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.
I’m in agreement on JT moving on and hopefully he will be wanted for a managerial role somewhere else. I have become more sceptical about Smith. Last season our 10 consecutive wins came on the back of Grealish returning and playing his best football plus we had Tammy. If Brentford had a downturn in form after his departure I would feel inclined to say keep Smith but they have improved which suggests his involvement wasn’t as significant as we initially thought.
I think we will bank over £100m with the sales of Grealish, Mings and McGinn. I half expect Luiz to be snapped up too. It could work in our favour if recruitment is done well which is dependent on whether Suso is given the boot, which should happen with his abysmal failure this season. Hopefully we can be a more balanced team, rather than pass it to Grealish and stand around to see if he can win a free kick approach. We need to get players who are leaders and are more ruthless because we are a soft touch and are too nice and easy to play against.
I would like to hear from our owners a bit more to find out whether their commitment is still the same. I’m pretty sure they would have expected survival at the start of the season. I’m still cautious about them after the Lerner experience. Our fans need reassurances after being put through the grinder again!
Holte66, I know where your coming from and it’s hard to digest with the position we’re in. We are in no man’s land dammed if we do dammed if we don’t, I’ve had enough of being a supporter that’s fobbed off year after year times up with me, a rich club playing parks football , we deserve better and demand better, the way it looks to me we have un professional people behind Villa and running the system thats going nowhere. All professionals are in clubs like Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Newcastle, our city is the second city in England, can we attract people with brains? No. A complete clear out is required starting with Suso the board, manager, and coaching staff.if we don’t we will always be a club that attract under par people useing us. I feel sick thinking about who we was to who we are. .. vtid. ..
Two or three points.
I totally agree with Holte that we need reassurance from our owners that, even if we are relegated, they are still committed to the cause. I fear putting Villa up for sale again would be sounding the death knell as they seek to recover their investment to date.
Bill, I understand your frustration and disappointment but I just can’t agree with another complete clear out – surely the lesson of the debacle of last few years since the sale by Deadly and O’Neils last minute bale out tell us that the club desperately needs a prolonged period of stability – hence my fears as stated above. I do agree however that a close look needs to be taken at the strategy and Suso’s and JT’s roles and future with the club.
The third point is a question – does anyone know exactly what the Luiz deal is? My understanding is that Manc C. have a two year buy back option – does that restrict our ability to sell him? I hope Manc C insists that it stays in place without exercising it and he stays for at least another season.
Hitch, I think it means that if we get a bid, Citeh have the option to match and buy at the same price.
But I couldn’t swear on it.
It’s usually how these things work.
Cheers Badger
The really sad part of all of this, is if we can stay up, we actually have the basis of a very good team.
With the inevitable sale of Grealish, we would be able to make up for the mistakes made last summer and build the team around players like Mings, Luiz and McGinn. Get rid of failures like Trezeguet, El Ghazi, etc, and get higher calibre players.
However, if we go down, then we will be losing 5 or 6 of our top players, and have to rebuild completely.
its not over yet, but its going to take something special to keep us up now.
Watford, Bournemouth and West Ham failing to pick up points is allowing us a very much undeserved opportunity to escape the bottom three and claw our way out of trouble.The fact that we are still only a point from safety, with our last four results, is unbelievable.
I am certain, however, that we won’t pick up anything from the next two games, except maybe some more injuries. With that in mind, I wonder how far from safety we will be after we play Man. Utd and Liverpool. We may need to win most, if not all, of our last four games.
All may not be lost yet but I have very little hope.
I don’t want to bring it up again about Villa chief’s having a meeting , but it’s not going away ,the Daily Star on it now and I sincerely hope its not true.
Aston Villa assistant manager John Terry could step in if Dean Smith is sacked.
The Daily Star says Villa chiefs were in discussion over whether or not to sack Smith on Saturday night.
The club are in crisis after another defeat had them staring at relegation from the Premier League.
Wolves beat them 1-0 on Saturday afternoon following a goal from Leander Dendoncker.
Villa have played four times since the Premier League restarted, managing just a point in the process.
In fact, their last win in the Premier League came on January 21.
And it has led to panic stations at the club’s headquarters with Villa facing a tough fixture list.
Football Insider says chiefs were in discussion over whether to sack Smith or not on Saturday night.
I’m inclined to go with Badger on this as being paper talk, if it happens I will be upset that we’re picking a nobody with Terry.
If the paper says ‘having managed just one point’ when, in fact, we have two points (from the four games) then it says a lot about the accuracy of the story as a whole.
However, I would be surprised if it wasn’t on the agenda (Smith et al futures) given our position, but that doesn’t mean that they are about to make an immediate decision one way or the other.
Bill, I would expect meetings to be taking place at board level although I’m sure media Just speculating. If by some disgraceful way they kick Smith out and promote JT, then we know what type of owners are at our club, clueless ones!
I think there is no point in changes till end of season because the only reason why they would make change now is to get a response from the players. Unfortunately I don’t think even Klopp could improve them enough. We have all but 3 or 4 players that are championship level. The better players we have are already in talks with their agents about moving on so their hearts aren’t in it. I saw a headline that Grealish has bought a property near Manchester which wouldn’t surprise me because Ashley Young did exactly the same thing when he was with us.
Another interesting point made was that we will probably have a reduced summer break before new season so coming’s and going’s will be more haste and less planned.
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.