Aston Villa vs Southampton pre match thread - Sunday Nov 1 - 12pm

[Toronto Villa]

We will have to be significantly better on Sunday because Southampton will be no pushover. They beat Everton comfortably in the end. We will need to be better on the ball and way better off it. They have a good midfield and we will need to limit Ward Prowse as he makes them tick. Up front they have one of the best forwards in the league in Ings and even Adams now is contributing. This will be hard.

I’ll go for a win though. We have plenty of ability. One bad game doesn’t change that. Depending on fitness I can see Dean keeping this same XI. 2-1 to us.

[Lsvilla]

Darren England in the middle and Chris Kavanagh on VAR. About time we had a penalty I think.

[TelfordVilla]

I can see the same starting 11 too, but what is the point of a squad if we dont shake it up some times. Is Barkley fully fit ?

[Risso]

This will be an interesting early barometer I reckon.  Was our early season form just a flash in a pan? Can Smith and Co learn from their mistakes?  I think we'll put things right, keep it tight and win 2-0.

[RichardBatchelor]

Bogey team bang in form, they're a pain in the arse. 0-2.

[rob_bridge]

3.2

[N'ZMAV]

They’ll try and play a high tempo, similar to Leeds. Be interesting to see how our defence does against two out and out strikers.

Work hard and get the basics right then we should create enough chances to win.

[eamonn]

I think they are better-organised with a better "in-game" coach unfortunately. And Ings is just something else. 1-2

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

An abysmal recent lague record against this lot since 2012.

P 10 W 1 D 3 L 6 F 10 A 24

Plus a 2015 league cup defeat thrown in for good measure.

Bring back Lionel Martin and Dave Rudge !

[RamboandBruno]

Read somewhere they’ve won almost 1 in every 2, 16 from the last 34, impressive record. Good result against Everton, they also drew with Chelsea away. They are beatable though and it will be doubtful if they’ll finish top 8. Better away from home but not sure how much that matters at the moment.
They will play similar high tempo press to Leeds with two very good forwards. We’ll have to be on the money to win, I’ll say 2-2.

[LukeJames]

We seem to be a very streaky team under Smith.

This is a big test to see exactly were we are.

[Hookeysmith]

It always seems to be the games we expect to win (and most of us did with Leeds, especially after hearing that 2 key players were out) that we come crashing down to earth on

I think tight game and our first draw

1-1

Oh and minus any injuries - same XI as we were the better team up till they scored - it was the in game management that was left wanting

[dave17]

They looked really good against Everton. I think we will struggle to get anything sadly. Their coach seems pretty good and ing s and jwp would walk into most teams in the country.

[Bobby Boy]

2-2. Would be inclined to make a tactical switch and play Nakamba rather than Trezeguet. Need to stop them playing through midfield as easily as Leeds could also need to put our foot in a bit to stop their rhythm.

Ings was great at our place last year and imagine he will be again.

We've got enough going forward to cause them problems too though.

Should be a good game.

[TonyD]

Nakamba - yikes!!   Maybe Elmo...on the right.