I should have known better, shouldn’t I, than calling this one a certain win?
The Villa never fail to let us down, whenever we think it’s in the bag.
I commented early on that I thought us playing so wide all the time wasn’t working.
You can say that Bolasie and El Ghazi were just poor today or you can say Preston did very well in just controlling them. It doesn’t really matter, as either way, they were ineffective.
Couple that with Whelan and Hourihane both being pretty much invisible (the latter, again) and to me, it was obvious.
John McGinn is excepted from any criticism, to my mind, because although he was amongst the most sloppy of our side, so his workrate and desire to win the ball back continue to keep me astounded.
Whatever, I think my point is proven when you consider that we brought Bjarnason on for Whelan and he offered more in a couple of minutes, than Hourihane and Whelan had put together previously.
What concerns me slightly about that is that the coaches didn’t see it, or at least left it too late to change it.
In Smith’s defence, perhaps he just thought that one of the wingers would just produce something. Which is fair enough, given that they do have that ability.
You have to give massive credit to Preston though.
Given the injuries they have, they gave us a very good game and maybe deserved to even nick it, given that poor goalkeeping from Nyland (again!) nearly gave them an early goal headstart.
Whatever, this is massively disappointing when you consider that today was a good day to catch up on the top 6.
While it was a poor first half, it got better and better as the game went on.
Football is supposed to be about entertainment and I suppose we got it today, even if the result isn’t what we wanted.
As per usual, we move on.
QPR next.
Gutted!
Gutted, do you think when its only days off buying and selling its in players mind, like will I be here next week or what, I cannot believe football players of Villa standing cannot play better than players aged 16 -17 -18 and beat us .is this thinking young people are not better than Villa 30 year olds?.we have missed the boat in being in the play offs today.
It certainly concerns me that Preston seem to have quite a few ex Villa players, that we deemed not good enough, Bill.
We will easily finish top six. Top two most likely beyond us due too the poor start to season. Just take our point and move on. January recruitment is key to forming a team that will blow the opposition away in the playoffs. It’s our most likely route out of this league this season. But football is a funny old game. If we can get that run of six or seven wins on the spin anything can happen and the league table might start to look a little more exciting. There is always the team that clicks in January with a second half charge and it’s not beyond reality that it could be us. There is a lot of points to play for yet.
Agreed, Tekkers.
Consider that I think we’ve got twice the points in pretty much the same amount of games as we got under Bruce.
This means we’re not in that bad a position.
I think we easily have it within us to do a Fulham.
We just need a bit more luck.
Badger. I think Norwich will fall away as they have had their lucky run. Leeds also have had their fair share of the luck. The top two places are not totally beyond any of the teams from 3rd to 10th points wise. But looking at the table the only two teams I feel are capable of the sort of form required are us and the tesco bags. If we can close the gap to 6 or 7 points by the end of February then its game on again. It’s a long shot but you never know. Just need to kick on now and finish the season strong and see where it takes us.
It’s not even a long shot for me, mate.
I think it’s very, very possible that we get automaticaaly promoted.
As you suggest, it’s all about the squads and if you consider that it looks like we’re going to improve ours again, well…..
But then, perhaps I’m deluded 🙂
Badger, I would take 6th place if it was offered to me now. Automatic promotion is very unlikely because of our inconsistent form. We like to think we have one of the strongest squads but we have thought that for a couple of years now. I’ve come to realise that the championship requires more than that.
Fair comment Holte.
But there’s big difference now, imo.
Whereas before it looked like we might scratch games under Bruce, I feel we can beat anyone under Smith.
We’ve failed to score in only one game this season, which is impressive when you consider how we played under Bruce.
Sort that poxy defence and especially goalie (which is already sorted and Elphick HAS been recalled) and the world’s our lobster.
We will get 6th at a canter, imo. But the play-offs are a lottery, so promotion via that route is not an option.
We have to aim for top two and need to remain optimistic and firmly behind the team, even if results don’t always go our way.
As for inconsistent form, we aren’t losing many and I believe haven’t lost away in our last four games.
We just need to win more and with an improved defence, that’s another easy possibility, imo.
Dean Smith was always my choice because If he could get Brentford playing attractive football with a small budget then he could work wonders with a bigger budget and not having to sell his best players all the time. He will need a couple of transfer windows to get close to what he needs though. It’s frustrating and annoying to keep letting the lead slip on a regular basis. New goalkeeper and defenders will definitely help during second half of the season.
You know it makes sense 😉
We will not keep letting leads slip if we sort that defence.
As for the goalie, our defenders can’t possibly have any confidence in him and that’s possibly our biggest single problem.
I nearly soil myself every time he tries to catch the ball.
I don’t know, perhaps I’m being blindly optimistic.
It doesn’t feel like it though.
Good job there are pessimists to balance out the optimism …lol
I am beginning to think we need to sort out all the old tired ones and get some in that can do a bit of sustained running aligned with some skill then get it honed by ANOTHER year in this league- as it would be murder in the Prem (again) if we bungled our way up by whatever means without having a team that can be relied upon to perform with some consistency.
“Good job there are pessimists to balance out the optimism …lol”
We always need balance in any debate 🙂
Whelan and Jedinak will be gone soon, no doubt to be replaced by younger players.
You have a good point about us going up as it stands though.
But that’s always a risk and frankly we could do with the stupid prem money, even if we have to bounce a couple of times.
As much as it is disappointing to not be in the top league, I can’t say I have missed it as much as I thought I would. Of course we have to try and get promoted but I don’t actually relish getting back there. I think it was Martin Tyler who said the other day that they should award a trophy to the team that finishes 7th! This is a sad reflection on how the Sky money has structured the top six. There might be a shock team every now and then but it will always be one offs. Even with our wealthy owners can we break into the mix long term? I remain cautious after the previous two owners flaunted optimism at us then failed to back it up. Dean Smith needs patience from us fans and the board to build a team for the next 4-5 years and not a nursery team for clubs in the premier league.
The Prem is crap, pure and simple, for the reasons you suggest.
It’s certainly better to try and attain promotion to it, than simply trying to survive in it.
But, as I’ve said, it’s where the money is and we need to get there, even if it’s only temporarily.
Which is a ridiculous state of affairs for one of the biggest clubs in the British game, imo.
But that’s how it is.
Smith’ golden opportunity. The following players contracts come to an end this season.
Glenn Whelan 35
Mile Jedinak 34
Mark Bunn** 34
Alan Hutton 34
Tommy Elphick 31
Micah Richards 31
Ritchie de Laet 30
Jed Steer 26
Jordan Lyden 23
Harry McKirdy 22
Easah Suliman 21
Callum O’Hare 21
Kelsey Mooney 20
Mitchell Clark 20
Harvey Knibbs 20
Jacob Bedeau
It is not unreasonable to expect the first 8 to save the club £250,000 per week. Of whom Hutton is the only regular. Whelan can be replaced by Bjarnason. Taking these players off the wage bill vertically equates the the last parachute payment.
I hope a few of the younger players are kept on.
But for Smith this turnover means he can start to look at using these departures to build our squad. He stated he did not want us to take loan players to help other clubs. This to me sounds like he wants 11 Villa players in the starting 11. This means he currently needs for next year:
Centre half
Striker
2 x winger or midfield players
Then add into the mix replacements for Hutton, and Taylor, I think this transfer window will be the start of this process.
Put it another way, who would you keep in the team if we managed to get promotion? I think there will be a significant player turnover with or without promotion.
I think the following will be the spine of his team:
Kalinic
Chester
McGinn
Grealish
What do you think?
Good comment Sid.
That £250k a week saving is significant and I’d guess this might be the basis of how it seems we’re getting around FFP?
The spine of the team looks about right, as it stands.
Has anyone watched our other teams since DS took over.
Have we started to get the club playing to the same Smith style or are we carrying on as before ?
Yeah I think Smith got it wrong today. First time I’ve said that since he took over. Whelan in for Grealish just isnt working. Abraham is isolated and we are not creating any chances. I also think he should have also rotated the wingers. Bolasie and El Ghazi looked tired and never really got the better of the full backs.
We looked a very different team from the one that aged so well at Boro and Albion. Hopefully we can turn it around against QPR as we want keep dropping easy points.
Looking forward to seeing who we get in Jan though. Smith with real money to spend could be magic!
Yes, it could have been down to tiredness and maybe Preston’s injuries actually helped them, with new players having to come in?
Confirmation from Smith that Chester has suffered with his knee, since the Wales game;
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-fans-wont-like-15609441
From sidforevers list of players coming to the end of their contracts I would only consider Elphick and a few of the youngsters. Can we sign Tuanzebe on a permanent deal? Every player has a price although it might depend on what league we are in next season. This could also apply to Grealish and McGinn and maybe even Chester. Next season will probably also see Abraham, Bolasie and El Ghazi gone unless we get promoted. A massive rebuild could well be on the cards come next summer.
as much of disappointment yesterday was it not half as bad as some fans make out. one reason why villas tactics was not effective as normal was because preston tactics were spot on. they looked to catch villa in behind every time they could. villa back line under smith is very high to counter a weaker defence. preston best player Daniel Johnson was very accurate finding runners in behind and for us we had no pace to recover since axel injury. but johnson had all the time in the world to hit those passes as well
we still kept going and we did hurt them as much as they hurt us, it was a really open end to end game, which we should have stolen at the end, but preston had us pinned for a first part of game and they deserved their point and they will think they deserved all three. all the results went for us and we blew our chance to really close the gap, i think the fans are more pissed at that than our performance, that and preston were supposedly walking injured was it nine out.
Agreed Nath but from the highlights I saw Johnson was given far too much space which allowed him to pick a pass. Very poor defending and a better team than Preston would have walloped us.
iam glad you concur, midfielders had to close down johnson down much quicker than they tried too. doesn’t my memory serve me well. he did the very same thing in the away game at vp. so why we didn’t do this is a mystery.
but the ball in behind was their outlet every time and we have a high back line because thats the way smith has played to counter our weak defence. so we played into their game plan.
decision making cost us dear we need to play for the team and not ourselves. some players just see their own glory and not the team. we have always players in better position to score but the player on ball sometimes doesn’t want to see them.
end of the day its a point and if smith can iron out our mistakes we will improve for that game, as lots of lessons should have been learned
Good post Sid. Of the first seven in your list, I think all will go with the possible exception of Elphick and that will depend, to a large extent, how he plays for the rest of the season.
I watched Smith’s AVTV post match interview and he was brutally honest over the (lack of) a performance yesterday and the problems we are having with simple balls over the top. When you consider we’ve been playing the last few games with a defence consisting of a dodgy goalkeeper, three right backs and a half crocked centre half then we haven’t really done that badly!
Grealish’ injury has highlighted that we have no attacking mid fielder to take his place. I thought McGinn did a sterling job when pushed forward against Swansea but it’s not his natural game.
We’ve been strongly linked with Romaine Sawyers for that role – any views on that as I don’t know a lot about him – but it seems Smith has identified the problem that exists.
Additionally, we need at minimum a CH and a LB and I still think we should recall Mitch Clark.
Interesting days.
Every fan will hurt when you see missing chances Nath, and to be honest no criticism on that point. Bjarnason is a classic chance missed.he’s not the only problem on the day, Whelan does not add anything to the game that other’s could that sit on the bench and don’t get a game. I’m pissed off over that performance that we put out, we didn’t attack the game to show experience does count when applied.
preston had villa pinned back for long periods bill, its hard to attack when you don’t control the ball, we missed chances i have alluded to that, but credit bjarnason for being their to miss the chance, thats football players make mistakes, he wasn’t aiming to miss and its unfortunate he did for us. but you start to worry when your midfielders don’t make the runs to get in those positions to miss um.
i would be interested to hear from the preston manager see how he saw the game. cause if i am honest he should be more upset they should have put us out of our misery long before we missed the chance at the end
Preston manager Alex Neil:
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve put in a lot of important performances in big games but for this one, against a side that has expectations of being in the Premier League, everything came together.
“When you look at our starting line-up and the young players involved, this is probably as proud as I’ve been since I came here.
“The effort, the quality we showed and our approach to the game were all excellent. The only disappointing thing is that we didn’t win the game, as I thought we deserved to win.
“The players rolled up their sleeves and showed what they can do, particularly in the second half, and I am really pleased with that.”
Considering that he’s been landed with a badly unbalanced squad who had been playing the exact opposite style of football to the one he wants them to play then I think that Smith’s probably done better than I would have expected.
We can only judge him once he gets the players he wants and has a little time to integrate them into the team. Personally I’m hopeful that he’ll get us playing the type of football that Villa fans want to see, winning and doing it in style.
Happy New Year!
So why cant any of our young players roll their sleeves up and show what they can do….we don’t need superstars all the time do we ?
dunno but jonhson is one of our players. robinson who didnt play other day but has done well at our current level he is another that learnt his trade at villa
on the other side of this is would leeds themselves be putting in their kids if they had villa’s squad i very much doubt it and preston wouldnt too.
their must be a reason suliman returned to villa without getting games in holland. he will end up going out again. clark has done himself a world of good getting games. he proved to the club he was loaned too hes ready and himself. when he returns smith will have no doubts about he cant step up physically. unlike the others who have never played 1st team