I honestly struggle to think of a game that depressed me more than that one.
Our play lacks invention, it lacks incisiveness, it lacks desire and urgency, it lacks pace and it lacks quality.
We’re just a very, very poor side and it seemed to me like Wolves never even got out of second gear.
I just don’t get it.
How can we lack urgency when we’re in the position we are?
Douglas Luiz, who I thought looked very decent, apart, we just look directionless and clueless.
We played two strikers, which was needed in my opinion, but they were usually so far apart there was no way they’d link up.
Likewise, Grealish again played miles too deep, too often and it just totally frustrates me.
Then again, when he did get on the ball, he was mostly useless. I’ve not said anything before, but I’ve thought for a good while that he’s lost interest now and is frankly sick of watching the pure lack of quality around him.
I’ve never been a big believer that players have their next club in their head, but I think it’s definitely the case with him. He just looks like he’s given up.
Our setpieces were horrendous today and I’m struggling to think of a ball that didn’t go clean over the players’ heads. If Hourihane can’t get that right, he’s an utter waste of time on the pitch and he was invisible yet again.
As for Nyland, I’ve never seen a Villa goalie that scares me as much as him.
He’s fumbled the ball so many times lately and after the way he mis-threw that ball to Taylor, means he has to be dropped now. He looks devoid of any confidence and Smith needs to take him out of the firing line.
It’s the lack of direction that worries me most though and I just don’t see what we’re trying to achieve on the pitch.
When we do attack, we inevitably slow it down and Grealish was the most guilty of this, which means that the opposition have time to reorganise and the chance is lost. Loads of times, I heard myself saying “too late”.
It’s like the team have no belief and it’s this which will see us go down.
The result is bad enough in itself, but it’s the performance which has got me down more.
There’s the age old saying that the table doesn’t lie and I think that’s exactly the case.
We are where we are, because we’re frankly just awful.
And boring with it.
Comments
101 responses to “Villa 0 – 1 Wolves; Mediocre, mediocre, mediocre”
Bill, it’s just paper talk, I’d put money on it.
I’ve no doubt there might have been a meeting, probably via a web conference, but I’d be surprised if that doesn’t happen every month or so anyway.
Any owners, however distant would want updates, surely?
Villa will not sack Smith with a month to go, no way!
Sacking him at the end of the season might be a different story, but I’ve not seen any of the Villa sites calling for it.
And I think Purslow and the owners are probably keeping a close eye on what is being said on the sites, fwiw.
I certainly would be in their position.
I personally think Smith will be given the first half of next season, whatever league we’re in.
And Suso’s sacking will depend on how much control Smith had when we bought players in, in the summer.
If Smith was agreeable, Suso will probably be ok.
But if Suso overruled Smith’s opinion, I’d say he’s a gonner.
Badger, lol…
If I were the owner, I’d have Smith and Terry in the office giving them a roasting. We have been ffffing terrible since New Year and it’s pretty much in the Managers hands. I’d agree it’s probably not worth changing Smith now as it’s too late, but quite frankly the club has failed on a massive scale this season. The board should already have a rebuilding plan on the table that unfortunately doesn’t include Laurel and Hardy.
P. S. Badger, your Cookie policy isn’t kosher. You need opt out options.
Yes, I’ve noticed that on other sites.
I’ll look into it, cheers.
I’ve installed a new cookie plugin.
Any problems, let me know please.
Cheers.
Have to agree Bum Bum, New Years Day seemed to be the turning point, first time with the back 3 and looked comfortable. Was a really good display away to Burnley and their consolation goal flattered them. The loss of Wesley and Heaton in that match was massive. Whatever happens I think we’ll look back at that match as the pivotal moment in the season.
Burnley were in real trouble at that point and it pains me to see how they’ve gone on this great run and are pushing for Europe. Whereas we dropped off the cliff.
Plus the untimely injury to McGinn! Losing three key players from a pretty thin squad (in terms of experience / quality) has proved to be insurmountable.
We should perhaps remember that when we’re tempted to get on Smith’s back.
Moving on, I note that Wigan have entered administration – the first of many?
And that leads me in to ask how the EPL / EFL are going to adjust their various financial policies – FFP for instance – to acknowledge the exceptional circumstances of the COVID pandemic or are they going to do their usual impersonation of an ostrich looking for a bucket of sand?
Someone up there is trying to help us stay up. Great results tonight.
Absolutely.
We’re up to 18th, probably because of goals scored.
I definitely think it’s between us and West Ham.
So many poor teams at the bottom of the Prem this season.
We messed up on a monumental scale in a pre season transfer window. We failed to address issues at in the defence and I think we were all conned by Mings and his ability.
We failed to utilised our most naturally talented player. The biggest mistake for me and I could argue this alone may have relegated us is the fact we never brought a convincing striker.
I understand there are diamonds in the rough out there but there are also known as gambles. Villa, a nearly promoted team with a squad of little premier league experience should never gamble. We rolled the die, we rolled a big fat one with Wesley.
Agreed about Wesley, who it seems was Suso’s call, apparently.
You never know though, he might come good.
Wrt Wigan, my Stokie mate and I were discussing this, this afternoon.
His immediate reaction was that he wants Wigan to get the full points deduction, so Stoke might be safe.
But on reflection, he decided that stoke are so poor (Chester has been rubbish for them and it didn’t look like they were trying last night), that if they do go down, they deserve it.
Then he was a lot more sympathetic, given the Covid problems.
It will indeed be interesting to see how they look at this.
In other news, we’ve apparently been the 25th biggest spending club in Europe over the last 20 years 🙁
And it’s looking like Suso might get the bullet.
Bournemouth have the same GD as us now thanks to Newcastle. Let’s hope Chelsea spank West Ham as GD could be the decider this season.
I’d venture a single win may suffice… Boy is it gonna be close!
Squeaky Bum Bum time 🙂
Sorry Bum Bum couldn’t resist it – no offence meant.
😁
Just think 6-0 to Chelsea and we’d be out of the bottom three without winning a game for months 🙂
Come on you Blues!
As daft as it sounds, it could all be about the defence.
A big plus is that it seems we’ve tightened ours up.
Could it be as simple as scrape a couple of points and don’t concede many that sees us survive?
The prayer mat’s out.
Badger, our goal difference is going to get a spanking in the next two games.
Sad isn’t it that we are relying on Bournemouth, West Ham and Watford to be worse than us. Unfortunately we need all those three teams to lose their upcoming two games to compensate our nil points against Liverpool and Man Ure! 🙄
Holte, you never know.
Pool and Manure will be happy with points and the goals, but the latter are not so important.
At least that’s what I’m hoping.
One of the lads at work (Villa fan) told me Man ure looked awesome last night 🙁
It is sad that we’re relying on others, but I’ll take it.
West Ham 2 Chelsea 1. Chelsea are either dire tonight or West Ham showing more desire than we did.
West ham are showing more desire in this game that we have shown in all 4 put together. Watford and West Ham have enough in them to get over the line. It’s us Bournemouth and Norwich and the current bottom 3 I think is the correct one in terms of quality over the season. We deserve to go down based on our recruitment, the poor management by Smith and Terry and our gutless inability to hold onto leads.
I have to agree that the bottom 3 are the worst teams in the league. I have seen more quality and desire in Watford and West Ham which is going to keep them up.
3-2 to West Ham, we’re f**ked!
At the start of the season my heart was optimistic but my head was worried. Recruitment had left us with no real prem experiece except Heaton and VERY Light up top and a manager having his first season in the prem. To survive we would rely on our best players heaton mings mcginn and grealish 3 of which have had lengthy injuries along with our centre forward.
In my opinion with all of the above i think we would have needed a miracle to stay up. Smith i think will get better whether with us or someone else but i do believe if he had his way malpay and benrahmi would have been in villa shirts.
I agree with you Steve and, after much heart searching, I believe we should stick with Smith.
Another ‘named’ manager comes in and we spend another ridiculous amount in the transfer market and all it does is raise the risk of the club going bust!
Indeed but even if West Ham had lost we’d still be in big trouble. That game was the perfect example of why we are going down – yet again another of the relegation battling sides getting a win against the traditional top 6. Yet how many have we managed – a big fat zero.
Even with a questionable VAR decision and falling behind they had the mentality to come back and Moyes like him or not made effective changes from the bench. If that was Villa Smith would have stuck with what he had, we’d have tired and gone on to lose via a defensive howler. We’re showing nowhere near enough fight and have a manager whose tactical ability has been found wanting at this level. Truth be told we deserve the championship football that is coming our way.
Shit. We’re down.
I’d have bet on a Chelsea drubbing last night as they’re still securing a CL spot. Bloody hell. Obviously Moyes is capable of putting the fear of God into his players, where Smith struggles.
Oh for Ancellotti… We need a half decent big name as manager and none of the ‘Young and hungry’ types.
And thirdly… Sad about Wigan, but what the hell was Dave Wheelan thinking when he gave the club to his 19 year old grandson?
Bum Bum – Wheelan actually sold the club to a Hong Kong listed business whose majority owner iis a professional gambler. I think the deal included his grandson remaining as Chairman. That business sold Wigan on four weeks ago to another Hong Kong business (Next Leader Fund) having the same majority owner. Since that sale the majority owner of NLF has been replaced by a (named) Chinese business man – following which NLF have refused to invest any more funds in Wigan – does this sound chillingly familiar?
Rumours abound including that Wigan was sold to settle a gambling debt!
What does this say about the EFL’s ‘proper and suitable owner test’?
Football hierarchy needs to take a very long look at itself – fat chance!
In the meantime my heart goes out to all true Wigan fans.
And how can a club be put into administration just four weeks after being acquired by a new investor – absolutely stinks!
I was hoping Smith was going to be our long term future but he has failed this season and can’t have any complaints if he is gone at the end of the season.
I think we need to get a Benitez type manager for next season. Someone who has experience of championship and premier league.
Our failure in the transfer market (again) is ultimately what cost us this season. Too many players with potential but no experience of a big league (Heaton apart)
The speculation surrounding Grealish for most of the season also has been a detrimental problem and his form just like his head has gone! I would like to see him dropped against Liverpool. Our play is too predictable with him in the team and the opposition at this level find us an easy touch to nullify.
Considering our position, I’m amazed that someone hasn’t been given the boot yet. Suso should have been first to go, closely followed by JT our defensive coach in charge of worst defence.
This makes me wonder then whether we should be criticising Purslow for taking no action when we all could see things unfolding. And if Purslow is failing, shouldn’t we point the finger at our owners for letting their investment go into free fall?
Bruce in his first season at newcastle is going to out perform what benitez did and i wouldn’t want bruce back. The fact is the majority of our signings (young and hungry) just aren’t good enough for the prem yet.
So, we will never know because he was never sacked.!! If he had been sacked we might have survived the drop. We will never KNOW.. you all seen my post asking for him to go and excuse was its too late it’s never late if you don’t do it. We will never know… I’ve had enough..
I haven’t watched the match but apart from a crap VAR review for a Spurs “goal”, Sheff Utd scored with 7 players the Spurs box. The only time we get 7 players in the box is defending. No ambition and that will ensure we drop. We deserve it too
told you pool would be champions when we play them. also they will not be committed once they are crowned, last night they did try, but they were not anything close too 100% they pulled out of the 50/50 challenges. city had a weakened team but they were too strong for pool. against villa klopp will try to freshen things up. he has champions league starting soon and that will be his only objective left to focus on. so he will change pool team for the villa game. we need to play it like earlier in the cup. whichever team they field,we need to go for their throats. make it very combative but legal. they dont want to pick up injuries now. only one problem we are not that sort of team. but we need to grow some now. that is one way and probably only one way to achieve the win.
i said we would survive just at the start, lately i do think after the restart we look like a team doomed. but other teams are also looking doomed watford and bouremouth both look half the teams they were. we just need to play like it matters and we are capable of winning a few games everton and palace are two. but pool i believe are there for the taking. just need to play with more aggression but within the rules.
Nath, I agree, we should take it to them. Strongly.
But we’re a bunch of fannies mate.
Who’s going to dish it out?
It’s exactly what we’re missing, imo.
The likes of Hutton, Whelan etc.
No, they won’t win you games normally, but when you need to get tough, you need tough players and we don’t have any.
Even Mings is a pansy and just too nice.
It’s probably our biggest failing as a side.
Not a pair of bollocks between the lot of them.
Hence no fight.
Badger, I was one for giving Whelan another year. His know how and tenacity in mid field would have been invaluable. Now look who they got in January Drinkwater!
Need I say more – someone’s head has to roll. Purslow isn’t going so my vote is for Suso over Smith!
every team has its DNA, all season we have been weak. 50 /50 challenges have mostly been lost. you watch watford and they get about teams. disrupt them and this is mostly within the rules. they get lots of ball through this and lots of space.
for us to get something at pool. we will have to employ a bit of steel. i can not see us going there and outplaying them for 90 minutes. but i can how a team will discourage a pool side with a few strong tackles and in your face attitude. they are a brilliant team and will cut us to pieces. if we allow them and i think how we played most of season we are more likely to turn up and try to out play them than to rough them up and knock um out of stride.
we should play like last game, i know we were poor on the offensive but our shape we better, we were tight at the back. and made wolves fight all the game. wolves are also a good side who pushed pool in both games. we have to find more up top but without stretching ourselves at the back. balance is the hardest to fine tune. takes time and we havent got that
We need a lucky freak result like Liverpool continuing with a Champions ‘hangover’ – that’s the only way we’ll get anything Nath.
it could happen, less likely after man city gave them a drubbing. lightening striking same place is unlikely innit 🙁 we need to force the pool to be disinterested. its the only way about of physically will do the trick. like badger said we just have not got that in our game. we are pussies lol most likely to be the ones who will be trampled on rather than doing the trampling. i would take a point now , even thou i pray for three