Brentford v Aston Villa post match thread.

[paul_e]

So change in players used or system?

It's tough, to change the system you have, in my opinion, 2 options: 442 or 352

The former is a bad idea because we're already weak in central midfield and struggle to get our wide players to track back, this adds more emphasis on both of those weaknesses.
The latter is tough because we have no one who could be a competent Left Wing back. On the right you might get away with Elmo or Adomah but they're 2 of the players who been is god awful form since Christmas so making them responsible for that entire side of the pitch is risky in itself.

For the players we've loaned out the people who could offer something in midfield and that's where we really need improvement. As I've said a few times personally I'd be looking to get Grealish and Tuanzene in for Whelan and Hourihane asap and that alone would be a massive improvement in there.

[mattjpa]

I thought we actually defended OK tonight. It was the total lack of quality, guile, intelligence, creativity and pace going forward that was the problem.

Deluded..sorry but no one gets away with this one

Sorry I think the same,it was like the Alamo and they got no respite at all, wave after wave of attack, there was nothing happening in front of them.

They got no respite because of the amount of times they aimlessly twatted it down a wing or even worse, blindly twatted it forward without even looking if we had a player in that general direction. The entire team to a man were afraid to look after the ball

[Five Villa Tattoos]

We’ll need £100million, at least, to sort out the current shower masquerading as our squad.
I don’t think we’ll be allowed to spend that so can’t see us going up for a while.
As it currently stands we’re a mid table Championship side at best with only a few sellable players.
Tough times ahead.

[paul_e]

Don’t have Foxtel, haven’t seen any games for a while. Still following it from afar. What do people think is the main problem? New manager bounce seems a long time back. Smith was my choice in the poll for new manager- wondering whether he’s up to it now.

We play too slowly. Without a wildcard in Jack teams know thy can press us high and we'll struggle to hurt them on the counter so we have all the space closed down and resort to long punts up field.

[Ads]

We’ll need £100million, at least, to sort out the current shower masquerading as our squad.
I don’t think we’ll be allowed to spend that so can’t see us going up for a while.
As it currently stands we’re a mid table Championship side at best with only a few sellable players.
Tough times ahead.

Don't be daft. You don't need to spend fortunes to improve.

[Pat McMahon]

Last night was really sobering, despite the beers with the London Lions.

I'm sure it's all been said above but our players looked like they had been introduced in the car park before the game and were very immobile compared to Brentford. We were also abysmally uncomfortable on the ball - poor control, dozens of misplaced passes, sometimes just directly to an opponent.

A couple of our mates come to London games with us although they are not Villa fans and they thought Hause was laughably bad - George Weah's cousin bad.

If that performance had been under Bruce we would have called for his head - though our 3-0 defeat two years ago was worse, so maybe we are making progress. I know this is not Smith's squad but given the good performances in November I really thought we should be better coached and organised by now.

I am writing off this season and preparing for a summer of transfer shenanigans with Smith bringing in players he wants (I know Brentford have a team to do this)  and then coaching them to the style he wants. I don't need big names, just players who have ability and desire.

After the game in the pub Chico remarked how Smith has aged in 4 months. When he came I was worried that the job may be too big a step up. It is too soon to tell but I hope it doesn't wear him down.

PS That away kit is fucking awful. Bin it.

[wittonwarrior]

Judging by recent performances  I am glad we don't hold  a  candle of reaching the playoffs.  Imagine this squad in the premiership.

[AVH87]

We’ll need £100million, at least, to sort out the current shower masquerading as our squad.
I don’t think we’ll be allowed to spend that so can’t see us going up for a while.
As it currently stands we’re a mid table Championship side at best with only a few sellable players.
Tough times ahead.

That's a crazy figure. Norwich finished 14th last season and are now top 2 having spent 5m in the summer on new players. Leeds spent 11m and are also flying.

I'd say somewhere between 15-20m spread across the squad this summer for us, IF spent well.

[JUAN PABLO]

I agree with AV82EC, I think the kit we wore last night was bloody awful .Why we cant have traditional strips like the all white ,white and blue shorts or the yellow and blue like in the past.

because the club are doing a 30% off that kit and needed to shift some .

[Villa75]

We’ll need £100million, at least, to sort out the current shower masquerading as our squad.
I don’t think we’ll be allowed to spend that so can’t see us going up for a while.
As it currently stands we’re a mid table Championship side at best with only a few sellable players.
Tough times ahead.

That's a crazy figure. Norwich finished 14th last season and are now top 2 having spent 5m in the summer on new players. Leeds spent 11m and are also flying.

I'd say somewhere between 15-20m spread across the squad this summer for us, IF spent well.

But some are saying we need to get rid of nearly 20 players, because they're all "shit" and/or "old". I'm not sure the Norwich or Leeds manager needs that kind of rebuild in order for them to compete with the mighty Brentford.

Assuming other clubs won't want to pay much for shit/old players, and we need better quality for Smith to charge us to promotion, that number of replacements are going to cost a pretty penny.

[Des Little]

We lost the game the minute someone decided that that third shirt looked OK with those claret shorts & socks.  I wish they'd have told us that travelled, I'd have stayed at home and watched it on a black and white TV.

[Axl Rose]

Last night was really sobering, despite the beers with the London Lions.

I'm sure it's all been said above but our players looked like they had been introduced in the car park before the game and were very immobile compared to Brentford. We were also abysmally uncomfortable on the ball - poor control, dozens of misplaced passes, sometimes just directly to an opponent.

A couple of our mates come to London games with us although they are not Villa fans and they thought Hause was laughably bad - George Weah's cousin bad.

If that performance had been under Bruce we would have called for his head - though our 3-0 defeat two years ago was worse, so maybe we are making progress. I know this is not Smith's squad but given the good performances in November I really thought we should be better coached and organised by now.

I am writing off this season and preparing for a summer of transfer shenanigans with Smith bringing in players he wants (I know Brentford have a team to do this)  and then coaching them to the style he wants. I don't need big names, just players who have ability and desire.

After the game in the pub Chico remarked how Smith has aged in 4 months. When he came I was worried that the job may be too big a step up. It is too soon to tell but I hope it doesn't wear him down.

PS That away kit is fucking awful. Bin it.

Fair play for bothering, mate. My dad took my sister to her first ever Villa game, as she doesn't live that far from Brentford's ground. He was very unimpressed with us.

I hope they stuff the Baggies for you on Saturday. I take it you'll be there?

[AVH87]

We’ll need £100million, at least, to sort out the current shower masquerading as our squad.
I don’t think we’ll be allowed to spend that so can’t see us going up for a while.
As it currently stands we’re a mid table Championship side at best with only a few sellable players.
Tough times ahead.

That's a crazy figure. Norwich finished 14th last season and are now top 2 having spent 5m in the summer on new players. Leeds spent 11m and are also flying.

I'd say somewhere between 15-20m spread across the squad this summer for us, IF spent well.

But some are saying we need to get rid of nearly 20 players, because they're all "shit" and/or "old". I'm not sure the Norwich or Leeds manager needs that kind of rebuild in order for them to compete with the mighty Brentford.

Assuming other clubs won't want to pay much for shit/old players, and we need better quality for Smith to charge us to promotion, that number of replacements are going to cost a pretty penny.

I could see 10 new faces coming in easily. Add them to a current group of Kalinic, Chester, McGinn, Grealish (possibly, or we'll have 20m+ to spend if not), Green and Davis and hopefully we manage to somehow convince Mings to stay. Add that to a couple of others who will probably stick around (Lansbury/Carroll could prove themselves). That would then be a very different match day 18 next season.

[simboy]

Just before Xmas we had played WBA off there own park, and smashed Derby and Middlesbrough away, 2 months later we look like the worst group of footballers ever assembled. Madness

How very very true and they look like they have only just met and been cobbled together to throw out a team----why? -- surely it cant all be down to missing Jack and Axel

and why is it that every team we play seems to have more players on the pitch?

We are easy to play against, that's why.

Every team that plays us attacks our full backs. Hutton and whoever are the real weakness in our team. Any team worth their name will play with their wing backs or full backs pushing on. This means that if El Gazi, Adomah, Kodjia, or latterly Bolasie don't track back then they have a natural "overload". Guess what, they don't!

Add to this that our midfield is poor at getting back. Watch the lowlight packages of most games and you will see that Hologram or Whelan/BB is trailing in the wake of the goal scorer/provider after they have left our fool backs for dead.

We add in individual errors [Elphick last night, Chester on numerous occasions] and we are mid table mediocrity no matter how many goals we score.

Anyway that's my view from the Holte ...

[in exile]

I'd say somewhere between 15-20m spread across the squad this summer for us, IF spent well.

And that will buy you how many players?
Sorry, but I think you're wrong...very wrong