Newcastle v Aston Villa Post Match Thread

[olaftab]

Id put money on trez being signed based on our owner’s influence.

Yeah I make you right there. Neither Trez nor El Ghazi are PL standard players. Imagine the difference some quality wide players could have made to our season. How much influence does Smith have on squad recruitment? That seems to be the million dollar question.

I do not think Sawiris had anything to do with it. I doubt it if he even knew that Mahmoud Hassan was a footballer.

[brontebilly]

Id be going with a diamond for the rest of the season with 2 up top. The wide players are not good enough for this level.

Samatta and Davis, with Grealish tip of the diamond and Dougie anchoring. The other two is a much of a muchness now with McGinn off the pace.

It might be a forlorn hope but Drinky might come back into the reckoning for one of the other two spots. He simply can't be any worse or less fit than McGinn on the basis of the last three performances. At his peak he was never a holding midfielder so maybe the diamond might suit him a bit better. Could try him next to Nakamba for the Wolves game leaving Hourihane and McGinn in reserve. Is he injured currently ?

If we play a diamond then Wolves will obviously play everything down our flanks so possibly a change at left back required too. I don't rate Taylor in the slightest but he might be up for more of a battle than Targett.

I'd throw Jacob Ramsey in, if available; get some youthful enthusiasm into the middle of the park.

Surprised he isn't even making bench. Throwing him in against Neves and Moutinho might be a step too far though.

[Richard E]

Id put money on trez being signed based on our owner’s influence.

Yeah I make you right there. Neither Trez nor El Ghazi are PL standard players. Imagine the difference some quality wide players could have made to our season. How much influence does Smith have on squad recruitment? That seems to be the million dollar question.

I do not think Sawiris had anything to do with it. I doubt it if he even knew that Mahmoud Hassan was a footballer.

After watching him play I am not sure I am convinced he is a footballer.

[ktvillan]

He was a funny signing that Trezuguet, with most players you can see glimpses of something, even if they dont do very well. I know he's chipped in with a goal or two but I see no qualities that the scouts would have identified making him suitable for this season. Maybe he was signed more for the commercial benefits than the footballing ones.

Funny? I'm not laughing.  Well apart form his attempts to play football which are absolutely comical.  Even the goals he's got, apart from the one in the semi,  have been half hit scuffed efforts that squirm over the line.   His signing smacks of Sawiris' influence.  He looks like a bloke who won a bet to turn out in a PL game.  Or maybe he's George Weah's cousin.  As you say not even a glimpse of quality anywhere.  If Smith's system depends on two wide strikers we were doomed having him and AEG as two of the main choices.  You can kind of see why Smith plays Jack wide when this is the alternative. Adomah would have been 100 times more effective if we'd kept him.  Hepburn-Murphy or Green could not possibly have been worse.  I'd rather see Indiana or Archer, they would probably be better.  He's utterly utterly pointless.

[olaftab]

Thought 1-1 was a fair result on the balance of play.

I saw in your pre-match thread you were worried that Smith couldn't react to changes during the game. It seems he did. We were growing into the game with ASM growing in influence until we went 2 up front. Sure, we scored, but the goal aside we looked like we couldn't handle you at all. Losing the extra man in midfield did for us, I think. Looks to me like Smith made changes to take advantage of that, might be wrong though.

Uncharacteristic error for Dubravka might have given you a point, but it wasn't like you weren't good for it.

Hi I take it you're a Tooner and it's a very fair post. We should have been leading at HT. Once Grealish got going your were done for  but unfortunately he couldn't be bothered till the last quarter and that also coincided with when Maximin faded out of the match. Overall a dreadful match and Bruce still sticking with football that makes your eyes bleed. Good luck with the takeover. We  dislike Ashley as much as you do.

[olaftab]

After watching him play I am not sure I am convinced he is a footballer.

I knew I was setting him up as I wrote my post but reluctantly  totally agree. This is a man carrying fair amount of belly around the football pitch so we need to show some sympathy.

[The Edge]

Id put money on trez being signed based on our owner’s influence.

Yeah I make you right there. Neither Trez nor El Ghazi are PL standard players. Imagine the difference some quality wide players could have made to our season. How much influence does Smith have on squad recruitment? That seems to be the million dollar question.

I do not think Sawiris had anything to do with it. I doubt it if he even knew that Mahmoud Hassan was a footballer.

After analysing all possible reasons for signing him the only plausible explanation is the influence of Mr Sawiris so it must be right.

# I think that's called Occam's Razor. (I learnt that on here)

[Lastfootstamper]

Thought 1-1 was a fair result on the balance of play.

I saw in your pre-match thread you were worried that Smith couldn't react to changes during the game. It seems he did. We were growing into the game with ASM growing in influence until we went 2 up front. Sure, we scored, but the goal aside we looked like we couldn't handle you at all. Losing the extra man in midfield did for us, I think. Looks to me like Smith made changes to take advantage of that, might be wrong though.

Uncharacteristic error for Dubravka might have given you a point, but it wasn't like you weren't good for it.

This is the most optimistic post I've seen on here since Christmas!

[nick harper]

Id put money on trez being signed based on our owner’s influence.

Yeah I make you right there. Neither Trez nor El Ghazi are PL standard players. Imagine the difference some quality wide players could have made to our season. How much influence does Smith have on squad recruitment? That seems to be the million dollar question.

I do not think Sawiris had anything to do with it. I doubt it if he even knew that Mahmoud Hassan was a footballer.

After analysing all possible reasons for signing him the only plausible explanation is the influence of Mr Sawiris so it must be right.

# I think that's called Occam's Razor. (I learnt that on here)

Didn’t Elmo recommend him? - which has killed his future scouting career.

[nick harper]

Id be going with a diamond for the rest of the season with 2 up top. The wide players are not good enough for this level.

Samatta and Davis, with Grealish tip of the diamond and Dougie anchoring. The other two is a much of a muchness now with McGinn off the pace.

It might be a forlorn hope but Drinky might come back into the reckoning for one of the other two spots. He simply can't be any worse or less fit than McGinn on the basis of the last three performances. At his peak he was never a holding midfielder so maybe the diamond might suit him a bit better. Could try him next to Nakamba for the Wolves game leaving Hourihane and McGinn in reserve. Is he injured currently ?

If we play a diamond then Wolves will obviously play everything down our flanks so possibly a change at left back required too. I don't rate Taylor in the slightest but he might be up for more of a battle than Targett.

Any team able to move the ball from one side of the pitch to the other quickly causes us all kinds of problems. Neves is rather good at that.

[Footy-Vill]

Dean Smith signed:
Tom Heaton
Tyrone Mings
Ezri Konsa
Bjorn Engels
Kortney Hause
Jota
*Anwar El Ghazi already at club on loan

Jesús García Pitarch
Suso made Smith aware and imposed upon him signings :
Kalanic
Reina
Freddie Guilbert
Matt Targett
Douglas Luiz
Marvelous Nakamba
Trezeguet
Wesley Moraes
Aly Samatta.
Borja Baston

John Terry's Chelsea players advisory signing
Danny Drinkwater

[ChicagoLion]

Dean Smith signed:
Tom Heaton
Tyrone Mings
Ezri Konsa
Bjorn Engels
Kortney Hause
Jota
*Anwar El Ghazi already at club on loan

Jesús García Pitarch
Suso made Smith aware and imposed upon him signings :
Kalanic
Reina
Freddie Guilbert
Matt Targett
Douglas Luiz
Marvelous Nakamba
Trezeguet
Wesley Moraes
Aly Samatta.
Borja Baston

John Terry's Chelsea players advisory signing
Danny Drinkwater

How do you know this?

[Brend'Watkins]

I thought we played okay given how we performed in the last two games. We actually took the game to Newcastle for the first 15 minutes. The goal we gave away was a horror show from a defensive point of view. Absolutely shocking. To get the equaliser from a corner was most unexpected but fair play As we kept at it and looked the more likely to get a winner as Villa were well on top at the end. 

[Chris Smith]

For the second game running our defenders failed to organise quickly enough after substitutions leaving players unmarked. Other than that we probably should have won but wasted chances again. Grealish, McGinn and Luiz all had good games. We are marginally better off than we were before the restart so I still think we have a reasonable chance of avoiding relegation.

[Mossie Hennebry]

We simply have to stay up. The 3 clubs coming up have to be in a worse position than ourselves. Another season in the Championship will knock us back years. We need to be thinking of getting back to at least where we were in the mid to late 00's and building from there.