Aston Villa 1-4 West Ham Post match debacle.

[wince]

We got royally fucked today.Team selection said it all…

What should the tram selection have been?

Something to keep us on track.

We have been derailed

[Grande Pablo]

At the risk of being a happy clapper, I don't think tonight was that bad.

The worst part was the lack of pressure on their players first half which was how they found themselves 2-1 up.  Once we had Konsa wrongly sent off we were chasing the game and got done on the counter twice. West Ham didn't really offer much beyond being organised.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a good performance but it also wasn't a "4-1 stuffing at home performance".

I'm glad Dean has ditched three at the back and I thought the team he picked could've got a result today, but the substitutions were bizarre (why being Young in to centre midfield when he could've brought El Ghazi on and moved Buendia inside given we were behind at that point?).

Pressure is massively on Dean now though. 4 on the bounce is bad, but given our upcoming fixtures if he can't stop the rot I think he's toast.

Sanest post of the day.  My glass too remains half full in a Dad's Army sort of way, but we need some bottle to grind a couple of results out to stop the rot. 

Young does look way, way past his prime.

[RichardBatchelor]

West Ham are a good side, but right from the first kick, we made it so, so easy for them.

We spent the entire summer stressing the need for a CDM, but didn't get one.

Watching that today, us with the enthusiastic but not good enough Nakamba in that role, and them with two absolute top class players in that role, that was horrible.

Then to make things worse, Ramsey goes off and is replaced by Ashley Fucking Young playing centrally? What on earth was the thinking there?

He then compounds the mistake when Konsa gets sent off by not hooking Young, but taking Buendia off.

That is Smith in a nutshell there. Terrible game management - so bad, that his actual coaching standard would need to be excellent to make up for it, but it clearly is not, as we frequently do not look like we know what we are doing.

I get the OGS comparisons - Smith does the same. Strings together a run of awful results, then picks up a highly unlikely win which buys him more time that he doesn't really deserve/ I just don't see any way he is going to get out of that cycle.

He's got a squad with plenty of really excellent players, but he constantly makes them look less than the sum of the parts. I also thought there were some real signs today that the players don't believe in him (same at Arsenal).

Over a quarter of the season gone and we're 15th and on the back of four straight, utterly limp defeats, three of which featured truly disgraceful performances.

How many of us would have settled for that in August? None of us. Nice bloke, and he's no doubt got enough excuses for today, but we are just pissing another season down the drain the longer we persist with this.

So throw in an 18 or 17 year old against one of the form teams in the country, to try and win the midfield battle against Rice and Soucek?

Buendia was awful for the majority of the game, so obvious candidate to go off when we need to bring on another centre half.

Agreed that the style.of play needs sorting out, where's the play through midfield we so often used to see from Smith at Brentford? All seems very long ball into the channel to Watkins.

Quarter of the season gone yes, but our away fixtures on paper were alway a struggle, with Watford first (promoted teams 1st game always a challenge), followed by Chelsea, United, Spurs and Arsenal.

3 very big games in November, but stilltoo early calling for Smith to go in my opinion. Those calling him a chancer and worse on other threads are way over the top.

Thank you.

[paul_e]

Team selection was ok but I think dropping Mings was a mistake.

The Young sub was totally wrong though.

More important though was the players didn't give the reaction you'd expect from how shit we were last week and after weeks of playing a 5 I think it was pretty clear in the first 15-20 minutes that some of our players needed a bit of time to adjust to a 4 and this is why dropping the most vocal player, and captain, at the same time as changing the formation was a poor decision.

[RichardBatchelor]

It really shouldn’t have ended like this.  I hate this - I hate that Deans lost the team, I hate that he’s going to be sacked, I hate that Joe left - and most of all I hate the fact that I started to believe that this wasn’t all another false dawn

And both players you mention have been totally shit. The problem is theirs, not the management - though we shouldn’t have signed either of them.

Dean has hardly lost the team
 Thats an over reaction if ever I read one

I mean, when one of your employees lobs a water bottle at you and another one storms off, you probably have lost them.

Sanson and Buendia have been rubbish. Their frustration is with their own form.

[Chris Harte]

We were second best for much of the game. Ironically, our best spell was after the red card. Not that I thought it should have been a red, with at least one defender covering in the centre.

I'm interested to see again the incident that lead to three players being booked when play was stopped with Ollie in a very good position down the left.

I'd like to see Dean Smith get more time. Four games ago everything was tickety-boo. He hasn't suddenly become a bad manager. However, the unknown quantity here is how patient the owners are. We simply do not know.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

I think he deserves more time, it’s bad but we’ve come a long way.

With enforced absences he’s picked a team and formation that pleased most people and it was still poor, although we played better with 10 men not accounting for the last 10 minutes.

It wasn’t long ago that praise was given for the work Shakespeare and McPhee were doing and now we’re questioning the influence Terry ROK had.

The increased quality of the squad has posed more questions than it’s given answers and confusion now reigns.

[Sexual Ealing]

He's a good manager, but for whatever reason - and I'm at a loss to think what it might be - his teams go on these shite runs, and that's not good enough to get us where we need to be. He also looks like he's fallen out with half the squad.

[RamboandBruno]

We got royally fucked today.Team selection said it all…

What should the tram selection have been?

Something to keep us on track.

Boom boom!! Team i meant team 🙄😂

[Vegas]

I also think he deserves more time. We’ve been consistently heading upwards in his time here, and I’m still off the opinion that injuries, disrupted pre-season and Copa America absences have made it much more difficult to get anything going.

It also looks like he wanted a centre mid in the summer and was told no, so I have sympathy there as we are weak in midfield.

There was very little wrong with the team selection today; he made the changes that most people were asking for.

That said, there’s something strange about the coaching changes, and the tactics do seem to consist of a) lump it forward from left centre back, and b) get Cash to do a long throw.

So he’s starting to skate on thin ice, but I’d like to see him turn it round over the next three.

[Hookeysmith]

The worst bit was the foul on Nakamba and the game was brought back when we were in an excellent threatening position and just get a free kick in our own half and they got 2 yellows when it should have been a minimum of 1 red to a player who subsequently scored their third! At that point our 10 were comfortably the better team and unlucky not to be level when we hit the bar, that’s the fucking disgrace - but it won’t be described like that. Cockney kit stealing, ground embezzling twats!

Spot on.  2 speculative shots that caught our keeper out and as inept a refereeing performance as you are likely to see.

How they do not get a red is beyond me.

Dean was brave, and correct, to dropMings and Tuanzebe. Next it should be McGinn. For all his graft the amount of ball he gives away is criminal. Whether 2 metre pass or a 50 metre pass he gives

possession to the opposition so much.

I thought Nakamba was everywhere but needed more support against a superb Rice and Souchek.

Too soon to get rid for me but we really need it to turn around

[Villa Lew]

Even when we were doing well last season, did I really think Dean was the man to take us forward, now if we lose on Friday, you would of thought his job was in jeopardy, but the board have been very supportive of him in the past and will probably give him a bit longer to turn it around.

[Beard82]

It really shouldn’t have ended like this.  I hate this - I hate that Deans lost the team, I hate that he’s going to be sacked, I hate that Joe left - and most of all I hate the fact that I started to believe that this wasn’t all another false dawn

And both players you mention have been totally shit. The problem is theirs, not the management - though we shouldn’t have signed either of them.

Dean has hardly lost the team
 Thats an over reaction if ever I read one

I mean, when one of your employees lobs a water bottle at you and another one storms off, you probably have lost them.

Sanson and Buendia have been rubbish. Their frustration is with their own form.

Surely if Now’s not the time for over reaction and questioning every single one of our life choices - I don’t know when is.

Next your going to say I shoukd stop after the 8th beer

Seriously though, I think he’s done - and I am very sad to say that

[London Villan]

Would Sanson have added anything today. Surely better than young as a midfield option. Once luis was out he should have been brought into the squad.

[astonvilla82]

Nakamba was crap and Mcginn not far behind,