Aston Villa v Wolves Post Match Thread.

[Billy Walker]

Poor quality players compounded by an out-of-his-depth manager and mediocre coaches.
It's not Smith's fault that we went up a season too soon, or that he had John Terry foisted on him. Unfortunately, Smith himself is not good enough.
After the game yesterday, I went round to a mate's house where we watched the second half of the Leeds-Fulham game. Although it's a different league, the contrast in home-team performances could not have been starker. Leeds were aggressive, compact, quick on the break, crisp in passing and decisive in front of goal. And good to watch.
It compounded my disappointment in our game ...

I'm sure we were like that last season too, as you say, different leagues and contexts.  Right now we're in a dog fight in the Premier League.  If we can survive - by hook or by crook - it will be job done and on to the next phase of the rebuild.

[KevinGage]

Wolves were playing in third gear with the handbrake on and still beat us. Smith moaning about the fixture pile up when they’ve racked up god knows how many more games than us so far is also embarrassing. Today was further proof that as a club, we’ve made a proper pigs ear of what was a fantastic opportunity to build something great. It’s a mess.

That last sentence is absolutely bang on. Question is "what are we going to do about it?" More specifically what are our wealthy and presumably clued up owners going to do about it? They've invested massively into our football club and yet we see or hear nothing form them while the good ship Aston Villa drifts rudderless straight for the rocks. 

Edens comments worried me a few months ago, basically saying in interview how great the transfer strategies were at Liverpool (fair enough) and Arsenal (oh dear) and how we wanted to copy it.

Not sure if he was on about the Liverpool transfer strategy from 2014 which signed likes of Lazar Markovic and Balotelli or the more recent one that got in Van Dijk and Alisson.

I think he was a big driver before what we were doing last summer. Suso is just the public face of it and will probably be the sacrificial lamb once it's all over.

Yet on all the stats based analysis that came out shortly after the Wesley transfer indicated that - based purely on numbers - he was overpriced even back then.

I don't think we used it in that deal (or if we did, we ignored the findings). 

It must be remembered that Benteke looked overpriced when we signed him for £7 million as well. Twerps like Colin Murray were already announcing him as the rip off of the season in September 2012.

Sometimes you have to look beyond the raw data.  A good scout (as Arthur Numan seemed to be - odd call to bin him) will be identifying players who can make the step up - even if the stats don't fully illustrate it yet.

[Border villan]

Following promotion last summer Purslow said we were 12 months ahead on our plans for world domination. Watching yesterday’s abysmal second half it seems that in a few weeks, if relegated, we will be back in the Premiership by August 2021 at the earliest. World domination postponed yet again.

[SW9-VILLA]

Smith moaning about the fixture pile up when they’ve racked up god knows how many more games than us so far is also embarrassing.

This excuse from Smith really wound me up. Wolves have played more games than anyone. If moaning about playing too many games is the best he's got then I'm not filled with confidence about him inspiring a turnaround.

[Risso]

Smith moaning about the fixture pile up when they’ve racked up god knows how many more games than us so far is also embarrassing.

This excuse from Smith really wound me up. Wolves have played more games than anyone. If moaning about playing too many games is the best he's got then I'm not filled with confidence about him inspiring a turnaround.

Indeed.  There's also the fact that he can make 5 subs a game to mitigate the tiredness.  Also, I'm not sure that he's realised it, but playing midweek and then at the weekend is generally what the successful teams in Europe have to do.

[Steve67]

Smith moaning about the fixture pile up when they’ve racked up god knows how many more games than us so far is also embarrassing.

This excuse from Smith really wound me up. Wolves have played more games than anyone. If moaning about playing too many games is the best he's got then I'm not filled with confidence about him inspiring a turnaround.

Indeed.  There's also the fact that he can make 5 subs a game to mitigate the tiredness.  Also, I'm not sure that he's realised it, but playing midweek and then at the weekend is generally what the successful teams in Europe have to do.

Yeah, 5 subs, 2 drinks breaks aren't enough? Clearly, Dean doesn't rate some of his squad enough to change the game.  He'd be right to be fair!  He knew the parameters of operation restart, so perhaps the club should have moaned about the amount of games before we agreed the restart.

[Toronto Villa]

He’s full of shit. Wolves started their season before us. Nuno plays a core group pretty much all the time. Do you what they don’t do? They don’t chase shadows because they don’t give the ball away constantly or have a “whack it fucking long and give it away“ tactic in their handbook.

[Drummond]

Following promotion last summer Purslow said we were 12 months ahead on our plans for world domination. Watching yesterday’s abysmal second half it seems that in a few weeks, if relegated, we will be back in the Premiership by August 2021 at the earliest. World domination postponed yet again.

I think that's the issue. We'd have been better served by not quite going up last year and developing the squad in the Championship. We are indeed going to be setback by a longer period.

[Steve67]

Following promotion last summer Purslow said we were 12 months ahead on our plans for world domination. Watching yesterday’s abysmal second half it seems that in a few weeks, if relegated, we will be back in the Premiership by August 2021 at the earliest. World domination postponed yet again.

I think that's the issue. We'd have been better served by not quite going up last year and developing the squad in the Championship. We are indeed going to be setback by a longer period.

FFP is on the phone for you!

[Brazilian Villain]

Following promotion last summer Purslow said we were 12 months ahead on our plans for world domination. Watching yesterday’s abysmal second half it seems that in a few weeks, if relegated, we will be back in the Premiership by August 2021 at the earliest. World domination postponed yet again.

I think that's the issue. We'd have been better served by not quite going up last year and developing the squad in the Championship. We are indeed going to be setback by a longer period.

I disagree as I think we needed to go up purely from a financial point of view. We'd have lost Grealish, McGinn and not signed Mings for starters and more pertinently may not have been rescued by our new owners. Even if we go down we'll have had a year of PL money and two years of parachute payments plus better fees if we do sell players.

[ChicagoLion]

The curse of promotion strikes again.

[ktvillan]

It’s interesting to me that the victory of Watford in the league and the draw with Leicester away in the cup,  were games when Vasillev was introduced, didn’t look a world beater, but gave us an energy in attack, especially against Watford that just wasn’t there before. The kid just cannot possibly offer anything less than El Ghazi, Trezeguet or Jota.
I’m not saying introducing him will keep us up, but it might just give us a spark

Agree, can’t see how he could contribute less than those 3.

Been saying this for a while - ditto Green and RHM who apparently are now released. it would be hard to be as ineffective as AEG and especially Trezeguet.  Indeed my disabled 82 year old Mother would struggle to be as ineffective as Trezeguet. 

[SoccerHQ]

It’s interesting to me that the victory of Watford in the league and the draw with Leicester away in the cup,  were games when Vasillev was introduced, didn’t look a world beater, but gave us an energy in attack, especially against Watford that just wasn’t there before. The kid just cannot possibly offer anything less than El Ghazi, Trezeguet or Jota.
I’m not saying introducing him will keep us up, but it might just give us a spark

Agree, can’t see how he could contribute less than those 3.

Been saying this for a while - ditto Green and RHM who apparently are now released. it would be hard to be as ineffective as AEG and especially Trezeguet.  Indeed my disabled 82 year old Mother would struggle to be as ineffective as Trezeguet. 

Andre Green was terrible in a high pressure play off game at West Brom. I honestly think that was the night he went out of DS thoughts as being a squad option if we went up. RHM constantly injured in our championship seasons and was loaned to Derby under 23s just before lockdown e.g. not their first team.

El Ghazi I thought actually finished last season really well and was chipping in with some goals and assists up to December. He's just another incredibly inconsistant player although performances been much worse in last few months. Trez just hasn't worked out and you sell him back to Turkey.

[BoVillan esq]

We desperately needed to get out of the Championship, scares the hell out of me to think we could be back there next season, problem we had when we got promoted, lack of experience in our management, a manager who believed he could try something different and survive the Premiership, he simply didn't get any Premiership experience in, even a few players at the end of there career would have made huge difference, that's whats done us, even the likes of Liverpool have relied on players like Milner to hold the line when needed, no not Smith, not the way he wanted to play it. Crazy.   

[eamonn]

Those types of players used to PL wages would have drained us and we had a FFP line to tow.