Aston Villa v Southampton Post Match Thread

[Clampy]

Yesterday was probably the worst we have played under Smith. The worrying thing was, Southampton didn't look great either but they didn't need to be. We lacked ideas other than giving it to Jack and like a few other have said, he should have gone into the middle once McGinn went off (who shouldn't have played in the first place anyway). Also, Kodjia should have come on at 2-0 instead of waiting until we were three down. All in all, a fuck up from start to finish.

[Steve67]

I looked at the goals again this morning.  The more I see them, the worse things look.  Douglas Luiz actually standing still, outside the area, Engels and Targett slow to catch up or to react, lack of speed of thought from both of them.  The crap challenge by El Ghazi, who I guess shouldn't have been marking Stephens in the first place.  We always look vulnerable from crosses in to the box.  We are so weak, physically, in the centre of midfield too.  It really was very poor and this seems to be becoming the norm under Dean, sadly.

[manic-road]

Yesterday was abysmal, we are far to open allowing the opposition to make countless crosses into the box and it seems we can no longer defend.

[RamboandBruno]

We had a very similar run under Dean last season from mid December to end of Feb, the main difference then was that we had Tammy Abraham’s that could Nick a goal or two and salvage the odd draw or win in the middle of all the duff performances (qpr, hull and Ipswich at home spring to mind).

This is not all wesleys fault at all, but when playing badly and being low on confidence we no longer have the get out clause of an Abraham goal.

Secondly, There were other factors such as the form of Mings and Tuanzebe, but grealish coming back was the catalyst for that run that got us up.

It seems we need some sort of similar boost to get us out of the current mess. We need Mings back ASAP for a start and stating the obvious but another forward in January.

I honestly don’t see getting rid of smith as the answer, we’ve been there before chooping and changing and it doesn’t work

[Roysmert]

I'd forgotten how dog awful we were at that time last season. Fuck me, QPR was dire, ditto Ipswich.

[andyh]

Well, we chooped Bruce for Smith and it worked.
Chooping and changing does work.

[RamboandBruno]

Well, we chooped Bruce for Smith and it worked.
Chooping and changing does work.

Fair point, but on the law of averages we had Houiller, lambert, Sherwood, Garde, Black and De Matteo in 6. Years and non of that worked.

I know it’s not the point your making but Bruce looks like he’s keeping newcastle up somehow despite how shite they are and I don’t think any of us would want him back. Owners could sack Smith and find a Bruce or Allardyce to potentially keep us up, but that is so short term and does nothing to build the club.

I don’t want us to get relegated and lose Grealish, McGinn etc, but I think I would rather go down and keep smith (like burnley with Dyche) than have a stop gap Allardyce or the like.

But granted Smith is making errors and needs a plan B. And quite honestly we need to scrape a horrible 1-0

[Risso]

The big difference yesterday was that Southampton had Ings and Redmond.  Ings never gave our defence a second's rest, he was full of running and still has really good pace and obviously an eye for goal.  Redmond was great out wide, hardly seemed to give the ball away, and waltzed past our hopeless midfield and defence at will.  Compare that with Wesley whose one talent is the ability to chest the ball down 40 yards from goal, and El Ghazi who is shit at everything.

[BC Villain]

Sheffield united have spent less and look like a proper team. Us on the hand meanwhile play well one in 3-4 games. That consistently isnt good enough if you want to stay in premier league

How many game sunder smith from a winning position have we gone on to not win? He makes the same mistakes every week and defensively we looking worse as ecah week goes on.

If he loses against norwich then big questions will need to be asked as that sjmply is not good enough. Spending 100m and being 18th at this stage is not good enough

Playing devil's advocate, Wilder has built that team over a period of two years, rather than rush to build one over the Summer.

However,  its alarming that we are getting worse by the week.  We haven't looked right since the Liverpool defeat imo.

[Risso]

Sheffield united have spent less and look like a proper team. Us on the hand meanwhile play well one in 3-4 games. That consistently isnt good enough if you want to stay in premier league

How many game sunder smith from a winning position have we gone on to not win? He makes the same mistakes every week and defensively we looking worse as ecah week goes on.

If he loses against norwich then big questions will need to be asked as that sjmply is not good enough. Spending 100m and being 18th at this stage is not good enough

Playing devil's advocate, Wilder has built that team over a period of two years, rather than rush to build one over the Summer.

However,  its alarming that we are getting worse by the week.  We haven't looked right since the Liverpool defeat imo.

With the money spent, we should have managed far better players than we ended up with.  £15m on Matt Targett?  FFS.

[Lastfootstamper]

Sheffield united have spent less and look like a proper team. Us on the hand meanwhile play well one in 3-4 games. That consistently isnt good enough if you want to stay in premier league

How many game sunder smith from a winning position have we gone on to not win? He makes the same mistakes every week and defensively we looking worse as ecah week goes on.

If he loses against norwich then big questions will need to be asked as that sjmply is not good enough. Spending 100m and being 18th at this stage is not good enough

I don't think we should compare ourselves with them. They had a full season of development last year, albeit in a different division. They were good all the way through, and their football rightly got them automatically promoted. We relied on a record-breaking run to make the play-offs, won an attritional semi on penalties, and by Wembley it appeared to be the will of a higher power that we should go up. We had to spend big to even give ourselves a chance this season, and we still have a squad padded out with players that aren't good enough to progress us in the slightest.

But I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of the post. Yesterday was beyond fucking pathetic, up(down?) there with some of 15/16s shitfest.

[Clampy]

I know he's not everyone's cup of tea and I can understand why but for a start, i'd put Neil Taylor back in. He's utterly hopeless going forward but at least he can defend and a bit of experience in the team at the moment wouldn't go amiss.

[PeterWithe]

I’d make Targett fitter.

[Risso]

I know he's not everyone's cup of tea and I can understand why but for a start, i'd put Neil Taylor back in. He's utterly hopeless going forward but at least he can defend and a bit of experience in the team at the moment wouldn't go amiss.

I tend to agree.  I think even that that would just be rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic at the moment though.

[RamboandBruno]

I think amongst a number of issues, the biggest flaw in the current game plan is that neither El Ghazi or Trez look good enough, combined with Wes being the raw player he is, it completely undermines the way smith wants to play. It could be confidence or just ability but we may be down by the time they start to find their feet. To compensate he plays grealish out wide which wastes his talent.

Luiz and Nakamba also look short of what we need but there looks enough talent there for me. I think McGinn being out is a blow but may force smiths hand to play a more consistent midfield. For one Grealish has to move back into the middle and I would move Luiz further forward alongside him(he’s not a defensive midfielder for me), with Nakamba sitting.

As for the wingers, I think he should play Targett and Guilbert as wing backs, both of them are better attacking then either El Ghazi or Trez. Doubt he’ll do this though