight, effort, legs and tactically dumb. Sort it out Deano or we, and you, are done for.
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We appear to be getting worse, when one would hope, with players settling in, we should be getting better. Massive few games coming up.
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Fucking hell, I know we were shit today but let's not throw in to doubt everyone and everything over this. They won the league a few years ago, we couldn't even win the championship.
Neither did Sheffield United yet they have 7 more points than us and only narrowly lost to Leicester. I think we've got an excuse for everything to be honest.
So the reality is we are utterly shit and going down? We aren't one of the worst 3 teams in this division. Judging by performances, points or whatever methodology you want to use.
I haven't had that relegation feeling so far this season but ultimately January will have a major bearing on that. I just think with all these losses there's always something to justify why we didn't pick up any points.
Like today, 3-1 down on 49 minutes with almost an entire half to get back into it but nothing. Not going for broke and switching to two-up-top like the opposition, no changes for over 10 minutes after their third goal. Not to mention the starting line-up was highly questionable even before a ball was kicked.
I'm just saying if we had got a goal back in those 25 minutes between their third and fourth, it's a completely different game. Leicester are a very good side but Smith is at fault for the manner we lost.
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I'd forgotten how much I dislike Sunday afternoon KO's in the prem, particularly in the winter. Travel chaos from start to finish, which set the scene nicely for an abysmal showing.
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Mings would've cut out that throughball if fully fit imo.
Ridiculous to keep him on.
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Today's performance was reminiscent of our last time in the division. It's the only time this season that has happened but it was that bad.
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Today's performance was reminiscent of our last time in the division. It's the only time this season that has happened but it was that bad.
I thought of that 15/16 Liverpool game a few times through the match. Like you say though, thankfully its the only time ive felt that way regarding this season.
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Aston fucking Villa still have that unfound ability to dictate my mood.
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my own target was to be out of the bottom 3 after the Leicester game and we are, just
I'm with ya John, but does that really cut the mustard? I'm not sure tbh, but I doubt our owners will be as acceptant of our present sitch. We're increasingly looking like a side that failed to gain automatic promotion for obvious reasons...
What was the target then? Top half? 12-14th would be a more than decent season in my book especially if we finished 5-10 points clear of bottom 3 in the end.
Just being happy with 17th means the scrap could well go to the last game of the season and I'd rather avoid all that unbearable tension.
Ultimately 100m might seem a lot of money to us but it's pretty much pocket money in premier league. If we're saying we should be finishing high up in the table because of that what about all the established prem teams who've spent double or triple that over the time we've been away.
West Ham and Everton spent double what we have and both are barely above us in the league.
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A really, really disappointing day. An awful game and a flat tyre on the way home so I’m not in a great mood.
Too many players below par today resulting in an awful performance. A few random points:
Mings should have gone off as soon as his hamstring went. Early on he also gave Leicester a chance by failing to clear at left back.
Our midfield is lightweight defensively. Leicester hunted us down and we were too slow to move the ball on
Our crosses often fail to beat the first man and we cannot just rely on Hourihane to play a dangerous ball, others need to improve their delivery
Our wingers don’t work hard enough. I saw both El Ghazi and Trezeguet ( even though he only played 30 minutes) ambling back whilst their opponents were hurtling towards our half / goal. Contrast with the incredible work ethic and desire of Leicester
Teams that stop us playing from the back know we have to pass back to Heaton for a hoof. I estimate we win 1 in 5-6 of these and surrender possession
McGinn is a shadow of himself. Looks like he needs a rest.
Leicester are a top class team. They were faster, better organised and more creative than us. One who impressed me was Chilwell. Wasn’t too sure of him but he was excellent defensively and going forward. He won every header against AEG despite Anwar looking taller.
Maddison did to us what Jack often does - looked for goals and got them.
Vardy reminds me of Ian Rush - chases everything, hassles defenders, great pace and a deadly finisher
Like I said, a shit day
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Yes, £100m doesn’t get you very much these days. We had to spend that money just to plug the gaps and re-balance our squad.
Wesley feels like he isn’t justifying his price tag, but Leicester spent £27m on a striker three years ago, who only managed 8 goals in 35 EPL games over 2 seasons for them. They also spent £17m on a striker at the same time who only managed 2 in 21.
Clubs who have been in the division whilst we weren’t (with a few notable exceptions) have spent enormous amounts of money.
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‘Fans’. Lol.
Ha ha yeah!
I remember all those great teams across the world winning trophies left right and centre because ‘fans’ pulled together. ‘Fans’ pulling together never won anything.
Sorry for using the term but glad I amused you. ‘Supporters’, ‘unrealistic moaning negative gits’ whatever suits instead of fans then. The idea that people watching inside the stadium can’t have a positive or negative influence on the team is bizarre. I don’t care if you’ve been going to villa park for 5 mins or 50 years, if you believe none of us helped villa over the line last season then I’m not sure why you bother going if you do go.
In that case, you’ve all been responsible for the disasters over the seasons.
Works both ways.
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This was always going to be a very difficult game, but regardless I expect every player to play like a professional Premier League player not the old, fat bloke from the pub team. Heaton is the only one to come out of that with any credibility (including the management). It was men vs boys. Not good enough.
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I remember all those great teams across the world winning trophies left right and centre because ‘fans’ pulled together. ‘Fans’ pulling together never won anything.
Absolutely.
How incredibly pompous must someone be to think a club's success was ever directly attributable to an action on their part?
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It was the sloppy passing that got me pissed off, even Jack was guilty a few times we bring it out of defence then give the ball straight back to them.
There are many examples of clubs spending huge amounts for players that are not up to standard and twenty million is not over the top, that shouldn't stop us from recognising that the player is not going to work out and get another player in.
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I wasn't hopeful of too much before the game but the third goal killed any hopes we had after we got ourselves back in it and it should have been more than four. Grealish and Heaton were our best two and McGinn as much as he tried definately needs a breather.
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Played one of the best and established Premier League sides and got a tonking today for sure with below par performances all over the place.
But Id be far more worried if we get a performance like that on Boxing Day against lets face it a more comparable level of opposition.
This season I think the reality is that were competing against the bottom half of this league this season.
Not the top half.
Agree, how many of the Villa team would get in the Leicester team? Leicester have now won eight on the trot because they are a bloody good team. If we were putting in performances like that against the likes of Southampton then I would be worried.
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I remember all those great teams across the world winning trophies left right and centre because ‘fans’ pulled together. ‘Fans’ pulling together never won anything.
Absolutely.
How incredibly pompous must someone be to think a club's success was ever directly attributable to an action on their part?
I don’t think I’ve said at any time that the clubs success was directly attributable to me as an individual or any other fan (if I’m allowed to use that word). What I’ve said in response to other criticism, is to say or think the supporters in the ground don’t have an influence is bizarre. Maybe I didn’t explain myself well enough, but I mean an influence both positively or negatively. Like a lot of you I’ve been down a toxic villa park and whilst that was caused by players performances and the running of the club, the atsmophere added to everything. Likewise how anyone at the Everton game can say the crowd didn’t help to give the players an extra yard.
My general point was and one that has been lost with a few having a go, is despite some poor results and at times some poor selections, people calling for smiths head are crazy. And those kind of murmurings does seep out onto the terraces and does start to have an influence around the club.
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Engels did well when he came on. But, we then had two right sided centre backs. Not saying it made much difference.
Thought the midfield were poor and that put pressure on the back and no help up front either
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Out of interest, I've not seen it mentioned on here but I wonder why our two penalty claims towards the end did not go to VAR. They were quick enough checking our goal.
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Out of interest, I've not seen it mentioned on here but I wonder why our two penalty claims towards the end did not go to VAR. They were quick enough checking our goal.
I think they were Clampy as the goal kicks were held briefly while they checked. I think they sometimes do this without going to the nonsense of announcing it on the screen.
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A really, really disappointing day. An awful game and a flat tyre on the way home so I’m not in a great mood.
Too many players below par today resulting in an awful performance. A few random points:
Mings should have gone off as soon as his hamstring went. Early on he also gave Leicester a chance by failing to clear at left back.
Our midfield is lightweight defensively. Leicester hunted us down and we were too slow to move the ball on
Our crosses often fail to beat the first man and we cannot just rely on Hourihane to play a dangerous ball, others need to improve their delivery
Our wingers don’t work hard enough. I saw both El Ghazi and Trezeguet ( even though he only played 30 minutes) ambling back whilst their opponents were hurtling towards our half / goal. Contrast with the incredible work ethic and desire of Leicester
Teams that stop us playing from the back know we have to pass back to Heaton for a hoof. I estimate we win 1 in 5-6 of these and surrender possession
McGinn is a shadow of himself. Looks like he needs a rest.
Leicester are a top class team. They were faster, better organised and more creative than us. One who impressed me was Chilwell. Wasn’t too sure of him but he was excellent defensively and going forward. He won every header against AEG despite Anwar looking taller.
Maddison did to us what Jack often does - looked for goals and got them.
Vardy reminds me of Ian Rush - chases everything, hassles defenders, great pace and a deadly finisher
Like I said, a shit day
Got to agree with loads of this.
This is a barmy League though as I’m sure Newcastle fans felt the same after they played us and look how it’s gone for them since their no show against us?
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Not good enough yesterday from team selection and tactics through to the players. Engels and Guilbert should have started. Our "big" players all had an off day. Mings even before his injury looked like he would rather have been elsewhere than up against Vardy and company. McGinn was ineffective. You can always tell how well he's doing by the number of times his song is sung. Yesterday I didn't hear it once. Where has his high energy hassling style of play gone? With the way our midfield was set up there was no-one to interchange with Jack, so for large spells he was stuck out on the left wing having little impact. There were too many sloppy passes from him and on occasions he was too slow releasing the ball. For his own good Wesley needs a break. We are at the stage now that any confidence he may have will shatter completely unless he's taken out of the firing line. It was the club's decision to go with Wes, Davis and Kodjia at the outset of the season. Until the transfer window all 3 of these need to be used. With Davis out injured that means Kodjia needs to be given a chance.
Newcastle came on a crest of a way and are on one since, but we played to our strengths at home and beat them comprehensively. Leicester are on a crest of a wave but we gave in way too easily to them and played to their strengths. Accepting that they are a good team why should so much have changed for us from one home match to another?
What was that Vardy celebration all about? If it was to prove what a tw-t he is, then he succeeded!
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not many teams got much out of Leicester just lately
I honestly don’t think we were as bad as people are making out
I was far more disappointed in our bottling job performances when we have been in good positions and thrown it away
the next few games are where the season will be defined
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We were fairly competitive in the first half but they were always the better team. At the start of the second half we had a go but they scored on the break with what seemed like their first attack and from then on it was easy for them. I don’t think, keeper aside, anyone had a good game but even at our best we would have struggled against them, they are a seriously good side.
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It was a tough day for us yesterday. Outclassed by Leicester. Also their pace was too much. Their No14 and No21 constantly nicked the ball off our midfield which allowed them to set up Vardy. Their fans sung gloatingly all match while we had very little to cheer about. That was stomach churning to witness. As for Vardy what an annoying little prick. If ever a player needed a blood and thunder tackle it was him. All in all a bad day at the office. Roll on January when a couple of things can be addressed. A new striker or even 2 is paramount. And better full back cover than Elmo and Taylor is also a priority.
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Vardy showed what an effect a pacy striker can have. Even if you ignore his goals, he pulled our defence all over the place and out of position. Compare that with Wesley who spends most of the game mooching about doing very little in the no man's land between midfield and the opposition penalty area.
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This was our first real tonking of the season. We have put in good performances against the top teams so far this season, this was the exception.
One way to get back in a game against these top teams is through a set piece. Why is it our corners never ended up in even an attempt on goal, and they made it look easy to score from a corner. Watching that corner again Engels runs into no mans land, following neither the ball or a man.
So many areas for improvement, but for me we definitely need to work on set pieces, both attacking and defensively.
We were outplayed by the better team.
Let's learn and move on.
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This was our first real tonking of the season. We have put in good performances against the top teams so far this season, this was the exception.
One way to get back in a game against these top teams is through a set piece. Why is it our corners never ended up in even an attempt on goal, and they made it look easy to score from a corner. Watching that corner again Engels runs into no mans land, following neither the ball or a man.
So many areas for improvement, but for me we definitely need to work on set pieces, both attacking and defensively.
We were outplayed by the better team.
Let's learn and move on.
We were outclassed by Chelsea as well, who probably should have scored 5 or 6.
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All this 'we need an interview' nonsense is such a silly idea. Talk about trying to make more of a drama out of things.
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Disappointed with yesterday Leicester were a good side you can see why they are second in the league.
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Out of interest, I've not seen it mentioned on here but I wonder why our two penalty claims towards the end did not go to VAR. They were quick enough checking our goal.
I think one of them did (Ricardo on Jack) but it was cleared almost instantly.
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Out of interest, I've not seen it mentioned on here but I wonder why our two penalty claims towards the end did not go to VAR. They were quick enough checking our goal.
I think one of them did (Ricardo on Jack) but it was cleared almost instantly.
Yep. The Ref signalled to the players that it had been reviewed
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Very strange team selection. No Connor, who's been one of our better players. Started Wesley who just looks lost but dropped Trez who scored at Chelsea in the week. Baffling.
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Vardy showed what an effect a pacy striker can have. Even if you ignore his goals, he pulled our defence all over the place and out of position. Compare that with Wesley who spends most of the game mooching about doing very little in the no man's land between midfield and the opposition penalty area.
He’s a vile rat faced little ****** but he’s some striker, especially considering his background. He actually looked the best I’ve ever seen him yesterday. His whole game was spot on and he was a massive pain in the arse for our defenders.
As a whole, I’m a little more in the Leicester were extremely good camp than the we were utter shit camp. I think a lot of these players we’ve bought can go on to be good PL players but I don’t think they’ll ever get to the level the Leicester players were. They’re a proper team as well, we’re still finding our feet as a team but we will improve. They also have a top manager there and although I rate Smith and think some of the comments on here about him are laughably stupid, again I don’t think he’ll ever be as good as Rogers.
It’s absolutely vital that we get 6-7 points from the next four, my faith in them might get a bit strained if we end up well short of that.
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Not sure why people are clutching their pearls over Vardy's celebration.
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It was a largely pathetic performance IMHO.
Obviously Leicester are miles ahead of us at the moment, so the scoreline wasn't a huge surprise. But our meek, spineless performance was.
We certainly had opportunities in the game, but a combination of bad play and players bottling the chance to shoot and take responsibility was a big worry for me. And for the first time in a long time, i didn't sense a strong sense of togetherness on the pitch.
And a big shout out to Jack, McGinn and Trez for embarassing dives.
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Not sure why people are clutching their pearls over Vardy's celebration.
I wish he played for us.
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Leicester are a good side but we made it so easy for them. We're a soft touch, too nice and too easy to play against. Even second half, we'd just scored before half time and we should have come out flying and been in their faces.
The lack of belief was a worry, from players and fans. The atmosphere was dreadful and Leicester fans took the piss all game, but you could tell from kick off the backing and belief wasn't there. It was like our relegation season where everyone was sat almost just waiting for them to score and for us to lose. The atmosphere and backing at the Everton game was superb and it was good at times against Liverpool but it's been shit in every other game.
I've backed Wesley and been patient but it's run out, he's shite. He offers us absolutely nothing at the moment; he doesn't win headers, he doesn't hold the ball up, he doesn't run in behind, he doesn't make goals and he never even looks like scoring. Can't remember the last time he even had a chance or shot on target and he's never in the box when he should be.
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Leicester are a good side but we made it so easy for them. We're a soft touch, too nice and too easy to play against. Even second half, we'd just scored before half time and we should have come out flying and been in their faces.
The lack of belief was a worry, from players and fans. The atmosphere was dreadful and Leicester fans took the piss all game, but you could tell from kick off the backing and belief wasn't there. It was like our relegation season where everyone was sat almost just waiting for them to score and for us to lose. The atmosphere and backing at the Everton game was superb and it was good at times against Liverpool but it's been shit in every other game.
I've backed Wesley and been patient but it's run out, he's shite. He offers us absolutely nothing at the moment; he doesn't win headers, he doesn't hold the ball up, he doesn't run in behind, he doesn't make goals and he never even looks like scoring. Can't remember the last time he even had a chance or shot on target and he's never in the box when he should be.
Agree about being too nice. Far too easy to play through and nowhere near intense enough in closing down when we don’t have ball. We won’t win many games giving teams 20 odd efforts on goal a game.
I get the angst over Wesley but we’ve defended poorly for most of the season and that will more likely relegate us if it carries on.
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Vardy is one of my neighbours.
I should've knifed his tyres.
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I only watched the last 35 mins or so but Wes is comical. He looks like a person dragged off the street who not only has never played a game a football but also has never watched a game.
Brazilian football must be in deep deep shit.
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I've only watched a 5 minute highlight reel but first half it looked fairly even in terms of attacking play, with the main difference being Leicester's final balls were incisive and dangerous whereas ours were largely misplaced or easily blocked. The first part of the second half didn't look too bad either but then it became like shots-in to Leicester with us looking all over the shop.
Not too concerned at getting turned over by a very very good side, more so about the continuing bad habits like ceding possession too easily, basic individual defensive errors and poor final balls, which seem to be getting worse rather than better. We need to work a lot harder without the ball too.
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Yes, a lot of the problem for me yesterday was the midfield 3 including Super John constantly misplacing passes and giving the ball away, it was like the first half of the Wolves game. It simply gave too much of the ball to them, not a good idea.
As for watching only the last 35 mins, most of them had given up at that point so i wouldn't judge any individual player, particularly a striker, just on that. Had you watched the whole game though you would have seen that Wesley did indeed have a shite game over the course, but he wasn't alone.
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Vardy is one of my neighbours.
I should've knifed his tyres.
There's still time !
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Very strange team selection. No Connor, who's been one of our better players. Started Wesley who just looks lost but dropped Trez who scored at Chelsea in the week. Baffling.
Connor was anonymous against Chelsea till he was subbed, when we started to look better. Trez scored but was anonymous until then and mostly after. Wesley, if there was a viable alternative I'd probably agree, but there isn't. Certainly not Kodjia.
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Very strange team selection. No Connor, who's been one of our better players. Started Wesley who just looks lost but dropped Trez who scored at Chelsea in the week. Baffling.
Connor was anonymous against Chelsea till he was subbed, when we started to look better. Trez scored but was anonymous until then and mostly after. Wesley, if there was a viable alternative I'd probably agree, but there isn't. Certainly not Kodjia.
Agree with you there
I’d play that young lad that Legion knows before Kodjia maybe not the whole game but let’s see what he can do
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Very strange team selection. No Connor, who's been one of our better players. Started Wesley who just looks lost but dropped Trez who scored at Chelsea in the week. Baffling.
Connor was anonymous against Chelsea till he was subbed, when we started to look better. Trez scored but was anonymous until then and mostly after. Wesley, if there was a viable alternative I'd probably agree, but there isn't. Certainly not Kodjia.
Agree with you there
I’d play that young lad that Legion knows before Kodjia maybe not the whole game but let’s see what he can do
I hate to knock the current regime as i think we're blessed to have them but........
Leaving us with one untried striker and two others with a dodgy fitness record to say the least was borderline reckless. Reminiscent of Potato Heads bizzare dereliction of duty regarding centre halfs or lack of them at the start of the 18/19 season.
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Very strange team selection. No Connor, who's been one of our better players. Started Wesley who just looks lost but dropped Trez who scored at Chelsea in the week. Baffling.
Connor was anonymous against Chelsea till he was subbed, when we started to look better. Trez scored but was anonymous until then and mostly after. Wesley, if there was a viable alternative I'd probably agree, but there isn't. Certainly not Kodjia.
Agree with you there
I’d play that young lad that Legion knows before Kodjia maybe not the whole game but let’s see what he can do
I hate to knock the current regime as i think we're blessed to have them but........
Leaving us with one untried striker and two others with a dodgy fitness record to say the least was borderline reckless. Reminiscent of Potato Heads bizzare dereliction of duty regarding centre halfs or lack of them at the start of the 18/19 season.
I think it’s only about 7 teams who have scored more than us this season, which for a recently promoted club is not a bad achievement. So is that really where our problems are or is it just the standard one of a recently assembled team with a number of players new to both the league and the country showing inevitable inconsistency?
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Very strange team selection. No Connor, who's been one of our better players. Started Wesley who just looks lost but dropped Trez who scored at Chelsea in the week. Baffling.
Connor was anonymous against Chelsea till he was subbed, when we started to look better. Trez scored but was anonymous until then and mostly after. Wesley, if there was a viable alternative I'd probably agree, but there isn't. Certainly not Kodjia.
Agree with you there
I’d play that young lad that Legion knows before Kodjia maybe not the whole game but let’s see what he can do
I hate to knock the current regime as i think we're blessed to have them but........
Leaving us with one untried striker and two others with a dodgy fitness record to say the least was borderline reckless. Reminiscent of Potato Heads bizzare dereliction of duty regarding centre halfs or lack of them at the start of the 18/19 season.
I think it’s only about 7 teams who have scored more than us this season, which for a recently promoted club is not a bad achievement. So is that really where our problems are or is it just the standard one of a recently assembled team with a number of players new to both the league and the country showing inevitable inconsistency?
Given that we aren't keeping goals out, we need to score more. Wesley was poorly scouted for the role he is being asked to perform. I don't think that's open to question is it?
No idea why we held onto Kodjia in the summer either as Smith clearly doesn't rate him. Should have let him go surely, as we did with BB and AA, and got in a loan signing even as competition or to have the option to switch to two up top on occasion.
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Very strange team selection. No Connor, who's been one of our better players. Started Wesley who just looks lost but dropped Trez who scored at Chelsea in the week. Baffling.
Connor was anonymous against Chelsea till he was subbed, when we started to look better. Trez scored but was anonymous until then and mostly after. Wesley, if there was a viable alternative I'd probably agree, but there isn't. Certainly not Kodjia.
Agree with you there
I’d play that young lad that Legion knows before Kodjia maybe not the whole game but let’s see what he can do
I hate to knock the current regime as i think we're blessed to have them but........
Leaving us with one untried striker and two others with a dodgy fitness record to say the least was borderline reckless. Reminiscent of Potato Heads bizzare dereliction of duty regarding centre halfs or lack of them at the start of the 18/19 season.
I think it’s only about 7 teams who have scored more than us this season, which for a recently promoted club is not a bad achievement. So is that really where our problems are or is it just the standard one of a recently assembled team with a number of players new to both the league and the country showing inevitable inconsistency?
Fair point about only 7 teams scoring more than us. But with a more potent strike force we could be sitting somewhere near top ten instead of nervously looking over our shoulders only out of the relegation zone on, well, goal difference. I have every confidence that this situation will be put right in January.
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If only seven teams have scored more than us, doesn't that point to our defending also being a wee bit... well crap?
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As a thought that the day was also about the Villa life of Ron Saunders & our condolences and thanks to our most successful manager. What do you think he would say or do after that performance against Leicester. I think the 2nd half showing where it was clear we dropped heads & were outplayed, there wouldn’t be many of our players relishing returning to our dressing room or even training
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If only seven teams have scored more than us, doesn't that point to our defending also being a wee bit... well crap?
It certainly says we are crap at not conceding from winning positions.
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If only seven teams have scored more than us, doesn't that point to our defending also being a wee bit... well crap?
It certainly says we are crap at not conceding from winning positions.
To me it says that there are plenty of better teams than us in this league but that is no great surprise given that we qualified through the playoffs with a cobbled together side and have had to rebuild from there. To expect it all to be fully functioning after one transfer window is unrealistic.
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If you’d said to me at the start of the season (or at least a few weeks in) that we’d lose to Man City, Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal (having a shite season I know), Chelsea, wolves and Leicester, I would of probably said expected, so it’s only really Bournemouth and Palace that I would of hoped to get something from. That’s not to say we haven’t got problems, like up front which it’s glaringly obvious the big man needs taken out the firing line for a bit and in midfield where since newcastle I’ve thought we need to rest McGinn but can’t really afford to.
My point is though, that the games that will decide our season are against the bottom 10, so far only lost to Bournemouth, but we badly need a number of wins on the bounce over xmas. My main fear is, as people have said, the heads dropping on Sunday, the last team we want to play with low confidence is Sheff Utd, who are the complete opposite. Get beat on Saturday, everyone has a meltdown and will be an anxious villa park for Southampton. But whatever the result on Saturday I believe we’ve shown already were as good as if not better than most of the teams around us
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If only seven teams have scored more than us, doesn't that point to our defending also being a wee bit... well crap?
It certainly says we are crap at not conceding from winning positions.
To me it says that there are plenty of better teams than us in this league but that is no great surprise given that we qualified through the playoffs with a cobbled together side and have had to rebuild from there. To expect it all to be fully functioning after one transfer window is unrealistic.
Chris is spot on, maybe if we had a tiny slice of luck we may be a couple points better off, however we’re a work in progress. Other than a few games I have enjoyed our setup and commitment to a trying to play exciting attacking football.
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If only seven teams have scored more than us, doesn't that point to our defending also being a wee bit... well crap?
It certainly says we are crap at not conceding from winning positions.
To me it says that there are plenty of better teams than us in this league but that is no great surprise given that we qualified through the playoffs with a cobbled together side and have had to rebuild from there. To expect it all to be fully functioning after one transfer window is unrealistic.
Chris is spot on, maybe if we had a tiny slice of luck we may be a couple points better off, however we’re a work in progress. Other than a few games I have enjoyed our setup and commitment to a trying to play exciting attacking football.
Chris is absolutely the voice of reason on this board.
Except in relation to David O'Leary.